My name is Chris Pietschmann, and I’m the curator and the one who writes all the content on BuildAzure.com. On January 1, 2017 I received notification that I was awarded the Microsoft MVP award for the Microsoft Azure expertise category. There are a number of things I do to contribute to the community, and it’s really awesome to have that recognized directly by Microsoft.

This isn’t my first time to be awarded Microsoft MVP. I was a Bing Maps MVP for 5 years back from 2008 through 2012. So, this actually makes my 6th Microsoft MVP award to date. It’s a really great community to be a part of, and it’s awesome to be back in again.

The above image is a screenshot of the email notification that I received. In case the image doesn’t load, or you can’t read it for some reason, here’s what it says:

Dear Christopher,

Congratulations! We are extremely pleased to present you with the 2017 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who share their remarkable passion, real-world knowledge, and technical expertise with others through demonstration of exemplary commitment. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in the Microsoft Azure technical communities during the past year.

I really enjoy the work that I do. That’s why I don’t only work a full time job, but I also spend lots of personal time contributing to the community. This is something that ALL Microsoft MVPs do. We do it because we enjoy what we do, and we also really enjoy sharing and helping others too!

My Day Job

My day job is working as a Trainer and Senior Cloud Solution Architect at Opsgility. Among my many job responsibilities are developing and recording Azure training content that is available in the Opsgility On-Demand Training Service. Another part of my day job is to travel around and deliver instructor-led training to help teach teams and organizations about the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Here’s a short list of some of the online, on-demand training courses I’ve recorded recently. You could sign up for a Free Trial and take them today!

• Choosing the Right Storage
• Architecting Global Solutions
• Real-Time Ingestion and Processing in Azure
• Architecting Azure App Services
• Implementing and Managing Web APIs in Azure
• Building Solutions with Azure Logic Apps

Also, among the many Instructor-led courses offered by Opsgility, I’ve built out the 3 day Designing and Implementing IoT Solutions class. This class covers how to build Internet of Things solutions and covers such topics as: Azure IoT Suite, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and Windows 10 IoT Core. There’s also an option in the Hands-on labs for the class to build out a real IoT solution using a Raspberry Pi 3, sensors, and Azure IoT Suite. This class teaches what you need to know about Azure IoT Suite to built IoT solutions in the cloud, and covers the hardware side of things too!

Community Contributions

Now, on to my “side projects”. I do many things to contribute to the community outside of my job working at Opsgility. One of them is maintaining the BuildAzure.com blog. Here I post on average 3 times per week; which includes the weekly post “Build Azure Weekly” that summarizes and links to the latest Azure news and other articles around the web.

Here are some of the additional activities I’ve done to contribute to the community as well:

• Present at user groups
• Founder of the Milwaukee Azure user group
• Run a Global Azure Bootcamp event location in Milwaukee, WI
• Started / Host the Build Azure Slack channel
• Authored Free, open source Azure certification practice exam questions
• Contribute to StackOverflow
• And MANY more things!

Work Life Balance

Also, I’m not all work and no play. I manage my time between all the above and family life. I am married and have 2 amazing little kids. Work, Hobby, Life balance isn’t easy, but you make time for the things to care about and give you pleasure.

Something I think about daily is something my Grandmother told me:

You don’t have the time, if you don’t make the time.

So, I make time for all the things I enjoy and are important to me. In addition to my family, I spend lots of time either staying up late or getting up early so I can contribute to the community and share my knowledge and skills with others.

I spent most of my early career, and even earlier than that, learning from all the online contributions and books from other Microsoft MVPs. I owe the community for so much that I’ve learned, and I pay it forward by contributing back as I can. I really enjoy helping others, as so many have helped me over the years.

Microsoft MVP

Here’s a short description from Microsoft on what a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) is:

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 are driven by their passion, community spirit and their 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.

Here’s a few words that describe what the Microsoft MVP award means to me:

• Humbling
• Inspiring
• Helpful
• Knowledgeable

If you’re curious to learn more about the Microsoft MVP award, you can read more here: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-US/Overview

Congratulations to all the other newly awarded, or renewed Microsoft MVP’s all over the world!

About the Author

Chris Pietschmann

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.