Saturday, March 29th, MVPs and Windows Azure enthusiasts around the world will kick off the 2014 Global Windows Azure Bootcamp. In just one day, over 137 cities in 57 countries will be host to thousands of technology enthusiasts looking to augment their Windows Azure knowledge. From first-time users to full-time experts, all are welcome and each Bootcamp will use the Windows Azure Training Kit, which can be downloaded for free, as the road map for their session.
New to Windows Azure? No need to worry, MVPs and other experts will be on hand to answer any questions you may have. You can also join the conversation via Twitter using #GWAB.
In addition to the amazing technical knowledge being shared globally, organizers are taking this unique opportunity to aid in Diabetes research.
The world-wide event will host a globally distributed lab in which attendees of the event will deploy virtual machines in Windows Azure. This will help analyze data needed for Diabetes research. The purpose is to discover how the body’s serum protein glycosylation works. Researchers want to know how high blood sugar levels present in diabetes patients affect the complex sugar production systems required for the body's health and ability to fight disease. They hope to prove the theory that when small changes in this process start occurring, the disease can progress and lead to Type 2 diabetes. The results from this work will not only help scientists understand the human diabetic state at the molecular level but also lead the way for early detection of diabetes. You can read more about this effort on the #GWAB website
As if this wasn't enough, MVP organizers will run a shared workload in Windows Azure in the hopes of setting a world record for being the biggest community event running the largest shared workload in a public cloud at the same time.
It’s a global community, but each event is executed on the local level. You can check out the location and sign up by visiting the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp website.
Each location may have a slightly different agenda, so make sure to check with your local organizer to see what software prerequisites you should have ready. These may be listed on the registration page for each event as well. In almost all cases you’ll want to bring a laptop if you can (don’t forget your power cord!) so that you can participate in the hands on labs.
Many different languages are supported on Windows Azure. If your event is focused mostly on .NET then having the following installs ready on your laptop before you arrive would be helpful.
- Azure account or sign up for a free Azure trial (limited to 1 month or $200 USD in usage)
- Visual Studio 2012 or 2013 (The Express edition will work, but maybe not for all labs).
- Windows Azure SDK 2.2 or higher for Visual Studio 2012 or 2013
- The Windows Azure Training Kit.
The training kit also has labs that can be performed with a MAC and the cross platform command line tools.
Don't forget to join the conversation on Twitter! Use #GWAB to share the experience with the community across the globe!