
Betatalks the podcast
Welcome to Betatalks the podcast, in which we talk with friends from the development community. We chat not only about technology, but what drives them, inspires them and makes them unique. Rick (Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft) and Oscar (CTO at Virtual Vaults), invite developers, makers, Open Source maintainers and other amazing people from the .NET and Azure development community. Looking for more content? Have a look at our Betatalks video's.
Latest episodes

Dec 27, 2021 • 35min
20. Azure Digital Twins, security in IoT & ethical hacking - with Ramon de Rooij
In this episode, we talk with Ramon de Rooij. Ramon might be one of the few people that can say that he's worked his entire career in cloud-based IoT. How did he start, what has he done, and what is he doing currently? We dive into Azure Digital Twins. What is this platform all about and what are the possibilities with it? We focus on creating smart homes and especially on security in IoT. A great deal of data is collected, but how is it stored and secured? Is it the responsibility of the company or the supplier? Furthermore, we talk about his experience in ethical hacking. What should every developer know or take into account?About this episode: you can read more about Azure Digital Twins and EDGE Next here & here. About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Dec 13, 2021 • 38min
19. Festive Tech Calendar, CosmosDB & working as an Azure architect - with Gregor Suttie
In this episode, we talk with Gregor Suttie about how his willingness to help people has culminated in the Festive Tech Calendar. A fun event through December where people from all communities take part in fun and engaging sessions. We dive into what his main focus is as an Azure architect, and how it's like working for a Dutch company while living in Glasgow. Which service has impressed him the most? And what are his thoughts on AKS? About this episode, and Gregor in particular: you can find @gregor_suttie on Twitter or join Festive Tech Calendar 2021.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Nov 29, 2021 • 46min
18. Load testing in the cloud with K6, the DevRel trend & enhancing accessibility - with Floor Drees
In this episode, we talk with Floor Drees about what it’s like working for K6, an open-source load testing tool and cloud service. How did her role come about? And have they seen an incline in usage and community interaction since Microsoft disabled load testing in Azure DevOps? We dive into her experience as DevRel consultant, helping companies organize, produce and host livestreams and events. Helping them to define and set-up the DevRel role. We talk about broadening and adopting new ways to teach and share knowledge. But also how to enhance accessibility, and how it's important to pay attention to tooling, subtitles, themes, and aesthetics. And what about dinosaurs?About this episode, and Floor in particular: you can find @FloorDrees on Twitter and FloorD on Github.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Nov 15, 2021 • 46min
17. UI/UX mistakes, misconceptions and best practices. And what about voice UI? - with Jessica Engström
Our friend of the day is Jessica Engström. We dive into User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX), the area of expertise she is passionate about, and where she really shines. We talk about bad UI/UX, common mistakes and examples, and the effect it has on users. Causing annoyance – often even rage-quitting – when encountering basic elements that should’ve worked in the first place. We zoom in on the mindset of the responsible developers and what they should strive for. And how does she herself define UI and UX? She shares quick fixes, practical tips, and best practices for optimizing UI/UX. We dive into voice UI, bots like Siri and Alexa, and their language and translation issues. Furthermore, we hear more about the origin and motivation behind the Coding After Work podcast and Twitch channel.About this episode, and Jessica in particular: you can find @engstromjess on Twitter and her podcast Coding after work.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Nov 1, 2021 • 46min
16. Creating Visual Studio extensions, implementing new features & Schema Store - with Mads Kristensen
In this episode, we talk with one of, or maybe even the most active Visual Studio extension developers in the community, Mads Kristensen. Where and how did this start? What does he love about it? We talk about Microsoft using and being present on Github, contributing to open-source projects, and its amazing side effects. About what it's like responding to and prioritizing feature requests, implementing new features, and the contrast and compatibility of Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. And of course, we dive into how Schema Store, which collects schemas for JSON files, came to be and what it tries to achieve.About this episode: you can find @mkristensen on Twitter or visit his blog.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Oct 18, 2021 • 37min
15. The perfect hybrid solution, helping ISVs & introverts and Geeks in IT' – with Mike Martin
In this episode, we talk with Mike about hybrid solutions regarding work, events, and coding. Why a hybrid way of thinking is essential, why it's important to use coding, infrastructure, and operation expertise, and why he’s called ‘the perfect hybrid solution’. We talk about collaborating with Microsoft partners, helping ISVs bring value to their customers, and about ‘FINO’, a concept he came up with: Failure Is Not an Option. Furthermore, we touch upon the status of introverts and geeks in IT, how they’re viewed by peers and outsiders, and of course, about his pinned tweet ‘Hit me baby one more time’! About this episode: you can find @TechMike2kX on Twitter.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Sep 13, 2021 • 47min
14. From panic attacks to public speaking, Static Webapps & building Lego - with Stacy Cashmore
Our friend of the day is Stacy Cashmore. In this episode, we get to learn about her journey from attending conferences and having panic attacks to gaining confidence and experiencing a conference from the other side as a speaker. They talk about technologies that have impressed them lately, in particular Static Web Apps with its great scalability and price-quality ratio. And we hear more about her hobbies like creating Lego Modular Buildings & classic cars. About this episode: you can find @stacy_cash on Twitter and visit her blog Stacy CloudsAbout Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Aug 30, 2021 • 49min
13. A journey into Microsoft Identity, Managed Identities and Azure Active Directory – with Christos Matskas
We talk with Christos Matskas about working with Microsoft Identity. We discuss the challenges surrounding Microsoft Identity, for instance, how do you get into Identity and Access Management running your application in the cloud? And how they’re doing their best to improve the onboarding experience and implementation, which can be rough. While also trying to reach out and inform the developer community and next generations. Furthermore, we dive into Managed Identities, its biggest benefits and how you can even use it to authenticate API’s. And we talk about Azure Active Directory, the misconceptions surrounding it, and aspects like automating Azure AD provisioning. About this episode: you can find @christosmatskas on Twitter and learn all about Microsoft Identity via The 425 Show and its videos, blogs, Twitch streams and Discord.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Aug 16, 2021 • 44min
12. Harnessing the power of webdevelopment with Blazor & Coding After Work - with Jimmy Engström
In this episode, we talk with Jimmy Engström about the time he got wind of Blazor, immediately realized the potential, and adopted it in the beta phase. We dive into the world of Blazor, BLAZM, and writing his book 'Web development with Blazor: A hands-on guide for .NET developers to build interactive UIs with C#'. And we hear about Coding after work, a code-intensive user group & podcast. About this episode, and Jimmy in particular: you can find @engstromjimmy on Twitter and his podcast Coding after work.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel

Aug 2, 2021 • 47min
11. Windows Azure, migrating secured systems & mixology - with Karl Ots
We talk with Karl Ots, a cloud and cybersecurity expert with a broad range of deep Azure expertise. We look back into his journey in tech before Windows Azure, as it was formerly known, came along. We dive into Microservices, what it takes to migrate secured systems, and security trends in Azure, like managed identity, automated logging alerts, and confidential computing. We even talk about mixology: the art of mixing cocktails! About this episode, and Karl in particular: you can find @karlgots on Twitter.About Betatalks: have a look at our videos and join us on our Betatalks Discord channel.