We Have the Winners of the Romanian Azure Contest

I’ve had the privilege of being a member of the jury at the Romanian Azure Contest. This is the first time we can see and evaluate some of the results of the work done in Romania to educate and inform developers and decision makers about the capabilities and advantages of a platform like Windows Azure. The list of winners is available (in Romanian only) on Zoli Herczeg’s blog.

Here are some of the interesting facts that I derived from my experience as a member of the jury (remember, this is a national level contest, so you have to factor into my findings the local nature of it):

• All the really good apps were components or modules of larger apps that were already developed/running in either on-premises or hosted scenarios. My perception is that this is in line with the current status of cloud computing in general and Windows Azure in particular. We’re at a point were folks are “trying out” both the concept and the technology, to see how it fits their needs. There’s not much enthusiasm in porting full-blown core apps to the cloud, but there is an increasing understanding of the fact that cloud computing and Windows Azure can help tremendously in certain areas.
• We need to continue and perhaps even intensify the education process. Folks are showing more and more interest in the platform, but there are still aspects that elude their understanding. I’ve seen cases where some Azure technologies were preferred instead of others (which could have probably been better suited) because of lack of understanding. With respect to the particular case of Romania, I think we are definitely on the right track when it comes to education. My hopes are that Microsoft Romania will keep the same pace in this area for the foreseeable future.
• Folks still have problems in understanding how to derive money from a platform like Windows Azure. Interestingly, this is a problem that I see in other areas too, the most notable one being Windows Phone 7. Seems to me that the Microsoft developer ecosystem is not yet fully accustomed (from a business point of view) with the opportunities presented by platforms that can grow from zero to big easily and with graduate cost. I guess more education is needed here too.