New Book: Build and Deploy Apps using Azure Developer CLI by Chris Pietschmann
I am excited to announce the release of my new book, Build and Deploy Apps using Azure Developer CLI, a practical, hands-on guide for developers and teams who want to streamline cloud-native application deployments on Microsoft Azure using the Azure Developer CLI (azd). Modern application delivery often gets slowed down...
Unlock GitHub Copilot’s Full Potential: Why Every Repo Needs an AGENTS.md File
Supercharge Your AI Pair Programming Experience with Project-Specific Context and Control AI-assisted development has rapidly transformed how engineers write code, collaborate, and ship software. GitHub Copilot, powered by OpenAI’s Codex and now evolving with GPT-5 capabilities, is at the center of this revolution —...
Terraform + Azure Multi-Region Naming Convention across Azure Regions, Resources, and Terraform Modules
Imagine this: your application goes down in a major Azure region outage. DNS traffic shifts to the secondary region as designed. Terraform kicks off to scale the backup environment. Everything should just seamlessly work… but it doesn’t. Why? Because names don’t match. Storage accounts are globally unique. Key Vault names...
How To Automate Azure Naming Conventions with the Build5Nines/naming/azure Terraform Module
Naming resources in Azure shouldn’t feel like deciphering ancient hieroglyphics. Yet, without a solid standard, names can quickly become inconsistent, confusing, and downright chaotic. The result? A messy Azure environment that’s hard to search, manage, and govern. This guide will show you exactly how to establish and...
Prompt Noise Is Killing Your AI Accuracy: How to Optimize Context for Grounded Output
The most common reason an AI system “hallucinates” in production isn’t that the model is dumb. It’s that we’re drowning it. In the last year, many teams have quietly adopted a pattern that looks sophisticated on paper: throw everything into the prompt. Policies, API schemas, examples, edge cases, brand voice, product...
Major Azure Front Door Outage Causing Widespread Service Disruptions Across Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, and the Azure Portal (October 29, 2025)
Starting at approximately 16:00 UTC on October 29, 2025, Microsoft Azure began experiencing a significant outage affecting the Azure Front Door (AFD) service. This incident is resulting in latencies, timeouts, and connectivity failures across numerous Microsoft cloud products,...
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with 25 years of experience in the industry!
Big Thinkers
Big Thinkers: James Gosling – Creator of Java
James Gosling is a name that resonates through the halls of computer science, software engineering, and more recently, cloud computing. Best known as the "Father of Java," Gosling's influence stretches far beyond the iconic programming language. His work has quietly but profoundly shaped the modern cloud landscape,...
Big Thinkers: Brendan Eich – From JavaScript to Cloud Privacy Pioneer
Brendan Eich may be best known as the creator of JavaScript, but his influence extends well beyond programming languages into the very core of internet privacy and emerging cloud ecosystems. Today, as CEO of Brave Software, Eich is a key figure pushing for decentralized, privacy-first approaches to cloud services and...
Big Thinkers: Tim Berners-Lee – Inventor of the World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee, a name etched into the bedrock of computing history, stands among the most influential figures to ever touch the digital sphere. Credited with inventing the World Wide Web in 1989, his groundbreaking work at CERN sparked a technological revolution that reshaped communication, commerce, and culture. Over...
Software Innovations
Software Innovation: HashiCorp Terraform Revolutionized Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
In the current cloud-first world, where agility, automation, and scalability are required, there are few tools that have left as profound a mark on infrastructure management as HashiCorp Terraform. Widely regarded as a cornerstone of modern DevOps practices, Terraform helped usher in a new era of Infrastructure as Code...
Software Innovation: The Epic Journey of Microsoft Visual Studio – Code, Craft, and Continuity
Microsoft Visual Studio isn’t just an IDE; it is the forge in which several generations of software—from shrink‑wrapped Windows utilities to cloud‑native micro‑services—have been hammered into existence. For nearly three decades it has remained the default cockpit for developers building on Microsoft stacks,...
Software Innovations: iOS – The Operating System That Put the Future in Your Pocket
A 18‑year chronicle of Apple’s mobile powerhouse—how it began, how it rewired the software economy, and why its next act is infused with on‑device intelligence. You wake up, glance at a glowing rectangle, and with a tap summon everything from bank balances to baby photos. That daily ritual traces its lineage to a January...
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Open Source
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Lightweight, In-memory, Semantic Search, Text Vector Database to embed in any .NET application as a Nuget package.
C# / .NET
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Stay up-to-date with news and best practices with industry expert Chris Pietschmann, long-time Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).
Artificial Intelligence
Unlock GitHub Copilot’s Full Potential: Why Every Repo Needs an AGENTS.md File
Supercharge Your AI Pair Programming Experience with Project-Specific Context and Control AI-assisted development has rapidly transformed how engineers write code, collaborate, and ship software. GitHub Copilot, powered by OpenAI’s Codex and now evolving with GPT-5 capabilities, is at the center of this revolution —...
It’s Still About the Data: Practical Approach to Building with Agentic AI, LLMs and Generative AI
There’s no denying the massive wave of excitement around Agentic AI, Multi-Agent Systems, Generative AI, and Large Language Models (LLMs). Whether it's people experimenting with Copilots, implementing RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) patterns, spinning up AI agents, or integrating LLMs into enterprise apps, there’s a...
It’s Still About the Data: Practical Approach to Building with Agentic AI, LLMs and Generative AI
Software Innovation: HashiCorp Terraform Revolutionized Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Hidden Security Risks of “Vibe Coding” for Enterprise AI Projects
From Stuck to Senior: How Mentorship Accelerates Your Cloud, DevOps & AI Career
Prompt Noise Is Killing Your AI Accuracy: How to Optimize Context for Grounded Output
The most common reason an AI system “hallucinates” in production isn’t that the model is dumb. It’s that we’re drowning it. In the last year, many teams have quietly adopted a pattern that looks sophisticated on paper: throw everything into the prompt. Policies, API schemas, examples, edge cases, brand voice, product...
Extract Text from PDF Files with Python for use in Generative AI and RAG Solutions
When building Generative AI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) LLM-based solutions, the quality and structure of input data significantly influences the performance of the LLM models. PDF documents, a prevalent format for information dissemination, often contain rich textual content that can be harnessed for such...
Semantic Search in .NET / C# with Build5Nines.SharpVector
As developers, we often find ourselves building smarter, more context-aware applications. Whether it’s powering a document search tool or implementing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), semantic search is a powerful capability to have in your toolbox. I recently found myself needing a lightweight, local, in-memory...
Microsoft and Anthropic Collaborate to Develop Official C# SDK for Model Context Protocol
Microsoft has announced a partnership with Anthropic to develop an official C# Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This collaboration aims to streamline the integration of large language models (LLMs) into C# applications, addressing the growing demand for advanced AI functionalities in...
How to Write AI Prompts That Output Valid JSON Data
When working with LLMs, an extremely valuable use case is generating structured data as the output response of the AI prompt. Whether you're building an app, prototyping a data pipeline, or performing data extraction or transformation, receiving structured outputs like JSON saves time and makes downstream processing...
Cloud Computing
New Book: Build and Deploy Apps using Azure Developer CLI by Chris Pietschmann
I am excited to announce the release of my new book, Build and Deploy Apps using Azure Developer CLI, a practical, hands-on guide for developers and teams who want to streamline cloud-native application deployments on Microsoft Azure using the Azure Developer CLI (azd). Modern application delivery often gets slowed down...
Prompt Noise Is Killing Your AI Accuracy: How to Optimize Context for Grounded Output
The most common reason an AI system “hallucinates” in production isn’t that the model is dumb. It’s that we’re drowning it. In the last year, many teams have quietly adopted a pattern that looks sophisticated on paper: throw everything into the prompt. Policies, API schemas, examples, edge cases, brand voice, product...
Terraform + Azure Multi-Region Naming Convention across Azure Regions, Resources, and Terraform Modules
Imagine this: your application goes down in a major Azure region outage. DNS traffic shifts to the secondary region as designed. Terraform kicks off to scale the backup environment. Everything should just seamlessly work… but it doesn’t. Why? Because names don’t match. Storage accounts are globally unique. Key Vault names...
Terraform + Azure Multi-Region Naming Convention across Azure Regions, Resources, and Terraform Modules
How To Automate Azure Naming Conventions with the Build5Nines/naming/azure Terraform Module
Major Azure Front Door Outage Causing Widespread Service Disruptions Across Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, and the Azure Portal (October 29, 2025)
Securing Terraform State in Azure Blob Storage using Best Practices
Azure Container Apps vs AKS: Which Is Right for Your Enterprise Application?
When it comes to modernizing enterprise systems in Azure, containerization is the name of the game. But if you're standing at the crossroads of Azure Container Apps and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), the decision isn't always straightforward. Both options offer robust paths to scalable microservices—but they cater to...
Comparing Azure Front Door, Traffic Manager, and Load Balancer: Choosing the Right Tool for Global Application Delivery
Modern cloud architectures demand flexible, resilient, and scalable traffic distribution strategies. As workloads increasingly span multiple regions and hybrid environments, choosing the right load balancing service in Microsoft Azure becomes a strategic architectural decision. Among Azure’s suite of traffic distribution...
From Stuck to Senior: How Mentorship Accelerates Your Cloud, DevOps & AI Career
The journey from junior engineer to senior Cloud, DevOps or even AI professional can feel like climbing an ever-growing mountain. New tools. Shifting best practices. Complicated architectures. Add to that the pressure of staying relevant in a sea of LinkedIn updates and GitHub commits, and it’s easy to get stuck—stuck...
Big Thinkers: Scott Hanselman – Empowering Developer Community Worldwide
Few voices in the Microsoft and .NET space rise above the rest as much as Scott Hanselman. He's a developer, teacher, speaker, and currently the Vice President of Developer Community at Microsoft. For over two decades, Scott has been a connecting force in the tech world, linking developers to tools, platforms, and to each...
DevOps
New Book: Build and Deploy Apps using Azure Developer CLI by Chris Pietschmann
I am excited to announce the release of my new book, Build and Deploy Apps using Azure Developer CLI, a practical, hands-on guide for developers and teams who want to streamline cloud-native application deployments on Microsoft Azure using the Azure Developer CLI (azd). Modern application delivery often gets slowed down...
Terraform + Azure Multi-Region Naming Convention across Azure Regions, Resources, and Terraform Modules
Imagine this: your application goes down in a major Azure region outage. DNS traffic shifts to the secondary region as designed. Terraform kicks off to scale the backup environment. Everything should just seamlessly work… but it doesn’t. Why? Because names don’t match. Storage accounts are globally unique. Key Vault names...
How To Automate Azure Naming Conventions with the Build5Nines/naming/azure Terraform Module
Naming resources in Azure shouldn’t feel like deciphering ancient hieroglyphics. Yet, without a solid standard, names can quickly become inconsistent, confusing, and downright chaotic. The result? A messy Azure environment that’s hard to search, manage, and govern. This guide will show you exactly how to establish and...
How To Automate Azure Naming Conventions with the Build5Nines/naming/azure Terraform Module
Securing Terraform State in Azure Blob Storage using Best Practices
Software Innovation: HashiCorp Terraform Revolutionized Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
From Stuck to Senior: How Mentorship Accelerates Your Cloud, DevOps & AI Career
Applying Terraform Changes to Specific Resources using the -target Argument
Managing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform is as common as CI/CD pipelines and incident response playbooks. However, there are moments when you don’t want Terraform to touch everything. Maybe you need to quickly redeploy an Azure Function App, or perhaps a specific Storage Account needs an urgent configuration...
OpenAI Secures $40 Billion Funding Round Led by SoftBank to Advance AGI Research
OpenAI has announced a substantial new funding round, raising $40 billion at a $300 billion post-money valuation. The financing, revealed on March 31, 2025, is backed by SoftBank Group and will be used to advance OpenAI's research towards artificial general intelligence (AGI), expand compute capacity, and enhance its AI...
What is the HashiCorp Ambassador Award?
HashiCorp, the company behind Terraform, Consul, and Vault, has a community recognition award they call "HashiCorp Ambassador." This award is given to individuals who have committed to the spirit of open source and actively share their knowledge in HashiCorp products to the IT community through content creation and local...
Deploy LiteLLM on Microsoft Azure with AZD, Azure Container Apps and PostgreSQL
Generative AI is evolving rapidly, and developers are increasingly looking for efficient ways to manage multiple LLMs (Large Language Models) using a centralized proxy. LiteLLM is a powerful solution that simplifies multi-LLM management by acting as a proxy server. However, setting it up on Microsoft Azure can be...