Microsoft is not a company that needs introduction - but one that needed Orchard training. More specifically the Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure and Operations (MCIO) team (who supply the infrastructure for all Microsoft divisions, including Windows, Bing or even Azure) reached out to us: before starting a big Orchard project they wanted to have some expert help. After we became Microsoft suppliers we conducted a few days of what was an online intensive training for the MCIO team. They are now familiar with Orchard's built in features and everything a beginner Orchard developer needs to know. The only problem is that we won't see what they are building - because it will be an internal portal, just for Microsoft employee eyes.

As it happens Lombiq got to be part of the Microsoft Supplier Program - that means Microsoft is now Lombiq's customer! We actually already had our first project with one of the Microsoft teams, stay tuned for more info.

Recently we were invited by Microsoft to join the Azure Websites Customer Advisory Board, a group of selected IT professionals working daily with Azure, helping shape the platform. Representatives from the widely used .NET web systems Sitecore, DNN and Umbraco are also part of Azure CABs. This way we'll be able to contribute to enhance the Azure experience that many Orchard developers face daily too. The CAB membership will allow us to make DotNest, the Orchard SaaS better utilize Azure and thus continue to improve as an Orchard-based CMS as a Service platform. Orchard now has the strongest presence among all content management frameworks in the Azure Websites CAB: the two founders of Lombiq, Zoltán and Benedek became members and Sebastien Ros from Microsoft, the lead developer of Orchard takes part on the CAB meetings too. Update as of May, 2015: Microsoft Customer Advisory Boards were converted into what is now Azure Advisors. Lombiq's membership was transferred, so we're now part of Azure Advisors.

You may already know that Zoltán and Benedek were among the presenters at this year's Orchard Harvest conference in Seattle too. At the beginning of the session we announced the results of the Spring Harvest Challenge and then we continued with our talk about how we built and maintain DotNest, the Orchard CMS SaaS: 0:00:00 - 0:18:30 : Spring Harvest Challenge announcement 0:18:30 - 0:37:15 : Capabilities and features of DotNest by Zoltán 0:37:15 - 1:05:26 : Deployment and maintenance of DotNest by Benedek