I decided it was time to branch out into other clouds. We live in a multi-cloud world and it does not hurt to at a minimum understand what other clouds offer and how they work. I decided to go after the base level AWS certification. On 7/24/2020 I took the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam and passed!
I am still primarily Azure focused but you might see me working with AWS a little more. I may decide at some point to pursue some more AWS certs and potentially GCP.
Here is what I used to study:
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner course on Pluralsight:
I recently presented at the Inside Azure management event. This event was packed full of Microsoft MVP’s and community experts from around the world. The focus on the event was around Azure Management based topics with some Kubernetes, AI, and DevOps topics sprinkled in.
My session was “Azure Policy Insights & Multi-Tag demo via Azure Policy” Here is what it covered: “Azure Policy is a great tool when it comes to auditing and ensuring your cloud governance is met. In this session 9 time Microsoft Azure MVP Steve Buchanan is going to take you on a full-speed ride on the ins and outs of Azure Policy and land you with a recipe for handling a multi-tagging strategy with Azure Policy. Some of the key topics you will learn from this session include:
Overview of Azure Policy
Azure Policy Configuration best practices to meet compliance (NIST, PCI, ISO, HIPPA)
Securing Azure services: AKS / Networking / SQL / App Service
Azure Policy vs RBAC
Overview of Azure Policy Guest Configuration
Tagging and more“
The event has passed and if you didn’t make it no worries! All of the sessions have been recorded and uploaded to the Inside Azure management YouTube channel to be watched at your leisure. Here is the link to the YouTube channel where you can watch all the sessions:
The event coordinators have also set up some Youtube playlists to make it easier to find videos on the topics that pertain to you. They broke these out in the following categories: Azure Management, Artificial Intelligence in Azure, Cloud Governance, Cybersecurity, and DevOps.
Today my third Pluralsight course has been published. This course is titled “Microsoft Azure Pricing and Support Options“. It is a part of an AZ-900 learning path that will help you prepare for the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 exam. Learn more about that exam here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-900 .
I was excited about this course as it is a part of my day to day focus on Azure. Also, this is a chance to help those that are getting started with Azure. Here is what you will gain from this course:
This course will teach you the fundamental knowledge about the pricing and support options in Azure one of the core skills measured in the AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals exam.
In this course, Microsoft Azure Pricing and Support Options, you’ll learn to estimate the pricing and support of Azure cloud services. First, you’ll explore Azure subscriptions, subscription management, and management groups.
Next, you’ll discover, plan, and manage Azure costs. Finally, you’ll learn how to understand Azure SLA’s, various Azure service lifecycles, and how to select the right support options. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of Azure pricing and available support needed to estimate Azure costs and select the right support options.
I was recently added to the speaker lineup for the “Inside Azure Management Summit” happening on 7/23/2020. This event is a FREE 1-day virtual event. It features the Microsoft cloud experts from the authoring team of “Inside Azure Management” book, Microsoft MVP’s, and community experts from around the world.
Attendees will get a day full of deep-dive technical sessions across a variety of Microsoft cloud topics including:
DevOps and Automation
Cyber Security
Cloud Governance
Migration and Monitoring
Docker and Kubernetes
AI and Identity
The sessions will span a 13-hr period to allow audiences from around the world to join a portion of the event.
I will be giving a session on Azure Policy. Here is my session info:
Session Title:
Azure Policy Insights & Multi-Tag demo via Azure Policy
Session Abstract:
Azure Policy is a great tool when it comes to auditing and ensuring your cloud governance is met. In this session 9 time Microsoft Azure MVP Steve Buchanan is going to take you on a full-speed ride on the ins and outs of Azure Policy and land you with a recipe for handling a multi-tagging strategy with Azure Policy. Some of the key topics you will learn from this session include:
Pluralsight has recently published my second course. This course is Monitor and Maintain a Software-Defined Datacenter with SCOM. This one took me back to my System Center roots focusing on Operations Manager.
This course prepares you for the 70-745 exam, while simultaneously showing you how to use SCOM for your datacenter.
In the course you will learn:
How to plan, deploy, and configure Operations Manager.
Then, you will discover how to tune Operations Manager.
Finally, you will learn about monitoring infrastructure and virtual machine workloads.
By the end of this course, you will have a better understanding of how monitoring works using SCOM.
I am also happy to announce that I was a tech reviewer on the first study guide for this cert titled “HashiCorp Terraform Certified Associate PreparationGuide“. You can find it here: https://leanpub.com/terraform-certified/. This guide was authored by fellow Microsoft MVP Ned Bellavance and Microsoft CSA Adin Ermie. Huge thanks guys for letting me be a part of this project!
If you work with Terraform I hope you get certified and be sure to use the study guide!
Today I passed the Docker Certified Associate exam! In this post, I will share some details about the exam and the resources I used to study for it.
The certification is good for 2 years after passing the exam. It demonstrates that you have foundational real-world Docker skills. It is multiple choice with 55 questions, you have 1.5 hours to finish it and costs $195 USD. It is recommended that you have 6 to 12 months of hands-on experience with Docker before taking the exam. You can read about and sign up for the exam here: https://success.docker.com/certification.
I have had some folks ask me why I would waste my time taking the Docker exam. They say to focus on Kubernetes and Open Shift instead of Docker. Lets talk about why I chose to pursue the Docker certification. First off you have to run containers on those orchestration platforms mentioned before and chances are you will run Docker containers on them. Therefore before diving into an orchestration platform it is important to be knowledgable on containers. Also, I have seen many scenarios in the cloud where it makes sense to run containers directly on the cloud platform itself and again chances are those will be Docker containers. Docker is still a leader in the container space. There are several reports and articles that point to this. Here are some of the reports and articles backing this up:
Docker listed as the leader in the “Container Tools Used” section of the RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud Report” here:
Docker is listed as #2 with 31.35% market share on Datanyze 2020 “Containerization Market Share Competitor Analysis Report” here:
I will call out that the Docker exam covers Swarm mode orchestration platform that is included with Docker. Swarm mode is a lot easier to learn and use compared to Kubernetes however, Kubernetes has won the orchestration platform war. It would be nice if Docker would revamp the exam reducing or removing Swarm and replace with some Kubernetes objectives. This would make more sense because there is a strong chance Swarm will not be used in the real world.
The Docker exam was not an easy exam and you definitely want to have some hands-on with Docker before taking it. There are a ton of resources out there that you can leverage beyond hands-on to assist in your study for this certification. There are many books available. You can do a quick search on Amazon and check the reviews for one that would be a good fit for you. I have read a couple of books on Docker and have co-authored a book on AKS with a chapter dedicated to Docker in it.
Here is the list of what I used to study.
Free Hands on Docker labs (This resource was huge for me. It gave me environments to use and scenarios for training with Docker and Docker Swarm mode.):
I attended a “Docker JumpStart Virtual Workshop” by Microsoft MVP Mike Pfeiffer and Microsoft MVP/Docker Captain Dan Wahlin (This workshop ocurred in the past but I beleive you can sign up and watch the recordings from the workshop.):
Free Docker Certification review questions here (This blogger has a bunch of review questions to help you get in the right mindset. They cover all the exam areas.):
Docker courses and learning checks on Pluralsight (The courses are great. I found the learning checks very useful becuase it was a good way to check my knowledge in all of the exam areas.):
Spent time working with Docker on some projects (self explanatory).
Overall the Docker certification is a good move for your career as an IT Pro, developer, if you work in DevOps, and with cloud. I definitely recommend getting this certification. If you decide to go after it good luck!
Stay tuned for more blog posts with insights on certifications in the future.
2019 is at its end closing out the current decade beginning a new decade! The 2010s have been great with a lot of personal and professional growth. I am looking forward to and welcome what the 2020s will bring! Overall 2019 was a great year with lots of fantastic adventures and accomplishments. In this blog post, I am going to reflect on 2019. I am also going to try something new in this blog post. I will recount some failures from this year along with the successes. I typically don’t post about failures or even speak about them publicly but I think it is important to reflect on them as a learning opportunity and share with others as we all win some and lose some.
Ok. Let me briefly recount the losses from 2019. No so good events from 2019 are:
I failed a couple of certifications including the AZ-302 upgrade exam (should have studied more) and the Terraform beta exam. I reviewed an Azure book that did not publish. This one was out of my control but still something this year that I am not proud of but definitely learned to ask more questions about a project like this before saying yes. In 2019 I was not accepted to speak at Ignite. It’s actually been several years since I have been accepted to speak at Ignite. That is the list. Again we win some things in life and we lose some. The important thing is to learn from any losses, roll with the punches and keep moving forward.
Now for the fun part of this post. Let’s move onto the wins! First off the #1 win of 2019 is that my family was healthy and happy for another year! Also, I was able to continue to focus on Azure and DevOps adding in Containers, Kubernetes and more open source in general. Here is a full recount of what occurred in 2019.
This course is a part of the AZ-400 path for the AZ-400: Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions certification to become a Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert.
In this course you will be prepared to use Azure Monitor, including Application Insights and Log Analytics to monitor and optimize your web applications.
Also in this course, Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer: Optimize Feedback Mechanisms, you’ll learn how to monitor and optimize your web applications. First, you’ll learn how to use Application Insights and Log Analytics. Next, you’ll explore analyzing alerts and telemetry data. Finally, you’ll discover how to perform tuning to reduce noise. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the foundational knowledge of how to use Azure Monitor to optimize feedback mechanisms and improve your web application.
By following my author page you will get future updates as I publish more content. I am just getting started and will have more courses on the Pluralsight platform soon!
Next week I will
travel across the pond again to speak at Experts Live Europe 2019. I am excited
to reunite with many friends and fellow Microsoft MVPs in the Microsoft
community. I am honored to be a part of this conference again. I will be
speaking about Azure, participating in Ask the Experts as a cloud expert, and
will sit on an Azure Stack Hub panel.
Here are the details
for the sessions I will be a part of:
Master Azure with VS Code
22nd of November, 3:30pm – 4:20pm
Description
There are many ways
to work with Azure and its services including the: Azure portal, CloudShell,
Azure CLI, and Azure REST APIs. And there are even more tools to choose when it
comes to working with other services on Azure such as Docker, Kubernetes and more.
It can be overwhelming to decipher what Azure tool to use for your day-to-day
Azure administration and deployment.
VS Code to the
rescue!!!! You can deploy and administer Azure and supporting services direct
from VS Code through the plethora of extensions built for Azure. These
extensions can be used to work with ARM Templates, Storage, App Service,
Docker, Azure Kubernetes Service, Functions, Logic Apps, Event Hub, Cosmos DB,
and more. Also, VS Code brings CloudShell directly in so you can work from a
single tool!
Azure Stack Experts Panel
21st of November, 5:00pm – 5:50pm
Description
Join this global list of Azure Stack Experts for an open question and answer session as we discuss real-world scenarios.
Fellow panelists
include: Kristopher Turner Global Azure Stack Hub CSA, Dino Bordonaro Microsoft
Azure MVP, and Thomas Maurer Cloud Advocate at Microsoft.
