In this issue:
Ace Aviator of the Month
September's Ace Aviator: Sandro Pereira
What is your role and title? What are your responsibilities associated with your position?
To be honest, I don't like titles. I consider myself an Enterprise Integration Consultant, but if I have to pick a title that describes my role at DevScope, it will be Head of Enterprise Integration. That means that internally at DevScope, I'm responsible for the Enterprise Integration area, where I manage a team focused on Enterprise Integration (which means working with Azure Integration Services and/or BizTalk Server), performing pre-sales, doing proof of concepts, researching, do and understanding the future of integration technologies. But I also work as a consultant to clients, and I'm also a mentor. DevScope enjoys and encourages all its employees to contribute to communities, so one of my responsibilities is to be a mentor or a technical leader, internally to coworkers or clients and technical communities by delivering sessions at events or writing articles.
Can you provide some insights into your day-to-day activities and what a typical day in your role looks like?
A rollercoaster of fun! Where each day is a different day. Some slightly boring days may be where I must perform manager tasks like pre-sales/sales documents, invoicing, or time reports. But because I'm also working on multiple parallel projects as a consultant where, depending on the client, I perform a variety of tasks focused on cloud and on-premises integration: from an advisor, architect, and project manager to a trainer, developer, or administrator, each day is entirely different. That means I may design solutions and create Visio diagrams in one day. And on another day, be 100% a developer writing Azure Integration Service or BizTalk server solutions. But these are my top activities: be a technical architect and advisor for customer, designing solutions and middleware architectures, developing and maintaining integration solutions (AIS and BizTalk), troubleshooting issues - to many clients, I'm their premium BizTalk Server support line, provide training (AIS and/or BizTalk), perform POCs and writing articles. And in this post-COVID world reality, I could forget to mention meetings with my team members and clients.
What motivates and inspires you to be an active member of the Aviators/Microsoft community?
When I started writing on my blog more than 15 years ago, I started writing for myself. My blog was my personal notes, but I published them publicly instead of keeping them private as a hobby. If many of us have hobbies like reading, running, playing sports, being a food reviewer, and so on, one of my favorite hobbies is writing. In addition to being a hobby that I have fun with, it is a hobby that makes me constantly evolve and learn. But what started and still is a hobby for me radically changed my life, going from being a stranger in a small village to a small country in Europe to one of the most well-known technicians in this area and being invited to deliver sessions worldwide.
For decades, I have been sharing my knowledge on the BizTalk Server communities, in which I am known to be one of the most active members, so the transition to AIS is a normal process. I like writing or creating resources about topics or technologies I use daily or that I do research or evaluate for upcoming projects, and AIS plays a big part in my work. These days, there is a lot of documentation about BizTalk Server. Everything is already documented (or almost). The same doesn't apply to Logic Apps and AIS. Although most of the services that compose AIS may be described as no-code, low-code technologies, the Integration technologies, and their concepts can be challenging to understand for beginners. I'm just trying to close this documentation gap and give back to the community what it has given me in all these years.
But, if I have to say it in a short sentence, what motivates and inspires me to continue to share my knowledge with the communities is quite simple: passion and fun for what I do. And by doing so, if you manage to help someone in the process, then it becomes even more rewarding. Nothing is so rewarding when someone totally unknown comes to thank you for all your work and for the (indirect) help you gave them to solve problems at work.
Looking back, what advice do you wish you would have been told earlier on that you would give to individuals looking to become involved in STEM/technology?
I'm not much of a person to look back on the past, but if you have to do a retrospective and know what I know today, I wish someone had advised me earlier to create a good professional network sooner.
In the past, when I started working with BizTalk Server, there wasn't a lot of documentation, nor so many user groups and communities. Today, it feels like everything is given away for free. I would have loved back then to have had access to half of the resources that exist today, which would have saved me from long hours of torture, but that path made me who I am today, and I’m grateful for that. So, if you are looking for advice, the best advice I can give to individuals looking to become involved in STEM/technology is, first and most importantly, to find something they will love to do. If you love what you do, it is not work. It is having fun at work. Second, surround yourself with a great network of friends who will be as available to help you as you are to them. Some of my best friends are people I met during these 13 years on the Microsoft MVP program and tech communities. And finally, don't take everything as THE truth. Instead, question everything and try to find different and new ways of doing things. Regardless of the results, we will always learn and become better professionals.
Imagine you had a magic wand that could create a feature in Logic Apps. What would this feature be and why?
That is an easy question, and I will release the developer inside me, blocking the architect part: a single and good unified developer experience. I started as a developer and still love and enjoy being a developer. It doesn't matter if you design a fantastic solution on paper if you don't have the proper tools to implement it. I'm not saying that we don't have good tools to implement Logic Apps. Still, I would love to have, no matter if I'm using Logic Apps Standard or Consumption or developing any other AIS service like Azure Functions, a unified developer experience and a single developer tool. This way, we could remove all the developer complexity with multiple tools for developing different services and different deployment strategies that exist today that are time-consuming.
What piece of advice do you think is vital to learn early on in your career and why?
Most importantly, find something you truly love to do! If you don’t enjoy what you are doing move as soon as possible. Then, learn from your mistakes. They will help us grow as a person and a professional. Listen to the people surrounding you - your team, partners, and close network - and ask their opinion. You onboard them; they will feel part of something, and also because you are not the owner of reason, nor will you always know everything. We are always learning, and you will perform better when you work as a team, and we feel like we are part of something. Build a good and trusted professional network and finally, a great mentor of mine told me: make yourself expendable. That's the only way to have more time for yourself or be promoted. I believe that more every day.
News from our product group:
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Announcement !! Azure Logic Apps Standard RBAC Roles in Public Preview Read more on the new series of RBAC roles for Logic Apps Standard that provide more granular permissions for operations under Azure Logic Apps Standard. |
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Announcement !! Premium Integration Account and Enhanced EDI Connectors In this post, read about the new capabilities we are releasing today that will allow you to run B2B and EDI workloads at scale and within VNET. |
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Microsoft named a Leader in the Forrester Wave™: Integration Platforms As A Service, Q3 2023 We’re excited to announce that Forrester Research has recognized Microsoft as a Leader in the Forrester Wave™: Integration Platforms As A Service, Q3 2023. Find more information on our report in this article. |
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Migrate Your Azure Logic Apps Integration Service Environment Today and Unlock New Benefits Azure Logic Apps Integration Service Environment (ISE) is set to retire on August 31, 2024. Learn more about migrating your ISE instances to unlock a world of new benefits. |
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Data Mapper Patterns: Distinct Values Kent is back with another Data Mapper pattern. Read more on how you can retrieve distinct values from an array of records. |
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Upgrading SAP .NCo Artifacts to Version 3.1 in Logic App Standard We now support SAP .NCo 3.1 in Logic App Standard v1.31.2 and above. Read more about upgrading your SAP connector artifacts to patch any security/feature updates from SAP. |
News from our community:
Using Logic App Standard to connect to SAP using BAPI & RFC
Post by Holger Bruchelt
Watch Holger show us how to easily connect to BAPIs and FCs in your SAP System using the SAP ERP Connector in Logic Apps.
Using PowerShell to Assign Azure AD Group to Azure Services
Post by Harris Kristanto
Read Harris' article on the steps for assigning Azure AD group permissions to various Azure resources using PowerShell.
Post by Mark Brimble
Learn how to disable Azure Alerts using a script thanks to Mark's multiple attempts for the best solution.
Import OData API into Azure API Management | OData API Type in Azure API Management
Post by Srikanth Gunnala
In this video, watch Srikanth talk about the foundational principles of OData API and its smooth integration process into Azure API Management.
Logic Apps (Standard) Data Mapper: Math (or Mathematical) Functions (Part 1)
Post by Sandro Pereira
Read through this guide to Data Mapper's Mathematical Functions from this month's Ace Aviator, Sandro.