2021 is off to a great start & it’s only the 2nd month. 😎
I am excited and honored to announce I am featured in an article in Minnesota’s largest newspaper the Star Tribune on SuperBowl Sunday!
Here is a picture of the article in the paper:
You can read the full article here:
There is another wave coming. This wave is GitOps. GitOps is a technology pattern and operational framework. It is often used for Kubernetes however is really for cloud-native applications in general. Being that a large amount of cloud-native applications these days are designed and built to run on Kubernetes it is no surprise that GitOps is commonly adopted in Kubernetes environments. If you are running Kubernetes or looking at it chances are you may have heard of GitOps. This is how I define GitOps:
“GitOps is an operating model pattern for cloud native applications storing application & declarative infrastructure code in Git as the source of truth used for automated continuous delivery.”
Well, that sums up with GitOps is but it still is a mouthful and can take a bit to wrap ones head around it. In a nutshell GitOps is shifting everything to code, storing everything in Git, making Git the source of truth, and using an operator deploy what is described in Git in your environment including the application and the configuration. With GitOps you describe the desired state of your entire system and GitOps makes it so. It simplifies operations and makes the experience for developers much better allowing them to work out of a tool they are familiar with (Git). Here is a basic sample diagram to give you a visual idea about what GitOps is and how it works:
So in the case of Kubernetes you would have your app code in Git, your container images in Git, and your Kubernetes manifest files. Now there is more to it and how it works but we will not get into all of that in this blog post. This is a good Segway to purpose of this blog post.
The purpose of this blog post is that I just dropped my 7th Pluralsight course GitOps: The Big Picture! This was a fun course to build as I am passionate about and like working with Containers, Kubernetes, and cloud.
A quick shoutout to both Fellow Microsoft MVP/Pluralsight Author Tim Warner and Jason Alba for amplifying my new course!
This course teaches the fundamentals of GitOps, the need for GitOps, GitOps architecture, GitOps workflow, GitOps principles, practices, & tooling such as Flux, Argo CD, AND Jenkins X. Also in this course, GitOps: The Big Picture, you’ll learn what it takes to adopt GitOps. First, you’ll explore what GitOps is and its benefits. Next, you’ll discover GitOps Tooling NS Architecture. Finally, you’ll learn how to use GitOps Workflows. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills & knowledge of the GitOps framework needed to take the next steps with GitOps.
In the course I give a couple of demos so you can see GitOps in action. The first demo is on “deploying an application using Argo CD” and the second demo is on “GitOps in Action with Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes using Flux”. Another interesting fact about GitOps is we are starting to see the major cloud providers bring GitOps into their offerings such as Azure Arc and or couple GitOps with their services like with GCP GKE as well as create content on using GitOps with their managed Kubernetes services like with AWS EKS.
GitOps is going to continue to grow right along with the continued growth of Containers, Kubernetes, and Cloud. I am all in and you will see blogs, books, courses, speaking at events, and more from me around GitOps as I continue on my personal journey with it.
Check out the “GitOps: The Big Picture” course here: https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/gitops-the-big-picture
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 on topics around Azure, GitOps, SAP on Azure, & Kubernetes courses soon!
Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow me: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/steve-buchanan
2020 was an extraordinarily tough year with many downs for so many people all over the world. For me losing 3 people in a week and a half (not to COVID) along with all the funerals to follow was rough. Also, the injustice in my home city with the murder of George Floyd and unrest was unbelievable but not a surprise with injustice going un-noticed for so long. It was amazing to see the world wake up and acknowledge what has been happening for so long.
In spite of all of the bad stuff from 2020, there was a tremendous amount of good stuff happening and progress. I believe there is always an opportunity in the middle of chaos. To see the opportunity it is needed to take a step back, slow down, and analyze the board. In this post, I am going to recap the positives from this year as I have done in the past few years.
Let me start off with the fact that I was renewed for my 9th year as a Microsoft MVP! I was re-awarded in the Azure category for the 3rd year. I never take the Microsoft MVP award for granted as it is never guaranteed. I am honored to once again be among such a talented group of people across the globe!
The next thing I want to call out is a message I received from someone from my home city after listening to one of the podcasts I was featured on. In this message this upcoming tech star talked about how he was inspired by the episode and how he can relate to me. This message was inspiring to me as this is a huge part of what I want to do through sharing my story. I hope to see more of it in the future. Here is the message:
Ok, now lets get into the list of activity from 2020!
-Podcasts-
In 2020 I was honored to be featured on 7 podcasts! Some of the podcasts in the US, Europe, and Africa! Here are the podcasts:
Guest on “Lisa at the Edge” Podcast EP13: In the podcast episode Lisa and I talked about: Evolving your career as technology evolves, Transformation of IT dept to Strategic Business Partner, DevOps, Containers 101, Azure Kubernetes Service, Diversity in tech. Episode link here
Guest on Packet Pushers podcast Cloud Governance, Bringing Order To Your Cloud Chaos. Podcast episode here:
Guest on a #podcast by @blacktechtalent. The founder & I discuss topics such as: breaking into tech, finding black tech talent, black employee retention, racism, colorism & more. You can listen here: https://www.blacktechtalent.org/btt-discussions-ep-3-ft-steve-buchanan/
Was a guest on Tech Talk Wednesday podcast and radio show with Kazeem Adegboyega Topic: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in 30 minutes. Streamed online via Microsoft Teams and aired in Lagos, Nigeria on Lagos State University (LASU) radio (95.7).
10/31/2020 FEATURED ON BITTECHTALK EPISODE #127 – BITTechTalk ep. #127 Steve Buchanan – PC Tech to Microsoft MVP
Guest on Black Tech Talent podcast.
11/5/2020 Guest on the RunAs Radio Podcast –
Guest on Headinthecloud Heartinthecommunity a community show by Isidora Katanic and Holly Lehman.
-Pluralsight Courses-
In 2020 I developed 5 new courses for Pluralsight bringing the total to 6! This is an opportunity to continue sharing my knowledge with the world through Pluralsight’s global platform. You can find my Pluralsight Author page here:
https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/steve-buchanan
Here are my blogs about the courses throughout 2020:
One more highlight from my journey with Pluralsight in 2020 is that my AZ-900 course broke into the top 100 courses on Pluralsight! This actually stayed here for multiple months!
I am excited about the potential with Pluralsight for 2021!
-Speaking-
In 2020 I presented at some conferences and user groups. Here is where I presented in 2020:
Inside Azure Management event conference
I was a speaker during the “Inside Azure Management Summit” on 7/23/2020. This was a free community event. It featured Microsoft cloud experts from the authoring team of “Inside Azure Management” book, Microsoft MVP’s, and community experts from around the world. I presented on Azure Policy! My session can be watched here:
I was one of the experts in several Ask the Expert sessions during Microsoft Ignite 2020! Sessions included PowerShell on Azure, Kubernetes on Azure, and Azure Migrations.
Presented at an Azure User Group based in Ghana, in Africa on Terraform for Azure!
-Interviews-
I was featured on AzureCrazy.com in an article! In the Interview we discuss being a #Microsoft MVP, getting certified in #Azure, the positive impact #PowerShell can have on your #ITCareer, getting started with #AKS, #AzureStackHub & more. Check it out here:
-Certifications-
Since 2020 was full of time spent inside at home I took some time to knock out a few certifications.
I took and passed the Docker certification! CKA will be in my future.
I decided to study for and passed an AWS certification!
I also gained a Terraform certification by contributing to the Terraform associate exam and helped out with a Terraform certification study guide!
-More-
I also spent time writing blogs, volunteering with some youth tech programs, as well as shared a couple of scripts on GitHub! Here are some posts about some of these:
2020 was a full year. I already have plans and stuff in the works to make 2021 an exciting year continuing with a focus on Azure, Containers, Kubernetes, IaC, Terraform, GitOps, and more! Please check back here often for new blogs, scripts, and more.
I am happy to announce that my latest Pluralsight course has been published. I am extra proud of this one because it is a first on the Pluralsight platform! The course is “SAP on Azure: The Big Picture“. This is the first SAP on Azure course to land on Pluralsight.
SAP is the #1 business software in the world. SAP is used by so many companies around the world. SAP projects are some of the largest projects in IT. SAP has a huge push for customers to move to its latest version SAP’s ERP solution S/4HANA by 2025. Even though you can buy extended support for current versions there is still a preference for customers to move to the new version. With this push to move most businesses and CIO’s view this as a chance to also move to hosting SAP in the cloud.
There is a shortage of IT professionals that know SAP and know cloud such as Azure. Having SAP skills can be a game changer for anyone’s IT career. Combine SAP and Azure skills and watch your career accelerate even further.
Both Azure and SAP skills can be hard to gain without someone taking a chance placing you on one of these projects. It is not easy to break into the world of SAP and part of that reason is a lack of starter courses.
I have held various roles on several SAP on Azure projects gaining key skills in this area. My goal with this course was to bring forward a starting point for those looking to get some training and break into this area.
This course will teach you a fundamental understanding of SAP, the various cloud hosting options, and core knowledge for hosting SAP on Azure.
This course is packed with 1 hour and 29 minutes of info for those wanting to get started with running SAP on Azure.
If one of these sound familiar:
-You have skills with Azure and want to learn more about SAP
-You have skills with SAP and want to learn more about Azure
-You want to get started with both Azure and SAP
-You want to pursue the AZ-120: Planning and Administering Microsoft Azure for SAP Workloads exam
Well this course is for you!
In this course, SAP on Azure: The Big Picture, you’ll learn to what it takes to host SAP on Azure. First, you’ll explore the different SAP cloud hosting options.
Next, you’ll discover why Azure is a good fit for SAP and gain an understanding of the Microsoft and SAP partnership.
Finally, you’ll learn how to learn about the different SAP components, get SAP on Azure architectural guidance, and learn the about the differences between SAP on Azure migrations compared to greenfield deployments.
When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have core skills and knowledge of hosting SAP on Azure needed to be an asset on SAP on Azure projects.
Check out the course here:
https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/sap-azure-big-picture
I hope you find value in this new SAP on Azure course. This new course brings me to a total of 6 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
Recently I was a guest on another podcast! This one is RunAsRadio.com.
Had a great time chatting with Richard Campbell about Infrastructure As Code and comparing Terraform with Azure ARM Templates & the new Bicep language. Check it out here:
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