Chris Pietschmann

Highlights

A quick overview of what I do and where to go next.

Microsoft MVP since 2008!

Chris Pietschmann is a 14-time Microsoft MVP awardee in Azure and Developer Technologies.

HashiCorp Ambassador since 2021!

Chris Pietschmann is a 4-time HashiCorp Ambassador recognized for his contributions to the Terraform community.

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Writing

Practical articles and guides on Azure, DevOps, Terraform, and modern AI patterns.

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Books

Books on technical topics including Azure, Development, Terraform, and more!

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Courses

On-demand training for Azure, DevOps, Terraform, and AI—built for real work.

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Open Source

Open source projects and tools for development, infrastructure, DevOps, and AI.

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Latest Writing

Fresh posts from Build5Nines and Powergentic.ai.

Build5Nines highlights

DevOps • Cloud • Infra • AI

Dec 26, 2025

Implementing Azure Naming Conventions at Scale with Terraform and Build5Nines/naming/azure (AzureRM + Region Pairs)

Microsoft Azure resource naming conventions are one of those small DevOps and cloud infrastructure management...

Dec 21, 2025

New Book: Build and Deploy Apps using Azure Developer CLI by Chris Pietschmann

I am excited to announce the release of my new book,Build and Deploy Apps using...

Dec 15, 2025

Prompt Noise Is Killing Your AI Accuracy: How to Optimize Context for Grounded Output

The most common reason an AI system hallucinates in production isnt that the model is...

Dec 3, 2025

Unlock GitHub Copilots Full Potential: Why Every Repo Needs an AGENTS.md File

Supercharge Your AI Pair Programming Experience with Project-Specific Context and Control AI-assisted development has rapidly...

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Powergentic highlights

Agentic AI • Multi-Agent • RAG • LLM

Sep 15, 2025

Managing AI-Ready Infrastructure in Microsoft Azure using HashiCorp Terraform

Manage Your AI-Ready Infrastructure Properly Through Automation

Sep 1, 2025

Unlocking Legacy Code with AI: How GitHub Copilot is Revolutionizing System Modernization

Use AI to Decode Legacy Code, Document Critical Logic, and Accelerate Your Cloud Migration Strategy...

Aug 25, 2025

How AI Agents and RAG Patterns Are Supercharging Enterprise Applications

Unlocking Real-Time Intelligence and Autonomy in Enterprise Systems with AI-Powered Agents and Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Aug 18, 2025

AI Code Generation: The Future of Software or a Shortcut to Technical Debt?

How AI is transforming software developmentand what leaders need to watch out for

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My Personal Blog

I've been blogging here since 2003.

C# • .NET • JavaScript • Career Advice

Dec 17, 2025

Pets, Cattle, and the “Should We Build This?” Trap (Even When AI Makes Building Easy)

Dec 17, 2025

How to Convert a String to an Enum and back in C#

Dec 16, 2025

Why Blogs Are Still Relevant Today for Developers and IT Pros

Nov 4, 2025

100× Your Software Development Skills: How AI is the Next Big Leap

Jul 10, 2025

Chris Pietschmann Awarded 2025 Microsoft MVP in Microsoft Azure and Developer Technologies Categories

Jul 1, 2025

Writing Testable Code is More Important Than Unit Tests

May 30, 2025

AI is Just a Tool - The Journey Still Belongs to People

Apr 17, 2025

Yes, I'm a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and MCT - and I Still Build Real Stuff

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Hackster.io

From 2019 to 2020, Chris Pietschmann used to write articles on Internet of Things (IoT), Azure Sphere, and related technologies on Hackster.io.

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Courses

On-demand training for Azure, DevOps, Terraform, and AI—built for real work.

Join Build5Nines Membership

Ultimate Guide to Microsoft Certification

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Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals

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Manage Infrastructure using HashiCorp Terraform from Beginner to Advanced

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Designing AI-Ready Infrastructure in Microsoft Azure

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Open Source

Projects and contributions I actively build and maintain—spanning DevOps tooling, Azure integrations, and developer utilities.

Build5Nines SharpVector

Lightweight in-memory text vector DB with .NET support and multiple embeddings backends.

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Azure/terraform-azurerm-naming

Official Azure module to help keep resource naming consistent.

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crpietschmann/VirtualRouter

The original, open source WiFi Hotspot for Windows with 15+ MILLION downloads!

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Build5Nines/terraform-azure-naming

Terraform module providing consistent naming conventions for Azure resources.

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Build5Nines/terraform-quickstart-templates

Collection of Terraform templates for common Azure infrastructure patterns.

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Awesome AZD

Microsoft-curated list of awesome Azure Developer CLI (azd) templates.

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Open WebUI

User-friendly AI interface supporting Ollama, OpenAI API, and more (Azure support contributions).

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Azure Cosmos DB Desktop Data Migration Tool

Command-line import/export tool for Azure Cosmos DB.

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AZ-220 Azure IoT Developer Certification Hands-on Labs

AZ-220 Microsoft Azure IoT Developer Labs

Official Microsoft training labs for the AZ-220 certification.

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powergentic/azd-mcp-csharp

AZD template to deploy a C# MCP server to Azure Container Apps using SSE.

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powergentic/azd-mcp-ts

AZD template to deploy a TypeScript MCP server to Azure Container Apps using SSE.

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Build5Nines/azd-litellm

AZD template to deploy LiteLLM proxy API to Azure Container Apps with Postgres.

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Build5Nines/azd-react-bootstrap-dashboard

Multi-tier app template: React + Bootstrap front-end with Node.js API.

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Build5Nines/azd-csharp-api-swagger

AZD template for a C# API with Swagger UI on Azure App Service.

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Azure-Samples/postgres-sa-byoac

End-to-end AI-enabled app on Azure Postgres (solution accelerator).

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AzureCosmosDB/Azure-OpenAI-Node.js-Developer-Guide

Developer guide integrating Azure Cosmos DB with Azure OpenAI using Node.js.

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AzureCosmosDB/Azure-OpenAI-Python-Developer-Guide

Developer guide integrating Azure Cosmos DB with Azure OpenAI using Python.

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AzureCosmosDB/Azure-OpenAI-Developer-Guide-Front-End

Pre-built React front-end app for the Azure Cosmos DB + Azure OpenAI guides.

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crpietschmann/jHtmlArea

Simple, lightweight, extensible WYSIWYG HTML editor built on jQuery.

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crpietschmann/jHash

location.hash-based routing and querystring helper with cross-browser hashchange support.

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crpietschmann/jslinq

LINQ to JavaScript: LINQ-style queries over arrays in JS.

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Books

Books and guides I've authored for the broader tech community.

Build and Deploy Apps using Azure Developer CLI

Practical guide to building and deploying cloud-native applications

Read

Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900 Exam Ref)

Get Started with Azure AI and Machine Learning

Read

Designing AI-Ready Infrastructure in Microsoft Azure

Build Scalable, Secure, and Future-Ready AI Systems with Azure

Read

The Developer's Guide to Azure

Published 2020 - The Developer's Guide to Azure is designed for Developers & Architects who are starting their journey into Microsoft Azure.

Read

Azure Migration Readiness Whitepaper

Published 2019 - A whitepaper about Azure Migration published by Microsoft that I co-wrote with Dan Patrick.

Read

The Ultimate Guide to Microsoft Certification

Published 2019 - Advance your career through cloud certification

Read

Microsoft Cloud Practice Playbooks

Published 2019 - The Cloud Practice Development Playbooks provide the essential blueprints and tools to develop, analyze, manage, and secure an effective cloud practice.

Read

Podcast Appearances

These are my podcast appearances over the years.

MJFChat: What's New with Azure Certifications

Jun 22, 2020

Mary Jo Foley and I discuss the latest Microsoft Azure certification news, and where to start on your own certification journey.

Listen

Thirsty Developer: Episode #23 The Virtual Earth Edition

May 28, 2008

Chat with Larry Clarkin about the Virtual Earth platform, how I got started, and an overview of the service.

Listen

Experience

This is a summary of my professional experience working in the technology industry.

Chris Pietschmann has 25 years of experience as a software developer, cloud architect, and technology educator. With a career rooted in application development and extended through infrastructure, DevOps, and cloud operations, Chris helps organizations modernize how they design, build, and operate digital solutions across the Microsoft ecosystem.

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I've worked with a wide range of companies, from Fortune 100 enterprises to innovative startups, helping them achieve their technology goals. Here are some of the organizations I've had the privilege to collaborate with over the years:

* These logos in no way indicates any endorsement or sponsorship by the respective companies. They are shown here solely to illustrate my experience working with a diverse range of organizations.

Microsoft MVP

Chris Pietschmann was first awarded Microsoft MVP in 2008. Chris is recognized by Microsoft as an independent expert in the Microsoft Azure and Developer Tools award categories. As a Microsoft MVP, Chris actively contributes to the technical community by sharing knowledge, providing feedback on Microsoft products, and helping others succeed with Microsoft and related technologies.

2008 → 2012

Bing Maps for Enterprise

2017 → 2023

Microsoft Azure

2023 → Current

Microsoft Azure & Dev Tools

Chris Pietschmann has earned the Microsoft MVP award 14 times!

Chris is a passionate community leader and educator, contributing to the industry throughout his entire career; through blogging, books, courses, speaking engagements, and more! He has a passion for sharing and teaching others how to be more efficient and affective with the latest technologies. He shares practical guidance on software development, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud, DevOps, SRE, and AI to help teams turn modern technology into real business outcomes—always with a people-first approach to software and innovation.

View Microsoft MVP Profile →

HashiCorp Ambassador

Chris Pietschmann was first awarded HashiCorp Ambassador in 2021. Chris is recognized by HashiCorp as an expert in the HashiCorp Terraform and HashiCorp Cloud Platform technologies from HashiCorp. As a HashiCorp Ambassador, Chris actively contributes to the technical community by sharing knowledge, providing feedback on Infrastructure as Code (Iac) and HashiCorp products.

2021

HashiCorp Terraform

2023 → Current

HashiCorp Terraform & HashCorp Cloud Platform

Chris Pietschmann has earned the HashiCorp Ambassador award 4 times!

View HashiCorp Ambassador Profile →

Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT)

Chris Pietschmann has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) since 2017. As an MCT, Chris is part of an exclusive community of technical trainers who are certified by Microsoft to deliver official training on Microsoft technologies. Chris leverages this expertise to provide high-quality training and education to individuals and organizations looking to enhance their skills and knowledge in Microsoft technologies.

Over the years, Chris has delivered numerous training sessions, workshops, and courses on various Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Azure, DevOps, IoT, Site Reliability Engineering and software development. He has trained teams at organizations of all sizes; including Fortune 100 companies like Microsoft, Disney, and Boeing. As an MCT, Chris stays up-to-date with the latest Microsoft technologies and best practices to ensure that learners receive the most relevant and effective training possible.

2017 → Current

10 years certified!

Certification Earned

This is a list of some of the most notable certifications I've earned:

Microsoft Certified Trainer Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert Microsoft Azure Network Engineer Associate Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop Specialty Microsoft Azure IoT Developer Specialty HashiCorp Terraform Associate HashiCorp Consul Associate HashiCorp Vault Associate Certified SCRUM Master

Core Focus Areas

The topics I build and teach most often.

Microsoft Azure DevOps IaC HashiCorp Terraform Azure Bicep SRE Platform Engineering Security Serverless Observability Generative AI Agentic AI Multi-Agent AI RAG CI/CD C# JavaScript Python Software Development Azure Infrastructure & Security

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