I attended Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference) in Los Angeles last week. I wanted to provide a quick recap of highlights from the show and cover some implications for hosting companies.
Implications for hosting companies.
· Microsoft is making a huge push for Azure, like their launch of BPOS two years ago this can be perceived as both an opportunity to partner and competitive threat for the hosting community.
· VS2010 and ASP.Net 4 are close to final release, hosting companies need to get products ready that support these tools as they are significant improvements over the current versions. I believe they will see significant early adoption.
Other observations.
· There were less hosting companies represented at PDC then in the past. Hosting.com, Amazon.com and MaximumASP all exhibited. I ran into a number of staff from DiscountASP who attended as well.
· In spite of what you hear about the economy, the show had strong attendance – unofficially over 8000 developers. Additionally, MS gave each attendee an Acer 1420p touch screen laptop. This was a brilliant marketing tactic, guaranteeing that most of these developers return next year and bring their friends.
· In addition to Azure Microsoft is making a big push with Silverlight 4, SharePoint2010 and App Fabric (a new set of tools enhance scalability).
