Category Archives: Learning

Conferences, Presenting & Learning Q4 2016

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After MS ignite 2016 we’re prepping our Windows 2016 rollout that will start the day we have the Volume license bits. All this in combination with a continued public cloud development and deployment. We’ve seen success with native born in the loud apps and are now working on moving some existing workloads over there. The reason for the latter is that some of the IAAS private hosters at our disposal are unable to deliver the quality and level of services required to server the needs of some real time services. Not to mention that some of them make public cloud look cheap on top of the fact that ordering a VM takes weeks and the solutions can barely be called “cloud”. Well you can, but that doesn’t make it so. Basically is only fit for workloads you don’t really care about but for those they are way too expensive. So it’s Public Cloud for the win here.

But between these efforts I’ll be learning and sharing experiences with my pears until it’s time to take a few weeks of at the end of the year.

On October the 26th I’ll be attending and presenting at the Windows Server 2016 Launch Event In Ireland #WSL16 which is being organized by MicroWarehouse IT distributor.

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Aidan Finn works there with great drive and success as their technical evangelist. He’s tapped in to his network of global experts to line up some great and diverse content on both Windows Server 2016 and Azure for cloud deployments.

Soon after that I’ll be flying over the big pond (go west young man, go west!) to attend the Microsoft MVP Global Summit 2016 and engage in some serious feedback, planning with Or Microsoft PMs and discuss the roadmaps and vision for the next year.

On November the 22nd I’ll be attending Experts Live in the Netherlands where I’ll also be presenting. The title of my session is Get your work/life balance in check with Hyper-V 24/7/365 High Availability. And the aim is to show you how clustering and Hyper-V have evolved to deliver better high availability, higher resiliency to failure, operational optimizations and better trouble shooting capabilities. Experts live is really one of the best and larger community events in Western Europe, and I always look forward to attending.

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That will conclude my conference and presenting schedule for the year.  Well unless another opportunity to attend and share knowledge appears that’s to good to be turned down. The remainder of the year will be spent on moving to Windows 2016 and diving deeper into Azure ARM & automation.

Cloud and Datacenter Conference Germany

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On Thursday May 12th 2016 the inaugural edition of the Cloud and Datacenter Conference Germany was held in Dusseldorf. The new conference is the result of a long time wish and dream of the driving force behind the organization of it, Carsten Rachfahl from Rachfahl IT Solutions. When Carsten asked me to come over to speak and attend I was on board and I got the honor of presenting on what’s new and enhanced in Failover Clustering In Windows Server 2016.

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The conference surpassed all expectations. The organization was impeccable. Just like the supporting infrastructure for speakers and sponsors, which was top notch. Catering was probably one of the best I’ve ever seen at a conference. All of this helped make the goal of the conference, presenting valuable information to the attendees and provide for networking opportunities, a success.

The quality of the speakers and the content of the sessions was matched by the interest and enthusiasm of the attendees for the technologies presented. It was a perfect fit. This was made possible by Carsten his vision on what he considers to be a great conference. This vision was brought to live by the hard work of his company co-workers, with the aid of the sponsors, the speakers and the trust of the attendees had in this conference for them to spend their time and money to attend.

As a speaker and attendee it was a great experience. The support was excellent and even the PowerPoint template was easy to use and clear of superfluous clutter. We got everything we needed to present in perfect conditions to a receptive audience. The mood was a happy one. People were having a good time, learning and networking all day long.

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To Carsten and team: well done and thank you! I’m looking forward to attending and speaking again next year as this conference is a new gem to the IT public in the DACH region.

Carsten has built his company Rachfahl IT-Solutions into one of, if not the very best, experts in regards to Hyper-V, Storage Spaces, Windows and Private Cloud  in Germany. They share this expertise through their community efforts. Great people to work with!

Blue ring to celebrate 5 years as a Microsoft MVP

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A week ago I got a package in the post. It contained a smaller box with in it a blue ring to celebrate 5 years as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). First in the Hyper-V expertise and now in Cloud and Datacenter Management.

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To all the people and organizations that have given me opportunities, that supported me and trusted me, I’d like to say thank you. It’s been a blast to be able to learn, test, design, build ad support so many solutions over the years. Sharing those experiences and insights helped me grow as much as anyone else. I’m convinced that every Euro or Dollar spent on my growth has had a ROI much greater than it ever cost. The mission for the years ahead is to keep learning and evolving. The job is for paying bills but all the effort and time spent is another occupational level, one I hope every one finds to have fun  whilst working.

Thank you!

Microsoft MVP Global Summit 2015

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We’re leaving Las Vegas (VEEAMON 2015) and are heading for Seattle.

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I’ll be spending a week in Bellevue/Redmond from November 1st to November 8th to attend the Microsoft MVP Global Summit 2015. As a Microsoft MVP one does not want to miss this summit. And I know quite a few MVPs who have quit their jobs the moment their boss told ‘m they could not go. Not saying we’d all do that but it’s true that skilled experts are in high demand and missing out on the MVP summit isn’t exactly making the best use of any MVP you employ.

It’s all NDA so basically I can’t tell you anything. But we’ll be sharing some tweets if joy and some lightweight blogs to share with the world how happy we MVPs are to be back at the mother ship for our annual firmware downloads and scheduled maintenance.

Until then here’s a nice Bing Maps overview of the MVP before & after hours area of operation.image

So yes, the Microsoft MVPs are descending on Bellevue / Redmond once again in large numbers. So you might hear a bit more Microsoft technology discussions in a bit more foreign languages or accents than otherwise. It’s us, no worries!

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It’s just great to an MVP Smile