Day 2 @ TechEd – IBF is a Success

TechEd day 2 is off to a great start. Already I?ve seen a lot of friends, met friends in person for the first time and also have made new friends. Yes! Office is a big happy family.

Yesterday the Information Bridge Framework team announced their product during the Steve Ballmer keynote. To our delight attendees and the press were very interested. Actually there were at least 8 news reports we found online by end of day yesterday. Check them out in the IBF Zone to read what?s being said. Also, if you are not at TechEd and would like to see the Ballmer announcement and demo, you can of course find it in the IBF Zone. I?m doing the amateur video thing at this conference and have been taking random and candid recordings.

I think IBF has had a successful launch because the time has come for it. Enterprises are looking for better ways to integrate ERP systems and the like to Office in a simple and cost effective way. It might just be my opinion, but I think web services are the best thing to happen to the future of Office in years. Actually, I also think that Microsoft invented web services just for Office. Though what do you expect from the Office Zealot ::-)

Tomorrow, I?m planning to post a video interview with Alex a Program Manager on the Information Bridge Framework team about the overall architecture of IBF.

Right now I?m sitting in a session by Don Kiely. Don irritates me, he is too good at explaining complex technology solution simply. He is talking about Managed code access security for Office solutions. If you get a chance to see Don give this session elsewhere, I highly recommend it.