Celebrating One Year of Open at Microsoft

Microsoft

Jan 30, 2024

It's funny how time flies. Guess what?

It's been a whole year of diving into the wonders of different open-source tools. It's been one year of working with product teams within Microsoft to showcase open-source tools, platforms and frameworks that merge innovation with collaboration. Surprising, right? Trust me, IT IS!

When we started off one year ago, the goal was to empower students, developers, founders, professionals and everyone on the planet with the opportunity to learn about open-source tools that can redefine the way they build solutions. For many, Open at Microsoft was just more than a show. It offered them the opportunity to connect with product teams and explore real-world scenarios of how these tools can be used to transform their organizations and tech journey.

Now, let's look at some numbers.

Each of the 49 episodes covered a different technology and scenario from using Copilot in Azure Data Studio to using the new versions of Windows Terminal to utilizing Semantic Kernel in your organization down to the world of Kubernetes. We wrote about some of these technologies in the past. You can find all the blogs here: Collections | Microsoft Learn. Note that this collection would be updated each week as new blogs are published.

In this blog, I wanted to write about all of them, but I didn't want to bore you so I'm highlighting 5 episodes that were my favorite.

Cleaning your Kubernetes Clusters

Kubernetes has changed the way we deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications. However, as Kubernetes clusters grow and evolve, the nodes running these containers can accumulate a plethora of unused or outdated images. These redundant images consume storage space, hamper performance, and pose security risks, making it crucial to keep your nodes clean and efficient.

Eraser is an open-source project that addresses this challenge head-on. It provides a powerful and automated solution for cleaning up Kubernetes nodes, removing vulnerable or unused images, and ensuring your cluster runs smoothly. It is designed to enhance the health, security, and efficiency of your cluster by removing unnecessary images and ensuring that only authorized and up-to-date images run on your nodes.

In this episode of Open at Microsoft, Xander Grzywinski a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft and Ashna Mehrotra a Software Engineer at Microsoft dives into this all-amazing tool - ERASER.

Copilot is now in Azure Data Studio and this is how it can help you!

Since its release in September 2018, Azure Data Studio has been consistently empowering data professionals. It enables them to seamlessly manage, develop and interact with data. Azure Data Studio provides several tools to help you interact with your server, write queries, and ensure that the server is in good operational health.

Now with GitHub Copilot in Azure Data Studio, you get assistance with code completion and suggestions. It utilizes machine learning algorithms and natural language processing to understand the context of the code, analyzes it in real-time and generates intelligent code suggestions.

In this episode of Open at Microsoft, Erin Stellato a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft and Subhojit Basak a Product Manager at Microsoft shares examples of how GitHub Copilot in Azure Data Studio can help make writing queries against your database easier and better.

Open-Source Foundation Models in Azure Machine Learning and Optimization Techniques Behind the Scenes

Foundation Models in Azure Machine Learning provides you with the capability to easily integrate pretrained models into your applications. These foundation models serve as a starting point for developing specialized models and can be easily adapted to a wide range of applications across various industries.

In this episode of Open at Microsoft, Parinita Rahi a Principal Program Manager in the AI Frameworks team at Microsoft and Swati Gharse a Principal Product Manager with the Azure Machine Learning team at Microsoft, gives us a quick overview of Foundation Models that are now available within Microsoft Azure Machine Learning.

Now, Static Web Apps Automatically Host the Data API Builder

Imagine a world where you can effortlessly host your static web apps and data APIs without writing extensive backend code. Yes, that's possible with Azure Static Web Apps Database Connections, a game-changing feature that bridges the gap between your front end and database.

In this episode of Open at Microsoft, join Jerry Nixon a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft and Frank Boucher a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft dives into the magic of Data API Builder and Static Web Apps Database Connection feature and unleash the amazing potentials of this feature.

Simplifying Development Experience and Deployment with Azure Kubernetes Service Extension in VS Code

Microsoft's Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a robust solution for organizations and startups, developers and AI entrepreneurs looking to deploy and manage containerized applications. To help give you a great experience, the open-source community introduced AKS VSCode Tools Extension.

This tool simplifies the various aspects of working with Azure Kubernetes Service, from cluster creation and management to application deployment and monitoring, all within the familiar Visual Studio Code environment. In all, the AKS VSCode Tools Extension is an exceptional open-source project that simplifies the management and operation of Azure Kubernetes Service

In this episode of Open at Microsoft, Tatsat Mishra Senior Software Engineer with the Kubernetes team at Microsoft and Rong Zhang Senior Product Manager with the Azure Compute team at Microsoft as they talk about this amazing tool.

Conclusion

As is evident in this short recap, Open at Microsoft isn't just a show - it's a synergy. It bridges the gap between organizations, startups, students, developers and Microsoft's open-source pioneers. As you witness these product teams in action, you're not just a viewer, you're an active participant in a show that reshapes how solutions are built.

The curtain's up - now it's your turn to step onto the stage where Open-Source and Microsoft's innovation converge!