Howdy folks,
I still can’t really believe that yesterday, sitting in the garden with friends and enjoying the day I got an email from Microsoft telling me that I am presented with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for my contributions in the Microsoft Azure area during the last year!
I am extremely overwhelmed, proud and thankful for being allowed to be part of that awesome technical community as of now.
What is a Microsoft MVP?
For those of you who have not heard about the MVP Award or who do not know what it is folks at Microsoft summarize it as follows:
Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the “bleeding edge” and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies. They have very deep knowledge of Microsoft products and services, while also being able to bring together diverse platforms, products and solutions, to solve real world problems. MVPs make up a global community of over 4,000 technical experts and community leaders across 90 countries and are driven by their passion, community spirit, and quest for knowledge. Above all and in addition to their amazing technical abilities, MVPs are always willing to help others – that’s what sets them apart.
Knowing that there are only somewhat over 4,000 Microsoft MVPs out of tens of millions of technical community members shows how exclusive it is to become part of that community of technical experts.
Why have I become a Microsoft MVP?
Short answer is: no one knows. Long answer: In 2013 my company decided to start an expert blog on IT infrastructure topics. In that time I discovered my dedication in helping others with my expertise and I started writing articles about problems I learned from and solved in the field. In early 2015 I started my own blog about Microsoft cloud solutions as Office 365 and Microsoft Azure became vital for our business and our vision of the future workplace. Today, this is what blog.azureandbeyond.com is.
Eventually I wanted to give the community even more than only blog posts and I started the online community Let’s talk Azure. But since online communities can never transport as much knowledge as offline communities do I moved to meetup.com and began to host user group meetings.
Nowadays, I’m contributing in several different areas, some of which are:
- Blogging: I write blog posts about Microsoft Azure and cloud technologies on my blog blog.azureandbeyond.com.
- User Groups: I’m running the Azure Meetup Saarbruecken and, in common with my friend and colleague Andreas Knauer, the Office 365 User Group Southwest.
- Azure Saturday: In common with my friends and fellow MVPs Ben and Max I am organizer of the Azure Saturday community conferences.
- Speaking: I give talks about Microsoft Azure and cloud solutions on international events such as conferences, user group meetings, meetups, and so on.
- Product group feedback: Being an Azure advisor I have the chance to test new Azure product deployments in private previews and give feedback to the product group on a regular basis
My dedication is to give the community answers to open questions, to teach them how to use new technologies, to try stuff out and give feedback. The MVP Award is Microsoft’s recognition for this longtime dedication and I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Microsoft! Thank you, community! Thank you everyone who was involved in making me a Microsoft MVP and who supported me on my long way.
Community rocks! Let’s do it together!
See you soon and bye for now,
Tom
Azure and beyond 