MSLearning – Jasper Kraak

Microsoft Operating Systems and Me

People who know me, know that one of my slogans is “Who needs an Operating System”. Through some mysterious pathway I am currently taking some Operating System exams…. (MD-100 = Windows Client, AZ-800 and AZ-801 = Windows Server) Huh??

Organizations and their way of thinking IT only move so fast (actually real slow). Clinging to the Desktop, be it physical or virtual, and clinging to Servers, be it on-prem or in the Cloud. While the technology to rid of that ancient stuff has been out there for a while now. Who would need a full Desktop OS if all Applications were Web Apps? Why deploy IaaS solutions while PaaS and SaaS solutions are real?

So anyway, apparently, we live in a Hybrid IT world, in this context meaning that we are mixing and mingling traditional deployments with all the Cloud goodies. Which does not make it easier to use these goodies. And there pops up my reason to take another round (#8) at Microsoft Operating systems Certifications. To oblige as Trainer, Consultant and Advisor. Reality sucks , doesn’t it?

Happy Learning!

MCT: Delivering AZ-305, notes from the field

This week I did a first-time delivery of MOC AZ-305, Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, towards Microsoft Certified Azure Architect Expert Certification. The Exam is still in beta, I took it a week before delivering the training. Making the time investment count double, preparing for both my Exam, and delivering the training.

I consider this training and this exam (topics, depth, and breadth) one of the better ones out of the whole Curriculum. The real “Expert level” deal. The 4-day training can be delivered without Labs, the GoDeploy Labs have no direct link with the course content but offer some great deep dives in specific technologies should they fall out of the knowledge scope of the participants. Long Labs, up to 3-4 hours. Each Module ends with one or more Case Studies, plenty of room to discuss various options.

After my preparation I had some concerns for the knowledge level of the participants, it happens too often that people over-estimate themselves in which case they might get lost on day 2 or so. The course really covers a lot of Cloud in just 4 days, the more knowledge the participants already have, the higher the value of this course gets. I would suggest to Microsoft Learning that the prerequisites (also for Certification) should be not just the AZ-104 Azure Administrator. Add 1 or 2 “electives” (as in the old days of MCSE Certifications). Electives can be almost any “Associate level” Certification (AZ-500, AZ-700, SC-300, AZ-204, etc.).

Luckily, the 6 participants in this group selected the right course, they were all very seasoned senior Azure Admins/Engineers and there was plenty of expertise in the (virtual) room on specific technologies like SQL and Kubernetes. But anyhow, take care of the intake of participants for this course.

I started of with a whiteboard session of the “Well Architected Framework”, to give some context on how to approach the content. So, in the discussions on the Case Studies, we could discuss possible solutions based on these principles. For in the Exam as well, references are made to these principles. Maybe a module on this could be added to the course. On day 1 and 2 (and planned for day 3 and 4) I allocated some 2-3 hours for them to work on the Labs. On day 3 however a request was made to not use course time for Labs and rather spend it on discussing the topics and the case studies. The vote on that was unanimous, Wonderful! We ended up in vivid discussions and we all learned a lot form each other. I invited them to look at becoming MCT! And I think some of them will take that path . As we all agreed that the Knowledge and Skills Gaps are a big showstopper for leveraging Cloud technologies. Do something about it instead of complaining about it.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this course and I’m looking forward to delivering it again (scheduled for March).

Happy Learning!

Following my Passion: Making a Difference as a Trainer

Back in 1996 I entered the IT Space as an “IT Professional”. Before that, I spent 8 years in accounting. IT manifested itself in that area already deeply and I did my fair share. Anyway, I decided I was done with accounting for other people’s money (although I’m good at it).

I started as a Trainer for a non-profit Organization, and I trained some 2,000 persons on the big switch back then from DOS to Windows. I watched some colleagues of mine carrying these MCSE NT4 books around, I thought “wow, that is interesting stuff”. In no time I mastered the Certifications, and I was teaching IT Professionals instead of end users. Those were the Days. Delivering the complete MCSE Tracks on NT4 and Windows 2000 a couple of times.

In retrospect, those were the days indeed. It was all about the marvels of the technology, anything was possible. Then I joined more commercial Organizations and became an Admin, an Engineer, a Consultant, a Senior Consultant and even a Solution Architect over the years. Some 80+ Certifications, another 1,000 Training Participants and 4 Employers later, I now come to the following conclusion:

With all my passion and drive for progress using the latest Technology the way it is supposed to be used, I always engage in conversations with both employers and customers to “move forward”. Of late, I discovered that Senior Consultant or Solution Architect may not be my best way of making people and organizations successful where they want to be successful. I believe the biggest stop on using the latest and greatest Technology is the Knowledge Gap, on all levels in all organizations. My drive is sharing knowledge with those who seek that and who want to benefit from that.

So, I go back to my Roots. Who I am is a Trainer. Out of Passion for making a difference for individuals and organizations. Out of Passion for the Possibilities of modern IT Technologies and its Power to drive Transformation.

Passion, Power and Transformation.

That is who I am and that is what you can count on!

Pay for what you Use? Yes! And, then Use what you Pay for!

Too many Organizations leave too much money on the table. And then they talk about reducing cost.

ICT Cost reduction seems to be a Business driver for IT Projects. That may be valid for as long as the ICT Department is considered a Cost Center. The two major KPI’s are Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI).

Both KPI’s can be looked at from the perspective of “cost”. I would rather look at it from the perspective of “Value”. A statement I make frequently: Any Organization can increase productivity by at least 30% without investing in software or hardware. You already have everything; you just do not use it the way it is supposed to or can be used.

That applies to IT Professionals (your IT Staff), responsible for both TCO and ROI, and it applies to your Users, mostly responsible for ROI. For IT Staff, what is missing, is Training and Certification on the Technologies in place. For Users there is a huge lack in PC Literacy. On the C-level, onboard a CTO, in the end, decisions are made here. Knowledge being the Key distinction here.

When engaging in the Knowledge space, IT will move from being a Cost Center to a Business enabler, a new perspective. It is called Digital Transformation.

So, we can have 2 conversations now, choose:

Spend time scraping money out of all corners and get a marginal cost reduction as a result. Little impact on TCO and ROI.
Start using what you pay for and squeeze all the Value out of your software and hardware investments. Exciting impact on TCO and ROI!

Something to consider for 2021 and beyond…….

Happy transforming….. !

Training or Learning, it is not the same

Kind of a re-iteration from a Blog Post I wrote in March 2019 (remember, pre-COVID19). You can read the Post here “Training means Train”

Now, we are in the middle of that pandemic and I am really, really getting so tired of all the Webinars, Exam preps, Learning videos and the lot of it. Let me quote myself:

Training is not the same as watching a “how-do-I-….” video on YouTube or attending a Webinar/Seminar. Training means practice, repetition, endurance, discipline, making mistakes, learning to understand why it is as it is. Training is an action; one needs to allocate time for it. Results will take a while. A new insight is not good enough if you do not practice the actions that come out of the new insight. The insight gives a moment of “aha”. After practicing it becomes obvious.

I never study or learn for an Exam, I only just practice, I train myself. The outcome is that I feel grounded in the matter. And in my line of business that matters! The two most important things here: allocate time and have the discipline. There are no shortcuts and no quick wins.

The point I want to make here, do not overwhelm yourself in attending too many webinars, videos, online learning programs, exam preps, etc. Set yourself some goals, dig in, TRAIN yourself and master the matter at hand.

One more quote: As a Microsoft Certified Trainer, I tell my students that the Labs are not about getting them done successfully. The Labs are about spending time on the technology, practicing. and learning to understand the why of the technology. The students train!

That is why I love the Role of being a Microsoft Certified Trainer!

Happy Training!

Public Speaking: Who is Listening for you?

Public Speaking ranks high in the Top-5 of what people are most afraid of. And, yes, it can be frightening, standing in front of room filled with strangers who seem to see straight through you, naked, vulnerable and all alone.

There are plenty of Trainings and Courses available to improve on your Presentation skills. It’s kind of an individual thing which courses suit you best but with some trial and error you will something that works great for you. And even then, you should have this rush when walking up front, I prefer to call it “excited” as opposed to “nervous”. It’s about the same physical sensation. If that is not there when you go on stage, your presentation will probably end up being a flatliner, no impact. The most important prerequisite of course is, that you want to be there on stage. Second to that, be prepared like really, be grounded in your story.

Most of the Trainings and Courses on Presentation Skills lack the following concept/idea that I picked up during my years of Training with Landmark Education: Having at least one “committed listener” in the room makes a huge difference for you, the presenter. Somebody who listens for you, an anchor, somebody who takes everything that comes out of your mouth for gold. In larger rooms you preferably have multiple “committed listeners” spread out in the room, sitting amongst the audience, your customers. They should nod, smile, acknowledge and appreciate your story (no matter how many times they heard it) and confirm that back to you and to their neighbors, your customers. You should even appoint one of those somebodies as your “room captain“, one who knows your timeline (and the breaks!), one who can manage questions coming from your audience, one who knows your story, just so that you can focus 100% on your story.

When you are presenting, it is very likely that you have at least one of your colleagues present, or maybe another presenter at the same event. Don’t be shy and make them the request they fulfill that role for you. To put it a bit sharper: do not allow “your people” to sit in the back of the room doing other stuff. If they don’t make the effort to really listen for you, what is the effect on the rest of the audience, your customers?

Yes, it is a scary thing getting up on stage, I invite you to try this out a couple of times, I am sure it will make a huge difference.

HAPPY PRESENTING!!!

Training means Train!

Digital Transformation, Adoption, learning methods, Adoption Specialists, Onboarding specialists, migration specialists. We can do it cheap and fast. Ouch. There is no cheap and fast when looking at Value.

We, as in the “communities”, are making mistakes. We must distinguish between knowing how to do something and understanding why it must be done in a certain way. Sometimes knowing the how-to is good enough. But when we look at Digital Transformation and Adoption, the real Value comes from a thorough understanding by all involved on the WHY.

Why is a business process structured like it is? Understanding that, and only then, we can find new ways of getting the same results by effectively using the right tools in the right way. Efficiency is about “Doing things the right way”. Effectiveness Is about “Doing the right things”.

Basically, we need to do 2 things during the Journey of Adoption/Digital Transformation:

Inclusion. From C-level Management to frontline workers, all need to be involved. Involved, get that?
Training. It means Train!

A year ago, I bought myself a new Rickenbacker bass-guitar. I dream of being on stage, playing like Paul Grey or Bruce Foxton. Keep on dreaming, I pick up the instrument no more than 30 minutes a week. It makes no sense to go to the gym for 8 hours straight. When you look in the mirror the next day, you’ll see no difference.

As a Microsoft Certified Trainer, I tell my students that the Labs are not about getting them done successfully. The Labs are about spending time, practicing, learning to understand the why of the technology. The students train!

A new insight is not good enough if you do not practice the actions that come out of the new insight. The insight gives a moment of “aha”. After practicing it becomes obvious. You cannot learn how to ride a bicycle from a book.

Just saying: don’t go for cheap and fast! No such thing……

Happy Training!

MCT Adventures

In 1996 I started as a Trainer: end user training in moving form DOS and WordPerfect to Windows95 and Office. During those first years I earned my MCSE on NT4 and as SICA, my employer had the C-TEC status, I was allowed to train the MCSE Tracks. I had a total of 6 Groups for the complete MCSE Track in first NT4, later on Server 2000.

That was Adventure #1. We decided one week before the Track started to do Server 2000 instead of NT4! I was exactly 1 week ahead of my participants! Raising the bar, stretching myself. If you are able to explain stuff to your grandmother you master your stuff. I took each exam one week before my participants….

Unfortunately, SICA (being a non-profit organization) went bankrupt in 2004. Time for me to become a “real” MCT. Adventure #2. The last requirement was to attend a Training led by an official MCT. So I looked around for the cheapest 3-day Course that would meet the requirement and I called that company, Fulcire. The owner/trainer called me back. Yes, you may attend, and even for free, if you allow me to make you a job offer if we like each other after 3 days of Training J. Cool! I got TWO for the price of none! I earned my MCT Status AND got myself a new job! I had a fabulous time there, learning a lot, a lot of new Certifications (Exchange, SharePoint, Server 2003), becoming also a “senior” consultant, doing great migration projects and what have you.

I decided to quit and take a 6 months’ sabbatical and my wife and I shipped our BMW Motorcycles to the US and cruised and camped for half a year. After which came MCT Adventure #3, a new job, Qwise, 100 engineers, Microsoft and Citrix. In the 2^nd round of the application I was asked 3 questions by my to-be colleague MCT Remco: “Are you stubborn? Do you ride a motorcycle? Do you play bass guitar?” Yes, yes and yes. “You are hired”. At Qwise I became “Mr. Microsoft”. Going faster with Hyper-V, System Center, BPOS (later Office365) and Azure than the company or our customers could go. Earned some 20 certifications and had at least 4 MCT Adventures.

MCT Adventure #4. Worldwide I was the first to deliver the public Office365 training (Wave14). With a lot of help from Redmond and my colleagues Michael (who I mentored in becoming MCT) and Erik. History is repeating, MCT Adventure #5. Worldwide I was the first to deliver the public Office365 training (Wave15) some 2 years later. How cool was that! In the meantime, I trained the entire Dutch Partner channel in Office365 and delivered a lot of session on behalf of Microsoft. I co-founded the Dutch Office365 User Group (now some 600 members) together with Danny and Albert-Jan.

MCT Adventure #5 and #6. I got nominated twice as Office365 MVP. Unfortunately, I did not get that “reward” but the journey was awesome. And, who knows….

As I move to maybe not so much an MCT Adventure but a more personal one, we moved from Amsterdam to Aruba in The Caribbean! And I found myself a real cool job as a Solutions Architect @ Inova Solutions. Microsoft Partner LSP, CPLS, and since almost a year CSP. I either work from home or I travel The Caribbean, could be worse, no? We also have an office in Ecuador and I am writing this sitting in Quito where I deliver an Azure Training this week, including experiencing some earth quakes!

MCT Adventure #7. Throughout The Caribbean we organize a lot of “Events” for our Customers, sometimes by ourselves, sometimes with Microsoft. I created an “Office365 Theatre Play” to avoid the format of death-by-PowerPoint presentation style. We did performances on Curacao (twice), Jamaica, Trinidad and Aruba (which was a real blast, thanks to my colleague Ad, have a peak at https://www.magisto.com/video/P1EHPVgWGjs9Q0JnCzE?l=vsm&o=i&c=w )

Servicing customers in The Caribbean gave me the opportunity to deliver Training (Server 2012, Exchange, SharePoint, Office365, Azure) in the following countries (MCT Adventure #8 through #18):

Aruba
Curacao
Bonaire
Trinidad
Jamaica
British Virgin Islands
Turks & Caicos Islands
The Bahamas
Belize
Ecuador
Barbados

People tend to say I’m lucky. Well, let me give you all some advice. Luck has nothing to do with it. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Preparation requires passion and sometimes hard work. Look for the opportunities and seize them. I work 70-80 hours a week and I never work. The Training (p)Art is my favorite portion of the job: being able to make a difference for my participants and their employers (and mine) by sharing as much of my knowledge and experience as I can.

Aruba is One Happy Island!

I am One Happy Adventurous Microsoft Certified Trainer!

Be Inspired, Prepared, Able and Willing

Knowledge is Key – Learning is crucial

“You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow”.

When it comes to IT in Organizations something must shift, if not, it will be like the quote. In my opinion the main source lies with learning, or better said, the lack of learning. There is no organizational conversation on learning as an ongoing process. Best efforts get stuck at the level of “training as needed” and way too often even that gets stuck on the “no time” and/or “no budget” argument.

I pointed out in several other blogposts that the state of current IT is the biggest stop for leveraging modern technologies in organizations. And by that we create so called “shadow IT”, employees will find their own way of trying to do their job, with or without Company IT: Gmail, drop box, WhatsApp, Facebook, flash drives, byod. And, we can do nothing about it on the short term. But we know, lessons learned (?), what the source is. IT is not up to it. IT has barely the knowledge to keep yesterday’s systems running (as we were not learning 5 years ago either) so embracing new technologies while juggling with 7 old balls already? Right, I don’t think so. By the way, when I say “IT”, I do not specifically mean IT Department or IT People, I mean all people and processes that work with and through computers. Managers using a pocket calculator while working in Excel? C’mon!

What will happen if we do nothing? Well, the probable almost certain future is that is stays like this. We came up to here and now like this, it will probably get us through the next 5 years as well (hopefully). So organizations will just keep throwing away money because, hey, hardware and software must be paid. And we’ll just keep on not using what we paid for. Now that’s fine economics, isn’t it? And the only reason that that might work out is that the competition is in exactly the same position. Having the tools while nobody knows how to use them because nobody told them.

Or, we can transform the conversations on the place of IT within the organization. The relevance of IT and how to finally get to the point where IT is a business enabler (Gartner). A good starting point for shifting that conversation is asking the question “What happens with our business when we unplug everything for 72 hours”? Suddenly everybody realizes the relevance of IT for the organization. Now the time has come to take that on seriously.

We’ll have to start creating learning plans. Long term learning plans in a way that ongoing learning will be the standard conversation. Long term learning plans, 3 to 5 years, get less specific as they sit further into the future, we do not know what the future beholds. But by making them nevertheless, time and budget can be allocated and more important, it’s all about transforming that conversation throughout the organization, all layers and all departments deeply involved.

Imagine what would be possible then. On collaboration, communication, productivity, total cost of ownership, return on investment, security, personal development, employee loyalty, customer service and efficiency. The list is endless. Put it in like specific measurable results and you’ll be sorry you did not think of this 10 years ago.

Happy learning!

Office 365 and Bandwidth – Adoption to Cloud Computing

Where I live, in The Caribbean, Office 365 is available in most countries, on most islands. However, customers have concerns about bandwidth. So this is my second Blog Post in the context of Adopting to Cloud Computing.

There are some really great options to reduce bandwidth usage but that touches strongly on end user behavior (not that I mind, I’m a huge advocate of serious end user training before moving to the cloud). Of course, working with Office 365 requires a decent Internet Connection at the workplace and maybe even decent 4G (LTE) coverage for the road warriors. You do not need huge speed to be able to do your work. Let’s have a look at what users can do to work effectively in the Cloud without consuming too much bandwidth.

Mail: the first thing people do when coming into the office is check their email (actually, it’s even worse, the first thing people do when they wake up is check their email on their Mobile device to see if there was someone who mailed in the middle of the night). Outlook Web App is so powerful nowadays, I tend to say “who needs Outlook”. There is even an “offline availability” feature. Outlook has the option to not cache emails on the local computer. In either case there is hardly any data flowing over the network. And of course all tips and tricks I wrote down in my Blog post “Mail Senders, Stop doing that” are valid to reduce bandwidth through email.

Lync: now that people are already pretty familiar with the possibility of Video Calls, in a lot of Business conversations the video bit has hardly any contribution. It’s really about awareness and education to make users understand how to use Lync/Skype wisely for conferencing. In Desktop or Application sharing beware what and how to share. It’s better to stage PowerPoint presentations, it is better if participants in the call use Office Online to be on the same page in any Office document during the call. Prepare a Lync meeting like you prepare a real meeting. IM and Presence do not require a great deal of bandwidth.

Yammer: when wisely used, Yammer can eliminate lots of email and even lots of Lync calls. It’s a perfect platform for discussion and information sharing.

SharePoint: for me, SharePoint is the equivalent of Office Online. Work in the browser whenever I can. Using Office Online means no data flows over the network. No downloading and uploading of Office files, they stay put on SharePoint. This is really something users need to get used to. We are all SO used to working in the local installed Office versions. Deadly for working effectively with SharePoint is the use of Windows Explorer: use the browser!!!

OneDrive for Business: of course it’s great we have unlimited storage in OneDrive for Business now but be very careful on Syncing all that content, you do not have unlimited storage on your NotebookJ. And of course Syncing uses Bandwidth…..and it uses Windows Explorer. Luckily in the very near future we can setup “selective syncing”. Personally, I sync nothing. I am always online, if I’m not, I don’t even bother to switch on my PC. I am a road warrior, I travel 50% of my time, spending a lot of time on airports and airplanes and even without syncing I can always do some work when offline. Just a matter of planning.

Office Online: use it! Office Online is THE best thing when it comes to reducing usage of bandwidth. Put your stuff in SharePoint Online and edit/view in Office Online. Brilliant!

All of this is no IT Pro Rocket science, it has nothing to do with Migrating to the Cloud. This is all about adoption of end users to use the rich features of The Online Collaboration Suite wisely. That takes time so organizations looking to moving to the Cloud should start at least the awareness process and start planning the necessary Training. Manage expectations when moving to the Cloud.