ramblings – Note to self

And all of a sudden, its 2022!

And with that, another year goes by. Another year where communities had to revamp themselves and learn how to thrive in a online world. Here in NZ, after what started to look like we were pretty much bat to normal life, the reality of living during a pandemic stroked back, like the villain in the second movie of a trilogy. But if this pandemic is a trilogy, the good news is that we are going to the third instalment… There will be strife, there will be challenges, but hopefully the writers of this cosmic trilogy are aiming for an ending where all of us completes the hero’s journey successfully.

2021 was a year of changes for me.

2019 – A year in review

Well, it is ~~31 December~~ 03 January 2020, so it is the official time for a stock take of 2019. I’ve acomplished a lot of things I wanted to do this year, while couldn’t carve time for some other things I would like to do, which I will have to prioritize in 2020. So instead of a long post, here is a list of things I am really proud and things I want to concentrate more:

I know what you did on your holiday…

Today is officially the last day of my holiday in Brazil with the whole family. We spent four weeks between mine and my wife’s home city, visited family and friend, visited some places that I haven’t before even living in the state most of my life and showed the kids some of our favorite spots.

But I also wrote a blog post, submitted five talks to Ignite, participated in to MVP calls, had a couple of meetings with people at work, replied to my work email to prevent projects go the wrong way.

So, at the end of the trip, I started thinking… With so much focus on quality time and really unplugging during your holiday, this days, should I have done that? Did I really enjoyed this trip as much as I should have?

Integrate 2019 in Review

I was on my flight back from London, returning from Integrate 2019, when I started this blog post. It was a very long flight, around 24 hours each way, but even if the jetlag hit me really hard this time around, it wsa worth it. Integrate grew from an initiative from a group of BizTalk MVPs, into the premier conference for Microsoft Integration technologies. It was my honour to be a presenter for the third year in a row, presenting alongside a Microsoft team comprised of Product Managers, Architects and Engineers – the people that actually design and implement the technologies I use on a daily basis – and legends from the Microsoft Integration community like Sandro Pereira, Steefan Wiggers, Richard Seroter, Michael Stephenson and Kent Weare, just to name a few.

The conference is run by Kovai Co – the company formerly known as BizTalk 360 – as a very well oiled machine. A large team from Kovai dedicate months ahead preparing the conference. This edition of Integrate was the largest yet, with over 480 participants, with 26 speakers and 28 sessions, across 3 days.

If I had to choose one theme from the conference this year, would be governance. Seems like most of the integration related technologies got to a stage where the core set of features are available and companies are using them actively. All that activity highlighted the requirement for better tooling and guidance around various aspects of the governance of the platform. From DevOps guidance to security and bettern integration between on-premises and the cloud, pretty much every product group had recent or new announcements around that theme.

Looking back on 2018

It is the night of the first day of 2019. After 10 days camping and a whole day yesterday organizing the house, I was keen on a quiet night instead of partying on New Year’s Eve.

So the kids went to bed and me and my wife were just waiting to see the new year starting, I’ve thought that was a good time to reflect back on my achievements of 2018 and say thanks to a big supporting network that made them possible. That’s how this post started, in the last day of the year…

Hour of Code 2018

And we did it again! Me and Blanca Mansfield, which run a Python Code Club at the school, ran the Hour of Code 2018 at Arahoe Primary School, working with all classes from Year 3 to Year 6. It is the second time that we run the event at the school.

We’ve managed to do it in 2 days working with different groups of students ranging from 7 to 11 years old. The groups ranged from all year 6 students at once (60 or 70 of them) all the way to a single class of year 3 students. The lessons from last year made the organization much easier, so I didn’t need to prepare as much as I had last year.

Treat every Logic App environment as production

This is a cautionary tale… A month or so ago, someone from support asked me why the hell a test environment had spent over a thousand NZD in Logic Apps actions. My first reaction was “Are you kidding?”… my second reaction was that pit in your stomach feeling when you know something is really wrong, but you don’t know why.

And the Cycle Starts Again

Today I’ve received a very special email – the renewal of my MVP Award for the period 2018-2019. Those who had received the award before knows how cherished is the moment that you see the email on your inbox.
The best part of the award is the confirmation that what you are doing is been recognized as having an impact on the community – which is the reason why you do the work in the first place. The renewal shows that you didn’t lose steam, but keep going in the right direction.
But it wouldn’t be a post about the MVP Award, without recognizing the support network behind me that gives me the chance to do all the community contribution I do. Continue reading “And the Cycle Starts Again”

Logic Apps x Microsoft Flow – which one should I choose?

Recently I’ve presented at Directions ASIA 2018 with my good friend and MVP Tharanga Chandrasekara, and I’ve been exposed to a “new world” – the Business Solutions world! Coming from and enterprise integration background, I usually tend to gravitate around the enterprise integration tools and lately iPaaS offering, so my initial reaction to integration will always be BizTalk Server / Logic Apps. But Microsoft Flow had evolved to be quite a reasonable option – and I would say probably the first option for integration within the Office 365 / Dynamics 365 consultants, since it gives you almost the same level of functionality that Logic Apps would give – no surprises here, since behind the scenes they are actually the same engine. Continue reading “Logic Apps x Microsoft Flow – which one should I choose?”

Global Integration Bootcamp 2018 – Auckland Recap

Last Saturday, 24/03/2018, the second edition of the Global Integration Bootcamp (GIB) was on full swing around the globe, with 15 locations across 10 countries sharing a full day of hands on labs and breakout sessions, highlighting the latest and greatest that Microsoft integration technologies have to offer.

As in the first edition, Auckland kicked off the show. And we did it justice! There was around 35 or so people sharing our experiences and learning from each other in the new Datacom facilities at Gaunt Street. The breakout sessions covered a wide range of topics, from Event Grid to Data Factory. We had also a great line-up of presenters, a mix of recurring ACSUG presenters and new faces, which made the event even more special. Continue reading “Global Integration Bootcamp 2018 – Auckland Recap”