When it comes to Microsoft, people don’t generally think “Open Source” or “Linux Support”. But in recent years, Microsoft has come a long way. They’ve released many of their most commonly used frameworks under open source licenses, including ASP.NET MVC/Web API/Web Pages and Entity Framework! Additionally, they’ve given first-class support for many non-Microsoft offerings, especially in Azure. Currently, this includes support in Azure for open source gems like Node.js, PHP, and, yes, even Linux. Heck, they even have an Openness logo: […]
Some end-of-the-week reads from AIS employees’ personal blogs: Windows Azure Planning: A Post-Decision Guide to Integrate Windows Azure in Your Environment: AIS’ CTO Vishwas Lele posted a complete planning guide on how to best adopt and integrate Windows Azure into your organization. (Fleeting Thoughts) SharePoint Saturday Cincinnati Session: Clint Richardson (who wrote the excellent three-part series on The Best New Features of SQL Server 2012) presented a Voluntold admin session at last week’s SharePoint Saturday Cincinnati. His presentation, relevant links […]
One of the tasks we are beginning to explore at AIS is developing and distributing mobile applications for our corporate clients. One common scenario will be for these apps to be available only for their employees, or a select group of their clients. So distribution through Apple’s App Store, for example, may not be an acceptable solution. There are several options for distributing enterprise iOS applications, if we can’t (or don’t want to) go through the App Store: 1. Ad Hoc […]
This is the third in a multipart series on the exciting new features of SQL Server 2012. Currently AIS is assisting a performing arts center with an upgrade to SQL Server 2012. During the research for this project I’ve had a chance to deploy many of these new features. These posts highlight the best of what SQL Server 2012 has to offer. We’ve already discussed AlwaysOn High Availability, and integrated SSRS. Today I want to talk about the new contained database feature […]
CensusMapper is a Windows 8 app that retrieves U.S. Census Data using the recently released Census API and displays that data on a map using Microsoft’s Bing Maps API. The application is built using XAML and C#. The intent of this version is to establish a proof of concept as well as introduce a design and user-experience direction to be explored and evolved going forward. Upon startup, the app retrieves the population counts for each U.S. State and displays those counts […]
Today is the official start of the 2012 Baltimore and Southwest Ohio GiveCamps. For the second year in a row, AIS is providing support and sponsorship for these amazing weekend long events! But what exactly is GiveCamp? Well, GiveCamp is a 100% volunteer-driven event in which technology talent, media and branding gurus, business professionals and logistical coordinators donate their time and partner with local charities and non-profit organizations to allow coding miracles to happen. All too often non-profit organizations and […]
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 […]
At AIS, we are often asked by our customers to put together a quick prototype very early in the envisioning phase of a project. The main objective is to determine if the proposed set of technologies will address the key requirements. Having a “working” piece of software this early (despite all the scaffolding needed to make the prototype work) helps the stakeholders make a decision whether to go with a certain technology set or not. This is especially true if a number of competing solutions […]
Happy Friday! Here are some of the latest posts by AIS employees from around the web and their personal blogs: Using Git-Tf: Suppress the TFS Warning When Loading a Solution: Using Git-TF? Getting annoying TFS warnings in Visual Studio? Senior Software Engineer Kip Streithorst can help. (It’s Null?) Fight Clutter and Confusion in the Workplace. The Importance of Process Streamlining and How to Do It: Developer Terra Gilbert has discovered a natural knack for process streamlining and improving documentation. Here […]
This is the second of a multipart series on the exciting new features of SQL Server 2012. Currently AIS is assisting a performing arts center with an upgrade to SQL Server 2012. During the research for this project I have had a chance to deploy many of these new features. These posts will highlight the best of what SQL Server 2012 has to offer. Now that we’ve already discussed AlwaysOn High Availability, today I want to talk about the changes […]