Our #CloudMarathoner community is growing!!!

Hello dear Cloud Marathoners!

I would like to “Thank You” ALL the community members in the #cloudmarathoner for their support and continued contributions in 2024 🙌 🎉 🎈

Your continued dedication to learning, sharing, and excelling at cloud knowledge has a great impact on everyone.

Our community is growing

Thank you again for your continued feedback and support!
Our community has grown to 1935+ members and we can reach and empower more people now than ever before 💪.

Again and again, “HUGE THANK YOU!” to everyone who has #shared and contributed to the #CloudMarathoner posts on social media.

We are having “GREAT” progress that will continue to provide the power of #knowledge to empower and elevate the people.

IN SUMMARY

Thank you for being a true “trailblazer of the cloud” by being the #cloudmarathoner!

Please, actively check our #CloudMarathoner #tag on LinkedIn. Share and tag information with the community.

Check out the Building Privacy-Enhancing Cloud Workflows with Confidential Computing session with Ridwan Badmus

Greeting to all #Cloudmarathoners!

In this first week of November, we had an interesting session to explore privacy and confidential computing from an engineering perspective.

FOCUS OF THE SESSION

Our speaker focused on some hidden details of Implementing Confidential Computing, namely learn how to leverage Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) to build secure and privacy-conscious cloud workflows. Ridwan also emphasized aligning Governance with Privacy Regulations, as well as discovering strategies to ensure your cloud governance practices comply with evolving data privacy regulations.

In addition, he expanded topic with optimizing Cloud Investments by exploring how enhanced data security and minimized compliance risks can optimize outputs from your cloud investments.

Thank you, Ridwan!

Ridwan Badmus is a lawyer and privacy engineer who is interested to help customers. He has legal and as well as engineering experience to help in these matters. Thus, feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn if you have any inquiries.

what is next?

If you would like further to explore this topic then you are encouraged to check the following resources:

Recorded Session

If you are intrigued to watch the entire session, then please visit the following YouTube link below on our Cloud Lunch and Learn channel.

Join the session on How to secure small business in an hour with Cloud Marathoner and Tomasz

Hello Cloud Marathoner friends,

This week, we had an exciting session about what steps you could take in securing your environments for small businesses.

What was the focus of the session?

In this session, we had a conversation with Tomasz, who spoke and demonstrated tips and tricks for making significant and essential changes to secure your environments since the early days of inception.

Several Microsoft and Azure services have been used effectively in this session, which covered; Microsoft Entra ID, Intune, and Defender for Endpoint as your best friends when securing a small business company.



the Question that every SMB asks

A common question is: What is the critical setup to get the best result as soon as possible?

“In the beginning, we don’t need to build sophisticated solutions; there are some standard settings and recommendations to put in place to make significant steps forward for a good, secure posture.”

Thank you, Tomasz!

Tomasz Szulczewski is an ORS Microsoft 365 Cybersecurity Architect with extensive experience with Microsoft products and services. He has been in love with information technology for over 25 years, but still has an IT passion and feels like a geek.

He is a Microsoft 365 architect/cyber security guy and a curious problem solver who thinks that not all people must be IT experts.

Recorded Session

If you are intrigued to watch the entire session, then please visit the following YouTube link below on our Cloud Lunch and Learn channel.

Join our session with Radu Vunvulea – a Microsoft RD and MVP to learn about Cloud re(patriation) and Hybrid Cloud

Hello Cloud Marathoner friends!

This week we had a very informative session about pros and cons on staying in cloud or moving back from cloud to your on-premises systems. Thus, if you are you ready to learn about Cloud (re)patriation and Hybrid Cloud, this session is for you.

why this topic?

As you might already know, the cloud has revolutionized how businesses operate, providing agility, efficiency, and scalability. However, in recent years, cloud repatriation has emerged as a trend in which businesses are moving data or workloads back to on-premises.

Meetup link > https://www.meetup.com/azuredublin/events/301133455/

Radu will tell us all about pros and cons of cloud re(patriation) and hybrid cloud including the hidden costs in this session.

Thank you to speaker

Radu Vunvulea is a technology enthusiast working as Group Head of
Cloud Delivery for Endava. He has a vast experience in different technologies and industries. Most of his time is spent working with the cloud, helping companies to innovate and finding solutions to their business problems.

He enjoys building bridges between people and helping others to grow. He shares his knowledge on his personal blog and at different events where he is invited as a speaker. In his spare time, he drives an IT community and he is also a Microsoft Regional Director and Microsoft Azure MVP.

Recorded Session

If you are intrigued to watch the entire session, then please visit the following YouTube link below on our Cloud Lunch and Learn channel.

Join the Automating Golden Image Creation with AWS Image Builder session with Cloud Marathoner and Amit

Hello Cloud Marathoner freinds!

Last week, we had an engaging session with our speaker guest – Amit Tidke an AWS Community Builder. This session was helpful for everyone who wanted to learn more about building and managing images using AWS Image Builder.

Golden VM images ensures consistency, security, and efficiency across your AWS infrastructure. In this session, we have explored how to leverage AWS Image Builder to use compliant golden VM images. The agenda of this session includes:

1. Importance of Hardened Golden Images:
2. Creating an Image Recipe
3. Infrastructure Configuration
4. Components and Pipelines
5. Distribution and Lifecycle

Without any further due, I would encourage you to check our recording in the Cloud Lunch and Learn (CLL) YouTube channel below.

Join the Hashi Packer on Azure session with Cloud Marathoner and Arindam

Hello, Cloud Marathoner friends,

This week we had an interesting session with Arindam Mitra, a Microsoft MVP and Azure Cloud Solutions Architect. Our guest speaker was unpacking how to get started and set-up the Hashi packer on Azure environment.

In this dive deep session into the world of Azure and Packer, we had an exploration of two dynamic approaches to building images in Azure using Packer:

🔹 Approach 1: Command Line Magic – Experience the power and flexibility of the command line interface. We’ll guide you through the process, demonstrating how to leverage the command line to build your Azure images with Packer.

🔹 Approach 2: Azure DevOps Integration – Witness the seamless integration of Azure and DevOps. In this part of the session, we’ll show you how to use Azure DevOps to automate and streamline your image building process.

Whether you’re a seasoned Azure user or just starting out, this session is designed to provide valuable insights for everyone. By watching this session, you could enhance your Azure skills and take your image building process to the next level.

YouTube link of the session

If you have more questions, please feel free to check this LinkedIn post and get connected with the guest speaker and ask your questions.

Join my session on Global Azure 🚀 2024 – to get started in your Cloud Architect learning journey. 💪

Greetings to all #CloudMarathoner friends!

This week, we have a wonderful opportunity to learn from a number of different sessions by attending the Global Azure 2024 event. Yay!

Generally speaking, this event is a huge success as Microsoft community members all over the world are celebrating this occasion by submitting their session for acceptance. This year, I submitted my session with the Microsoft community in the USA, called GIMME CLOUD TALKS.

Global Azure 2024, catalog of sessions

As a #CloudMarathoner we submitted one session with a title – “How to get started in your Microsoft Azure Architect learning journey?”

And as you may already know, it was accepted by one of the organizers. Wooho!!!

Check out the LinkedIn post on this unique event!

In this lightning talk, I shared bits and tips on how you could get started in your Cloud Architect journey. Namely, we focused on designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions exam objectives which is an important part of the AZ-305 exam.

By the end of the session, you should be well-informed on how to start your cloud learning journey and build toward your desired goal of becoming a Cloud Architect. As a complimentary bonus, I shared community created learning resources that will boost your knowledge, and help you get prepared for an important exam in 2024.

Please, check the recorded session below and let me know your feedback. Thank you!

Are you ready to transform IT Operations 🚀 with AI and earn an exam voucher ⁉🤔

Hello Cloud Marathoners!

Hope everyone is doing well, and survived the March madness 🙂

As you might be aware, our #CloudMarathoner duo (Elkhan & Martin) teamed up and rolled the sleeved to prepare two unique sessions on how to get started with IT + AI = AIOps.

Check out the LinkedIn post for the session details!

These sessions don’t require any prior knowledge of AI, what you need is just interest to get started with fundamentals and start learning.

In the second session below, we covered the process, terminology and future of transforming IT operations with AI for DevOps. This session will help you in building your own organizational roadmap in revolutionizing DevOps for your mission.

Please. check out the recorded session below and let us know your feedback on the LinkedIn post. Thank you !!!

Azure Spring Clean 2024 – Establishing Cloud Resource Hygiene with Azure using the latest tools

Hello eveyone,

Welcome to my blog created for a wonderful Azure Spring Clean event that happens once a year. I am very proud to be able to contribute with this post.

This year, I will do it a bit different by posting in this blog over the week by complementing the following agenda as we go 😉

  • Azure Governance and Tools
  • Bicep as your infrastructure-as-code (IaC)
  • Security and guardrails with Bicep
  • Demo

Azure Governanace

If you are familiar with the cloud governance, then it’s principals are also applied in Microsoft Azure. So, with governance concepts you could manage your cloud presence to better optimize your cloud resources to curb overspending, build defensive guardrails and identify over-provisioning or overspending on the resources. This principals and available Azure tools will help us align the right resources for the right applications which would lead us to a better cloud strategy.

To maximize your cloud governance and keep your resources & budget in check, you could do the following:

  1. Stay proactive with automation and alerts
  2. Identify over-spent in your Azure environment
  3. Standardize and use tagging in your Azure environment

Implementing governance is a proactive measure essential for achieving an organization’s objectives. However, many organizations tend to adopt a reactive approach, which can result in growing complexities, particularly as the IT environment scales. So, without proper control, the absence of governance practices may result in downtime and inefficient resource utilization. From the perspective of engineering teams, this could manifest as resource sprawl, diminished return on investment (imagine your project being halted!), and challenges in achieving standardization.”

Updates are coming …

Azure Spring Clean 2024 – Integrate testing process into your Azure Bicep code

Hello Cloud Marathoners!

Hope you are all doing great and excited about this year’s Azure Spring Clean 2024 event!

In this episode, I will share our new #AzureBicep session with amazing community members like you and my partner in crime, Microsoft Azure MVP Kasun Rajapakse.

🎯 Teaser description of what you could expect:

Embrace the power of comprehensive testing by integrating it seamlessly into your Azure Bicep code!
In this session, we will experiment with some testing strategies that allow you to weave testing processes effectively into your Azure Bicep infrastructure-as-code (IaC) development.

We’ll explore the pivotal role of testing in ensuring the reliability, scalability, and security of your Azure deployments. You will learn how to get started with Bicep-specific unit testing frameworks that complement your Bicep code, enabling you to detect and rectify potential issues at an early stage of development.

Please, feel free to each this session below:

Do you have a feedback?

Please, submit your comments on our LinkedIn post here.