Sarah Lean
International Speaker - Founder of the Glasgow Azure User Group
Glasgow, United Kingdom
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Sarah Lean is a Senior Solution Engineer at Microsoft, specialising in Azure infrastructure, hybrid cloud and modernisation. With over 20 years of experience across the IT industry, Sarah brings a practical, engineering-focused perspective to the challenges organisations face when managing, securing and modernising their technology.
A Microsoft Certified Trainer and experienced international speaker, Sarah enjoys breaking down complex technical concepts into practical, accessible sessions that help IT professionals learn something they can take back to their own environments. Her areas of expertise include Azure, infrastructure, hybrid cloud, Terraform and cloud financial management (FinOps).
Sarah is passionate about sharing knowledge and building inclusive technical communities. She co-founded the Glasgow Azure User Group, helping build a thriving community of technology professionals, and has spent years supporting others through mentoring, speaking and her work as a STEM Ambassador. She is particularly passionate about encouraging more women to explore technology and build successful careers in the industry.
A proud Scot who grew up on a dairy farm, Sarah brings curiosity, practicality and a down-to-earth approach to everything she does. She has spoken at major industry events, including Microsoft Ignite, and shares her technical knowledge through her blog, Techielass, and other community channels.
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Dive into the World of Kusto Query Language
Are you ready to embark on an exciting journey into the realm of Kusto Query Language (KQL)? Look no further! Join us for an exhilarating session where we'll demystify this powerful language and equip you with the skills you need to conquer the data universe!
KQL isn't just any language – it's used widely within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. Get ready to unleash your data querying skills!
In this beginner-friendly session, we'll kick things off with a lively introduction to KQL, exploring its structure and uncovering the secrets of its evolution with a dash of history thrown in for good measure.
But wait, there's more! We'll dive headfirst into real-world use cases and practical examples, empowering you to craft your own KQL masterpieces with confidence.
Get ready to level up your querying game and unlock new possibilities with KQL.
Introductory session
Empowering Meetup Organizers: Proven Strategies for Success in Tech Communities
Unlock the secrets to thriving community meetups with insights from a seasoned organizer who's been at the forefront of local tech ecosystems for over seven years. Drawing from a wealth of experience speaking at user groups and conferences worldwide, our presenter has not only established their own successful user group but has also mentored numerous others in launching theirs.
Discover the essential steps to kickstarting your community venture the right way, avoiding common pitfalls learned through firsthand experience. From navigating initial challenges to fostering sustainable growth over time, learn from both the triumphs and setbacks encountered along the journey.
Whether you're a seasoned organizer looking to enhance your community's impact or a newcomer eager to make your mark, this presentation offers invaluable guidance on how to build, nurture, and expand your tech community with confidence and effectiveness.
AI for Infrastructure Engineers: Beyond the Autocomplete
AI coding assistants are becoming part of the infrastructure engineer's toolkit, but how do we use them effectively when working with real infrastructure?
In this practical session, we'll explore GitHub Copilot with Azure infrastructure and infrastructure as code (IaC), using both Terraform and Bicep. We'll go beyond code completion to see how Copilot can help us understand existing code, investigate Azure issues and work through infrastructure changes.
Through practical demonstrations, we'll explore how context and instructions influence the results, how connected tools and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers can help investigate an Azure environment, and how to guide an AI assistant through a troubleshooting workflow.
Generating code or identifying a possible cause is only part of the job. We'll look at how to challenge assumptions, review proposed changes, validate Terraform and Bicep, and keep control of what ultimately gets deployed.
This session is aimed at infrastructure engineers who want to use GitHub Copilot as a practical tool in their day-to-day work, while understanding its limitations and knowing when to trust, question or verify its output.
Controlling Your Azure Costs: Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices
Managing Azure costs can be challenging, especially for organizations with large, complex cloud deployments. In this session, we will explore the tools and techniques you can use to gain control over your Azure costs, reduce waste, and optimize your cloud spend.
We'll discuss design decisions that can impact your Azure costs, such as choosing the right VM size, storage options, and network architecture. We'll share best practices for optimizing resource usage and minimizing waste and show you how to leverage Azure Advisor to get personalized recommendations for improving your infrastructure.
By the end of this session, you will clearly understand how to use Azure Cost Management, design decisions, and Azure Savings Plans to control your Azure costs and optimize your cloud spend. Whether you're a cloud architect, developer, data architect or IT professional, you'll leave with practical insights and actionable strategies for achieving cost savings in your Azure environment.
This is an introductory and intermediate session.
Infrastructure as Code - A look at Azure Bicep and Terraform
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the modern standing way of working with cloud technology, but choosing the right tool for this task can be a headache.
Different people and roles within your team may have unique needs or approaches.
In this session we will walk through What Azure Bicep & Terraform are. We'll talk about how they compare, showing demos and sharing some best practices.
The aim of this session is to help you understand which IaC tool would suit you and your organisation.
This is a mix between introductory and intermediate session.
90DaysOfDevOps - 2024 Community Edition Sessionize Event
DATA:Scotland 2022 Sessionize Event
Cloud Lunch and Learn Sessionize Event
Scottish Summit 2022 Sessionize Event
Festive Tech Calendar 2021 Sessionize Event
Scenic City Summit 2021 Sessionize Event
Azure Summit Sessionize Event
Techorama 2021 Spring Edition Sessionize Event
DATA:Scotland's Scottish Summer Sessionize Event
AzureLive Sessionize Event
MCT Summit 2021 Sessionize Event
Virtual Azure Community Day Sessionize Event
Azure Day Rome 2020 Sessionize Event
Scottish Summit Sessionize Event
Microsoft Ignite the Tour
CloudBrew 2019 - A two-day Microsoft Azure event Sessionize Event
Microsoft Ignite 2019
Presented to over 900 people at Microsoft Ignite, the session was called "Keeping Costs Down in Azure"
DATA:Scotland 2019 Sessionize Event
Experts Live Norway 2019 Sessionize Event
Intelligent Cloud Conference 2019 Sessionize Event
MVPDays Online January 2019 Sessionize Event
SQLGLA 2018 Sessionize Event
Evolve Conference Sessionize Event
Sarah Lean
International Speaker - Founder of the Glasgow Azure User Group
Glasgow, United Kingdom
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