Azure & DevOps Podcast

This week, return guest Greg Leonardo joins the podcast! Greg is a Cloud Architect that assists organizations with cloud adoption and innovation. He has been working in the IT industry since his time in the military and is a developer, teacher, speaker, and early adopter. Greg has worked in many facets of IT throughout his career and is currently the president of TampaDev (a community meetup that runs #TampaCC, Azure User Group, Azure Medics, and various technology events throughout Tampa).   In this episode, Jeffrey and Greg take a deep-dive into Azure. With not a lot that is automated yet, there are still many things that developers need to configure — which is what they take a look at today! Greg provides his key insights about Azure, answers Jeffrey’s hard-hitting questions, and gives listeners a sense of what you can currently do with the set of services!   Topics of Discussion: [:38] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:50] About the recent Microsoft Build Conference. [1:33] About today’s episode with Greg Leonardo! [2:08] Jeffrey welcomes Greg back to the show! [3:11] Greg speaks about his recently released Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide as well as his book, Hands-On Cloud Solutions with Azure: Architecting, Developing, and Deploying the Azure Way. [4:26] Greg briefly speaks about his experience on a Microsoft Ignite panel. [4:58] Greg speaks about some common misconceptions about Azure and shares why companies are adopting Azure. [7:40] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [8:07] Jeffrey shares some quick announcements. [9:59] If someone has an application with generally local users and don’t cater to anyone outside of their country, should they be auto-blocking them? Is there a default configuration for only letting people in your country access your application? [12:40] What should people do to properly set up their configuration so that only people from their country can access it and ensure that no one from overseas hacks into it? [16:02] What do .NET developers have to do to let Azure know that their application isn’t healthy and that it may have to take a certain instance offline and replace it? [19:59] Greg provides insight into autoscaling with Azure.  [22:23] Greg gives some advice around SQL database backups. [27:07] If your database goes down, is there a configuration to auto switch over to something else? Or do you have to reset a configuration file in the application? [29:28] Greg speaks about setting a budget for your Azure subscriptions and preventing overspending. [33:23] Greg speaks about what is currently feasible with the free tier that’s available right now. [34:41] Jeffrey thanks Greg for joining the podcast once again!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! Microsoft Azure The Azure DevOps Podcast Ep. 27: “Greg Leonardo on Deploying the Azure Way” The Azure DevOps Podcast Ep. 19: “Greg Leonardo on Architecting, Developing, and Deploying the Azure Way” Channel 9 - Microsoft Build Conference Channel 9 - Microsoft Ignite Azure Strategy and Implementation Guide, Third Edition Hands-On Cloud Solutions with Azure: Architecting, Developing, and Deploying the Azure Way, by Greg Leonardo   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Joining Jeffrey Palermo this week is the curious through-and-through international speaker and software engineer, Heather Downing!   Heather is a passionate coder and entrepreneur. She has experience working with Fortune 500 companies building enterprise-level voice, mobile, and C#/.Net applications. She focuses on external thought leadership, encouraging fellow programmers to present on topics outside of the office and in the community. She is also an international technical speaker and co-host of the YouTube channel "The Hello World Show" — a weekly video series that interviews software masters and teaches the audience something valuable in less than 10 minutes. Heather has built a reputation as an early adapter of new tech and is incredibly passionate about .NET 5 — which is the topic of today’s show!   In this episode, Heather shares what she loves about .NET 5, the current project she’s working on in .NET 5, solution building, Blazor, VR, game development, and what the future may look like for developers in the field.   Topics of Discussion: [:38] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:50] About the recent Microsoft Build Conference. [1:08] About today’s episode with Heather Downing! [2:13] Jeffrey welcomes Heather to the show. [2:26] Heather shares her backstory and how she first got into the field. [4:41] Heather speaks about her passion outside of tech: competing as an equestrian. [6:08] What Heather has learned in bringing her two passions, horses and tech, together. [10:55] Heather speaks about one of her .NET 5 projects and the problems that it solves. [16:10] Heather explains why she is using .NET 5. [17:20] Jeffrey and Heather talk about developers’ minds and building solutions. [19:40] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [20:05] Jeffrey shares some quick announcements. [21:54] Is Heather working on this .NET 5 project from a product perspective or will it be opensource? [24:14] Heather speaks about retooling, VR, game development. [29:50] Heather gives her thoughts on the future of the web and Blazor. [32:45] Heather shares how she thinks VR may change the future of video conferencing and connecting with others online. [37:07] Heather gives her recommendations for getting started in the VR world. [39:16] How to find Heather’s content online! [40:28] Jeffrey thanks Heather for joining him in today’s episode!    Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! Microsoft Build Conference 2020 .NET 5 Heather Downing’s Website Heather Downing’s LinkedIn Heather Downing’s GitHub Profile Heather Downing’s Youtube Channel (The Hello World Show) Heather Downing’s Twitter Arduino Oculus Oculus Quest SteamVRRec Room Unity   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Join Jeffrey Palermo this week for a quick solo episode about the virtual Microsoft Build Conference! The conference is happening over May 19th-20th and is entirely free this year — so be sure to register and don’t pass it up!   In this episode, Jeffrey highlights the interesting things that are happening at the conference that you won’t want to miss, upcoming exciting announcements to look forward to, and what you should be paying attention to when you tune in May 19th-20th!   Topics of Discussion: [:38] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:59] About today’s solo episode. [1:30] Jeffrey explains the Microsoft Build agenda. [2:30] Upcoming announcements to look forward to during Microsoft Build week. [3:06] How Blazor is going to change the game and why you need to be paying attention to it. [5:20] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [5:45] Jeffrey shares some quick announcements. [7:34] What’s out there now with Blazor and what developers hope is coming soon. [13:34] Jeffrey wraps up this week’s podcast!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited!Previous Azure DevOps Podcast: “Michael Washington on the State of Blazor” Microsoft Build Conference Blazor Radzen Bootstrap   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

In this episode, Jeffrey Palermo is speaking with Michael Washington, an ASP.NET and C# programmer! Michael has extensive knowledge in process improvement, billing systems, and student information systems. He also is the founder of two websites, AiHelpWebsite.com and BlazorHelpWebsite.com — both fantastic resources that help empower developers. Michael resides in Los Angeles, California, with his son Zachary and wife, Valerie.   Together, Jeffrey and Michael speak about Blazor in-depth. They discuss the current state of Blazor; Oqtane, a modular application framework for Blazor; server-side Blazor apps; Radzen, a low-code, RAD solution; his books on the topic of Blazor; and his advice, tips, recommendations, and resources for Blazor as well.   Topics of Discussion: [:38] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:46] About Jeffrey’s current promotions and offers. [1:26] About today’s episode with Michael Washington! [1:52] Jeffrey welcomes Michael to the show. [2:00] Michael introduces himself and speaks about his websites. [2:51] With so many technologies coming out, what is it about Blazor that attracted Michael? [4:30] Does Michael see a thread that connects the Blazor community with certain other technologies? [8:15] Michael explains what Oqtane is. [10:25] Michael shares his thoughts on why Blazor caught the attention of the community whereas something like ASP.NET MVC did not. [14:31] Is Oqtane in production? And will Oqtane work with the release Blazor? [16:36] Are there currently any server-side Oqtane apps in production? [18:30] Michael shares how easy it is to update Oqtane. [21:15] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [21:40] Jeffrey shares some quick announcements. [23:30] Michael talks about the DevOps Pipeline experience and gives his thoughts on how someone who doesn’t want to use the in-app installer experience on production (but they have a test automation environment and a UAT manual test environment before they get to production), gets the installer experience to work when they’re promoting it using Azure Pipelines? [26:00] Michael speaks about what Oqtane is constantly evolving to address.  [27:47] Beyond the quickstarts in Blazor, what has Michael had to think specifically about? Are there any “gotchas?” And what are some of the challenges as someone who has put multiple Blazor apps in production? [30:30] Michael speaks about his books on the topic of Blazor. [32:47] Michael shares some information about Lightswitch and the difference between it and Blazor. [33:38] Michael gives his opinion on how Lightswitch was positioned and why it ultimately didn’t work out. [35:46] Radzen: a Lightswitch-like alternative for Blazor. [38:10] Michael highlights the importance of productivity. [42:15] Why Michael focuses so much on Oqtane. [44:32] Michael speaks about the scalability and performance of Blazor server-side apps. [48:40] Are there any UI controls that Michael has found for Blazor that are really awesome and complete at this stage? [50:50] Michael recommends some go-to resources for those who want to get started with Blazor. [51:57] Jeffrey thanks Michael for joining the podcast!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! AiHelpWebsite.com BlazorHelpWebsite.com Blazor.net github.com/Oqtane An Introduction to Building Applications with Blazor: How to get started creating applications using this existing easy to use Microsoft C# framework, by Michael Washington Blazor Succinctly, by Michael Washington Radzen Telerik Syncfusion WebView for .NET 5 Microsoft Silverlight Oqtane .NET Nuke ASP.NET MVC Angular Vue React “Advanced Blazor Templating,” by Michael Washington NuGet ADelfHelpDesk.com Visual Studio Lightswitch  EF Core   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Joining Jeffery Palermo today is Maria Naggaga! Maria is a Senior Program Manager on the .NET team at Microsoft building .NET Interactive, which delivers interactive experiences both online and offline. It provides data scientists and developers with a way to explore data, experiment with code, and try new ideas effortlessly.    Maria has been with the Microsoft team for almost eight years now having joined in 2012 right out of college after finishing her computer science degree. She initially joined Microsoft as a developer evangelist and held that position for nearly 4 years. In 2016, a year after she bumped into the .NET team at a conference, she joined the .NET Interactive team.   In this episode, Jeffrey and Maria are of course discussing .NET Interactive! Maria outlines the group of CLI tools and APIs that enable users to create interactive experiences: trydotnet.js, dotnet interactive global tool, and the dotnet try global tool; what’s on the roadmap for future development; important aspects to take note of; and how to get started with it following the show!   Topics of Discussion: [:38] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:46] About Jeffrey’s current promotions and offers. [1:50] About today’s episode with Maria Naggaga! [2:07] Jeffrey welcomes Maria to the show. [2:14] Maria speaks about her background in the industry. [4:25] Maria explains what Try .NET is. [5:55] Maria explains what .NET Interactive includes and what it depends on. [6:55] Maria takes a deep-dive into their internal tool, trydotnet.js. [9:29] Maria provides some background on why they took a dependency on Blazor. [11:00] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [11:27] Jeffrey shares some quick announcements. [13:16] Maria speaks about the next tool included in .NET Interactive: dotnet try global tool. [16:20] What they want to add to dotnet try global tool in the future. [16:47] Maria speaks about the newest ‘child’ to the .NET Interactive tool: the dotnet interactive global tool. She also gives a quick overview of Azure Synapse. [19:19] Could this tool impact knowledge base articles? Can this transform any type of documentation or is it suited just for certain types? [19:52] Is this tool also geared toward actually incorporating a portion of UI? [22:12] Maria shares some information about the .NET interactive kernel that has been a gamechanger for them. [24:02] Is Visual Basic also included in their list of languages that they support? [24:57] Is there a future ‘baby’ in the plans for .NET Interactive? [26:08] Maria speaks about some more of the ongoing conversations that they’re having with the team regarding snippets vs. full programs. [27:41] Maria guides listeners to what they can check out now for those who want to get started using the technology. [30:06] Jeffrey thanks Maria for joining the podcast!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! Maria Naggaga’s LinkedIn Try .NET .NET Interactive “.NET Interactive is here! | .NET Notebooks Preview 2,” by Maria Naggaga on DevBlogs.Microsoft (Thoroughly breaks down .NET Interactive) Blazor WebAssembly Docs.Microsoft.com Microsoft Build 2020 Azure Container Instances dotnet try global tool ASP.NET Jupyter Notebook Azure Synapse Analytics Microsoft Azure Notebooks dotnet/interactive on GitHub    Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Joining Jeffrey Palermo today is Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, Shawn Weisfeld! Shawn works on the One Commercial Partner team helping Microsoft Partners architect solutions that run on Azure. He is also a Microsoft Certified Trainer, who, in addition, runs the Azure Meetup in Austin TX and two community websites. These two fantastic websites are SouthCentralCommunity.com, where he lists all the groups and events that he knows about in the region, and UserGroup.tv, where he posts recordings of technical user groups and conferences for folks to watch for free.   In this episode, Jeffrey and Shawn are diving into the topic of Azure certifications! Shawn works with partners every day helping them get Azure certified and in today’s conversation, he is sharing his experiences, some of the ins and outs he learned throughout his career, invaluable tips and tricks, and his go-to resources!   Topics of Discussion: [:40] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:50] About Jeffrey’s current promotions and offers. [1:30] About today’s episode with Shawn. [2:22] Jeffrey welcomes Shawn to the show! [2:27] Shawn speaks about his career background and shares how he ended up in his current role! [4:10] Shawn speaks about his community speaking outside of his main role and answers the question of whether or not he would be willing to speak at a virtual user group [4:52] What is the landscape for certifications, in general, these days? [5:52] What percentage of the developer population are getting certified? And how has that changed over the last 10 years or so? [7:22] Why certifications are important to obtain even if you’re a senior developer. [11:31] How many people are getting certified in the industry? And what does it do for them? [12:29] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [12:53] Jeffrey shares some quick announcements. [14:43] Shawn gives a rundown of the relevant certifications in the DevOps space from a Microsoft perspective. [19:57] Shawn explains how you can take a test for a certification at home. [21:38] Are there currently any discounts on Microsoft certification tests? [22:40] Shawn provides his top tips and advice for those looking to currently take a certification test at home! [28:07] Is there anything in the works for certifications regarding DevOps capabilities integrating GitHub? [30:11] Shawn shares what’s new and upcoming with him! [31:13] When can people register for future conferences such as Microsoft Build? [35:19] Jeffrey thanks Shawn for joining the podcast!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! SouthCentralCommunity.com UserGroup.tv Azure DevOps Podcast Shawn Weisfeld’s Resources How to Use Microsoft Teams to Host a Virtual Lab or Virtual Hackathon Event Microsoft Certifications Microsoft Training and Certifications DevOps Learning Plan Exam AZ-400 Pluralsight AZ-400 MeasureUp Microsoft Exam Policies   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Gael Fraiteur is the founder & CEO of PostSharp. At PostSharp, Gael and his teams help make C# better so you can get back to the bright side of coding. Their mission is to help software developers stop writing boring repetitive code, freeing up their time to use their skills more efficiently to produce clean, reliable software that is easy to maintain.   Gael Fraiteur has been passionately programming since childhood, building his first commercial application at age 13. His vision to build an aspect-oriented software that would offer .NET developers the same productivity benefits as those enjoyed by the Java community became a reality when, in 2004, he built and released PostSharp to the wild. Since then, PostSharp has steadily grown to become the most comprehensive aspect-oriented software for .NET available today.   In this episode, Gael speaks about his journey since 2004 with PostSharp, many of the ins and outs, and a product rundown of all of their different offerings!   Topics of Discussion: [:41] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:48] About Jeffrey’s current promotions and offers. [1:30] About today’s episode with Gail Fraiteur. [2:11] Jeffrey welcomes Gael Fraiteur to the show! [2:24] Gael shares his journey since 2004 with creating PostSharp. [4:40] Gael explains what an aspect is and what the term aspect-oriented means. [9:29] Gael provides a rundown of the different products PostSharp offers and the timeline of when they started offering new products. [13:30] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [13:54] Jeffrey shares some quick announcements. [15:45] Gael and Jeffrey get back to their conversation about the various products PostSharp currently offers, starting with threading. [19:20] Gael gives a rundown of how he thinks about the DevOps environments for their products and what goes into them. [23:57] Gael explains what goes into their testing. [28:18] If someone is developing an application that uses PostSharp, what are some of the specifics they should be thinking about when they’re authoring tests for their code? [30:11] Gael gives some recommendations for listeners who want to learn more. [31:02] Jeffrey thanks Gael for joining the podcast!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! https://www.postsharp.net/ https://www.postsharp.net/company https://www.linkedin.com/in/gfraiteur/ https://twitter.com/gfraiteur https://twitter.com/postsharp   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

This week, Jay Harris is joining the podcast! Jay is an entrepreneur, speaker, software consultant, and President of Arana Software. He has been developing on the web since 1995. He has been awarded as both a Microsoft Regional Director and a Microsoft MVP. He recognizes that the greatest application performance bottleneck is a developer’s time and is on a continuing quest for frameworks, modules, tools, and practices that make developers stronger, fitter, happier, and more productive!    In light of the current, ongoing pandemic, Jeffrey and Jay will be discussing distributed DevOps. Many teams and developers are experiencing working distributed for the first time in their career — so, in this episode, they will be providing tips and advice around remote working and some solutions to common problems many developers run into.   Topics of Discussion: [:41] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:48] About Jeffrey’s current promotions and offers. [1:32] About today’s episode and featured guest, Jay Harris. [2:06] Jeffrey welcomes Jay to the show! [2:35] Jay shares some of the highlights of his career as well as the story of how he ended up running his own software consulting firm! [5:11] Would Jay agree that the rate of new applications is accelerating? [6:07] Jay shares his observations around what seems to be the easiest development practices to implement vs. the more difficult to implement, amongst the clients he works with. [7:35] Does Jay have a favorite tool stack at the moment for DevOps Pipeline? [9:00] Jay gives some advice for teams who, in light of the current pandemic, need to start working distributed. He also addresses some of the common problems with working from home on a system that isn’t optimized to handle your work. [15:48] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [16:14] Jeffrey gives some quick announcements. [18:05] Jay and Jeffrey discuss possible solutions for working from home such as using a virtual machine. [19:10] Jay shares what DevOps processes and changes tend to work with his clients’ teams. [22:55] How are they doing their standups now? What has changed, what are some of the challenges, and what works well? [26:46] Jeffrey and Jay discuss what it has been like to work from home with young kids. [30:54] Jay gives some final key points about distributed DevOps. [32:48] Jay shares what he has been looking forward to related to .NET and what he recommends others look into! [36:25] Jeffrey thanks Jeremy for joining the podcast!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! Jay Harris’ Website Jay Harris’ LinkedIn Arana Software Jay Harris’ Email: Jay@AranaSoft.com Jay Harris’ Twitter: @JayHarris Azure DevOps Podcast: “Joseph Landes and Amol Dalvi on Windows Virtual Desktop - Episode 82” Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Typing.com Microsoft Build 2020 Vox Conferences PHP Bedrock NuGet Package Restore Hibernate   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

This week on the podcast, Jeffrey Palermo is joined by Jeremy Holt, the Executive Vice President of Amberwood Trading. Amberwood Trading aims to build partnerships with the African cashew processing industry (including the factories, government, and banks) through funding, software services, and technical consultancy. Since 1990, Jeremy has run Amberwood Trading. For 30 years he served as the Managing Director and in the last 3 months he has taken up his new role as Executive Vice President.    In this episode, Jeremy brings his unique perspective of being both the client and the developer of the software they use at Amberwood. He has developed several programs they use within their organization that assist in the production, processing, and financial side of their business. He shares all about the ins and outs of working with cashews; speaks about improving the traceability of the food supply chain through blockchain; touches on COVID-19 and what that means for food safety; and of course, he shares a ton about the fascinating technical aspects of his company!   Topics of Discussion: [:40] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:48] About Jeffrey’s free 30-point DevOps inspection as well as his newest offer. [1:48] About today’s episode and featured guest, Jeremy Holt. [3:00] Jeffrey welcomes Jeremy Holt to the show! [3:08] Jeremy gives a background on himself and speaks about his company, Amberwood Trading. [6:53] Jeremy gives a rundown of the ins and outs of working with cashews and addresses some of the important aspects of food safety and cashew processing. [15:15] Jeremy shares how he used his coding abilities to create a program to demonstrate that this cashew project of his was viable in the eyes of banks. He also shares the other programs he has created that aid the day-to-day operations of his business. [20:00] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [20:27] Jeffrey gives some quick announcements. [22:17] Jeremy speaks about all of the different aspects that the software systems in the nut process touches. He also speaks about food safety and how he has been looking using blockchain for traceability and explains why that is so important. [27:44] Jeremy touches on COVID-19 and how it relates to the current COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the importance of traceability in the supply chain. [34:35] What Jeremy is trying to achieve through the programs he is creating for his business. [35:44] What is on Jeremy’s roadmap? Are there any particular parts he’s looking forward to technology-wise for his company? [37:32] Jeremy shares which programs in his business. [43:42] If someone were to pick up a jar of cashews, what should they be looking for to follow the traceability back to the source? [44:45] Jeremy gives some additional thoughts on the traceability of the food supply chain and food safety amid the coronavirus. [48:42] Jeffrey thanks Jeremy for joining the podcast!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! Amberwood Trading RavenDB Aurelia React Angular   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

In today’s episode, Jeffrey is speaking with two guests, Joseph Landes, the Chief Revenue Officer at Nerdio, and Amol Dalvi, the Vice President of Product Management Nerdio. They both do a lot with Azure and have implemented Windows Virtual Desktop into their work.    Amol and Joseph have some interesting learnings around using Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure for standardized development desktops — which is what they’ll be discussing today! Amol and Joseph share their insights on how they use Windows Virtual Desktop, give their advice regarding it, and share some of their personal experiences with it. You won’t want to miss out if you’ve been interested in learning more about Windows Virtual Desktop and its capabilities!   Topics of Discussion: [:40] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes. [:49] About Jeffrey’s upcoming .NET DevOps Bootcamp in Austin, Texas on April 30th and his free 30-point DevOps inspection. [1:21] About today’s episode and featured guests! [1:54] Jeffrey welcomes Joseph and Amol to the show! [2:01] Joseph shares what led up to him working in this field. [3:18] Amol shares his career background. [4:21] Amol speaks about the sizeable development team that he runs and where they’re located around the world. [5:09] How Amol is making heavy use of Windows Virtual Desktop for everyone on his team. [6:11] What Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure is! [9:34] How is Windows Virtual Desktop from the old terminal sever in terms of allowing people to have a remote desktop session? [11:03] If a small development team with 4 developers wants to have their own Visual Studio image and all use the same thing, how would they get started? [12:34] With a small team (such as 2-4 developers) is it possible to use Windows Virtual Desktop without a third-party solution? [13:28] Does Microsoft only market Windows Virtual Desktop for teams of a certain size? Is it not worth using for smaller teams? Or does it have some uses for smaller teams? [15:05] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast’s sponsor: Clear Measure. [15:31] Jeffrey gives some quick announcements. [17:22] Using Windows Virtual Desktop without a third-party solution: what does it look like to shut it down at night? [17:51] When configuring the image, what is the process to actually set up Windows the way it needs to be? [19:30] Would Amol agree with the sentiment that this solution is geared mainly towards really large groups? [20:37] How many VMs do developer share? What is the ratio that Amol has found that works best for him? [22:36] How much ram does Amol try to allocate? [23:45] At this point, is premium solid-state the commodity that’s expected? [24:08] What’s the experience like for a developer at their desk? What kind of computer would act as their terminal? [25:25] Is it literally the Windows Remote Desktop client that is being opened across all three of the monitors? [26:04] If you need to access your virtual workstation can you access it anywhere that supports RDS? [26:32] Amol highlights use cases beyond those for developers. [27:26] Are developers with expensive computers like MacBook Pros just used as terminals? Or is the development distributed between the Virtual Desktop and the actual host computer? [28:32] Are the computers that Amol’s developers use are their own personal computers? [30:23] How much does Microsoft charge for Windows Virtual Desktop? [32:09] What VM code has Amol landed on for his developers? [34:04] Jeffrey thanks Joseph and Amol for joining the podcast! [34:15] Joseph gives his recommendations on what to check out if you want to learn more about Windows Virtual Desktop. [34:51] Amol recommends some of his go-to resources! [35:48] Jeffrey thanks Amol and Joseph once again for joining the podcast!   Mentioned in this Episode: Azure DevOps Clear Measure (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook! bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events! Jeffrey Palermo’s Youtube Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited! Joseph Landes Nerdio Amol Dalvi Azure Calculator   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.