Tag: Work

Sep012019September 1, 2019September 3, 20190Commentby Thomas Maurer
Microsoft Cloud Advocacy Methods and Practices Team

Update on my job in the Azure Cloud Advocacy team – Methods and Practices

Posted in Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure

Today I want to take the time to give you a look at the latest changes in our Microsoft Azure Cloud Advocacy organization. It is precisely 7 months since I joined Microsoft in the Cloud Advocacy team in Cloud + AI. Our AzOps team, led by Rick Claus, with the focus on the success of IT Pros, is now part of Donovan Brown’s new organization called Methods and Practices within Microsoft’s Developer Relations. Rick Claus wrote a blog about the latest changes for the team, which I am excited about.

This team was specifically pulled together to span the operations spectrum of folks who specialize in all types of infrastructure architecture, DevOps practices, DevSecOps specialties, virtualization platforms, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles and more. Regardless if you are on-prem only, hybrid or a cloud native team or organization, if you work in some form of IT operations space supporting your technical infrastructure used by internal end users, external customers or development teams – there are resources here for you to connect with.

Check out the video of Rick Claus and Donovan Brown having a chat about the reorg as well as the future of the Methods and Practices team.

So far it has been a great time in the Microsoft Azure Cloud Advocacy team, and I am really looking forward to work in that amazing team. If you have any questions about our team, let me know in the comments.


Aug052019August 5, 2019August 5, 20190Commentby Thomas Maurer
Techmentor 2019 Redmond

Speaking at Techmentor 2019

Posted in Azure Stack HCI, Cloud, Events, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, PowerShell, Speaking, Virtualization, Windows Admin Center, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019

I am currently on the Microsoft Redmond campus for some internal meetings and training, during the same time, there will be the Techmentor 2019 Microsoft HQ conference in Redmond. I am happy to announce that I will be one of the speakers during that conference. Since I am already on the Microsoft campus it is great to take some time to speak about some cool Azure things. Techmentor 2019 is a 5-day conference from August 5-9, 2019 on the Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond.

My Sessions at Techmentor 2019

I will be delivering two sessions about Cloud Shell and Azure Stack, as well as being part of a panel discussion.

TechMentor

A Look into the Hybrid Cloud Lifestyle of an Azure Stack Operator

Microsoft released Azure Stack as an Azure appliance for your datacenter. Learn what Azure Stack is, what challenges it solves, how you deploy, manage and operate Azure Stack in your datacenter. Learn about the features and services you will get by offering Azure Stack to your customers and how you can build a true Hybrid Cloud experience. In this presentation, Thomas Maurer (Microsoft MVP) will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations and experiences during the Azure Stack Early Adaption Program and Azure Stack Technology Adoption Program (TAP). You will learn: How to integrate Azure Stack into your Datacenter How to operate Azure Stack and how it is managed How to troubleshoot Azure Stack installations

TechMentor

Mastering Azure Using Cloud Shell, PowerShell, and Bash!

Azure can be managed in many different ways. Learn your command line options like Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI and Cloud Shell to be more efficient in managing your Azure infrastructure. Become a hero on the shell to manage the cloud!

You will learn:

What cloud Shell is
Some new things in PowerShell Az
Tips and tricks on Azure command line options

TechMentor

Supercharging Hyper-V with quantum computing

Okay, I am not really talking about quantum computing, but hey there are some cool features in Hyper-V you should definitely know about! In this session, Thomas Maurer will talk about “hidden” Hyper-V features everyone should know about. This covers different features for Hyper-V on Windows Server as well as on Windows 10, like Containers, Windows Sandbox, WSL 2, VM Gallery and much more. Be prepared for a lot of demos!

TechMentor

Panel Discussion: The Future of IT

If something is certain in IT it’s change. With the current pace of getting new operating system versions twice a year and keeping the management tools around them up to date it’s no wonder one feels a little dizzy with the amount of things to learn. Take this opportunity to hear from industry experts what is most important to focus on and how to deal with this rapid change in real life. The panel includes experts on multiple technologies and topics and will include a Q&A portion to get all your questions answered.

Want to experience IT training at the mothership? Join TechMentor this August as it heads to Microsoft Headquarters for a full week of training, featuring our NEW full-day Hands-On Labs. I hope to see you there!


Apr202019April 20, 2019April 20, 20190Commentby Thomas Maurer
Global Azure Bootcamp 2019

Speaking at the Global Azure Bootcamp 2019

Posted in Azure Stack HCI, Cloud, Cloud Advocate, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, PowerShell, Speaking, Virtualization, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019, Work

On April 27, 2019, it is again time where all the Azure communites come together for the sixth Global Azure Bootcamp event. And I am happy to be part of it again this year. Last year I was speaking at Azure Global Bootcamp 2018 in Zürich, Switzerland, and I will be back to speak at the Global Azure Bootcamp 2019 in Zürich this year. Besides this in person session, I will also be presenting online at the Global Online Azure Bootcamp (Ireland). This is an Azure Global Bootcamp event for those who don’t have something local or cannot travel, organised by Microsoft MVP and Azure expert Aidan Finn from Ireland. Hosted on GoToWebinar, presenters will share their expert knowledge on Microsoft Azure with an audience that can join in from anywhere around the world.

Around the world, user groups and communities want to learn about Azure and Cloud Computing. On April 27, all communities will come together once again for a great Global Azure Bootcamp event. Each user group will organize their own one day deep dive class on Azure the way they see fit and how it works for their members. The result is that thousands of people get to learn about Azure and join together online under the social hashtag #GlobalAzure.

I will be speaking about two extremly interesting topics inluding Azure Cloud Shell and Azure Stack.

Global Azure Bootcamp 2019 in Zürich

Global Azure Bootcamp

Mastering Azure using Cloud Shell, PowerShell and Bash!

Azure can be managed in many different way. Learn your command line options like Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI and Cloud Shell to be more efficient in managing your Azure infrastructure. Become a hero on the shell to manage the cloud!

Oganized by:

 

Stefan Johner

Stefan Roth

Manuel Meyer

Global Online Azure Bootcamp 2019 (Ireland)

Global Azure Bootcamp (Online)

Extend the Intelligent Cloud to the Edge with Azure Stack and Azure Stack HCI

Azure Stack allows you to extend Azure to your datacenter and run Azure Services under your terms. With Azure Stack HCI, the latest member in the Azure Stack family, we also offer a great hyper-converged infrastructure solution, with optional Azure connected services. Find out more about Azure Stack and Azure Stack HCI, how these solutions can help you to in your Hybrid Cloud strategy. Learn about the features and services you will get by offering Azure Stack to your customers and how you can build a true Hybrid Cloud experience.

If you have time and you want to spend a whole day learning about Azure, join one of the events around you, or check out the online streaming events. I am also happy to meet you in Zürich!


Jan152019January 15, 2019September 3, 201929Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Joining Microsoft

Joining Microsoft

Posted in Awards, 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 AzOps 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.

Read More

Aug242018August 24, 2018January 28, 201911Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Windows 10 Tablet Surface Go

Surface Go – My first Impressions and why I bought it!

Posted in Hardware, Hardware, Microsoft, Surface, Windows, Windows 10

I just received my Microsoft Surface Go. Yes, in Switzerland it was released just now, a couple of weeks after the US. The first review videos out there, did convince me that this is the right device I was looking for, but more to that later. In this short blog I want to give you a look at my first impressions of the Surface Go.

Why I bought the Surface Go

Microsoft Surface Go

First, let me tell you why I bought the Surface Go. I am a long time Microsoft Surface user, since the first Surface Pro. I went to several iteration of the Surface family and currently I am using a 15-inch Surface Book 2 and a Surface Pro. Surface Book 2, I like because of the power and screen size, and it is perfect for me to do some serious work. The Surface Pro is more less my light travel work devices to day.

As you know I spend a lot of time travelling at conferences or to customer for meetings. Every weight and space I can safe during traveling is basically a great thing. A lightweight device for doing some simple work like mail, browsing the web or working with office would be enough for most of the tasks. Another tasks I need my device a lot for is taking notes. Since I started to use OneNote, I never took notes on paper again. Most of my note taking I do with the Surface Pen. Especially during meetings, it is much nicer to take notes on an almost flat surface, instead of hiding behind a laptop. The Surface Pro and the Surface Go are prefect for this, since with the kickstand. They let you switch easily from taking notes with a pen, to using the keyboard.

Benefits I expect from the Surface Go

I think the Surface Go would have all these requirements and benefits:

  • Lightweight and small
  • Surface Pen support
  • Full Windows 10
  • Touchscreen and Keyboard with trackpad support
  • Great built quality like other Microsoft Surface Devices
  • Enough power to still do some simple work
  • LTE to be always connect

I know the Surface Go LTE version, comes later this year. I think this would be perfect, but with conference and travel season coming up, I didn’t want to wait. Let’s see if I upgrade later to the Surface Go LTE version. These always connected devices running Windows 10, cannot come soon enough.

My first impressions of the Surface Go

Surface Go Kickstand

Let’s talk about my first impressions of the Microsoft Surface Go. The most important part is obviously the formfactor. The Surface Go is crazy small and light. It really feels great in the hand and it seems to be the right size for a small and light travel device. It is almost cute if you put it to the 15inch Surface Book 2. The build quality is great as expected from Microsoft Surface hardware. The performance feels great for the tasks I am looking for. Microsoft Edge and Outlook and the other office apps feel fast and responsive.

The Surface Go also comes with a Surface Connect Charger, which is a great magnetic charging port. With that it can also easily connect with the Surface Dock and power my external monitor. However, the Surface Go also has a USB Type-C Port, and you can also charge the devices using a UBS charger.

I also got the Signature Type Cover, which is a smaller version of the Type Cover which comes with the Surface Pro. It is small but typing feels great. It takes only a quick moment to get used to it. Great is the huge glass trackpad which on the Type Cover.

Windows 10 Tablet Surface Go

I think this is the first Windows tablet I really can use as a tablet. With the size and weight, it is ideal to also use it as a tablet. For example the Surface Pro is only a little bit larger, but it makes a huge difference when you want to use it as a “portable tablet”. I found myself using Windows 10 in tablet mode a lot, and using the Surface Go in landscape and portrait mode.

Audio quality seems to be very good for a device in that price category. And the front facing stereo speakers make the difference to other tablets.

What I also really like is the great quality cameras which Microsoft has build in. If you record videos or if you do Skype for Business Calls and video meetings, the quality is way better than other tablets or even notebooks.

These were my first impressions of the Surface Go. Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions about it


Jun182018June 18, 2018August 27, 20180Commentby Thomas Maurer
Azure Stack Event HPE Geneva

Speaking at the Microsoft Azure Stack Customer Event at the HPE Innovation Center in Geneva

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

As you might have seen we at itnetX are heavily pushing Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure and Azure Stack. Besides our webinar series about Azure Stack, we are working together with Microsoft and HPE to present the Azure Stack solution at a live event in Geneva. Attendees will first have the chance to have a tour trough the HPE Customer Innovation Center, and after that itnetX and HPE will present two session about Microsoft Azure Stack, followed by networking and drinks.

  • HPE Customer Innovation Center Tour
  • Session: Microsoft Azure Stack – Your Cloud, Your Datacenter
  • Session: The Hybrid IT Approach with Microsoft Solutions
  • Networking & Closing Apéro

If you are interested to learn about Azure Stack from itnetX, Microsoft and HPE, join the Microsoft Azure Stack Customer Event at the HPE Customer Innovation Center in Geneva on June 27th.

I will be speaking together with Charbel Nemnom (itnetX and Microsoft MVP) and we will be joined by Christine Perrin (HPE Presales Consultant, Hybrid IT Innovation Center team).

Free Event

Presentation - Microsoft Azure Stack - Your Cloud, Your Datacenter

By Charbel Nemnom & Thomas (Microsoft Cloud & Datacenter Most Valuable Professionals) Microsoft released Azure Stack as an Azure appliance for your datacenter. Learn what Azure Stack is, what challenges it solves, how you deploy, manage and operate Azure Stack in your datacenter. Discover the features and services and how you can build a true Hybrid Cloud experience. In this presentation, Charbel Nemnom and Thomas Maurer will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations and experiences during the Azure Stack Early Adaption Program and Azure Stack Technology Adoption Program (TAP).

HPE Customer Innovation Center in Geneva

The Customer Innovation Center environment is designed to help you get an end-to-end understanding of the HPE portfolio and partner eco-system capabilities. As part of the Microsoft Azure Stack event, you will be able to explore different showcase areas including the industry zone presenting live intelligent edge uses-cases, the transformation zone with a see and touch experience on products, technology in action with a tour within the modular Datacenter (MDC) and finally the success gallery.

Managed Azure Stack

The operation of Azure Stack requires a lot of know-how: special business processes have to be established. The infrastructure requires a high degree of monitoring and capacity planning and the offered services must be configured and optimized continuously. During two sessions, HPE and itnetX will share their expertise knowledge on the entire operation of the Azure Stack infrastructure and will provide you with useful insights into how to successfully integrate, manage and operate Microsoft Azure Stack.


Mar232018March 23, 2018January 1, 20203Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Surface Book 2

My First Impressions of the Surface Book 2

Posted in Hardware, Hardware, Microsoft, Surface, Windows, Windows 10, Work

Last week I got my early (or late) Christmas gift to myself. The Microsoft Surface Book 2 15-inch version was finally shipping to Switzerland. The 13-inch version of the Surface Book 2 was already available last year. I am a long-time Surface user since I got my first Surface and my first Surface Pro back in 2012. As you might remember, I got a new Surface Pro 2017 as a new company device back in July 2017. I picked the Surface Pro as a replacement for my Surface Book, which I used quite a while, and I am very happy with it. It is a light and mobile device, perfect when you are traveling. I think the new Surface Pro with LTE would even be better if you are on the road.

However, one thing I always knew was that I am more productive with a larger screen. Even the 13” Surface Book, made a huge difference against the 12” Surface Pro. The thing is simple, and it is mobility versus screen real estate. I am often working on the go, which means I like mobility. On the other hand, I am also working a couple of hours on the device with no extra screens. Having some extra space on the mobile device makes me more productive.

Surface Book 2 and Surface Pro

When Microsoft announced the new Surface Book 2 13-inch and 15-inch, I knew I want a 15” version. It would give me more screen real estate, more productivity, paired with the Surface quality and design. The combination of a 15” screen in a 3:2 aspect ratio, together with a touch screen and pen support, will provide you with the best possible work setup.

The Surface Book 2 also comes with some performance improvements. With the higher-end models, you get a new 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8650U quad-core processor, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which will provide you with the necessary performance. For me, these performance improvements are a nice addition, but not the reason I would upgrade. If you are a creator, designer, editor, you might highly benefit from the additional graphics performance. However, Microsoft also updated the disk to a faster NVMe SSD, and this you can see and feel in your day-to-day tasks.

Surface Book 2 – First Impressions

I haven’t used the Surface Book 2 long enough for a full review, but I want to share my first impressions.

  • Hardware and build quality are amazing as for all the Surface devices, no surprises here.
  • Performance improvements from the 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8650U quad-core processor and the NVMe SSD are great. They are helping a lot if you are running Docker containers and Hyper-V on your machine. I can also imagine if you are doing graphic intensive work, you also benefit massively from the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060.
  • The fantastic 15” PixelSense display with the 3:2 aspect ratio and a resolution of  3240 x 2160 is just stunning and makes a difference if you need screen real estate. The quality of the display is also fantastic, and you can switch between “Enhanced Mode” and sRGB. And as always, I am thrilled with the Surface Pen support.
  • Yes, you can still detach the screen from the keyboard to use it as a giant 15” tablet.
  • Microsoft now includes 2 x USB type-A (version 3.1 Gen 1), 1 x USB type-C (version 3.1 Gen 1 with USB Power Delivery revision 3.0), 3.5mm headphone jack, 2 x Surface Connect ports, Full-size SDXC card reader. The only thing missing is the Thunderbolt port, but to be honest, I never missed it before, but of course, it would be nice to have it.
  • Of course, the Surface Book 2 15” version is huge if you compare it to the Surface Pro or the Surface Laptop. With 1.9kg also heavier, but with the performance improvements, battery life, and the larger screen, what else can you expect? However, if you undock the screen from the keyboard, the tablet part is still very light.
  • It also provides you with the necessary modern Wi-Fi standards a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth Wireless 4.1 technology, and built-in Xbox Wireless for the 15-inch version.
  • Since I am using it only for a couple of days, I cannot talk about battery life. Microsoft claims up to 17 hours of video playback. To be honest, the first Surface Book was already very good in terms of battery life. I think, with the Surface Book 2, I will make it through a day.
  • Of course, it also ships with a Windows Hello face authentication camera. A 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video and an 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video.

Overall my first impression of the Surface Book 2 is fantastic. The Surface Book 2 is the laptop I was waiting for, for a long time. I think this is the best notebook I have ever owned. Are you owning one, or thinking about buying one for yourself? Let me know in the comments.

 



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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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