Change can be difficult for any organization. Changing the working culture of your user population and driving product adoption can seem overwhelming, especially when applying traditional principles and adoption practices to today's cloud world. We sat down with Patience Wootton at Ignite recently to understand what it means to be an Office 365 Product Owner and talk about change, driving user adoption and being an early Microsoft Teams adopter. Patience is the Office 365 Product Owner within Dentsu Aegis Network, the global media group that specializes in Media, Digital and creative Communications services. In this role she is responsible for driving the change, release and adoption of Office 365 applications into the business. The most recent to launch was Microsoft Teams, which saw a surge in productivity through global cross-brand collaboration. Patience is passionate about creating a modern workplace and a culture of empowerment and teamwork across our 50+ brands within the network. Check out Patience's "Collaborate in a chat-based workspace with Microsoft Teams" session from Ignite here: https://myignite.microsoft.com/sessions/53211 Click the icon below to listen.        

OneDrive for Business has come a long way since it was initially launched and has earned it's place as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Content Collaboration Platforms. We sat down with Stephen Rose at Ignite recently to talk about some of the exciting new things that will be coming to OneDrive soon. Stephen Rose leads product marketing for OneDrive for Business on the SharePoint/OneDrive team. In addition to speaking at conferences around the globe, he is a regular contributor to the Office and OneDrive blogs. In his previous roles, Stephen spent 8 years on the worldwide and US Windows teams launching Windows 7, 8, and 10, owning IT pro readiness and deployment. Stephen holds over 15 technical certifications and has been a MCT and MCSE since Windows NT. In 2015, he was awarded the Microsoft 2015 Circle of Excellence Platinum Club award. Stephen Rose can be found on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephenlrose Click the icon below to listen.        

If there is anything we’ve learned about Office 365 in the last few years, it’s that change is inevitable. Not only are the core workloads and services changing constantly, but there are also new features and services added to Office 365 on a regular basis and as a result of this the service as a whole continues to evolve. At Ignite recently, we caught up with Paul Andrew and Paul Collinge from the Office 365 product group to talk about Microsoft’s impressive and ever-evolving network and how connectivity and network guidance has changed over time. Paul Andrew is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft working on Office 365 cloud networking, network connectivity and performance. He works on the Office 365 IP’s and URLs surface area, ExpressRoute for Office 365, and Office 365 connectivity with network device partners. Paul has worked as a program manager and product manager at Microsoft for over 12 years and as a developer prior to that. Paul holds an MBA from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Technology from Massey University in New Zealand. Paul Collinge is a Senior Program Manager in the Office 365 Product Team, specializing in network connectivity and performance. Click the icon below to listen.        

In this Episode, Warren goes solo again and shares some Microsoft Azure announcements from this year’s Ignite conference in Orlando and why they are relevant: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-networking-announcements-for-ignite-2017/ The following links are more detailed pages on the technologies that were released. Jump in and start playing with them NOW! VNet Service Endpoints: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-service-endpoints-overview DDoS Protection webpage: http://aka.ms/azureddos Global VNet Peering: http://aka.ms/globalvnetpeering Click the icon below to listen.        

In this episode, we introduce our listeners to our new co-host Chris Goosen and talk about massive migrations to Exchange Online… What is massive? More than 400,000 users! We speak to Chris about things like networking, adoption and not defeating the rules of physics when migrating from on-premises or even tenant to tenant, as well as what to do with multiple workloads like One Drive for Business and Skype for Business. Chris is an IT professional with a passion for technology and almost two decades’ experience working with Microsoft technologies. As a solutions architect and consultant, Chris has many years’ experience helping organizations around the world design and implement Microsoft Exchange Server. The explosive growth of cloud technologies in recent years has given Chris the opportunity to be on the forefront of Microsoft Office 365 adoption in Australia and the United States. Chris holds the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) certification and has been an Office Servers and Services MVP since 2014, making him one of a small number of individuals worldwide to have earned both. Chris has been a speaker at conferences such as Microsoft TechEd and Ignite and blogs regularly on Microsoft Exchange and Office 365-related topics at cgoosen.com. Click the icon below to listen.        

In this Episode, Warren goes solo and shares some important Microsoft Azure announcements and discusses why they are relevant. Click the icon below to listen.        

In this episode we chat to renowned evangelist and fellow South African MVP Alistair Pugin. Alistair has worked in various capacities in multiple verticals from retail – manufacturing to government, spanning 50 to 50000 users utilizing all aspects of pure Enterprise Information Management. His current position as an Office Servers MVP in Johannesburg, South Africa, provides him with a mechanism to assist companies with designing their SharePoint environment using “best of breed”, proven methodologies to foster innovation and growth through an ECM framework while incorporating a Knowledge Management strategy. It is with this vision that he strives to provide customers with a platform for Business Productivity Enrichment, establishing communities of practice through proper analysis and building a knowledge economy that is both quantifiable and achievable. Grab his stories at http://alistairpugin.net You can find Alistair at all the below links: Cloudgeek: https://thecloudgeek.co.za/ ECM Ninja: http://www.ecmninja.co.za/ WhoisAl.com: http://whoisal.com/ Informationworker.org: http://iwsa.co.za/shortcode-team.html LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairpugin/ Here are the show notes. Christian Buckley – The Oprah of personal branding: https://twitter.com/buckleyplanet Agnes Molnar – The Search Lady: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molnaragnes Neil Hodgekinson – Built hybrid engine for Sharepoint: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilhodgkinson Click the icon below to listen.        

In this episode we chat to our good friend Bhargav Shukla about the highly anticipated release of Microsoft Azure Stack. http://www.linkedin.com/learning/microsoft-azure-stack-first-look We touch on the who, what, why, when, and where for Azure Stack. You can find Bhargav online at the following links. Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bhargavs Web: http://www.hybridrealityroundup.com and http://www.bhargavs.com Bhargav also runs a users group: https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Lync-Users-Group/ Click the icon below to listen.        

Our first Episode !! Welcome to the Cloud Architects Podcast. In this Episode we discuss what is in the news with regard to Cloud as well as some Tips and Tricks in the Software Defined Networking space. We also introduce who we are and why we decided to start this new series. Here are the show note links: Nic’s Blog: http://blankmanblog.com/ Warren’s Blog: http://www.waza.co.za/ Zerotier: http://www.zerotier.com/ Warren’s post on using Zerotier to break out in another country and a cost effective VPN solution: http://www.waza.co.za/2017/06/19/zerotier-and-azure-sdn-at-its-best-with-quick-and-easy-point-to-site-vpn/ Click the icon below to listen.