Review PDC 2008

The PDC week is over. I won't cover in detail what has been announced at the conference (Windows Azure, Windows 7, Mesh, ...) because that has been done by other bloggers and journalists, but I want to take home the following things to explore in the coming months :

• Working with the Azure platform looks so easy and cool, but how to exploit the Azure platform in enterprise development projects for the near future? How to get customers/companies on board for running web-scaled applications on data centers from Microsoft? How to embrace all these new business opportunities? What about the pricing model? I can see already some major benefits for smaller companies who want to outsource their infrastructure portfolio (for example Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint) for a minimum cost - each start-up will have the possibility to focus on their core business. What about the existing hosting companies all over the world? How will they be involved in the transition to a clouded world?
• Are Office applications for the Web really so cool as they look like? For me, that was really a wow experience and sure something to follow! Bye bye Google Docs?
• What opportunities will arise with Oslo, codename for Microsoft's forthcoming modeling platform. Do we need to invest heavily on this modeling approach? In the past, modeling techniques were only applied by larger enterprises who could invest time and energy in setting up a modeling platform. Microsoft now focuses on providing a model-driven platform and visual modeling tools for all mainstream users. Are we ready for 5GL (or is this still 4GL?) and all kinds of Domain Specific Languages? What about the future of C#? Still some research to do!
• With Visual Studio Team System 2010 (built entirely in WPF by the way), Microsoft is more and more focusing on the needs of enterprise development teams. Imagine that VSTS wasn't available anymore ... Would it still be possible to manage the software development process of your applications? I've really seen some key features of VSTS 2010 (especially in the Architect Edition and Team Foundation Server) that will rock! Wishing those features were here already! More on this in my next blogposts ...
• Live Mesh is now also available in Europe with the latest beta release. Mesh is all about syncing, sharing and accessing information wherever you are with whatever device you happen to use. I definitely need to dive into this stuff because the goal is really appealing!

So, enough documentation to explore in the coming months [all attendees got a portable Western Digital harddrive with all the latest bits]. PDC 2008 was a thrill, but the hard part is now to get ready for all this new upcoming stuff.

Besides all the interesting technical sessions I enjoyed also pretty much the social part of PDC 2008 where I could meet with other Belgians. Certainly I will remember the NBA basketball game we attended between the LA Lakers and the LA Clippers in the Staples Center and also our Halloween visit to the Hollywood Universal Studios. Good times for sure! But for the food and beer : no better place than Belgium ... except for the excellent dinner we enjoyed on our first night at Nick and Stef's Steakhouse.