Microsoft Announces Real-time Analytics For Apache Hadoop In Azure HDInsight

At Strata + Hadoop World in New York, Microsoft announced the expansion of their Azure data services. They annoucned the support of real-time analytics for Apache Hadoop in Azure HDInsight and new machine learning capabilities in the Azure Marketplace. Also, Hortonworks announced how they are integrating with Microsoft Azure with the latest release of the Hortonworks Data Platform.

More... http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-announces-real-time-analytics-for-apache-hadoop-in-azure-hdinsight/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+msftnws+%28Microsoft+News%29 

First look at Windows 10 and what is expected more?

First look at Windows 10 and highlights -
Terry Myerson - Executive Vice President for Microsoft's Operating Systems Group announced Windows 10 release and here are few excerpts -

1 Huge stress on enterprise and differentiation of personal and enterprise data. This will helps enterprise admins to simplify their job and be worried only about enterprise data.

2 New OS will allow enterprises to have its own marketplace and store fronts that will allow them to host their own applications, distribute and control.

3 Multi-tasking tool that should boost productivity in Windows 10 is Snap Assist, which lets you "snap" up to four apps at once to get suggestions for other open apps that may help you with a given task

4. Virtual desktops

5. Multi views in One - optimized for all devices - keyboard for one and touch for other

6. Start is back... yes, we heard that!

7. Key is Microsoft is now talking to have Windows 10 has the CORE OS across devices - not just PC's and laptops but phones, tables and may be consoles!

8. Though Microsoft has not revealed their business model and pricing yet but seems it will be a free upgrade for users/enterprises that own Windows 8/8.1. There may be sub $99 version of Windows 10 that would be provisioned on windows phone devices. Joe Belfiore - Corporate Vice President, Operating Systems Group at Microsoft. He is responsible for the design and software product definition of forthcoming generations of Windows Phones and to bring new OS Windows 10 across phone and devices.

9. Release date will be likely after Developer's build conference in April 2015, hence there is huge opportunity for developers to get their hands on the OS and play/test the new Windows 10.

10. Microsoft has release Windows Insider program which will likely read your feedback and incorporate as part of their flight feature program in development of Windows OS.
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Technical preview bits are available here for free and immediate Windows Test by developers. This barebones version will eventually become Windows 10 and will be available to the public for download at preview.windows.com.

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What would be good to have in Windows 10 operating system?

1 With Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, recent split of ebay and PayPal, and entry of Alibaba in US markets what's the strategy for Microsoft Payments? What's the roadmap in consumer space, especially, for Windows phone devices ...?

2 Plans to build and distribute more enterprise apps that would bring productivity and assist enterprises on the lines of IBM and Apple deal? Growth of marketplace apps will be key to Microsoft's success and adoption of its devices.

3 Security - still grey area, please avoid UAC popups as we had in Windows Vista.

4 Internet of Things (IoT) - Great to hear that Windows 10 will be also on IOT or so called embedded devices and connected car, but double click details missing. Whats the product roadmap on wearables?  Agree, Microsoft should not be in the race of catch up... but to stop being reactive... its imperative that there is a clear vision and roadmap for next 3 years in devices and services space which will help partners and developer community significantly.

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Side bar - Did you miss Windows 9 news or seems like we fast forwarded our life :) Nope, its just that Microsoft thought 10 is luckier than 9 and they decided to skip :)

These are all early findings. Will report back with more on Windows 10 in coming months, beginning with the availability of the early build preview.

Cheers - DJ

Windows Azure Data Strategies and management - deciding factor

Interesting read to explore in detail on Windows Azure data strategies published here by Microsoft. Help you decide on pros and cons on Azure. Also will help you decide choose right approach and data management strategies.

Windows Azure provides several different ways to store and manage data. This diversity lets users of the platform address a variety of different problems. Yet diversity implies choice: Which data management option is right for a particular situation?
This short overview is intended to help you answer that question. After a quick summary of the data management technologies in Windows Azure, we’ll walk through several different scenarios, describing which of these technologies is most appropriate in each case. The goal is to make it easier to choose the right options for the problem you face.

Here -

1. http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/windows/fundamentals/cloud-storage-scenarios/
2. http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/solutions/data-management/#scenarios

Free trial to start with any of your Azure services on Microsoft as below -

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/
SQL Azure:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/sql-database/
Cache Service:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/cache/
Storage:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/storage/
HD Insight:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/hdinsight/
Virtual Machines -
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/virtual-machines/

-DJ

How to upgrade Office 2013 on Surface RT to the final version?

How to upgrade Office 2013 on Surface RT to the final version?

The Microsoft Surface running Windows RT includes Office 2013 Home and Student Version which runs on the tablet's desktop. Out of the box it comes with the Review version of Office, but you can upgrade to the final version which is currently available, here's how.
 

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/upgrade-office-2013-microsoft-surface-windows-rt/ 

 

Cheers - Dipesh

 

Real time Social media sentiment analytics...

Free tools and APIs available to check social media sentiment analytics (real time) - http://www.sentiment140.com/search?hl=en&query=microsoft surface ...You can change the query to your product, org name or yourself.

Microsoft has also provided tool - "Analytics for Twitter" (would need Power Pivot add-in)
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26213

The excel file will create a full fledged dashboard that is powered by data that it pulls from Power Pivot - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29074
 

Phone that charges by itself when in stanby…WIP?

Interesting ways by which a phone can charge by itself...Like it, when we will see this out in market is a matter of time I guess :)

Nokia's self phone charging prototype in works?...

• New talked about prototype - self charging system from Nokia that is able to power itself on nothing more than ambient radiowaves – the weak TV, radio and mobile phone signals that permanently surround us. The power harvested is small but it is almost enough to power a mobile in standby mode indefinitely without ever needing to plug it into the mains, according to Markku Rouvala, one of the researchers who developed the device at the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, UK.
• Nokia's device is somewhat less ambitious and is made possible thanks to a wide-band antenna and two very simple circuits. The antenna and the receiver circuit are designed to pick up a wide range of frequencies — from 500 megahertz to 10 gigahertz — and convert the electromagnetic waves into an electrical current, while the second circuit is designed to feed this current to the battery to recharge it.
• The trick here is to ensure that these circuits use less power than is being received, said Rouvala. So far they have been able to harvest up to 5 milliwatts. Their short-term goal is to get in excess of 20 milliwatts, enough power to keep a phone in standby mode indefinitely without having to recharge it. But this would not be enough to actually use the phone to make or receive a call, he says. So ultimately the hope is to be able to get as much as 50 milliwatts which would be sufficient to slowly recharge the battery.

More... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/10/nokia-mobile-phone

Power through Solar cells under the screen -
Solar cells can fit just underneath the screen so that it take the source light and convert it into energy that can be consumed to charge the phone....
 

Charge your phone through your heat of the body -

Phones that can use an integrated thermogenerator that converts heat into energy. That means it could get a slight charge while sitting in your pocket against your leg and an even bigger charge when you have a temperature! :)

Dont believe, ALL three above can be "the" single alternate source for self charging phones, but why not all three? Could be a game changer next!

Cheers - DJ
 

IT: Winning the Retail War: How to Compete With Retail E-commerce Players

Winning the Retail War: How to Compete With Retail E-commerce Players

Accenture suggests 10 ways a multichannel retail approach can help in competing with retail e-commerce players.
Overview Today online retailers are the preferred choice for customers worldwide. Does this mean traditional retailing is over? No. Traditional retailers can too march ahead by offering a multichannel retail experience to customers. Online pure plays have changed the retail game with their new approach to technology, innovation and execution. To compete successfully with retail e-commerce players, Accenture recommends traditional retailers adopt a strategic thinking by applying key principles from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
Download the PDF report from the site here - http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-winning-the-retail-war.aspx

OR watch the video here -
http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-winning-the-retail-war-video.aspx

Encryption, key, identity, fraud management and others from Thales...

One of the finest solution that I stumbled upon for database encryption from Thales -

1. Add new levels of assurance to database encryption by helping your organization effectively protect and manage encryption keys.
2. With Thales - nShield hardware security modules (HSMs), you can take full advantage of native database encryption capabilities and still add higher levels of assurance to key management activities, ensuring optimal security, efficiency, and guaranteed accessibility to encrypted data.
3. By storing encryption keys in a protected environment, separate from the database itself, nShield HSMs enforce separation of duties between security staff and DBAs.

More here -
http://www.thales-esecurity.com/solutions/by-technology-focus/database-encryption

Great ready solution for mobile payments, trust, key and identity management. Controlling Fraud and Protecting Intellectual Property solution from Thales.

The proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets not only gives consumers more choice, it also has the potential to dramatically expand the payments ecosystem, bringing new players such as mobile operators and handset manufacturers into the mix. Multiple payment advocates are competing for attention, with each party advancing a different vision for where the consumer’s electronic wallet—the trusted source of credentials—should reside: on a card, on a phone, or in the Cloud. These various approaches create new challenges and in some cases have the potential to establish new business models. The traditional role of banks in issuing physical cards that are mailed to users could be replaced by new classes of intermediaries such as Trusted Service Managers (TSMs) that provide over-the-air provisioning capabilities to mobile devices.

The Thales solution is based on the GlobalPlatform Card Specification Version 2.2 and EMV Card Personalization Specification (CPS V1.1), providing the ability to establish a secure session with the Secure Element (SE) based on Global Platform Secure Channel Protocol 02 (SCP02) and to prepare secure messages for the SE.

More here - http://www.thales-esecurity.com/solutions/by-technology-focus/mobile-payments

Project Management using new Visual Studio 2011 Rosyln

Project Management using new Visual Studio 2011 developer preview - raw notes from Build Session 2 - 1 Visual Team foundation server as a service instead of setting up servers 2 Sprint planning and tracking user stories, tasks 3 All productivity tools are now part of Visual studio 2011 4 jQuery bundled with Visual studio 5 Image editor - making game development interesting Also works with VS 2010 and onto the cloud. More here - http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/KEY-0002 Cheers -Dipesh

MSDeploy - How do I compare 2 websites sitting on different environments behaving differently?

Thinking how do I compare 2 websites sitting on different environments behaving differently and makes you scratch your head whats's going wrong? :)

Use MS Deploy to compare two web sites quickly and find the differences and help you troubleshoot - http://blogs.iis.net/msdeploy/archive/2008/02/02/using-ms-deploy-to-compare-sites-or-see-what-components-your-site-uses.aspx

Helps you also visualize and see the components that your web site uses.

Build event for Microsoft 2011 - Keynotes, sessions and excerpts

Keynotes and sessions from Build event day1 -
Speakers: Chris Jones , Steven Sinofsky , Antoine Leblonde , Mike Angiulo , Julie Larson-Green
http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/KEY-0001

Keynotes and sessions from Build event day2 -

http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/KEY-0002

o Windows Server 8 and Azure
o Virtualization & Cloud
o VS 2011 Developer Preview, Windows Azure SDK, Windows Azure Toolkit 1.5 available
o Visual Studio TFS on Azure

Mobile Device + Cloud
• Advance debugging in windows azure - (ability to do performance profiling on code deployed)
• Find Matching Clones(find copies of source code)
• Alpha blending

Demo by Scott Gutherie - Web and Mobile Reach - ASP.Net MVC 4 Preview
• Page Inspector/DOM Explorer/Source View
• Unification/Bunding feature, folder reference
• Shipping jquery as part of ASP.NET/visual studio Roslyn - jQuery.Mobile.MVC
• WebSocket API exposed with .NET 4.5 that allows connection to websocket from anywhere

Web and Mobile Reach/Web TFS
• SaaS for TFS and Windows Server 8 infrastructure

Tools for building Metro style applications

Video on channel 9 as part of Build event for Microsoft 2011 here on tools to build Metro style applications quickly.

http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/BPS-1006

Platform for understanding Metro style apps here -
http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/BPS-1005

Directory of companies that provide Cloud Computing Network Services & Products

Here is the exhaustive list of Cloud computing network services directory that details companies who have built enterprise solutions/software, platforms that are exposed to be consumed as services on Cloud.

Here on cloudbook -
http://www.cloudbook.net/directories/product-services/cloud-computing-directory?category=Network&type=Network

Windows Azure Pricing and related videos

Windows Azure Pricing Calculator and TCO: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing-calculator/

Windows Azure Videos: http://channel9.msdn.com/Tags/azure

Lapping around SQL Azure - Migrating SQL server database to SQL Azure

Migrating SQL 2008 on premise/in network/local database to SQL Azure platform turns to be very straight forward and easy. Microsoft has done an excellent job in enabling developers to use SQL server management studio (SSMS) and Visual Studio 2010 tools for the migration effort.

Here are few helpful links that would help enable the SQL migration to Azure/cloud.

SQL Azure Videos: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazure/videos.aspx SQL Azure
Tools and Labs: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazure/tools-labs.aspx SQL Azure Migration
SQL server schema and data migration wizard (open source and free): http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/

Alternate options to migrate SQL schema and data is also - Writing SSIS packages