Looking back at 2017

A review of 2017

Here we are near the end of 2017 and I find myself reflecting on the past year. As always there have been good and bad areas through the year but overall it's been not to bad a year. Focusing primarily on what I've been doing here on the blog, other social media and in the community generally it's been an exciting year!! In 2016 I wrote 20 blog posts, in 2017 I've wrote over 45 blog posts! Which astonishing as I'm always thinking I don't write enough!

Most visited blog posts in 2017

Career

In April this year I started on a new step in my career as a Infrastructure Engineer with a Microsoft Gold Partner called IA Cubed, I've spent the year focusing on Microsoft Office 365 implementations and Microsoft Azure implementations. Over the course of the last 8 months I've had the opportunity to work with customers in industries I've not worked in before, I've dipped my toe into the water in terms of public speaking and I've dusted off old skill sets in the form of Exchange 2010 management. It's been an interesting ride both personally and professionally, but in January I am off to work for Microsoft as a Cloud Solution Architect. It's a true dream come true getting the chance to work with Microsoft and I can't wait to start the journey.

Public Speaking

As I mentioned earlier this year I've dipped my toe into public speaking. Several times this year I've had to stand up in front of customers at the Microsoft Edinburgh office and evangelize Office 365. Previously I've spoken to customers on a one to one basis but standing up in front of up to 15 people was a bit daunting. As well as speaking at work functions I volunteered to speak at TechUG when the user group was in Glasgow on the 24th August. During my 30minute slot I covered the topic "do office 365 backups make sense?", my slides from that talk are available here.

User Group

Back in February this year I founded the Glasgow Azure User Group, which has proven to be a great adventure and experience. I wrote a blog post earlier this month detailing the progress of the group and where I am hoping to take it in 2018 - Glasgow Azure User Group 2017 review. Over the course of starting and running the user group I've had to call on old skills and learn some new ones, it's been an exciting journey and I am looking forward whatever path it takes me on next year.

Thank you

A huge big thank you to everyone who has been a part of my 2017, it's been good to connect with new and old friends. As always there has been good things and bad things over the course of the year but looking back I can see the lessons that I've learnt and take the positives from all the experiences and interactions I've had.

Your turn....

Now you've read my year in review, how about yourself? Take a few minutes to look back on your own 2017. What did you achieve? Where there things you had hoped to achieved but are now looking to prioritizing in the 2018 instead? Here’s to a very happy and exciting 2018!