Windows Server AppFabric was released yesterday...Get it here!

Some of the buzz you might have heard around town is the Azure SQL size limitation of 10gb. Well yesterday at TechEd we heard that this will be raised to 50gb. Also announced was that .Net 4.0 Framework support is available which makes things even more interesting:)

Here is a pic of me in the cloud...

This month has been crazy with everything going on. Early this month we held our VS2010 Community Launch here in Jax and had a great turn out, but planning and speaking at those events takes a lot out of ya. As I was creating this blog post I noticed that I had three WF posts that I had started and never finished from April. Well since Brian Knight and I are roadtripping it over to New Orleans, maybe he can drive so I can finish them!

I am so excited about heading to TechEd this year! I was really hoping to speak at it however  I never got an envite. Probably a good thing with everything going on with my career changes. The last conference I have been to was VSLive 2008, when I spoke on WF/WCF integration...Boy have things changed since then. Back then we had to walk up hill 3 miles in the snow, barefooted to integrate the two:) Well while at TechEd, I will make sure to blog/tweet about the cool stuff going on!

Just got back from Orlando's VS2010 Launch and the content was great. Some really cool take aways were...

1. Improvements in data binding with WPF
2. Debug bugs through a visual recording of what a tester did to find a bug using intelliTrace
3. New and improved integration with WSS2010.
   1. installation on Win7.
   2. interface to WCF services and Silverlight.
   3. WF implementation for developing custom workflows
   4. easy debug and deployment of code.

Many thanks to Microsoft for putting on the event. JaxDUG will be hosting our very own VS2010 Launch, May 11, 2010! if you are interested you can register here.

VS2010 was release two days ago, so last night I installed it to my work laptop. I had RC1 installed in HyperV, which is what AI use for demos but to finally have the RTM on my work environment was a nice change. I wound up staying up later than normal because I was so excited playing with everything. Almost like a giddy kid on Christmas Day. While I was running the install I started thinking of the road Visual Studio has been down and where it is now. VS2010 really revolutionizes how we develop .Net apps by providing a mature toolbox of new technologies when comparing it to the past releases of .Net 3.5 and VS2008.   You start seeing a more mature change from Web forms and MVC and windows forms to WPF, a more robust Silverlight and Entity Framework and how building WCF services is no longer questioned as a taboo, but now just a part of everyday development from connected distributed solutions to working with AJAX. Also, major improvements and more limelight for WF4.0 which makes it more adoptable as a process engine and building declarative business rules.

I really think customers will adopt VS2010 much faster than they have previous Visual Studio because of the maturity with these new technologies. Developing applications with VS2010 is just faster and more flexible than anything we have had in the past. However this can also be confusing with all of these new options, but Microsoft is doing a better job than ever by getting "How To's" out and seasoned developers should be able to quickly understand how to benefit from the new framework patterns and technology. Kind of interesting, but "how we" architect solutions also gets new names and patterns.

Hopefully when or if you have already cracked open the box for VS2010 you are pleased too. Obviously, the best thing to do is to embrace this paradigm shift by grabbing it with both hands and pulling it to you!

Just confirmed that I will be heading to Tally in June to share about the exciting new features in WF. Lately I have been speaking at Florida codecamps so I am looking forward to getting more personal with usergroups too with presentations on WF.

We have decided to put together our very first Visual Studio community launch! May 11, 2010 at 5 Points Movie Theater from 9a.m. to 3p.m. JaxDUG will be hosting a free community launch for VS2010. If you are already a JaxDUG member, registration is easy. Simply logon to JaxDUG and select "Register for Meeting". If you do not have an account with JaxDUG, create a free one and then register so you too can reserve a seat. We set up the event so that you can come and go as you please for the presentations you are interested in seeing. We are also having a "can food drive", to help out the community so please be sure to bring a canned good.

As if you thought there would not be one, today the announcement was made from the WF Team that a migration tool from WF3.x to WF4.0 has been released on CodePlex. In no way is it the end all for a complete migration, however it does a good job and will get you closer to migrating than anything else. I believe the need for a tool like this is a must for migrating WF3.x to WF4, and feel it would have been a thorn in the side of the WF Team from speculators of WF4.0 not to have one.

With VS2010 right around the corner, I am spreading the word of what abilities WF4.0 will bring within the new .Net4.0 Framework. Last month I spoke in Miami about WF4.0 and had some interesting questions concerning WF being "re-writtin", "Did MS get it right this time" and "why use WF4, and not wait for WF5". If you are in the Orlando, Fl. next week and these are some of the questions you have and want to get more familiar with WF4, check out my session... You can register here! If you are reading this post and you have additional questions on WF4, please contact me!

Here are the slides from my past two code camp presentations this year...

AppFabric Caching and Migrating To WF4