Note that this is a repost of my LinkedIn article of the same name

The changing face of DevOps

Over the years the style of DevOps consultancy I have done has changed, along with its name. Changing from the simple ‘source control’, to SDLC, then ALM to now DevOps.

Back in the days of Team Foundation Server …

Overview

In Bicep templates, we sometimes encounter scenarios where certain parameters should be mandatory based on the value of another parameter. For example, when deploying to production environments, you might require additional configuration parameters that are optional for development environments.

One of the …

I have recently done a couple of streamable events with our friends at Grey Matter. Both are now available to enjoy on demand:

• Grey Matter Talks Tech podcast ‘Inside GitHub: The Platform Powering Open Sources
• Grey Matter’s on-demand Webinar ‘Inside the Developer’s Toolkit’ with JetBrains …

Overview

This week is a simple one, but works wonders in maintainability and consistency.

There are often cases where you will need to define static values that don’t change frequently, if at all, and more importantly, you seem to be setting these up frequently for multiple templates. Here are some examples that …

The Problem

I recently rebuild my trusty Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop. As you usually find, a fresh install of Windows 11 meant a leap in performance.

All was good for a couple of weeks, until I started to get problems. It still was working to supply power and the HDMI connection to my external monitor worked, but the USB …

Overview

One of my bugbears is seeing either a complete lack of naming conventions or manual naming mechanisms that introduce human error through mistakes and misunderstandings. Naming conventions are incredibly important, but equally critical is how they’re implemented and maintained. Let’s explore a …

The Problem

The GitHub ‘Azure Pipelines’ App enables some really interesting ‘better together’ scenarios mixing the usage of Azure DevOps Pipelines for CI/CD processes while your source is stored on GitHub. It is particularly useful if an enterprise is migrating towards GitHub Enterprise over a …

Overview

When building IaC templates we strive to enable them to be environment agnostic, configurable even. One of the mechanisms that we do this is through lots of “Core Parameters” that disseminate the fundamental details of our deployment and resources. The number of core parameters is often variable …

The first of many

For those who know me well, starting a bicep tips and tricks series would not be a surprise to them. The moment the Bicep language was introduced, I knew I would be completely obsessed. I love writing bicep templates and even more the clever refinement to make them reusable, configurable, manageable, …

lewiswrites http://lewispen.github.io/posts/leeds-sharp-2025/ -

Run Up 2025

I had attended Leeds Sharp a few times prior to any sort of involvement with the group and had some really interesting chats with people of all different professional levels. It’s a well run, engaging environment full of Microsoft …