Explore the Orleans Framework, a powerful tool for building scalable cloud systems, in this comprehensive conference talk. Discover how Orleans, the second most popular open source project of the .NET Foundation, was developed by Microsoft Research and is now utilized within Microsoft Studios. Learn about the framework's origins in Halo game development and its evolution into a versatile solution for cloud-based applications. Delve into key concepts such as the Actor model, Virtual Actors, and Stateful Middle Tier. Understand the architecture of Orleans, including Silos and Clusters, and how it addresses business requirements and scalability challenges. Gain insights into persistence mechanisms, Virtual Streams, and the framework's ability to attune to gamer behavior in interactive entertainment. Explore the open-source nature of Orleans and its flexibility to run on various platforms, empowering developers to create robust, scalable systems for diverse applications.