Red Baron of Azure is my job related blog. It is the result of me realizing that I share the same content with multiple customers and colleagues and trying to keep track that I update everyone. It is also a sure sign that you can teach an old dog to sit. Blogs are soo for kids and hipsters, right?

About me –  My name is Christer Ljung and I’m currently a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft (Lj is pronounced Y for all you not familiar with Swedish, so think Young). I started to use computers mid 80’s which means I do know why the Save symbol looks like it does in most modern programs. In fact, I’ve even used punched cards as storage medium. If you don’t know that is, or why source code tends to be written with lines of 80 characters, take a look at this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaVwzYN6BP4. I partly grew up in that environment you see in this video since my father was a developer back then and I hung out at his job when I was really young and he worked late. I learned to operate the punched card writer as a 5 year old kid.

Over the years I’ve worked and programmed ABC 80, MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows, Unix, Linux, z/OS, Unisys, OpenVMS and more. Nowadays, programming is something I selldom do during daytime. Whiteboards and conversations occupy my day the most. At one point in the mid 90’s I had 26 MCP certifications, but then I stopped bother anymore. Today I only hold what my employer force me to hold as certifications, which is around Azure.

Since 2003 I’ve worked for Microsoft and starting 2009 I’ve had the priviledge to work with RedDog, aka Azure, the Microsoft Cloud. That has been an impressive journey to be part of and it still continues to be impressive with its innovation speed.

I named this site redbaronofazure because I childishly like vintage aircrafts, like the red Fokker triplane that Manfred von Richthofen flew in WWI. These aircrafts stands for a big engineering breakthrough of its time. Another thing that made a big impression on me was seeing Apollo14 splash down i the Pacific Ocean live on TV Februrary 1971. It amazes me still that people built a rocket that could carry men to the moon and back with technology of the 60’s and that vehicle so was so heavily computerized.

I like sports, both to watch and practice, but have never, ever play computer games of any sort. Don’t think I will either.

Occasionally you may see me on stage on certain Microsoft events. I do that because I truely think I have something important to say, if and when I enter the stage, not because I’m exhebitionist.

You can find me on Linked in here https://www.linkedin.com/in/christer-ljung-2a2b8233

Disclaimer – Posts here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Microsoft.

The banner picture is from Joshua Tree National Park, California, March 2018.