Microsoft Most Valuable Professional

I’m renewed as a Microsoft MVP!

I’m renewed as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional today, for the sixth time in a row! I started my journey in 2014, and I’m again honored to be chosen as part of this elite community of enthusiasts and professionals around the globe. Every year has been great, and I’m anticipating for the next 12 months to be even greater! Microsoft MVP is a non-paid advocate and community role, consisting of technology experts who share their… Read More »I’m renewed as a Microsoft MVP!
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Doing sales as a techie: Efficient strategies for sales

By now, if you’ve read any of my posts in the past few years, it should be obvious I’m a geek, nerd, and techie by heart. I love building and learning new stuff – be it a custom connector to my smart ring, figuring out containers for my specific use-cases or configuring backups to the cloud. I’m also a bit extrovert. Not too outspoken though, at least not in a Dutch directness kind of way… Read More »Doing sales as a techie: Efficient strategies for sales
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Learning quickly as a consultant: Efficient learning strategies

In my role as an architect, I’m often faced with limited time, scarce resources and considerable expectations on how I deliver my services. It isn’t uncommon that within a single day working with a customer we work through Microsoft Teams implementation Azure AD security settings Office ProPlus rollout strategies Fixing a legacy script Perhaps this is also my handicap – I refuse to say “No, that’s somebody else who works on that” when I have… Read More »Learning quickly as a consultant: Efficient learning strategies
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Building a simple and secure DNS updater for Azure DNS using Raspberry Pi and Azure Functions

Almost exactly a year ago I blogged about building a simple and secure DNS updater for Azure DNS using PowerShell. If you didn’t read that post, it’s a solution for keeping my dynamic IP updated with a static DNS name using a little bit of automation from PowerShell. This tool is useful for when I VPN back home, the dynamic IP has often changed and without a pointer (with DNS) it’s impossible to know where… Read More »Building a simple and secure DNS updater for Azure DNS using Raspberry Pi and Azure Functions

What’s up?

It’s been a few very busy months for me, and instead of writing a deeply technical article on something esoteric I thought I’d update you a bit on what’s going on. I wrote earlier about starting school to eventually graduate as an Executive MBA. It’s almost time for Summer break, yet I’ve enjoyed every hour in the classroom and while working on assignments. Some have been very challenging, others have been mostly fun but still… Read More »What’s up?

Five indispensable gadgets I use in my home office

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I love gadgets. There has been a time in my life I accidentally landed with some surplus money, and while many people wiser than me would probably have invested said money in mutual bonds or stock portfolios, I invested in gadgets. One of those was the worst gadget I’ve ever bought – a set-top DVD burner. For use when you record TV shows and want to… Read More »Five indispensable gadgets I use in my home office
Microsoft Regional Director

I’m renewed as Microsoft Regional Director

I received great and satisfying news in early May – I am renewed as a Microsoft Regional Director for another two years (2019-2021)! It’s my second term, as I was initially nominated and accepted to this elite group of people in 2017. Microsoft Regional Directors (RDs) are trusted advisors, but we do not work for Microsoft. I think this is important to mention, as sometimes people assume that I’ve joined Microsoft as a full-time employee.… Read More »I’m renewed as Microsoft Regional Director

Is it worth going to large, international tech conferences anymore?

Hello from Seattle! This week I am attending Microsoft Build 2019. The weather is nice, as opposed to all the previous times I have been in Seattle during the past 20 years. Note: I wrote compact recaps from all three keynotes from Build – you can view them here (Vision Keynote, Azure Keynote, Microsoft 365 Keynote). For me to get to Seattle it’s a tedious and long journey. Admittedly not insanely long, but typically between… Read More »Is it worth going to large, international tech conferences anymore?
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Windows 10 19H1 (1903) update: Top 5 new features

I’ve loved – and yes, I really mean it – Windows 10 since it became available back in 2015. I run Windows 10 on all three of my main machines – two laptops and one beefy workstation, and use this setup for rotating updates when major releases become available. You can check out my thoughts from the 2018 update exactly one year ago here. The next major release for Windows 10 is called 19H1. Internally,… Read More »Windows 10 19H1 (1903) update: Top 5 new features
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What’s next for me: Starting the Executive MBA journey

I’ve worked in IT for almost three decades — I started young. So young in fact that I quit school perhaps a bit too early and abruptly. It never bothered or stopped me as I loved and still love what I do. I also realized that to become better as a techie I need to constantly seek for new challenges. This forced me to become more comfortable spending time in my non-comfort zones – standing… Read More »What’s next for me: Starting the Executive MBA journey