Microsoft e-Books on MVA

02 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in Architecture, Cloud, Tools

Tags

Architecture, Cloud, Delivery, Development, DevOps

Microsoft have added a couple of new titles to their collection of e-books on MVA (Microsoft Virtual Academy) this month. These titles add to a good collection of information on Microsoft products.

There are lots of other titles available and it is worth checking out the collection.

Microsoft System Center Deploying Hyper-V with Software-Defined Storage & Networking

Microsoft TechNet and the Cloud Platform Team; Series Editor: Mitch Tulloch

March 2015 236 pages

This ebook covers a variety of aspects that make up the foundation of the software-defined datacenter: virtualization, storage, and networking. By the end, you will have a fully operational, small-scale configuration that will enable you to proceed with evaluation of your own key workloads, experiment with additional features and capabilities, and continue to build your knowledge.

Microsoft System Center Software Update Management Field Experience

Andre Della Monica, Chris Shilt, Russ Rimmerman, and Rushi Faldu; Series Editor: Mitch Tulloch

March 2015 160 pages

This ebook addresses some of the gaps and pain points you might encounter when implementing, administering, and troubleshooting Software Updates using Configuration Manager 2012 R2. The advice is based on the authors’ experiences working as Premier Field Engineers and Microsoft Consultants in customer environments on a daily basis. Enjoy this book and the shared experiences from the field.

Ready for Technet Online 2015

27 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in Cloud, DevOps/OpsDev, Programming

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Architecture, Cloud, Coding, CPD, Development, DevOps, learning, OpsDev, Programming

I am looking forward to this years TechDays Online 2015 which is being run between the 3rd and 5th February 2015. If you cant make the sessions then they normally appear on Microsoft Virtual Academy a few weeks later.

This is being done over 3 days with a packed agenda that you can dip in and out of as needed.

Day One Theme: Client, Devices and Mobility :

Day one: Devices and Managing a Mobile-First World

09:30-09:40 Overview of the Day
09:40-10:15 Delighting your business with EMS
10:30-11:05 Devices, Devices Everywhere
11:20-11:55 Windows 10 Client Innovations
12:10-12:45 KEYNOTE: What IT Pros and Devs Need to Know About the New Microsoft
13:30-14:05 Building IoT solutions today
14:20-14:55 Microsoft Azure Remote App
15:10-15:45 Microsoft Azure RMS
16:00-16:35 Azure Active Directory: Much more than a user store
16:50-17:25 Microsoft Intune/SCCM
17:25-17:30 Wrap up of day 1 – Part 1

Day one evening: An evening with Office 365

18:30-19:05 Migration of your mailboxes to Office 365
19:15-19:50 Keeping in touch with the online world
20:00-20:35 Building online collaboration inside Office 365
20:35-20:45 Final thoughts for the day

Day Two Theme: Server and Cloud:

Day two: The Journey to the Cloud-first World

09:30-09:40 Overview of the Day
09:40-10:15 What’s new Windows Server /Hyper –V – a technical preview
10:30-11:05 How to find out what’s happening in your datacentre with Azure Insights
11:20-11:55 Host your own cloud with the Windows Azure Pack
12:10-12:45 Taking scripting to the next level with Service Management / Azure Automation
13:30-14:05 A new home for your old applications ↓
14:20-14:55 20% + of Azure runs on Linux – why is this important and how to do it well?
15:10-15:45 DevOps in Microsoft Azure with Chef and Puppet for heterogeneous cloud environments
16:00-16:35 Make Azure your DMZ
16:50-17:25 Microsoft Corporate Keynote
17:25-17:35 Wrap up of Day 2

Day Three Theme: Developer

Day three: Multi-device, Cross-platform Development

09:30-09:40 Overview of the Day
09:40-10:25 Creating cross-platform apps with Visual Studio
10:40-11:25 How are you going to deploy that?
11:40-12:25 Microsoft Azure Machine Learning without a PhD
13:00-13:45 Debugging and Performance Tuning Web Apps and Sites
14:00-14:45 What is Roslyn and why should you care?
15:00-15:45 Building cross-platform apps with .NET and ASP.NET
16:00-16:45 Creating cross-platform cloud apps for mobile devices
17:00-17:45 Microsoft Corporate Keynote
17:45-17:55 Wrap-up of Tech.Days Online Day 3

Open Source for DevOps Practices in a Microsoft Environment

14 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in DevOps/OpsDev, Open Source

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Tags

Development, DevOps, learning, Open Source, OpsDev

Microsoft have just released the slides and training for Open Source for DevOps Practices via the Microsoft Virtual Academy.

The training covers 4 sessions and uses some Microsoft Tools/Services in the demonstrations/training:

What DevOps Means Here; Common DevOps Practices and Supporting Open Source Tooling
Version Control as a Communication Tool; Issue Trackers as a Coordination Tool
Shareable Development, Test and Deployment Environments and Automated Staging
Automated Testing, Whats Next?

The sessions cover the following topics:

DevOps Overview
Azure Basics + Process Tools
Source Code Repos + Communication
Reproducible Environments
Automated Testing
Deployment & Configuration Management
Release Management
Monitor + Learn

Each session is between an 1 hour and 1 hour 20 mins. Followed by a recommended next steps section at the end.

These are good sessions and demo’s if you want to integrate typical Open Source DevOps products into a Microsoft based estate. The videos and demo’s cover:

Azure
Docker
Vagrant
Packer
Gradle
Grunt
Salt
Hudson
Puppet
Chef
Jenkins
Nagios
Zabbix

Source: http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/open-source-for-devops-practices

Continuous Delivery Visualisations

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Max Hemingway in DevOps/OpsDev

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Delivery, DevOps, Visualisation

In one of my researching “DevOps and current state in the marketplace” moments, I came across these 4 drawings by Nhan Ngo (Engineer at Spotify) – (Distributed under a Creative Commons licence), that she created whilst reading a book called “Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Fowler))”

Source link at the bottom of the post in case these versions don’t work well for you.

Source http://continuousdelivery.com/2014/02/visualizations-of-continuous-delivery/

Playing a Game with Innovation and Thinking

19 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Max Hemingway in Architecture, DevOps/OpsDev, Innovation

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Architecture, DevOps, Information Theory, Innovation, OpsDev

I have been looking at ways to assist me with Innovation and Thinking and looking outside of the box. Lots of different methodologies exist and there is no right or wrong way to what method to use or when to apply it.

After studying several methods in this arena and investigating, reading and learning some of these, I have come up with a set of “Playing Cards” that allow me to play games with Innovation and Thinking.

I took a pack of plain/blank playing cards and wrote out cards with different methodologies and ways of tackling/working on innovation.

The Pack is currently based on 3 models and I am looking to add a few more as I develop the pack (Other methodologies are available)

4 Site Model
Peter Drucker Thinking
SCAMPER

I have also added some:

Problem challenge cards – to add different problems to the area you are working on
Lens Cards – to challenge you to look at innovation through different lenses or view points

How to play the game

For the problem or area that I am wanting to tackle I shuffle the pack and apply 4-5 cards then work through it based on what has been dealt.

The lens cards may be shuffled in the main pack or dealt at the side one at a time.

Set a time limit on the cards dealt and then brainstorm writing everything down.

No thought or idea is a bad idea until it is qualified in or out.

When the time is up either play a different lens card against the cards on the table – or collect them up and shuffle the deck and start again.

Results

I have found that using the cards gives me different view across different methodologies rather than just applying one.

Sometimes the cards do not result in too much on the page, but other times they flourish ideas and innovations around the problem or area I have been looking at.

Next I plan to add more methodologies to the pack and expanding the cards already produced, although I don’t think that I will expand this pack much more as it then may become cumbersome and be too large to be effective.

I do have some blank cards left though so may innovate something new around the next thing to do with them.