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I am pleased to confirm that in September I will be taking part in two events which are scheduled so far. My FinOps on Microsoft Azure session is selected for the Azure Back to School 2021 series, organised by the fantastic Dwayne Natwick who is a fellow Microsoft Azure MVP. My second session will be on the 21st September with the Azure Thames Valley User Group. My session Building Serverless APIs with Azure Functions and API Management looks at how we can use Azure Functions and OpenAPI to build RESTful APIs using Azure API Management....

As many of you will know, last week, we lost one of the shining lights of our wonderful technical community. Abel Wang (aka. AbelSquidHead), sadly lost his fight against cancer. The deeply personal, yet public post on Facebook about his passing from his wife Nina, is incredibly moving. When I learned the news looking through my Twitter feed, it was awash with people saying goodbye, to a friend, colleague, advisor, and mentor....

On the 9th July 2021, my new book DevOps Adoption Strategies: Principles, Processes, Tools and Trends is available to buy now on Amazon (UK/US). Every organization wants to adopt DevOps and as an IT professional, it is important to understand the fundamentals of DevOps and how it can contribute to the success of your organization. This book provides complete coverage of the steps needed to implement the culture, people, and process aspects of DevOps....

A number of changes affect the operation of Azure Functions from .NET 3 to .NET 5. In this post, we look at integrating with Azure App Configuration. Recently, Microsoft announced the availability of support for .NET 5 in Azure Functions. Upgrading is a little more complicated than usual. Normally we would just change netcoreapp3.1 over to net5.0 and have done with it. Not this time. Historically, Azure Functions have always been tightly coupled with the version of the runtime, Long Term Support (LTS) specifically....

In this post, we look at the importance of avoiding anti-patterns during the transformation to DevOps. Following on from learning about specific challenges of breaking down silos between teams and understanding the importance of culture in DevOps, we now look at the challenges as a whole of building culture in DevOps, specifically the anti-patterns that can be blockers to culture. This is not an easy task which requires careful planning and thought....

In this post, we take an introductory look at how communication influences DevOps. Put quite simply, communication in DevOps is fundamental. That along with collaboration are the two biggest things your company can look to improve to make DevOps a success. Imagine if developers and operations we able to communicate better with each other. From an infrastructure perspective they could collaborate with operations to work on templates which match their requirements and operations could explain the controls in place for the security of the business....

In this post, we look at the four different phases of maturity in DevOps, from waterfall, through to continuous deployment. Over the past few years, there has been a real focus on maturity in DevOps. Usually this manifests in the form of assessments to gauge where you are, almost like a benchmark exercise. I’m a big fan of this approach, it’s important to know how you are doing, where you started and what trajectory you are on....

In this post, we take a look at the challenge of maintaining a DevOps mindset, especially in the face of adversity. This is post 10/100 in the 100 Days of DevOps series. Speaking from a personal perspective, I can certainly say that a DevOps mindset helps me with adversity. However, when you’ve invested lots of time building your DevOps culture, it’s important to make sure you are able to maintain that culture in different scenarios....

In this post, we take a look at the essential values that make for a great DevOps mindset. This is post 10/100 in the 100 Days of DevOps series. Many IT professionals today are having difficulty adapting to change and disruption. Are you struggling just to keep the lights on, so to speak? Do you have a sense of being overwhelmed? This is not unusual. Today, the status quo is inadequate, so IT is constantly attempting to reinvent itself....

Through my experience, a tight number of changes will help in the adoption of DevOps. In this post, we take a look at five changes you need to make. This is day 9/100 in the 100 Days of DevOps series. Does the phrase “rapid innovation,” “time to market,” “customer-centricity,” and “acting like a start-up” ring a bell? They’re all buzzwords that excite the CEO while terrifying those tasked with running, transforming, and safeguarding their companies....