Category: DevOps

Exploring Azure Stack HCI and the IAC options

Recently I have been focusing on learning more about Azure Stack HCI – it’s an area that continues to be a focus point in my daily role. Key to the uptake of Azure Stack HCI is a drive to centralise on the Azure Ecosystem that I see with many of the customers I work with. For this post I wanted […]

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Exploring Backups, DR, and Continuity in an Azure Terraform World

Backups, Disaster Recovery, and ensuring continuity of business data and operations, are arguably one of the most important aspects for anyone working in the IT industry. Our technically connected and data-driven world revolves around our ability to ensure our data is safe, secure, and protected from a range of issues that could prevail. In the Azure Infrastructure as Code (IAC) […]

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Azure Spring Clean 2024 – Azure Automation, a quick win!

Azure Spring Clean 2024 - Using Azure Automation to save money - a quick win!

In this year’s Azure Spring Clean my session is called “Using Azure Automation to save money – a quick win!“, and covers the following topics: What is Azure Automation? How does Azure Automation help save cost? Why use Terraform and Azure Automation? Demo Environment Learning more about Azure Terraform Resources / Links / Code I’ve chosen this topic as it’s […]

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Deploying, securing, and monitoring Azure OpenAI with Terraform

In this post I wanted to summarise some of my recent activities deploying, securing, and monitoring Azure OpenAI with Terraform. This is an area I am regularly discussing with Clients – talking about possibilities, delivering demos, and looking at different options to integrate the range of Azure AI and Azure OpenAI Services into business applications and processes. I’ve created my […]

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Upcoming changes to outbound access for Azure VMs – Exploring the Terraform Options

As you may be aware, default outbound access for Azure VMs will change on 30th September 2025 – and the recommendation is to transition to an explicit outbound method. It’s worth noting that existing VMs will continue to work – however, there is still a recommendation to transition: You can read more about this announcement here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/default-outbound-access-for-vms-in-azure-will-be-retired-transition-to-a-new-method-of-internet-access/ Default outbound access […]

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Testing out my Azure Demo Lab with Terraform Cloud

Demo Environment Overview Diagram

Recently I have been working with Terraform Cloud to deploy Azure Environments, and in my previous post I wrote about an overview of Terraform Cloud, Prerequisites for Azure Deployment, and shared some tips and links to get started. You can read this post here. ✅ In this post I wanted to expand further by running through my own Demo/Lab Environment […]

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Azure Back to School 2023 – My Sessions Recap and Resources

Azure Back to School 2023 Logo

Last month I had the pleasure of taking part in Azure Back to School 2023 – a community event that takes place in September and hosts a range of contributors and content to share knowledge with the community! You can read more about Azure Back to School here – https://azurebacktoschool.github.io/.  ✅ There’s a huge list of awesome sessions and speakers […]

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Azure Deployment using Terraform Cloud – Overview, Prerequisites, Sample Code, and Resources

I’ve been using Terraform Cloud to create Azure Environments for some time, and in this post, I wanted to share an overview of Terraform Cloud, the prerequisites for deploying Azure environments using it, and provide additional resources to help get started. Note – this article is not exhaustive, and there are other ways of getting started and different potential setups […]

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Azure Cross-Region (Global) Load Balancer – Demo Environment

As you may have seen, the Cross-Region (Global) Azure Load Balancer has recently become Generally Available (10th July 2023) – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates/azure-s-crossregion-load-balancer-is-now-generally-available/. I decided therefore to create a test and demo environment for it – whereby a quick example can be deployed to get started. ✅ For a detailed overview of Cross-Region Load Balancer, please see here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/load-balancer/cross-region-overview  Overview The Cross-Region […]

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EUC Forum July 2023 Meeting – Resources and Slides

This week I had the pleasure of presenting at the EUC Forum Meeting, which was hosted in Manchester. Alongside my friend and fellow MVP Jon Jarvis, we presented the session “Unleashing the Power of Code-Driven Virtual Desktop Deployments for AVD & Windows 365“.  Click here to find out more about the awesome EUC Forum! This session focused on the tooling required […]

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Azure Lab Services – Azure Compute Gallery Integration, and Custom Images using Packer

As a follow on from my last post, I wanted to explore using Packer to create images for Azure Lab Services in more detail. Specifically, how images created using Packer could be imported into Azure Lab Services. If you’re new to Azure Lab Services, I’d recommend reading my previous post on it. Why use Packer with Azure Lab Services? This […]

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Azure Lab Services – An Overview, Setup, Terraform, and more!

Creating the Lab

Overview Recently I have been using Azure Lab Services to prepare Lab Environments for testing and training scenarios, and also using various tools to help create and customise these environments as I need. Azure Lab Services provides on-demand or scheduled access to virtual machines to support various scenarios. A summary of the key points is below: Provide access to Virtual […]

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