 Hey everybody, this is Christian Buckley with another MVP buzz chat and I'm talking to you with Sander. Hello. Hello, Christian. Hello. It's great to see you in the the bright blinking lights there. I'm always a fan of the gadgetry around there. For folks that don't know who you are, why don't you give us that background. Who you are, where you are, what you do. Yes. Hello. My name is Sander. That's short for Alexander. I live in the Netherlands. I'm working for Alton the Netherlands. That's a company which is mainly focused towards engineering and companies who do engineering. We do projects and innovative MVPs and R&D for these companies. I myself, I'm an SIRT solution architect. So I'm thinking about how to connect devices somewhere in the world, either in a factory or on a vehicle and have telemetry and diagnostics sent to the cloud and, well, make it presentable towards the enterprise and this adding value. Thank you. That's an interesting space. I mean, there's been so much that's been happening in that space. In my background, my first tech company that I worked for ran operations at Hewlett Packard. And so we started to implement, this is in the early 90s, some automation around the warehousing of the storage of equipment, of devices, of monitors, of machines at this facility at it in Rockland, California, outside of Sacramento, but where we were having to manually do things to where there were ARFID IDs and that would be, scanners would pick it up as it was walked into the space and revolutionized so much of that. From that to working in the collaboration space, but with manufacturing companies, high tech manufacturing, building products, building X boxes and things like that. And again, the edge devices that they would have in monitoring the machinery that was heavily automated so that somebody halfway around the world would get alerts if there was something which could impact and delay the completion of and shipment of a batch of product. It's just amazing. You know, some of the tools that are out there. Do you work in any specific industries? Well, it's it's mainly focused regarding HRIT. And well, it's used in many markets and in many ways, locations. So I've done a project where the edge device was located in the jungle of Malaysia. And I've also done a solution, several solutions where the edge solution was running on a ship or on a platform in the sea. So most of the projects that I do, they are involved regarding factories and also all over the world. Because that's the challenge nowadays that we are able to connect devices to the cloud. But they are mostly inaccessible or hard. It's hard to access them because they are scattered all over the world. And we want to have them zero touch. We want to operate them and update them and being able to monitor them remotely over the air from the cloud. And only if it's really needed that somebody has to, well, step in the car or in the plane, travel to the device, open the box where it's in and try to figure out what's what's going on. You know, I was just thinking too that I think it was reading a couple years back about, you know, Microsoft was exploring and a couple companies have done this. I think Google's done the same, but where they had the underwater data center, which is essentially like a, you know, like a shipping crate, a box, but then submerged so that it could benefit from the cooling of the cold ocean currents as well as for energy. And that they had monitoring throughout this thing so they could be aware of what's happening. Because like all servers, there's a lifespan and there's certain things that they could automate, but just be aware of what's going on and see how effective and efficient it is down there. And my first thought when seeing that, like, it was, how's this cell phone reception down underwater to be able to retrieve that, you know, information? Well, it's zero to nothing. Right. So how are you capturing from even those remote jungle locations, for example, and getting that data? Well, luckily, well, what we needed, of course, is some kind of communication and that could be a landline. But in our case, we had the luxury of having a LTE connection. It was a really poor connection, but it was there. And if it was raining, well, it was the rainforest, so it rained a lot. The reception was even gone. So we had to wait until it stopped raining and then we had connection again. But while the connection was gone, the device itself was still capturing data and it was storing the data locally. And once the connection was back, it tried to send the data again back to the cloud. So we had no data loss. And we actually tried to measure it. We did measure it to see and because this was the promise, of course, that we delivered to the customer. And we were able to do that just with the standard Azure IoT Edge solution. There is an offline scenario supported with the standard solution. So that's great. If you want to build something yourself, that will cost you many hours. And now, well, it's free out of the box. So, Tanner, you've been, so you're a five-time MVP right now. And what month did you, or like, so how close, like I got mine in January. And so I always, like, when they say, oh, yeah, you hit, I just hit my 10-year. I was like, yeah, technically 10 and a half years, but you know. Same goes for me. I also got my MVP award in January 2017. So it's definitely almost five and a half years now. So that's, that's really great because that's the maximum that you can get out of it. You can get a half year for free. Just be clear, Microsoft, we're not bitter. We're not bitter about that, you know. So, but, so how did you, what was kind of your path to becoming an MVP? Like, you know, Azure space is not my space. And I know it's so broad. There's so many things different aspects of what's going on there. So what was your path? Yeah, it's, it started all that I was already passionate about sharing stuff that I did. I wrote some articles. I wrote some blogs. I gave presentations to local communities about web development. And I also did some mobile development on some mobile platform, which is not longer here, has to do something with Microsoft. I know, yeah. And from there, I started to do some, some cloud development. And back in 2016, Microsoft started a bit earlier already with offering Internet of Things on Azure. And I was immediately hooked. This, this is something that I really like, remembers about the stuff that I learned when I was a student. So I picked it up fairly easy. And at some point, Microsoft asked me, well, we're doing something with a, a Lora network provider. It's the Things Network, a local community here. And we want to have a workshop for people to play with. Well, I believe it's this sensor. So just a sample sample. Well, I put some a box around it. But to have it connected to the clouds using that platform and then if people measure the temperature, it's sent to the cloud and there's a dashboard. So in the end, I built a workshop in a couple of weeks. And it was pretty successful for both the Things that Work and Microsoft. And well, we had a lot of people coming along. And then the guy from Microsoft who inspired me to do this, he said, well, why, why aren't you a MVP? You do this. So, well, it's, it's so nice. I said, well, okay. I'm not quite sure how the program goes. So I was nominated by him. And I had to submit a lot of stuff that I already did. And at some point on the first of January, I was with the family, of course, New Year's Eve. And I got an email. Congratulations. So I was flammergasted, of course. But yeah, from there, if you're an MVP, it's so much easier to talk about your, the subject that you love and get in touch with companies. And well, then it goes from one to another. Yeah, it's, it's a, it was tell. So one, you know, so I had the same thing where I had Microsoft people and some other fellow MVPs that I was speaking in a bunch of conferences, and they're like, wait, you're not an MVP. They just assumed I was, I was, you know, around. I was doing all these things. And, and, you know, honestly, it was one of those things where I said, Oh, that'd be great. But I wasn't focused on that. I wasn't, wasn't my purpose in doing all the community activities that are out there. But it's a, you know, to have, so now you used to be able to self nominate or for a while you could do that, but it has to be a Microsoft person or another MVP that submits. Have you submitted many other, you know, MVPs into the process? No, not that much, a few of them, but to become an MVP, it's not taken lightly. You have to have a track record of one or two years with actually a bunch of blogs and presentations. So if you're not committed to do that, you just do it once in a while. I'm not, I'm not sure if you actually will be rewarded. So I tend to be a little bit careful. If somebody asked me, how can you nominate me? And then I first ask, okay, Microsoft will look at this. And what's your value? What do you bring to the community? And if you're confident about it, then I'm okay with it. But if you're just, yeah, are a casual blogger once in a while, okay, then think twice before I will submit it. That's the same thing where I've had people that reach out like, hey, can you submit? And I was for one, I barely know you. You should not ask somebody that you barely know. So because you and I, we would have to have confidence in the quality and the volume of the contributions there. That's one, get to know us first. And after a few months, if I'm just like, wow, this person is really going above and beyond and consistently, and there's a history, there's a pattern there. But two, I just had somebody that I submitted. I'm familiar, I've known her for years. I've seen, she's one of these people where I've asked, why are you not an MVP? Who did you anger at Microsoft that you're not an MVP? But where I was able to go in and I said, look, I want to submit you, help me put together, I'm aware of a bunch of things, but let's collect. What is the frequency of your blogging? What is the frequency? How often are you speaking? She was organizing, she's the head of the user group. She organized other regional events, speaking at conferences around the world and doing all this stuff. She wasn't creating a lot of video content, wasn't blogging a lot because she preferred events and other things. But there's no set list of, hey, if you are blogging X times a month and have spoken at this many, there's no magical number that you can be like, check, did that, check, did that. It's a combination of those things. It's about adding value to the community. And that can be done in many ways. If you're a somebody who answers a lot of questions on Stack Overflow, or if you... Once in a while, I submit a pool request on the Microsoft documentation because there's something wrong or incomplete or just a typo. That can also count. And at this moment, I'm doing a lot of answering questions on MS Learn. They have a Q&A section over there, and I love, well, that's for me a nice angle to add value to the community. And it also triggers me about people doing stuff. And then I learn something from, well, they're doing this, and that's unexpected from what I should do it. Community begets your community. If you're in there involved, even if you're, again, maybe your goal right now is not to become an MVP, you're not right, you're blogging a lot. But if you're participating in the community and providing that kind of feedback, that's one other thing that I would say. There's one thing to be, Microsoft makes missteps. We all rush in, we give our feedback on those things. But you need to also do it in a constructive way. That's helpful. And that is something... I mean, that's just a rule in life, really more receptive. It's, of course, it has to be constructive. If you're just bashing that something is not working, well, they will note it, but they cannot do anything with it. But if you give an alternative or you elaborate why you think that the way it's done now is not the most obvious way, they are really open and willing to learn. And once in a while, I get a follow-up where I have a call with a team, with a product team, about how I do stuff and why I do it. And it's, I think that's one of the most beautiful things that you get in touch with the product team so much easier as an MVP. Well, that's two... I mean, again, thinking of entry points for non-MVPs that are interested in getting more involved, there are a number of formal and informal like working groups and things all around the various Microsoft technologies. Patterns and practices team is another great example. There's a lot of people that are very active within that space that aren't MVPs that are taking that approach of like, here's how we're trying to use it. Here's our experience. This is where... So it's providing that constructive feedback of saying, here's what we saw with our customers or with our own companies or just participating in the discussion of the creation of solutions and then going and testing that out in your organization and providing that feedback. That's actually another way to get involved. Same thing, I'm part of a number of groups where on a regular basis, we have calls, there's a limited number of MVPs and partners that are involved where we're able to provide that direct feedback back to Microsoft around compliance, for example, around the Microsoft Viva solution space. Again, I'm on the collaboration side of things, but these are working groups that I'm a member of and provide input into, but those are great ways for customers and for partners and for those that are looking to do more in the community to go in to get involved and to raise their visibility with those key Microsoft people because that's also part of that. I mean, the MVP is an award. It's recognizing the work that you've done, really focusing on the last year of giving back. If Microsoft people have no idea who you are because you're not standing out in the community in any way, then they'll never, you may have a great list of things that you've contributed, but they'll look at it and be like, I've never run into this person. I've never had an interaction. So that's why it's a blend of those things. It is people that are involved. Yeah. And it also goes the other way around. I've been contacted by Microsoft already several times regarding the certification program, and they asked me to help them as a subject matter expert thinking about the topics that should be in the exam. And well, I'm really honored, of course, about that because that means that Microsoft also sees me as a, well, as a subject matter expert. Yeah. And then, well, it goes both ways. Yeah. That's very cool. Well, Santa really appreciate your time, meaning I know that it's towards the end of your day, and we're really appreciate all that you do for the community. It's great to meet you, get to know you, and I'm hoping one of these days for events to get back underway and get back. I was trying to think, when was the last time I was in the Netherlands? And I think it was four years ago. It's, yeah, it's been too long. I need to get over to the other side of the pond and see people again. Well, if you're around, give me a goal and we will have a beer. We'll do lots of beer. Well, really appreciate your time today. It was great talking to you. And for folks that want to get in touch with you to reach you, what are the best ways to find you? Well, of course, I'm on LinkedIn, and I have a Twitter handle, S-V-E-L-D-E, S-Felde. I have a blog, if you just look up my name together with the name of the word blog, you will find my blog. On GitHub, almost every project that I do and stuff that I build, like the demonstration here behind me, I put it on GitHub. Together with a friend, we even start the IoT Edge Foundation on GitHub, where we submit Azure IoT modules, which we think are handy or fun or a good starting point to build your own modules. So I'm there on the internet. And of course, anybody watching or listening, you go to bucktheplanet.com. I'll have the blog post that has all of Sandra's information as well, and with links to all the social networks and to your site. And so appreciate your time and we'll hopefully see each other in the near future.