Tag: Cloud

Jan152019January 15, 2019July 9, 201929Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Joining Microsoft

Joining Microsoft

Posted in Award, Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Microsoft MVP, Speaking, Work

Today is a great day! I’m excited and proud to announce that as of February 1st, 2019, I’m joining Microsoft. I will join the Microsoft Azure Engineering (Cloud + AI) team as a Senior Cloud Advocate. After being a Microsoft MVP for seven years and working very closely with Microsoft in the last couple of years, this is a great new opportunity and an exciting time ahead.

Microsoft Cloud Advocate

Microsoft Azure Cloud Advocate

The Microsoft Cloud Advocate Mascot by Ashley McNamara

My role is part of the Microsoft Developer Relations group and more specific the Cloud Advocates. I’m joining the team of Rick Claus, which many of you know from Channel9, Microsoft conferences and his overall work at Microsoft. Our team is focused on the IT Ops and IT Pro community. This allows me to do what I love most, which is being an advocate for customers in the Azure product group, sharing knowledge and engaging with the community.

We are advocates for the IT community within Microsoft. Using the products, listen to customers, and help the product teams to prioritize their work. We develop tools to help use the products, we write documentation and tutorials, and we build connections between the community and the engineering teams.

Our team’s charter is to help every technologist on the planet succeed, be they students or those working in enterprises or startups. We engage in outreach to developers and others in the software ecosystem, all designed to further technical education and proficiency with the Microsoft Cloud + AI platform.

A large part of our mission is to make Microsoft Azure the best platform to run your applications and services, as well as making migration to the Microsoft Azure ecosystem simple. Our team looks for common pain points and works with the product teams to address them. In other cases, we build the missing pieces like tools and documentation.

My focus is going to be on the Azure and Microsoft hybrid cloud strategy. Besides the Azure services, this will include products and services like Windows Server and Azure Stack, which will help to bring that consistent cloud experience to life, so our customers can make the best out of the Intelligent Cloud and the Intelligent Edge.

If there’s anything, you would like us to improve reach out to our team or me. We listen to your needs and consider your feedback in our future developments.

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Jan102019January 10, 2019July 24, 20195Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Passed Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

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

Today I am on my way to Geneva for a customer meeting. Before I left, I quickly checked my email and had some exciting news in my inbox. I got the confirmation that I passed the Microsoft Exam AZ-302 Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Certification Transition, which together with my previous exam, 70-535 Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions, gives me the certification as Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.

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 various aspects of IT operations, including networking, virtualization, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data management, budgeting, and governance – managing how decisions in each area affects an overall solution.

I took this exam as a beat exam back in September at Microsoft Ignite 2018. For people who do not have already done 70-535, you will need to take AZ-300 and AZ-301 to get the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect certification. The AZ-Series are the new edition of the Microsoft Azure Certification path. These exams were announced at Microsofts Partner conference, Microsoft Inspire in 2018.

There is a great blog post by Chris Pietschmann, about the state of the current Microsoft Experts exams.

I am happy about getting the confirmation about my second successful Microsoft Azure exam this year, after passing AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals last week.

If you want to know more about the exam and the skills measured in this exam, check out the official Microsoft Exam page for AZ-302. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.

Congrats to all the others which got the Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification today. Otherwise, I wish you good luck taking the exam, let me know how it was in the comments.


Jan082019January 8, 2019August 4, 20198Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Mastering Azure with Cloud Shell

Mastering Azure with Cloud Shell

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Work

There are multiple ways to interact and manage resources in Microsoft Azure. You can use the Azure Portal or command line tools like the Azure PowerShell module or the Azure CLI, which you can install on your local machine. However, to set up a cloud management workstation for administrators and developers can be quite a lot of work. Especially if you have multiple computers, keeping consistency between these machines can be challenging. Another challenge is keeping the environment secure and all the tools up to date. The Azure Cloud Shell addresses this any many more things.

Cloud Shell is not brand new, Microsoft announced Cloud Shell at Build 2017. This blog post is about how you can master Azure with Cloud Shell and give you an overview of the possibilities of Cloud Shell.

 

What is Cloud Shell

Cloud Shell Azure Portal

Cloud Shell offers a browser-accessible, pre-configured shell experience for managing Azure resources without the overhead of installing, versioning, and maintaining a machine yourself. Azure Cloud Shell is assigned per unique user account and automatically authenticated with each session. This makes it a private and secure environment.

You get a modern web-based command line experience which can be accessed from several endpoints like the Azure Portal, shell.azure.com and the Azure mobile app, Visual Studio Code or directly in the Azure docs.

In the backend, Azure uses containers and automatically attaches an Azure File Share to the container. You can store the data on it, so your data is persistent. This persists your data across different Cloud Shell sessions.

Cloud Shell Bash and PowerShell

You can choose your preferred shell experience. Cloud Shell supports Bash and PowerShell and included your favorite third-party tools and standard tools and languages. If something like a module is missing, you can add it.

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Jan022019January 2, 2019July 24, 201913Commentsby Thomas Maurer
AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

Passed Exam AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

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

I just took a little bit of my time to do one of the latest Azure exams. The Azure exam AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals is, as the name suggests, a basic fundamental exam covering some general knowledge about Microsoft Azure. The exam covers a basic understanding of cloud concepts, core Azure services, security, privacy, compliance, and trust, as well as Azure Pricing and support.

AZ-900 is a good exam if you are starting with Azure and the cloud. It is not just a marketing and sales exam; even do it is a very light exam. You will need to have some technical know-how. If you are planning to take this exam I have some recommendations for you. Understand the benefits of cloud computing and the different cloud models. Go through the list of Azure services, make sure you know what services are available and for what you would use them. Also make sure that you understand the concepts of Azure in general and in Azure governance, like Subscriptions, Management Groups, Azure Policies, Azure Resource Groups, Role-Based Access Control, and many more.

You can find more detailed information on the Microsoft exam website. There you will find all the skills measured in this exam.

Microsoft Learn

I also highly recommend that you make an Azure free (or paid) account and try out different Azure services. But if you want to get ready for the cloud and especially for Microsoft Azure, and exam AZ-900, check out Microsoft Learn. Microsoft Learn is a great free learning platform, where you have free guides, walkthroughs, and hands-on experience. Microsoft Learn also provides you some more advanced training and guides, to get some more in-depth understandings of Microsoft services.

With that, I wish you happy learning and good luck with the AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exam!


Jan022019January 2, 2019January 15, 20190Commentby Thomas Maurer
Top 20 Microsoft Azure Blogs

Listed in the Feedspot Top 20 Microsoft Azure Blogs To Follow in 2019

Posted in Blog, Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft MVP, Work

Another great thing I found out about today. My blog, ThomasMaurer.ch is listed in the Feedspot Top 20 Microsoft Azure Blogs and Websites To Follow in 2019. I am super excited to be on this list, next to other top blogs and websites. As you can imagine you will find even more about Microsoft Azure on my blog in 2019. You can follow my blog on Feedspot or just check out my Subscribe page, to get my latest blogs.

The Best Microsoft Azure Blogs from thousands of Microsoft Azure blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information.

Thanks for reading, commenting and sharing my blog! If you have some topics or ideas I should cover in 2019, please let me know!


Dec112018December 11, 2018December 11, 20181Commentby Thomas Maurer
Technado Podcast

Interview about Azure and Microsoft on Technado ITPro.TV

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, Microsoft MVP, Speaking, Webinar, Work

I was a proud interview guest at the Technado Podcast by ITPro.TV this week! Together with Cherokee and Don, we were talking about Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and the Cloud as well as Microsoft in general and my favorite foods.

The Technado, Episode 77: Microsoft MVP Thomas Maurer

 

If you’re plugged into the Microsoft community, you’ve heard of Thomas Maurer. In this episode, Thomas will give Don and Cherokee his take on all things Azure. This week also sees a return of the latest tech news from the week.

ITProTV is the industry leader for online, on-demand IT training for tech professionals, students, and organizations worldwide. Home of binge-worthy learning, ITProTV empowers the world through engaging training.

By blending entertainment and cutting-edge technology with IT education, ITProTV creates high-quality training shows taught by experienced educators and industry professionals. Toss the boring PowerPoint classroom training aside, ITProTV is streaming the latest training for the most current tech trends and certification exams daily. Start FREE today: https://www.itpro.tv/plans/

Enjoy watching!


Oct292018October 29, 2018October 29, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
HPE Azure Stack Innovation Center

Let’s talk about the HPE Azure Stack Innovation Center

Posted in Cloud, Hardware, HP, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, ProLiant Server, Speaking, Webinar, Work

Together with HPE, I did some short videos about HPE Azure Stack and the HPE Azure Stack Innovation Center in Geneva. The videos are very short to just give you a quick idea about the different scenarios and the benefits of the Innovation Center as well as the HPE solutions. If you want to know more about it, you can check out my blog and look for my articles on Azure Stack and Azure.

About the Azure Stack Innovation Centers

To help you get started on your journey with Microsoft Azure Stack, HPE and Microsoft have built Azure Stack Innovation Centers. Staffed by HPE and Microsoft experts, and leveraging the latest industry-leading Azure Stack hardware and software solutions, the Azure Stack Innovation Centers are designed to help simplify and accelerate your hybrid cloud journey.

In simple words, the Innovation Centers are a place to try out Azure Stack multi-node systems, do proof of concepts and test your real-world workloads. We used the Azure Stack Innovations Centers to work with customers, to try out their workloads directly on a full multi-node system. This helps to better understand the benefits and challenges for the specific customer workloads and get some hands-on experience. It is also a great possibility to test out the Azure Stack Operator capabilities and tasks.

Thomas Maurer about the HPE Azure Stack Innovation Center

Thomas Maurer talks about how the HPE Microsoft Azure Innovation Center helps partners and customers on Azure Stack Implementation projects!

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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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