As an Azure Solutions Architect my main focus is to shape the IT&C landscape of my end customers in the most future-proof and cost-conscious way. I drive roadmap sessions, lead technical discussions, create solution designs, draw HLDs and LLDs, run proof of value sessions, and ultimately design DevOps rollout strategies for full blown DTAP Solution-as-Code. I love solving business challenges with innovative technologies, and I get a lot of energy from technically dense discussions that lead to more secure and resilient workloads. Part of my work is also dedicated to growing internal and external teams to be self-sufficient, inducing a growth mindset and shaping future consultants.

In my role, I am helping Partners to plan, build and deliver solutions on Azure. I think I may call myself an industry and technology visionary with a passion for designing complex Cloud solutions and automation.The role of Azure CSA with Microsoft comes with a lot of duties, of which I can mention:- Drive the adoption of Microsoft Azure cloud resources and services through technical engagements with customers and partners.- Building PoCs and demos to showcase the value of Microsoft Azure.- Co-Architect complex hybrid solutions to run securely in Azure.- Support migrations from classical datacenters or from other cloud providers to Azure.- Whiteboard-designing various cloud-native and hybrid architectures according to the Azure Well Architected Framework.- Run Hackathons for strategic technologies as coach.- Delivery of custom technical workshops and trainings (mostly around Azure networking, DevOps, Containers, Cost Optimization, Hybrid Cloud, AVD, WAF and CAF, etc.)- Public speaker for Microsoft- or Partner- organized in-person events.- Write automations and scripts to help customers and partners achieve their goals.- Assess the cloud maturity of our partners and help them grow and get certified as Microsoft Specialized or as Expert Managed Services Providers.- Help Microsoft Partners to create long-term cloud adoption strategies.- Actively shape various Azure services by engaging with the Azure Product Groups and providing market-driven feedback.In my daily work I touch base with all the Azure Solution Areas: Infrastructure, Digital and App Innovation, Data and AI, Identity and Security.It all starts with a surreal scenario or very often with an exotic customer request and ends up with a solution that is deployed and managed on Azure. On a daily base I work with a highly skilled technical community of our partners (CTOs, Enterprise, and Lead Architects) and I collaborate with them to build solutions that are scalable, secure, and cost effective.

With SchubergPhilis I had two major achievements. - First one: Replacement of the Citrix VDI with the modern Windows Virtual Desktop. Although it might seem a straightforward job, meeting a plethora of high securities demands made it a long yet successful process. I am now part of a select WVD world-wide community including Microsoft global black belts.- Second one: convinced the oldest customer to extend their on-prem-only infrastructure into Azure in the most secure way possible nowadays. For this we had to partner with 2 other companies and Microsoft itself. To achieve this, I conducted Proof of Concepts, plenty of technical briefings with suppliers, internal and external architecture design sessions and automated any deployment possible. Also involved with different modernization solutions while shifting from a classical datacenter to Azure, implemented new org-wide APIs as function apps (Naming Conventions, Exchange Online APIs), orchestration of Azure and non-Azure VMs patching, Azure Monitoring and Alerting by using Kusto Queries, Azure Monitor, various APIs and Opsgenie as incident manager.Contributed to the internal Azure Landing Zone and helped on turning it into an off-the-shelf product, paving this way the road to become an Independent Software Vendor (ISV).I also participated in an Azure hackathon organized at SBP premises (pre-pandemic) around IoT topics. I’m currently preparing a PowerShell Core training for 25 attendees.100% of the technical work has been achieved by using Azure DevOps, ARM templates and PowerShell.

At SaaSplaza I created and delivered brand new technical architectures based on Microsoft Azure.I drove application transformation projects and helped customers adopt cloud native architectures instead of classic datacenter deployments.I achieved this by delivering detailed technical designs and introduced automation via Azure DevOps (Infrastructure as Code / Configuration as Code).Along with other internal teams, I ran consulting studies to transform the customers` IT and application landscapes. I analyzed, generated, and delivered solutions for cases of legacy application and services modernization requests.At the same time, I piloted new technologies introduced in Azure (Service Fabric Mesh, Password-less sign-in, etc.) towards the inclusion or exclusion from the products and services portfolio. I met with new customers, analyzed the impact and benefits of transforming legacy IT into Cloud-ready deployments (SaaS); ran technical assessments for their needs and proposed cost-effective solutions.I had the role of pre-sales and drove the sale of new IT consulting services by participating in the offer creation processes, by contributing to the proposal materials (Services Offer, SLA, Technical Documentation, RFP) and answered technology related questions after contract sign-off.In a cross-team effort we succeeded to be recognized by Microsoft as an Azure Expert Managed Services Provider (MSP).

I had multiple opportunities to grow and expand my career. Besides their detailed description below I’d like to stretch the fact that my team and myself had to partner and work jointly with other companies and Microsoft. Herewith a short selection and description of my tasks:Team management tasks included: - Responsible with the career development of a team of 9- Performance Management.- Making sure everybody develops in his/her natural career growing direction.- Helping my team overpass any technical difficulty within their projects.Customer and partner engagements included:- Translating customer needs into cost-effective, scalable and performant solutions.- Architecting various solutions based on Azure, Office 365, and SharePoint (on-prem)- Sales and Engagement Management- Participating in the sales and pre-sales process to acquire new projects or extend the existing ones (RFI, RFP, RFC).- Coordinating internal resources and vendors for the flawless execution of projects.- Ensuring that all projects are delivered on-time, within scope and budget (applied Agile project management techniques).- Drive the adoption of Microsoft cloud resources and services.- Architect complex hybrid SharePoint applications to run securely in Azure.- Strategically design the Provider Hosted Apps architecture according to the Office 365 Patterns and Practices.- Drive the hosted apps deployments and guide the developers to achieve corporate goals.- Perform SharePoint migrations (from any source to any target) by leveraging PowerShell as main actor and DevOps pipelines.- Trainer of PowerShell Core & Advanced and SharePoint for Admins- Company-wide Azure Subject Matter Expert.

As I was so passionate about Microsoft technologies, I joined the great family of Microsoft where I was initially busy with providing deep technical support for escalations all around Europe.My daily activities consisted in engaging & collaborating with other teams to obtain resolution to critical and complex issues, in being responsive to Microsoft’s customers` and partners` needs, which sometimes required support outside of the normal business hours. I created & maintained technical content including Knowledge Base articles, blog posts, whitepapers, and training documents.As Office 365 and Azure were rapidly expanding platforms back then, I had the opportunity to work with and learn from various Product Groups (SharePoint, Azure, OneDrive, etc.). I opened numerous features and product improvement requests with the goal of bringing new solutions to market.I demonstrated leadership through personal responsibility, accountability, and teamwork. Thanks to this attitude I joined the local Premier Field Engineers team and made again steps in the direction of technical enablement and engagement. I had the chance to share Microsoft’s best practices with customers and partners.During this whole period, I discovered the huge potential of Azure and decided to gear my career towards it.

At Green Light Group I had multiple roles. I started as Business Analyst and evolved into Technical Documentation Writer. Years later I was recognized and certified as a SharePoint Architect.Other tasks and responsibilities included: analysis and simulation of business processes, requirements collection and workshops with software architects. I wrote use cases, maintained technical materials, collaborated with programmers, engineers, and product owners. Also identified realistic architecture solutions and designed them for both performance and low running costs. During this whole period, I learned a lot about PowerShell and automated almost all the deployments and maintenance activities.

- Design of data acquisition systems: Execution of hardware and software applications using LabVIEW, for the interface of different electrical components of a car. - Testing data acquisition systems: Creation of testing plans, execution and interpretation of tests.- Technical expert for CAN interface: Creation of CAN BUS simulation interfaces on dSpace equipment

- Application administrator: Responsible for IBM software applications for Metro stores, support and debugging in case of application failure, identification of abnormalities in application’s functioning and adjustment, reporting.- Oracle data base operator: Administration of more than 100 oracle databases, of the precision of execution for specific critical jobs; Identification of possibilities to improve the database jobs. - Lead support team: Lead activities for a support team made of 5 people for applications, mid-level debugging.- Technical support: Support for adjacent applications. Logging and debugging. Proposal of technical solutions. Flaw.

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