Developers: Free training to find out what Azure can do for you

Promo Microsoft UK’s Azure team is spending most of December running free webinars and hands-on training to help client- and server- side developers and IT Pros learn how to move faster and save money by doing simple tasks with the cloud.

The company is inviting devs to take the Cloud Challenge before christmas – with the winner bagging a Surface Pro 3, a weekend holiday or an Xbox. You don’t have an Azure account? Get a free Azure Pass when you join Microsoft’s next webinar or in-person training event [Ts&Cs].

Let’s kick off with the in-person training – then to the webinar and we'll round off with the competition details.

Join the Azure team at Web Dev Camp at 19 December 0830-17:00 Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park Reading. In this free all day course you will learn how to develop “beautiful, interactive and fast web sites using Microsoft’s web tools and platform. You will also learn how to deploy and scale high-performance web sites with the cloud”.

Register now at http://aka.ms/freecloudtraining.

Can’t make it? Then tune in to these developer-centric webinars, which all run between 12:30-13:30 GMT.

Build High Performance Websites in Azure

• 8 Dec: Building web applications using ASP.NET, Visual Studios and web tools. Register here.
• 9 Dec: Building Modern Web front ends for mobile and desktop (webinar). Register here.
• 10 Dec: API Services and Devices. Register here.
• 11 Dec: Real Time Communications With SignalR. Register here.
• 12 Dec: Running, Improving and maintaining sites. Register here.

Or, browse them all here http://aka.ms/azurewebsitestraining

What Azure can do for you

Just looking a general introduction to the cloud and what Azure can do for you? Join the “Getting Started with Azure" webinar every Tuesday at 12:30-14:00 (GMT). This series is aimed at the techie who has not yet had any/much exposure to Azure but who just wants a leg-up to get started. Each week features a special topic or guest speaker. The next dates for your diary are:

• 9 Dec: Get Started with Azure + Data Storage with Cloud Gaming. Register here.
• 16 Dec: Get Started with Azure + Build a Dev/Test Workstation in Minutes. Register here.
• 23 Dec: Get Started With Azure : Get the Most out of Virtual Machines ( Including open source platforms). Register here.
• 30 Dec: Get Started with Azure + Build a Dev/Test Workstation in Minutes. Register here.

Or browse and register for them all here: http://aka.ms/freecloudtraining.

Take the Cloud Challenge

Here is the spiel:

Fancy a Surface Pro 3, a weekend holiday or an Xbox console? Want to save time and money by offloading developer and IT administration tasks to the cloud? Join the Cloud Hero Challenge – it’s easy. In less than one hour, you can set up a high performance website or a developer workstation in the cloud. Tell us about your experience for a chance to win a great prize and to be featured as “Cloud Hero” of the month.

Learn more at http://aka.ms/cloudherochallenge.