sbuchanan I am very excited that today my AZ-900 course broke into the top 100 on
Pluralsight!
The topic on my course is: “Microsoft Azure Pricing and Support Options”.
If you are studying for the AZ-900 exam or getting started with Azure check it out here:
I have been waiting for this one to release! I was a guest on Blacks In Technology ‘s renowned podcast BITTechTalk.
On this episode we talk about; the pros and cons of having a coding background vs infra, what it’s like coming from infrastructure into DevOps, the importance of networking skills in DevOps.
We get into the fact that many folks in the tech industry have to jump ship to get the promotion & better pay, being in consulting vs internal tech, what it’s like being a Microsoft MVP, changing the narrative of blacks in tech, tech salaries and much more!
Check out the podcast episode with the BIT founder Greg Greenlee & me here:
https://www.blacksintechnology.net/bittechtalk-ep-127-steve-buchanan-pc-tech-to-microsoft-mvp/
I was honored to be a guest on a #podcast by a new startup named Black Tech Talent.
The founder & me discuss some tough topics such as: breaking into tech, finding black tech talent, black employee retention, racism, colorism & more.
Check out the podcast here:
https://www.blacktechtalent.org/btt-discussions-ep-3-ft-steve-buchanan/
Thanks to AzureCrazy.com for featuring me in an interview.
In the article we discussed being a Microsoft MVP, getting certified in Azure, the positive impact PowerShell can have on ones IT Career, getting started with Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Stack Hub & more. Check it out here:
Over the past couple of months I have been hard at work on some more Pluralsight courses. I am excited to announce that today I released 2 new courses on Pluralsight! These are both cloud related courses. One course is more DevOps focused and the other is focused more on cloud security. One of the courses is intermediate while the other is for those beginning with cloud. It’s pretty cool to have two courses listed on Pluralsight’s new releases!
Here are the courses:
Heroku: The Big Picture
This course will teach you the basics of Heroku from; architecture components, developer and operational tooling, along with limitations and benefits of using the platform.
Heroku is a cloud PaaS service that enables companies to speed up the application lifecycle; building, delivering, monitoring, and scaling applications without the headaches of standing up infrastructure to support the application.
Some of the major topics covered in this Cloud Computing course are:
By the end of this course, you will gain a better understanding of the Heroku platform all up including how to build and operate an application on it.
Check out the course here: https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/heroku-big-picture
Cloud Computing Fundamentals: Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Security
This course will teach you the fundamental knowledge needed to understand the essentials of cloud Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Security.
Some of the major topics covered in this Cloud Computing course are:
This Cloud Computing course will help you prepare for the CompTIA Cloud Essentials+ exam. This course is also useful if you don’t plan to take the CompTIA exam and just need to ramp up on cloud security.
Take this course if you want to learn cloud essentials, what it takes to successfully adopt cloud, the impact of cloud on IT service management, how security, and risks apply to cloud as well as consequences. This course is for someone with some exposure to cloud technologies and a general background in Information Technology at the minimum of a business analyst level.
Check out the course here: https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/cloud-computing-fundamentals-governance-risk-compliance-security
I hope you find value in each of these courses. These two courses bring me to a total of 5 courses now published on the Pluralsight platform. Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses! I will be releasing more courses soon!
Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow me: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/steve-buchanan
I am excited to announce that I am one of the experts in several Ask the Expert sessions during Microsoft Ignite 2020 this week.
I will be a part of a variety of sessions with topics ranging from Linux and PowerShell on Azure, Kubernetes on Azure, Azure Migration, and Transforming Windows Server workloads in Azure.
My Speaker profile:
https://myignite.microsoft.com/speaker/ce1ea0e0-3f42-4986-90ab-aee809e3735d
The sessions are:
Here is the link to the Ignite home page myignite.microsoft.com. I hope to see you on the digital Ignite event and in one of the Ask the Expert Sessions!
Being a part of several Ask the Expert sessions was really fun! My most memorable session was the Ask the Expert: Linux and PowerShell on Azure session.
This session was packed full of superstars from Microsoft product groups and fellow MVPs including; Jeffery Snover, Jason Helmick, Janaka Rangama, and Alexander Nikolić. Here is a screenshot from the session:
After the session, I tweeted about the session and shared some wisdom about PowerShell, and both Jeffery Snover and Jason Helmick retweet my tweet!
2020 is not all bad. It’s pretty cool when the inventor of PowerShell and the PowerShell Program Manager retweet you!
Today I went on “Tech Talk Wednesday” a podcast and radio show with Kazeem Adegboyega The topic was “30 Minutes of Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)“. It streamed online via Microsoft Teams and aired in Lagos, Nigeria on Lagos State University (LASU) radio (95.7).
I had a great time talking with Kazeem! Even Sam Erskine made a guest appearance. If you missed the live show you can watch it on YouTube:
Or go directly to the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7GCHQudCWg
I am honored to be a guest next Wednesday, August 26th on the “Tech Talk Wednesday” podcast and radio show with Kazeem Adegboyega (@KazeemCanTeach)! We will be chatting about Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
This show will be streamed online via Microsoft Teams and will air in Lagos, Nigeria on Lagos State University (LASU) radio (95.7)!
One of my goals is to help spread knowledge about tech in Africa and showcase African technologists in the US. This is the first step in that journey.
Be sure to tune in. Go here to register: http://kazeem.com.ng/index.php/tech-talk
Don’t worry if you can’t make the live stream. It will be recorded and posted later on Kazeem’s website.
Microsoft has been making some amazing enhancements to AKS and in the open-source space in general. This effort has been making it easier to use Kubernetes and easier for folks who are getting started with Kubernetes.
Recently Microsoft has added more functionally called “Kubernetes resource view“.
This allows you to see and work with some Kubernetes resources directly in the Azure portal. As you can see in the previous screenshot it includes Namespaces, Workloads, and Services. When you deploy a new AKS cluster this is enabled by default.
If you have deployed an AKS cluster before this functionality was release you will need to enable the Kubernetes resource view. You can choose what namespace to enable this on. It will look like this:
The three main areas of resources are:
In these resource areas, you can view the resources, add, delete, and show labels.
You can click on a resource to see the properties of it under Overview. The overview tab has valuable information for example for a pod you can see the pod status, the containers that belong to it, its conditions, and more. Here are some screenshots:
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You can see any events around the resource and you can even view or edit the resources Yaml. Here is what it looks like when editing a resource:
Well, this was a quick blog post to give an early look at the new Kubernetes resource view in AKS. I recommend you check out it! Remember this is a preview and it’s going to get better and better.
I can imagine in the future we will be able to access more Kubernetes resources and API Objects in the Azure portal. For example, it will be cool to be able to work with Secrets, and Configmaps right in the Azure portal! I don’t know about you, but I am very excited about what Microsoft has been doing with AKS!
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!
Here is my Acclaim badge for it: https://www.youracclaim.com/badges/309a8223-fd41-4e5a-876a-0066f4d32e23
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:
https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner/table-of-contents
AWS to Azure services comparison:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/aws-professional/services
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide blog post by Janeice DelVecchio and Scott Selikoff (includes a PDF):
The test was not super hard. Good luck if you plan to take it!