[Suggested twitter tag #selfpacedazure]

We (myself and David Gristwood) have been working in the UK to create a fantastic opportunity to get yourself up to speed on the Windows Azure Platform over a 6 week period starting May 10th – without ever needing to leave the comfort of your home/office.  The course is derived from the internal training Microsoft gives on Azure which is both fun and challenging in equal parts – and we felt was just too good to keep to ourselves! We will be releasing more details nearer the date but hopefully the following is enough to convince you to register and … recommend it to a colleague or three :-)

What we have produced is the “Microsoft Azure Self-paced Learning Course”. This is a free, interactive, self-paced, technical training course covering the Windows Azure platform – Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the Azure AppFabric. The course takes place over a six week period finishing on June 18th. During the course you will work from your own home or workplace, and get involved via interactive Live Meetings session, watch on-line videos, work through hands-on labs and research and complete weekly coursework assignments. The mentors and other attendees on the course will help you in your research and learning, and there are weekly Live Meetings where you can raise questions and interact with them. This is a technical course, aimed at programmers, system designers, and architects who want a solid understanding of the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, hence a prerequisite for this course is at least six months programming in the .NET framework and Visual Studio.

Check out the full details of the event or go straight to registration.

The course outline is:

• Week 1 - Windows Azure Platform
• Week 2 - Windows Azure Storage
• Week 3 - Windows Azure Deep Dive and Codename "Dallas"
• Week 4 - SQL Azure
• Week 5 - Windows Azure Platform AppFabric Access Control
• Week 6 - Windows Azure Platform AppFabric Service Bus

If you have any questions about the course and its suitability, please email [email protected].