The latter end of 2016 has been pretty manic and the blogging definitely suffered as a result which I hope to fix this year (but won’t make any promises either as 2017 is starting full on!)
Last January I was awarded MVP status for the first time and it really just kick started a an extra layer of content and events on top of what I had already planned. With SharePoint Saturdays in Stockholm, London, Brussels and Oslo as well as my first trip to SPC Adriatics (Now the European Collaboration Summit which I really really recommend you take the opportunity to visit!!) and then my first MVP Summit in Seattle (and first visit to the Mothership!) it’s been a busy (and somewhat expensive year…)
It appears that I’m doing something right though as Microsoft have chosen to re-award me with MVP status for the second time, something that I’m really chuffed about and I really look forward to building on the relationships that I made at summit both internally at Microsoft and within the community.
So a few of my targets for the first few months…
Identity.. I’ve already started talking about identity at SharePoint Saturdays around Europe, if you’re moving into the cloud space in any form then Identity is the absolute foundation of everything you do, and understanding the options available to you is really important. Microsoft are making some major investments in Azure Active Directory and the integrations that it offers which when combined with conditional access and Microsoft Intune are going to provide some amazing control options for organisations over the next 12 months. My goal is to keep up to date with these rapid changes, understand them and present these options in a clear format so that they are understood and adopted.
Patterns and Practices.. I’ve been around a lot of the patterns and practices guys both from the community and from Microsoft, but I’ve never really got involved or used much of the frameworks they provide. My goal this year is to pick this up and really understand as much as I can of what’s available to help clients build that extra 10% on top of what MS provide, especially with Office 365.
I’m really looking forward to 2017 and the fresh challenges that it brings!
Paul.