Learn about the latest developments in the world of Azure Functions for .NET
With the Isolated model being the only supported mode for .NET in the future, it is now time to start looking at what are the differences compared to the traditional in-process model and how to work around some of the migration challenges that will inevitably arise.
Join this talk to learn how you can upgrade your functions to the Isolated model, what are the main differences and how you can future-proof your Functions beyond .NET 8
In the rapidly evolving landscape of Large Language Models (LLMs), the demand for customized solutions that align seamlessly with specific organizational needs is skyrocketing. This presentation dives deep into the world of bespoke LLM solution architectures, offering a crystal-clear roadmap for technology professionals eager to harness the full potential of these powerful tools.l
Whether you are looking to innovate, optimize, or revolutionize your current technological frameworks, this session will equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to design and deploy cutting-edge LLM solutions. You’ll learn and explore practical strategies that bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world application.
Key takeaways include:
Join us for this enlightening session that promises not only to inspire but also to transform your approach to technology solutions. Perfect for developers, IT professionals, and business leaders looking to leverage the power of LLMs, this presentation is a can’t-miss opportunity at the forefront of technological innovation.
In today's rapidly evolving landscape of cloud computing and software architecture, the paradigms of serverless computing and API-driven architectures stand out as transformative forces driving efficiency, scalability, and innovation. This session explores these two intertwined concepts' core principles, benefits, and practical applications.
Beginning with exploring serverless computing, we define its essence and trace its evolution from traditional server-based models. We unravel the manifold benefits it offers, from seamless scalability and cost-effectiveness to reduced operational overhead and accelerated time-to-market. Delving deeper, we dissect the critical components of serverless architecture, including Functions as a Service (FaaS), Backend as a Service (BaaS), and event-driven paradigms.
Transitioning to API-driven architectures, we illuminate their pivotal role in modern software development, emphasizing their modularity, reusability, and interoperability. We discuss API design principles, the significance of API gateways, and real-world examples showcasing their transformative potential in diverse domains.
Throughout the session, we navigate the intricate challenges and considerations, from cold start latency and vendor lock-in to security implications and monitoring complexities. Drawing from practical insights and future trends, we anticipate these paradigms' continued evolution and intersection with emerging technologies.
Join us on this enlightening journey as we unravel the intricate tapestry of serverless computing and API-driven architectures, empowering you to harness their full potential in your software endeavors.
This presentation will cover methods to cultivate motivation to improve performance, satisfaction, and well-being. The focus will be on practical, actionable insights that can be easily implement to make a tangible difference in your daily life.
Understand the common causes of lack of motivation and some actions that you can take to help yourself out of a slump. You'll learn about the power of autonomy, mastery, and purpose...three key elements that can significantly boost motivation and how to create an environment that encourages innovation. When you can effectively motivate yourself, you can motivate your teams.
Too much design up front and you are bumping into the design all of the time (and losing time). Not enough design and your system can crumble in reality. How do you blend architecture so you have the right decisions at the right time, and give them enough due dilligence? How do you embrace cloud and microservices and not risk getting into different failure scenarios or overly complicated maintenance and ripple effects?
Systems grow and change over time. You can have intentional design, or accidental design.
In this session we will walk through approaches that leverage product context to keep architecture aligned with the needs of the product. We will look at strategic DDD, C4 modeling, and architecture decision records.
Leave this session with simple techniques that you can apply immediately to start blending product with architecture.
Azure Integration Services (AIS) is a cloud-native Integration Platform that powers digital transformation and app innovation. Composed by Azure Logic Apps, API Management, Service Bus and Event Grid, responds to today’s following customers needs:
I will showcase the most important features of the AIS Integration platform and demonstrate a AI hybrid integration scenario as a Demo.
Video streaming is a ubiquitous part of our everyday life. Despite this, it remains a niche subject for many IT professionals. Most businesses simply leverage YouTube, social media, or vendor solutions for general purpose video streaming needs.
But what if your company wanted to dip a toe into this world? What would an MVP in-house video streaming pipeline look like? A client recently presented us with that exact question. Our small team of engineers, having little to no experience in this area, needed to spin up a production-ready solution within the span of 3 weeks.
Using this real world project as a case study, this session will provide you with foundational knowledge on what it takes to setup a video transcoding pipeline and how to deliver streaming video to your end-users. Our goal is to demystify video streaming and demonstrate that it's not as hard as you might think.
Ever feel like process changes or change initiatives aren't quite getting the results you had hoped for? Turns out that there is much more to how a team or organization delivers products than isolated optimizations can help with.
Enter the world of Systems Thinking.
Come and learn what Systems Thinking is and why it is important to software. Leave the session understanding how to read and create system models as well as identify leverage points to introduce meaningful, impactful change in your organization.
Building distributed systems is hard. A distributed system consists of many autonomous components deployed to isolated compute resources. Although autonomous, those components are interdependent, and those interdependencies complicate provisioning and deployment--resulting in a certain degree of orchestration to get all components to "play nice" in a particular environment.
.NET Aspire is like dependency injection at the distributed component level, empowering features such as service location, observability, health checks, and containerization via orchestration. In this session, we will cover the following topics:
Your team's biggest problem likely isn't what you think it is. While countless factors contribute to the existence of a problem, the one common thread for all of us is people. Over the last number of years, young and emerging professionals have only known constant transitions in their working and personal lives. The result is that nearly all workers (97%) between the ages of 18-34 are burned out (ref: 2023 survey, Cigna Global Health Services.) While older demographics are faring better, they also feel the effect, with nearly 30% reporting feeling burned out. The challenge is that only 8% of the workforce currently feels up to handling their daily challenges.
Enter the role of a leader.
As leaders, you have a significant role to play in helping people feel in control of how they cope, confront, and recover to resilience. Resiliency, though, is a journey and not a destination. Companies that work to maintain a resilient culture defy the dismal statistics. Resilient cultures teach and promote healthy coping strategies to help people recover to resilience more often than continuing to cope.
In this talk, people will:
The last handful of years have seen an immense evolution and adoption of Machine Learning (ML) in multifarious domains. Regardless of our fascination or loathe for it, ML-powered services and products are influencing our decision-making power and dominating our lives heavily. The scope of impact of these intelligent systems implies that the confidentiality of both data and the underlying algorithm is highly critical. A slight slack in the design of these systems can lead to disastrous outcomes propelled by cyber-attacks, reverse engineering, and leakage of sensitive data like personal conversations, financial transactions, medical history, and so on.
This talk analyses the contemporary interpretation of privacy and security in the ML realm and the significance it holds in myriad settings. It reviews the prevalent types of privacy and security attacks on ML systems. Furthermore, it introduces the audience to some techniques for retaining the privacy of data & proprietary design, warranting the security of the deployed model, and staying compliant with the latest regulations and policies to ensure trust among all the stakeholders.
The goal is to ignite the public dialogue regarding privacy impacts, ethical consequences, fairness, and real-world harms of non-privacy-compliant ML systems.
Dive into the intricate realm of infrastructure automation and learn how developers can use Terraform as a versatile tool for building and updating application infrastructure. During this presentation, we will journey through the core tenets of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), unraveling the fabric of Terraform's declarative configuration language and its profound impact on development workflows.
Throughout the session, attendees will be immersed in hands-on demonstrations showcasing Terraform's prowess as a conduit for seamless integration with cloud services and APIs. Witness firsthand how developers wield Terraform to sculpt scalable and maintainable infrastructure deployments with unparalleled agility and efficiency.
But Terraform is more than just a tool; it's a catalyst for collaboration, bridging the chasm between development and operations teams. Explore how Terraform fosters a shared responsibility and innovation culture, empowering teams to merge their expertise and drive continuous improvement in infrastructure management practices.
Drawing from real-world use cases and best practices, this presentation equips developers with the knowledge and tools needed to harness Terraform's capabilities effectively. Armed with this newfound understanding, participants will emerge ready to conquer the ever-evolving landscape of modern infrastructure automation, poised to elevate their development workflows to new heights of efficiency and innovation.
Dive into the future of .NET development with .NET Aspire by learning how to integrate AI capabilities into your applications using Azure OpenAI!
In this session, we will walk through building an Aspire Application from scratch, leveraging the power of local Azure deployments to enhance functionality and performance. Attendees will gain hands-on experience with setting up and deploying a fully functional AI-driven application, exploring best practices and innovative techniques to make the most of .NET and Azure's robust infrastructure. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out, this talk will provide valuable insights and practical skills to elevate your projects with cutting-edge AI technology.
In an era where digital transformations drive business value, the importance of developing consistent, scalable, and robust APIs cannot be overstated. As teams expand and projects multiply, maintaining a unified API design can pose significant challenges. This presentation delves into the powerful combination of linting and reusable models as tools to navigate these challenges and ensure consistency across large-scale API designs.
We will explore API linting using the open-source Spectral project to enable teams to identify and rectify inconsistencies during design. In tandem we will navigate the need for reusable models, recognizing that the best specification is the one you don't have to write or lint at all! These two approaches not only facilitate the smooth integration of services but also foster collaboration across teams by providing a shared, consistent foundation.
This presentation will go over some practical strategies and techniques for leveraging persuasion at work. From pitching your latest project to persuading your team to adopt Agile methodologies, I'll provide actionable insights that you can start using to achieve your goals.
We'll explore the principles of persuasion, including reciprocity, social proof, and scarcity. You'll learn how to craft compelling arguments, deliver persuasive presentations, and build consensus among diverse stakeholders. Influencing others with integrity and effectively mastering the art of persuasion can elevate your career and drive results for your organization.
Web Components are the browser native way to extend HTML. But as a primarily browser based technology they are defined with JavaScript which limits them to either rendering solely client side ... which has janky performance, poor SEO, and is not optimally accessible ... or within a server-side JavaScript runtime, which isn't always an option for shops that use other backend runtimes. In this talk we will explore leveraging the power of WASM to unlock server-side rendering Web Components for any backend runtime.
We really believe this is a leapfrog moment for frontend development. Server-side rendering is a key requirement for personalized web applications. Organizations that prioritize the stability, performance and accessibility of web standards run workloads in a huge variety of backend runtimes. Now we can build browser native web interfaces that cross the runtime chasm.
Azure Integration Services is redefining digital transformation for every industry by enabling rapid and scalable integration of data, applications, and systems.
By using Azure Integration Services, developers can harness the power of AI to build innovative and intelligent solutions that can transform business processes, customer experiences, and operational efficiency. Azure Integration Services has multiple AI capabilities that enhance the developer experience and enable the creation of intelligent applications. For instance:
Azure Logic Apps provides an AI-powered assistant that helps developers at every step as they build applications. This tool, based on Azure Open AI, answers any questions developers might have about using Logic Apps.
Azure Logic Apps also provides the building blocks to create Generative AI applications that can generate content, images, or text based on user input. The Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) framework can be used to enhance Large Language Models (LLMs) with a domain-specific data, ensuring that the model's responses are fine-tuned and relevant to the customer needs. RAG patterns can be performed in Azure Logic Apps without writing any code - or write code only where your business drives that need. This democratizes AI application development and empowers developers to focus on value-driven applications.
Another example is API Management, which can use Intelligent Load Balancing to optimize the performance and availability of APIs. This feature leverages OpenAI to dynamically distribute the traffic among the backend instances based on various factors, such as latency, error rate, and resource utilization.
I will demo how to build Generative AI solutions with Azure Integration Services.
In many established software-intensive organizations, software sustainment applications refer to software systems that are already in operation, and require regular maintenance and support to ensure their continued relevance and usefulness to the users and the organization. The sustainment activities can include compatibility or security updates, data migration, and performance optimization. Test automation is integral to the success of large-scale regression testing of sustainment applications. For a positive ROI, effort required for test automation should be estimated before any commitment.
This presentation proposes a general and scalable approach for estimating test automation effort for software sustainment applications (for which automation is not in place yet). Its steps can be summarized as:
This approach aims to help test automation engineers ensure that automation testing is developed and delivered on time.
In a web world dominated by JS frameworks, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the backend developer.
With Blazor release a few years ago, developers got a chance to build rich websites using C# and run them either client side using WASM or server side both with pros and cons.
In its newer release Blazor 8 brings amazing functionality that is able to rival any modern JS framework.
Explore the career journey of two professional Atlassian consultants, Ben Goldstein and Heather Ronnebeck from Work Wranglers as they share their experiences to become "experts" and find work and opportunities in the Atlassian technology community.
This journey can be expanded to other major technology products like Salesforce, azure, AWS, and more. This talk will help participants plot a course in their career toward becoming an "expert"
Any team that has been on-call knows one thing, incidents happen. Being on-call, dealing with incidents and learning from the experiences, does not have to be a painful process. This talk will guide you through the following:
Learn more about how to detect, mitigate and prevent incidents through fostering a culture of learning and effective incident response management.
Monitoring and troubleshooting a live, production application is vital. One of the most stressful things a team can do, is trying to diagnose a distributed system without adding to the disruptions. Application Insights, part of Azure Monitor, is a tool that can you can plug into your applications to get the data you need. It goes far beyond a simple, logging solution by automatically detect performance anomalies and providing a live view into your applications.
We will cover how to enable Application Insights in our applications, both on prem, or in the cloud. I'll share examples in C#, JavaScript, and Python. We'll explore the integrations with DevOps and development tooling. Together we’ll look at the way Application Insights provides a deep view into application performance, errors, and usage. Finally, we’ll look at how to detect anomalies before they become complete outages and get alerted.
After this session, you'll be able to use Application Insights to help you continuously improve performance and usability. When issues arise, you'll have the insights to resolve problems quickly.
In today’s digital world, HTTPS has become the standard for web security. However, the process of website development is not as easy as it seems. In this presentation, we will dive deep into the complexities of HTTPS and explore how developers can effectively utilize its power. We will provide a comprehensive demonstration, guiding you through the process of establishing secure communication from the foundation up. By the end of this session, you will have a newfound confidence in HTTPS. The only thing that will give you a shiver down the spine will be the thought of sites still lingering on HTTP.
The development world is changing and there is an increased focus on low code. How does a traditional pro code developer fit into this world? This talk explores how to leverage the knowledge, skills and patterns of a pro code developer in the low code environment of Azure Logic Apps.
Within this talk, we will explore the following areas:
We will have discussions and demos that show parallels between source code that pro code developers would write and how that translates into a low code environment. Some specific examples are: - Try, Catch, Finally for error handling; - Code organization, naming conventions, commenting, and; - Input validation.
The patterns and practices of Domain-Driven design are very similar to creating an ontology. Ontologies deal with the nature of being. Domain-Driven Design in a way deals with the question "what does it mean to *be* a part of this domain?".
This session compares and contrasts Domain-Driven Design and ontologies. It then answers, "How can taking an ontological view of a domain help in successfully gathering accurate needs and expectations of stakeholders to design a system with the domain in mind?" This session also discusses how to translate the information gathered from answering these questions into strategic plans, such as designs and architecture.
$745*
Below are answers to the most commonly asked questions about attending the conference. If you have a question not covered, please send us an email by clicking the "Email a Question" button below!
On both days of the conference breakfast and the registration table open at 8AM and conference sessions end at 4:30 PM.
Registration is outside the Ambassador ballroom on the main floor of CanadInns Polo Park.
We take a "Vote with your feet" approach to the sessions. Attend whatever sessions you like, no pre-registration is required. Finding a session isn't what you thought it was? No problem, feel free to go to a different session!
Prairie Dev Con is meant to be a live, in person event. As such we don't record sessions for later viewing, but check with our speakers to see if their talks have been recorded elsewhere.
Yes! Both days will feature hot breakfast & lunch buffets and two coffee breaks.
Breakfasts: Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Savoury Breakfast Potatoes, and Pastries with a Selection of Butter and Preserves
Lunch Monday: BBQ Chicken, Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls, Mixed Garden Greens, Oriental Noodle Salad, Red Skin Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Lunch Tuesday: Chicken Parmigiana, Cheese Manicotti w/ Tomato Sauce, Caesar Salad, Mixed Garden Greens, Manitoba Rice Pilaf
Please ensure that you've filled out our supplemental registration form found here where you can specify any food requirements. We'll ensure there are acceptable food options for you at the conference.
Please ensure that you've filled out our supplemental registration form found here where you can specify any accessibility needs. We'll ensure to accomodate as best as possible.
CanadInns Polo Park has free parking on their lot.
There is no set dress code for the conference, wear what you're comfortable in keeping in mind our Code of Conduct.
The conference organizer, D'Arcy Lussier, will be available throughout the conference. His contact information while at the conference will be provided on Day 1 and you're free to contact him regarding any concern you have.
All conference participants (attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers) at our conference are required to agree with the following code of conduct. Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe environment for everybody.
Prairie Dev Con is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form.
Additionally sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, vendor areas, social events, and social media/online ineractions.
Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers.