Last week's Microsoft Ignite 2019 conference was a lot of fun! Our team was able not just to deliver content in breakout sessions, learning path session as well as on the Microsoft Ignite Live stage, we also used the time to speak and especially listen to our customers and communities. Here is what I've learned at Microsoft Ignite 2019.

The AzOps team (yes I am missing ;))

Hybrid is the new black

Starting with the buses driving attendees to the conference venue, over the Ignite keynotes, to the expo floor and breakouts, Hybrid Cloud was everywhere. Our customers rely on a hybrid technology approach to take advantage of utilizing cloud innovation in combination with the on-premises investments. Azure is Hybrid by design, and Microsoft is continuing the investment in our hybrid cloud technologies with the announcements of Azure Arc and the new Azure Stack portfolio.

Azure Stack Portfolio

The new Azure Stack family allows customers to extend Azure across datacenters, edge locations, remote offices, and cloud, to consistently build and run hybrid applications. The Azure Stack portfolio provides customers with solutions for their needs, from consistent hybrid cloud on-premises with Azure Stack Hub that can be connected or disconnected from public cloud, to high-performance virtualization on-premises with Azure Stack HCI or an Azure managed appliance that provides intelligent compute and AI at the edge with Azure Stack Edge. I wrote a blog post here, to give you a little overview of the new Azure Stack announcements.

Introducing Azure Arc

Azure Arc

Azure Arc allows you to extend Azure management and security to any infrastructure and to run and manage Azure data services anywhere. You can find more about the Azure Arc announcement in Julia White's blog post. I had the chance to have an early look at Azure Arc for servers, if you want to know more about that, check out my blog post and video.

The forgotten announcements

Windows Performance Minitor perfmon

Microsoft Ignite is such a large conference, and there are many announcements from product teams across Microsoft, which makes it almost impossible to cover them all, especially in this blog post. However, one thing which you might have missed, but I am really excited about is the new Performance Monitor extension for Windows and Windows Server in Windows Admin Center. Remember the perfmon.exe? Yes, it is still there, but you can now also use the new Windows Admin Center extension, which will bring a couple of enhancements on how you look at performance counters. Check out Cosmos Darwin's blog 

Networking and listening adds so much value to your conference

Next to the many new announcements, the best thing about Microsoft Ignite is to listen and learn from our customers and communities. Doesn't matter in which stage of your career you are, having conversations with others from across the globe, can give you many different insights and views. I always learn a lot from other people, and I am happy to hear what you think about our technology. So if you have the chance to talk to our team, don't be shy.

Being able to talk about our amazing technology is a lot of fun

Our team worked hard in the last couple of months to create and prepare our presentations. Finally, being on stage and presenting the content and getting feedback feels great. If you are interested in our sessions, but couldn't make it, there are recordings available:

Learning Path: Managing cloud operations

• MCO10 - IaaS VM operations 
• MCO20 - Azure governance and management 

Learning Path: Migrating server infrastructure

• MSI10 - Migrating to Windows Server 2019
• MSI20 - Integrating cloud technologies - Hybrid Management
• MSI30 - Migrating IaaS workloads to Azure

Learning Path: Azure Fundamentals

• AFUN40 - Azure security fundamentals
• AFUN70 - Keeping costs down in Azure
• AFUN80 - What you need to know about governance in Azure
• AFUN90 - Azure identity fundamentals

Theater Sessions

• MSI11 - Top five new features of Windows Server 2019
• MCO11 - Securing Azure IaaS virtual machines

Breakout Sessions

• BRK1099 - Microsoft Ignite 101: Make the most of your experience
• BRK1099R - Microsoft Ignite 101: Make the most of your experience (REPEAT)
• BRK1026 - An introvert’s guide to the IT industry
• BRK1056 - Breaking the mold: The tech career journey guide

• BRK2115 – Rise of the Klintwalker – A panel discussion on developer life

• UNC1048 – Women IT Pro workshop: Building Community

• UNC1049 - Balancing family and career: Can you have it all?

There is a lot more I have learned and was excited during Microsoft Ignite. However, I am running out of time. Have you been to Microsoft Ignite? What did you learn, let me know in the comments?