The nearly true story of Geoff and the Cloud

The

Nearly True Story

of Geoff and

the Cloud

As told by the bard Liam Kelly,

illustrated by the

repressed artist

Andrew Fryer and

edited by

somebody inexpensive

and largely irrelevant

called

Eric Nelson

“Simply the best book I have read since War and Peace – and much shorter” Mr May D. Up “Winnie-the- Pooh feels like a book for children in comparison to this weighty tome. I would highly recommend it.” Mrs Fik Choo Nol “I am so glad I read this book. The ideas and techniques outlined in it are great. In fact it is the first time I have managed to keep off the weight I lost!” Mr Karn Fused

Brought to you by the Microsoft UK Developer and Platform Evangelism Team | http://blogs.msdn.com/ukisvdev

Once upon a time, in a

land rather closer to home than most stories, there was a handsome and strangely debonair CEO of a successful software company that was doing rather well. Geoff had built up a great business that sold line-of-business products across all sectors using a traditional licence model.

The product was critical to his customers and helped them operate their business, it was the hub of their internal operations, and they had the IT department on their side.

His customers were happy that the product met their needs.

His staff were happy as they were benefiting from being in a growing company.

Where exactly is

this story set?

There have been rumours that the story is set in Reading, Berkshire. Others believe it to be Swindon or perhaps even Blackpool. The reality is that this is a story that could be played out in any village, town or city. We should also point out that this story is actually entirely made up – except for the bit about the ducks. Enjoy!


However, Geoff had a concern. He was struggling to find a way to grow his business in a saturated market. And … he was also concerned about a strange rash… but exploring that further won’t really help with this story. The good news is the rash went away a week later. Anyway…

Before he was able to solve this challenge the world changed before him… there was a dark Cloud looming on the horizon!!!

Actually, if truth be told, the cloud was not that dark and Geoff went on to have a really nice afternoon feeding the ducks…

What is “the cloud”?

The Cloud comes in many guises – but it is primarily about where and how IT systems are provisioned and operated and how well they can react to the needs of a business. The ultimate goal in adopting the Cloud is to allow IT systems to more effectively and efficiently support the business. There are many variations, including Public Cloud, a service provided by a vendor which allows IT Systems to be quickly provisioned, deployed and run on well managed infrastructure capable of safely handling the needs of many discrete businesses whilst avoiding incurring capital costs for the individual business. In effect the cloud vendor has hardware, networking, databases and servers which can be “instantly” provisioned to address the needs of an individual business, passing on the costs based on usage. Microsoft is a vendor providing Public Cloud – the Windows Azure Platform.

What is a “strange

rash”?

In many cases a strange rash is nothing to be concerned about – but please do contact your doctor if you are concerned.


Geoff had seen the arrival

of other threats in the past.

The .com boom and on-line social networking didn’t touch them… that was front office and they were immune.

Offshoring came and whilst they were slow to react they managed to embrace it, retain quality and cut development costs and make savings that they could pass on to their customers

Even through the recent recession, their business remained strong since customers still needed their product.


But Geoff wondered if it

was going to be different this time.

Geoff returned home to have a very sleepless night. His mind was filled with questions and very few answers.

Would the Cloud change the world so much and more quickly than they could react?

Would new more agile competition emerge with new business models?

What if these competitors’ products offered equivalent features but 50% cheaper?

Could new competitors provision solutions in hours rather than the weeks and months it took Geoff and his team to make a product available to users?

Could these companies provide smaller departmental solutions and scale to meet the customers’ needs fully over time?

What if they sold to the business without involving IT – would Geoff even know if it was happening in his current customers?

Would these new competitors be able to innovate and win customers that Geoff had come to rely on?

More importantly, if Geoff kept having sleepless nights, would he remain handsome and strangely debonair?

Should you panic

about the Cloud?

The arrival of the Cloud is changing the relationship between “Product Authors” and their customers. The changes are many, sometimes subtle and sometime very significant. However overall this represents a great opportunity to improve the relationship between “Product Authors” and their customers. An early adopter of the Cloud is likely to increase its ability to compete effectively for business. This is why Microsoft is embracing the Cloud for its own products as well as providing a Public Cloud to help its partners and customers benefit.

How much sleep do

you need to stay

strangely debonair?

My Nana would say 8 hours and she was a very wise (and strangely enough, quite debonair) person


The next day Geoff woke

with renewed enthusiasm and started to think about how cloud would enable him to do things differently. There were several options. At first he considered how if he remodelled his most profitable products, he could continue to be successful but that would take time and he didn’t really understand what it would cost to run this product on cloud or to remodel his entire business to account for subscription pricing.

It made Geoff tired just thinking about it! He began to worry if all this would lead to wrinkles which would negatively affect his debonairness…

He needed a way to quickly gain experience with a cloud based product… he still had loyal customers but he needed to show them that his company would offer them value from cloud over time. He needed a way to secure these customers for the long term and win new customers.


Geoff had a brilliant idea.

He would find a way to reach the customers of his customers… the consumers!

He could create an application for Windows Phone 7 that would be so compelling that all of these consumers would be rushing to install the application.

By creating this application he could help his customers save operational costs.

The consumers would become self-sufficient; they’d be able to do what they wanted when they wanted and would be happier.

Geoff’s customers would be compelled to continue using their products as their consumers had become dependent on the application.

Prospective new customers would see the impact Geoff’s product was having on their industry and would come knocking on his door.

What is Windows

Phone 7?

Windows Phone 7 is the latest operating system from Microsoft for mobile phones, released in late 2010. It delivers a revolutionary and compelling user experience thanks to great design and highly productive development tools and languages. If a development team can write solutions using the .NET Framework then they can write solutions for Windows Phone 7. Many phone manufactures have created devices that use Windows Phone 7 and there are already over 14,000 applications available for these devices in the United Kingdom. Getting started: http://create.msdn.com/en-gb/home/getting_started

http://create.msdn.com/en-gb/home/getting_started

http://create.msdn.com/en-gb/home/getting_started


He only had one snag… He knew the IT department locked down external access to internal data and systems. Now he had an answer to that too.

Cloud!

He could export the data from his current product to the Windows Azure Platform, Microsoft’s cloud product. This would kill two birds with one stone.

What is the

Windows Azure

Platform?

The Windows Azure Platform contains three primary technologies which can be used individually or together to build solutions which run in the Cloud. For the first time you are able to run your code and store your data in Microsoft’s datacenters and let Microsoft take on some of the responsibility for keeping your solution running great and able to respond to the changing demands of business. Solutions can either run entirely on the Windows Azure Platform or as a hybrid, with some of the solution running on-premise or elsewhere on the Internet. The three key technologies are Windows Azure, SQL Azure and Windows Azure Platform AppFabric. Getting started: http://www.azure.com/getstarted

Does Microsoft

condone the killing

of two birds with

one stone?

Killing birds, be that two or another whole number, be that with a stone or an alternative missile, is not condoned in any way.

http://www.azure.com/getstarted


Eureka! Geoff would have a solution that would differentiate his company in the market. He could say they were a cloud company and that they were serious about offering cloud solutions.

Yet he could continue selling licenses for his current products so it needn’t have a big impact on his current business.

He could slowly understand what it means to run and operate a cloud solution.

This would fix everything.

Well, almost everything. The leak in his shed would need to wait for another day.

Is there guidance on

the business impact

of adopting the

Cloud for the

provision of

Software Products?

There are many useful resources to help you prepare including a recent series of webcasts. Watch the webcasts: http://bit.ly/isvsandazurebusinesswebcasts

What is the best

approach to fixing a

leak in a shed?

There are many temporary fixes but ultimately new roofing felt is likely to be the best option.

http://bit.ly/isvsandazurebusinesswebcasts

http://bit.ly/isvsandazurebusinesswebcasts


Geoff started on this

immediately.

He got the right team together and spoke to Microsoft to get the technical help and guidance he needed.

Geoff brings together his team for the SaaSYard Challenge

His technical staff could create the application quickly because Windows Phone 7 development used technologies his team were already familiar with – Visual Studio and Silverlight.

He’d want it to be “beautiful” so he would need some help with the user interface design but he could easily bring in a design agency with the right skills and experience.

He involved his customers from the start and they loved the simplicity of being able to tray the early versions without needing to involve their own IT department.

Geoff rolled out this product and started his company’s journey to the cloud. Sure there were

What is the best

way to connect to

Microsoft in the

United Kingdom to

get technical help?

A great first step is to follow and connect with the team responsible for this booklet and who work at a technical level with software product authors in the UK who are adopting new technologies such as the Windows Azure Platform. They have a blog, an active LinkedIn group and more. Connect at: http://bit.ly/ukisvfirststop

What is Silverlight?

Silverlight is the primary technology for building great applications for Windows Phone 7. It can also be used to build desktop applications and to offer rich functionality and user experiences inside web browsers such as Internet Explorer. Read more: http://www.silverlight.net

Can developers

create beautiful

user interfaces?

Based on experience of over 20 years, probably not. Instead engage a designer with Silverlight experience.

http://bit.ly/ukisvfirststop

http://www.silverlight.net/


problems but these were overcome in a controllable manner that didn’t put his business at risk. Geoff was feeling pretty smug.


And they all lived happily

ever after.

Geoff found new opportunities to exploit Windows Phone 7 and the Cloud and his company now offers a range of phone solutions for many different types of companies. They have started to embrace social media solutions and even have products in the pipeline that use Xbox 360.

Geoff’s company is stronger than ever with more markets, better customer loyalty and has diversified into other business lines.

As well as being handsome and strangely debonair, Geoff was also very generous. He shared the success with his staff who each got a shiny new Windows Phone 7 device and use of the new company jet on weekends. Geoff is also enjoying the success and is currently taking some time off with his family in Australia after the opening of his new AsiaPac office…

Geoff spots another happy user of his Windows Phone 7 application at the airport on the way to Australia. He grinned and wondered if his grin enhanced his strangely debonair features.


Epilogue 12 months later Geoff, the handsome and strangely debonair CEO of a successful software company, was holidaying near a slate quarry in Wales when he had another Eureka moment. But that story is for another day…

The End (or possibly the beginning)

What is a Slate

Device?

A Slate Device is a computer which conforms to a specific form factor. A typical configuration is a highly portable and touch enabled PC running Microsoft Windows 7 which does not have or require a physical keyboard. In many ways it resembles a 19th century writing slate – hence the name. Many hardware vendors are delivering Slate Devices today using Windows 7 and Microsoft continues to invest in this area building on the long term success of the Tablet PC form factor first introduced by Microsoft in 2000. A developer experienced in .NET can easily build a solution which takes advantage of touch inside Windows 7.

How do I give

feedback on this

story?

Thank you for reading this far. We are really keen to get your feedback on this booklet. Was it useful? How could we improve it? What topics would you like to see us cover in the future? Tell us on our LinkedIn group: http://bit.luy/ukisvdevgroup

http://bit.luy/ukisvdevgroup

Technology

The nearly true story of Geoff and the Cloud