Top Ten Reasons Why You, a Developer, Should Come to CloudConnect

You’re a developer – or you want to be – writing software that uses cloud computing. Why should you care about the CloudConnect Conference? Here are the top ten reasons why it’s worth your while. Full disclosure: Nothing to disclose. I have no commercial connection to CloudConnect or its producers.

#10: Snacks

Enjoy short, sweet, thought-provoking keynotes about applications, metrics, SaaS, and more. I happen to know of three keynote presenters who will be particularly interesting: William Louth, William Vambenepe, and Guy Rosen. Come hear them challenge the way you think about cloud applications, environments, and infrastructure.

#9: Get Into It

You can attend crash courses on building cloud applications using popular cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine, Force.com, and more. I’ll be assisting Jinesh Varia, AWS Technology Evangelist, to deliver the Develop Your First Amazon Web Services Application workshop. If you want to develop for the cloud but don’t know where or how to start, the Developer Workshops are the place.

#8: Big Data

You can discover techniques for dealing with big data. When you have problems with big data. you have big data problems: how to store it, how to process it, and how to get the analytics you need from it. Brad Cross, co-founder and head of research at everyone’s favorite frustration-saving service for travelers FlightCaster, is leading the Dealing with Big Data track, which will address these challenges.

#7: Enterprise

You can hear how to develop a strategy for migrating enterprise applications into the cloud. Randy Bias, founder of Cloudscaling, will help you make sense of what to move into the cloud, what to leave behind, and how to do it in a way that makes sense for your organization and budget. If you’re interested in the enterprise perspective on cloud computing adoption, the Migration Strategies track is for you.

#6: Standards

You can get up to speed on the many standardization efforts underway in the cloud ecosystem. Bob Marcus, who has been working to ensure all these efforts act in concert, is leading the Standards, Government, and Industry track. This is where you can hear about the current status and future plans of the standards, and you can let the representatives of various efforts know what’s important to you. Be heard, make a difference.

#5: APIs

You can learn about the myriad of cloud APIs out there: How can you write code that works on all these APIs? Why are there so many different ones? What were the API designers thinking when they architected them? What directions are planned for the future of these APIs? Come hear architects, implementers, and power users of the AWS, Rackspace, GoGrid, and other cloud APIs. Ask the architects tough questions. Hear how users overcome some of the issues. Let them all know what you think in the Writing Code for Many Clouds session.

#4: Design Patterns

You can learn how to think about cloud application architecture. The author of the seminal whitepaper Architecting for the Cloud: Best Practices (the same Jinesh Varia who’s giving the AWS workshop) will present Design Patterns for Cloud Computing Applications. If you want to learn the major architectural patterns that software designers use for cloud applications, this is the session for you.

#3: Deployment

You can hear all about some of the leading platform providers’ solutions (RightScale, EngineYard, GigaSpaces) and how they can help you deploy your applications in the cloud more easily. Plus, hear what actual customers of these platforms are doing, and what they wish these platforms could do. If you ever wondered how you’d get your application to live a healthy life in the cloud, the Deploying to the Cloud: The Care and Feeding of a Cloud Application session is the place to be.

#2: Orchestration

You can discover what many other cloud developers are realizing: that you need to know about orchestration. It’s the practice (art?) of keeping a composed set of machines and services working together dynamically to achieve certain goals (an SLA, perhaps). Hear the history of orchestration, learn the different layers into which orchestration must be integrated, and see examples of how you can do this in your applications – presented by the leading practitioners in the field. All this, plus ask your own questions at the Orchestration: The Next Frontier for Cloud Applications session.

#1: Me

You can meet me. I’m leading the Developing for the Cloud track, which includes the four sessions mentioned above. I’ll be happy to autograph your AWS Multifactor Authentication fob or your Secret Access Key.

An additional reason, for those of you who have read this far: You now have a discount code CNJRCC05 good for a free Expo pass or 40% off the conference sessions. Enjoy, and come introduce yourself.