Lap Around PDC revealed several products and updates that will soon be rolled out to help developers streamline their processes. One of the most exciting platforms coming is Windows Azure and its cloud computing platform. This program provides developers an on-demand way to “host, scale, and manage web applications on the internet through Microsoft datacenters.” For those of us who don’t regularly operate in the realm of web-developer jargon, this simply means better capabilities for businesses who need to scale their resources for the web. Justin went to two breakout sessions on the topic and says it’s interesting to see the capabilities, and that they are looking at the future benefits the program may offer.

Another program that’s generating some buzz is Microsoft’s SilverLight 4. This development platform, comparable to Adobe’s Flash, is designed to create interactive user experiences for Web, desktop and mobile applications. However, an exciting feature outlined at the conference is SilverLight 4′s ability to run online or offline. Justin tells us that this capability blurs the line between web and desktop applications and is a great indicator of things to come. He also said it’s unusual how fast the updates for SilverLight have come out, but it’s exciting to see Microsoft constantly improving on the product and trying to gain market share with Flash.

Other key products discussed were Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4, SharePoint Server 2010, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2. With the ever-changing face of web and social technologies, it can be hard to stay on top of the wave of “new” that is constantly rolling out; Justin said the conference was a great experience that “makes us aware of ways we can offer more to our clients in the future.”