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May Meeting: A .NET Developer’s View Of The OWASP Top 10

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join TEKsystems and us on Tuesday, May 22nd, at 6:00 PM in the Redwood Conference Room (formerly named MPR or the Multi-Purpose Room) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. The Open Web Application Security Project periodically puts out a report showing the top ten risks for web applications. In this talk, we will review the latest version of the OWASP Top 10 Application Security Risks, released in 2017. We will briefly cover each of the ten topics and explain how they apply to the Microsoft .NET world of MVC and Web Forms, focusing on things a developer can do to write more secure code. This talk will not go into great detail on any individual topic, but we will have a chance to see a couple of these risks and mitigation techniques in action.

The meeting presenter is Kevin Feasel.

Kevin Feasel is a Data Platform MVP and Engineering Manager of the Predictive Analytics team at ChannelAdvisor, where he specializes in T-SQL and R development, fighting with Kafka, and pulling rabbits out of hats on demand. He is the lead contributor to Curated SQL, a contributing author to Tribal SQL, and one of the contributors behind We Speak Linux. A resident of Durham, North Carolina, he can be found cycling the trails along the triangle whenever the weather’s nice enough.

The meeting sponsor is TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems, you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception, our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find an ideal job opportunity in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in the major market geographies, with ties to the most cutting-edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice, you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases, we may offer you the opportunity to become a full-time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our most prestigious clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contacts Lindsey Thomka Hardin, Holly Cavanaugh, Kierra Brown, Tara Nolan and Alexis Dragan about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 sites across North America, Europe, and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise, and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides

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April Meeting: Cloud-First Lightning Talks

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Cardinal Solutions and us on Tuesday, April 24th, at 6:00 PM in the Redwood Conference Room (formerly named MPR or the Multi-Purpose Room) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. This month, we will have a series of 20 min talks centered around our favorite topic: Cloud! Each could easily be an entire Guild presentation by itself, so we’ll get right to the meat while giving you enough context and info to research further on your own.

CI/CD for Serverless – Ben Westmoreland

The Azure Function offerings are quickly becoming a mainstream approach for getting things out the door more frequently and more reliably. Going serverless doesn’t mean missing out on the great workflows, CI/CD, and other options in your deployment pipeline. In this session, we will explore methods to incorporate Azure Functions into your DevOps workflow including build and release approaches, as well as approaches for automated testing and environment provisioning.

Ben is a Managing Consultant at Cardinal specializing in DevOps strategy and has been an IT consultant in the Charlotte area for 20+ years

Scaling Containers with Kubernetes and AKS – Jason Petrin

Containers are rightfully touted as a must-have tool in your DevOps toolkit, reducing operations overhead and providing scalability. Containerizing apps in some cases can be as easy as checking a box, but scaling them isn’t as straightforward. In this session, we will discuss scaling Docker containers with Kubernetes and Azure Container Services (AKS) as well as demonstrate how Kubernetes can deal with changing workloads.

Jason is a Principal Consultant at Cardinal with expertise in cloud architecture and 20 years of experience in IT.

.NET Examples of Key Cloud Patterns – Lloyd Faulkner

Just because you have microservices or have deployed to Azure doesn’t mean your app is optimized for the cloud. We’ll look at some of the most common design patterns you’ll want to employ in your app architecture to take advantage of the cloud, and particularly see .NET examples for implementing those patterns.

Lloyd is the AppDev Practice Manager for Cardinal’s Charlotte office, specializing in cloud architecture and agile processes.

The meeting sponsor is Cardinal Solutions.

Cardinal Solutions delivers digital solutions across cloud, data and analytics, mobile, and web. We have 500 employees in seven offices who use an Agile process to collaborate with clients across the country, delivering the right solutions that users embrace, and providing strategic guidance and training to help advance businesses.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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March Meeting: .NET Core & The .NET Open Source Framework – The Fundamentals

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Logical Advantage and us on Tuesday, March 27th, at 6:00 PM in the Redwood Conference Room (formerly named MPR or the Multi-Purpose Room) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. In last month’s presentation, we learned all about the power and flexibility of ASP.NET Core. This month we will step back and look at the new .NET Ecosystem and the platform that makes ASP.NET Core possible. Join Geoff Gray as he lays out the structure of .NET, including things like the .NET Standard Library, the new .NET platform, and how application models (also called workloads) like ASP.NET Core fit into the overall design.

  • Learn about the differences between Mono and .NET Core.
  • Explore the concept of .NET workloads; including .NET Core console apps, ASP.NET Core, Windows 10 UWP
  • See how the various .NET base implementations (including Xamarin) combine into the .NET Standard Library.
  • Understand how the .NET Foundation is shaping the future of .NET.

If you are a .NET Developer of any kind, this overview contains essential information that will help you future-proof your career.

The meeting presenter is Geoff Gray.

Geoff Gray is a Senior Application Performance Test Consultant and owner of Gray Test Consulting. He has a degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering and extensive experience helping companies in the IT industry improve their applications’ stability, maintainability, and performance while also teaching them how to manage these environments moving forward. He believes in “teaching people how to fish.” He earned much of his experience during his 24+ years working for Microsoft in technical delivery roles.

The meeting sponsor is Logical Advantage.

At Logical Advantage, we offer a suite of customized services to help your organization realize IT success. With our proven methodologies, keen understanding of business operations and an unyielding commitment to quality, we bridge the gap between resources and results. Learn more at www.logicaladvantage.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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February Meeting: Introducing ASP.NET Core – From the Ground Up

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join TEKsystems and us on Tuesday, February 27th, at 6:00 PM in the Redwood Conference Room (formerly named MPR or the Multi-Purpose Room) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Microsoft is re-inventing ASP.NET to embrace open-source and the web community. In this talk, Shawn Wildermuth will walk you through an empty project to serving MVC6 pages. While he shows you the nuts and bolts, he’ll explain the reason why ASP.NET Core is a complete re-write of the platform.

The meeting presenter is Shawn Wildermuth.

Shawn Wildermuth has been tinkering with computers and software since he got a Vic-20 back in the early ‘80s. As a Microsoft MVP since 2003, he’s also involved with Microsoft as an ASP.NET Insider and ClientDev Insider. You may have taken one of his more than twenty courses on Pluralsight. He’s authored eight books and innumerable articles on software development. You can also see him at one of the local and international conferences he’s spoken at including TechEd, Oredev, SDC, NDC, VSLive, DevIntersection, MIX, Devteach, DevConnections and Dev Reach. He is one of the Wilder Minds. You can reach him at his blog at www.wildermuth.com. He’s also making his first, feature-length, documentary about software developers today called “Hello World: The Film.” You can see more about it at www.helloworldfilm.com.

The meeting sponsor is TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems, you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception, our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find an ideal job opportunity in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in the major market geographies, with ties to the most cutting-edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice, you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases, we may offer you the opportunity to become a full-time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our most prestigious clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contacts Lindsey Thomka Hardin, Holly Cavanaugh, Kierra Brown, Tara Nolan and Alexis Dragan about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 sites across North America, Europe, and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise, and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides & Code

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January Meeting: Website Security 101 – The Really Easy Stuff

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Signature Consultants and us on Tuesday, January 23rd, at 6:00 PM in the Redwood Conference Room (formerly named MPR or the Multi-Purpose Room) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Web developers know security is crucial, but the topic of security is not fun or exciting and can be daunting to understand. The issues discussed in this presentation are critical to protecting all websites. The topics covered will be explained and demonstrated in an easy to follow format that will be simple to implement when you get back to your office.

The meeting presenter is Sean Rhone.

Sean Rhone has over 20 years of IT experience and has been developing applications using the Microsoft stack since Visual Basic 4.0. He has worked in small start-ups as well as Fortune 1000 companies and has, in one way or another, been around the healthcare field for most of his adult life.

The meeting sponsor is Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants started in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants, and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. As a result of these efforts Signature has been recognized as one of the best staffing companies to work (over the last seven years by Staffing Analyst International). Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides

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Annual Tech Community Holiday Gathering

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Each year the Charlotte tech community comes together for our annual holiday gathering. We’re excited to announce that the gathering this year will be held on Friday, December 1st at The Boiler Yard in Camp North End. High fives all around to Garrett Tichy from Hygge for getting us set up with such a great space this year.

This is a great event where we all come together to celebrate the Charlotte tech community, get to know some of the other local meetups, and round out our year together. We hope you’ll join us for a night of conversations, food, and drinks. We hope to see you there!

The annual holiday gathering will immediately follow the community edition of FusionConf.

Please RSVP.

November Meeting: RDBMS vs. Document DBs – How do I decide?

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join TEKsystems and us on Tuesday, November 28, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Document databases have gotten a lot of exposure recently. So much so that some have suggested that the time of relational databases has passed. Others suggest that document databases are just a one of the recent bright-and-shiny technologies that isn’t much more than a fad. Who is right? The answer is not what you might expect.

This presentation will recap the design considerations developers prioritize in picking one technology over the other. Using SQL Server and MongoDB as representative systems, we will consider the developer experience using these technologies. We will take a look at at the tools used to design, query, transform and optimize both relational and document database systems. Finally, we will take a brief look at Cosmos and the features it offers extending and simplifying the cognitive load a little bit more than Mongo.

This presentation is aimed at the developers who have been using either relational or document database technology and want to see what they were missing.

The meeting presenter is Doug Corbett.

Doug Corbett is a software consultant that has been developing applications primarily in the Microsoft stack since 1994. He has worked with teams in large Fortune 500 companies as well as small 100 person companies. His greatest sense of accomplishment came by consolidating five disparate systems into one web application within nine months. Deployment went smoothly. All bugs were resolved by noon of release day, just in time for lunch. Many thanks go to Kathleen Dollard and her book “Code Generation in Microsoft .NET”

In July 2017, Doug founded Lionheart Consultants; a consultancy focused on helping .NET teams get up to speed quickly with Angular, TypeScript and MongoDB. He is reacquainting himself with the effectiveness of code generation and is currently looking at how to leverage his experience with Angular CLI schematics.

The meeting sponsor is TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems, you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception, our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find an ideal job opportunity in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in the major market geographies, with ties to the most cutting edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice, you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases, we may offer you the opportunity to become a full-time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our most prestigious clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contacts Lindsey Thomka Hardin, Cody Martin, Kierra Brown, Holly Cavanaugh, and Amanda Miller about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 sites across North America, Europe, and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise, and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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October Meeting: Wired to Learn – Tactics for Being a Better Learner

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Signature Consultants and us on Tuesday, October 24, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Learning is an active process. It’s something in which you take part, not something that “just happens” to you. As with anything that requires limited resources, there are ways you can get a more significant return on your investment. This session will convey specific tactics that individuals can employ to become more efficient at learning and retaining information — techniques gleaned from disciplines like psychology, cognitive science, machine learning, physics, forensics, and even metallurgy.

The meeting presenter is Jim Christopher.

Jim Christopher has over 20 years of professional software development experience in aerospace, defense, education, gaming, communications, and IT. He has an MA in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Arizona, where he researched perception, learning, memory, and sensory prosthesis. Jim is a Director of Technology Curriculum at Pluralsight, curating Data Professional and Developer content. He likes to crochet, walk his dog, and build tiny houses. Learn more about Jim at www.beefycode.com or follow him on Twitter @beefarino.

The meeting sponsor is Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants started in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants, and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. As a result of these efforts Signature has been recognized as one of the best staffing companies to work (over the last seven years by Staffing Analyst International). Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

{"meta":{"date":"2017-10-24","speaker":"Jim Christopher","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

September Meeting: A Microservices Primer for Monolithic App Developers

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Logical Advantage and us on Tuesday, September 26, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Many developers know about microservices by now but haven’t had a chance to apply it to a real world, production-ready app. In this session, we’ll talk about some of the technical patterns that you’ve mastered in monolithic designs but require a different way of thinking in a distributed system. Are microservices appropriate for all applications or when can it be overkill? What is the local development experience like, and how is the familiar develop/unit test/debug/package paradigm affected? We’ll walk through these and other microservices concepts in a sample .NET app deployed to Azure Service Fabric. We’ll also get into the DevOps side and discuss both Microsoft and open source options for platforms, containers, schedulers, and automation.

This talk is intended for any developer with limited exposure to microservices, though it will be helpful to have some experience with monolithic designs, services/APIs, layered architectures, and data access concepts.

The meeting presenter is Lloyd Faulkner.

Lloyd Faulkner is the Charlotte AppDev Practice Manager at Cardinal Solutions, an IT consulting company with almost 500 consultants across 7 offices, over 100 of which are based in Charlotte. Lloyd has almost 18 years of experience as a developer and has lead several multi-year projects with teams ranging from 3-10+ developers. His current client project is working with ~10 other teams to develop a microservices-based application in Azure and using VSTS for DevOps. Lloyd’s team at Cardinal specializes in large scale, native cloud SaaS solutions. This is done in collaboration with other Cardinal practices that concentrate on UX architecture and design, build Android, iOS, AR/VR, and enterprise web applications, deploy and define governance and user adoption practices for Office 365, and that have expertise in BI, big data analytics, and data science.

The meeting sponsor is Logical Advantage.

Our mission is to partner with our clients to provide strategies and solutions that maximize the ROI of Enterprise Asset Intelligence and Human Capital Development. Learn more at www.logicaladvantage.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

{"meta":{"date":"2017-9-26","speaker":"Lloyd Faulkner","sponsor":"Logical Advantage"}}

August Meeting: CIO Panel

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join TEKsystems and us on Tuesday, August 22, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Join an impressive panel of experienced CIOs, CTOs, and Chief Geeks to hear where this industry and market is heading. The panel moderator will be John Fread, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Logical Advantage. The panelists include:

The Guild was founded in August 1998 by Bill Jones, Jr. Since that first meeting, we’ve held over 200 monthly meetings, 15 conferences, and have over 1700 technology-minded members following us on Meetup. August 2017 marks the start of our 20th year in the community.

For our anniversary, we will hear from CIOs, CTOs, and Chief Geeks throughout the greater Charlotte community about their views on the future of technology, and how, as developers and architects, we can help move that future to reality. We will have a frank and open discussion and gain insight into what they think it will take for IT leaders to navigate and remain relevant in the ever-changing and fast-paced technology landscape. And we will understand better what skill sets, services, and technologies our members will need in the future.

The meeting sponsor is TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems, you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception, our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find an ideal job opportunity in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in the major market geographies, with ties to the most cutting edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice, you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases, we may offer you the opportunity to become a full-time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our most prestigious clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contacts Lindsey Thomka Hardin, Cody Martin, Kierra Brown, Holly Cavanaugh, and Amanda Miller about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 sites across North America, Europe, and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise, and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at www.teksystems.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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July Meeting: Mind Blowing Internet of Things Projects with Cognitive Services

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Cardinal Solutions and us on Tuesday, July 25, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. We live in an exciting time where more and more everyday items “things” are becoming smart! See Dan’s latest IoT projects leveraging cloud services for machine learning. Dan is using Bluetooth Beacons and Azure Machine Learning to predict the health of his pets! Dan was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional MVP for his engagement in the community around IoT and .NET. Also, Microsoft Channel 9 has featured Dan’s IoT projects eight times! Dan will also demonstrate how he developed Amazon Alexa skills to control his very own IoT, home automation system that he built that is controlling more than 30 different things with five different types of microcontrollers. This talk led to a civic hacking event where Dan’s Charlotte IoT user group built devices and cloud services to help enable Nick, a quadriplegic friend of the group, to be more self-sufficient. Nick can now use speech commands to do things like control the temperature of his jacket connected to his wheelchair batteries and regulate his temperature when he is in bed. Dan has published the code for many of his projects to be open source, and his articles and videos have over a million views.

The meeting presenter is Dan Thyer.

Dan is passionate about building cool stuff, writing articles, having fun with technology and talking about it in user groups. Dan is co-founder and CTO of Logical Advantage, www.logicaladvantage.com. Awarded by Microsoft as a Regional Director that consists of 150 of the world’s top technology visionaries from over 50 countries chosen specifically for cross-platform expertise, community leadership, and commitment to business results. Dan is president and founder of the Charlotte Internet of Things (IoT) and the Logical Advantage Charlotte Tech Talks user groups. Dan is on the steering committee of the Regional Internet of Things and the Enterprise Developers Guild. Dan was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional MVP for his engagement in the community around IoT/cloud and Microsoft Channel 9 has featured Dan’s IoT projects eight times! Dan is an accomplished open source contributor, and his articles and videos have over a million views.

The meeting sponsor is Cardinal Solutions.

Cardinal Solutions is a national IT Solutions provider that delivers custom applications, strategic guidance, and training to help businesses work better, smarter, and easier. With over 450 employees across seven offices, we lead with our experience and expertise in digital solutions across mobile, web, analytics, and cloud. Collaboration with clients through an Agile process allows us to create the right solutions that users embrace and help advance businesses.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

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June Meeting: Test & Attack – The Art, Science, and Myth of Performance Testing

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join LendingTree and us on Tuesday, June 27, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. What is involved in performance testing or application optimization testing? What role can a developer play in the load testing phase? For that matter, what exactly is “load” testing and why should you care? What conditions should you wrap around your testing efforts? How did improper requirements almost doom one of the most famous aircraft in United States Military history? In this presentation, Geoff Gray will answer all of these questions and much more. You will learn how Santa Claus was able to reach millions of kids. How a leading audit company was able to keep a 7 TB switch at sustained 35% saturation in a test lab. How Microsoft and 323 Studios teamed up to simulate 2 million kids playing Halo Reach the day it was released. How Walt Disney World was able to keep their buses running from the airport to the Magic Kingdom on schedule. And other tales of testing success.

You will also learn about the ugly side. How a poorly-tested major eCommerce site ended up failing and costing the customer millions of dollars. How changing a single property in a test caused two weeks of results to be thrown out and a major bug in the application exposed. How pre-conceived notions can ruin the best testing efforts. And a few other horrors that you will have to hear to believe.

The meeting presenter is Geoff Gray.

Geoff Gray is a Senior Developer and Performance Test Consultant with more than 24 years of experience with Microsoft. He has a B.S. in Computer and Electrical Engineering and has been working (or playing) with computers since 1979. He has created and taught classes in debugging and load testing and has Microsoft “Ship It” awards for contributing code for Windows 95, IIS 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. Geoff’s hobbies include sailing, bicycle riding, photography, and scuba diving. Geoff is an active fan of LEGO and is the photo editor for a fan-based magazine called “BrickJournal.” Geoff has a wife of 16 years and two stepsons; one with a degree in mechanical engineering and the other who is an active duty combat medic with the US Army. You can read his blog at blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/geoffgr.

The meeting sponsor is LendingTree.

LendingTree was founded in 1996 by CEO Doug Lebda to help people comparison shop and get a great deal on the single biggest transaction of their lives: their mortgage. Since then, we’ve facilitated over 65 million loan requests, while becoming a household name. Today we do much more than mortgages. We are the #1 online marketplace in the US for consumers to comparison shop for mortgages, personal loans, credit cards, student loans, auto loans and insurance.

Working with LendingTree offers you a chance to work with top Software Engineers in a unique entrepreneurial environment.  We’re a start-up company in a publicly traded suit meaning we can brainstorm exciting new initiatives and have the financial backing to run with them.

No dress code. No clock to punch. No limit on PTO. We hire people with incredible work ethics and let them do their thing. It is our culture for each team member to challenge the status quo, express their opinions, and to stand up, ask for the ball and run with it to meet our aggressive goals and GET STUFF DONE. Learn more and apply today at careers.lendingtree.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides

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