Project Bicep: Azure Infrastructure as Code 💪

Meet project Bicep, a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for deploying Azure resources. Anything that can be done in ARM can be done with Project Bicep.

Getting Started with Azure Network Security Groups (NSGs)

In this guide, you will learn what Azure Network Security Groups are, and how they might help you manage your Azure environment more securely.

Azure Automation: Configuring Hybrid Worker Groups

In this guide, you will learn how to deploy a Hybrid Worker capable of executing an Azure cloud runbook to system of your choosing.

Azure Automation: Managing Runbook Authentication and Modules

In this guide, you will learn how Azure Automation can authenticate and access Azure resources. We will also take a look at importing PowerShell modules to add cmdlets to our runbooks.

Working With Azure Automation Tasks

In this post, you will create and configure an automation task to power off a virtual machine using the Azure Portal. When you're finished, you'll be able to create and configure automation tasks for resources in your environment.

Azure Automation: Creating a PowerShell Runbook

Learn how to set up an Azure Automation Account and deploy your first PowerShell runbook. When you're finished, you will have the necessary skills to get started deploying runbooks in your Azure tenant.

Up and Running with Azure Arc and Kubernetes

Azure Arc allows you to centrally manage all types of environments, not just cloud. In this blog post, you're going to learn about what Azure Arc is and how to use it with Azure Kubernetes Services.

Episode 094: Azure Networking & Security with Derek Smith

In this episode I chat with Derek Smith about Azure Networking & Security. Derek is a Senior Azure Technical Consultant at Ahead, working to help clients with their Azure cloud journey.

Episode 093: Microsoft Identity for Developers | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode we catch up with Christos Matskas and J.P. Dandison, both PM Developer Advocates from the Microsoft Identity team, about building apps with the Microsoft Identity Platform.

Episode 092: Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode we dive into Azure Architecture with Thomas Maurer. Learn about Enterprise Scale Landing Zones, Azure Bicep, the Well Architected Framework, and more.

Episode 087: Learning Azure with Gwyneth Pena | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode I catch up with Azure MVP Gwyneth Pena to discuss how you can get started on your journey into the cloud through certification, teaching and much more.

Episode 086: How to Get Started with Ansible | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode I catch up with Josh Duffney, author of the new book 'become Ansible'. Should you be using Ansible or Terraform? Maybe both? And, how do you get up and running quickly?

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Tips and Tricks

Infrastructure as Code is complex and requires you to jump through many hoops. In this guide we review some practical tips and tricks to be mindful of when developing infrastructure.

Building Azure Infrastructure with Terraform

In this video you'll see how to initialize your Terraform configuration directory using terraform init, how to create an execution plan, and how to modify infrastructure using terraform apply.

Episode 085: Building Self-Service Cloud Environments | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode we catch up with Ohad Maislish, CEO & Co-founder of env0, and we discuss challenges and solutions for teams that need to manage their own cloud environments.

Getting Started with Azure Bastion

Microsoft has taken some of the capabilities of a jump host and rolled them into the Azure platform. In this guide, you will learn what Azure Bastion is, what it is not, and how to manage your Azure environment more securely.

How to Become a Certified Azure Solutions Architect | AZ-303 & AZ-304

In this livestream Mike Pfeiffer and Tim Warner explain what's going on with the new Azure Solutions Architect certification exams and provide tips for studying for AZ-303 and AZ-304.

How to Build and Deploy Docker Containers with Azure Pipelines

In this video Mike Pfeiffer shows you how to use the Azure DevOps Pipelines service to build and deploy Docker containers to Azure Web App for Containers in App Service.

How to Setup Azure AD Hybrid Identity

In my latest YouTube video I show you how to setup Azure AD Hybrid Identity from scratch. You’ll see how to register a custom domain with your Azure AD tenant and how to deploy and configure Azure AD Connect.

Azure Load Balancing Demystified

Have you ever been confused by all the load balancing options available in Azure? What's the difference between regional and global load balancing? Why are there so many load balancing services?

Deploying to Azure App Service with GitHub Actions

Get started with GitHub Actions in this step-by-step tutorial on deploying to Azure App Service. This video will show you how to hit the ground running with GitHub Actions.

Episode 081: Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer (AZ-400) | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode I talk about the recent changes to the AZ-400 exam and provide some tips and resources you can use to start studying right away.

Using Just In Time Access to Secure Azure VMs

Learn how to work with Just In Time Access with virtual machines in Azure so you can easily limit access to servers in your Azure environment.

Episode 080: Do Certifications Really Matter? | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode I catch up with Josh Duffney to discuss the value of technical certifications. Tons of tips and insights from Q&A with a live audience.

Managing Resource Tagging with Azure Policy - Part 2

Learn how to create a strategy for defining and managing resource tags with Azure Policy. This is the fourth post in an in-depth series on Azure Policy by Joe Fecht.

Episode 078: Changing Your Career Path with Jeff Brown | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode I catch up with fellow Pluralsight author Jeff Brown about how to change your career path while working in the tech industry. Jeff is an Azure trainer and former Microsoft engineer.

Managing Resource Tagging with Azure Policy

Learn how to create a strategy for defining and managing resource tags with Azure Policy. This is the third post in an in-depth series on Azure Policy by Joe Fecht.

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Testing

Writing tests for Terraform provides many benefits that make life easier as an infrastructure developer. Automated tests provide faster loop feedback. Learn how to write tests for Terraform code.

Episode 076: Breaking into Tech with Adrienne Tacke | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode I catch up with Adrienne Tacke, published author and software engineer, about breaking into the tech industry, teaching others, and helping people ramp up on the Azure cloud.

Azure Functions: Deploying from VS Code and Azure DevOps

Learn how to create, configure and test Azure functions locally on your machine and then deploy them into an existing Azure function app using multiple methods.

Azure Functions: Managing Authentication and Secrets

Learn how to securely provide Azure functions with role-based access to Azure resources and leverage password and secrets in your functions that are stored in Azure Key Vault.

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Importing Existing Infrastructure

In this step-by-step guide, Luke Orellana walks us through the process of importing pre-existing Azure infrastructure into a Terraform state file.

Azure Functions: Creating a PowerShell Event Based Function

Event-driven automation is one of the most compelling benefits to the cloud. Learn how to create a serverless function that gets triggered by Azure Event Grid and processed with PowerShell Core.

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Functions, Expressions, and Loops

The HashiCorp configuration language (HCL) is both human-readable and machine-friendly enough to perform complex logic shown in this guide.

Episode 072: AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification

In this episode I catch up with fellow MS MVP Tim Warner to discuss the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification exam and what you should do to prepare.

Building and Deploying a REST API using Azure Functions and Azure DevOps Pipelines

Follow along with this project-focused tutorial and learn how to build and deploy a reference application with Azure Functions and Azure DevOps Pipelines.

Episode 071: Learning and Teaching Azure with Lars Klint | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode I catch up with Lars Klint, fellow Microsoft MVP, software developer, and Azure instructor at A Cloud Guru.

Azure Functions: An Introduction for DevOps Engineers

In this first part of a multi-part guide, you will review Azure Function App plans, deploy an Azure Function App, and setup a PowerShell-based webhook function.

Lookup Azure Key Vault Secrets with Ansible

As companies become more security conscious, password rotation is often one of the first areas addressed. Learn how to solve this challenge with Ansible.

How to Write Scripts that Combine Azure CLI with PowerShell

Azure CLI and PowerShell work well together right out of the box for all Azure services. How can we bring the two automation tools together?

Configure a Windows Web Server with Ansible in Azure

The goal of this tutorial is to configure an Azure virtual machine as an IIS Web Server using Ansible. This is the fourth post in a series on Ansible and Azure.

Managing Resources with Azure Policy

This is the second post in a series to help you become more familiar with Azure Policy. Learn how to make better parameters in policy definitions to simplify your assignments.

Episode 069: Developer Perspectives on Cloud & DevOps | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode I catch up with Elkhan Yusubov to understand the developers perspective when it comes to working with in cloud and DevOps.

Continuous Integration (CI) with Azure Pipelines and .NET Core

In this guide you'll learn how to design and implement continuous integration (CI) for an ASP.NET Core web application using Azure Pipelines.

Connect to an Azure Windows Host with Ansible

In this tutorial you'll be provisioning a Windows Server virtual machine by using PowerShell and a custom script extension Deployed by Ansible to Azure.

How to Python in PowerShell

We see a ton of articles and posts about getting started in PowerShell to Python, but how about from Python to PowerShell? In this blog post, you will learn a hands-on approach.

Introduction to Azure Blueprints

Learn how to get started with Azure Blueprints to use existing Azure services like Azure Policies, permissions and ARM templates to give you control of the rollout of your environment.

Deploy a Windows Virtual Machine to Azure with Ansible

By the end of the tutorial you'll understand how to use several of the Azure Ansible modules to deploy workloads to Azure.

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Modules

In Terraform, we can create modules to build re-usable components for creating production-grade Infrastructure as Code configurations.

Connect to Azure with Ansible

In order to use Ansible with Azure, you must first define the connection settings between the Ansible server and Azure as an infrastructure platform. Learn how to connect Ansible to Azure.

Getting Started with Azure Policy

Learn how to get started with Azure Policy in this step-by-step guide and create, assign, and manage policies and enforce different rules and effects over your resources in Azure.

Feature Branch Workflow and Pull Requests: The Ultimate Guide

Learn how to implement the Git feature branch workflow and how to work with pull requests in this ultimate step-by-step guide.

Mastering Azure through Cloud Katas

In this blog post we will apply hands-on practice with the Azure Cloud through executing a series of short exercises revolving around VM creation, monitoring and ARM templating.

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Remote State

In this guide we will step you through the process of setting up remote state with an Azure Storage Account and Terraform Cloud.

Episode 064: The Truth about Cloud Certifications

How do you prepare for cloud certification? And how do you deal with failure? We answer these questions in this episode.

Deploy a Serverless ASP.NET App to Azure Container Instances from Cloud Shell

Learn how to create, build, and publish a .NET Core app inside a Docker container running on an Azure Container Instance.

Episode 063: Azure Hybrid Cloud with Thomas Maurer

In this episode I catch up with Thomas Maurer to discuss Azure hybrid cloud scenarios and we answer questions from a live audience.

Building an Azure Cognitive Search Results page in Vue.js (Part 3)

Learn how to build and publish a Vue.js application to an Azure Storage static website using an Azure DevOps project and pipeline.

Episode 062: Infrastructure as Code with Ned Bellavance

In this episode I chat with fellow Pluralsight Author and MS MVP Ned Bellavance about working with Terraform, Packer, ARM Templates, and Multi-Cloud.

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Variables

Hard coded values are an anti-pattern for IaC. Learn how to use variables in Terraform to allow your configurations to become more dynamic.

Terraform on Azure: Create an Entire Development Environment

Create a development environment that you can spin up, destroy, and re-create any time you want with a few simple Terraform commands.

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Provisioners

Learn how to work with Terraform provisioners which provide the ability to run additional steps or tasks when a resource is created or destroyed.

Building an Azure Cognitive Search Results page in Vue.js (Part 2)

Learn how to build an Azure Cognitive Search Results page with Vue.js in part two of three in this step-by-step series by Pieter Jan Geutjens.

Getting Started with Git and Azure DevOps: The Ultimate Guide

Once you've worked your way through part one of this guide you'll be able to work with Git, a distributed version control system.

5 Tips for Troubleshooting Azure SQL Database Performance

Here in this guide, we will walk you through top 5 practical Tips or Tricks to validate and remediate performance issues with Azure SQL databases.

Episode 059: How to Decide Between Azure and AWS?

In this episode we catch up with fellow cloud architects Nicolas Blank, Warren du Toit, and Chris Goosen to discuss the factors of choosing Azure or AWS.

Building an Azure Cognitive Search Results page in Vue.js (Part I)

Learn how to build an Azure Cognitive Search Results page with Vue.js in part one of three in this step-by-step series by Pieter Jan Geutjens.

Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Deploying Resources

Terraform is a great way to start your Infrastructure as Code journey in Azure. Learn how to get started in this step-by-step guide.

Episode 057: Azure DevOps in the Real-World | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode we catch up with Abel Wang to talk all things Azure DevOps. Abel is a Principal Cloud Advocate and DevOps Lead at Microsoft.

Infrastructure Automation with Terraform and Azure DevOps Pipeline Templates

Infrastructure as Code is considered a best practice when managing infrastructure in the cloud.

Integrate an ASP.NET Core Web App with Azure Key Vault

In this guided hands-on lab you'll integrate an Azure Key Vault resource with an ASP.NET Core web app running in Azure App Service.

Episode 052: How to Amplify Your Career with Michael Teske

In this episode I catch up with fellow Pluralsight Author Michael Teske at Microsoft Ignite 2019 and we discuss how to take your career to the next level.

Episode 051: Azure Arc and Hybrid Cloud Management

In this episode we catch up with Michael Greene from Microsoft about Azure Arc, hybrid cloud, governance, end-to-end management, and more.

Episode 050: Microsoft Ignite 2019 with Dan Wahlin and John Papa

In this episode we chat with industry legends Dan Wahlin and John Papa at Microsoft Ignite 2019 about serverless, containers, k8s, and more.

Episode 049: Serverless Automation with PowerShell and Azure Functions

In this episode we catch up with Eamon O'Reilly, Principal Program Manager on the Azure Functions team at Microsoft Ignite 2019.

Episode 039: Azure Fundamentals Certification (AZ-900)

In this episode we catch up with Microsoft MVP Tim Warner about how to prepare for the Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) Certification exam.

Episode 036: Azure vs. AWS

In this episode I chat with fellow Microsoft MVP Tim Warner and we discuss the differences and similarities of the Azure and AWS cloud platforms.

Episode 025: The Continuous Delivery of Value with DevOps

In this episode we talk to Donovan Brown, Principal DevOps Manager with Microsoft, about the importance of adopting DevOps practices, and the continuous delivery of value to your end-users.

Episode 006: Cloud Career Strategy | CloudSkills.fm

In this episode, I talk to Tim Warner about cloud career strategy. Tim is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Cloud and Datacenter Management who is based in Nashville.

Build Your First CI/CD Pipeline using Azure DevOps

Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) are considered by most to be the backbone of DevOps. Things start to get really interesting when you combine these practices with programmable infrastructure and CI/CD.

Amplify Your IT Career by Building Infrastructure Development Skills

Anyone who wants to thrive in the tech industry in the coming years should learn the core principles of infrastructure development. Those who do will hold in-demand skills in a world where almost everything is software defined.

Build, Run, and Continuously Deploy Docker Containers on Azure App Service

If you're thinking about investing your time to pick up new skills, you can't go wrong with learning how to build, run, and manage containers.