Podcast appearances and mentions of Sarah Lean

Join Sarah Lean from Microsoft on the Annielytics hosted podcast, An Eye 4 AI. Discover her unique career journey and how she became a master content creator and tech guru. Listen in to learn how she transformed her knowledge journey into a platform that she openly shares with the world. Don't miss out! (9) Sarah Lean

Why do you need Azure Stack? Richard chats with Sarah Lean about the capabilities Azure Stack HCI brings to your organization. Sarah describes the three flavors of Azure Stack, including Hub, Edge, and HCI - short for Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. While all the options act like a part of Azure, they are optimized for different needs, but primarily focus on putting Azure-style compute closer to where you need it, perhaps as part of a machine learning solution, IoT, and so on. Azure Arc plays a role in giving you a broad view of your cloud assets, Stack assets, and regular on-premises resources also!Links:Azure Stack HCIAzure ArcAzure Stack HCI Pro 2FastTrack for AzureRecorded October 24, 2022

In this episode of the Tiaras and Tech podcast, Shelley Benhoff talks to Sarah Lean on the topic of Octopus deploys. Shelley is a Business Owner, Author, and Professional Speaker. She is also a Sitecore Technology MVP with experience as a Lead Developer for many years. Intro Hello Gems! Welcome to another episode of Tiaras and Tech. I'm your host, Shelley Benhoff, and today I'm talking to Sarah Lean about Octopus Deploys. She is a Senior Solutions Architect at Octopus (not a sponsor, I just love the tech). She's also a Microsoft MVP and Community Leader. We talked about the cool stuff you can do with Octopus, her struggles in planning community events in person for the first time since the start of the pandemic, and her experience working in tech support. Without further ado, on to the episode! Connect with Sarah! Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/techielass Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_techielass LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/sazlean Connect with Shelley! https://twitter.com/sbenhoff https://pluralsight.pxf.io/mgGLbO Tiaras and Tech is dedicated to providing inspiration for women & marginalized groups in tech. We aim to provide support, celebrate successes, & discuss how we're treated. Follow us! YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram @tiarasandtech tiarasandtech.com Tiaras and Tech is a HoffsTech production. Thank you to Jerome Heaven for producing this episode! Theme music by Nobuo Uematsu and Juan Medrano https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03610 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tiaras-and-tech/support

With a diverse career that spans over eighteen years, Sarah has been a part of every aspect of the IT world. Sarah is a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and ex-Microsoft employee. Born and raised on a dairy farm in Scotland, Sarah holds true to her heritage by embracing the natural world through her appreciation for technology. For Sarah, technology is a way to see life as it grows and adapts, ever-changing, just like the natural world of farming. Sarah is proud to give back to her community. As a STEM Ambassador, Sarah helps others learn how IT can impact and change their lives for the better. Most specifically, she enjoys teaching the next generation of young women how they too can rise in a male-oriented field and succeed in their own careers. Sarah also founded the Glasgow Azure User Group, a community collective that meets bi-monthly to network and discuss the latest in technology. Sarah's enthusiasm in the field of technology has given her the opportunity to speak at public events, most notably, Microsoft Ignite. You can follow Sarah on Social Media https://twitter.com/techieLass https://www.techielass.com/ https://linktr.ee/techielass PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST - Spotify: http://isaacl.dev/podcast-spotify - Apple Podcasts: http://isaacl.dev/podcast-apple - Google Podcasts: http://isaacl.dev/podcast-google - RSS: http://isaacl.dev/podcast-rss You can check out more episodes of Coffee and Open Source on https://www.coffeeandopensource.com/ Coffee and Open Source is hosted by Isaac Levin (https://twitter.com/isaacrlevin) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coffeandopensource/support

Episode 158 of the #MVPbuzzChat interview series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), and Azure MVP, Sarah Lean (@TechieLass), a Senior Solutions Architect at Octopus Deploy and based in Glasgow, Scotland. You can also find this episode on the CollabTalk blog at https://www.buckleyplanet.com/2022/03/mvpbuzzchat-with-sarah-lean.html

Jeff Amels joins host Sarah Lean to discuss how you can model and estimate your cost savings over pay-as-you-go pricing by using the Azure Hybrid Benefit and reserved instances with a powerful new Power BI template. which is now available as part of the Strategy phase of the Cloud Adoption Framework.[00:00] Introduction[01:44] Could you explain this new Azure VM Cost Estimator? [02:48] Could you show us how the Power BI Template works?[03:48] Could you explain the differences between Reserved Instances, Hybrid Benefit, and Pay-as-you-go? [04:47] How does a customer plug their own data into the Cost Estimator?[08:24] What's the process for estimating costs for non VMs?[09:16] Where can people go to download the Cost Estimator?

Arnaud Lheureux joins host Sarah Lean to about Azure Landing Zones and how to deploy them using Terraform. You'll learn about Terraform Modules and how they're different from Azure Landing Zone Accelerators, and see a cool demo of a Terraform Module in action.[00:00] Introduction[01:00] What is Terraform and how is it useful?[02:10] How can Terraform help me with my Landing Zones?[03:05] What do the Cloud Adoption Terraform Modules include?[05:38] How are the Azure Landing Zone Accelerator different from the Terraform Modules?[06:29] How do the Terraform Modules help me get closer to my Azure Landing Zone architecture?[07:35] Demo of Terraform Modules [14:34] Where can people go to find more information on Terraform Modules?

Does Windows need a package manager? Richard talks to Sarah Lean about Windows Package Manager, aka winget. Of course, there have been package managers for Windows before winget, and Sarah talks about her favorite, Chocolatey. But winget is destined to be a part of Windows itself and opens the door to some great deployment automation. The conversation also dives into exporting - making a copy of the manifest of applications currently on a workstation. Could we get to full local workstation localization, where you could build and re-build workstations on demand? Maybe some next-level hot-desk workstations are possible!Links:Windows Package Manager on GitHubChocolateyInTune, aka Microsoft Endpoint ManagerAZCopyTechielass - Blog of Sarah LeanRecorded August 13, 2021

Sarah Lean, aka Techielass, is a Scotland-based IT infrastructure, ops, and sys admin expert and Azure community evangelist. The founder of the Glasgow Azure User Group, Sarah works as a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft and blogs, tweets and has her own YouTube channel. She discusses how you can get into community relations and shares tips for a successful data centre migration. -- Mission Control Center is your one-stop shop for career advice and tech trends analysis. Weekly tips and news digests, career guides and even short sci-fi stories. Everything you need, in one place. Every Thursday, in your inbox and ears. This podcast is brought to you by Mindquest, Europe's new IT recruiting agency. Mindquest accompanies you throughout your entire professional journey with high-quality offers that meet all your needs and aspirations. 

Wayne Meyer joins Sarah Lean to discuss how to build a cloud adoption plan and why it's essential as you start your cloud adoption journey. Find out what resources are available to help get you started.✅ Resources:Planning for cloud adoptionCreating a cloud adoption plan from a template[00:00] Introduction[01:04] Why is a cloud adoption plan essential when you're looking at your adoption journey?[02:10] Tell me more about how IT organizations see a significant change in operational planning?[04:04] Where would you start your agile planning for the cloud adoption journey?[06:09] What's the significance of choosing 10 workloads for your initial deployment(s)?[07:11] What resources can help you get started with building a cloud adoption plan?

Brian Blanchard and Daniel Feeney join Sarah Lean to discuss some of the financial considerations you should be thinking about when moving to the cloud; including how to build a business case, how to build accurate cost projections, and how to integrate cost optimization models.✅ Resources:Develop a cloud adoption strategy- DocumentationCloud economics Cloud Adoption Framework strategy & plan template[00:00] Introduction[01:10] When you're thinking about financial considerations, what are some of the business outcomes?[02:19] Does moving to the cloud affect your financial considerations?[03:04] What are some of the high-level financial considerations you should be thinking about when moving to the cloud?[04:23] Let's learn more details about the financial considerations.[07:49] How can leverage financial considerations to build a business case for the cloud?[10:01] How can we build accurate cost projections for on-premises and cloud environments?[12:25] In what ways can customers integrate the new cost-optimization model in post-migration environments?[14:28] Where can customers get started with financial considerations for the cloud adoption journey?

Brian Blanchard joins Sarah Lean to discuss how you can efficiently manage your cloud operations using the Cloud Adoption Framework.✅ Resources:Cloud Adoption Framework Manage methodology[00:00] Introduction[01:00] How are cloud operations different from traditional and familiar IT ops?[02:23] What is the CCoE, and how does it fit in?[04:36] Can you share a customer story about cloud operations?[06:12] Is there a set pattern for when a company wants to start cloud operations?[06:57] What are the business criteria to help define business commitments?[08:24] What is the actual goal of setting the operations baseline?[09:13] Can you tell us more about what the operations baseline looks like?[10:04] How do you handle workloads that require a higher SLA?[10:46] If you need to improve operations for every workload, what are the options for customers? [12:15] How would you improve platform-specific operations, like SQL?[13:17] In terms of the operations baseline, are there scenarios when you have to exceed the MVP? [14:36] Are there specialized workloads that require exceeding the extended baseline?[15:32] Where can our customers go to get started?

Brian Blanchard & Jeff Amels join Sarah Lean to discuss the technical considerations your organization should think about when building your cloud strategy. ✅ Resources: Cloud Adoption Framework Strategy OverviewCloud Economics Cloud Adoption Framework 'Strategy and Plan template' [00:00] Introduction[00:58] What technical considerations should organizations consider for cloud strategy?[02:02] Are there benefits in running your first cloud adoption process in parallel with development of the plan?[02:52] What's a good practical example of some first projects, and what's the expectation for them?[04:20] What are the differences between on-premises motivations vs. cloud motivations?[07:42] How do a customer's current workloads translate to the cloud?[11:19] How does a static to dynamic allocation in the cloud change the mindset with newly available elasticity?

Geeks on Screens with Coffee Episode 40 - DIY Special - Building a home Studio Look who I bumped into at the water cooler/tea room/corridor? It's only Sarah Lean ( @TechieLass ) Sarah is a Cloud Advocate, let find out what this means... Because she vlogs ( Is that really still a word? ) - lets dig into that and find out the motivation and challenges. Also because Sarah is from Glasgow, 90% of the interview, will be me talking about the great selection of vegan restaurants in the city. Sarah's Bio below. Sarah works as a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. Before joining Microsoft she held various roles ranging from Help Desk Engineer to Technical Consultant. She has worked in the IT infrastructure/Operations space within IT departments or with Managed Service Providers and has experience of working with physical server datacentre installations as well as experience within the Office 365 and Azure cloud space. In 2017 Sarah founded the Glasgow Azure User Group, where a vibrant community has grown that meets every two months. You can find Sarah speaking at and attending meetups, conferences as well as online on various platforms. She shares a weekly vlog every Friday that includes Azure news as well as her own news. I must dash, the kettle has almost boiled. Love you!

Pratibha Sood joins Sarah Lean to discuss the new hybrid and multicloud content available in the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure. This includes guidance for defining your strategy and plan, configuring your cloud environments and enabling 'unified operations' to provide visibility and control of resources distributed across on-prem, multiple clouds or edge platform. ✔️ Resources: Microsoft Ignite - Hybrid & multicloud sessionHybrid & multicloud scenario documentationHybrid & multicloud Tech Community blog[00:49] Define the hybrid and multicloud journey, and why companies are headed there.[03:42] What challenges are there in distributing resources to other providers, given everything lived on-prem before?[05:34] Can you explain to us what the term "unified operations" means?[07:07] Does the Cloud Adoption Framework support the hybrid and multicloud approach?[08:19] What business decisions should you think consider with a hybrid and multicloud strategy?[10:55] What different components should you think about when deploying a hybrid cloud environment?[13:35] What do governance and management look like in a hybrid and multicloud strategy?[14:32] Where can customers find best practices guidance beyond the Cloud Adoption Framework?

In this video, Chris lays out his second weekly technology vlog update talking about updates on Cloud With Chris (Weekly Vlogs, Blogs, Podcast Series episodes, Sessionize), Azure Updates, Community Updates (John Lunn aka JonnyChipz, Sarah Lean aka TechieLass, CloudFamily.info and Richard Hooper aka PixelRobots).

Christina is joined by Sarah Lean, Anthony Bartolo and Pierre Roman to recap Microsoft Ignite

As September rolls around it seems that the technology industry has decided this should be digital conference season, as we publish this week’s podcast in the week of the 28th September we see VMworld 2020 happening online and throughout October companies like Veeam, NetApp, ONUG and others will be holding their own digital events. Ahead of all of those we have had Microsoft Ignite, their major conference for the technical community. What did we hear at Ignite? What Microsoft announcements should we go and check out? In the first of what is going to become a series of event wrap up shows over the coming weeks, I’m joined by Microsoft’s Sarah Lean and NetApp’s Kirk Ryan to give their views of Ignite, what surprised them and excited them. So technical issues (with the video version of the show) aside, settle back and join our chat as we talk about. • Microsoft’s aims for ignite • Azure in Space and in the sea • Automating your Azure estate • Windows is not dead • Putting the power in the hands of those who need it • If you could only check out one session As you can tell from our chat there was a significant amount of content and a wide range of strategic and technical information. Kirk and Sarah did a great job of summing them up as Ignite again demonstrated just how much Microsoft has changed over the last few years and how cloud is helping them and their customers to innovate and grow in ways that would have seemed unlikely before Satya Nadella's time in charge. If you'd like to appear as a guest on the show or have an idea for a show then email podcast@techstringy.com and to catch the next episode then please subscribe on YouTube or you usual home of quality podcasts! Thanks for listening. Full show notes are here : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1NX

There is no doubt the world has changed in many ways in the last 3 months, the COVID-19 pandemic and the global response to it has been something we have not witnessed before. From a technology point of view, it has presented many challenges, delivering remote IT at scale, stretched VPN's, flexibility, support, security, the list is long. However as things start to change we are starting to turn our attention to returning to some kind of "normal", but this also presents an opportunity to us, the chance to take what we have learned over this period and take that knowledge and experience to help plan what we do next, so that next time we need to react quickly to change we can do it better. To help with that I've put together a short series of shows and in this third part we pick up on something we discussed in the initial episode the "journey to cloud" and how do we make that easier? On this week's episode, I'm joined by Microsoft Cloud Advocate Sarah Lean to discuss Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework, a hugely valuable set of resources that you can take advantage of regardless of where you are in your cloud project. We discuss. What the framework is and why it exists. How it can help educate users and dispel some of the myths of the public cloud. The importance of knowing where you currently are before you start deploying more cloud. You don't know what you don't know. Where people slip up! Don't get lost in the tech remember the business case. Nuggets of wisdom. Other types of Microsoft help. As Sarah discusses in the show, the Cloud Adoption Framework is not the only way to move to the cloud, but what it does provide is a good set of reference documents that you can use to help you with your cloud projects regardless of whether you want to follow the document closely or just use it to see if there is something you've forgotten it doesn't matter it's just another useful tool in your cloud project "armoury". If you have an idea for the show or would like to appear as a guest you can contact me via podcast@techstringy.com and to catch futures episodes please subscribe. Until next time, thanks for listening. For show notes with links :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Mg

I had a discussion on Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure with Sarah Lean and asked below questions. 01. What is Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework and how it can help organizations in their cloud adaption journey? 02. How can we find the CAF?  03. One can imagine that there are different types of journeys depending on the applications moving to the cloud, where they are in the journey of adopting cloud. So how one can get started? Is it going to be a self-assessment or what would be the best entry point?  04. Would you able to brief 6 phases of the CAF considering a customer scenario you have came across.  05. Are there any special tools and resources available for customers to accelerate the journey? YouTube Video -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLPxmccrDI0&t=15s

If you're thinking about migrating applications from your data center to the cloud, prepare to do a lot of planning. Today's Day Two Cloud podcast delves into the gritty details with guest Sarah Lean, a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. We discuss migration business drivers, what apps are better off staying on prem, tips to minimize migration pain, and more.

If you're thinking about migrating applications from your data center to the cloud, prepare to do a lot of planning. Today's Day Two Cloud podcast delves into the gritty details with guest Sarah Lean, a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. We discuss migration business drivers, what apps are better off staying on prem, tips to minimize migration pain, and more.

If you're thinking about migrating applications from your data center to the cloud, prepare to do a lot of planning. Today's Day Two Cloud podcast delves into the gritty details with guest Sarah Lean, a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. We discuss migration business drivers, what apps are better off staying on prem, tips to minimize migration pain, and more.

If you're thinking about migrating applications from your data center to the cloud, prepare to do a lot of planning. Today's Day Two Cloud podcast delves into the gritty details with guest Sarah Lean, a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. We discuss migration business drivers, what apps are better off staying on prem, tips to minimize migration pain, and more. The post Day Two Cloud 048: Migrating Your Data Center To The Cloud appeared first on Packet Pushers.

If you're thinking about migrating applications from your data center to the cloud, prepare to do a lot of planning. Today's Day Two Cloud podcast delves into the gritty details with guest Sarah Lean, a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. We discuss migration business drivers, what apps are better off staying on prem, tips to minimize migration pain, and more. The post Day Two Cloud 048: Migrating Your Data Center To The Cloud appeared first on Packet Pushers.

If you're thinking about migrating applications from your data center to the cloud, prepare to do a lot of planning. Today's Day Two Cloud podcast delves into the gritty details with guest Sarah Lean, a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. We discuss migration business drivers, what apps are better off staying on prem, tips to minimize migration pain, and more. The post Day Two Cloud 048: Migrating Your Data Center To The Cloud appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Hey Everyone and welcome back to Lisa at The Edge. In this episode I am joined by Sarah Lean. Sarah Is a Microsoft Cloud Advocate, STEM ambassador, co-founder of the Glasgow Azure User Group and all round awesome person. We discuss Sarah's role as a Cloud Advocate and how she never imagined herself in this role. We talk creating content, whether surviving a pandemic should be seen as a productivity contest or not and I hesitantly share my thoughts and feelings on 'Woman in Tech' events and it turns out Sarah feels the same. Tune in to this honest and fun episode. Find Sarah on: Twitter: @TechieLass Youtube under the name Techie Lass and check out her videos. Here is the link to Sarah's video on getting started in IT https://youtu.be/OiJKYzXHNDg

In Episode 171, Ben and Scott are joined by Sarah Lean, Microsoft Cloud Advocate, to talk about working from home and some ways to adapt to remote presentations. Sponsors Sperry Software – Powerful Outlook Add-ins developed to make your email life easy even if you’re too busy to manage your inbox ShareGate – ShareGate’s industry-leading products […] The post Episode 171 – Working from home with Sarah Lean appeared first on Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast.

A new year a new set of Tech Interviews podcasts for you to enjoy. In our first two shows of 2020 I chat with five people from across the technology industry to find out what trends, technologies and ideas they expect to see shape the next 12 months in enterprise IT. In this first episode, I speak with Chris Evans, Sarah Lean and Greg Knieriemen to see how they think 2020 is going to shape up. In our conversations it's interesting to see a number of subjects that run as common threads, data and cloud is at the core of much of the thinking as most of the contributors feel that both better understanding and a growing maturity of these technologies and what they can deliver will see them continue to dominate as topics throughout the year. Background on the guests; Chris Evans - Chris is a well known and respected industry analyst who can be found hosting the excellent Storage Unpacked podcast as well as some fascinating analysis, particularly on the enterprise storage market, on his website architecting.it. Sarah Lean - Sarah is a cloud advocate at Microsoft and spends her time working with the technical community to understand how cloud can better meet the demands of the modern business. Greg Knieriermen - Greg is a wearer of many hats at NetApp, but mainly spends his time advocating NetApp strategy to the wider community, a well known IT community figure, Greg is the co-host of the excellent Go Your Way podcast with Phoebe Goh. Some interesting insights from all our guests. Next week in part two, I speak with two more people from the technology industry about what they think 2020 has instore for Enterprise IT. If you would like to be a guest or have an idea for the show, then email podcast@techstringy.com Thanks for listening. Full show notes are here : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Jp

#9 - Sarah Lean– Cloud Advocate/Glasgow Azure Group founder window.playerConfiguration = { "episode": { "media": { "m4a": "https://csapodcast.azureedge.net/episodes/ep9SarahLean.m4a" }, "title": "#9 - Sarah Lean– Cloud Advocate/Glasgow Azure Group founder", "description": "In this episode we talk with Sarah Lean aka TechieLass. She is a STEM ambassador, founder of the Glasgow Azure group, she has been a Cloud Solution Architect and now she works as a Cloud Advocate for Microsoft. In this episode we talk about how Sarah influenced Azure Migrate and its features, how she bridges the gap between the customers and the product engineering and how she keeps herself up to date with everything happening in the cloud world.", "url": "/2019/12/28/ep9/", "coverUrl": "" } } In this episode we talk with Sarah Lean aka TechieLass. She is a STEM ambassador, founder of the Glasgow Azure group, she has been a Cloud Solution Architect and now she works as a Cloud Advocate for Microsoft. In this episode we talk about how Sarah influenced Azure Migrate and its features, how she bridges the gap between the customers and the product engineering and how she keeps herself up to date with everything happening in the cloud world. Enjoy listening ! Sarah’s journey on how she got to where she is today (01:41) Sarah joined MSFT in 2017 as a Cloud Solution Architect She transitioned to the Cloud advocate role a couple of months ago. Her role as a cloud advocate is to be an evangelist to Microsoft products ( she focusses on the ITPro audience), collect feedback from customers and bridging the gap between customers feedback and product engineers. Interesting projects that Sarah has worked on (03:37) She talks about how she specializes in data center migration. She also talks about the “Azure Migrate” – how they were using it, how they should be using it and how she influenced the product with the feedback provided. Some of her feedback that was incorporated into the products include the inclusion of importing CSV files and import it into azure migrate – which was announced at MS Ignite. Sarah’s advice to anyone who is starting off in the Cloud Solution space (06:45) MSLearn – Leverage MSLearn – it has free and has different learning paths for varying skill levels. Local Azure Meetup groups – She encourages joining local azure user groups and learning from other people. Examples include – Glasgow user group which she runs. [If you are in the NYC region also check out the following user group that we host – https://www.meetup.com/Microsoft-Azure-Public-Sector-Meet-Up/ ] Sarah’s advice to keep herself abreast of all the changes happening in the cloud world (09:40) She uses twitter to keep herself updated on everything that is happening and everything that people are talking about – she follows customers and Azure Program managers. She listens to the community and understands the latest trends and what is important. She also has started a Youtube channel where she posts regular updates on Azure. Sarah defines what a “good day” and a “bad day” is for her (12:10) Good day – Almost every day, specifically when people find the content she shared or created useful and provide her feedback on it Bad day – when travel schedules get messed up How to get in touch with Sarah (13:50) LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sazlean/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/techielass Glasgow Azure User Group – https://twitter.com/GlasgowAzureUG . Show Notes Available at https://azuremonk.com/2019/12/28/ep9/.

Lauren (@malhoit), Matt (@Mierdin) and Yadin (@porterdeleon) talk about education for tech with Sara Lean (aka @TechieLass) and dive deep into the darkness and opportunity of staying relevant in the fast-moving world of technology. [This Episode] Sarah on Twitter: twitter.com/mbushong/TechieLass Matt Oswalt on Twitter: twitter.com/Mierdin Lauren on Twitter: twitter.com/malhoit Yadin on Twitter: twitter.com/porterdeleon Tech Village on Twitter: twitter.com/TechVillagePod [Sources] Sarah’s Blog https://techielass.com/ MorningLightMusic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tXOLqnjSg8&list=PLIILL6veL783kKkdiIybbxARNY9bAVQYe [Subscribe to the Show] On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-village-podcast/id1292054891?mt=2 On Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ihkncqii3l3zdabeplaxih463tq On Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/tech-village-podcast/tech-village On Android: http://subscribeonandroid.com/feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:331955204/sounds.rss On SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/techvillage

GUEST BIO: Sarah is a Cloud Solution Architect for Microsoft where she helps organizations with their Data Centre Transformations.  In recent years Sarah has started to focus and specialize in all things Cloud, especially Microsoft Azure.   Sarah is also a STEM Ambassador and likes to share her story in the hope that it will inspire the next generation to start a STEM career.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Sarah Lean, who has spent 15 years working as an IT professional. She is a Cloud Solution Architect for Microsoft, specifically working on Data Center Transformations. Sarah specializes in Microsoft, VMware, Veeam and Azure, but she has many other skills and is always adding more. She is a STEM Ambassador and founded the Glasgow Azure user group. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.08) – So Sarah, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Sarah starts by sharing the fact that she has been working in IT for about 15 years. She began her career working on a helpdesk doing really basic tasks like resetting passwords. From there, she worked up through more complex tasks. Over the years, she has touched virtually every technology. Currently, she is moving into working with the Cloud, specializing in helping companies to migrate their data across. (2.10) – Sarah started working for Microsoft about a year ago. Phil asked her what inspired that move. She says that she had always wanted to work for Microsoft and jokes that is her inner geek showing. Now that she has the right skill set she has been able to fulfill her ambition. (2.33) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Sarah’s advice is to “be authentic and learn to speak up”. It is important to share your opinion. That after all is why you have been invited to meetings or asked to work on projects. (3.40) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Sarah explains that, a while back, she was working with a manager she just did not get along with. They were polar opposites. This situation pushed her to change jobs for the wrong reasons and she ended up working for a company that was not a good fit for her. Basically, she found herself in an even worse situation than the one she had just left. But, it forced her to be proactive and turn the situation around. She learned to handle thing differently whenever she was struggling to work with someone. In the end, that negative episode turned out to be a growing experience for her. (4.56) – Phil asks Sarah what she now looks for when moving jobs. Sarah likes to work for supportive managers that inspire her. She also prefers flexible working and needs to be doing the type of work she enjoys. Phil understands this completely. He once made the mistake of accepting a job despite the fact that the interview went badly. That experience taught him to never ignore red flags. (6.29) – What was your best career moment? For Sarah that has been joining Microsoft. Something she has wanted to do from the moment she started using computers. Her skill enabled her to land her dream job. But, there was also an element of luck involved. She was referred by someone she met through the Glasgow Azure user group, that she founded 2 years ago. He worked for Microsoft. (7.16) – Where are you based? Sarah explains that she works mostly from home or customer sites, often, in Scotland and England. She loves the flexibility the job gives her. (7.46) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that no two days are the same is something Sarah finds exciting. This is especially the case now. The whole cloud first mentality has turned things on their head. Everything is evolving and progressing very quickly. Sarah really enjoys being able to continuously learn and try out new things. (8.43) – Clearly your focus is the Cloud, but is there any other area that particularly interests you? Sarah describes herself as a server hugger, but she is now getting more involved in DevOps. She is focusing on understanding the infrastructure as code and how to automate. (10.00) – What drew you to a career in IT? Sarah has always enjoyed computers. The fact that she can help people and share her knowledge is something she also enjoys. Her career in IT allows her to combine all of these passions, so, for her, it is the ideal career. (10.36) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Sarah says that is – “be yourself”. When she was younger she tried to follow in the footsteps of some of the people she worked with and admired. Unfortunately, that strategy led to her working in roles that she was not really suited for. (11.09) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Sarah would spend more time learning about networking. She has a good grasp of infrastructure, but often wishes her networking knowledge was even better. (11.53) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Sarah is currently focusing on filling in the gaps, learning more. This year, she particularly wants to secure some Linux certification. She also wants to become a more rounded person. (12.19) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Interestingly, Sarah’s secret skill is curling. She has been involved in the sport for around 20 years, now. Playing has taught her the importance of teamwork. As the captain (skip) she has to make decisions for the team. Often, these are split-second gut feeling decisions that define the game. So, you have to become a confident leader as well as be a good team member. The skills she has picked up while curling has definitely helped her to succeed in her IT career. (13.44) – Phil asks Sarah to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Sarah’s parting piece of advice is not to be afraid to pursue your dreams. You are good enough. It is important to recognize and deal properly with imposter syndrome. BEST MOMENTS: (1.40) SARAH – "I've probably touched every technology there is." (3.20) SARAH – "Be yourself. And don't be frightened to use your voice." (5.40) SARAH – “If you enjoy your work, it's not really work, it becomes like an extension of you" (8.18) SARAH – “I pick up new technologies, methodology and meet new people with different perspectives all the time." (14.00) SARAH – "Don't be afraid to go and pursue your dreams we are all worthy of those dreams.”

Ben and Scott have a chat with Sarah Lean, a Cloud Solution Architect from Microsoft about why you should be looking at the cloud and how to govern your Azure environments. The post Episode 114 – Answering “Why Cloud?” with Sarah Lean appeared first on Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast.

Be Sure before you Azure – Sarah Lean – Ep90 by Tech Interviews

Dan speaks to author of the Tiger Days series, Sarah Lean. The two talk about the books, nature and put Sarah's tiger knowledge to the test with some quick-fire true or false questions!