Steve Buchanan

I was a guest on the RunAs Radio podcast ep# 1025. This episode was titled Bridging the Clouds: Back on RunAs Radio. I recently joined Richard for my third appearance on the show (Episode #1025) to talk about a challenge that is becoming the “new normal” for major SaaS providers: Expanding a Cloud-Native stack across multiple clouds. In this episode, we discuss the journey of bringing those SaaS workloads to Azure and AKS. It isn’t just about “moving” code; it’s about architecting for consistency without losing the unique benefits of each cloud provider. One of the key takeaways from our chat is that while Kubernetes (AKS, EKS, GKE) provides the common operating system for the modern cloud, it isn’t a “magic wand” for multi-cloud. In this episode we also touched on the Docker & AI Connection. Richard and I spent some time discussing how Docker, Inc. is positioning itself in this space and how developers can leverage these tools to build AI-ready applications without getting locked

New blog + GitHub repo that can be used to automate Azure hub-n-spoke with OpenTofu. Infra as code with private endpoints, modular layout, & GitHub Actions CICD. Blog + repo: Blog: https://www.buchatech.com/2026/01/azure-hub-and-spoke-architecture-explained-and-automated-with-opentofu/ Repo: https://github.com/Buchatech/OpenTofu-Azure-HubSpoke-public

I presented at & was part of an AI Fireside chat at the Applied AI Conference, an event bringing together innovators, researchers, & industry leaders. Title: Fireside Chat: Beyond the Hype, Practical AI Integration in Business Description: In this fireside chat I was joined by Mike Jackson for a moderated discussion focused on how organizations can effectively adopt AI in the real world. We talked about Microsoft, non-Microsoft, & Open Source AI technologies as well as AI from a business perspective. I even touched on AI on AKS and AI Agents on Kubernetes. We moved past buzzwords to talk about real challenges, lessons learned, & success stories from our jouerneys working with AI so far. Additional information More info and pics of the event here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7391576359745122305/

I was a winner at the 26th Tekne awards. Here is the website for it: tekneawards.org. It is Minnesota’s Premier Technology Celebration honoring the leaders and leading organizations who are fueling Minnesota’s tech-driven economy, with 15 Tekne Awards across 3 categories: Business Impact, Community Impact, and Individual Achievement. It is a celebration of the excellence and innovation within Minnesota’s technology ecosystem. I won the Exceptional Tech Leadership award for my contributions to the MN tech community through my work at Microsoft and beyond. Blog post about it: https://www.buchatech.com/2024/11/tekne-exceptional-tech-leadership-award-winner/ Youtube Video for the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HewwFJpV7E&t=1748s

My 1st course with O’Reilly published. This course is titled: “Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Essentials: Cloud Kubernetes for Developers and IT Professionals“. It consists of: 9 modules of 4 hours of content, many demos, 7 practice quizes, and 1 final quiz. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Essentials is a comprehensive video course designed to take IT professionals and developers from beginner level to proficiency in utilizing Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This course gets on average 150 to 200 views per month on the O'Reily platform. Blog post about it: https://www.buchatech.com/2024/09/1st-course-published-on-oreilly-aks-essentials/ Course link on O'Reilly: https://learning.oreilly.com/course/azure-kubernetes-service/0636920982777