Happy to be a Microsoft MVP for the 10th year even though this is not like the other years. As always 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.
This is my third year as an Azure focused MVP. Again I am honored to be among the ranks of taltented Azure folks. I am looking forward to the 2021-2022 MVP award year full of exciting community stuff. I plan to do more speaking, podcasts, books, and of course Pluralsight courses. I also plan to pick up blogging again and getting a little more active posting blogs on here.
As always I am honored to remain a part of MVP program. I will continue to do all that I can in the Azure, Azure Arc, AKS, and GitOps/DevOps communities this year.
Today Pluralsight published 1 of 2 Azure Arc courses I am building. This marks my 10th course on Pluralsight! This first course is Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes: Getting Started. Azure Arc is a key service in the Azure story extending Azure to the on-premises data center and or multiple clouds outside of Azure.
This course is just under 2 hours and packed full of information & demos to help you get started with the topic. I go into a deeper understanding of the multi-cloud market, Kubernetes in the enterprise, and Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes. Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes architecture. Setting up and using Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes. And using GitOps with Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes.
I am excited about releasing this course for several reasons: #1 Azure Arc is a newer technology from Microsoft and I am happy to share my knowledge about it, #2 This one is a combination of Azure Arc, Kubernetes, & GitOps all technologies I have been working with regularly, #3 Azure is growing, Kubernetes is growing, and multi-cloud is growing all in the enterprise and this course covers all three of these.
Here is the description of the course:
Managing Kubernetes clusters across on-premises and multiple clouds can be disjointed and overly complicated. In this course, Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes: Getting Started, you’ll learn to how to manage external Kubernetes clusters with Azure Arc. First, you’ll explore what Azure Arc k8s is and how to use it. Next, you’ll discover the features of Azure Arc K8s and how to use them. Finally, you’ll learn how to how to use Azure Arc K8s and GitOps to deploy applications. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes needed to manage Kubernetes clusters across on-premises and multiple clouds.
Here are the areas and topics of the course:
Understanding Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes
Intro and Topics
Understanding Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes
Understanding Azure Arc Enabled Kubernetes Use Cases
This course is also a part of the all new Azure Arc path titled “Managing Environments with Azure Arc” on Pluralsight. There are other courses in the path already such as Azure Arc: The Big Picture, Azure Arc-enabled Data Services: The Big Picture, and Azure Arc and Azure Lighthouse: First Look and many more Azure Arc courses on the way.
I hope you find value in this new Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes: Getting Started course. Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses including my second Azure Arc related course!
This brand new path is Planning and Administering Microsoft Azure for SAP Workloads (AZ-120). This path also has a course by Tim Warner as well as two more being developed right now! Also, I should mention this path also contains my SAP on Azure: The Big Picture course.
This new path will help you prepare to take the AZ-120 exam to earn your Microsoft Certified: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty certification and ramp up on SAP on Azure in general.
I hope you find value in this new SAP on Azure learning path on Pluralsight. Again these two new courses bring me to a total of 9 courses now published on the Pluralsight platform! Next up I will start working on some Azure courses. These new courses will cover managing servers and Kubernetes with Azure Arc. I am very excited about my next courses. Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release these new courses!
Recently (April 2021) I was invited to be a panelist during an event for the Workforce Innovation Board of Ramsey County. At this event, we discussed how to leverage tech skills and the Ramsey County tech ecosystem to support a transformative workforce recovery. This panel was hosted by Tony Lusiba, WIB Tech Committee Chair.
Recently I had the honor to be a guest on my friend and fellow Microsoft MVP Mike Pfeiffer’s Cloudskills.fm podcast again! This was episode is “106: Steve Buchanan on Cloud Native, DevOps, GitOps, Kubernetes, and Azure“. I was excited to be a guest again on the CloudSkills podcast and catch up with Mike.
On this new episode, we had a chance to talk about a variety of topics like leveling up your career, what I have been up to, diversity and inclusion in the tech, of course Azure, Azure Arc, DevOps, Kubernetes, GitOps, we even touched on SAP on Azure, among other insights.
You can listen to the podcast episode 106 right here on my blog:
Back in 2019 I was a guest on the Cloudskills.fm podcast on episode # 15. The past episode was a lot of fun with more of a focus on your career in the world of IT. If you want to check that out here.
I will be speaking at the LASU TechX conference on Friday. I will be talking about the “Available Container Technologies in Azure”. I will go into what containers are, how they compare to VM’s, types of containers, things to consider before containerizing applications, what container service in Azure to use in what case, and more.
About The Event:
LASU TechX conference is an event that is aimed at attracting students and all tech enthusiasts within and outside the university (Lagos State University). This event is co-organized by Kazeem Adegboyega.
Speakers include:
Microsoft MVP – Samuel Erskine Microsoft MVP – Isidora Kitanic Chris Hoard Microsoft MVP – Adnan Hendricks Microsoft Employee – Holly Lehman Microsoft MVP – Steve Buchanan Ayodeji Folarin
Here is a flyer for the event:
For more details on the event and to register go here:
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
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).
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:
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.
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:
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
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.
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!
I am happy to announce my last speaking event for 2020. Speaking at a Azure User Group based out of Ghana.
I will be speaking on Terraform and Azure! I will be diving into how to get started with using Terraform as your Infrastructure as Code tool for Azure.
This is a full event with 3 sessions. I will be joined by Microsoft Sr Cloud Advocate Thomas Maurer speaking on Azure Arc and fellow Microsoft MVP Lawrence Reddy speaking on Azure Sentinel!
The event Saturday, 5th December 2020. I hope to see you there. You can register here:
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:
