Microsoft Ignite 2018
Even though this was not my first Microsoft Ignite or Microsoft TechEd, this was my first time attending as a speaker and Microsoft Expert working in a Product Group booth. I want to thank the Azure Customer Success team and the Cloud Ops Advocates for the opportunity to speak with the attendees and TheCUBE for the opportunity to chat with them about Site Reliability Engineering.
As usual with Microsoft Ignite (or Microsoft TechEd before that), the week is spent walking, talking, eating and networking. While I did not have a step counting device, I spent a good amount of time during the week with others using them. If I had to estimate my mileage, my mileage would have ranged from 4.5 miles on the shortest day to the 9-10 miles on the longest day. My legs are definitely not up for this on a consistent basis. Thanks to the hot tub at my hotel, I was able to recover a couple of times during the week.
During the week, I spent two of the days in the Azure Customer Success booth talking about the five habits of highly effective Azure users. You can head over to https://aka.ms/fivehabits to find out more about them. They include using Azure Advisor, Azure Mobile App, Azure Service Health, and Azure Roadmap. Now, you might say that is just four things. The fifth thing is engaging with your peers and the community. I am a member of #TheKrewe and the SharePoint communities. When I see very successful IT Pros, they are engaged with their communities both asking and answering questions.
This leads me to the networking part of my week. It was great to get back in touch with friends and colleagues from around the world. It was also great getting to know new friends. The one thing that Microsoft Ignite does is bring IT Pros from around the world together in one place to talk and share ideas. Michael Bender, a Cloud Ops Advocate for Microsoft and leader of #TheKrewe, talked about on his blog about a successful conference that sessions are important but hallway conversations are almost more important. I took advantage of this as much as I could throughout the week, both on-site at Microsoft Ignite and in the evenings.
The biggest part of my week was my presentation on Thursday. I have been lucky to speak at some great events on my own and on behalf of Microsoft. This is one of the highlights of my speaking career. The 75 minutes I got to talk with the attendees about my journey towards the Site Reliability Engineering role was very close to my heart. I can't thank the attendees both in-person and online. The best part is the session was recorded and available online for those that could not attend live. You can watch the video streaming below or click on the button below, sign up for a Tech Community account, and download the video and PowerPoint deck.
If that wasn't enough, I got another opportunity thanks to Phoummala Schmitt, another Cloud Ops Advocate from Microsoft. She introduced me to Stuart Miniman from TheCUBE and we got to chatting about Site Reliability Engineering. One thing led to another and I got the opportunity to that with Stu and his co-host, Rebecca Knight, about SRE on TheCUBE. Thanks to Stu, Rebecca and the team from TheCUBE for the opportunity to talk about SRE in the Enterprise environment.
Jared Shockley, Sr. Site Reliability Engineer, Microsoft sits with Stu Miniman & Rebecca Knight for Microsoft Ignite 2018 for Microsoft Ignite 2018 in Orlando, FL. #MSIgnite #Microsoft #theCUBE #SRE #AzOps
Microsoft Ignite 2018 was a great week for me professionally and personally. With the move of the event to early November next year, I am hoping to get myself back as a speaker.
