// Open Source

Quantum computing promises to solve problems that classical computers simply cannot — from cryptography and drug discovery to large-scale optimisation. In this session, Chris is joined by Johnny Hooybergs, .NET consultant and author of "Introducing Microsoft Quantum Computing for Developers", to demystify quantum computing for software developers. Johnny explains qubits, superposition, entanglement, and quantum gates, then demonstrates practical examples in Microsoft Q# and Python on both a local simulator and real Azure Quantum hardware, including Azure Quantum Inspired Optimization (QIO).

In this debut episode of ToolUp Tuesday, Chris and Matt kick off a new series by planning a massively multiplayer management sim game from scratch. They design a microservices architecture, choosing .NET for the world events engine and Go for player decisions, and set up a GitHub repository with GitHub Projects for backlog management.

In this post, we're going to explore the Open Source project known as Dapr (The Distributed Application Runtime). This post is primarily aimed at those who already have an understanding of Containers, Kubernetes and Microservices. However, if you're not familiar with these topics - I'll do my best to set the right context and background without making the blog too lengthy!

Most organizations undergoing digital transformation are moving through maturity stages — from localized, monolithic setups toward agile, cloud-native, data-driven platforms. But what does it take to architect that journey? In this session, Asanka Abesinghe shares a practical framework covering the six design principles of digitally-driven organizations (decentralized, lean-agile, open standards, customer-centric, cloud-native, and data-driven), how to layer business, information, application, and technology architecture, and the evolving role of the architect as an organizational bridge between business strategy and technical execution. From the build-vs-buy decision to maturity-model road-mapping, this is an essential session for architects leading or contributing to enterprise transformation programmes.

Chris covers a wave of Azure service deprecations and retirements scheduled through 2022-2024, the launch of GitHub CLI 2.0 with its new extension model, and npm's TLS 1.0/1.1 deprecation. He highlights an impactful accessibility episode with Kaizota about hearing impairment at tech conferences, discusses GitHub branch protection rules for shifting left on code quality, and shares insights on Azure Front Door Standard and Premium tiers.

What is Developer Relations, and how do you build a career in it? Chris is joined by Martin Woodward — Director of Developer Relations at GitHub and the person who brought Git to Microsoft — to explore the open source contribution funnel, what drives community leaders, the community-building skills that underpin a DevRel career, and how platforms like GitHub Actions achieve explosive growth through network effects.

Chris and community members sail the Sea of Thieves while covering Azure updates including Government Top Secret GA, ASP.NET app migration tooling, and Forrester Wave recognition for streaming analytics. GitHub updates include 2FA enforcement for git operations, Git 2.33, and Discussions GA, while the crew discusses Azure certification prep strategies, career transitions into DevOps, and the open-source Cloud Katana security assessment tool.

Chris is joined by Karl Cooke (IrishTechie.com) for a deep dive into the CloudWithChris.com integration platform — a real-world Azure integration architecture built to automate content distribution to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Reddit, and to amplify updates from the Azure, GitHub, and Azure DevOps blogs. The session walks through the full architecture: Azure Functions, Azure Service Bus topics and queues, Azure Table Storage, Azure Logic Apps, and a Vue.js management UI, plus a custom URL shortener for per-platform analytics.

Security vulnerabilities don't wait to be discovered — and developers are often unknowingly shipping them through open source dependencies. In this episode, Chris is joined by DeveloperSteve Coochin, Developer Advocate at Snyk, to explore the real-world state of vulnerabilities in modern applications. Steve shares findings from his research into the PHP ecosystem and explains how developers can shift vulnerability detection left — catching CVEs in dependencies before they reach production, by integrating tools like Snyk directly into their CI/CD pipelines and GitHub workflows.

Chris and Simon play Sea of Thieves while covering Azure Firewall Premium features, 5G and cloud computing for IoT edge scenarios, GitHub Actions for static site deployments, and open source project best practices from a recent Cloud With Chris episode with JJ Asghar.