Back in 2012, many like-minded individuals across the globe got together and birthed the concept of an Azure Bootcamp. For those who have attended SharePoint or SQL Saturdays of yesteryear, this type of event was not foreign, but for the Azure community, it was a new way of learning from industry experts across the globe about all things Microsoft Azure.
How it all started
In April of 2013 the first Global Windows Azure Bootcamp was held in more than ninety locations around the globe when it was still called Windows Azure. This ushered in a new era for community Azure events, and it gave Azure enthusiasts a platform to share their learnings, thoughts, opinions, and best practices on all things Azure.
Where it is today
Over the years, the event has morphed from a single event in each city (which still runs today) into a 3-day online event run by the original Global Windows Azure Bootcamp organizers. It started off as three separate events across the country, but due to COVID, the event transitioned to an online format like many recent major events.
But as the interest and adoption of modern public cloud solutions continued to grow, so did the appetite for conferences like these. Since the inception, the tracks have expanded from 2 to 5, catering to the depth and breadth of modern public cloud solutions.
So, what does a typical event look like?
Azure Bootcamps (apart from the Global Azure online events), run over the course of a day, usually from 9AM to 5PM SAST and include the following:
– Keynote/Lunch Note/Closing
– 5 Tracks: IT-Pro/Security/Data Platform/IoT,ML,AI/Developer
– 4 Sessions per track
– 45 minute deep dive/15-minute lightning talks
– Lots of cool prizes and SWAG (Stuff We All Get)
Current Trends
This has been a landmark year with the rapid maturation and migration to the cloud due to COVID – subsequently leading to four major areas of focus for this year’s event:
1. Security – We’re providing a plethora of Azure Sentinel and other security focused sessions. Since most customers have at least one foot in the cloud now, securing their tenant is at the forefront of C-level requirements.
2. Compliance – With content being stored in the cloud, in a blob, file store or table, data governance has become increasingly important from a compliance perspective. With legislation like the GDPR, GxP, FINRA, etc, – Microsoft has put together Deployment Acceleration Guides to assist customers with ensuring that their cloud investment is compliant.
3. Application and Data modernization – One word, Kubernetes. Well, maybe two. Kubernetes and Containers. There’s really no point in moving your digital estate to the cloud if you’re not modernizing your application and data landscape. This is the only way to save costs when moving to the cloud.
4. Data Analytics, Machine Learning and AI – with all this data now being moved to the cloud, companies are beginning to tap into the advanced analytics solutions available to them using features like Data Lakes and Cognitive Services so that they can start making data driven decisions.
So, if you are into all things cloud, more specifically Microsoft Azure and its host of services for building out your modernized cloud datacenter, this is one of the must attend events of the year. The event is free, and you can register here: Azure BootCamp South Africa
