CIAOPS AZ-900 Exam prep course now available

I am happy to announce I have completed another online Microsoft exam prep training. This time it is for the Microsoft AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals exam. This exam is an excellent starting point if you are looking to get into Azure. It is quite broad but it is important to remember that it is focused on ensuring you have a basic understanding of most of the Azure services. That means, you need to know what they are and what they do NOT how to configure them individually.

I am a big believer in industry certifications as I have details previously here:

The benefits of certification

It is important to have Azure in your tool bag these days because new services like Windows Virtual Desktop are built on a variety of Azure services. To do anything with Windows Virtual Desktop, you are going to need to have Azure knowledge and this AZ-900 is a great starting point on that journey.

You can sign up for this new course here:

https://www.ciaopsacademy.com/p/azure-az-900-exam-preparation/

and look out for more courses coming soon from the CIAOPS.

Techwerks 10–Sydney 12th February 2020

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I am happy to announce that Techwerks 10 will be held in Sydney on Wednesday the 12th of February 2020. The course is limited to 20 people and you can sign up and reserve your place now! You reserve a place by completing this form:

http://bit.ly/ciaopsroi

or sending me an email (director@ciaops.com) expressing your interest. This training is just before the Microsoft Ignite the Tour in Sydney, so if you are in town for that you can hopefully also take advantage of this training.

The content of these all day face to face workshops is driven by the attendees. That means we cover exactly what people want to see and focus on doing hands on, real world scenarios. Attendees can vote on topics they’d like to see covered prior to the day and we continue to target exactly what the small group of attendees wants to see. Thus, this is an excellent way to get really deep into the technology and have all the questions you’ve been dying to know answered. Typically, the event produces a number of best practice take aways for each attendee. So far, the greatest votes are for deeper dives into the Microsoft Cloud including Microsoft 365, Azure, Intune, Defender ATP, security such as Azure Sentinel and PowerShell configuration and scripts, with a focus on enabling the technology in SMB businesses.

Recent testimonial – “I just wanted to say a big thank you to Robert for the Brisbane Techworks day. It is such a good format with each attendee asking what matters them and the whole interactive nature of the day. So much better than death by PowerPoint.” – Mike H.

The cost to attend is:

Gold Enterprise Patron = Free

Gold Patron = $33 inc GST

Silver Patron = $99 inc GST

Bronze Patron = $176 inc GST

Non Patron = $399 inc GST

I hope to see you there.

Register for upcoming CIAOPS events

I have a number of planning events coming soon, so now is the time to register your interest for these so you can be kept up to date on that event. You can do this via the Microsoft Form here:

http://bit.ly/ciaopsroi

Upcoming events that you can register for include:

1. Techwerks 7 in Melbourne on Friday the 16th of August 2019

2. Techwerks 8 in Adelaide on Thursday the 24th of October 2019

3. MS-100 online study group

I’ll be posting more information about all of these events soon but here’s that you can get the jump on everyone else and ensure you place when the events formally open for registration. You should check back regularly to see what CIAOPS events are coming.

I hope to see you there.

CIAOPS Techwerks 6–Sydney June 6

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CIAOPS Techwerks move to Sydney in June on Thursday the 6th. The course is limited to 15 people and you can now sign up and reserve your place. To do this just email me (director@ciaops.com) and I’ll add you to the list.

The content of these events is driven by the attendees. That means we cover exactly what people want to see and focus on doing hands on, real world scenarios. Attendees can vote on topics they’d like to see covered prior to the day and we continue to target exactly what the small group of attendees wants to see. Thus, this is an excellent way to get really deep into the technology and have all the questions you’ve been dying to know answered. Typically, the event produces a number of best practice take aways for each attendee. So far, the greatest votes are for deeper dives into Intune, security and PowerShell configuration and scripts, however that isn’t finalised until the day.

The cost to attend is:

Patron level	Price inc GST
Gold Enterprise	Free
Gold	$ 33
Silver	$ 99
Bronze	$ 176
Non Patron	$ 399

The CIAOPS Techwerks events are run regularly in major Australian capital cities, so if you can’t make this one or you aren’t in Sydney on that date, stay tuned for more details and announcements soon. If you are interested in signing up please contact me via emails (director@ciaops.com) and I can let you know all the details as well as answer any questions you may have about the event.

I hope to see you there.

CIAOPS Techwerks 4–Perth April 12

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The next instructor lead, all day, technical whiteboarding workshop session I’ll be doing on Microsoft Cloud Technologies (Office 365, Microsoft 365, Azure, Intune, Windows 10, etc) will be held in Perth on Friday April 12th, 2019. The course is limited to 15 people and you can sign up and reserve your place now!

The cost to attend is:

Patron Level	Price inc GST
Gold Enterprise	Free
Gold	$ 33
Silver	$ 99
Bronze	$ 176
Non Patron	$ 399

To learn more about the benefits of the CIAOPS Patron program visit www.ciaopspatron.com.

To register, simply email me – director@ciaops.com and I’ll take care of everything from there.

The CIAOPS Techwerks events are run regularly in major Australian capital cities, so if you can’t make this one or you aren’t in Perth on that date, stay tuned for more details and announcements soon. If you are interested in signing up please contact me via emails (director@ciaops.com) and I can let you know all the details as well as answer any questions you may have about the event.

I hope to see you there.

CIAOPS Techwerks whiteboard training–Brisbane 21 Brisbane

I’ll be hosting an all day focused, hands on, technical whiteboard training session on Microsoft Cloud technologies (Office 365, Microsoft 365, Azure, etc) in Brisbane on Thursday February the 21st 2019. The course is limited to 15 people and there are still a few places available if you wish to attend.

The CIAOPS Techwerks events are run regularly in major Australian capital cities, so if you can’t make this one or you aren’t in Brisbane on that date, stay tuned for more details and announcements soon. If you are interested in signing up please contact me via emails (director@ciaops.com) and I can let you know all the details as well as answer any questions you may have about the event.

I hope to see you there.

Become Microsoft 365 Certified with CIAOPS

I’m pleased to announce that I’m taking all of my experience as a Microsoft Certified Trainer and learnings with Microsoft 365 and creating a 7 week intensive study program dedicated to helping people pass the recently announced Microsoft MS-100 certification exam.

In broad strokes this exam covers:

– Design and Implement Microsoft 365 Services

– Manage User Identity and Roles

– Manage Access and Authentication

– Plan Office 365 Workloads and Applications

The CIAOPS program will provide 2 hours per week of presented content (lecture + lab) as well as additional content each will be expected to completed and submitted prior to the next week. In my experience, having ‘required homework’ is the best way to ensure that you are learning the content. All the material will be available in a downloadable portable for access on demand (including presented content). Having the material on demand means that you can attend this course even if you can’t make the live sessions.

This program is limited to a maximum of 15 students and is filling fast, so if you want to take advantage of this round then please contact me via email (director@ciaops.com) to express your interest. The cost for anyone not in my CIAOPS Patron program is AU$399 inc GST for all the material.

You may want to read my thoughts on why I believe certification is becoming increasingly important with the cloud:

The benefits of certification

Stay tuned for more certification training programs like this that will be available from the CIAOPS.

Ignite 2017 sessions on YouTube

With Microsoft Ignite 2018 just around the corner I know there is always going to be a huge amount of content and no way that I can be across all of it immediately. Luckily, Microsoft has been recording these sessions and posting them up to YouTube for later review. This has allowed me to work through many sessions over the year to improve my knowledge.

Unfortunately, there is not a single directory of all the session recordings in YouTube, at least not that I know of, so I have created and maintained a list of these sessions as I worked through them. I’ve now made my list of the Ignite 2017 sessions available via my GitHub repository at:

https://github.com/directorcia/general/blob/master/ignite2017.txt

Simply find the session that you are interested in a hopefully I’ve managed to capture the link to the session on YouTube. If you know of any sessions that aren’t listed let me and I’ll add to my catalogue.

Personally, watching the pre-recorded sessions gives me some benefits I don’t get attending in person. Firstly, I generally watch the sessions at 1.5 speed which allows me to get through more sessions. I’m also able to have my own Office 365 or Azure tenant up in another window and be following along with what I see being presented. I also get the ability to pause the session and come back later as YouTube keeps track of my history. Also, as I watch session YouTube suggest more sessions like the one I’m watching, so discovery of new relevant sessions becomes much easier once you start getting into it.

I plan to do the same for the Ignite 2018 sessions when they become available but I’ll start doing that immediately and posting into a new file in the same repository. So keep an eye out for that one coming soon.

Even after 12 months, I haven’t been able to get through everything but I do have to say thanks to Microsoft for making all this content freely available for those that couldn’t attend.