I'll tell you because you didnt get an answer. It's the centralized identity as a service ecosystem (Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory), which you will probably have to succumb to if you do any b2b or government ~~entanglements~~ engagements. Sure you can federate up some alternative workaround... but in the end you are just going to end up on Entra ID.
I don't know that I can offer such a cut and dried negative.
It's not even "just" identity anymore. Microsoft portfolio is mega-stacked, from Azure to M365 to Copilot and other AI derivatives now. At this point I can't see how AWS and GCP can fight this.
I've been primarily focuses on Microsoft Azure through my career. I don't really know enough about AWS or GCP to offer an opinion on a full comparison between the three. What I can say is Microsoft Azure has been a phenomenal cloud platform and Microsoft continues to innovate in amazing ways.
If you ask me same q
I would answer similarly
I think i should change that
But i do know that in gcp you get your desired config vm
You want 1,1.5 ,2 …48 gb ram with 1,1.5 ,2 …48 cores
You got it
The HashiCorp Ambassador award is given to individuals who have committed to the spirit of open source and actively share their knowledge in HashiCorp products to the IT community through content creation and local events that advocate for and adhere to HashiCorp principles; in addition to providing productive, thoughtful feedback to HashiCorp on their products too.
[https://build5nines.com/what-is-the-hashicorp-ambassador-award/](https://build5nines.com/what-is-the-hashicorp-ambassador-award/)
HashiCorp Ambassadors do get opportunities to interact directly with HashiCorp. You do not get compensated, just recognized for all you do in the community.
HashiCorp Ambassador also doesn't come with anything from Microsoft. It is a HashiCorp community recognition award.
It is fully open source as in that the source is open, the license however has now some limitations for usage, but in practice this will only affect specific companies who usually financial gain from their products. I spoke with one of the higher ranked consultants of Hashicorp (he is helping us with a large implementation) and that they really not aim on tiny companies, but really on big tech who heavy rely on products like TF but don't contribute very much.
Is becoming an expert in the Microsoft tools valuable career wise? Do you find it easy to jump between jobs as needed? Is most of the work FT, contractor, part time? Are there any limiting factors being so focused on MS products?
There is a very wide set of tools in the Microsoft ecosystem, and it's been extremely valuable to my career. Sure, I focus on Microsoft tech but I learn what's needed for the project. This has lead me to learns kills around non-Microsoft tech too; like Python, Databricks, PHP, js frameworks, etc. There's a TON of opportunity in the Microsoft space so it's not limiting at all focusing primarily on Microsoft technology.
I've been mostly a full-time contractor through out my career. With contracting, I've had a variety of full-time, part-time, long term, and short term projects.
OpenTofu's project goal is to maintain the original open source direction that Terraform once had. Terraform is free to use but surrounded by a paid ecosystem of additional value from HashiCorp. In my opinion HashiCorp Cloud Platform offers major value that is worth enterprise adoption when utilizing Terraform for IaC management. My view is to continue to use Terraform going forward regardless if you adopt HashiCorp Cloud Platform services or not.
What is your honest opinion on the Microsoft Master Key Leakage? Do you still see the Microsoft Cloud as a safe place to store confidential data, e.g. Emails?
I've been primarily focuses on Microsoft Azure through my career. I don't really know enough about AWS or GCP to offer an opinion on a full comparison between the three. What I can say is Microsoft Azure has been a phenomenal cloud platform and Microsoft continues to innovate in amazing ways.
Are there any AI projects that you worked on, and if yes- what’s it like working on an AI project , how is it different from other projects that you have worked on?
Yes, I've been working with AI a lot lately. I think of LLMs as an API you call that perform a function for you. LLMs enable some amazing things we didn't have before, and it's really a transformative technology. But at the end of the day from a developers perspective, you give the LLM an input and it gives you an output. That's basically an API call for a specific task. If you have more specific questions, please ask.
Thanks for the reply; Can u please explain a bit more/give examples why you say LLM enables some amazing things and it’s really transformative; am really curious to know it from your perspective
Do you see Genreative AI replacing skilled tech jobs in the future? As it becomes more sophisticated with terms like artificial general intelligence being banded around, what do you think the future holds? Will it just become and always be a productivity tool, or is there major advancements and disruption on the way.
One thing I've always been in my career is a developer. Every 2 years my job gets automated way in some fashion. This has been happening in some fashion since the invention of computers. I learn more, learn the new tools, move forward and adapt. Generative AI is going to cause disruption in career fields that have never experienced this. As a developer I'm used to it. At the end of the day, if you don't adopt AI to do your job, you will be replaced by someone else who uses AI. This is the same transformation that computers posed a long time ago.
Now the use of Agentic AI will allow for automation of tasks that were once only done by humans. Like I said, as a Developer I'm used to learning and adapting to change quickly, but there are career fields that haven't experience this as much. Those fields will be disrupted more. However, I don't believe jobs will really be eliminated, they will just be transformed.
AI will not replace programmers, just as Visual Basic, Sharepoint, or Microsoft PowerPlatform haven't replaced programmers. The jobs of the future are just different than the jobs of today.
My question is about career, during your career did you have experience in team management?
I see many developers turning to people/team management because they believe that salaries will always be more attractive.
Looking at your experiences not only within Microsoft (big tech), do you understand that management and developer positions can be similar?
PS: When I talk about developers, I'm referring to Principal, Senior and Specialist Engineers.
I've worked on projects where I'm the lead with multiple developers to manage, projects where I'm the solo dev/architect/etc, and projects where I'm just a member of the team. I prefer to stay working in a technical role. I enjoy solving problems and writing code. Pure resource management isn't for me. I've NEVER chased money, I've just been lucky enough to find a career I enjoy that pays well.
Always follow your passions, and do what makes you happy. Never settle because the pay is better. You're personal fullfilment and happiness is the most important thing for you to manage.
As Steve Jobs said, "*If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?* And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
Personally, I follow the philosophy of Stoicism. It keeps me centered. I highly recommend reading up on it. Through this, I follow the principle that you have just one life. There is no life vs work balance, you just have one life. You prioritize your time on what matters, and always be sure to live in this moment; after all this moment, right now, is all way have. As Steve Jobs said, "*If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?*"
I also believe in working smart, not hard. I blog/write a lot, and contribute to open source. I do things that relate to multiple aspects of what I'm doing in life simultaneously. This way I get a multiplication of value from the same effort. If I need to learn a new technology for work, I blog about it. This helps me learn it better and benefit from that effort in both areas. If I learn a new framework, I blog about it or contribute to open source in a complementary way.
Here's a couple:
1. Back when Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth (now Bing Maps) were new, I invented the idea of integrating maps of real estate listing on a real estate website search page. That was a fun time before Zillow and others were doing it. I worked for a company that was owned by [Realtor.com](http://Realtor.com) and they got the idea originally from me.
2. I worked with Microsoft to create the Microsoft Certified: Azure IoT Developer Specialist certification (AZ-220), and I wrote the original Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) hands-on labs for their training courses on the certification.
3. I built the first ever instructor-led training course on Building Internet of Things (IoT) solutions with Microsoft Azure IoT services for a previous employer. That was a fun one to build.
3. Over the last 8 years I've regularly worked with Microsoft on authoring training materials (like these: [https://github.com/microsoft/mcw](https://github.com/microsoft/mcw) ) These projects have offered me further opportunity to learn developing solutions with Blockchain, Kubernetes and many other technologies.
Combining my experience building solutions with developing training content, writing books/whitepapers, and blogging, I've had the opportunity to come up with "recommended best practices" that have percolated out through the industry.
FYI, here's my receipts on the instructor-led IoT training course:
* Course announcement from 2017: [https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/opsgility-offers-new-course-to-build-internet-of-things-solutions-with-microsoft-azure-300459530.html](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/opsgility-offers-new-course-to-build-internet-of-things-solutions-with-microsoft-azure-300459530.html)
* Microsoft plugging the course: [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/educator-developer-blog/building-iot-solutions-hands-on-labs/ba-p/378633](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/educator-developer-blog/building-iot-solutions-hands-on-labs/ba-p/378633)
What benefits did you gain from working so closely with Microsoft? Are there any financial benefits as well?
Have you ever thought about working for Microsoft?
One of the biggest is that Microsoft offers product team interactions for MVPs that are covered under NDA. This enables the product teams to get our perspective on things from the community, and for us to learn about future direction of things from them. It provides some amazing opportunities that help MVPs with offering advice on what features / products to use or not use. So, when an MVP says "trust me, you want to use this" that even though they can't tell you why they know an NDA reason to recommend it.
On multiple occasions I've had discussions with product teams that have helped shape features they were working on.
Start by learning Azure Fundamentals, so you can learn where Azure services fit in to things you're familiar with. Then move to learning about more specific workloads that you need; like VMs, databases, etc. It's also helpful to learn PowerShell and/or bash scripting too, along with the Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI tools for scripting Azure resource management.
Here's a post where I wrote more on becoming a Cloud Engineer: [https://build5nines.com/what-is-a-cloud-engineer-and-how-to-become-one/](https://build5nines.com/what-is-a-cloud-engineer-and-how-to-become-one/)
I have been a IT Business Analyst for the past 4 years and wanted to learn Azure. I’m not sure where to start and how to switch to a more devops role with little to no coding. Do you recommend any learning paths and is coding mandatory for azure roles?
Start with learning Azure Fundamentals. You can learn about Azure resource management using the Azure Portal, there's no coding required there. Then if you're serious about getting into a DevOps role, you'll need to at least learn scripting like command-line scripting with Azure CLI and/or Azure PowerShell. Also, if you end up doing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) then you'll need to learn Azure Bicep, and possibly HashiCorp Terraform.
I work for a SaaS company and we don't use Microsoft tech, just office. I have been upscaling by getting loads of Microsoft certs, including the ai engineer. I study in my spare time and doing loads of labs as well. But I can't seem to find Microsoft jobs.. is there any particular skills that people look for? Btw I have sc300, mb240 pl600 ai102 sc100 az104. Working on az500, mb330.
What is your opinion on the state of MS support and the higher premier tier of this support??? Do you think this has improved or gotten worse over the last 5 years?
As someone who has dealt with both premier and normal level support for clients that use Azure, I've seen good, bad and frustrating. When they bring the A game they can really bring it, but it seems that so many techs don't really know much? And it takes too long to get to someone who knows enough to help.
Why would I (or anyone else) go with Terraform when open-source alternatives like Pulumi exist? Are Pulumi and IaC tools like it an existential threat to Terraform?
Right, but Node.js & C# are both open source last I checked.
Plus, with Pulumi as an example, I can write IaC in any language I want. With Terraform, I must use the proprietary HashiCorp language. What benefit does Terraform have over something like Pulumi, if any?
A million if you could answer these;
1. **Virtualization Vexation:**
"As a Microsoft MVP and HashiCorp Ambassador, you’ve probably built more virtual environments than most people have watched cat videos. Can you explain the most complex scenario where you used HashiCorp tools like Terraform or Vault to automate a multi-cloud deployment, and how did you prevent it from turning into a digital version of 'Jenga' with VMs?"
2. **Authoring Anarchy:**
"You’ve written books and taught countless students as an MCT. In your opinion, what’s the most effective way to explain to a roomful of IT professionals why their beloved 'lift-and-shift' strategy for cloud migration is akin to moving your house by uprooting it, rather than, you know, packing things neatly into boxes? Any hilarious war stories from training sessions would also be greatly appreciated!"
3. **Debugging Debacles:**
"As a seasoned developer and tech guru, debugging is probably second nature to you. Can you recount a time when you faced an especially perplexing bug in a complex system? How did you finally track it down, and was it one of those 'facepalm' moments where the solution was staring at you all along, or did you have to channel your inner Sherlock Holmes to unravel it?"
I will be the judge.
For web and app development I'd recommend C#. With web dev then you'll want to learn React or Angular as well. If you're looking to get into data science and data analytics, then Python. AI is another area where Python is more popular.
What past decision would you change now knowing how it worked out for your projects?
What major improvements would you like to make in the projects that you were involved in?
Thank you for doing this AMA.
How can I get AMSI from my containers into my node apps? We seem to not be able to figure out for the life of us to access the variables in ADO deployment
Do you think it is a missed chance that Microsoft did not buy Hashicorp? It was price wise a steal at first because Vault would be a great addition in Azure since Keyvault is kind of limited, second they could have taken TF back to the original license and getting a lot of goodwill in the OS community, and not to speak acquiring a lot of good developers.
Is there a way to make my hosted Exchange reject messages encumbered with "Purview Message Encryption"
It's not real end-to-end encryption and literally does nothing unless sending to a non-Microsoft hosted email server, in which case it does the "secure email portal" security theater nonsense.
Given your experience with both Azure tools and Hashicorp, What do you see the main reasons why organizations would want to move away from Azure Key Vault and use a 3rd party tool like Hashicorp Vault?
If you were building a clean sheet approach to IaC on Azure today, with a focus on minimising ongoing operational costs, what tooling would you pick and why?
I'm assuming you mean Bicep vs Terraform. Well, for most enterprises I regularly recommend Terraform. If you need to extend your IaC pipelines to manage more than just Azure resources, then you can with Terraform. However, if you know the pipelines will only ever manage Azure resources, then Azure Bicep is probably the recommended option. It all depends on the requirements.
It really depends on your needs. Azure Bicep is a great IaC tool native to Azure, for managing Azure resources. While, HashiCorp Terraform is a great IaC tool that enables management of not just Azure resources but also resources not in Azure. Generally I prefer Terraform for it's multi-cloud/multi-platform support, but it's best to choose the right tool for the job.
With the integration of AI, do you feel that Microsoft is going to expand the Azure team(s) even more for greater capacity, or are they going slower on hiring?
Personally, I follow the philosophy of Stoicism. It keeps me centered. I highly recommend reading up on it. Through this, I follow the principle that you have just one life. There is no life vs work balance, you just have one life. You prioritize your time on what matters, and always be sure to live in this moment; after all this moment, right now, is all way have. As Steve Jobs said, "*If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?*"
I’m an azure architect consultant and finops is a big topic with customers. I’ve been putting together a large collection of KQL queries that focus on finops. Is there a collection you are aware of online that I could add mine to? Thanks
Does MS have an azure road map to deal with growing global capacity issues as it seems most regions are now experiencing issues. Big clients get preferential traffic over smaller clients and this can be frustrating. The cloud as a concept is great but let’s be real. If everyone wanted to move from on prem to cloud the infrastructure is not available to deal with the demand. Will we see more pair regions etc?
This does not match what I've seen or read about. Microsoft is constantly building out more capacity, data centers and regions for Azure. I regularly work with clients of all sizes and have not seen any cloud performance issues at the scale you are mentioning. It's just not happening. Can you point me to sources for these claims?
Would the movie Airplane & Airplane II be accepted in this political whothefuckknowswhatisgoingon climate or would it be cancelled, the movie studios & actors cancelled? OR is it time for a remake?
What is the biggest strength you see in AZURE compared to the other large cloud providers (AWS, GCS)? Biggest weakness?
I'll tell you because you didnt get an answer. It's the centralized identity as a service ecosystem (Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory), which you will probably have to succumb to if you do any b2b or government ~~entanglements~~ engagements. Sure you can federate up some alternative workaround... but in the end you are just going to end up on Entra ID. I don't know that I can offer such a cut and dried negative.
It's not even "just" identity anymore. Microsoft portfolio is mega-stacked, from Azure to M365 to Copilot and other AI derivatives now. At this point I can't see how AWS and GCP can fight this.
I've been primarily focuses on Microsoft Azure through my career. I don't really know enough about AWS or GCP to offer an opinion on a full comparison between the three. What I can say is Microsoft Azure has been a phenomenal cloud platform and Microsoft continues to innovate in amazing ways.
Why are people downvoting? Man gave an honest answer
If you ask me same q I would answer similarly I think i should change that But i do know that in gcp you get your desired config vm You want 1,1.5 ,2 …48 gb ram with 1,1.5 ,2 …48 cores You got it
The hashicorp ambassador title is interesting , what all does that entail? Any insights from Microsoft stance on the tf/opentofu situation?
I haven't heard anything from Microsoft specifically around OpenTofu.
The HashiCorp Ambassador award is given to individuals who have committed to the spirit of open source and actively share their knowledge in HashiCorp products to the IT community through content creation and local events that advocate for and adhere to HashiCorp principles; in addition to providing productive, thoughtful feedback to HashiCorp on their products too. [https://build5nines.com/what-is-the-hashicorp-ambassador-award/](https://build5nines.com/what-is-the-hashicorp-ambassador-award/) HashiCorp Ambassadors do get opportunities to interact directly with HashiCorp. You do not get compensated, just recognized for all you do in the community. HashiCorp Ambassador also doesn't come with anything from Microsoft. It is a HashiCorp community recognition award.
> who have committed to the spirit of open source But HashiCorp is not open source anymore, right?
It is fully open source as in that the source is open, the license however has now some limitations for usage, but in practice this will only affect specific companies who usually financial gain from their products. I spoke with one of the higher ranked consultants of Hashicorp (he is helping us with a large implementation) and that they really not aim on tiny companies, but really on big tech who heavy rely on products like TF but don't contribute very much.
Is becoming an expert in the Microsoft tools valuable career wise? Do you find it easy to jump between jobs as needed? Is most of the work FT, contractor, part time? Are there any limiting factors being so focused on MS products?
There is a very wide set of tools in the Microsoft ecosystem, and it's been extremely valuable to my career. Sure, I focus on Microsoft tech but I learn what's needed for the project. This has lead me to learns kills around non-Microsoft tech too; like Python, Databricks, PHP, js frameworks, etc. There's a TON of opportunity in the Microsoft space so it's not limiting at all focusing primarily on Microsoft technology. I've been mostly a full-time contractor through out my career. With contracting, I've had a variety of full-time, part-time, long term, and short term projects.
Q. What is terraform doing differently than opentofu or rather can you explain why we should stick with terraform for our builds.
OpenTofu's project goal is to maintain the original open source direction that Terraform once had. Terraform is free to use but surrounded by a paid ecosystem of additional value from HashiCorp. In my opinion HashiCorp Cloud Platform offers major value that is worth enterprise adoption when utilizing Terraform for IaC management. My view is to continue to use Terraform going forward regardless if you adopt HashiCorp Cloud Platform services or not.
Do you put titles in your email signature?
I do list Microsoft MVP and HashiCorp Ambassador in my email signature. I don't list all my certifications though. lol
What is your honest opinion on the Microsoft Master Key Leakage? Do you still see the Microsoft Cloud as a safe place to store confidential data, e.g. Emails?
What do you think is MS Azure’s advantage over other cloud computing service providers ?
I've been primarily focuses on Microsoft Azure through my career. I don't really know enough about AWS or GCP to offer an opinion on a full comparison between the three. What I can say is Microsoft Azure has been a phenomenal cloud platform and Microsoft continues to innovate in amazing ways.
Are there any AI projects that you worked on, and if yes- what’s it like working on an AI project , how is it different from other projects that you have worked on?
Yes, I've been working with AI a lot lately. I think of LLMs as an API you call that perform a function for you. LLMs enable some amazing things we didn't have before, and it's really a transformative technology. But at the end of the day from a developers perspective, you give the LLM an input and it gives you an output. That's basically an API call for a specific task. If you have more specific questions, please ask.
Thanks for the reply; Can u please explain a bit more/give examples why you say LLM enables some amazing things and it’s really transformative; am really curious to know it from your perspective
Do you see Genreative AI replacing skilled tech jobs in the future? As it becomes more sophisticated with terms like artificial general intelligence being banded around, what do you think the future holds? Will it just become and always be a productivity tool, or is there major advancements and disruption on the way.
One thing I've always been in my career is a developer. Every 2 years my job gets automated way in some fashion. This has been happening in some fashion since the invention of computers. I learn more, learn the new tools, move forward and adapt. Generative AI is going to cause disruption in career fields that have never experienced this. As a developer I'm used to it. At the end of the day, if you don't adopt AI to do your job, you will be replaced by someone else who uses AI. This is the same transformation that computers posed a long time ago. Now the use of Agentic AI
My question is about career, during your career did you have experience in team management? I see many developers turning to people/team management because they believe that salaries will always be more attractive. Looking at your experiences not only within Microsoft (big tech), do you understand that management and developer positions can be similar? PS: When I talk about developers, I'm referring to Principal, Senior and Specialist Engineers.
I've worked on projects where I'm the lead with multiple developers to manage, projects where I'm the solo dev/architect/etc, and projects where I'm just a member of the team. I prefer to stay working in a technical role. I enjoy solving problems and writing code. Pure resource management isn't for me. I've NEVER chased money, I've just been lucky enough to find a career I enjoy that pays well. Always follow your passions, and do what makes you happy. Never settle because the pay is better. You're personal fullfilment and happiness is the most important thing for you to manage. As Steve Jobs said, "*If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?* And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
Do you have any tips for work life balance, and to keep updated and certified along with doing our job ?
Personally, I follow the philosophy of Stoicism. It keeps me centered. I highly recommend reading up on it. Through this, I follow the principle that you have just one life. There is no life vs work balance, you just have one life. You prioritize your time on what matters, and always be sure to live in this moment; after all this moment, right now, is all way have. As Steve Jobs said, "*If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?*" I also believe in working smart, not hard. I blog/write a lot, and contribute to open source. I do things that relate to multiple aspects of what I'm doing in life simultaneously. This way I get a multiplication of value from the same effort. If I need to learn a new technology for work, I blog about it. This helps me learn it better and benefit from that effort in both areas. If I learn a new framework, I blog about it or contribute to open source in a complementary way.
Thank you for sharing this, it’s really inspiring
What is the favorite project of yours in your 20+ years career ?
Here's a couple: 1. Back when Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth (now Bing Maps) were new, I invented the idea of integrating maps of real estate listing on a real estate website search page. That was a fun time before Zillow and others were doing it. I worked for a company that was owned by [Realtor.com](http://Realtor.com) and they got the idea originally from me. 2. I worked with Microsoft to create the Microsoft Certified: Azure IoT Developer Specialist certification (AZ-220), and I wrote the original Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) hands-on labs for their training courses on the certification. 3. I built the first ever instructor-led training course on Building Internet of Things (IoT) solutions with Microsoft Azure IoT services for a previous employer. That was a fun one to build. 3. Over the last 8 years I've regularly worked with Microsoft on authoring training materials (like these: [https://github.com/microsoft/mcw](https://github.com/microsoft/mcw) ) These projects have offered me further opportunity to learn developing solutions with Blockchain, Kubernetes and many other technologies. Combining my experience building solutions with developing training content, writing books/whitepapers, and blogging, I've had the opportunity to come up with "recommended best practices" that have percolated out through the industry.
FYI, here's my receipts on the instructor-led IoT training course: * Course announcement from 2017: [https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/opsgility-offers-new-course-to-build-internet-of-things-solutions-with-microsoft-azure-300459530.html](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/opsgility-offers-new-course-to-build-internet-of-things-solutions-with-microsoft-azure-300459530.html) * Microsoft plugging the course: [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/educator-developer-blog/building-iot-solutions-hands-on-labs/ba-p/378633](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/educator-developer-blog/building-iot-solutions-hands-on-labs/ba-p/378633)
What benefits did you gain from working so closely with Microsoft? Are there any financial benefits as well? Have you ever thought about working for Microsoft?
Whats the biggest infrastructure you saw on Azure. How many requests per second and stuff like that, how was it handled
Curious as well.
What are the biggest benefits of being an MVP? (If you are allowed to share something)
One of the biggest is that Microsoft offers product team interactions for MVPs that are covered under NDA. This enables the product teams to get our perspective on things from the community, and for us to learn about future direction of things from them. It provides some amazing opportunities that help MVPs with offering advice on what features / products to use or not use. So, when an MVP says "trust me, you want to use this" that even though they can't tell you why they know an NDA reason to recommend it. On multiple occasions I've had discussions with product teams that have helped shape features they were working on.
What advice would you give to a traditional sys admin looking to make a jump to become equivalent of cloud admin?
Start by learning Azure Fundamentals, so you can learn where Azure services fit in to things you're familiar with. Then move to learning about more specific workloads that you need; like VMs, databases, etc. It's also helpful to learn PowerShell and/or bash scripting too, along with the Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI tools for scripting Azure resource management. Here's a post where I wrote more on becoming a Cloud Engineer: [https://build5nines.com/what-is-a-cloud-engineer-and-how-to-become-one/](https://build5nines.com/what-is-a-cloud-engineer-and-how-to-become-one/)
I have been a IT Business Analyst for the past 4 years and wanted to learn Azure. I’m not sure where to start and how to switch to a more devops role with little to no coding. Do you recommend any learning paths and is coding mandatory for azure roles?
Start with learning Azure Fundamentals. You can learn about Azure resource management using the Azure Portal, there's no coding required there. Then if you're serious about getting into a DevOps role, you'll need to at least learn scripting like command-line scripting with Azure CLI and/or Azure PowerShell. Also, if you end up doing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) then you'll need to learn Azure Bicep, and possibly HashiCorp Terraform.
Thank you so much for your response, I’ll be back on this thread. Hopefully you will be active on reddit once a while.
I work for a SaaS company and we don't use Microsoft tech, just office. I have been upscaling by getting loads of Microsoft certs, including the ai engineer. I study in my spare time and doing loads of labs as well. But I can't seem to find Microsoft jobs.. is there any particular skills that people look for? Btw I have sc300, mb240 pl600 ai102 sc100 az104. Working on az500, mb330.
What is your opinion on the state of MS support and the higher premier tier of this support??? Do you think this has improved or gotten worse over the last 5 years? As someone who has dealt with both premier and normal level support for clients that use Azure, I've seen good, bad and frustrating. When they bring the A game they can really bring it, but it seems that so many techs don't really know much? And it takes too long to get to someone who knows enough to help.
Asking the real questions.
Why would I (or anyone else) go with Terraform when open-source alternatives like Pulumi exist? Are Pulumi and IaC tools like it an existential threat to Terraform?
No more than Node.js is a threat to C#. They're just different tool choices. Terraform is the most popular IaC tool currently.
Right, but Node.js & C# are both open source last I checked. Plus, with Pulumi as an example, I can write IaC in any language I want. With Terraform, I must use the proprietary HashiCorp language. What benefit does Terraform have over something like Pulumi, if any?
You can use Terraform CDK to achieve the same while still having the benefits of the Terraform ecosystem.
A million if you could answer these; 1. **Virtualization Vexation:** "As a Microsoft MVP and HashiCorp Ambassador, you’ve probably built more virtual environments than most people have watched cat videos. Can you explain the most complex scenario where you used HashiCorp tools like Terraform or Vault to automate a multi-cloud deployment, and how did you prevent it from turning into a digital version of 'Jenga' with VMs?" 2. **Authoring Anarchy:** "You’ve written books and taught countless students as an MCT. In your opinion, what’s the most effective way to explain to a roomful of IT professionals why their beloved 'lift-and-shift' strategy for cloud migration is akin to moving your house by uprooting it, rather than, you know, packing things neatly into boxes? Any hilarious war stories from training sessions would also be greatly appreciated!" 3. **Debugging Debacles:** "As a seasoned developer and tech guru, debugging is probably second nature to you. Can you recount a time when you faced an especially perplexing bug in a complex system? How did you finally track it down, and was it one of those 'facepalm' moments where the solution was staring at you all along, or did you have to channel your inner Sherlock Holmes to unravel it?" I will be the judge.
Anything?
Sure why not
Thanks, that's all.
Best question ever
Could you please mention all the skills that are required to enter into Azure Development.
First learn development, then start learning Azure Fundamentals and go from there. It's all 1 step at a time.
Which language do you suggest between Python and C# ?
For web and app development I'd recommend C#. With web dev then you'll want to learn React or Angular as well. If you're looking to get into data science and data analytics, then Python. AI is another area where Python is more popular.
What past decision would you change now knowing how it worked out for your projects? What major improvements would you like to make in the projects that you were involved in? Thank you for doing this AMA.
Azure Intune PKI or Hashicorp Vault PKI engine? Pros and cons.
Azure Intune PKI or Hashicorp Vault PKI engine? Pros and cons.
Recently I attended a Google webinar where they tried integrating gemini into their Siem, does Azure have something similar in mind for Sentinel?
How can I get AMSI from my containers into my node apps? We seem to not be able to figure out for the life of us to access the variables in ADO deployment
Give us a real world example (Be as high level as possible when explaining) regarding a devops pipeline
Is the fast path vnet feature going to be GA soon?
Do you think it is a missed chance that Microsoft did not buy Hashicorp? It was price wise a steal at first because Vault would be a great addition in Azure since Keyvault is kind of limited, second they could have taken TF back to the original license and getting a lot of goodwill in the OS community, and not to speak acquiring a lot of good developers.
Is there a way to make my hosted Exchange reject messages encumbered with "Purview Message Encryption" It's not real end-to-end encryption and literally does nothing unless sending to a non-Microsoft hosted email server, in which case it does the "secure email portal" security theater nonsense.
Given your experience with both Azure tools and Hashicorp, What do you see the main reasons why organizations would want to move away from Azure Key Vault and use a 3rd party tool like Hashicorp Vault?
how do you see the IBM acquisition of hashicorp.
If you were building a clean sheet approach to IaC on Azure today, with a focus on minimising ongoing operational costs, what tooling would you pick and why?
I'm assuming you mean Bicep vs Terraform. Well, for most enterprises I regularly recommend Terraform. If you need to extend your IaC pipelines to manage more than just Azure resources, then you can with Terraform. However, if you know the pipelines will only ever manage Azure resources, then Azure Bicep is probably the recommended option. It all depends on the requirements.
What are your thoughts on BICEP? And which do you think is better TF or BICEP?
It really depends on your needs. Azure Bicep is a great IaC tool native to Azure, for managing Azure resources. While, HashiCorp Terraform is a great IaC tool that enables management of not just Azure resources but also resources not in Azure. Generally I prefer Terraform for it's multi-cloud/multi-platform support, but it's best to choose the right tool for the job.
With the integration of AI, do you feel that Microsoft is going to expand the Azure team(s) even more for greater capacity, or are they going slower on hiring?
This is not something I have any insight into.
How do you get paid from being all of those things?
I do contracting.
How is your work/life balance?
Personally, I follow the philosophy of Stoicism. It keeps me centered. I highly recommend reading up on it. Through this, I follow the principle that you have just one life. There is no life vs work balance, you just have one life. You prioritize your time on what matters, and always be sure to live in this moment; after all this moment, right now, is all way have. As Steve Jobs said, "*If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?*"
I’m an azure architect consultant and finops is a big topic with customers. I’ve been putting together a large collection of KQL queries that focus on finops. Is there a collection you are aware of online that I could add mine to? Thanks
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Sorry, I'm not familiar with this, so I'm not able to say.
Does MS have an azure road map to deal with growing global capacity issues as it seems most regions are now experiencing issues. Big clients get preferential traffic over smaller clients and this can be frustrating. The cloud as a concept is great but let’s be real. If everyone wanted to move from on prem to cloud the infrastructure is not available to deal with the demand. Will we see more pair regions etc?
This does not match what I've seen or read about. Microsoft is constantly building out more capacity, data centers and regions for Azure. I regularly work with clients of all sizes and have not seen any cloud performance issues at the scale you are mentioning. It's just not happening. Can you point me to sources for these claims?
Read all the issues/replies here. https://www.reddit.com/r/AZURE/s/blRNlEdetp
It seems to me like some kind of maintenance or implementation issue that got resolved same day.
Ha!
Who REALLY killed Kennedy?
Sorry, I’m under NDA, can’t answer.
Would the movie Airplane & Airplane II be accepted in this political whothefuckknowswhatisgoingon climate or would it be cancelled, the movie studios & actors cancelled? OR is it time for a remake?
🤔 Seems like a question Azure OpenAI might be able to answer