IT Career – Page 8 – Buchatech.com

Microsoft Professional Program for DevOps Finished!

April 19, 2018 by sbuchanan

I am a firm believer that no matter how old you are, how far along you are in your career, and regardless of the industry you are in it is important to continue educating yourself. This helps you expand your skillset, stay relevant, and sets you up for new opportunities as they come along. My field of information technology has been changing at a rapid pace and so for a while, I wanted a good way to ramp up on DevOps as a whole. A while back I found out that Microsoft added a new track to their Professional Program for DevOps. When I checked it out I found it to be very thorough and it was not just focused on Microsoft’s DevOps tooling but included non-Microsoft as well. I jumped in without hesitation and started learning.

I finally completed the program last week. Here is my certificate https://academy.microsoft.com/en-us/certificates/67284e84-8afe-4f13-b477-d7620949fb18. I am planning to dive into the program they have for cloud next. If you have not heard of Microsoft’s Professional Program DevOps before here more information about it:

“DevOps is the union of people, process, and products to enable continuous delivery of value to end users. This program helps the student learn about continuous integration and deployment, infrastructure as code, testing, databases, containers, and application monitoring: skills necessary for a DevOps culture in today’s workplace. This program focuses on Microsoft DevOps technologies as well as some OSS (Open Source Software) DevOps tools. Some of the Microsoft DevOps technologies covered in this course consist of Azure, Azure Resource Manager, IaaS, PaaS, IIS, Azure App Service, DevTest labs, Desired State Configuration (DSC), Azure Automation, OMS, Application Insights, SQL, Nuget, TFS, VSTS, and Visual Studio. Some of the OSS DevOps tools covered in this course consist of Jenkins, Git, Github, New Relic, Nagios, Chef, Docker, DC/OS, swarm, and Kubernetes.”

Here is a link to it: https://academy.microsoft.com/en-us/tracks/devops

This program consists of 8 required courses. Each course runs for three months and starts at the beginning of a quarter. In the end, there is a capstone that has to be completed. This capstone course is the 8th one. You have four weeks to complete the capstone. The capstone is a bunch of hands-on stuff you have to do. Courses average 16-32 hours per course to complete and are taken via the edX.org platform https://www.edx.org/microsoft-professional-program-devops.

Here is a list of all of the DevOps program courses:

- - Introduction to Dev Ops Practices
  - Infrastructure as Code
  - Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment
  - Configuration Management for Containerized Delivery
  - DevOps Testing
  - DevOps for Databases
  - Application Monitoring and Feedback Loops
  - Microsoft Professional DevOps Capstone Project
  - The DevOps Capstone Project contains:
    - Automation
      - Use ARM templates to deploy and configure Infrastructure in Azure
    - Continuous Integration
      - Implement Continuous Integration solution using Visual Studio Team services (VSTS)
    - Continuous deployment
      - Implement Continuous Deployment solution using Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS)
    - Testing
      - Implement Unit tests
      - Implement Testing in Production
    - Application Monitoring
      - Implement application monitoring solution using Application Insights

As you can see from that list this program is not just all about VSTS. There is a lot of Azure baked in as well as other non-Microsoft DevOps tooling. I highly recommend this course for anyone jumping into DevOps, or CloudOps and especially for folks with an IT pro background. If CloudOps is foreign to you here are a couple of blogs related to this topic: Sys Admin to Cloud Admin…ITSM to CloudOps…On-Prem to Azure Stack/Azure and Native Cloud Management in Azure.

My personal opinion is that Microsoft should move away from the certifications as they are and to this format. This format combines training and testing. When Microsoft first started the Professional Program for they only had a track for data scientists. They have added more and more tracks over time. Today there are tracks also for Big Data, Web Development, Software Development, AI, IT Support, and Cloud Administration.

Here is a link for all the tracks so you can check them out: https://academy.microsoft.com/en-us/professional-program/tracks. These programs are a great way to expand your learning. Check them out!

Microsoft MVP for 6th year!

July 2, 2017 by sbuchanan

Today was another special July 1st becuase I received an email from Microsoft stating I was awarded as an MVP for the 6th year! Here is the email: This year the award is VERY special. It is not just special becuase it is the 6th one but becuase there are other MVP’s that did not … Read more

Speaking at OSCON and MMS May 2017

May 7, 2017 by sbuchanan

May is a busy month for me with the opportunity to speak at both OSCON – Open Source Convention (https://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/oscon-tx) and MMS – Midwest Management Summit (https://mmsmoa.com)! OSCON is May 8th through the 11th in Austin Texas. MMS is May 15th through the 18th in Minnesota.

At OSCON I will be presenting on “How to Motivate Technical Employees” with friend and fellow Microsoft MVP Samuel Erskine – @samerskine. This will be on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 4:15pm–4:55pm. This session is for CIOs, CTOs, IT directors, and IT managers and will cover how to retain your top talent and give you five ways to motivate technical employees. Come to this session to learn the secret sauce for keeping employee’s engaged! Here is a link to the session: https://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/oscon-tx/public/schedule/detail/57374

At MMS I will be presenting three sessions! These sessions are:

“Awesomize your Azure Stack Deployments with Azure Stack Tools” with fellow MVP Mikael Nystrom -@mikael_nystrom.

Link: https://mms2017.sched.com/event/AUae/awesomize-your-azure-stack-deployments-with-azure-stack-tools

“Azure Operationalized” with fellow MVP Natascia Heil – @NatasciaHeil.

Link: https://mms2017.sched.com/event/AUbn/azure-operationalized

“Backup is Dead! Restore is Born in the Cloud!” with fellow MVP Robert Hedblom -@RobertandDPM.

Link: https://mms2017.sched.com/event/AUaR/backup-is-dead-restore-is-born-in-the-cloud

These conferences will be lots of great community fun! Hope to see you there.

IT Unity Community Champ & 25 ITSM Experts Feature

March 15, 2017 by sbuchanan

This has been an exciting year so far and an even more exciting week! I want to share that I am humbly honored to be featured twice this week. Once as an IT Community Champ by the highly respected Mary Jo Foley on www.petri.com and added to this years 25 ITSM Experts to watch list by Cherwell. 🙂 Again all of this was an unexpected surprise and I am honored to be included. For information on both of these check out the links below:

Featured on Mary Jo Foley‘s IT Unity Community column (petri.com)
https://www.petri.com/community-champs/stev

Cherwell’s 25 IT Service Management Experts to Watch in 2017
https://www.cherwell.com/blog/25-it-service-management-experts-to-watch-in-2017

Fun @ the MVP Summit 2016

November 18, 2016 by sbuchanan

This year at the MVP Summit was a great one.

I learned a lot of stuff mostly about OMS, System Center, and Azure Stack.

I cannot talk about any of it. 🙂

I can however talk about some of the fun times we had and share some pictures.

First picture….a warm welcome to MVP’s from around the world.

Here is a picture of the US MVPs at the summit!

all-us-mvps

Me at the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center in Redmond.

Breakout of the Cold & into MN tech

October 6, 2016 by sbuchanan

Minnesota has been a hotbed of tech for a long time. In 2015 Minnesota was named one of The Fastest-Growing States For Tech Jobs In 2015 by Forbes. Link here:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/08/18/the-fastest-growing-states-for-tech-jobs-in-2015

Also in 2015 Minnesota landed #1 on Dice.com’s Fastest-Growing States for Tech Jobs. Link here:

http://media.dice.com/report/august-2015-fastest-growing-states-for-tech-jobs

Most recently within the past few Months Amazon has opened an office in Downtown Minneapolis with 100 full time tech positions giving the local tech community another boost on the national scale. Here is an article that covers the topic of companies such as Amazon expanding into this market to tap into the rich technical talent pool. Article: High-tech talent grab Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2016/09/30/high-tech-talent-grab.html

Back in the 1960’s Control Data Corporation one of the nine original major computer companies in the US was headquartered in Minnesota and later in the 1970’s Cray super computer also came out of Minnesota. In recent years it’s been heating up even more and the word has been getting out. Minnesota’s tech scene is stronger than ever with a number of high profile startups as well as many well established tech based organizations. Some of the hot tech startups include:

Code42

JAMF Software

The Nerdery

Leadpages

Upsie

Vidku

Field Nation

And other notable tech organizations are:

SPS Commerce

Stratasys

Optum

Lawson Software

Compellent (Acquired by Dell some years back)

Digital River

The list of startups and other large tech organizations could fill up an entire blog post itself so I had to limit the list.

I am from Minnesota and proud to be a part of this thriving tech community. Recently a documentary about the tech scene in Minnesota was released named DocuMNtary.

documntary

This film was produced by a techie named Nick Roseth, music done by the MN super hip hop collective Doomtree, and narrated by legendary MN hip hop emcee Dessa also of Doomtree. I was impressed that Nick pulled in Doomtree and Dessa to help with the film. A great move in my opinion. They help bring an artistic and authentic MN feel to the film’s creative side.

They kick off the film by getting the obvious out of the way….Minnesota’s cold weather. Once we break out from the cold it is time to focus on the culture and tech. Next they examine what makes Minnesota great, why people stay when they come to MN and the great things about the culture. They also touch on why MN tends to be a collaborative culture. The film then moves into the history of tech in MN and establishes the roots.

They continue through the film showcasing several startups, how the tech ecosystem is supportive, tech training, associations/government agencies that help facilitate tech in MN, events such as MN Cup, Startup week, and more. The film calls out a Minnesota focused website named Tech{dot}MN http://tech.mn. Tech{dot}MN is the go to for all things MN tech such as events, user groups, startup and other tech news. They even address the issue of diversity in tech and what is happening in MN to help bridge this gap.

In the film they interviewed 50 players in the tech scene from a variety of companies and organizations. Here is a screenshot of all the featured people.

50people

Towards the end of the film it was admitted that Minnesotans are not the best at telling our story due to our Midwestern and humble nature. There was a call to action for viewers that are in tech and from Minnesota to do some bragging and get the word out about the magic happening in tech. This prompted me to write this blog post! I hope you enjoyed this breakdown about the DocuMNtary film. The film website is: http://www.documntary.com

You can watch it here:

I also want to call out some things that were not covered in this film that are happening in Minnesota tech. We have a thriving community in the Microsoft space. In fact Minnesota is 1 of 20 locations in North America that Microsoft has chosen to place one of their Microsoft Technology Centers (MTC). You can learn more about the MTC here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mtc/locations/minneapolis.aspx

Minnesota is home to 24 Microsoft MVP’s including myself. Here are some of the names of our local Microsoft MVP’s.

Brian Mason

Nash Pherson

Tim Curwick

Ryan Ephgrave

Tim Star

Paul Timmerman

ASP.NET MVP: Robert Boedigheimer – Blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/boedie

Data Platform MVP: Dan English

Will Smith

Scott Hamilton

Wes Preston

Cloud and Data Center Management MVP: Greg Shulz – Blog: http://storageioblog.com

Each of these Microsoft MVP’s are highly talented in their respective areas of technological expertise and Microsoft has selected them for this. I am proud to have such a high concentration of MVP’s in Minnesota. Learn more about the MVP program here: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/overview

Minnesota can boasts about some of the highest turnouts for our user groups and events.

SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities is the biggest one in the US with attendance often reaching 800+. More about this event here: www.spstc.com

MN SQL Saturday is an annual event that has been around for some time. This event typically attracts 450+ attendee’s with many MVP’s coming out to present. http://www.sqlsaturday.com/557/EventHome.aspx

Midwest Management Summit (MMS) has been around for 4 years. It is held at the Radisson Blue Mall of America and has sold out every year. Experts and attendee’s come from all of the US and the world to be a part of this magical event around Microsoft management technologies on premises and cloud. MMS has experts come in from Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Canada and more. Here is an old Microsoft blog post from Microsoft on MMS https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/mvpawardprogram/2015/11/16/mvps-from-around-the-world-come-together-again-for-mms-2015-in-minnesota and the offical website here: https://mmsmoa.com.

Some of the MMS folks also are involved in the MN System Center User Group (MNSCUG) https://mnscug.org and Minnesota Azure User Group http://www.mnazureusergroup.com. It is not uncommon for MNSCUG to host full day events with 100+ attendee’s and the MN Azure UG to get 50+ attendee’s.

DevOps Days Minneapolis is another event held in Minnesota that attracts a large crowd and speakers from all over! More about this event here: https://www.devopsdays.org/events/2016-minneapolis

On top of that Minnesota has SQL Pass, IoT UG’s, Twin Cities MAC Admins Meetup, Amazon AWS UG’s and more. A full list of user groups and events can be found on Tech{dot}MN.

Beyond the just the tech community eco-system If you want to launch a startup, work in corporate tech, work for a partner company to one of the big tech companies (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM), work in open source, work as a developer, or even freelance Minnesota has a place for you.

So to wrap up this post the next time you think of MN go beyond the perception of the cold, our numerous sports teams, and the 10k lakes remember this is a tech hot bed and its only getting hotter all the time!

5th Year Microsoft MVP!

July 2, 2016 by sbuchanan

Today was a special day as I received an email from Microsoft stating I was awarded as an MVP for the 5th year! Here is the email:

5th Year Microsoft MVP

This marks a special year. Microsoft awards you the special 5 year chip to add to your award. Here is a picture of the chip:

5th Year Microsoft MVP Chip

I am humbled to make it this long in the MVP program. A huge thanks goes out to everyone in the community and Microsoft. And as always I am honored to still be a part of such a great group of people. I have made many friends all over the world with other MVP’s, community, and Microsoft. I am looking forward to another exciting year of contributing to the community.

I will continue to do all that I can in the System Center community this year. Something new you will see from me this year is I will be contributing as much as I can also in the OMS and Azure Stack space. I am very excited about the new opportunities that are coming out of the growth of cloud.

My Microsoft MVP Profile: http://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/mvp/Steve%20Buchanan-4039736

Congrats to all the other new and renewed MVP’s!

Free Cloud Resources for IT Pro’s

April 21, 2016 by sbuchanan

A couple of years ago Microsoft ended TechNet. A lot of IT Pro’s were unhappy with that decision. IT Pro’s used TechNet to practice in their own labs and get up to speed on new technologies. Well on April 20th, 2016 Microsoft has an answer for this (NOTE: this is my opinion not any official statement from Microsoft).

Microsoft has launched the “Microsoft IT Pro Career Center” and the the free “Microsoft IT Pro Cloud Essentials“.

The Microsoft IT Pro Career Center is a free online resource to help map your cloud career path. Learn what industry experts suggest for your cloud role and the skills to get you there. Follow a learning curriculum at your own pace to build the skills you need most to stay relevant.
Microsoft IT Pro Cloud Essentials is a free annual subscription for IT Pro’s that basically gives you Azure, EMS, O365 resources to practice and learn with. It even comes with a Pluralsight account. It includes:

Free Azure credits to try cloud scenarios like backup, disaster recovery, security & dev/test.
Free Pluralsight subscription for on-line training.
Free Priority support in the TechNet forums.
A free phone support incident for Azure or on-premises products.
A free certification exam voucher. [2]
Extended trials of Enterprise Mobility Suite and Office 365.

This is huge. Many of my IT buddies have said they want to jump in on cloud but could not afford to pay for the accounts out of pocket. Well this is no longer an excuse.

Recently Dice published a report that Azure was #2 on the list of the fastest-growing tech skills. Here is the link:

http://insights.dice.com/2016/04/12/dice-report-fastest-growing-tech-skills-2 . I would bet that with the pace Microsoft is moving with Azure this will become the #1 tech skill in the near future. As an IT Pro Azure is something you definitely want to be looking into.

If you are an IT Pro and you want to get started with cloud jump out there and get started today.

Microsoft IT Pro Career Center:

https://www.itprocloudessentials.com

Microsoft IT Pro Cloud Essentials:

https://www.itprocareercenter.com

Surviving the Future of IT as an IT Pro

November 17, 2015 by sbuchanan

At MMS 2015 we had some interesting discussions in the Ask the Data center experts session. One of the discussions was centered around how IT is changing and how to adapt. For a while there has been a paradigm shift happening in IT. It is hard hitting for those on the front line especially IT Pro’s.

With the advent of many technologies moving to XaaS (x as a Service) based and the challenges for IT pro’s to move from strictly the ops side of IT to more of a DevOps model as well as becoming an internal technology consultant to the business IT Pros can feel lost in the paradigm shift.

The goal of this blog post is twofold. 1. I want to expand on this discussion with my opinion of how an IT Pro can remain relevant in the future of IT. 2. My friends over at Savision asked me to write a blog post and I thought this would be a great topic for it because they have some tools that can help with this transition.

Here are key points and additionally skills/mindset needed as an IT Pro moving into the future of IT:

Accepting Shadow IT….. Ability to manage anyway.

Shadow IT is the practice of business units spinning up their own IT solutions without organizational approval. With the expansion of cloud Shadow IT is becoming easier for business units to undertake.

Technology Budgets are no longer 100% controlled within IT anymore. Many departments own their own technology budget.
For so long IT has had the reputation of being “No People” and a dinosaur that takes forever to get things done. Embracing Shadow IT is about enabling the business, moving faster from conception to solution. Embracing Shadow IT will also change the reputation IT to “Yes People”.
This will cause the business to come back to IT first as internal SME’s to help them select the right outside solutions bringing internal IT Pros back into the loop.
Instead of focusing on how to stop business units for spinning up the technology solutions they need, help them. At the same time look for solutions that can help put governance and management around Shadow IT. A good example of this are three solutions from Microsoft such as Cloud App discovery (Discovery of cloud applications used in an organization), Azure Active Directory (Single Sign On, Centralized log on to cloud based applications and much more), and OMS (Management of cross platform clouds i.e. Amazon, Azure, Rackspace etc.).