If there is one constant in the public cloud, it is change. The Microsoft Azure platform has seen tremendous growth the 5 years since the platform became commercially available. The platform now includes a wealth of services for developers, data scientists, and IT Pros. Many of the new innovations center around allowing developers to be more productive with platform services – writing only the code that needs to be written. In this session we will explore several of the new platform services that allow you to create, deploy, and manage both basic and high scale cloud hosted solutions. This session will primarily focus on Azure updates since BUILD and Ignite, specifically as related to services such as Azure App Services, DocumentDB, Service Fabric, and Azure Resource Manager.

Michael Collier joined Microsoft in January 2015 and is currently a Cloud Solution Architect on the SMS&P team. Michael is a former five-time Azure MVP and recently served in prominent Azure architecture positions with Aditi Technologies and Neudesic. Michael has over 13 years of experience with various consulting and technology firms where he was instrumental in leading and developing solutions for a wide range of clients. He has a vast amount of experience in helping companies determine the best strategy for adopting cloud computing, and providing the insight and hands-on experience to ensure they are successful. Michael is also a respected technology community leader, and is often found sharing his Microsoft Azure insights and experiences at regional and national conferences. Michael is also the co-author of a recently published book on Microsoft Azure entitled Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure.