Wrap Up your Bicep Code with Modules

This Christmas why not give the gift of your awesome Bicep code all wrapped up in a delightful module.

In this video we’ll look at why you might want to create Bicep modules, best practice for creating them and how to get these modules into the hands of your users so they can unwrap the shiny Bicep code.

Infrastructure as Code with real code, for anyone

In this session we'll take a look at Pulumi, a framework for creating Infrastructure as Code using real programming languages including Dotnet, Node, Typescript and Python.

We'll take an objective look at what Pulumi is and how it works, what the benefits are see some real world of examples of using it. In addition we'll take a look at my personal experience of adopting Pulumi as an IT Pro rather than a developer and how it has helped facilitate better collaboration between IT pro's and developers.

At the end of this session you should have a good understanding of what Pulumi provides and whether it is of interest to you, and how to get started with it, along with some exciting examples to play with.

Streamline Your Infrastructure Deployment with GitOps and Pulumi Operator

Are you tired of managing infrastructure deployments through a tedious and error-prone process? It's time to switch to GitOps and Pulumi Operator. GitOps has transformed the application deployment process, and with Pulumi Operator, you can now apply the same principles to your infrastructure.

Join us for an insightful session where we will dive deep into the Pulumi Operator and learn how it works. We will demonstrate how you can define your infrastructure in Git, and have Pulumi automatically reconcile it into deployed infrastructure. Whether you are new to Pulumi or an experienced user, this session will provide valuable tips and tricks to help you streamline your infrastructure deployment process. Say goodbye to the pain of manual infrastructure deployments and say hello to GitOps and Pulumi Operator!

Reuse, Don't Repeat - Creating an Infrastructure as Code Module Library

With each new Infrastructure as Code project it can often feel like your re-writing the same code you used for the last project, creating a virtual machine that complies with all your corporate security standards, or deploying all the required WAF rules. There is a better way.

In this session we will look at how you can build a library of reusable modules that you can reuse over and over in your IaC projects. This is not just about boilerplate code, but real, usable modules that provide value to your whole team, help you comply with standards and build infrastructure faster.

At the end of this session you'll have an understanding on the benefits of creating reusable modules, what sort of modules you can create, how to go about creating them and how to distribute them to your teams.

How to build reusable Infrastructure as Code

A live session on Twitch and YouTube where we will work through the process of creating reusable infrastructure as code.

In this session we will look at how you can stop re-writing the same IaC over and over, and turn it into re-usable modules that you can use over and over, share with your team and help introduce best practice and governance into your IaC workflow.

We will work through this process live, taking some existing code and turning it into a module that you can share with others. The example will be done in Azure Bicep but the process will be applicable for any language.

Come along and watch, ask questions and get involved.

I'm the developer now! - A guide to developing Infrastructure as Code for IT Pros

The cloud and Infrastructure as Code has changed the way we deploy infrastructure. No longer are we installing physical hardware, crimping network cables or installing OS's from disk. Instead, we are writing code, just like developers.

Because our infrastructure is in code, we have the ability to use all the same tools developers have been using for years and get all the benefits, but coming from an IT Pro background this can be daunting. In this session we are going to look at how to take your infrastructure as code up a level by implementing things like source control, automated testing, build and release pipelines and package delivery. All things developers have been using for years, but that are now available to you, if you know how to use them.

If your an IT Pro who's moving into the world of infrastructure as code, or if you've been writing IaC for a while now but want to know how to move to the next level then this session is for you. You'll see real world examples of how to implement developer tooling, and understand why you would want to do this and what benefit it has for you.

Project Bicep: ARM Templates Evolved

ARM Templates are evolving! Microsoft have released a preview of brand new language for working with ARM Templates called Project Bicep.

In this session we will explore Project Bicep to understand what it is, how it works and why it's being introduced. Attendees will learn how to write and deploy Bicep templates, see the benefits of the Bicep language over the current ARM JSON language, and learn about what is coming in the future for Bicep.

At the end of this session attendees should have a good understanding of how to get started using Bicep and what benefits it will bring for them.

Infrastructure as Real Code with Pulumi

If you're working with a cloud provider, you're likely using or looking to use Infrastructure as Code tooling. Often these tools can require learning a whole new language or DSL, which can be problematic in a DevOps world where you're looking for developers to take on more responsibility for deploying everything their application needs.

In this session, we will look at Pulumi, an Infrastructure as Code tool that allows you to write IaC in real programming languages. As well as allowing your developers to use languages they already know, this opens up exciting possibilities around testing and automation, which we will explore in this demo-heavy session. This session will focus on real-world use cases, from working directly with Pulumi in real projects, from an objective viewpoint covering good and bad!

At the end of this session, you should better understand how Pulumi can be used in the real world and the benefits this might bring to your work.

Providing Reliable SMB Shares In Microsoft Azure

Many first applications move into Azure are a lift and shift operation utilizing Infrastructure as a Service. If this is a Windows application it will invariably require some sort of SMB file share, but the lack of shared storage in Azure can make providing resilient file services an issue.

This presentation covers what options are available for SMB shares in Azure and the benefits and problems associated with these. Updated for 2020 with new capabilities, this includes Azure Files, Azure NetApp files, Storage Spaces Direct and Storage Replica.

Sql Agent In The Cloud

Azure’s Platform as a Service solution, SQL Azure is a compelling solution for many who don’t want to manage their own highly available SQL implementation. SQL Azure, however, does not replicate all of the services of on-premises SQL, and one of those missing is the SQL Agent.

This session looks at what alternatives exist for running and managing SQL jobs in Azure without SQL Agent. In particular, we focus on Elastic Database Jobs, Azure Automation and Azure Functions. The presentation includes a brief overview of these services and how they are applicable to SQL workloads, followed by demos creating and running SQL jobs.

Testing Azure Infrastructure With Pester

When our infrastructure is defined as code it means we can test it like code! This presentation looks at using the popular PowerShell based testing framework Pester to test Infrastructure as Code, both before deployment to try and catch issues before they happen, and after deployment to validate you deployed what you expected.

Developer tools in an Infrastructure World

More and more IT Pros are moving to defining their environments in code form, both inside and outside Azure. This presentation talks about how techniques used by developers for years are now applicable to the world of infrastructure. With a focus on Azure we will look at source control, build, test and release management in an Infrastructure as Code world.

Azure Resource Manager Templates Tips, Tricks and Advanced Techniques

A technical discussion of some more advanced techniques to take your Azure Resource Manager templates to the next level. Covering techniques such as T-Shirt sizes, functions, outputs as well as tooling and testing. Intended for IT Pro's or Devops who have used basic ARM templates to deploy Azure resources but now want to learn some more advanced techniques.

Azure AD Domain Services - domain controllers in the cloud?

Azure AD Domain Services is Microsoft’s PaaS offering for a domain controller as a service. At first glance, it seems like it can solve many problems when migrating to Azure, but when you dig deeper this might not always be the case.

In this session, we’ll look at what AAD DS is, what it can do and also what it can’t do. We’ll look at the pitfalls to be aware of, the problems that need to be solved and the use cases where AAD DS shines.

This presentation is designed to de-mystify AAD DS and clearly demonstrate what it can do, and what it can’t. This is all based on real-world experience from implementing AAD DS and working through many of the issues experienced early in it’s life. Attendees should leave this presentation with a clear idea of whether AAD DS is the solution they need or not.

What's your data doing? A guide to monitoring in Azure SQL.

You've decided to move your data into Azure, but how do you keep an eye on what it's doing, how it's performing and whether it is secure?

In this session, we will take a look at the tools available in Azure to monitor your data and get notified when something isn't right. This will include:

- Azure Monitor
- Azure Alerts and Dashboards
- Log Analytics
- Service Health
- App Insights
- Azure Security Center
- SQL Database Threat Detection

We will cover what all these services do, when they are (and aren't) useful and a consolidated approach to using them for your monitoring needs without having to check multiple different services.

Pick a Platform - Hosting Containers in Azure

If your looking to run container-based applications in Azure, the number of choices can be overwhelming. Azure offers a wide array of options for hosting containers in the cloud. AKS, ACI, Web Apps, Service Fabric, Functions and more. In this session, we'll look at what options are available for container hosting and explore when you would, and would not, use them. We'll look at the advantages and disadvantages of each platform and the use cases that fit them.

Beginning your Infrastructure as Code journey in Azure

Infrastructure as Code allows you to consistently deploy and configure your cloud infrastructure without human interaction and the errors that come along with that.

If you're deploying into Microsofts Azure cloud there are a variety of different ways you can deploy using IaC, ARM Templates, Terraform, PowerShell DSC, Chef, Puppet, Ansible etc. In this session, we will take a look at why you might want to make use of some of these tools, when to use which tools, and what the benefits (and downsides) are for these tools.

You'll come away from this session with an overview of how to start your Infrastructure as Code journey in Azure, what tools are available, and which are best for you.

Regain Control with Azure Governance

If you've been using Azure for any length of time, the question of how you govern and control the resources you and your team create will have come up.

Azure now offers a number of tools that you can leverage to start to understand what you have deployed, what it is costing you and then to start regaining control over these resources. In this session, we will look at what these tools are, how they work and how you can implement them. Starting with some simple audits we'll work all the way up to strict policies and resource definitions. We'll cover Policies, Blueprints, Resource Graph and Cost Management, individually and working together to provide a complete governance solution.

Integrating Kubernetes and Azure

Kubernetes is more than an orchestrator, it is an ecosystem of operators, extensions and librarys that allow you to tailor your deployments to your platform of choice. In this session we will take a look at ways you can enhance your Kubernetes clusters to work better, and integrate more deeply, with Azure.

We'll look at how to integrate with Azure Services using Open Service Broker and KeyVault Flex Volumes, authentication using Pod Identity, Ingress using App Gateway and monitoring integration with Promitor.

After attending this session you'll have an understanding of what these technologies are, how they work, and how they can be used to enhance your work with Kubernetes and Azure. All of these technologies can be used with Kuberntes in Azure, in other clouds, or on premesis.

Azure Active Directory Is Not Active DIrectory!

If your new to Azure, or identity in the cloud then Azure Active Directory can be a confusing concept. Just because it's got Active Directory in the name, it doesn't mean it's the same as the Active Directory you grew up with.

In this session we'll look at what Azure Active Directory actually is, what it can do, what it can't do, and what it really shouldn't do. We will look at some of the core concepts of AAD and where it really shines. We'll look at some of the common questions and confusion I see around AAD, and what we can do to either solve these, or work around them.

After this session you'll have a much better understanding of what the purpose of AAD is, how it differs from on premises AD, and what other solutions there are for providing solutions for things that aren't part of AAD.

An Introduction to Infrastructure as Code

If you've even slightly dipped your toe into the cloud world, then you've probably been told that Infrastructure as Code or IaC is how you should be deploying your cloud resources. But what does this mean, what is IaC? If you write a bit of PowerShell, isn't this IaC, and most importantly what is the benefit of using IaC?

In this session, we will start from the very basics of what IaC is, why you might want to use, and what it's going to bring that will make your life better. Along the way, we will look at some examples and see it in action. By the end of the session, you should be clear on what IaC means to you, and how you can get started with using it in your cloud environment.

The State of Azure Infrastructure as Code

If you're working in Azure, you've probably heard about, been told to use, or are already using Infrastructure as Code to deploy your cloud resources. However, the last few years have seen significant growth in the options available for working with IaC in Azure. As a result, it can be very confusing to keep up to date on what's possible and decide what tools and processes you should use.

In this session, we will explore the current state of play for Infrastructure as Code in Azure. What tools, languages and processes are available, their good and bad sides, and why and how do you choose what to use. Finally, we'll look at real-world use cases and help you understand what might be helpful to you.

You'll leave this session with an overview of what IaC in Azure looks like today, what you can achieve with it, and what tools and processes might be helpful to you.