Everyone has heard of Microsoft, it’s a household name. Whether you’re a first-year high school student or a fully-fledged Microsoft Developer, you’ll have used their products at some point in your life.
In fact, Microsoft has grown to the point where – after years of success in hardware and software – they’re now a leading cloud technology provider too. Meaning, if you’re interested in building a tech career in Microsoft Cloud, then there’s no better time to start than now.
Yet, despite Microsoft being a tech monolith for what seems like decades, finding genuinely useful influencers and professional resources online can still be, shall we say, a little hit or miss.
Which is why we’ve put together this list of the top Microsoft cloud experts to follow in 2022. It’s guaranteed to help you keep up to date with the latest trends and immerse yourself in the industry.
Whether you’re new to the industry, or the most learned Microsoft cloud professional among us, there’s someone new for you to follow in our influencer list.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #1: Scott Guthrie
Scott Guthrie’s Twitter is a go-to follow for anyone with an interest in Microsoft Azure . He’s a massive influencer in cloud computing at the moment and, as Executive VP of the Cloud and Enterprise arm of Microsoft, he leads on all things Azure.
With over two decades’ experience at Microsoft, and with extensive experience overseeing Microsoft’s efforts into Dynamics 365, Visual Studio, GitHub, SQL Server, and more Guthrie is 100% worth a follow. Plus, he was co-responsible for developing ASP.net, making him a certified Microsoft Hall-of-Famer!
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #2: Vanessa Alvarez
Vanessa Alvarez puts the boss in #GirlBoss. A Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft with over 15 years’ experience in tech, she shares insights on crypto, analytics, machine learning, coding bootcamps, AI, distributed systems, and much, much more.
She was also featured in Forbes’ Women in Tech series, where she talked about becoming a Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft as the daughter of immigrants and the first in her family to attend college.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #3: Vlad Catrinescu
Vlad is a mastermind Office 365 consultant and Microsoft MVP since 2013. He specializes in helping administrators deploy, manage, automate, and configure services across SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams — definitely one to follow for all the Microsoft Administrators out there!
He has also published 3 books on SharePoint and over 25 courses on Pluralsight, on like SharePoint, 365, and Power Platform.
An avid believer in sharing knowledge, Vlad’s advice has been featured on numerous Microsoft related websites and blogs, and he often speaks at prolific conferences. His blog, Vlad Talks, is a treasure trove of information for anyone starting out in Microsoft.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #4: Tara Walker
A former AWS evangelist, Tara Walker is now a principal software engineering working with Microsoft’s Azure IoT team. Her wealth of experience with both AWS and Microsoft makes her a worthy follow for anyone interested in either ecosystem.
Her Twitter is packed with insights on the latest cloud technologies and full of aspirational projects that show what really can be done with the right cloud tools.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #5: Veronika Kolesnikova
Veronika is a fount of knowledge when it comes to backend web development, and her expertise in Microsoft technologies such as Azure and .NET is apparent on her brilliant Twitter. Through it, she shares some fantastic insights on the ins and outs of Microsoft Azure, and highlights the best local user-groups and events in her area.
She also attends a litany of user-group meetings and conferences (both locally and nationally!) and plays an active role in sharing knowledge throughout the entire cloud community.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #6: Mark Russinovich
Another Azure superstar has made it on to our list, but this time it’s Mark Russinovich; the CTO of Microsoft Azure who leads on all things technical strategy for the platform.
Russinovich has worked with Microsoft for over 15 years – ever since Microsoft acquired his company, Winternals Software. His Twitter feed is full of useful resources and information for anyone interested in starting a career in Azure and his website, Trojan Horse, has some fantastic blog posts on the cloud that are well worth a read.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #7: Thomas Maurer
A Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, Thomas is a community-focused Microsoft influencer who loves sharing knowledge and collecting feedback to improve the Azure cloud platform. His website, Thomas Maurer, is a massively useful resource for anyone who wants to take a deep dive into the world of Microsoft cloud, and his Twitter and LinkedIn are equally useful.
Plus, he also has a Twitter newsletter, which is a great port-of-call if you’re interested in Azure, virtualization, cloud computing, or technology in general.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #8: Daniel's Tech Blog
While Daniel isn’t exactly a social media influencer as such, his website Daniel’s Tech Blog is an absolute goldmine for aspiring Azure professionals, or those with an interest in Kubernetes or Cloud Native technologies.
Daniel is a Software Engineer who previously worked for Microsoft, and is a former Microsoft MVP. In his blog, he shares his experiences working with Azure, mostly from an implementation perspective.
Each blog post tends to be hyper-specific, for example “Making slow container image pulls on Azure”, and contain real-time investigations, mitigations, and a summary of his learnings from each experience. It’s well worth bookmarking if you plan to work with Azure anytime soon.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #9: David O’Brien
David is a Cloud Consulting superstar who founded the Australian Xirus, which offers training and consulting, on a variety of Microsoft cloud stacks, including Azure, Azure DevOps, and more. He’s also a six-time Microsoft MVP award-winner and a hugely respected figurehead within the Azure ecosystem.
His website, Cloud-Right, is a valuable resource for those with an interest in cloud automation, and is full of how-to-guides, thought pieces, and information on his speaking engagements.
Microsoft Cloud Influencer #10: Jack Roper
Jack is an Azure Technical Lead at Avanade, an Accenture and Microsoft Company, so it stands to reason that his blog on Medium, Jack Wesley Roper, is a highly valuable resource for anyone interested in learning about Microsoft Azure.
His posts vary from in-depth troubleshooting guides, to explanations of typical problems, like “null_resource”, to engaging thought-pieces on cloud infrastructure automation and the future of Azure – and we highly recommend you give them a read.
Looking for more Microsoft superstars to follow online? Check out Nigel Frank’s top 20 Microsoft Azure influencers to follow. Or, if you’re interested in starting a career in Microsoft, learn more here.
