I’ve written such an article like this once one year ago (see the article here). In that article, I reviewed the year 2017 and looked forward to 2018. Something that I recommend everyone to do once in a while. And I must admit, I had a blast!

The more you love your job, the harder you’ll work. The quotes that always reminds me how I keep energized to fulfill community work.

Let’s look back to 2018 and forward to 2019…

So, what all happened in 2018? Let’s make a “short” list…

First, the most important and intense experience – (yes, it’s true). The birth of my daughter Nila in January (feels like much longer ago, but time flies…). Really, nothing can be compared and leveled with the intensity of how that impacts your life in a positive way.

Something I sometimes forget when I’m busy with work, however, these little things in life keeps me motivated and happy. And as a result of this, I topped my boundaries even more.

Another great thing – I also had the opportunity to visit several countries and nice places such as Denmark – Copenhagen and Billund, Sweden – Stockholm, Ireland – Dublin, Engeland – London, Greece – Athens, United States – Seattle – Redmond – Los Angeles – Orlando – Fort Lauderdale.

After that, this all happened as well in (chronological order) 2018…

• Achieved the CUGC Award for most active SIG specialization group
• Being recognized as Citrix Technology Professional (CTP)
• Wrote articles for Citrix blogs (here and here) – just like the year before.
• Wrote almost 40 articles in 2018 for my own website christiaanbrinkhoff.com on various vendor products and broader topics, mostly focuses on Cloud.
• Visited Microsoft HQ in Redmond in March for the MVP Summit, a great event to directly give feedback back to Microsoft Product and Program managers.
• Speaking on Citrix Cloud services on the first Denmark Citrix User Group in Legoland
  • Thanks, Thomas Poppelgaard for the opportunity
• Speaking on Azure Migration best practices for the first time on the E2EVC Virtualization conference in Amsterdam
  • Participated in a CTP panel discussion in Amsterdam as well
    • Thanks, Alex Cooper for the opportunity and support
• Speaking on Citrix on Azure for the Irish Citrix User Group in Dublin
  • Thanks, James O’Regan for the opportunity
• Awarded as Parallels Very Important Professional (VIPP)
• Renewed as a Microsoft Azure Most Valuable Professional (MVP)
• Renewed as a VMware vExpert
• Visited Citrix Synergy in Los Angeles, and participated in several PM and CTP meetings for the first time. Awesome group though!
  • Speaking on Citrix Synergy together with George Kuruvilla on Citrix on Different Clouds best practices (recording) for a fully packed room with 500 registered attended.
  • Did an interview with the Dutch press – Executive People a Dutch news video organization around IT. Come see me shine at 2:15.
• Stopped working as Sr. Workspace Consultant/Architect for Detron, where I worked for almost 4 years.
  • Started my own consultancy company named, christiaanbrinkhoff.com IT Consulting
  • Started to work for an awesome startup – FSLogix – and team! (later more about this)
• Speaking on the Swedish Citrix User Group around FSLogix tools for the Digital Workspace
• Joined the VDILIKEAPRO Community Group, where Mark Plettenberg and Ruben Spruijt are part of as well
• Visited Citrix HQ in Fort Lauderdale for the yearly annual CTP Meetings
• Attended Microsoft Ignite in Orlando
• Joined the WhatMatrix Community Group to contribute to Cloud and DaaS initiatives
• Participated in a Dutch technical Podcast, called the Login TechCast. Great new Dutch initiative btw.. and very professional hosts!
  • Spoke around Citrix on Azure and Azure Virtual Desktop
  • Participated in a Panel discussion around Microsoft, Citrix and VMware – called the TechCast Live!
• Presented a Webinar for the Virtual Expo event by xenappblog.com on Disaster Recovery on Azure when using Citrix Cloud
• Listed on the Microsoft’s Friday Five website for an article that I wrote on Azure Migration and Best Practices
• Active in the Azure Advisors Group within Microsoft to provide feedback on several services
• LoginVSI named me as a LoginVSI Technology Advocate (LVTA)
• Wrote several blogs for the FSLogix website
• Wrote some articles for the Microsoft TechCommunity website (here and here)
• Welcomed new partners, such as CloudJumper and Parallels to my blog
• Presented three sessions in two days at the E2E Virtualization Conference in Athens, Greece.
  • First around the different DaaS and Workspace option on Microsoft Azure – wrote an article about this as well >> here.
  • Secondly, around the different FSLogix solutions to optimize the Digital Workspace
  • And the last one was around optimizing VDI Workloads as part of VDILIKEAPRO
• Performed a CUGC webinar together with other Citrix CTP Samuel Legrand on Citrix DRaaS options and best practices
• Met up and drink some beers with some awesome like-minded and smart people inside the community
• Gain to an incredible number of 250.000 page views on my website for the year 2018
• And last but not least. The company that I work for – FSLogix – got acquired by Microsoft in November 2018!

A small note regarding the acquisition… Being part of this company was a great learning experience. The acquisition is the reward of doing awesome work as a team and having an exceptional product that addresses challenges in the simplest way possible, combined with excellent work from our supporting partners around the globe! Read the complete – and official – Microsoft announcement article here.

Future view on 2019

I’ve to admit that 2018 was a great year, very busy and not easy to improve. Although, there are still several things that I’ve planned to do that are not happened in the years before. IMO, 2019 will be the year when Azure Virtual Desktop will go GA and Desktop-As-a-Service (DaaS) will be the most reoccurring word in the community. Citrix will release their new DaaS offering based on AVD as being the first platform CSP partners.

Another interesting thing will be around Nutanix Frame – the DaaS offering of Nutanix as a result of the acquisition in 2018. Nutanix announced support for Nutanix Xi, their own Cloud platform which is completely running on AHV hyper-converged infrastructures. The shift to make this available as well for “on-premises” AHV hyper-converged infrastructures will have an impact on the market and their joint Citrix consumers, this one will have my attraction in 2019.

Looking forward to another great year of technology innovation in 2019 – never a dull moment!

Let’s see what I have planned to do, or are just on top of my mind:

• Publishing my first article around topic Digital Workplace on Computable.nl
• Performing the keynote together with Ruben Spruijt for the LoginVSI Performance summit on the 29^th of January in the Amsterdam Arena.
  • Register here, it cost almost nothing!
• Doing a CUGC User Share webinar on Citrix Cloud together with Marius Sandbu, Paul Stansel and Nicolas Ignoto
• Presenting on Microsoft Ignite the Tour in Milan, Dubai, Hong Kong or/and Stockholm
• Presenting on Ignite in Orlando
• Presenting on Citrix Synergy in Atlanta
• Presenting on ExpertsLive Netherlands
• Presenting on Techorama Belgium
• Presenting on the E2E virtualization event in Berlin – The Cloud edition!
• Meeting more awesome like-minded people!

Looking forward to more collaboration work in 2019!

With that, I want to thank everyone of you that supported me (and some people in particular), by retweeting articles, and sharing or participating in my sessions – this is very much appreciated! And my sponsors (FSLogix, ControlUP, CloudJumper, Parallels, Automai, eG Innovations, Goliath Technologies, Vembu, Workspace365, LoginVSI) for the past en upcoming year, they are a very important part to make this work possible!

I wish you all a great Christmas, and make 2019 an even more awesome year!

Cheers,

Christiaan Brinkhoff