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K2 new release Technical and Sales Partner Sessions

2010-03-03T20:47:31Z

The next release from K2 is almost here. This next-generation software from K2 — named 4.5 because it is the fifth release on the fourth major version of our software — focuses on greater stability and better performance and also includes some great additional features, including:

· An updated, more powerful Web-based designer, K2 Designer for SharePoint

· Inline functions, allowing process designers to include functions and calculations in processes without having to write code

· Enhanced SmartObject functionality

· Memory and performance improvements, across design time and runtime

· A simplified installation experience

To make sure K2 partners are ready for this exciting new release from K2, we are hosting a special two part How to K2: Partner Edition series dedicated to K2 4.5.

The first session, taking place Thursday, March, 4th, will provide a technical overview of what’s new in K2 4.5 and demonstrate many of the new features listed above

The second session, taking place Thursday, March 11th, will focus on the business aspect of K2 4.5 and the additional revenue opportunities it will bring to your business.

The How To K2: Partner Edition is a monthly webinar series that covers a range of topics. They may be sales-focused or technical in nature and will include the appropriate K2 subject matter for each topic.

DATE

Technical:
Thursday, March 4, 2010

Sales:
Thursday, March 11, 2010

TIME

09:00 AM - 10:00 AM
(UTC-06:00)
Central Time
(US and Canada)

Avanade Online Services is Public now

2010-01-29T09:52:11Z

This week Avanade publicly announced Avanade Online Services. A new business for Avanade, AOS makes it possible to offer Avanade’s solutions and offerings in a Software-as- a-Service (SaaS) model.

SaaS allows companies to access software when and where it is needed, rather than purchase it for an enterprise-wide deployment. AOS provides a complete SaaS platform optimized for the delivery of Microsoft-based business applications.

“In today’s technology market, companies have constrained capital budgets and IT resources,” EVP Aziz Virani said in a message to the company. “They want to deploy technologies rapidly and they need to reduce operational overhead. AOS makes this possible. It’s a complete optimized platform that lowers investment risk because it reduces costs and speeds time to realizing the value of those solutions.

CRM first AOS solution

Avanade’s first AOS solution offering is AOS for CRM. Based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, it features hosted infrastructure, day-to-day operations, maintenance, end-user support and upgrade services, as well as the Avanade Productivity Platform suite of assets, which extend Microsoft Dynamics CRM for the enterprise.

If you want more information on this solution go to Avanade.com. Or drop me an email so that I can connect you to the right person.

TFS 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 Launch Date

2010-01-14T21:41:18Z

Obviously the most important news for Microsoft developers today is the announcement of the TFS 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 Launch Date.

All the best for 2010

2010-01-05T17:31:42Z

Hi,

I wish all readers of my blog all the best for 2010!!

The last 4 months of 2009 have been extremely busy for me. In the end we managed to get a K2 blackpearl/ASP.NET application out-of-the-door just before Christmas. During the project i came across some things that are worth mentioning on this blog. I will do that in one of my next post(s).

Stay tuned in 2010!!

The Netherlands is an Azure country

2009-12-30T22:59:15Z

Starting in January people with a Community Technology Previews (CTP) account for the Windows Azure platform will be able to upgrade their account to a commercial license. The Netherlands is among the first countries were the Windows Azure platform will be commercially rolled out. Here is the full list of commercially supported Azure countries:

• Austria	• France	• Italy	• Norway	• Sweden
• Belgium	• Germany	• Japan	• Portugal	• Switzerland
• Canada	• Ireland	• Netherlands	• Singapore	• UK
• Denmark	• India	• New Zealand	• Spain	• United States
• Finland

Event: Process efficiency using K2 and Sharepoint

2009-09-10T08:36:11Z

The 1st of October will be the day for the first Microsoft hosted event by Avanade, K2 and Microsoft. Feel free to inform your customers that have an interest in Microsoft SharePoint and Business Process Management.

Learn how to extend your SharePoint Environment to deliver automated processes and business efficiency within your organisation.

PRESENTED BY
Avanade, Microsoft and K2

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
• IT Architects
• SharePoint Project Managers
• SOA Managers
• Process Improvement Managers

WHERE
Evert van de Beekstraat 354
1118 CZ Schipol
The Netherlands

AGENDA
15.00pm
Welcome Coffee
15.15pm
Microsoft Presentation –
MOSS
6.00pm
Coffee Break
16.15pm
K2 Presentation –
Jonathan King and David Craggs
17.15pm
Coffee Break
17.30pm
Avanade Presentation –
Eric Van Wijk
18.00pm
Questions and Answers followed by
Finger buffet and Drinks

You can contact David Craggs to reserve a place at david.craggs@k2.com

New Biztalk Hotrod issue available

2009-08-12T14:56:13Z

Issue 7 of the excellent BizTalk HotRod magazine is now available here.

BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 released

2009-06-09T06:48:27Z

The BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0, formerly known as the ESB Guidance 2.0 - is being released tonight (June 8th) to the web on the new ESB page in the BizTalk Developer Center on MSDN.

This toolkit is a collection of tools and libraries that extends BizTalk Server 2009 capabilities of supporting a loosely coupled and dynamic messaging architecture. It functions as middleware that provides tools for rapid mediation between services and their consumers. Enabling maximum flexibility at run time, the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 simplifies loosely coupled composition of service endpoints and management of service interactions.

Reason for Name Change

With the release of the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 and the associated renaming from “ESB Guidance,” the goal is to provide the toolkit as a BizTalk Server 2009 value-add with a better support model that results in a broader customer adoption. This will hopefully help customers develop mature ESB implementations that will be ready for enterprise-wide deployments.

The BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 provides both architectural enhancements and new capabilities over the previous ESB Guidance. For more information, see SOA and Web Services section in the New Features in BizTalk 2009 Web page.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 be officially released?

The BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 along with documentation will be released to the Web on Tuesday, June 9, 2009.

From where will downloads be provided?

You can download the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 and documentation from the Microsoft Download Center. The toolkit is packaged as binaries and samples in a Windows Installer.

What will the official name of ESB Guidance 2.0 be?

The official name is BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0.

What happens to those customers who are currently using ESB Guidance 1.0?

Customers who are using ESB Guidance 1.0 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to BizTalk Server 2009 and the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0. ESB Guidance 1.0 will be deprecated in the next few months. Also, proactive monitoring of the ESB 1.0 forums will no longer take place after the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 is released.

Will source code for signed binaries be provided?

Source code for signed binaries will be available as a separate download (date to be determined).

What license will be used?

It will be a standard Microsoft, free, binary-only license.

How will the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 be packaged?

It will be packaged as a binary-only Windows Installer (32- and 64-bit).

Will BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 bug fixes be provided?

Bugs will be addressed on a best-effort basis, by the BizTalk ESB Toolkit Team.

Where do customers file bugs and requests?

The BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 Connect site has been created to log bugs with the BizTalk ESB Toolkit Team and to provide updates to additional tools over time. Once you log a bug, someone will respond to you within five days with an acknowledgment and status.

What is the BizTalk ESB Toolkit 2.0 forum commitment?

Assistance will be provided through forums, with a one-year notice of deprecation plans. Any fixes and responses to questions in the forums are best effort, and we will continue to leverage the community to provide peer assistance, though with a capability to issue critical fixes if necessary.

Where is the online community hosted?

A dedicated ESB Toolkit Forum is provided on MSDN, and can be located from within the BizTalk Dev Center.

Recommended sessions Microsoft DevDays 2009

2009-05-23T16:35:25Z

One of my best viewed(over 750 views!) posts of last year was my post around the sessions on the Microsoft Developer Days.

Within a week from now, the Microsoft DevDays 2009 will take place in The Hague. Tickets are still available! I’ve already got mine.

I’ll try to make a nice agenda again, which has got everything in it. From great speakers till cloud computing and from Sharepoint to practical knowledge sessions which you can leverage immediately.

Thursday May 28:

The key-note(9.00-10.30 AM) of this year will be done by someone who I personally really admire, David Chappell! He is a great speaker and very knowledgable on the Microsoft era, as well as the Java world. We start the day with some Cloud perspective. David will tell you why this “cloud thing” isn’t just a hype.

Session 1(10.50-12.00 a.m.): I would like to hear what David’s opinion is around the Microsoft platform, that’s why I recommend to go for the session of David Chappell. If your interest is in WCF I would go for the session of Aaron Skonnard and if you really like ASP.NET I would opt for Ingo Rammers session.

Session 2(1.30 - 2.40 p.m.): Personally I’m very interested In Biztalk 2009 and the ESB guidance. Both are products we use at Avanade to help our customers create an Enterprise SOA. Other interesting session might be ‘A lap around VSTS 2010 Team Foundation Server’ because if you are a Microsoft developer you will need it in the future, that’s for sure.

Session 3(3.00 - 4.10 p.m.): This timeframe is full of great sessions! David Chappell on Geneva, Tony Krijnen on Windows 7, Gert Drapers on Declarative Database Development. So it’s hard to choose. But these subjects are all future stuff. Dennis Mulder, my ex-colleague and former career manager will do a talk on ALM for Biztalk developers. Very practical, which you can use immediately on your projects. I think I will support him and go see his session.

Session 4(4.30 - 5.40 p.m.): I’ve seen some whitepapers and blogposts from Aaron Skonnard, but I’ve never met him in real life. In this timeframe he will do a session on .NET Services: Moving .NET to the Cloud. I didn’t have time to play with this technology yet, but I will for sure in the near future. Definitely worth to pay a visit to this session I think.

Friday May 29:

Session 1(9.15-10.30 a.m.): Two interesting sessions in this timeframe are the session on ‘Dublin’ by Aaron Skonnard and the session on Windows Azure for architects by Anko Duizer. When I started with .NET back in the days that .NET was still Beta technology, Anko was the one who teached me C# and Microsoft.NET. Since I’ve seen Aaron already on thursday I think I will visit the session of Anko.

Session 2(10.50 - 12.00 a.m.): Every .NET developer gets into touch with Sharepoint some time. I like the work the guys from U2U are doing, it’s a shame that Patrick isn’t there anymore. I’m looking forward to the session on Jan Tielens about Sharepoint and .NET 3.5

Session 3(1.30 - 2.40 p.m.): I would like to hear some more detail on the WCF Rest Starter Kit, so I probably will end up in that session. Other interesting session is the one from Alex Thissen(great guy and speaker!) around Oslo.

Session 4(3.00 - 4.10 p.m.): Because earlier in the day I went to see the session from Anko around Azure, I think I will have to see the second part as well.

Session 5(4.30 - 5.40 p.m.): Who remains after 2 days of sessions?? Who will sit until the end in the session on Friday afternoon?? I believe this is the most horrible slot that you can get, because everybody is just tired and want to get home or grap a beer. This year we have only one speaker from Avanade on the DevDays, so I must support that:) Brian Camping will do a session on WCF best practices and pitfalls.

Hope to see you at the DevDays!

Good to know: Biztalk Adapter Pack versus LOB Adapters

2009-05-22T07:57:49Z

Something to be careful about distinguishing correctly when you talk to customers is the difference between “BizTalk Server 2009 LOB Adapters” and “BizTalk Adapter Pack version 2.0”. The “BizTalk Server 2009 LOB Adapters” contains adapters for TIBCO, JDE, PeopleSoft as well as versions of Oracle adapter and Siebel adapter. These adapters are all pre-WCF and based on old adapter framework. By contrast the “BizTalk Adapter Pack version 2.0” contains new WCF adapters including SQL and Oracle e-business suite but also again for Oracle database and Siebel. An evaluation version of the new BizTalk Adapter Pack v2.0 can be downloaded from here.

Passed first upgrade exam(70-553) for MCPD certification

2009-04-10T10:24:21Z

Yesterday I passed the 1st exam to upgrade my MCSD.NET to MCPD EA certification.

Last Friday I did the 70-553 exam for the first time. I failed by only 30 points on one of the three parts of the exam, the windows development part. So I had to retake the exam.

If you need to study for the exam I can advise you the guide of my colleague David San Filippo. And the Transcenders are always helpful.

Avanade teams with Microsoft to develop Sharepoint guidance

2009-04-01T13:13:08Z

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server is selling like a rock these days, it seesm like almost every Microsoft developer is doing MOSS. But MOSS also has it’s downsides of course.

1) A lack of tools to support the developer in his day-to-day work. Tools like the WSP builder for instance which is build by the community.

2) A lack of guidance.

Avanade now teams together with Microsoft to provide more guidance to Sharepoint developers!

"SharePoint projects can be more risky than traditional .NET projects because the developer best practices and tools for the platform aren't as mature" says Mike Chorey, GT&S Solutions Architect @ Avanade “Our goals were to create consistency and cut ramp-up time in half for Sharepoint developers. With the new guidance from the Patterns & Practices team, delivering SharePoint projects will be much more predictable and lower risk."

For more information, check out this video on Channel9.com and version 1.0 of the P&P Sharepoint guidance on the Microsoft site.

SOA & BPM Conference Material

2009-03-06T12:10:00Z

At the end of January the SOA & BPM conference was in held in Seattle . I intended to go there but I didn't get authorisation to go there from my boss unfortunately. There was a lot of information on BizTalk 2009, Dublin, WCF & WF.

Lucky for me and I guess for a lot of other people that couldn't attend the conference all content was recorded. So now you can grab some chips and start viewing the sessions that you believe are interesting.

Here is the link: http://soaconference2009.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=828988900

And the link to the powerpoint slides: http://cid-00fa6fc7f5db1c07.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public

Pink! Funhouse Tour in Rotterdam Ahoy

2009-03-02T20:46:00Z

Yesterday evening I went with some friends to the Funhouse Tour concert of Pink!. She's only 29years old but already a big star with lots of hitsongs. Her performance is outstanding and she also looks good. She's the new Madonna but with a great own personality.

It was a great show and fantastic performance! If you like her music, go buy some tickets and see the show!

I also uploaded a video to YouTube shot with my telephone. Here is the link to Pink :)

Microsoft certification paths

2009-02-23T13:50:00Z

Since I still need to upgrade my MCSD.net certification towards MCPD Enterprise Application Developer I was looking around for information regarding all the new certifications.

I came across an useful overview, see attached.

I plan to do the first update exam(70-553) in the beginning of April.