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Getting Started with Ethereum using Azure Blockchain
In this post, Senior ADM Mike Finley discusses how to get started with Ethereum and Azure Blockchain.What is Blockchain? At the most basic level of understanding, blockchains are a simple approach to a distributed database. A blockchain is a peer-to-peer system with no central authority managing data flow. One of the key ways to removing central control while maintaining data integrity is to have a large distributed network of independent users. You can think of blockchains as distributed databases that a group of individuals controls and that store and share information. The most popular form of a blockchain imp...
The Food Truck Paradigm : Why should I trust open source software?
In this post, App Dev Manager Daniel Setlock reflects on the trust of open source software using the Food Truck Paradigm.IntroductionIt is somewhat shocking that in 2017 I still receive questions about how open source software, libraries, plug-ins, packages, etc. can be trusted, and the pushback that such things receive from cyber security personnel at organizations. While everyone has their own job to do, and their own criteria for success, limiting the availability of a robust and organized code base or tools due to a lack of understanding in regards to what Open Source actually means only hinders and never hel...
Firebase 101: NoSql Database Management
In this post, Premier Developer Consultant, Kunal Sinha outlines steps to integrate Firebase Database into custom web applications as a NoSql alternative for quick POC demos. I was recently working on building out a Node JS web application POC for one of my projects and wanted to try out a new database service. As this was just a POC, I wasn’t looking for anything full-blown like Azure Data Storage, but rather something simple for demo purposes. Firebase is a cloud-hosted NoSql DB that lets you store and sync data between your users in realtime. As I was building out a POC, I wanted to use something that w...
Innovation at your fingertips
In this post, App Dev Manager Adlène Sifi demonstrates innovation at your fingertips by building a real-time earthquake reporting system using Power BI and without writing any code. You can view a French version of this article on LinkedIn. Innovation usually involves ideation, rapid prototyping, validation with users, measurement (feedback) and finally adaptation. A multitude of ideas can be generated by involving a multidisciplinary team with diverse experiences, roles, skills or backgrounds. The more diverse your group, the higher the quality of ideas generated. Once the ideation phase is comple...
Optimize your Azure spend
In this post, App Dev Manager Priti Kalani shares insight toward optimizing the services you deploy and manage in the Microsoft cloud.Azure tools to optimize and manage your cloud spendingAzure has made deploying cloud infrastructure and applications convenient and productive for organizations. Azure also provides tools to help you with managing the spend in the Microsoft Cloud. In this post, I would like to discuss a couple of Azure tools that can help you optimize cloud resources and get the most out of your Azure spend.Azure Advisor Cost RecommendationsThe Azure Advisor tool works as your personal advisor to h...
Extending the async methods in C#
The async series In the previous blog post we discussed how the C# compiler transforms asynchronous methods. In this post, we'll focus on extensibility points the C# compiler provides for customizing the behavior of async methods. There are 3 ways how you can control the async method's machinery: Custom types fromm namespace As we know from the previous post, the C# compiler transforms async methods into a generated state machine that relies on some predefined types. But the C# compiler does not expect that these well-known types come from a specific assembly. For instan...
Converting PCL (Portable Class Libraries) to .NET Standard Class Libraries – Part 3
In Part 3 of this 3 part series, App Dev Manager, Herald Gjura describes how to incorporate these libraries into an existing .NET application.In Part 1 and 2 of this blog series I described how to migrate your old PCL libraries into the .NET Standard ones, and how to change you build and release pipeline for a successful NuGet deployment. In this 3rd part I will describe how to incorporate these libraries into an existing .NET application.In normal circumstances this should not be a topic of a discussion, as you should be able to simply pull the .NET Standard libraries into your application and get going. However...
Async Main() is available, but hidden
Check out this quick tip on unlocking the new features of C# 7.1 from Premier Developer consultant Ben Williams.Ever try to use async/await in your Main method of a .NET app? You couldn’t before, but now you can. I just posted a quick tip about enabling this by turning on C# 7.1 features in Visual Studio (they are not enabled by default). https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/benwilli/2017/12/08/async-main-is-available-but-hidden/
[Service Fabric] How to troubleshoot deployment errors in Service Fabric Windows cluster
Having issues deploying your service to your Service Fabric cluster? Check out this post from Premier Developer consultant Julien Oudot on troubleshooting deployment issues in Service Fabric. The Service Fabric explorer is a great interface to control the cluster health and configuration. However, I recently worked with customers who did not find obvious to debug issues occurring while deploying services in an Service Fabric Windows cluster. The fact that they could not find this information prevented them from experimenting the great features part of Service Fabric. In addition to the usual debugging ...