Posts Tagged ‘TechEd’

Posted on August 6, 2009 - by Justin Hartman

TechEd Africa 2009 Summary

TechEd Africa 2009, Microsoft’s pinnacle conference that attracted more than 2000 delegates has ended amongst a hive of activity within the Microsoft community. Microsoft sure does know how to get its users and developers excited by the prospect of new software, approaches and company developments!

Attending the conference was an interesting experience and I have to admit that it was extremely difficult to decide on a focus area at TechEd. From a myriad of topic choices, from information security to product overviews, and self-paced hot labs, Tech-Ed offered us a unique perspective into what the future holds for the company.

As mentioned in an earlier post live demos proved to be a problem throughout the conference. While I get the need to do these live demos bandwidth constraints and software problems hindered the impact of the message but in the end we got the information we needed.

I was particularly interested in the discussions around IE8, PHP for Windows, Windows 7 and Silverlight 3. Of them all I must say I think Silverlight is certainly an interesting product worth watching as it allows native developers to create applications relatively easily.

Microsoft is also embracing the future in cloud computing, through the creation of Windows Azure, designed to enable application developers and users with better access and less capital outlay in application development and deployment. I seriously doubt that cloud computing is viable in Africa right now but nonetheless Microsoft feels differently.

While it may have been difficult for me at times to find my place within the TechEd community I can certainly see this community thriving. Microsoft has done a fantastic job at entrenching themselves within the corporate/enterprise market and this is evident by the varying array of delegates at the conference.

It’s that sense of community that made networking relatively easy at TechEd. From the opening party, to the informal gatherings round lunchtime drinks, to the closing party featuring Louise Carver, we’ve certainly had a fantastic time.

So, thanks, TechEd, for giving us the opportunity to explore and evaluate an environment and working atmosphere that has not been our own. I’m not sure if we’re ready to drop Apple and Linux just yet but it’s certainly been a great ride.

 

Posted on August 3, 2009 - by Justin Hartman

My thoughts on the TechEd Africa 2009 Keynote

A couple weeks back I was contacted by Eben De Wit who is the Microsoft Developer Advisor for the broad developer community in South Africa and was invited to attend Microsoft’s TechEd conference in Durban.

Eben wanted me to attend as a non-Microsoft person in an effort to get some perspective on the Microsoft offering but more importantly he has asked me to blog about my experiences while at TechEd in an honest way – so here goes.

Last night was the start of the conference which saw a two and a half hour Keynote presentation. The format was pretty dynamic and interesting but after two hours it was just too much to take in. The key elements of the Keynote were a focus on:

• The IT Pro
• The Developers
• The End Users
• The Cloud

The reason it was structured in this way was to highlight the new Microsoft offerings to each of these core areas.

What I didn’t like

The Keynote was filled with various live demos, most of which didn’t go as planned and many times the system (Windows 7 based) simply hung.

Seriously, there is no reason to do live demos during a Keynote presentation. They never work, never go according to plan and it’s embarrassing for the presenter when it all goes pear-shaped. As a non-Microsoft person these failed live demos reiterate my position on why I don’t use Microsoft but at the same time I’m not sure how it was received by the 2000 strong delegates in the audience.

I must also admit that I really didn’t like the Bing presentation much. The main reason was because the guy presenting (someone high up in Microsoft SA) kept having a dig at the competitor. I’m not a big fan of competitor bashing and the whole presentation was based around how Bing should be people’s new default home page and how much better it was to Google. Not a good strategy in my opinion.

What I did like

I must say I’m very impressed with the Office and Exchange 2010 offerings. The applications are looking slick, seem very fast and most importantly PowerPoint now has some Keynote coolness which means there’s no longer a need to bore people with bland slides.

In the 2010 ranges all these applications will be available in The Cloud – which essentially means you’ll be able to work on docs, spreadsheets, presentations and email from another computer via the web. This is an interesting move in that Microsoft is now combating the Google Docs effect and it’s going to be interesting to see how this battle pans out.

While I wasn’t particularly wowed by the other applications I have to say that each one that was on show had some really useful functionality that really does enhance the offering.

My take on Microsoft’s offerings

Windows 7 looks great. It was sad that the live demos tarnished Windows 7′s real stability but 7 is certainly a massive step in the right direction. For Apple or Linux users Windows 7 isn’t really ground breaking as we’ve been exposed to this type of functionality for some time but for Windows XP/Vista users this is an earth-shattering release that is going to wow users.

At the end of it all I was left with a strong impression that Microsoft is trying very hard at repositioning the company in all spheres of the market. They’ve invested a lot of money and resources into usability and the applications, while clunky at times, are really much better than any of their predecessors.

There also appears to be a strong drive now to take on Google in a big way. They’ve adapted a lot of the coolness from Apple into their offerings and are competing head on with Google in the fight for enterprise and search market share. Sure, Microsoft own the enterprise space right now but they know that Google are hot on their heals and while Google owns search, Bing is fighting to take some of that control away.

Over the next couple days I’ll be spending some time attending break out sessions that are relevant to me and I’ll post more as I go along.