An IT pro's guide to Azure at Microsoft Build 2023

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From new preview features like cold storage to expanding Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure has grown a lot in the past year—and there’s still so much more to come! Join us from May 23—25 for Microsoft Build 2023 to explore all things Azure with other cloud professionals from around the world. Make sure to register now to get the full Build experience, like participating in Q&A sessions and more.

Joining us in-person is a great way to experience Build, but if you can’t meet us in Seattle, we’ll have lots of events online so you can learn about the latest Azure tech wherever you are. Check out our keynotes, Learn Lives, and discussions to connect with Azure experts and enthusiasts right at home.

And of course, don't miss out on our Microsoft Learn offerings! Microsoft Learn sparks possibility at Microsoft Build with multiple experiences online and onsite. If you are attending the event in person, stop by the Microsoft Learn Lounge to find experts to help you navigate your journey across training, documentation, and certification. Stay tuned to the Microsoft Learn Blog to learn more about exciting enhancements for Microsoft Learn content, products, and platform.

Tune in for our keynotes on each day of the event. On Day 1, Satya Nadella will share insights on the new era of AI. He’ll be joined by Kevin Scott and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman to explore how Microsoft and OpenAI’s full-stack AI platform empowers developers. Then, Scott Guthrie will make next gen AI real with GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI Service, and Microsoft Cloud platform.

On Day 2, Join Rajesh Jha, EVP, Experiences + Devices, and Panos Panay, EVP & Chief Product Officer, to learn how developers can leverage the power of Microsoft 365 apps, Windows, and the Microsoft Graph to develop next generation AI-powered applications. And on Day 3, close out Build with Mark Russinovich and Scott Hanselman as they explore new possibilities with GitHub Copilot X and LLMs.

To learn about Azure sessions most relevant to IT professionals at Build, check out the list below. You can navigate to the session pages for each event to see the full details. If you’re unable to join us in person, we’ve got lots of exciting events for you, too – be sure to pay special attention to our hybrid and digital sessions to get the Build experience wherever you are.

Session List

Please note: schedules and speakers are subject to change.

Azure Infrastructure Discussion Sessions

Dig into the details of the cloud alongside other Azure experts and enthusiasts with our in person and hybrid discussions.

In-Person Discussions

DIS122: New Azure Monitor capabilities for monitoring cloud-native environments Speakers: Vivian Diec, Matt McCleary, Arti Gulwadi Wednesday, May 24, from 5:15 PM - 6:00 PM PDT Join our panel of cloud-native observability experts for a discussion on best practices for monitoring applications and Kubernetes clusters on Azure. We provide guidance and answer your questions on how new Azure Monitor capabilities like Open-Telemetry instrumentation distros and managed service for Prometheus complement existing ones like Azure Monitor container insights and Azure Managed Grafana to enhance your overall cloud-native monitoring experience. For more resources, check out this session’s related collection page.

Hybrid Discussions

DIS215H: Deploy & manage storage volumes with Azure Container Storage Speakers: Yuemin Lu, Saurabh Sharma Tuesday, May 23, from 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM PDT Join our panel for a discussion on the cutting-edge advances in container storage. During this session, we will walk you through Azure Container Storage and showcase its capabilities, demonstrating how simple it is to create and manage volumes for production-scale stateful container applications. Learn how to optimize the performance of stateful workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to effectively scale across storage services while providing a cost-effective container-native experience.

DIS228H: CBL-Mariner: A container host OS for Azure Kubernetes Service, Q&A Speakers: Olivia Al Joundi, Jim Perrin, Sean McKenna Tuesday, May 23, from 1:30 PM – 2:15 PM PDT CBL-Mariner is now generally available as the container host OS for your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters. Bring all your questions and participate in a live Q&A with a panel of experts. Discover how CBL-Mariner can help you secure, improve the performance, and enhance the capabilities of your container-based workloads. For more resources, visit the session’s collection page.

DIS229H: Take your .NET Apps to the cloud with Microsoft Azure, Q&A Speakers: Stefan Schackow, Taylor Brown Tuesday, May 23, from 2:45 PM – 3:30 PM PDT Learn how to take your .NET apps to the cloud. Join our panel of .NET on Azure specialists and learn about options for migrating your existing apps to Azure. We discuss Cloud Native scenarios, technical challenges, and Azure benefits. This discussion is ideal for .NET developers, architects, and IT professionals who want to learn how to get started with Azure for migrating and modernizing their .NET applications. For more resources, visit this session’s collection page.

Azure Infrastructure Hands-On Labs

Strengthen your knowledge of Azure and get the practical experience you need with our hands-on labs.

In-Person Labs

LAB121: Taking Azure Kubernetes Service out of the cloud and into your world Speakers: Lior Kamrat Tuesday, May 23, from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM PDT Did you know that Azure Kubernetes Service is now available as managed service not just in Microsoft Azure, but also outside of it on Windows operating systems? In this session we show you how you can take AKS outside of Azure to support on-premises and edge deployments using AKS Edge Essentials. AKS EE provides the right-sized Kubernetes distribution that allows to scale to tens of thousands device deployments. Please RSVP and arrive 5 minutes before the start time at which point remaining spaces are open to those in standby.

Azure Infrastructure Demo Sessions

Witness the power of Azure in action and learn about its newest capabilities with Build’s demos.

In-Person Demos

DEM121B: New confidential container offerings in Microsoft Azure Speakers: Graham Bury, Dan Mihai, Peter Pogorski Wednesday, May 24, from 3:00 PM – 3:15 PM PDT New confidential container offerings allow you to migrate your sensitive containerized workloads to Azure, without code changes, and with tools for attestation of the underlying hardware-based trusted execution environment. Confidential containers can isolate and protect containers, while in use in memory, with their own hardware generated encryption key. We demo confidential containers in Kubernetes.

Azure Infrastructure Product Roundtables

Attend our product roundtables to engage in a lively discussion with other Azure experts and enthusiasts.

Digital Product Roundtables

PRT015: Let's talk about running your apps anywhere with Azure Arc Speakers: Lior Kamrat, Nate Waters, Jane Yan Tuesday, May 23, from 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM PDT With Azure Arc, you can build, deploy, and manage cloud-native apps across your on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments. We want to hear from you! What is working well with Azure Arc in your environment and what challenges do you face? Help us improve the Azure Arc experience by engaging with the product development team during this roundtable.

PRT007: What's next for Azure landing zones? Speakers: Paul Grimley, Rob Kuehfus, Jeff Mitchell, Jack Tracey, Matt White Tuesday, May 23, from 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM Join us for a discussion on the future priorities for Azure Landing Zones. Hear from the team on what they have planned and share your experiences and wants for the future.

PRT008: Enable more sensitive workloads on Azure with confidential VMs and containers Speakers: Run Cai, Amar Gowda, Ambica Pawan Khandavilli, Saket Suman, Michael Withrow Tuesday, May 23, from 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT Join to discuss how new confidential VM and container offerings can help you move more workloads to Azure, as well as new opportunities to unlock data insights while remaining in control of your data. Learn about some of the new Azure confidential computing features and offerings now available.

PRT019: Q&A with the team behind Microsoft's new Linux Distro Speakers: Olivia Al-Joundi, Henry Beberman, Sudhanva Huruli, Ravi Rao Wednesday, May 24, from 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM PDT Join the team that created Microsoft’s new Linux Distro as the operating system for Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) node pools. We would like to share more about the distro and hear your feedback, questions, and comments. We are excited to have a great discussion!

PRT005: Deep dive into monitoring your cloud-native environment with Azure Monitor Speakers: Dushyant Gill, Rishab Jolly, Matt McCleary, Dalan Mendonca, Vishwanath Narasimhan, Kayode Prince Wednesday, May 24, from 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM PDT Please join our cloud-native monitoring experts to share your feedback on Azure Monitor. We’d like to learn more about the challenges you face monitoring your cloud-native environments. We will also discuss how you can use new Azure Monitor capabilities to monitor applications and K8s clusters.

Learn Live Labs

Check out our Learn Live Labs and bring Microsoft Learn to life. Learn more about these great events on our collection page.

In-Person

LAB120: Build a serverless web application end-to-end on Microsoft Azure Speakers: Savannah Ostrowski, Dan Wahlin Wednesday, May 24, from 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM PDT Want to build a modern, scalable, composable, serverless web application using best-in-class developer tools and cloud native technologies - but you don't know how to get started? We have you covered! Join us for this lab where we go from application specification (user stories) to a scalable, managed deployment (solution) with code! We use Microsoft Azure "cloud-native" friendly services like Azure Functions, Azure Static Web Apps, Azure Cosmos DB and more. Please RSVP and arrive 5 minutes before the start time at which point remaining spaces are open to those in standby.

Learn more:

Get the most out of Microsoft Build with so many more ways to learn!

• Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenges: Test your cloud skills at Build this year and win a Microsoft certification exam by completing our gauntlet of interactive modules.
  • Cloud Development – AZ-305: Design infrastructure solutions
• Learn Live: Get first-hand experience and dive into Microsoft Learn content with our guided online workshops led by subject matter experts.
• Microsoft Learn: Dig deeper into Microsoft cloud solutions with detailed content, training courses, communities, and certification programs on Microsoft Learn.
• Azure resources: Check out the following collection pages for additional, in-depth Azure resources.
  • Integrated Linux Collection page
  • Integrated SAP on Azure Collection page
  • Integrated Windows Server Collection Page
  • Integrated Oracle Skilling Docs pages: Oracle on Azure(IaaS), Design Oracle on Azure, Oracle on Azure Architecture, Oracle Backup on Azure, Oracle DR Options