Scott Nichols on the State of Azure - Part 1 - Episode 115

Joining Jeffrey is Scott Nichols, a Sr. Cloud Architect at Microsoft, to discuss the state of Azure.

As a Sr. Cloud Solutions Architect, Scott works for the commercial enterprise division serving the west region. He is also the leader of the .NET and the Azure user groups in Boise, Idaho.

Scott started his career in the IT profession in 1993 as a mainframe and web developer. Since then, he has served as a Lead Software Engineer/Solution Architect, a Software Development Engineering Manager, a Sr. Cloud Software Solution Architect, a Sr. Enterprise Solution Architect, and of course, most recently, a Sr. Cloud Solutions Architect at Microsoft since 2019.

In their conversation today, they discuss the state of Azure. Scott compares and contrasts Azure and AWS, .NET vs. other major frameworks; shares about the most important languages developers should be learning today; what is currently state-of-the-art when it comes to infrastructure as code; and much more!

This is part one of a two-part interview with Scott Nichols, so be sure to tune in next week to catch the second half of the conversation!

Topics of Discussion:

[:38] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes.

[:46] About The Azure DevOps Podcast and Jeffrey's offer to speak at virtual user groups.

[1:11] Clear Measure is hiring! Be sure to check out the link in the show notes.

[1:31] About today's episode with Scott Nichols.

[1:55] Jeffrey welcomes Scott to the podcast!

[2:15] Scott shares about his career background and what has led to his current role as Sr. Cloud Architect at Microsoft.

[6:59] Scott talks about Microsoft's Patterns and Practices team.

[9:23] Where to find the specific reference architectures Scott mentioned.

[10:19] Scott compares and contrasts Azure and AWS.

[14:45] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast's sponsor: Clear Measure.

[15:17] Talking .NET in general and the breadth of .NET vs. other major frameworks.

[18:32] Is it true that 31% of the entirety of the internet is .NET?

[19:05] The most important languages Scott thinks developers should learn.

[19:31] Scott is helping commercial customers to modernize their .NET apps so that they can run in Azure. Is there a formula or a generic process that Scott follows in particular?

[24:48] Why are there so many Solution Architects out there right now?

[25:36] Scott shares what he believes is currently state of the art when it comes to infrastructure as code and what falls into place nicely now vs. does not.

[30:08] Be sure to tune in next week for part 2 of the interview!

Mentioned in this Episode:

Azure DevOps

Clear Measure (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook!

Jeffrey Palermo's Youtube

Jeffrey Palermo's Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

The Azure DevOps Podcast's Twitter: @AzureDevOpsShow

Scott Nichols' LinkedIn

Scott Nichols' Twitter @TheScottNichols

Azure Architecture Center - Microsoft