Creating a simple nodejs API on AWS (including nginx)

26th of November, 2015 / / 3 Comments

On a recent project I was part of a team developing an AngularJS website with a C# ASP.NET backend API hosted in Azure.  It was a great project as I got to work with a bunch of new tools, but it got me wondering on how simple it could be to use a Javascript API instead.  That way the entire development stack would be written in Javascript.

And so a personal project was born.  To create a simple JS API and get it running in the cloud.… [Keep reading] “Creating a simple nodejs API on AWS (including nginx)”

Polycom VVX Phone – Call Transfer Options

6th of November, 2015 / / 4 Comments

During the pilot phase of a Skype for Business Enterprise Voice rollout it is standard practice to get some IP handsets in and do testing on functionality. Its important to try match feature sets between old and new handset functionality to make sure adoption of the new handset is simple.

How did you do it before? Here is how you do it now.

The longest conversation I have with this phase of testing is which transfer type will the business adopt as a default for all phones.… [Keep reading] “Polycom VVX Phone – Call Transfer Options”

Release Management Architecture in Visual Studio Online with vNext Environments

31st of July, 2015 / / 1 Comment

Release Management – The Background

Release Management Service in Visual Studio Online (referred as RM-VSO in the rest of this blog post) automates the process of deploying the builds into the target environments. It integrates nicely with the Team Build Service in VSO and both the services can work together to implement a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline. The on-premises version of Release Management has been around for a couple of years, however the Visual Studio Online version has just been recently released, in November 2014, and somewhat different than the on-premises version.… [Keep reading] “Release Management Architecture in Visual Studio Online with vNext Environments”

Using Azure SSO Tokens for Multiple AAD Resources From Native Mobile Apps

9th of December, 2014 / / 3 Comments

This blog post is the third in a series that cover Azure Active Directory Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication in native mobile applications.

  1. Authenticating iOS app users with Azure Active Directory
  2. How to Best handle AAD access tokens in native mobile apps
  3. Using Azure SSO tokens for Multiple AAD Resources From Native Mobile Apps (this post)
  4. Sharing Azure SSO access tokens across multiple native mobile apps.

Introduction

In an enterprise context it is highly likely there are multiple web services that your native mobile app needs to consume.… [Keep reading] “Using Azure SSO Tokens for Multiple AAD Resources From Native Mobile Apps”

Australia’s leading wholesale distribution company transforms IT with Office 365

13th of November, 2014 / / No Comments

Customer Overview

Metcash is one of Australia’s leading wholesale distribution and marketing companies, specialising in grocery, fresh produce, liquor, hardware and automotive parts and accessories.

Business Situation

Metcash required the transition of a number of on-premises workloads to a cloud based service to alleviate infrastructure, support and performance issues experienced by the organisation.

Metcash evaluated several alternative SaaS options and requested to roll-out the Microsoft Office 365 suite of products in the form of a technology pilot.… [Keep reading] “Australia’s leading wholesale distribution company transforms IT with Office 365”

Start-up like a pro or fast track cloud in your enterprise. . .

30th of October, 2014 / / No Comments

As part of my job I regularly interact with IT and business leaders from companies, across a diverse range of industries. A similarity I see across most businesses is that they contain a bunch of knowledge workers that all need to interact both internally and externally with common parties (internal departments / branches, customers, suppliers, vendors and government / regulatory bodies).

So how do knowledge workers in today’s highly connected world collaborate and communicate? Aside from telephone and face to face communication, email is still the primary tool of communication, why?… [Keep reading] “Start-up like a pro or fast track cloud in your enterprise. . .”

The Internet of Things with Arduino, Azure Event Hubs and the Azure Python SDK

11th of October, 2014 / / 18 Comments

In the emerging world of Internet of Things (IoT) we see more and more hardware manufacturers releasing development platforms to connect devices and sensors to the internet. Traditionally these kind of platforms are created around microcontrollers, and the Arduino platform can be considered as the standard in (consumer) physical computing, home automation, DIY and the ‘makers community’.

Most Arduinos come with an 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller running at 16 MHz with the modest amount of 2 kilobytes of memory.… [Keep reading] “The Internet of Things with Arduino, Azure Event Hubs and the Azure Python SDK”