Category: Certification

Last updated by Thomas Maurer at November 1, 2018.

Oct042018October 4, 2018October 4, 20180 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Microsoft Learn – A Great Place To Learn!

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Work

In a world with always evolving and fast changing technology, it can be hard to keep up with the latest innovation. However, in our just we need to keep learning and be more efficient. It can be difficult to find the right resources and the right content. This is why Microsoft launched Microsoft Learn, a new platform to learn technology and keep up with the fast pace of our industry.

Microsoft recently switch the certification programs for Azure to role-based certifications, for example Azure Administrators, Azure Developers and Azure Architects. The new Microsoft Learn platform also gives you a training and modules based on your role selection.

Microsoft Learn Guide

The platform has a guided experience, explaining you the technology with text, videos, control questions, but also with hands-on training using sandboxes in Azure for free.

Microsoft Learn Sandbox and Hands-on

You cannot only read and watch videos, you also have a hands-on expierence. You can get a sandbox environment to live try code or even the portal experience to work with Azure or other Microsoft technology. In this example, I have the Microsoft Learn Guide on one site and Azure Cloud Shell on the other. I don’t even need to jump out of the learning experience, I just simply can try out the code.

Get started with Microsoft Learn

The Microsoft Learning platform is much more than I just explained. And Microsoft is working hard on adding even more content for more products and services to the page. If you want to get startet with Azure Certifications or just Azure in general, Microsoft Learn is the place to be!

And the best thing, it is free. You get amazing content guide and explained with labs to even try it out by yourself. The only thing you need is time and the willingness to learn. To try it out, just visit the Microsoft Learn homepage and let me know what you think!

Oct042018October 4, 2018October 5, 20182 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate

Passed Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Work

After the announcement of the new Microsoft Azure certifications at Microsoft Inspire in Las Vegas, I decided to take the beta exam which was available to upgrade my current Azure certifications. Since I had already passed Exam 70-533 Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, I needed exam AZ-102 to do the transition. Today I got confirmation that I passed the Microsoft exam AZ-102 and earned the Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate certification.

I already took the new available beta Exam for the Microsoft Certified Azure Architect at Microsoft Ignite, however for the results I still need to wait a bit.

What is Exam AZ-102 Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate

The new certifications are based on different job roles, like Azure Administrator, Azure Developer and Azure Architect. You can read more about the new Azure Certifications here on my blog.

Earning Azure Administrator Associate certification demonstrates understanding of services across the IT lifecycle, and ability to take requests for infrastructure services, applications, and environments. Candidates for this certification are typically Azure Administrators who manage cloud services spanning storage, security, networking, and compute cloud capabilities. They recommend services to use for optimal performance and scale, as well as provision, size, monitor, and adjust resources.

This is great news to start in the day while I am flying to a customer in Paris today for some more Azure work.

Exam Preparation

The skills measured in AZ-102 are a mix from AZ-100 and AZ-101 and will focus on Azure Infrastructure and deployment, Azure Integration and Azure Security.

I often get asked how I prepared for exams such as this. Obviously it makes sense to certify the knowledge you already have. I usually use Microsoft free online courses on Channel 9, Virtual Academy and now the new Microsoft Learn. However, I realized that also the Azure Documentation is a great resource to learn. I recommend you check the skills needed for the exam, in this case AZ-102 and read the specific Azure Documentation for these topics, and also try it out.

Jul172018July 17, 2018August 14, 20181 Commentby Thomas Maurer

New Microsoft Azure Certifications announced

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Work

This week Microsoft Inspire takes place in Las Vegas, unfortunately I couldn’t make it this year. However, some of my colleagues from itnetX Switzerland and itnetX are there, don’t miss them and visit our booth! During the first day keynote at Microsoft Inspire, Microsoft quickly announced 3 new Azure Certifications for Administrators, Developers and Architects. You can already take the beta exams for the Azure Certified Administrator with more information on the Microsoft Learning Blog.

New Microsoft Azure Certifications

The three new Microsoft Azure Certifications are:

Microsoft Certified Azure Developer
Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator
Microsoft Certified Azure Architect

Jul012018July 1, 2018August 14, 20180 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Microsoft MVP 2018-2019 Cloud and Datacenter Management

Posted in Award, Certification, Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Microsoft MVP, Private Cloud, System Center, Virtualization, Windows, Windows Server, Work

I am proud to announce that I was awarded today by Microsoft, with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for 2018-2019 in two major categories Cloud and Datacenter Management and Microsoft Azure. This is my 7th Microsoft MVP award since 2012, and I couldn’t be more excited about this one.

Dear
Thomas Maurer,
We’re once again pleased to present you with the 2018-2019 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award in recognition of your exceptional technical community leadership. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in the following technical communities during the past year:

· Cloud and Datacenter Management

The Microsoft MVP award title is a huge honor and it stand for the contributions I have been doing in the IT community as an Microsoft expert for the past years. The Microsoft MVP award also comes with some benefits, like a NDA and access to the Microsoft Product Groups, as well as the yearly Microsoft MVP Global Summit on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond. But one of the biggest benefit overall is that it gives you the opportunity to speak at different conferences all over the world. This and having the chance to speak with people from all over the world, which share the same passion is priceless.

Who are MVPs?
Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the “bleeding edge” and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies. They have very deep knowledge of Microsoft products and services, while also being able to bring together diverse platforms, products and solutions, to solve real world problems. MVPs make up a global community of over 4,000 technical experts and community leaders across 90 countries and are driven by their passion, community spirit, and quest for knowledge. Above all and in addition to their amazing technical abilities, MVPs are always willing to help others – that’s what sets them apart.

Source https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/Overview

I need to thank many people which are helping me to achieve this and making the most out of it. I would like to thank my employer itnetX which is supporting me in the best possible way all these years, my current and former colleagues from which I can learn a lot, the Microsoft MVP community and of course Microsoft employees in Redmond and all over the world, to work with us and collect feedback. Last but definitely not least, I have to thank my girlfriend, which not only helps me out with many things, but also needs to be patient, with my extra work so many times. She is also one of my biggest and also most critical supporters. She helps me to understand things better, promote my activities better, fixing my blog post 😉 and makes all the traveling more joyful.

If you want to know more about the Microsoft MVP Program, check out the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional website.

May312018May 31, 2018August 20, 20184 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack

Passed 70-537 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Exam

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Work

Back in February Microsoft released the Azure Stack beta exam, 70-537 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Exam. As always I try to take the exam early as they are available and today I finally got the results that I passed exam 70-537.

Passing Exam 537: Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack validates the skills and knowledge necessary to plan, deploy, package, update, and maintain the Azure Stack infrastructure. Candidates also demonstrate the ability to offer hybrid cloud resources and requested services, and to manage IaaS and PaaS.

This exam measures the following skills:

Deploying and Integrating an Azure Stack Environment
Configuring PaaS and IaaS for Azure Stack Environment
Providing Services to enabling DevOps for Azure Stack Tenants
Maintaining and Monitoring an Azure Stack Environment

This week I finally got the message that I passed the Beta exam. If you want to take that exam you should really be familiar with the products and solutions mentioned above, otherwise you will have a hard time passing the exam. There are both questions about Azure Stack ASDK as well as the multi node system, so I would recommend that you get some hands on experience with a multi node system as well.

If you want to know more about the exam, check out this link: Microsoft 70-537 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Exam

A lot of people are asking me for training resources. First of all it definitely helps if you have some hands-on experience with mutli-node systems but also with the ASDK. However it is almost impossible to cover all the topics by yourself, there for I recommend that you have a look at a free Microsoft online training. I think the best course I found is on the Microsoft Open EDX platform. There you can find the course Configuring and Operating Microsoft Azure Stack.

Dec122017December 12, 2017August 27, 20180 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Passed Microsoft Exam 70-745 Implementing a Software-Defined Datacenter

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Private Cloud, Server Core, System Center, Virtual Machine Manager, Virtualization, Windows, Windows Azure Pack, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Work

This summer I took the Microsoft beta exam 70-745 Implementing a Software-Defined Datacenter, which focuses on implementing Software-Defined Datacenter solutions, based on Hyper-V, Windows Server, Software Defined Networking and Storage, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, System Center Operations Manager and everything around it.

Plan and Implement System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Core Infrastructure
Implement Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
Implement Software-Defined Storage
Implement Datacenter Compute Solutions with Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)
Secure your Software-Defined Datacenter
Monitor and Maintain the Software-Defined Datacenter

Passing Exam 745: Implementing a Software-Defined Datacenter validates the skills and knowledge to implement a software-defined datacenter (SDDC) with Windows Server 2016 and Microsoft System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). Candidates have experience implementing and managing highly available SCVMM infrastructures as well as implementing software-defined storage, compute, and networking components.

If you want to know more about the exam, check out this link: Microsoft Learning Exam 70-745 Implementing a Software-Defined Datacenter

Also big congrats to all the others who passed the exam like Charbel Nemnom.

Oct172017October 17, 2017August 27, 20180 Commentby Thomas Maurer

My impressions from Microsoft Ignite 2017

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Containers, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Microsoft MVP, Pictures, PowerShell, Private Cloud, Speaking, System Center, Virtualization, Web, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2016, Work

Okay, I know, Microsoft Ignite 2017 was already a couple of weeks ago. But still, I finally had time to write about my impressions from Microsoft Ignite, after the conference plus my visit in Seattle for the Intelligent Cloud Architect Bootcamp and spending my days in meetings and back at work in Switzerland. Since there is a lot of stuff and important changes coming, I think it is still valid to write about my impressions.

First, I have to say Orlando is great, I really loved spending my time there. This was my second Microsoft Ignite after the first one in Chicago. I have to say, it was very well organized and organizing such a huge conference is definitely not easy.

The Speaking part…

I had the great opportunity to speak in several Microsoft Ignite sessions and this was huge fun. It is always fun for me to stand in front of a couple of people and show them some stuff I am working on. I not only had the chance to do my Theather session about “Lessons learned from deploying Windows Server 2016”, I also spoke in two breakout sessions about our customer cases focusing on System Center and Storage Spaces Direct.

The Microsoft Ignite 2017 Networking part…

One of the most important parts of such a conference is networking with others. The point is that all the videos are going to be online available for later review, but you get time to meet with people from Microsoft, customers and partners, and talk, share and learn from them. The connections you make at such a conference will be helpful in the future, trust me…

The Learning part…

One of the main reasons for me to attend, was to learn. Not only learn about the latest and greatest technology, but also about where the industry is heading. I believe that our industry is heading to one of the biggest changes in history since the transition from Mainframes to client server topology. I think this is not new to most of us, but what is interesting and something I underestimated is, how fast that transition will be going forward. Cloud Computing, AI, Big Data, IoT and modern applications are going to be big topics in the future and technologies like containers and methods like DevOps are going to accelerate this change. My lesson learned from these events is that we all in the industry have to learn much faster and be ready to adapt to change much quicker.

With that, I hope to see you soon at other conferences and events or again at Microsoft Ignite on September 24 – 28 in Orlando, Florida.

Category: Certification

Microsoft Learn – A Great Place To Learn!

Microsoft Learn Guide

Microsoft Learn Sandbox and Hands-on

Get started with Microsoft Learn

New Microsoft Azure Certifications announced

New Microsoft Azure Certifications

Passed 70-537 Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Azure Stack Exam

Passed Microsoft Exam 70-745 Implementing a Software-Defined Datacenter

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