Gregor Suttie Interview
About Gregor Suttie
Gregor Suttie (aka Azure Greg) is a Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP) who lives near Glasgow located in Scotland, UK. Gregor is a well known member of the Microsoft Azure community and active on social media platforms as well as a number of Azure community groups. His kindness and support assisting new and existing users of Microsoft Azure did not go unnoticed! On September 4th 2020, Microsoft Azure tweeted a message praising Gregor for his dedication to the Azure Community. Now that’s a great achievement in itself! Well done Gregor, well deserved!
The tweet can be located by click the following link: Microsoft Azure Twitter
On a personal note, I contacted Gregor recently for his feedback about this idea on setting up AzureCrazy.com. His support and encouragement is the reason why AzureCrazy.com was born. He is an easily approachable person who is always willing to assist.
If that wasn’t enough, he also recently achieved his MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer) certification. We should name him Super Gregor !
That’s enough of our introduction, let’s get started with the interview
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Gregor Suttie Interview
Tell us about yourself?
Gregor Suttie, I live near Glasgow, Scotland. I recently changed jobs and I am now an Azure Architect working for Intercept who are based in the Netherlands.
How did you get into the world of Microsoft Azure?
I wanted to learn some cloud skills and 3 years on I believe that I have learned some skills but there is so much to learn.
What are your areas of expertise? Are you still working with other Microsoft products apart from Microsoft Azure?
I am probably most comfortable with Azure DevOps and web apps, mostly working with Azure and Azure DevOps nowadays, which is what I was hoping to be doing.
What certifications have you achieved, or the certifications you are working towards?
I have achieved the following:
AZ-900 – Azure Fundamentals
DP-900 – Azure Data Fundamentals
AZ-400 – Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
AZ-104 – Azure Administrator Associate
Az-500 – Azure Security Engineer Associate
AZ-200 & 201 – Azure Developer
AZ-300 & 301 – Azure Architect Expert
What would you recommend for those wanting to learn Azure?
I think if you’re a beginner like I was, look into the exams, start with AZ-900 Azure fundamentals, then once you manage to pass that, take a look into the exams that interest you, not all the exams will be of interest to everyone.
If you study for the exams it helps join the dots and helps build a picture as to what services work together, how you secure services and deploy them etc.
For learning materials always check out :- Microsoft Learn
Also the Azure docs :- Azure Docs
How do you keep up to date with the latest Microsoft Azure products?
I keep an eye out on twitter and via a website called Azure Charts
The above website is very good at keeping me updated on all things new in Azure.
What would you recommend for someone who wants to become Azure certified?
Do it, you wont regret it, you will learn a lot of new skills and that can never be a bad thing let’s be honest.
How did you become an MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional)?
The MVP Award is an award given to people Microsoft see as being community driven individuals who are helping the community in numerous ways and give up their own personal time by helping others learn, or by giving feedback to Microsoft on products. I became an Azure MVP in August 2019, mainly due to participating/organising a number of community events, helping to run the Glasgow Azure User Group, organising the Azure Global Bootcamp Glasgow edition and giving feedback to Microsoft via a private programme or two.
What’s next in your Microsoft Azure journey?
I have just started as an Azure Architect which will be a whole new challenge for me but one that I am very excited about. I have the opportunity to feedback more to Microsoft, help our customers with either moving to Azure or architecting new solutions for them as well as that I will be presenting several workshops across Europe once things return to normal (Covid19).
Do you have any final words of wisdom?
I have goals I set myself every 3 months as well as some longer term goals and this keeps me grounded and focused. Without goals I would just be going along aimlessly, goals aren’t for everyone but I have found them helpful as I continue my Azure journey.
The most important question of all 😊
From a scale from 1 – 10 how crazy are you about Microsoft Azure?
Score: 12 🙂
End of Interview
Website: Gregor Suttie
Twitter: @gregor_suttie
