Macedonian ITPro User Group Meeting (March 2020)

We finished our first virtual IT Pro user group meeting. Thanks to our friends at Microsoft Teams, we managed to maintain the attention of 30 people, for 2 hours. :)

We combined the session, with different aspect of technology and experiences from 4 MVP's - Vladimir Meloski who spoke about Cloud Security in Business Productivity environment; Gorana Konevska-Jankoska spoke about Microsoft Teams; Vlatko Ivanosvki spoke about DevOps in #WFH mode.

I spoke about Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, in light of the #WFH model, and how to achieve quick wins by expanding infrastructure and services to the Azure these days. In addition to that, I hosted the session this time.

We gathered valuable feedback, had a quality discussion. Waiting for our next endeavor! :)


Link to the slides  can be found here.

Workshop: Azure Expert Training (Feb 3-4, Gothenburg, Sweden)

Another session on Microsoft Azure, this time for our Swedish partners. It was a 2 day workshop organized by Ingram Micro Sweden. The group was compiled of experienced IT Pros. Primary focus of the training is on Infrastructure-as-a-Service model, with demos and hands on labs focusing on predefined scenarios in operating, planning, creating and configuring the IaaS environment.

Day 1 was focused on Azure Fundamentals: Welcome and introduction, Azure Portal, Resource Groups, Storage Accounts, Virtual networks and Network Interfaces (incl PIP, VPN, Gateways and Peering), Network Security Groups, Virtual Machines, VM Extensions, Scale and Availability Sets, Load Balancer, Traffic Manager. 

Day 2, after the wrap up of Day 1 and discussion, we jump started with Frank Smits session on the Cloud Adoption and the 4R's that are important for Ingram Micro Partners. The rest of the day was reserved for EasyAzure Blueprints - WordPress Multi-tier app, Acronis Backup Blueprints Remote Desktop Services (Small Business Server Replacement) and CheckPoint Blueprints. We spiced up things with short presentation on what's new in Microsoft azure or what's coming in near future, as well as Azure Calculator session.

KUDOS to Tony Arlestal for organizing this and inviting me for the workshop. Had quite a few discussion on solution designs, real world problems, and did quite a brainstorming with the group. 

 

Interview: New Industrial Era - Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Block-chain and Cyber Security

During Microsoft Network, I took part in Al Jazeera Balkans piece on New Industrial Era - Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Block-chain and Cyber security. Among other renounced security experts and consultants that took part, are Jeremy White (Wired), Mark Torr (Microsoft), Mark Van Rijmenam (Datafloq), Marina Drazetic (Microsoft), Paula Januszkiewics (Cquire), and Vladimir Mutic.

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzWzgS8Tao8