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:
Wow! Today I was honored to be renewed as an MVP again. This marks year #9! Here is a screenshot of the official email from Microsoft:
I never take this award for granted. It is not guaranteed. Every year when July 1 rolls around I never truly know if I will be back in the MVP program or not. 2020 has been a tough year with the COVID19 pandemic and racial tensions in the US coming to a head. Me being renewed as an MVP this time around is a boost of much needed good news.
This marks the second year for me as a Microsoft Azure MVP! It is not easy to be a part of these ranks with so many talented people in the cloud space.
I am looking forward to the 2020-2021 MVP award year with some things already in the works such as guest spots on podcast shows, speaking at some virtual conferences, organizing an Azure user group, speaking at user groups, more courses, and of course, more blog posts to come around Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Hybrid Cloud, and more.
This year I also aim in doing my part to exposing the MVP program to underrepresented people and encouraging them to contribute to the tech community at large potentially even having some new faces join the ranks as an MVP.
As always I am honored to remain a part of MVP ranks. I will continue to do all that I can in the Azure, Azure Stack, AKS, and CloudOps/DevOps communities this year.
I recently had the honor of being a guest on the “Lisa at the Edge” Podcast. Lisa is a Microsoft Hybrid Cloud Strategist and an influencer in the hybrid cloud community based out of Scotland. She runs a blog and this year she started a popular podcast.
On Lisa’s podcast, she covers Careers in Tech and Microsoft Hybrid Cloud and a range of other topics with experts across the tech community.
This is an episode you don’t want to miss. This was one of the most entertaining podcasts I have been on. It took some interesting turns in regards to topics and very engaging. In the podcast episode Lisa and I talk about:
Evolving your career as technology evolves
Transformation of IT dept to Strategic Business Partner
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.
Recently I was a guest on the “Day Two Cloud” podcast hosted by fellow Microsoft MVP/Pluralsight author Ned Bellavance.
We talked about how native Azure governance & management tools Azure Policy, Tagging, and Blueprints can be used to bring order to your cloud environments. Listen now here:
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.
Recently I was a guest on The Tech.MN Podcast (@TECHdotMN). This
is a podcast for tech in Minnesota. Kevin McArdle and Jac Stark are the hosts
and set out to tell the stories of the individuals that make up the Minnesota
Tech Community.
I was on episode 16. This
was fun show with Kevin McArdle, owner of SureSwift Capital (@Kevin_McArdle) & special guest host, Bri McCullough Network Systems
Engineer at Target and community rockstar (@BriLimitless). On this episode we
discussed my journey in Tech, being a Microsoft MVP,
Community Power, Impostor Syndrome, Diversity In Tech
& more!
Here
is the tweet they dropped about it:
You
can check out more here on the https://Tech.mn
site here:
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!
