This session will be in 2 parts:

Part I - Big Data at Microsoft Corporation (20 min)
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This will explain Microsoft’s plans around Big Data. How is it being implemented? What makes it unique? Mark will take you through how Microsoft's BI products integrate, and will share a couple of customer implementation stories. Since the technology is relatively new to Microsoft it will probably be positioned at the 200-300 level.

Part II – Microsoft Cloud best practices (40 min)
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The CAT teams (Mark manages both the Windows Azure CAT and SQLCAT teams) have implemented 5 of the largest cloud deployments to date. Microsoft has learned a lot about implementing high scale cloud solutions and Mark will share some of these lessons. It is all about scale out, having a good architecture up front and going back to good development behavior that we have lost over the years with traditional client/server applications. It is not easy to build a very large scale out application, but it is definitely doable and Mark will be using real life cases to show you. Level 300-400.

Part III – Q&A on any topic, and maybe a surprise or two! - ????