Matthias Braun

For the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners German Chapter e. V. BusinessCircle Azure Infrastructure, I gave a presentation (in german) showing that getting started with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in Azure is not difficult and highlighting the benefits for companies and IT departments.

In this presentation for the Azure Summit 2025, we’ll explore an exciting customer project in which we migrated existing environments into a modern Azure Landing Zone. We’ll start with the initial assessment and specific requirements, move on to risk evaluation of the various components based on business processes, and then detail the development of a robust architectural design, implemented using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform). Konstantin and I will walk you through the migration steps and, in the end, analyze the main challenges as well as the most valuable lessons learned. Look forward to hands-on insights, practical solutions, and tips for migrating existing environments.

Event: Experts Live Germany (Leipzig), Main Stage I gave this session at Experts Live Germany in Leipzig. My biggest talk to date, delivered on the main stage to a broad audience of IT professionals, cloud architects and decision makers. The session covered the fundamentals and real-world implementation of Azure Landing Zones using Infrastructure as Code. I focused on how IaC enables governance, versioning, and security by design. Making Azure environments not only reproducible but also secure and scalable from day one. I demonstrated tooling such as Terraform and Bicep and shared practical examples from enterprise projects. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with strong engagement during Q&A and numerous follow-up conversations afterward. The talk gave many attendees a structured understanding of how to get started with secure Azure environments and inspired discussions about how to translate this into their own organizations.

"Die Cloud Optimizer" is a German-language podcast co-hosted by Christian Forjahn and Matthias Braun. It focuses on practical topics around Microsoft Azure, specifically infrastructure, security, cost optimization, and automation. Each episode (approx. 30 minutes) provides actionable insights, real-world examples, and proven strategies based on professional experience from the field. The podcast is designed to support both technical professionals and decision-makers in building secure, efficient, and future-ready Azure environments.

This was my first public talk delivered together with Christian Forjahn at KI-Ready in Nürtingen. We used storytelling, humor, and a live demo to show the real-world friction between technical innovation and regulatory constraints. My role in the session focused on the technical foundation: I presented the architecture behind the demo environment and explained how we provisioned and secured the components using Bicep. I highlighted how Infrastructure as Code supports transparency and repeatability – especially in regulated environments. We demonstrated an AI-powered claims process using Azure OpenAI and discussed how compliance and user adoption can be aligned through clear structure and automation. The audience was highly engaged, and many attendees followed up to learn more about how we built the demo and how to structure similar PoCs in their own environments. The session helped demystify both AI adoption and the governance side of cloud automation.