Riccardo Becker works full-time as a Principal IT Architect for Logica, in the Netherlands. He holds several certifications, and his background in computing goes way back to 1998, when he started working with good old' Visual Basic 5.0 (or was it 6.0?). Ever since, he fulfilled several roles, such as Developer, Lead Developer, Architect, Project Leader, Practice Manager, and recently, he decided to accept the role of Principal IT Architect, in which he focuses on innovation, cutting-edge technology, and specifically on Windows Azure and cloud computing in general.
In 2007, he joined the Microsoft LEAP program, where he got a peek at the move Microsoft was about to make on their road to the cloud. Pat Helland gave him that insight, and since the first release of Windows Azure on PDC 2008, he started to focus on it, keeping track of the progress and the maturity of the platform. In the past few years, he has also done a lot of work on incubation with his employer, raising awareness on cloud computing in general and Windows Azure.