Image of Chris Gill promoting his Configuring Windows Server Hybrid Advanced Services Exam Ref AZ-801 book by Packt Publishing. We all have that wish list or bucket list in our lives – that travel or destination we want to visit, the side hustle that we want to complete (still would love to start a restaurant that serves coffee, craft beer and BBQ) or that “love to have” achievement that you might be working towards. For me, I have always loved writing and never seem to make the time for it, that was, until May of 2022 where I stepped up to a LinkedIn request to author a book with Packt! Acce ..read more

Photo of a Rollercoaster staircase to symbolize 2022 in review People frequently hear me refer to 2022 as the rollercoaster year, and for good reason in 2022. While a good amount of my life is driven by technology, there are a TON of personal hustles, side hustles, and life in general that honestly have given me a number of interruptions and reminders along with a fair amount of stressors. Sure, life is too short to not take advantage of every opportunity within your boundaries and reason. But you must find balance in life, in your career, and in your community. In the past, I found it far too ..read more

Many of us find ourselves exhausted with the anticipation leading up to the holidays, not to mention wrapping up work before the holidays, planning events and meals, cooking and baking foods, and potential travel in a pandemic world. If you have any social anxiety whatsoever, the overall stress of gatherings with friends and family really put a damper on your focus and the available time you have to fully recharge your mental state. Combine that with a TON of uncertainty in the past two years, putting in a TON of hours and effort and maybe not seeing/feeling the results (career, school, famil ..read more

Come join me in this learning journey during the May AI Global Cloud Skills Challenge 2021 People know that I have an unsatiable desire to learn-it-all, play with new and emerging technologies, and share what I have learned with the community merely to start conversations and inspire others to create their own solutions. While I have been reading many books and articles surrounding the advancement of Artificial Intelligence in general, as well as the use of responsible AI in action when implementing your technology solutions, I realized that there is so much more that I can learn in this area ..read more

Try new things, you might just find your purpose…and a support tribe along the way! At this point in the year, I always take some time to reflect on successes, failures, and general thoughts for the past, present, and future. Here’s my review of 2020, with the hopes for an even more incredible 2021 for everyone! Achievements: Guest on TheUptake Podcast with Ana Chu and Paul Warren Guest on the Cloud Family podcast with Gregor Suttie and Richard Hooper Invited as member of FY21 Humans of IT Community Ambassadors Became a Microsoft Azure MVP Became a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) Moderator ..read more

Festive Tech Calendar 2020: Yule Learn Azure Log Analytics As a companion article to my video entry for this year’s Festive Tech Calendar 2020, here are the shared resources and some additional gift resources to help you learn and master Azure Log Analytics! I use the resources below on a weekly, if not daily, basis to help troubleshoot and administer workloads in Azure. I truly hope that the below materials assist you in your daily responsibilities and learning paths! Log Analytics is an interactive querying tool (that feeds from Azure Monitor collected data) located within the Azure Portal ..read more

Why a picture of Letchworth State Park (a.k.a. the “Grand Canyon of the East”? You’ll have to listen in and find out! A few weeks ago, I was contacted by two renowned Microsoft Azure MVPs Richard Hooper and Gregor Suttie, asking whether I was willing to join them as a guest on their recently launched Cloud Family Podcast. Those who know me know that there was no hesitation, so I responded with a resounding “YES”, and we began brainstorming topics. The wonderful part about this particular podcast is that every episode covers something unique that shows the intersection of community and tech! Bo ..read more

#MSIgnite 2020 Digital Event for a global audience For the first time in Microsoft Ignite history (now 5 years strong with the #MSIgnite label), this year’s event was a completely digital event. For folks attending MSBuild or MSInspire earlier this year, we all hoped for some surprises and changes in the format of this free global event, and I believe Microsoft delivered on exciting announcements and features, as well as engaging and unique community-driven sessions as part of the #HumansofIT track! I’m creating this as a reading and reflection list for my experience with the event, and hope t ..read more

On a self-promotion suggestion from a friend, I registered this blog on feedspot.com (an online platform that reviews and recommends top blogs on varying topics), expecting only feedback on whether I was achieving value for others in the community, as well as the community goals I had set for myself. Yesterday morning, I received the following from the founder of feedspot.com: Amazing email from Anuj, the founder of Feedspot, confirming that Configuring Clouds was listed in the Top 50 Microsoft Azure Blogs! To be honest, I was shocked, humbled, proud…and energized – there are a LOT of great na ..read more

PL-900: Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals I remember sitting in the back of an Uber on November 4th in Orlando for MS Ignite, receiving the invite for the PL-900 beta exam. While I booked the exam at 85% discount, the goal was NOT to pass the exam (though, that would be a nice result) – it was to give in to my curiosity as I do with ALL of my beta exams. Learn, fail, self-motivate, build, and share this experience with others would be the end game for this exam try. Never underestimate the power of determination, prior experience, mind over matter, and an inspiring #PowerPlatform Principal ..read more