Host Private Video Meetings in Azure with Jitsi
In the current time of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic many more people are working and meeting online. Many of those people have moved to using Free services like Zoom and others; however those solutions have been prone to something called "zoombombing" where...
Azure PowerShell Cmdlet Naming Convention and Discoverability
Getting to know what Azure PowerShell cmdlets to use for different functions and provisioning services can be difficult to remember. However, just like standard PowerShell, the Azure PowerShell cmdlets have been created with a specific naming convention. By memorizing...
Azure Kung Fu Toolkit
Welcome to Az Kung Fu, grasshopper! Scripting is the only way to ensure that your environments are the same every time and remove the risk of human error. We write scripts all the time using the Azure CLI, but it feels like we always having to figure out the same...
Azure Functions: Extend Execution Timeout Past 5 Minutes
Azure Functions is the Serverless compute option within the Microsoft Azure platform. One of the biggest benefits of Azure Functions, and Serverless compute, is that you only pay when your code is actually executing. However, there has been a limitation of Azure...
Properly Shutdown Azure VM to Save Money
There are 2 options to "shutdown" a Virtual Machine (VM) running in Microsoft Azure. Each of the two methods have different affects on the cost of your Azure subscription. One way you will still get charged for the compute resources, and the other will free you from...
Microsoft MCSA / MCSE Certifications Get Extended
In a response to the quarantine and lockdown restrictions due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Microsoft has announced they are delaying retiring the MCSA, MCSE, and MCSD certifications and exams. These certifications are now going to be retired January 31,...
Azure CLI: Manage Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service (DPS)
One of the services within Microsoft Azure for building out IoT solutions is the Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service (DPS). Just as with other services in Azure, the Azure CLI (cross-platform command-line tool) includes several commands that can be used to...
GitHub Mobile App Released
GitHub keeps on innovating in the source control management and collaboration space. There have been great new features like GitHub Actions recently, as well as GitHub's announcement of acquiring npm. One of the latest things to come out of GitHub is the release of...
GitHub acquires npm
Nat Friedman, the CEO of GitHub, announced that GitHub has signed an agreement to acquire npm. "npm, inc." is the company behind the extremely popular Node package manager, the npm Registry, and npm CLI. Through these tools and services offered by npm, they have...
Take Microsoft Certification Exams During COVID-19 Coronavirus Quarantine
I've been seeing lots of questions about earning the MCSE, MCSD, and MCSA certifications before their exams are retired on June 30, 2020. With the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and all the quarantines and travel restrictions, I've also been getting a few...
Book: The Ultimate Guide to Microsoft Certification
Advance your career through Microsoft certification!
Written by Chris Pietschmann, Microsoft MVP, MCT, and Founder, Build5Nines.com
AZ-900 Exam: Azure IoT Product Overview from Tim Warner
For some time now, Tim Warner, a fellow Microsoft MVP, has been posting short videos that methodically go over all the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals certification exam objectives and skill areas. This is a pretty great free series of training/study content geared towards...
Microsoft MCSA / MCSE Certifications Get Extended
In a response to the quarantine and lockdown restrictions due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Microsoft has announced they are delaying retiring the MCSA, MCSE, and MCSD certifications and exams. These certifications are now going to be retired January 31,...
Take Microsoft Certification Exams During COVID-19 Coronavirus Quarantine
I've been seeing lots of questions about earning the MCSE, MCSD, and MCSA certifications before their exams are retired on June 30, 2020. With the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and all the quarantines and travel restrictions, I've also been getting a few...
Windows Server and SQL Server Certifications are Gone
Embedded within Microsoft's announcement of retiring ALL of the MCSE, MCSD, and MCSA certifications (and their associated exams) is the fact that certifications for Windows Server and SQL Server products are gone. As the older technology-based certifications are being...
Goodbye: MCSE, MCSD, and MCSA Certifications are Retiring
In the continuation of the move towards all role-based certifications, Microsoft has announced that they are officially retiring all of the MCSE, MCSD, and MCSA certifications; as well as their associated exams. This means there are a total of 15 certifications, and...
Azure Kung Fu Toolkit
Welcome to Az Kung Fu, grasshopper! Scripting is the only way to ensure that your environments are the same every time and remove the risk of human error. We write scripts all the time using the Azure CLI, but it feels like we always having to figure out the same...
Azure CLI: Manage Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service (DPS)
One of the services within Microsoft Azure for building out IoT solutions is the Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service (DPS). Just as with other services in Azure, the Azure CLI (cross-platform command-line tool) includes several commands that can be used to...
Az Kung Fu VM – Master Tools for Azure Administrators
Have you ever spent hours building a machine to use as an admin workstation for Azure? What about installing the Windows Subsystem for Linux? Well, have we have something for you! It's always a pain to get going with a good VM to use for admin tasks with Azure. With...
Azure CLI Kung-Fu Tips and Tricks
The last week has been a blur because I didn’t sleep. I spent days helping a client restore every single VM that had running in Azure (about 250). Why? They got a ransomware virus and their entire network was trashed. One of the things that saved...
Azure CLI 2.0: Create Azure IoT Hub
It's really easy to provision an instance of Azure IoT Hub using the Azure Portal. However, there are times when you need to automate the task. You can use the Azure CLI to create new instances of Azure IoT Hub when you need to automate the task. This can help with...
AZ-900 Exam: Azure IoT Product Overview from Tim Warner
For some time now, Tim Warner, a fellow Microsoft MVP, has been posting short videos that methodically go over all the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals certification exam objectives and skill areas. This is a pretty great free series of training/study content geared towards...
Azure CLI: Manage Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service (DPS)
One of the services within Microsoft Azure for building out IoT solutions is the Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service (DPS). Just as with other services in Azure, the Azure CLI (cross-platform command-line tool) includes several commands that can be used to...
Azure + AI Conference – Apr 2020 in Orlando, FL – Chris Pietschmann Speaking on Azure IoT
This year at the Microsoft Azure + AI Conference co-produced by Microsoft and DEVintersection, Chris Pietschmann (the founder of BuildAzure.com) will be presenting. The topics of his sessions at the conference will center around Microsoft Azure and the Internet of Things (IoT) with topics including Azure Sphere and Real-time IoT Stream Processing in Azure.
This edition of the Azure + AI Conference is being held November 18th through 21st, 2019 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Also, in partnerships with the Azure + AI conference, we are pleased to announce that you can register for the conference with the discount code “BUILDAZURE” to receive a $50 discount.
Top 5 IoT Messaging Protocols
Internet of Things (IoT) solutions employ some kind of messaging protocol for each individual IoT device to communicate in the system. These messaging protocols are used to transmit device telemetry (or messages) from the IoT devices to the IoT Messaging Hub (or...
Azure PowerShell Cmdlet Naming Convention and Discoverability
Getting to know what Azure PowerShell cmdlets to use for different functions and provisioning services can be difficult to remember. However, just like standard PowerShell, the Azure PowerShell cmdlets have been created with a specific naming convention. By memorizing...
Azure Kung Fu Toolkit
Welcome to Az Kung Fu, grasshopper! Scripting is the only way to ensure that your environments are the same every time and remove the risk of human error. We write scripts all the time using the Azure CLI, but it feels like we always having to figure out the same...
GitHub Mobile App Released
GitHub keeps on innovating in the source control management and collaboration space. There have been great new features like GitHub Actions recently, as well as GitHub's announcement of acquiring npm. One of the latest things to come out of GitHub is the release of...
Azure CLI Kung-Fu Tips and Tricks
The last week has been a blur because I didn’t sleep. I spent days helping a client restore every single VM that had running in Azure (about 250). Why? They got a ransomware virus and their entire network was trashed. One of the things that saved...
Azure Cosmos DB Free Tier Now Available
Microsoft has announced that a FREE pricing tier of Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL, cloud-scale database engine) is now available. This new free tier is offering the ability to create a new Azure Cosmos DB Account with 400 RU/s and 5 GB storage for free for the lifetime of...
Microsoft for Startups: Free Azure and Other Benefits
Awhile back Microsoft had the BizSpark program that offered free Microsoft software for startups. A couple of my own startups were able to get free licenses for Microsoft software and Azure services credits to help get bootstrapped. While BizSpark is no longer around,...
Microsoft Ignite 2019 Book of News
Microsoft has tons of news and updates they've announced at Microsoft Ignite 2019 in Orlando, Florida this week. Ignite is Microsoft's biggest tech event of the year with over 26,000 professionals in attendance. With the huge amount of news being released at and...
Microsoft Ignite 2019 Rumors and Predictions: What’s coming?
The Microsoft Ignite 2019 conference in Orlando, Florida is only a few short weeks away. The excitement for Microsoft's largest annual conference is heating up, and rumors / expectations are starting to fly around the Internet. With such an exciting time of...
Azure Functions: Extend Execution Timeout Past 5 Minutes
Azure Functions is the Serverless compute option within the Microsoft Azure platform. One of the biggest benefits of Azure Functions, and Serverless compute, is that you only pay when your code is actually executing. However, there has been a limitation of Azure...
GitHub Mobile App Released
GitHub keeps on innovating in the source control management and collaboration space. There have been great new features like GitHub Actions recently, as well as GitHub's announcement of acquiring npm. One of the latest things to come out of GitHub is the release of...
GitHub acquires npm
Nat Friedman, the CEO of GitHub, announced that GitHub has signed an agreement to acquire npm. "npm, inc." is the company behind the extremely popular Node package manager, the npm Registry, and npm CLI. Through these tools and services offered by npm, they have...
Getting Started with Visual Studio Online – Cloud IDE
The Visual Studio Online (VS Online) web-based IDE is now available to be used. Based on the popular Visual Studio Code editor, it offers a familiar feel and workspace for writing and working with source code.. This also offers the extensibility of supporting Visual...
Host Private Video Meetings in Azure with Jitsi
In the current time of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic many more people are working and meeting online. Many of those people have moved to using Free services like Zoom and others; however those solutions have been prone to something called "zoombombing" where...
Azure Kung Fu Toolkit
Welcome to Az Kung Fu, grasshopper! Scripting is the only way to ensure that your environments are the same every time and remove the risk of human error. We write scripts all the time using the Azure CLI, but it feels like we always having to figure out the same...
Byte Conversion Calculator from KB, MB, GB, TB, PB
A common conversion that's done when setting storage size is to calculate the correct number of Bytes and other values from the base, desired Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes, or even Petabytes. The calculator below enables you to enter your desired value...
Properly Shutdown Azure VM to Save Money
There are 2 options to "shutdown" a Virtual Machine (VM) running in Microsoft Azure. Each of the two methods have different affects on the cost of your Azure subscription. One way you will still get charged for the compute resources, and the other will free you from...
Attend Microsoft Linux Conference (WSLConf) Virtual Event March 10-11, 2020
Microsoft's first WSLConf Linux Conference is being held this week, March 10 - 11, 2020. Originally, it was going to be an onsite event at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. However, with the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, Microsoft has turned their first...
Microsoft HoloLens 2 Hardware Specs vs HoloLens 1
A while back I wrote up a summary of the hardware specifications for the first generation HoloLens. Here's a short write up of the hardware specifications for the HoloLens 2 (the second generation HoloLens hardware). The biggest difference in the new device is a...
Microsoft xCloud: Azure Powered Game Streaming
Microsoft is building a game streaming network to unlock console quality gaming on any device. Microsoft has realized that not all gamers are going to buy an Xbox. Instead of focusing on building games that can only be played on the Xbox game console, Microsoft is...
Azure IoT Developer Kit (AZ3166) Manufacturing Delayed, Shipping pushed to Sept 21
The new Azure IoT Developer Kit is a pretty nice IoT prototyping board with tons of sensors and things built-in. On Aug 11, 2017, Microsoft, MXChip and a few distributors opened up pre-orders for the Azure IoT Developer Kit board. The pre-orders were taken and the...
Azure IoT Developer Kit Ready for Pre-Order
The new Microsoft Azure IoT Developer Kit board is pretty amazing! It is Arduino compatible and includes many sensors, buttons, and an OLED display all built-in. You can use this board to start prototyping Internet of Things (IoT) solutions without the need to do any...
Raspberry Pi Device Simulator for Azure IoT
One of the long time frustrations with Raspberry Pi development is that you needed a physical device and hardware (sensors, buttons, etc) to fully develop and test your Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. Many haven't really seen this as an issue since deploying code...
Get Certified!
The Ultimate Guide to Microsoft Certification
Advance your career through cloud certification
This book will guide you through choosing which certification path(s) to follow you’re your unique career goals and technical background. It’ll also explore all the different certifications Microsoft offers, as well as many of your questions, like:
- Which certification is right for me?
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- How do I study?
Microsoft and cloud certification helps you keep up-to-date on the latest technologies in a structured, easy to follow path, that is also verifiable by your peers and future career opportunities.
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Build5Nines Weekly provides your go-to source to keep up-to-date on all the latest Microsoft Azure...