In our next Azure ‘n’ Action session, we will explore how many companies are leveraging Software as a Service (SaaS) and Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to lower their operational costs.

Did you know that by extending your on-premises Active Directory into Windows Azure Active Directory (WAAD), your users can authenticate to Exchange, Lync and SharePoint SaaS by using Windows Azure Active Directory managed accounts, and stop requiring federation back to your on-premises data center by leveraging DirSync with password sync? This allows you to take advantage of Microsoft’s facilities, which provide the redundancy and high availably that you desire, for not only your applications but the underlying authentication infrastructure as well.

Did you know that Windows Azure Active Directory (WAAD) is FREE?  It provides you and your organization secure authentication via Azure for your all your devices, and services for a globally mobile workforce.

Do you want to learn how to securely integrate your Office 365 SaaS environment by extending your information architecture into SharePoint 2013 IaaS? You can quickly and securely leverage Windows Azure AD as your Identity Provider to enhance authentication globally.

Are you ready to see  this in action? Please join us at the next Azure Café we will walk you through the scenario of an Office 365 SharePoint website integrated with an Office 365 Site Collection, and an IaaS-hosted SharePoint 2013 environment — all using Microsoft to provide authentication.

March 19, 2014
12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (EST)

Click here to register!

AIS will be presenting a new series of Azure ‘n’ Action Café webinars in early 2014. We will have expert speakers offering new and exciting content in a convenient “lunch and learn” online format, one Wednesday a month, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST.

Our first presentation date is Wednesday, January 29. You won’t want to miss this session, as we’ll cover both updates to Azure and new ways to extend your data center.

In this session we will share an example Platform as a Service (PaaS) Web Role workload in Azure.  This workload will help you understand how Azure constructs can be used in support of different scenarios.

The workload we’ll discuss makes use of the following Constructs:

  • A private data center extended into multiple Azure Regional Data Centers (East Coast / West Coast) with IPSEC tunnels
  • The on-premises AD / DNS infrastructure extended into Azure IaaS
  • An on-premises SQL Server 2012 Server database supporting a High Availability Group (Synchronous) with a local primary and a remote secondary located in Azure IaaS
  • The PaaS Web Role Load Balanced across data centers using Azure Traffic Manager

Click here to register!

If you have found yourself thinking…

“We want the cloud to be a seamless extension of our data center, not a walled garden. We want to use our existing IT setup and tools to manage on-premises and cloud-based applications.”

“We want to seamlessly move virtual machines from on-premises to the cloud and back.”

“We want to move existing applications to the cloud without the need to change the applications in any way.”

…then our upcoming Introduction to Windows Azure IaaS session is for you.

This free half-day session is for anyone who wants to better understand the Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering. After a brief overview of the Azure Platform as a Service (PaaS) model, we will focus on key IaaS concepts. Additionally, we will walk you through a number of scenarios enabled by Azure IaaS and several demonstrations. Learn about the new generally available features including virtual machines (with more size options), virtual networks, new image types (including SQL Server and BizTalk), lower pricing and much more. Read More…

AIS is planning a second presentation of our newest SharePoint 2013 seminar in Reston, VA on May 15th. Last month’s seminar in Chevy Chase was a great, informative morning and we’re pleased to offer it again at a different DC metro area location for a wider audience. (Non-DC readers stay tuned; we plan to take this show on the road to other cities soon!)

After more than two years of early adoption research, analysis and technical readiness, AIS has determined that SharePoint 2013 has game-changing functionality as an application platform. This free half-day session will touch on all the new, compelling features of SharePoint and detail exactly how it can help you do more…with less.

  • Smarter Search
  • Simpler and Mobile-Ready UI
  • SharePoint App Store Model
  • Better Workflow
  • Social SharePoint
  • Easy Migration Tools
  • Lower Costs & more

AIS bloggers and team members Jason Storch and Chris Miller will be presenting and on-hand to answer any questions you have about SharePoint and how it can meet the specialized needs of your company or organization.

For more background, you can read our full SharePoint 2013 blog coverage by clicking here. We also have a short whitepaper available on The Top Reasons Your Business Will Love the New SharePoint. 

Click here to register for this event. We look forward to seeing you there!

Please be our guest at the next Azure ‘n’ Action Café online session on April 10th from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. This is a jump-start overview session, including demos and best practices focusing on Windows Azure Virtual Machines: IaaS “On Your Terms.” You will experience how easy it is to bring your own customized virtual machine images — or select from a gallery and retain full control of your images — and maintain them as your business requires. You’ll also be the first to see how to provision a brand-new SharePoint 2013 farm in Azure IaaS.

The Azure ‘n’ Action Café is a series of “lunch and learn” online sessions on a variety of topics related to the Windows Azure Platform. Please register for Windows Azure Virtual Machines: IaaS “On Your Terms” by clicking on the link below and adding the meeting to your calendar from the registration page.

Click here to register to secure your seat at the Café.

(UPDATED! Please note the new date. We’ll be presenting this session on March 20th, at 9:30 am to noon at Microsoft’s office in Chevy Chase, MD. We hope you can join us, as it’s shaping up to be a lively and very informative event!)

Reduced budgets, economic pressures and competition require our commercial and public sector clients to accomplish more with less these days.

After more than two years of early adoption research, analysis and technical readiness, AIS has determined that SharePoint 2013 has game-changing functionality as an application platform.  We leverage it because we can build great applications more quickly — and at reduced cost because we write much less code.

Most organizations own the product. But few truly leverage it as an application platform.  This free half-day session will present the major new capabilities of SharePoint 2013 and how they can be used for a new generation of applications, including:

  • Compelling User Experience, mobile browser support and productivity enhancements to delight users and drive adoption
  • Enhanced collaboration / social media integration
  • Robust and decoupled workflow engine to address even the most complex business process automation
  • Ability to re-vitalize and migrate Microsoft Access applications
  • Improved digital dashboard capability through PowerView
  • Cloud integration including seamless integration with Windows Azure and Office 365
  • Improved e-discovery and matter management via better centralized and aggregated records management

This seminar will highlight the many reasons to aggressively migrate to SharePoint 2013 by reviewing the many new and enhanced features, while providing context and insight into the new generation of application they enable.

AIS bloggers and team members Vishwas Lele, Jason Storch and Chris Miller will be presenting. For more background, you can read our full SharePoint 2013 blog coverage by clicking here. In particular, be sure not to miss Vishwas Lele’s entry on the SharePoint App Dev Platform: The Journey So Far & the Road Ahead.

When: March 20, 2013, 9:30 am to noon
Where: Microsoft Corporation, 5404 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase MD (map)

Please click here to register for this event, or feel free to email me directly. We hope to see you there!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for AIS and Microsoft’s Introduction to Azure IaaS event last month. As promised (and for anyone who missed it), here’s the full presentation from Vishwas Lele and Jack O’Connell. Click through the slideshow below, and feel free to ask any follow-up questions in the comments or contact us.

If you’re in the Philadelphia area, Vishwas and Jack will be presenting this session again TOMORROW at Microsoft’s Malvern, PA office. All the details on that event can be found here. We hope to see you there, and please keep up with our Events Calendar for other presentations in your area.

If you have found yourself thinking…

“We want the cloud to be a seamless extension of our data center, not a walled garden. We want to use our existing IT setup and tools (AD, SCOM etc.) to manage the on-premises and cloud-based applications.”

“We want seamlessly move virtual machines from on-premises to the cloud and back.”

“We want to start out by moving existing applications to the cloud without the need to change the applications in any way.”

…then our upcoming Introduction to Windows Azure IaaS session is for you.

Read More…

If you have found yourself thinking…

“Changing our existing apps to run on PaaS is going to require a lot of refactoring. We want to run our applications in the Cloud as-is.”

“We cannot migrate to Azure SQL Database because our database relies on SQL CLR-based stored procedures. We want to use a full version of SQL Server.”

“We want the Cloud to be a seamless extension of our data center, not a walled garden. We want to use our existing IT setup and tools (AD, SCOM etc.) to manage the on-premises and Cloud-based applications.”

…then our upcoming Introduction to Windows Azure IaaS session is for you.

Read More…