AI Observability, Part 2: The Grounding Layer
RAG systems fail silently when retrieval breaks. Learn to monitor Azure AI Search, vector stores, and the retrieval pipeline that feeds your models.
Azure
Azure Architecture & Cloud Engineering
Deep dives into Azure architecture, cloud governance, and real-world implementation patterns from 100+ organizations.
What You'll Find Here
I've spent years architecting Azure environments for healthcare, energy, and enterprise sectors. These posts share the patterns that work, the mistakes to avoid, and the governance frameworks that actually scale.
Topics covered:
- Cloud governance and landing zones
- Azure architecture patterns
- Cost optimization strategies
- Security and compliance
- Migration strategies
- Infrastructure as Code
Latest Azure Posts
Chaos Engineering on Azure: Controlled Vandalism
Skip the Netflix-scale chaos. Learn to start chaos engineering in Azure with simple, safe experiments that actually improve your systems without breaking production.
Azure Workbooks: Custom Dashboards That Don't Suck
Stop building useless dashboards. Learn to create Azure Workbooks that actually help your team make decisions and solve problems faster.
AI Observability, Part 1: The Model Layer
Stop monitoring AI infrastructure like web servers. Learn to instrument Azure OpenAI with queries that reveal token consumption, content filters, and cost attribution.
Achieving Modal Inference Coherence Through Hydrostatically-Balanced Token Valves
A satirical look at AI architecture complexity theater, followed by a practical guide to what Azure AI Landing Zones actually do—no token valves required.
Why Architects Stop Translating
The system doesn't just fail architects. It teaches them to fail. Here's how institutional capture turns truth-tellers into artifact producers.
Migrations Fail When Architects Don't Translate
The architect is the accountable party for migration success or failure. Not because leadership doesn't matter, but because translation is our job.
KQL for Infrastructure Teams - Beyond Basic Queries
Master KQL from an infrastructure perspective. Learn to write queries that solve real operational problems, from capacity planning to incident response.
Monitoring Foundation: The Reference Implementation
Deploy the Beyond Azure Monitor patterns as infrastructure code. Complete monitoring stack with intelligent alerts, workbooks, and ITSM integration.
Beyond Azure Monitor - Part 3: Building Production-Ready Monitoring Solutions
Transform advanced KQL patterns into production monitoring systems with automation, intelligent alerting, and integration strategies that scale across enterprise environments.
Beyond Azure Monitor - Part 2: Advanced KQL Patterns for Real-World Monitoring
Master advanced KQL techniques for correlation analysis, anomaly detection, and building monitoring queries that connect the dots across your entire infrastructure.
Beyond Azure Monitor - Part 1: The Reality of Enterprise Monitoring
Azure Monitor is just the starting point. Real enterprise monitoring requires custom solutions, advanced KQL, and architectural thinking beyond the basics.
Confidence Engineering - Part 2: The Practice
A framework for building confidence in AI-enabled systems through observable criteria, instrumentation, and staged authority expansion. Theory meets practice.
Agent Governance Deployment: Bridging the IaC Gap
Microsoft gave you agent governance tools but no IaC support. Heres how to automate agent governance with PowerShell and Graph API until Bicep catches up.
Bicep vs Terraform: The 4K TV Playing VHS Tapes
You bought a 4K smart TV to play VHS tapes. Why Azure-only shops keep choosing tools that solve problems they dont have.
Governance of Agents: Why Agent 365 Changes Everything
Microsoft gave agents human identity in Entra ID. Your governance framework just developed a hole you didnt know existed. Heres how to prepare for it.
Governance Deployment Example
Step-by-step governance deployment guide with Azure CLI commands, policy examples, and a phased rollout approach.
Governance Disciplines Deep Dive
Quick reference guide to the five governance disciplines - cost management, security, identity, consistency, and deployment automation.
From Base Camp to Summit
Why cloud migrations fail without proper governance - lessons from 100+ Azure environments on building foundations before scaling.
Using Log Analytics to ... view logs
Using Log Analytics as an actual log aggregation tool - building human-readable tables to view VM status with KQL functions.
Governance in Azure?
What is Azure Governance and why is it critical? Learn how to steer your cloud environment with management groups, policies, and proper foundations.
Intro to Log Analytics - Part 2
Advanced KQL techniques - learn to join tables, use project statements, and convert legacy Perf queries to the new InsightsMetrics format.
Intro to Log Analytics - Part 1
Getting started with Azure Log Analytics and KQL - learn to write your first queries and create visualizations from VM performance data.