Last week I participated in OpenHack DevOps organized by Microsoft in Stockholm. It was a three day event from 5th - 7th February 2019. The hackathon was focused on Azure DevOps. The format of the event was of-course like a hackathon.
Participants were divided into teams (4-6 each). The content was set as challenges (total 9). Every team (or two) had a coach - someone from Microsoft - who was helping and guiding during the challenges. We, as teams, were supposed to find our way out to solve the challenges. There was no one way, we were free to take our decisions and paths as deemed fit.
Here is the schedule and agenda for the event if you are curious: Microsoft OpenHack DevOps
What I really liked about this event was that we were focused on a task at hand. It was a hands-on rather than attending any tech talk about a specific topic. The tasks were set, challenges were well organized, the environment was prepared, code was almost prepared (with some changes) so that we can focus on learning how we can use Azure DevOps as a tool to ensure zero down-time for production ready application. Kubernetes was chosen as an orchestration framework.
Microsoft OpenHack is a developer focused event where a wide variety of participants (Open) learn through hands-on experimentation (Hack) using challenges based on real-world customer engagements designed to mimic the developer journey.
For every challenge the links to documentation and resources were provided to understand relevant topics and areas at hand.
Besides the actual work, it was a great opportunity to network and discuss broader topics with fellow participants and Microsoft employees. They also had what they called the envisioning sessions which were basically to discuss with Microsoft guys one-on-one the challenges one is facing at his or her work.
Overall, I think it was a great learning experience with great focus on getting things done. I will definitely keep an eye on such events in the future. By the way, if you happen to be in Stockholm in April there is an upcoming Microsoft Ignite Tour that you must checkout.
Cheers
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