Jason Silvestri’s Projects with Microsoft Azure
Current Workflow State: Completed
I worked with Microsoft Azure, located in Redmond, WA, as the Lead Sr. Web Software Engineer, Solution Architect & Full-Stack Developer, and they will certainly get more paragraph lines than most projects I have worked that are on this section of my mobile & web application that is for sure.
In parallel with the development & deployment of my 2022, and newly launched BETA v 2023 web & mobile release candidates, both, designed for most smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers, I spent large parts of the spring, summer & fall of 2021, as well as the summer, fall & winter of 2022, working with the Microsoft Azure Billing and Development Teams directly, testing the latest in Cloud Computing services Azure has/had to offer for individuals & small businesses.
How the relationship between Microsoft Azure and jSilvestri.com formed was based on kind of a cool story. I have been using Azure Cloud computing services to host client and employer projects for over a decade, but the real fun stuff began at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. You can learn more about how I became their unofficial guinea-pig test case - in addition to more on just about all my past projects and clients - by visiting the Clients section on my site.
Well, sort of a long story. Well, like a “we started coding in our garages” type story. You know? The ones that start off with something like, “back before my brand even existed…. I… I… I knew Azure was the OG of Cloud!” and “blah, blah, blah”, etc, etc. OK, maybe it is a short story. No, seriously, though? It was really just down to me being in the right place, at the right time, and was just me, being me, and knew I had to do some discovery.
I was looking into the latest and greatest technologies of the day is all; it being in the latter half of the first decade of the new millennia, I think. I started catching wind of the “Cloud”, and quickly became in the know about the genius behind the marketing campaigns of Big Tech Business, then, convincing the World that the newest generation of On-Premises server-farms, were now, literally, over-night, these magical, new, mysterious, scalable, seamless, boundless, clouds of endless memory in the sky, even though I knew it was just more of the same (at least from a developer perspective). Well, that isn’t entirely accurate. For example, there were definitely advancements in processing starting to happen for sure, more fiber optic cables being laid across the country, new dual and quad core cooling hardware was on the rise, and better, more reliable chips were hot off the press. Now that I think of it, Cloud did make SaaS a design pattern companies can’t live without today. Sure, it took time to learn such realities. In fact, because of my bias about the movement, back then, I remember being kind of standoffish for bit. I almost dropped the ball. Full disclosure? Azure wasn’t even my first choice of Cloud computing servicing. It was AWS.
I spent a lot of time exploring AWS, first, in real-world environments too. I have nothing against AWS today either. You can even find AWS Web Hooks in Azure today. In fact, this is where Microsoft has always delivered, even since the release of Asp.NET 2.0, back in 2005. From that point on, they never had a problem dumping enormous amounts of capital into providing cross platform, cross service support in their IDEs and frameworks, even if the service(s) being implemented were a more widely used competitor service. I have always admired that approach to business (e.g., putting the client, first, before self-preservation). Besides, I was a Microsoft Stack-based Developer, through and through. I still am today, and more than ever.
Before long, Azure (for the record, a cloud service invented by Microsoft) just became a natural choice for many .NET developers and shops heavily invested in Microsoft products across the board. Azure really began to compete in the marketplace, providing more seamless services tailored to the Microsoft Developer in ways other Clouds could no longer keep up.
In the end, it was just down to me becoming an early adopter of Azure Cloud, and early in its history too. As time went on, I went out of my way when I was available to do more than most would, determining issues, coming up with solutions, following through with tickets I created, with the problem outlined in detail, including suggested solutions to solve issues, Azure team members executing on said materials, co-testing, etc. Before I knew it, I was effectively becoming one of their few unofficial guinea pigs. I too benefited.
I have so far used the development of my Asp.NET Core-based v 2022 and BETA v 2023 web & mobile application release candidates, designed for smart phones, tablets, and desktop computers as a base, and then would take advantage of, new, Azure cloud-based experimental services, scaling options & more, to enhance the applications in real-time, while providing real-world feedback to their billing and development teams. To elaborate, I essentially start the lifecycle by implementing services as mentioned, the Azure team and I work together on monitoring the service(s) in question, interact with team members via email, phone & Microsoft Teams with respects to my experiences with the service(s) in question (good or bad), report bugs in the form of tickets, track services with invoices, but then clear (or waive) the costs of services soon after deploying the mobile & web applications to the Azure production server.
I will continue to be there for the Microsoft Azure teams I have had the pleasure to work with as long as I am available to do so.
⚠️ Please Note:⚠️
This client has not accepted solicitations of any kind (or vice-versa) in order to participate and/or score clout of any kind. This client is shown here organically.
