As organizations increasingly adopt multi-cloud strategies, managing and securing infrastructure across diverse environments becomes more complex. This session explores how Azure Arc extends Azure’s powerful management tools—such as Azure Policy, Update Management, and Extended Security Updates (ESU)—to on-premises, AWS, Google Cloud, and other multi-cloud environments. We’ll cover advanced techniques for implementing unified governance, centralized update management, and securing legacy systems using Azure Arc.

In today's always-on digital landscape, minimizing downtime and data loss is critical for business continuity. This session dives deep into the integration of Azure local with Azure Site Recovery (ASR) to implement robust disaster recovery (DR) solutions. We’ll explore advanced DR architectures, data replication strategies, failover procedures, and automated recovery testing, empowering you to build resilient infrastructures that can handle catastrophic failures with ease.

As organizations look to transition from VMware, the journey to Azure Local in Azure can be challenging. This session is designed for organizations ready to move off VMware onto Azure Local. If Azure cloud not an option, Learn how Windows Server 2025, Hyper-V, and Storage Spaces Direct can provide a powerful, flexible, and scalable infrastructure solution that mirrors Azure Locals capabilities. We’ll explore how to leverage Azure Arc for unified management allowing organizations to deploy, operate, and secure their on-premises workloads with the consistency of Azure—all while staying compliant. Discover a practical path forward to modernize your infrastructure and future-proof your investment on the journey toward a fully Azure-integrated environment.

Decide when to use Windows Server and Hyper-V for clustering versus taking the leap to Azure Local. Gain real-world insights and a touch of humor to make the debate on clustering strategies engaging and informative.

Subtitle: Taming the AI toddler with persona-driven prompts In this interactive, demo-packed session, you'll follow my journey from playful prompt experiments with persona-driven AI—like channeling Pinky & The Brain—to building fully automated, policy-compliant Infrastructure as Code using GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code. Through real-world examples and live demos, I'll show you how to craft effective prompts, manage AI behavior with persona-based instructions, and deploy secure, compliant Azure resources including Key Vault, Azure Policy, and Azure Virtual Desktop using Bicep scripts. You'll see how the right prompting strategy can transform AI from an unpredictable assistant into a reliable automation partner. Whether you're just starting to experiment with AI-assisted development or looking to scale these practices in enterprise environments, you'll walk away with a proven framework for orchestrating AI-driven infrastructure automation that's both powerful and production-ready. Key Takeaways: -Persona-driven prompting frameworks for transforming unpredictable AI into consistent, enterprise-ready automation partners - Advanced Copilot Chat techniques including custom instructions, prompt files, and iterative refinement strategies for production-quality Bicep templates - Compliance-first IaC patterns that leverage AI assistance while enforcing Microsoft CAF/WAF standards through prompt constraints and policy governance - End-to-end automation workflow from persona prompt design through policy-compliant Azure infrastructure deployment (Key Vault, Azure Policy, AVD)