Blogs

Working through a challenge, and can’t quite solve it? Think it could make a good blog post idea? I’d love to hear!

Make a suggestion over on the cloudwithchris.com GitHub repository.

How to use Managed Identity and APIM to call Azure Services from an APIM policy directly

Back in June, I wrote a blog post on API Management and how you can use API Management policies to enforce access restriction policies. I was going to write a follow up post on how to use API Management policies in additional scenarios, but it's one of those scenarios where great minds think alike!

August 17, 2021
Deploying a multi-region Serverless API Layer (Part 1)

In my spare time, I work on a pet project called Theatreers. The aim of this is a microservice based platform focused on Theatre / Musical Theatre (bringing a few of my passion areas together). I've recently re-architected the project to align to a multi-region serverless technology stack.

July 13, 2019
Why you should get involved in the Tech Community

I recently gave a talk on my journey into the Azure Technical Community. While my day job is working for Microsoft, I get a lot of energy through blogging, podcasting and vlogging - ultimately, helping others grow, inspiring and encouraging them along their own technical journey. In this blog, I write about why I got involved with the technical community, some of my reflections on the journey and what I continue to look forward to.

August 11, 2021

Latest Blogs

Introducing the Cloud Native Compute Foundation (CNCF)

Inspired by the recent episode with Annie Talvasto, I wanted to put together a blog post that will introduce an ongoing series on Cloud With Chris. Before we introduce that series though, it’s important that we first introduce the Cloud Native Compute Foundation (more commonly known as CNCF).

Blog

July 5, 2021
Using API Management Policies to enforce access restriction policies

We recently introduced you to API Management, how it maps to architectural principals and why you may consider using it as a producer or consumer of APIs. In this post, we’ll be continuing on the story - focusing mostly on the API Management policies functionality.

Blog

June 28, 2021
Introduction to Azure API Management

We now live in a world where multiple systems connect or integrate with each other. This is not new, and has been a technology trend for some time. But - in a world of distributed compute (on the increase, thanks to cloud), and the rise of microservices, we find that we have more and more services that we need to integrate with each other. Integration is typically handled through a couple of routes, including Enterprise Messaging (such as message brokers), as well as APIs (Application Programming Interface). There are many areas that we should consider when building our APIs, and that’s what we’ll give some thought to in this blog post.

Blog

June 22, 2021
Introduction to Project Bicep - The evolution of ARM Templates

You may have heard about ARM Templates. You may have heard about Project Bicep. What are they, how do they differ? Why would I use one over the other? That’s exactly what we’ll be exploring throughout this blog post!

Blog

June 18, 2021
Using the GitHub self-hosted runner and Azure Virtual Machines to login with a System Assigned Managed Identity

I recently started thinking about the typical setup process for a GitHub Action Workflow which will deploy into Azure. Typically, the process is to use the Azure/login GitHub Action, and then use the azure/cli or another Azure GitHub Action to deploy into GitHub. This is a nice approach. However, from my initial research - I wasn’t able to see a way use the Azure/login GitHub Action to deploy into Azure using a System Assigned Managed Identity. This got me wondering, is this possible?

Blog

June 14, 2021
Using Azure Arc for Apps - Part 6 - Setting up Event Grid on Kubernetes with Azure Arc

In part 1 of this Using Azure Arc for Apps series, we explored Azure Arc and Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes clusters. In this post, we’ll be exploring Event Grid for Kubernetes. At time of writing, this approach is in public preview, so we may see certain limitations / features that are not yet available.

Blog

June 10, 2021
Using Azure Arc for Apps - Part 3 - Deploying Azure Functions into an App Service Kubernetes Environment

In part 1 of this Using Azure Arc for Apps series, we explored Azure Arc and Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes clusters. In part 2, we deployed an App Service Kubernetes Environment into our Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes cluster. As you’ll likely be aware, both Azure Functions (this blog post) and Azure Logic Apps (the next blog post) can run on Azure App Service. The same is true of an App Service Kubernetes Environment, we can run App Services, Logic Apps and Azure Functions.

Blog

June 2, 2021
Using Azure Arc for Apps - Part 2 - Deploying App Services to Kubernetes

In part 1 of this Using Azure Arc for Apps series, we explored Azure Arc and Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes clusters. In this post, we’ll be exploring App Services on Azure Arc. More specifically, these application services run on an Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes cluster, which is a pre-requisite for us to progress. At time of writing, this approach is in public preview, so we may see certain limitations / features that are not yet available.

Blog

June 1, 2021