Microsoft Build 2015 is About to Begin. Are You Ready?

What can we expect from Microsoft over the next few days as it presents to developers at Microsoft Build? I’d safely speculate that, if you are watching the Build site, you’re going to see a lot of information on several topics. The biggest are going to be familiar themes you’ve heard before.

First, Windows 10 is coming and, along with it, Visual Studio 2015 and .NET 2015, which have been evolving. Although Windows 10 is important in that it unifies Microsoft’s operating systems, it is the continued push for universal apps projects that will be important to developers. I expect that universal apps will be a big part of the presentations and discussions. As a reminder, universal apps are projects in Visual Studio that allow you to target multiple platforms while sharing a large portion of your code base.

Similarly, expect a continuation of the Microsoft Continuum that was discussed last fall in the Windows 10 preview event. This is the responsive design concept applied to hardware, where the mode of the operating system (and thus apps as well) should change based on the hardware and such. For example, Windows 10 has a tablet mode that the operating system will switch to when you are using a tablet. If, however, you apply a keyboard to that tablet, the system can switch to the more traditional desktop mode.

In addition to the Windows 10 and Universal application discussions, I’m sure Build will present a truckload of content around Azure and the Cloud. This is sure to include Visual Studio online as well as areas such as Azure Computing, App Services, the new Azure Portal, Azure APIs, Azure Service Fabric, and so much more. The sky is the limit in what Microsoft could cover at Build in regard to Azure.

Of course, within the cloud space, I expect that Office 365 Applications could also be a topic of focus at Build 2015. Microsoft has been continuing to build Office 365 and it is to be expected that they will be pushing to build the community of apps that are available.

These are the big topics I’d expect at Build, but of course they are not the only topics. In glancing at the schedule of sessions, it is exciting to me to see a number of sessions on the Internet of Things (IoT), ranging from an overview to more detailed information on security as well as on IoT solutions with Azure.

Of course, Xamarin and cross-platform development was a topic of the last Build. Build 2015 starts with a party hosted by Xamarin and I’m sure they will be seen throughout the conference along with the discussions of cross platform (including Android and iOS).

One thing is certain: For those developing in the Microsoft space, you will get a ton of information this week on where things are headed. We might even get a few surprises.

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