I have updated my blog to use GitHub Actions for Ci/CD, check out this post to learn more! Why a Post on This? I have been asked a few times why I decided to build a blog and more importantly, what I did to build a blog that was lightweight, easy to modify (i.e. add posts) and most importantly, is cheap. This is how I approached it, and I understand that some people have more criteria when they look to create a blog, but I am a simple man with simple needs.

Intro This is one guide in a series of guides that can act as study material for Microsoft’s new Azure oriented certification exams. AZ-203 Exam Guide The AZ-400 exam, which is titled “Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions” and has a target audience of Azure DevOps Engineers. This exam was in beta for some time and was recently released proper in February 2019. Passing this exam is one requirement to earn the “Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer” certification, the other being an “Azure Administrator Associate” or “Azure Developer Associate”.

Have You Heard of CloudShell? Back in around the Build 2017 timeframe, the first implementation of [Azure CloudShell](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/cloud-shell/overview) was rolled out, bringing the ability to run Azure CLI commands from the context of a logged in Azure session, from anywhere the Azure Portal could be loaded (i.e. a browser). This allowed you to do many things via the command line in the Azure world without having to use the GUI or have the tooling installed on your machine.

This is one guide in a series of guides that can act as study material for Microsoft's new Azure oriented certification exams. * [AZ-300 Exam Guide](/post/az-300-study-guide) * [AZ-301 Exam Guide](/post/az-301-study-guide) -- Update here, I passed this exam in January 2019 exclusively using this study guide. Let me know if you have any questions using the contact page. Intro As a Microsoft employee who works with customers and a cloud enthusiast, I see it essential to be knowledgeable of how the cloud can bring the best value to the developer.

Tis the Season I am humble to be a part of the [2nd Annual C# Advent Calendar](https://crosscuttingconcerns.com/The-Second-Annual-C-Advent ). Thank you to everyone who helped put it together and contributed. My blog post is hopefully a fun one not to be taken too seriously. I have been a developer for over 10 years, and I am always looking at new ways to be more productive. May I present you with 6 tips that I have started to adopt that I think have increased my developer skills 1000% (YMMV).

An Easy Solution for an Easy Task I write about Azure Functions over and over again because they are the perfect solution for what I am trying to do, small little things that I don’t want to spin up a larger unnecessary app to do it. That along with the fact they just run and go away, the price point for the things I do make it basically free. I recently remapped my blog to a static website hosted in Azure Blob Storage.