Terraform Azure Verified Modules: What, Why and How to Use Them

If you’ve spent any time building things on Azure with Terraform, you’ll know the pain of hunting down decent modules. Some are solid, some are a bit sketchy, and some… well, let’s just say I wouldn’t trust them with a dev environment, never mind production. Microsoft’s Azure Verified Modules (AVM) are here to bring a bit of order to the chaos. So, what’s the deal? Here’s what you actually need to know. Continue reading

New Rules for Azure DevOps Access: How to Set Up Conditional Access Properly

If you manage Azure DevOps in your organisation, there’s an important change coming. From 28 July 2025, Azure DevOps will stop relying on Azure Resource Manager (ARM) for sign-ins and token refresh. Any Conditional Access policies targeting ARM will no longer protect Azure DevOps. To maintain security, you must create new Conditional Access policies that specifically target Azure DevOps. Why Does This Matter? Conditional Access enforces multi-factor authentication, location restrictions, and device compliance for cloud services. Continue reading

Private Azure DevOps Agents with Azure DevCenter

Is Azure DevCenter the Best Way to Run Private DevOps Agents? Most teams using Azure DevOps start with Microsoft-hosted agents. It’s the path of least resistance click, build, done. But at some point, speed, control, or security becomes more than a “nice-to-have.” That’s when self-hosted agents enter the chat. The problem? Running your own agents can feel like a step backwards manual provisioning, configuration drift, inconsistent environments. Enter Azure DevCenter, a service that promises to make managing development infrastructure simpler. Continue reading

Still Running Terraform Locally? Let's Talk.

There’s a good chance you’re deploying your Azure infrastructure from your own machine. Maybe it’s Terraform. Maybe it’s working… most of the time. But here’s the question I’d pose: Are you still running terraform apply locally, or have you moved your infrastructure into a pipeline? And more importantly, why? Because while running Terraform locally might feel fast and flexible, it can quietly introduce a whole stack of problems that don’t show up until you start scaling. Continue reading