Brian ODonnell

Microsoft has always marketed the Xbox One as a gaming machine that can enhance your living room.  This has played out very well for the Xbox One but recently has faltered in the light of the Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) being a more powerful machine.   This has given customers the idea that the Xbox […]

The Microsoft Build Conference is set to kick off next week but the company got off to an early start this week with several different announcements. Windows Azure now generally available in China This may not sound like a huge accomplishment worthy of being called out individually but a little known fact is that Windows […]

In a world of broadband internet connections, online collaboration tools and the ability to work from almost anywhere – office culture can be difficult to sustain.  This especially holds true for people who live in large cities (where the commute can be problematic) or in harsh climates (like the never ending winter in Chicago this […]

Beginning on June 2, 2014 Windows Azure will be retiring Windows Server 2008.  This means that you will no longer be able to deploy a new Cloud Service or manage your existing services on virtual machines running Windows Server 2008. Windows Azure currently supports four different GuestOS ‘versions’: GuestOS 1.x – Windows Server 2008 GuestOS […]

The idea behind Net Neutrality has been a topic of increasing scrutiny recently.  There are groups of people who are very out spoken about the importance of Net Neutrality and deregulation of the Internet.  For the majority of internet users the topic falls on deaf ears.  This is generally because Net Neutrality is attempting to […]

In my previous post I discussed how Microsoft and NBC were streaming every single event live and on demand at the Sochi Olympic Games.  Azure makes publishing and streaming videos easier than ever before.  This post will walk you through creating a media service, uploading content (video or audio), encoding it and publishing it for […]

NBC and Microsoft recently publicized they are streaming every event of the 2014 Winter Olympics to any iOS, Android, Windows device using Windows Azure Media Services.  What is Windows Azure Media Services (WAMS) and how does it work? WAMS is a cloud optimized edition of the Microsoft Media Platform (MMP) which handles a variety of […]

This morning Microsoft announced that Satya Nadella will be taking over as the new CEO.  Satya Nadella is the former head of the Cloud and Enterprise division at Microsoft.  The last few years Microsoft has been focused on providing a better cloud solution.  They have rapidly iterated on Windows Azure, SharePoint Online, Office 365, Xbox […]

Titanfall is a new blockbuster game for the Xbox One.  It is being published by Electronic Arts and is due to be released in March 2014.  Titanfall is a first person shooter that will have much of its AI hosting , physics calculations, online match making and multi-player dedicated servers hosted in Windows Azure.  This […]

What is Coin?  Coin is a brilliant new technology that allows users to consolidate all of their cards into a single Coin card.  A Coin card is not your traditional credit card.  It is an electronic device the size of a credit card with a programmable magnetic strip.  Any card with a magnetic strip whether […]

What is Platform as a Service (PaaS)?  How does it differ from Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas)? Let’s start with IaaS.  When “The Cloud” first became popular IaaS was the target.  The point of IaaS is to migrate a company data center into Windows Azure.  This involves converting whatever physical servers you have to Hyper-V […]

Windows Azure has many different devices for publishing and consuming content.  Two of those which are often confused are web roles and web sites.  The two are very similar and share some common strengths, but given specific conditions one may fit your need better than the other.  For example, web roles and web sites will […]