

Mark Tinderholt
Microsoft Azure, Principal Architect (aka "The Azure Terraformer")
Columbus, Ohio, United States
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An experienced tech professional with a broad journey, Mark began in application development, evolving from web and client-server applications to sophisticated distributed systems and microservices. Along this path, he gained deep knowledge in automation and DevOps, enhancing his career.
He's led diverse project teams, and in key leadership roles, guided cloud practice organizations with a blend of strategic, operational, and pre-sales skills. Recently, he's taken a hands-on engineering role at Microsoft, working directly on the Microsoft Azure platform.
Mark's passion for cloud computing extends beyond work to "The Azure Terraformer," a YouTube channel he hosts. There he shares insights and experiences, aiming to educate and connect with others who are equally interested in building systems on Azure.
Area of Expertise
Topics
Packer, Ansible, and Terraform: When to Use Each and How to Use them Together
In this talk I'll provide a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively utilize Packer, Ansible, and Terraform in infrastructure automation. We'll start with an introductory overview of each tool, shedding light on their individual roles and strengths.
An essential aspect of the talk is the balance between image configuration and post-provisioning setups. We delve into the strategies of when to bake configurations into an image using Packer and when to apply configurations post-VM-provisioning using Ansible, including best practice guidelines for each scenario.
By the end of this talk, I hope you'll depart with the knowledge to optimize your infrastructure automation, understanding when and how to use these tools individually or in combination to achieve efficiency and scalability.
Learn Infrastructure-as-Code through Minecraft
Stop punching trees and start mining diamonds with Infrastructure-as-code!
I'll demonstrate how to have fun and learn Infrastructure-as-Code by automating the worlds most popular video game of all time. We'll use Packer and Terraform to automate a Minecraft server and start mining diamonds in minutes!!!
Commit to control: GitOps & policy-as-code using Azure policy and Terraform
This talk provides an in-depth exploration of using Azure Policy and Terraform together for cloud governance and automation. It covers the definition of policy as code, explaining Azure Policy's role in enforcing standards and ensuring compliance in Azure environments. The presentation details how to automate policy definitions and assignments with Terraform, offering a step-by-step guide on managing Azure Policies through code. It emphasizes practical applications, including writing and deploying policies with Terraform and integrating them into CI/CD pipelines for automated compliance and governance. Additionally, it discusses operating models for organizations to implement these practices at scale, aiming for efficient cloud management.
Automate the Automation with Terraform
We spend hours automating infrastructure with Terraform, so why use ClickOps for setup? Let's end ClickOps! Discover the AT-AT, a special type of Terraform module that Automates the Automation with Terraform. Whether you prefer Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or Terraform Cloud, let's learn how to Automating the Automation with Terraform!
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