It’s that time of the year again, Christmas is on its way and before you know it 2019 will be done. I’ve skipped these types of posts for a couple of years, but I thought it would make a nice conclusion to a busy 2019. Of course, it also gives me the opportunity to thank you all and to wish everyone a merry Christmas, happy new year, and a fun, healthy, and successful 2020.
It hasn’t been the year of conferences for me (I visited a few). It’s been crazy busy, personally (with Mex being new to the family) and professionally – in a fun way. That made me decide to take it a bit easier with traveling and such, though I have been far from idle, I can tell you. Tons of presentations, meetings, blog posts on various platforms, the Salomon Cloud Adoption Framework, a Cloud Bootcamp (more to come on that shortly), as well as a nice little book project in between ;) and so on.
I’ll summarize some of the projects and initiatives I worked on throughout 2019 below:
- The Byte-Sized book project. Cloud Design Principles and Architectural Recommendations. I started this adventure late 2018 together with Christiaan Brinkhoff. Eventually, after 6 months of hard work this resulted in a 335 page paperback book , which became publicly available in June of 2019. Together with the help of 138 other enthusiasts scattered over the globe we managed to put together a community masterpiece. Read more here and don’t forget to download your own digital PDF (free) copy. Oh, and just so you know, Christiaan and I will meet up (very) shortly to continue our Byte-Sized adventure in 2020, more to come soon!
- The book was officially launched during E2EVC in Berlin where we gave away the first few copies during our presentation.
- I became a Microsoft MVP for Enterprise Mobility. Unexpected but really exciting. Check out my personal MVP page. The MVP program is truly one of a kind. The organisation behind it is amazing, the program managers are doing a great job making everything run smoothly. Meet them here if you are interested. A special thank you goes out to Tina Stenderup Larsen, Community Program Manager – North Western Europe Based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- I wrote and published a total of 73 blog posts (up till now), 1 whitepaper, 5 Cheat Sheets and 2 books throughout 2019, I think that’s a personal best. Websites where my articles were published include: basvankaam.com, brianmadden.com, salomon-it.nl, and comegetit.nl.
- Multiple of my articles on basvankaam.com have now been viewed over a 100.000 times!
- 2019 was also the year that my own book Inside Citrix – The FlexCast Management Architecture became available for download on basvankaam.com after publishing all 28 chapter the year before.
- Together with Jits Langedijk and Eric van Klaveren we founded EUCdigest. An initiative focusing on End User Computing delivering Podcasts, a content hub and eventually, events. Up till now we already recorded multiple Podcasts, with more on the way soon – we’ll start broadcasting early 2020. Read more here to find out about our initiatives and all other community folks involved, some big names for sure!
- I organized three Come Get IT (Dutch) events, with the help of a small team over at Salomon and Avensus. All of which were very well received. Nothing but positive feedback up till now, especially on our last event which was held in late November. The average attendee count was around 60+ people, which for us was perfect in the first year, more to come in 2020. The first event will be held on April 2nd and I can already tell you, the lineup is going to be awesome!
- I delivered multiple presentations throughout 2019. Topics included the Windows Virtual Desktop, other Cloud native workspace as a service and DaaS solutions, and our Come Get IT initiative (on tour). I already have a few planned for 2020 as well, looking forward to it.
- During the summer I took a short two month break from blogging on basvankaam.com to work on our Salomon Cloud Adoption Framework. Very educating, useful and fun at the same time. Next to the technology involved, the main focus was on the business side of things. I think it’s safe to say that Cloud is about way more than just technology. The potential impact on your organisation can be huge, something to consider and prepare for before diving in headfirst.
- As some of you might know, basvankaam.com is registered as a business as well. 2019 has definitely been my best year so far (though, to be honest, it’s only been registered just short of two years). I have had the pleasure to advise and help out various companies on multiple levels in different ways. If you’re reading this, thank you for your trust.
- On a more personal level…
- Mex, our son joined us on December 10th in 2018. Indeed, it’s his birthday today! It’s so great to have him around. Different, but great :)
- We bought a new house, which we will move into near the end of February or the beginning of March depending on how the renovation turns out. I will get my own private man-cave (office), something I’ve wanted for many years!
- Physically I’m doing OK, except for some eczema in my face. It comes and goes. Luckily it looks worse than it is, or at least than it bothers me. It doesn’t hurt (most of the time), itches etc.
- My medication is still interfering with sports, running in particular. Though I have to say, I can’t really complain, my splits aren’t the worst for busy 40 year old.
Well, that concludes my list for 2019. Even though there aren’t a ton of bullets, the amount of work involved with almost all of them is not to be underestimated. Luckily, I love what I do on daily basis, which really helps. Here’s to a healthy and successful 2020, cheers everyone and I’m sure we’ll meet soon #Cheers
