2021 reflection and looking into 2022

2021 has been a busy year for me, but in a good way. January, I started in a new role as Cloud Solution Specialist with edgemo A/S. It was strange to start the new position with Covid-19 still going strong, but it worked out great with the team I joined. We did meet at the office the first two days, but it was pretty much working from home for quite sometime after that. The guidelines on where to work changed over the year, and we made it work regardless of the policies.  

The position focuses on product and solution development combined with consulting assignments. The move away from full-time consulting has been perfect for me, and I am so happy I went this way. Another thing that changed in my work-life is moving away from 100% Citrix focus to a combination of Microsoft Azure and Citrix with the most time on Microsoft Azure. I was already working with Azure before, but only on Citrix projects. Now I work with multiple areas of Azure which is very engaging. During the past year, I have taken 5 Microsoft Azure exams, this meant many hours studying and preparing, but learning is fun when the topic is engaging. The exams have mainly focused on Azure infrastructure, but security and DevOps exams were in the mix. 2021 was also the year I blogged about Microsoft Azure, Azure DevOps, and automation. I started my new blog https://www.cloudninja.nu for this purpose, and it has been very educational and fun to write these blog posts. 

Looking into 2022, I see more blog posts on Azure, cloud architecture, and automation. I already have 10-15 subjects on my whiteboard (Yes, I still use a whiteboard), and I am sure many more will come. I hope to speak at events in 2022, and topics can be Azure, Azure DevOps, and Citrix. Speaking at events is both a challenge for me since I am a bit introverted, but at the same time, I do enjoy it. 

2022 at work looks to be just as exciting as 2021. We have more products to work on and new ways to collaborate on products. I am currently involved in a project on migration to Azure from a hosting provider. The project involves multiple Azure subjects, and the cooperation with the customer is excellent. Another project I am working on is migrating a Citrix environment from on-premises to Azure, leveraging Citrix Cloud as the control pane. Both the mentioned projects are infrastructure as code and DevOps mindset. The shift in perspective from a regular on-premises point and click to automation and pipelines is something I see more and more. The change is good, but I see a gap in education for this new work method. The DevOps mindset is a trendy talking point, but finding material on how to get there is hard to find. It is easy to find diagrams and text on what DevOps is, but transitioning from an operations consultant to a DevOps consultant is rarely mentioned. I hope this will change in the future. 

I, for one, am looking forward to 2022. I hope that Covid-19 will be on the retreat so we can meet instead of only online meetings and conferences. 

I hope you will all stay safe, healthy and have a great 2022!

-Martin Therkelsen

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