I was re-awarded as a Microsoft MVP – Cloud and Datacenter Management 2023-2024

I was re-awarded as a Microsoft MVP – Cloud and Datacenter Management 2023-2024

While I was on vacation I received an e-mail that I was re-awarded as a Microsoft MVP – Cloud and Datacenter Management 2023-2024. Needless to say that this put a big smile on my face, despite my vacation coming to an end. Yes it is and remains an honor to be awarded and recognized as a global expert in the community by Microsoft. We all like a compliment and some confirmation that what we do is valuable. As always, it is also a humbling experience, as you meet quite a lot of very talented people which can make that old imposter syndrome flare up.

I was re-awarded as a Microsoft MVP - Cloud and Datacenter Management 2023-2024

For those not in the know, MVP in this case stands for Most Valuable Professional, not Player 😊.

I was re-awarded as a Microsoft MVP - Cloud and Datacenter Management 2023-2024

This is my 12th Microsoft MVP award and it represents a long journey through technology in the Microsoft ecosystem. In tech things seems to change fast and tend not to last long. But it is the learning you do along the way that last through time. Nothing I have learned has ever become completely obsolete and the experience and inights, even from learning VBA and Visual Basic in the early days still help me today as I talk to developers whose Azure infrastructure I help optimize and secure.

I am grateful for the recognition and support of both the community and Microsoft. Especially to the people who originally saw my potential and supported my first-ever nomination as well as those that support me today. The award itself is not the goal, it is a by-product of being active in the global community. Engaging in and with the community helps us all learn, progress, and succeed in our jobs by sharing experiences, knowledge, and insights.

It is all about community

Without any doubt, no matter how good and smart you are or how hard you work, we need others to grow and flourish. You do not contribute to the community in isolation. Sure, IT pros do a lot of technology work individually while testing and learning in the lab, troubleshooting, and delivering projects. Sharing and learning in the community happens with and thanks to others. People who give us opportunities, support, and help us. That means fellow technologists, employers, colleagues, vendors, and our audience asking questions that make us learn even more as well.

Aditionally, let’s not forget about the people who are not in the spotlight. We get a lot of support from those providing locations, material, and logistic support. Many “smaller” businesses are often very generous in this regard. We are all “kids” getting raised in and by a village and in one form or another we all stand on the shoulder of giants. That’s why we all owe at least a little gratitude to all the people and organizations that help us progress. So to all those who do, thank you!

Some tips for businesses that employ MVPs

In the end, here is to another year of community activity where we all share, learn, and grow together. You can always start today. There is no age limit or right time. I was a long time lurker before I became publicly active voicing my opinions and sharing information. You can be an introvert or extrovert, young or old, and anything in between. All you need is the willingness to share and learn. Furthermore, you don’t need 50,000 followers on social media or whatever, you just need to make a difference.

Finally, I can only advise employers to support their community-minded employees. These are the people that learn, grow, adapt, and change with the needs and technology. Also, the incidental cost of travel, registration fees, and hotel nights are nothing compared to the return on investment. So let them attend some conferences and the MVP Summit

Well, to be honest, not supporting this would be penny-wise and pound-foolish. In the end that would mean you have no idea of the value of both developing and retaining talent. An MVP on staff will very easily safe you at least 30-40 days consulting per year. Think about that. Without any doubt, even at a medium rate of 125.00- $/hour means a serious ROI. Now add the cost of replacing such talent … it is a no brainer! You need to invest in on-board talent development anyhow and these are profiles that love to learn and share. That is a near to perfect as it gets people.

The Veeam hardened repository at the TechNine User group

The Veeam hardened repository

Just a quick blog post to let you all know I will be presenting on the Veeam hardened repository in Veeam Backup & Replication v11. I will do this at the TechNine user group meeting on March the 23rd. It is the world premiere of this presentation, so grab your seat and be able to tell your grandchildren you were there!

The Veeam hardened repository
The hardened repository with immutable backups

There is a tremendous amount of new and enhanced capabilities in v11, both small and big ones. But this one stands out because no matter who you are, a small business or a fortune 500 global enterprise, we are all at risk from ransomware and wipers. And guess what, the Veeam hardened repository gives you yet another option in your arsenal to make sure you can recover from such a disaster.

And end to end solution

In VBR v11 Veeam now offers complete end to end immutability for all your backup copies if you desire to do so. You can bring your own storage and so it leaves you the flexibility and freedom of choice you are used to with Veeam.

Like many of you, I like to stay up to date with new technology and implement it to solve real-world problems. Often coo tech is very forward-looking and foundational. This translates into “it is very early days yet”, “the code exists but you cannot use it yet”.

The Veeam hardened repository
You cannot delete immutable backups

Well, this is not something that shows you the promises of tomorrow and then leaves you to go back empty-handed. That always feels like a bit of a letdown when you are dealing with your real-world, real-time issues. The Veeam hardened repository is available now to help address the challenges you are facing today! It doesn’t get any better than that. I will show you the cookie, you can have the cookie and you can eat the cookie! Want to play with it yourself? You can, right now with the free community edition of Veeam Backup & Replication v11!

Register!

What do you need to do? Register of cause! Do it right here. Make sure you show up in time and stay around for an interactive discussion afterward. We start at 20:00 on March 23rd, 2021. And yes it is all virtual as we plan to get rid of the coronavirus first and then get together in real life again.

The Veeam hardened repository
register here

I will explain why you need it, how to set it up, and I will dive under the hood to show how it gets the job done. You can now protect your hypervisor and supported backups end to end with immutability in the hardened repository, giving you the extra security and protection you might need to recovery from a ransomware event. There will be demos! You can read up on it here but I will go behind the scenes with you!

DELL World 2013 – Tour Of the Acoustic & Storage Testing Labs & Presenting at the Dell TechCenter User Group

While at Dell World 2013, a group of us had the opportunity to visit the Dell offices as part of the Trends in Data Center Technology Think Tank. We saw advancements in fresh air cooling, a hot house,

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the storage lab and, new to me, the acoustic labs. Below is a picture of Chris Peterson, the acoustic Architect (he was involved in the design of the DELL VRTX, which is a unique solution and achievement in the industry). Like wise the also have thermal engineers and both of these expertises are closely related.

I will never look at acoustic / thermal engineering for servers & storage in the same way I used to and I have way more respect for the effort and a better understanding of what efforts go in to this research and why.

For some more information on the acoustic lab read this white paper Dell Enterprise Acoustics and watch these videos:

Dell thermal & acoustic engineers discussing the VRTX
Chris Peterson on Dell PowerEdge Generation 12 Server acoustics

Next to all that I attended briefings, had one to one conversations with network, storage & server managers & engineers. I had a lot of information, questions & request to share from our Microsoft MVP Community in regards to our needs & wishes for the best possible support for Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V, ODX, UNMAP, SMB Direct, SOFS, Management & cloud. I even jumped into an open source breakfast discussion on * cloud computing. Last but not least we joined fellow Rock Stars Jonathan Copeland (@VirtSecurity), Rasmus Haslund (@haslund) & Dell Tech Center’s community manager Jeff Sullivan (@JeffSullivan) to discuss what community & social media means to us.

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I also shared our experiences with Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V, DVMQ, vRSS & ODX at the Dell Tech Center User Group during Dell World 2013.

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Want to talk and demo DVMQ & vRSS? Start with the basics: RSS Smile 

To all my community buddies a very festive end of the year and a great 2014! If you want to know even more about how rewarding being part of a community can be, check out this blog Mindset of the community by Marc van Eijk (@_marcvaneijk)

Heading Home after the 2013 MVP Global Summit

The 2013 MVP Global Summit has come and gone already. I’m very happy to have attended and I was once again emerged in a culture of sharing knowledge and helping out our fellow MVPs and friends. Thank you Carsten!

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We shared a lot of experiences we had running Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V in production. We met up with new MVPs and veteran attendees. To all my fellow MVPs and the people at Microsoft I’d like to say that it has been an honor and a privilege to have been able to talk shop with so many highly skilled, intelligent and engaged people. What ever their background they all share a level of commitment to be all they can be in their expertise. Thank you all for taking the time and putting in the effort. I hope to see you all next time!