Azure &amp; DevOps Podcast – Details, episodes &amp; analysis

Bob Ward: SQL Server - Episode 321

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net.

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

Bob Ward LinkedIn

Bob Ward M Bob Ward — Microsoft | LinkedIn icrosoft

Azure SQL Revealed: The Next-Generation Cloud Database with AI and Microsoft Fabric

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Michael Washington: The Nature Of Data - Episode 353

Episode 353

lundi 9 juin 2025 • Duration 41:33

Michael is an ASP.NET and C# programmer who has extensive knowledge in process improvement, AI and Large Language Models, and student information systems. He is also the founder of the following websites, BlazorData.net, AIStoryBuilders.com, and BlazorHelpWebsite.com — fantastic resources that help empower developers. Michael resides in Los Angeles, California, with his son Zachary and wife, Valerie.

Topics of Discussion:

[2:09] Michael shares his background, starting with his first applications created for his uncle’s company using Access 2.0.

[3:08] Michael mentions his new project, Personal Data Warehouse, which is an open-source, free tool for managing data.

[5:20] He explains the inspiration behind the Personal Data Warehouse, focusing on the importance of data for making human decisions.

[7:48] Michael’s finding: the reason we collect data is so that a human being can use that data to make decisions.

[9:42] The three phases of data: collection, transformation, and reporting, and the significance of the transformation phase, where data is processed to make it useful for decision-making.

[12:45] Data warehousing techniques and tools, and the use of Parquet files.

[13:14] Michael talks about the use of SQL Server Reporting Services for generating reports, which can be accessed through the application. He encourages developers to explore the Personal Data Warehouse and its open-source code on GitHub.

[22:33] Scenarios and use cases for Personal Data Warehouse.

[32:09] AI and Language Models in Data Management.

[36:17] The need to be responsible with AI and not use it to harm people.

[37:07] Michael shares his experience with various AI tools, including CoPilot, OpenAI, and Google Notebooks.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Ep 286 with Michael Washington

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net.

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo

Webmaster@ADefWebserver.com

BlazorData-Net / PersonalDataWarehouse

GitHub Copilot

Google NotebooksLM

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Stephen Toub: AI in .NET - Episode 344

Episode 344

lundi 7 avril 2025 • Duration 37:31

Stephen Toub is a Partner Software Engineer at Microsoft. Stephen has been at Microsoft for almost 24 years and has done it all. If it has to do with .NET, he’s been in it. And today, he looks after all the .NET libraries making sure .NET continues to be the fastest platform on the planet. He ran the MSDN Magazine before it morphed into the docs and blogs of today. He was a leader in the concurrency and async and parallel programming developments, and now he’s turned his attention to pushing the AI envelope with .NET.

Topics of Discussion:

[4:37] Stephen morphed a few of his many interests into the role he has today.

[6:04] How moments like the push for parallel computing, the open-sourcing of .NET, cross-platform support, and performance goals shaped Steven’s current focus.
[7:37] Steven highlights the two major AI tracks: (1) AI-augmented tools that improve developer productivity, and (2) building AI capabilities into applications themselves.

[10:37] The future of user interfaces.

[12:43] Why “agents” are basically advanced actor-based systems empowered by large language models and tool calling, enabling reasoning and orchestration beyond simple Q&A.
[23:22] Model context protocol.

[24:08] A paradigm shift in system integration.

[30:24] How Stephen and the .NET libraries team factor out common AI abstractions for the ecosystem, so that different frameworks (Semantic Kernel, Onnx Runtime, Olama, etc.) can interoperate.

[32:15] Steven gives examples of how minimal C# code, combined with locally hosted LLMs or cloud endpoints, can solve real tasks.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Demystifying Retrieval Augmented Generation with .NET

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net.

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo

Stephen on GitHub

Stephen on LinkedIn

Suno

csharp-sdk

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Mitchel Sellers: Architecting .NET MAUI - Episode 254

Episode 254

lundi 17 juillet 2023 • Duration 38:44

Mitchel Sellers is globally known as a 15-time Microsoft MVP, an ASPInsider, a DNN MVP, an MCP (Microsoft .NET, ASP.NET, and SQL Server), and CEO of IowaComputerGurus Inc. Sellers has a deep understanding of software development and, when speaking, focuses on proper architecture standards, performance, stability, security, and overall cost-effectiveness of delivered solutions. This message and his abilities resonate in the technical war room as well as the executive board room.

Mitchel is a prolific public speaker, presenting more than 400 sessions at user groups and conferences globally, such as DevUp, SDN, and Code PaLOUsa. Sellers has been the author of multiple books and a regular blogger on technology topics.

When Mitchel is not working in technology, you will find him flying his airplane, teaching others how to fly, or spending time with his family. He is also actively involved in the Open Source Community working diligently to further the movement.

Topics of Discussion:

[3:02] Congrats to Mitchel on his election to a leadership position at the .NET foundation.

[3:41] What is the .NET Foundation?

[5:58] What about .NET Maui catches Mitchel’s attention, and is it really ready for us to go for it?

[6:40] Official support for Xamarin Forms is going to be ending officially in early 2024.

[8:48] The .NET Maui Blazor hybrid model.

[10:22] What has been Mitchel’s experience pushing Maui applications to the various app stores?

[13:00] The most applicable patterns when you are laying out the spread of a Maui application.

[16:10] The preference for a centralized location.

[21:49] The tendency to overlook analytics.

[22:57] What does the analytics and telemetry suite look like, and what are the users doing with the application?

[25:01] Tools like App Insights from Azure can be awesome, but they can also get very expensive.

[27:10] What is the DevOps story for Maui applications these days from continuous integration and automated testing to deployments and versioning?

[31:12] Using GitHub actions, which of the steps require certain operating-system-hosted agents?

[34:37] What is next for Maui, both traditional and using the Blazor hybrid?

[37:40] Where can we find Mitchel next?

Mentioned in this Episodes:

.NET Maui + GitHub Actions

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.net

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

Architect Tips — Video podcast!

GitHub Mitchel Sellers

Mobile Sync

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Mike Brind on Razor Pages in Action - Episode 253

Episode 253

lundi 10 juillet 2023 • Duration 28:48

Mike Brind spent the first 20 years of his working life in a series of successful sales and marketing roles, towards the end of which he was introduced to HTML and databases. A dormant inner geek took over and Mike became very much more interested in developing websites than selling advertising space on them.

As well as books such as those in the Wrox Beginner series, Mike became reliant on the enormous amount of free help provided by online communities while he learned his new craft. Mike is now one of the all-time leading contributors to the official ASP.NET forums at http://forums.asp.net and is also a moderator there.

As a result of his contributions to the ASP.NET community via the forums, and through his technical article site at http://www.mikesdotnetting.com, Mike received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for ASP.NET from 2008 to 2018. Beginning ASP.NET Web Pages with WebMatrix is Mike’s first book.

Topics of Discussion:

[3:06] How did Mike decide to leave school to become a programmer?

[5:42] Jeffrey and his son are programming their own video game!

[7:17] What sparked his interest in Razor and writing his new book, ASP.NET Core Razor Pages in Action?

[9:51] What is the framework that Mike uses in his day-to-day job?

[10:37] How would Mike classify the types of websites or web applications that are perfect for Razor pages, and maybe had some difficulties with other frameworks?

[14:16] Are there any commonalities that you lose if you do the application with Razor pages and not MVC?

[16:32] How does Mike organize his feature folders?

[18:12] How Mike organizes test libraries and test cases.

[20:06] What has been Mike’s experience with Playwright?

[21:02] What’s coming in the future of Razor and Blazor?

[24:39] The modernization jump for people who have old classic ASP applications is Razor pages.

Mentioned in this Episodes:

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.net

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

Architect Tips — Video podcast!

ASP.NET Core Razor Pages in Action

Learn Razor Pages

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Brian Lagunas on Establishing Quality - Episode 252

Episode 252

lundi 3 juillet 2023 • Duration 38:36

Brian Lagunas is a Microsoft MVP, a Microsoft Patterns & Practices Champion, leader of the Boise .Net Developers User Group (NETDUG), board member of Boise Code Camp, speaker, trainer, and Pluralsight author. He can be found speaking at a variety of developer events around the world. His talks always involve some form of markup (XAML or HTML), as well as how to build well-architected applications with Prism. In his spare time, he authors courses for Pluralsight, blogs, livestreams about various technologies, and manages the Prism Library. The easiest way to find Brian is on Twitter at @BrianLagunas.

Topics of Discussion:

[2:21] High points in Brian’s career that have shaped his way of thinking about software, including starting his career at a global infrastructure company construction company.

[5:22] The mentor that taught Brian about the importance of getting your foundation right.

[7:11] How today’s development mindset is different.

[8:40] How does Brian balance or reason those competing pressures from the outside?

[9:52] Delivering quality first and creating a long-term plan for the team.

[12:43] Fixing problems with the software versus working on new capabilities.

[15:56] Brian’s approach when he took the team over, and how he handled any resistance and pushback by showing his team firsthand better efficiency and productivity.

[16:26] How Brian measured actual progress.

[21:02] The value of having a subjective opinion.

[22:30] What quality controls does Brian put in place?

[25:42] The issue Brian and his team found.

[27:51] What kind of skills did Brian have to employ to make this level of testing possible?

[29:15] The importance of everyone being open to helping and learning from each other and helping out where they can.

[29:50] How Brian thinks about pull requests.

[32:14] Stay tuned for Brian’s thoughts on static analysis.

[33:41] The emotional side of things and how people feel about their work when they are focused more on development and spending less time fighting fires.

Mentioned in this Episodes:

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

Architect Tips — Video podcast!

Improve Pull Request Descriptions Using Templates

Brian Lagunas — Ep #228

Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk, by Paul M. Duvall, Steve Matyas, and Andrew Glover

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Kevin LaBranche: Leading teams through DevOps - Episode 251

Episode 251

lundi 26 juin 2023 • Duration 37:18

Kevin is a software developer who finds great joy in teaching and learning from others. He’s been honing my craft for over two and a half decades. If he’s not in code, he’s near it. Kevin is often working on practices and processes that improve the engineering excellence of the team.

Currently, Kevin is in an architecture/lead development position at Northern Arizona University. He develops best practices tailored to the team and company culture. Kevin is a strong believer in applying systems thinking to all he does.

Topics of Discussion:

[2:13] How Kevin discovered his passion for software, and proof you can be successful even if you are bad at math!

[4:51] Kevin loves giving back to others by offering his mentorship.

[5:15] How we can adjust to a changing culture.

[8:09] The evolution of his DevOps team.

[12:11] The idea of being able to read the code.

[13:06] How do you start the DevOps journey?

[15:05] What is a build script? Why is it important, and what are the most important components that need to be in the build script, in Kevin’s opinion?

[20:16] What are the items that Kevin likes to make sure are in the DevOps environment when developers are starting a new application?

[23:00] Creating a new web application in an existing environment vs. a new environment.

[27:12] The importance of getting value out the door.

[29:41] Safe database deployment, safe database changes.

[32:45] Kevin’s chosen practice for using toggling and deprecating feature flags along with some of his favorite tools and libraries.

[34:01] Protecting against API changes with third-party services.

Mentioned in this Episodes:

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

Architect Tips — Video podcast!

Want to Learn More?

Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Greg Leonardo: Responsible AI - Episode 250

Episode 250

lundi 19 juin 2023 • Duration 38:33

Greg is a Cloud Architect that assists organizations with cloud adoption and innovation and is currently a Public Cloud Architect at AT&T. He has been working in the IT industry since his time in the military and is a developer, teacher, speaker, and early adopter. Greg has worked in many facets of IT throughout his career and is currently the president of TampaDev, a community meetup that runs #TampaCC and various technology events throughout Tampa. Greg holds a certification as a Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert, and Microsoft Certified Trainer, and is an Azure MVP.

Topics of Discussion:

[3:01] Greg talks about being a military veteran from the first Gulf War and then transitioning into the technology arena.

[3:33] Giving back to the veteran community.

[6:04] Is AI inherently irresponsible?

[6:30] Greg defines responsible AI.

[7:02] Thinking about AI as your personal assistant, but only presenting you with the facts.

[8:53] The difference between the public models set out by the big companies, and the other aspect of creating your own model by choosing your own set of data using the GPT technology to analyze that data.

[16:43] Hallucinations in AI and GPT models.

[17:10] What is actionable right now for developers when they are designing it so that we can have some safeguards built in?

[21:55] The difference between fact and affirmation.

[23:41] The system shouldn’t just give us what we want, but it should be able to route that want into something that’s factual.

[33:10] The design process for developers that want to create their own model.

[37:11] Does Greg have any Chat GPT models?

Mentioned in this Episodes:

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

Architect Tips — Video podcast!

“Architecting For Azure with Greg Leonardo”

Want to Learn More?

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Matthew Renze: AI Ethics - Episode 249

Episode 249

lundi 12 juin 2023 • Duration 52:47

Matthew Renze is a data science consultant, author, and public speaker. He is the founder of Renze Consulting, an AI consulting company that has trained over 500,000 software developers and IT professionals. His clients range from small tech start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. He is also the President of Serenze Global, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving access to technology education for under-represented individuals by empowering the next generation of tech community leaders. Matthew is currently working on his Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence with a Data Science specialization at Johns Hopkins University. He currently has double degrees in Computer Science and Philosophy with a minor in Economics from Iowa State University. He is a Microsoft MVP in AI, an ASPinsider, and an author for Pluralsight, Udemy, and Skillshare. His interests include AI, ML, data science, mindfulness, technology education, and tech community leadership.

Topics of Discussion:

[1:41] How Matthew got into software development and eventually AI, rebranding himself as a data scientist and then AI consultant.

[5:40] Matthew is getting his Master’s Degree in Artificial Intelligence.

[6:04] How can we demystify AI and all the buzzwords we use?

[9:13] Are there any current products that meet the definition of strong general AI?

[11:03] What does weak general AI mean?

[13:51] For .NET developers, what can they actually do today, with this latest generation of generative AI?

[17:02] What are some examples in AI right now that Matthew has come across that clearly violate any standard of ethical boundary?

[19:00] A few of the issues with AI currently or ways that AI systems are being abused:

AI hallucination
AI-generated misinformation
Algorithmic bias and discrimination
Lack of trust in AI
Recommendation engines (rabbit holes)
Lack of basic AI literacy

[22:00] Is it even possible for these models not to be biased?

[22:35] We have to make sure that we’ve got balanced data sets in order to get the models to train properly.

[25:41] How do we regulate ethics?

[27:55] The distinction between using supervised learning, and then self-supervised learning, or reinforcement learning.

[39:20] How we can prevent deep fake videos.

[42:01] It’s important to get these tools in the hands of the right people, provide education, and move forward mindfully.

[47:02] Curating your own algorithm and handling information overload.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network

Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

Architect Tips — Video podcast!