Oct022020October 2, 2020October 2, 20203Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Passed AZ-303 and AZ-304 Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect

Passed AZ-303 and AZ-304 Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect

Posted in Certification, Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Thomas Maurer

I just got the great mail in my inbox that I passed the AZ-303 Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and AZ-304 Microsoft Azure Architect Design exams to receive and renew the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. Back in 2015 I received my first MCSD Azure Solutions Architect certification and renewed it in 2019. A couple of weeks back I took the new AZ-303 and AZ-304 beta exams online, to future proof my knowledge on Azure cloud architecture. When you take a beta exam you get the test results after a couple of days the exam in generally launched, and today was the day.

What is the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect certification?

Earning the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification demonstrates skills and knowledge to advise stakeholders and translate business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions. Candidates have advanced experience and knowledge across IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platform, budgeting, and governance–this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution.

Candidates for the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification should have subject matter expertise in designing and implementing solutions that run on Microsoft Azure, including aspects like compute, network, storage, and security.

Responsibilities for this role include advising stakeholders and translating business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable cloud solutions.

An Azure Solution Architect partners with cloud administrators, cloud DBAs, and clients to implement solutions.

A candidate for this certification should have advanced experience and knowledge of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data platform, budgeting, and governance–this role should manage how decisions in each area affect an overall solution. In addition, this role should have expert-level skills in Azure administration and have experience with Azure development and DevOps processes.

You can find more information on the certification here. To earn the Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification you will need to pass two exams.

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Sep302020September 30, 2020September 29, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series - Datacom

Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – Datacom

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Virtualization

Together with the Azure Stack Hub team, we are starting a journey to explore the ways our customers and partners use, deploy, manage, and build solutions on the Azure Stack Hub platform. Together with the Tiberiu Radu (Azure Stack Hub PM @rctibi), we created a new Azure Stack Hub Partner solution video series to show how our customers and partners use Azure Stack Hub in their Hybrid Cloud environment. In this series, as we will meet customers that are deploying Azure Stack Hub for their own internal departments, partners that run managed services on behalf of their customers, and a wide range of in-between as we look at how our various partners are using Azure Stack Hub to bring the power of the cloud on-premises.

Datacom is an Azure Stack Hub partner that provides both multi-tenant environments, as well as dedicated ones. They focus on providing value to their customers and meeting them where they are by providing managed services as well as complete solutions. Datacom focuses on a number of customers ranging from large government agencies as well as enterprise customers. Join the Datacom team as we explore how they provide value and solve customer issues using Azure and Azure Stack Hub.

Links mentioned through the video:

I hope this video was helpful and you enjoyed watching it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you want to learn more about the Microsoft Azure Stack portfolio, check out my blog post.


Sep292020September 29, 2020September 29, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Arc Center - Azure Portal

Check out the new Azure Arc Center – Azure Portal

Posted in Azure Arc, Azure Stack HCI, Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack

During the Microsoft Ignite 2020 virtual conference, Azure Arc got a couple of enhancements and announcements. For example, Azure Arc enabled servers is now generally available and Azure Arc and Azure Arc enabled data services is now in public preview. If you want to learn more what Azure Hybrid announcements we had at Microsoft Ignite 2020, check out (Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure) blog post. One of the enhancements which I find super helpful, but didn’t get a special mention, is the new Azure Arc Center blade in the Azure Portal.

All Azure Arc Resources

All Azure Arc Resources

In the Azure Arc Center, you can now find an overview of all your hybrid cloud resources and services you can use together with Azure Arc. These include different Azure Arc enabled services like:

You cannot just get an overview of different Azure Arc services, but also find an easy way to onboard, connect, and register new hybrid resources. To open the Azure Arc Center Blade, navigate to Azure Arc in the Azure Portal.

I hope this was helpful if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.


Sep282020September 28, 2020September 27, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
CloudSkills fm Podcast - Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

CloudSkills.fm Podcast – Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft MVP, PowerShell, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Webinar

Last week I had the honor to speak with Mike Pfeiffer on his CloudSkills.fm post cast, about Azure Archtiecture and much more. This is my second apperance in the CloudSkills.fm podcast, last year I was speaking about Azure Hybrid Cloud Management. In this episode of the CloudSkills.fm podcast, Mike Peiffer and I dive into Azure Architecture. Learn about Enterprise Scale Landing Zones, Azure Bicep, the Well Architected Framework, and more.

CloudSkills.fm podcast Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

Thomas Maurer works as a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. As part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI), he engages with the community and customers around the world to share his knowledge and collect feedback to improve the Azure platform.

In this episode, we talk about…

  • Thomas is working with Azure Architecture to make it easier for clients to operate cloud tech
  • Azure Architecture is made up of three main parts
  • Reasons that people have not heard about Azure Arc
  • Cloud Adoption Framework will assist those looking to build their company with Azure
  • Enterprise Scale Landing Zones help plan and set up Azure environment
  • How the automation for the Visio landing zone operates
  • Azure Bicep makes it easier to write and write ARM templates
  • It is still very early on in the development of Azure Bicep
  • Microsoft Learn helps people learn all about Microsoft, not just Azure
  • Microsoft Build provides a 24/7 video platform as a learning resource
  • Advice for those that want to get into content creation
  • Collaborating with others is incredibly important for growth
  • Well-Architected Framework vs. Cloud Adoption Framework at Microsoft
  • It never helps anyone to act like a jerk; be polite
  • Even bad advice provides value if you look at it correctly

You can listen to the episode here: CloudSkills.fm Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer

About CloudSkills.fm

CloudSkills.fm is a weekly podcast with technical tips and career advice for people working with cloud-native technologies. This show is for developers, IT pros, or anyone making a career move into the cloud. Episodes will be short and to the point and will regularly feature experts who share their experiences.

This show is hosted by Mike Pfeiffer, a twenty-year tech industry veteran, entrepreneur, Pluralsight author, and Microsoft Azure MVP. If you enjoy the show and want more tips delivered to your mailbox every week, subscribe to CloudSkills Weekly at cloudskills.io/subscribe.

Conclusion

It is always fun to speak with Mike and I highly recommend his podcast. I hope you enjoyed CloudSkills.fm Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer. If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know in the comments.


Sep272020September 27, 2020September 27, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Speaking at Experts Live Switzerland

Speaking at Experts Live Switzerland 2020

Posted in Azure Arc, Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Events, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Speaking, Thomas Maurer

After being a speaker at many of the past Experts Live conferences, I’m excited to be chosen again as a speaker at Experts Live Switzerland 2020. Experts Live Switzerland 2020 will take place on September 30 in the new Workspace Welle 7 in ​Bern Switzerland. Experts Live Switzerland is a one-day event with 15 sessions in three parallel tracks focusing on Microsoft Cloud, Datacenter, and Workplace Management topics, with Microsoft MVPs, speakers from Microsoft, and other industry experts.

My session

I am happy to let you know that I will be speaking about Azure Hybrid Cloud management with Azure Arc.

Azure Hybrid – Learn about Hybrid Cloud Management with Azure

In this session Cloud Advocate Thomas Maurer will give you an overview of the Hybrid Cloud offering of Microsoft Azure and how you can use the Azure Hybrid services like Azure Arc, Azure Update Management, Azure Stack, and many more to introduce new Hybrid Cloud Management to your environment.

About Experts Live Switzerland 2020

Experts Live Switzerland 2020 is limited to only 150 attendees, so make sure you reserve your ticket right now! There will be a lot of other great sessions and a lot of experts from the Microsoft Cloud community. One of the main advantages of joining the Experts Live events is that you get this great networking opportunity to learn from each other.

Experts Live Switzerland will also be one of the first in-person events for me since March 2020. And I am happy to see some familiar faces in person.

Some more information about the conference:

  • 1-day event
  • In the heart of Switzerland (Bern)
  • 15 sessions
  • 3 parallel tracks
  • Top Community speakers
  • limited to 150 attendees
  • Partner booths in the expo hall
  • modern location
  • focusing on Microsoft Cloud Technology

I hope to see you all there!


Sep232020September 23, 2020September 23, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – Byte

Azure Stack Hub Partner Solutions Series – Byte

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hybrid Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Speaking, Thomas Maurer, Webinar, Work

Together with the Azure Stack Hub team, we are starting a journey to explore the ways our customers and partners use, deploy, manage, and build solutions on the Azure Stack Hub platform. Together with the Tiberiu Radu (Azure Stack Hub PM @rctibi), we created a new Azure Stack Hub Partner solution video series to show how our customers and partners use Azure Stack Hub in their Hybrid Cloud environment. In this series, as we will meet customers that are deploying Azure Stack Hub for their own internal departments, partners that run managed services on behalf of their customers, and a wide range of in-between as we look at how our various partners are using Azure Stack Hub to bring the power of the cloud on-premises.

Today, I want you to introduce you to Azure Stack Hub Partner Byte. Join our Australian partner Byte as we explore how they are using the Azure Stack products to simplify operations, accelerate workload deployment, and enable the teams to focus on creating value rather than “keeping the lights on”.

Links mentioned through the video:

I hope this video was helpful and you enjoyed watching it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you want to learn more about the Microsoft Azure Stack portfolio, check out my blog post.


Sep222020September 22, 2020September 22, 20200Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Stack Hardware Augmented Reality AR Experience

Azure Stack Hardware Augmented Reality AR Experience App

Posted in Azure Stack HCI, Cloud, Hardware, Hybrid Cloud, Lenovo, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Software, Virtualization

As you know, Microsoft Ignite 2020 has gone virtual this year. We have some great sessions, engagement options, the Cloud Skills Challenge, and much more for you. However, one part I would have missed this year would have been the expo hall, where I could look at all the new Azure Stack hardware. That is why the Azure Stack team created a mobile app that allows you to look at Azure Stack hardware and new form factors through augmented reality (AR) in the comfort of your environment.

This app allows you to look at some of our Azure Stack hardware portfolio, including Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack HCI, and the all-new Azure Stack Edge and Azure Stack Edge pro devices, running at the edge in your Hybrid Cloud environment.

Azure Stack Hub Lenovo Augmented Reality

Azure Stack Hub Lenovo Augmented Reality

If you want to learn more about the Azure Stack portfolio, check out my blog post and the following links.

  • Azure Stack Hub – Azure Stack Hub broadens Azure to let you run apps in an on-premises environment and deliver Azure services in your datacenter.
  • Azure Stack Edge – Azure Stack Edge brings the compute power, storage, and intelligence of Azure right to where you need it—whether that’s your corporate data center, your branch office, or your remote field asset.
  • Azure Stack HCI – Azure Stack HCI is a new hyper-converged infrastructure operating system delivered as an Azure service providing the latest and up to date security, performance, and feature updates.
Azure Stack Edge Pro

Azure Stack Edge Pro

You can download it for your iOS or Android device. I hope you enjoy the Azure Stack Hardware AR Experience! Let me know what you think! Also, check out the team’s Microsoft Ignite 2020 session about the IT Pro in the Cloud era!



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    Thomas Maurer

    My name is Thomas Maurer. I am a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. I am part of the Azure engineering team (Cloud + AI) and engage with the community and customers around the world. I am located in Switzerland. I am focusing on Microsoft technologies, especially cloud and datacenter solutions based on Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and Windows Server. Opinions are my own.

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