Category: Year in Review

Happy New Year everyone! To kick off the new year I’d like to share with you what happened in 2021, what it meant to me, and where I plan on going in 2022.

So let’s kick off my 2021 year in review!

Year in stats 2021

• Twitter: 1284 followers
• LinkedIn: 587 followers
• GitHub: 25 followers, 75 repositories
• Blog (all time): 149.7K views and 116.3K visitors
• Medium: 163 followers
• YouTube: 0 subscribers (just opened an account in December)

What I achieved in 2021

2021 was a busy year. I was fortunate enough to keep busy on a large on-prem migration to Azure while also working on numerous app modernization projects in .NET working with Azure Functions, Azure App Service, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure App Configuration, Azure Key Vault, Azure Storage, Azure Cache for Redis, Azure Static Web Apps, Azure Logic Apps, Azure API Management, Azure Front Door, Azure CDN, Azure Data Factory, Azure Cognitive Services, and Application Insights / Monitoring. It was like being a kid in a candy shop. It’s amazing what you can build with these services, each of them having their appropriate place in the larger picture/architecture.

Here is a short summary of some of my highlights:

• Microsoft MVP (Azure) renewed for a 4th consecutive year
• Spoke virtually across the globe
  • Local .NET and Azure user groups
  • Best of Build 2021 Canadian Edition (Microsoft)
  • Global Azure 2021 bootcamp (Microsoft)
  • Roadmap for MVP Series Event about Selecting an MVP hosting / Cloud Computing Platform (Azure) for Silicon Halton
• Taught an Azure Workshop for Light House Labs (Microsoft)
• Submitted a video to the Festive Tech Calendar
• Mentored numerous people
• I was fortunate to be able to take further training in Azure related material
• Worked on successful cloud a migration project
• Worked on numerous app modernization projects
• Started a YouTube channel in December
• Hosted the first live YouTube session for Canada’s Technology Triangle User Group

This year I continued to work from home and I like it as I get to spend more time with my family and with 3 young kids, I get to see more of them during the day and have those special moments that I would have otherwise missed had I been in the office. On the other hand, I do miss the social setting and engaging with my co-workers in person, and it felt like I was living in Teams for half my day.

What didn’t happen

• Certifications. Once again I had planned out 2 Azure certifications for the year but ended up pushing to 2022 due to priorities with clients and just trying to deal with another year of Covid.
• Blogging. This year I focused on learning more Azure and sharing that with the community with virtual events. As a result my blogging was side lined. There were numerous days where I wanted to write about something but I writers block in transitioning the idea to a post. Good thing is I have a bagful of ideas now to write about in 2022.

What’s to come in 2022

I see 2022 as a year of exciting opportunities and light on the horizon with regards to the global pandemic (Covid-19) coming to an end (hey I can dream). I’m looking forward to finally adding some Azure certifications and continuing to expand my knowledge deeper into Azure. I will continue to speak at user groups and conferences. Speaking of which I’ll be doing monthly YouTube live sessions for Canada’s Technology Triangle User Group that I run and I’d like to start doing my own YouTube videos. With regards to presentations and user groups and conferences, I already have a few speaking engagements lined up for January, February and March, and I will be submitting a few call for speaker topics for the Global Azure Bootcamp (Mississauga) in April and hopefully, we do another Best of Build 22 Canadian Edition later in June.

I had a lot of fun teaching Azure workshops last year that I’m going to look for a few more to do this year. There is always something new to learn in Azure and sharing that with the community and helping organizations better leverage the cloud is a very fulfilling experience.

I already know that there will be no in-person Microsoft MVP Summit this year and that it will be online and virtual again, so I’m excited for that event to connect with the MVP community and to learn what I can from the Azure product teams. So far I’ve only been able to attend one in-person summit and I’m hoping my Microsoft MVP is renewed again so that I have another opportunity in 2023. Hopefully, the world is in a much better place for in-person events like this to resume again.

I doubt there will be a Microsoft Build or Ignite conference this year in person, but that would be a conference I would look forward to attending in 2023 if possible. Only time will tell.

I also want to take some vacation to Mexico, but that might be something for 2023, well see.

Happy New Year, and may you all have a fantastic year! Stay safe and I look forward to connecting with you at some point.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year everyone! To kick off the new year I’d like to share with you what happened in 2020, what it meant to me, and where I plan on going in 2021.

Events

• Microsoft Ignite Tour – Toronto
  • I spoke with my good friend Ehsan on Windows IoT and Azure.
  • My family tagged along with me and we got a hotel downtown Toronto. The kids always love doing this and they were nice and close had I needed to go see help.
  • Got to see lots of friends at the event, in the speaker room, and at an Microsoft MVP social dinner.
• Was planning on attending my second Microsoft MVP Summit in Redmond, Seattle…then the lockdown and cancellation happened with respect to COVID-19. The summit was cancelled from an in person event to an online virtual summit. I was sad to not travel out to Redmond and be on the Microsoft campus but was thrilled that they moved it online and I absorbed every minute of it. It’s truly incredible to be part of an amazing community of people that have a passion for this stuff and you get to interact with the various product teams from Microsoft and hear about what’s coming.
• Presented at two Global Azure events, one in Toronto, Canada and the other was in the UK.
• Because of COVID-19, all social gatherings and community events stopped and moved online. I was thankful to keep busy and continue to present at various meetups around the GTA.
• Speaking of meetups I took on the organizer and user group leader role for CTTDNUG in Kitchener, Ontario.

Other

Like most of you, I’ve been working from home since March. I like it as I get to spend more time with my family and with 3 young kids, I get to see more of them during the day and have those special moments that I would have otherwise missed had I been in the office. On the other hand, I do miss the social setting and engaging with my co-workers in person. It seems like now I spend half my day on Teams calls.

What didn’t happen

2020 was an interesting year that really went sideways and threw off the plans I had. I didn’t get around to working on my certifications, but funny enough I managed to start two colleagues on their own Azure certification path.

I missed out on a lot of blogging in the second half of the year that I had planned to do. I was and still am working on a large Azure migration for a client. I’m helping them move to Azure API Management, building new applications with Azure Functions, Cosmos DB, Storage, Event Grid and so many other Azure services. Plus there is the on-prem to Azure migration for the data center and consolidating their CI/CD processes into Azure DevOps. I had started on a number of these posts but the reality is working from home is different and it truly requires a good plan for work/life balance. I think I spent most of the second half of the year figuring that out.

What’s to come in 2021

I see 2021 as a year of exciting opportunities and challenges. I will be looking to finally tale some Azure certifications and continue to expand my knowledge deeper into Azure. I will continue to speak at user groups and conferences. I already have a few speaking engagements lined up for January, February and March. My first conference to submit a talk on will be for the Global Azure Bootcamp (Mississauga) in April.

There will be no in-person Microsoft MVP Summit this year but it will be online and virtual again, so I’m excited for that event to connect with the MVP community and to learn what I can from the Azure product teams.

I doubt there will be a Microsoft Build or Ignite conference this year in person, but that would be a conference I would look forward to attending in 2022 if possible. Only time will tell.

Happy New Year, and may you all have a fantastic year!

Enjoy!