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.

Security preview of Microsoft 365 Enterprise

I did an Microsoft 365 Security overview session, combined with demos and quite extensive discussion, with group of IT Pros that work in Public Safety and Judicial Sector. (They are not keen on taking pictures of them, even in compliance with GDPR:))

We did a extensive overview of Microsoft 365 Security features, in four segments - Compliance, Secure Access and Identity, AI and Automation, and Security Operations Center (SOC). Spiced things up with some demos on Compliance Manager, Data Retention and Protection Policies,  Azure AD, Conditional Access, MFA, and Security Center and Sentinel.

I personally liked the Q&A and discussion session we had during the day, it gave u the opportunity to go beyond the slides and demos, and discuss some real life issues they are facing, and how cloud tech can support their efforts.

The presentation can be downloaded on the following link

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. 

 

MK IT Pro User Group meeting – November 2019

Oh yeah, we finally managed to gather the troops together. After running around, like busy bees, watching "million" hours of great and high quality material from Ignite 2019, the short wrap up was prepped and ready for presentation.

The usual suspects involved, Gorana and Vladimir, and me-self :) we got together on a cloudy afternoon, to discuss what's new in Microsoft Cloud. :)

We did a overview of major announcements, referred to great session from Microsoft Ignite, on topics of Azure and Microsoft/Office 365. While Gorana maintained focus on Microsoft Teams, I was concentrating on news around Azure, with focus on the Satya Nadella keynote, most of the infrastructure and security announcements.

Well, did not manage to cover all the topics/news/announcements of course, but still it was a fun journey. :)

Till the next time, December 2019, to wrap up the year.

Cloud Solution Provider Disti Bootcamp (Microsoft and Ingram Micro, June 25th- June 26th)

With cooperation of the local office of Microsoft, we held 2 separate events for our Kosovo and North Macedonia Partners.

The first event, was held at the Kosovo Innovation Center (ICK) on June 25th, and the second one, in North Macedonia, at Ingram Micro Offices, on June 26th.

Topics discussed were the changes in Microsoft Partner Program, held by my colleague Marija Gjorgjievska, with emphasis on migrating to the new Partner Center and how to become an Indirect CSP Re-seller.

On both events, I did a session/overview on Microsoft Cloud Services - what's new and what's going on. Emphasis was on Managed Solution Provider model, achieving transformation and growth by adopting the cloud economy model, end of life of Windows server 2008/ SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft 365.

Link's to the presentations can be found here - both for Kosovo and North Macedonia Event.

Global DevOps boot camp (#GDBC) (June 15th)

Just as last year, in cooperation with the local Microsoft .NET Community group, we have organized the Global DevOps Boot camp 2019 event. Kudos to Vlatko Ivanovski, who was driving the process.




A group of 40 enthusiast gathered on Saturday, to take part of this years challenge. this years "theme" was "You Build It, You Run It" (https://globaldevopsbootcamp.com/). 




People behind the event, introduced new concept this year, evolving around the 3 important phases of DevOps projects:

• Detect. Get insights into how your system behaves to make you and your users aware of any anomalies.
• Respond. Connect with your users to make sure users are aware of the issue.
• Recover. Action remediation to get your system back into operation.

The bootcamps will kick-off with an exclusive keynote from Niall Murphy (Director of Engineering for Azure Cloud Services and Site Reliability Engineering), followed by a local keynote - by Vlatko Ivanovski - which will go deeper on the challenges you’ll face during the day, and then get stuck in to the challenges in the hackathon.

It was a fun day with activites, challenges, bunch of people that dug in into the problems at hand. Can't wait for nest year

Microsoft & Cisco Event (March 12th, Tirana, Albania)

As part of our activities in the region, we held a mini conference on March 12th in Tirana. this was a joint Ingram Micro, Microsoft and Cisco event, focused on networking, security and interconnectivity.

 I did a presentation on Microsoft Azure Network and its capabilities, ability to either running workloads in the cloud or enabling hybrid connectivity between the on-prem and cloud datacenters.

Copy of the presentation can be found here

Event: Windows Server Summit (June 26th)

The Windows Server Summit is a half-day virtual event dedicated to helping you modernize your apps and infrastructure with Windows Server, whether you run it on-premises or in the cloud. Sharpen your skills with best practices from Microsoft experts, and learn how to address challenges across four themes:

• Hybrid cloud scenarios
• Security
• Application platform
• Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)

Also, this will be a chance to see what's new with next release of Windows Server.The event is today (June 26th)  starting at 18:00 (CET).

The registration and/or additional information can be found on the following link

Workshop: Azure Expert Training (June 12-13, Gothenburg, Sweden)

Another session on Microsoft Azure, this time for our Swedish partners

in Gothenburg. It was a 2 day training for a group 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.

My colleague Michael Bengtsson did the Welcome and Introduction session, and then I kicked off with Azure Tech track sessions: Azure Subscription/Tenant, Azure Active Directory, 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. 

The reminder of the workshop focused on hands on labs on based on Blueprints - WordPress, Acrostics, Remote Desktop Services and CheckPoint.

Kudos to Marie Jofur that made this happen! :)