Sessions 🗓️

We are very happy to be able to offer you once again an exciting lineup including many new speakers, both from the local community, consisting of MVPs, Microsoft employees and industry leads, who will speak about specific use cases in the industry as well as the latest developments around services in Azure. Be it real life use cases from Digitec Galaxus, Swiss Life insurance, Ausgleichskasse Basel Stadt and Die Mobiliar, a kickstart with Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI Services or deep dives on Azure Security - these sessions will provide you with insights around Azure and the opportunity to connect with peers and speakers.

The schedule is still subject to change.

⭐️ Navigating the Azure Cloud at Digitec Galaxus: Our Journey and Lessons Learned #

Our story starts in 2015 with our on-prem .NET monolith running on Windows Server, accompanied by a single, clunky MS SQL database, powered by fusion-io disks and many other touchable hardware in a server-room - all built-up with about 5 teams back then. Today, our system is highly distributed and modular, entirely operating in the cloud, and processing significantly more data. It is continuously developed and maintained by over 45 Scrum teams. In our talk, we will delve into our experiences spanning the last 9 years – discussing how we work and organize ourselves, tracing the evolution of our system architecture up to the present, and, of course, exploring the role Azure plays in it all. Spoiler: not everything has always gone according to plan…
🙂 OLIVER GIRARD ⚡️ Domain Architect for Platform and Online Shop @ Digitec Galaxus
🙂 GERALD SCHERMANN ⚡️ Software Architec @ Digitec Galaxus

⭐️ Kill your IAM system now - Entra ID is here! #

Identity and access management (IAM) requirements have dramatically changed in the last years. With more and more companies heavily consuming cloud apps, new tools and processes are needed to address modern IAM needs. In this session, Marcel Zehner, a long-term Microsoft MVP and Regional Director, will demonstrate from real-world business cases, how comprehensive IAM solution can be build with Entra ID instead of using clumsy, cumbersome, not-so-modern IAM solutions.
🙂 MARCEL ZEHNER ⚡️ Microsoft Cloud Champion @ SoftwareONE | Microsoft Regional Director & Azure MVP

⭐️ The Era of Copilots - PoV from Microsoft #

In this session, the Microsoft team will give you an insight into the world of Copilots. After a brief overview, we will show you different variants of how you can build your own Copilots and what tools and services are available. Finally, we will give you an outlook on possibilities in the area of Semantic Kernel, which are still in the “experimental state”.
🙂 MIKE BLOECHLINGER ⚡️ Client Technology Lead @ Microsoft
🙂 RICHARD LAGRANGE ⚡️ Technical Specialist @ Microsoft

⭐️ OpenAI models with your own data using Azure OpenAI #

Large language models (LLMs) excel at tasks related to natural language processing such as writing, summarization or translation. At the same time, despite their obvious strengths, these models suffer from certain limitations, which can make it difficult to integrate them directly into our custom business workflows or applications. In particular they are confined to the data they were originally trained, so they would not know about specialized domains or our own internal data, and they are prone to hallucination (“making stuff up”). However, it’s possible to extend their reasoning to any custom, business- or domain-specific data set, opening avenues for more personalized, insightful and reliable integrations. This session focuses on GPT models from OpenAI and explores the essential architectural components within Azure that support such integrations, outlining how to use these models in our own products and services.
🙂 FILIP WOJCIESZYN ⚡️ Cloud Architect @ Sonova | Microsoft Quantum MVP

⭐️ Breaching the Cloud: How to Exploit and Mitigate Common Security Risks #

The session will concentrate on typical cloud security risks relevant to Azure environments that fall under the customer’s responsibility. We will then demonstrate how an attacker could exploit these risks to gain unauthorised access to cloud infrastructure. Finally, we will propose preventive measures to mitigate these risks.
🙂 HANS-PETER WEISS ⚡️ Cloud Solution Architect @ Swisscom
🙂 JAN SCHNEIDER ⚡️ Cloud Solution Architect @ Swisscom

⭐️ ChatGPT over your own data #

As the demand for intelligent chatbots grows, organizations seek ways to tailor these conversational agents to their specific needs. In this session, we explore how to create a private ChatGPT instance that leverages your own data. Whether you’re building a customer support bot, an internal knowledge base, or a specialized domain-specific assistant, understanding the architecture and data requirements is crucial.
🙂 MARCO GERBER ⚡️ Senior Cloud Engineer @ scopewyse
🙂 ALAIN SCHNEITER ⚡️ Solutions Architect @ scopewyse | Microsoft Security MVP

⭐️ Mobi-ChatGPT & Friends - or how to integrate enterprise ready Gen-AI at scale #

Experience an exciting journey into the world of artificial intelligence. In this session, we will focus on generative AI and show you how to fully leverage the potential of such technologies with a focus on large language models (LLMs). We will exemplify this with practical examples of how we implement Gen-AI use cases at La Mobilière (Mobi-ChatGPT and more).

But that’s not all! We will also provide quick history of Gen-AI, an insight into the world of generative AI models and explain how they differ from classical models. We will show you how to integrate LLMs with your own data and how such models will shape the future of how we work with artificial intelligence.

Sounds good? This was generated with mobi-chatGPT and impressively demonstrates one of the possibilities of generative AI.
🙂 MATTHIAS SCHRANZ ⚡️ Data Scientist with Focus on NLP and GenAI @ La Mobilière
🙂 ALEXANDER MEIER ⚡️ GenAI Data Engineer @ La Mobilière

⭐️ From Zero to Infrastructure as Code and AKS at Swiss Life #

A compelling outlook on Swiss Life’s transition in cloud strategy, shifting from a decentralised to a centralised approach and spotlighting efficient provisioning of Azure resources with Infrastructure as Code.
🙂 ANDREA OLTEAN ⚡️ DevOps Engineer @ Swiss Life
🙂 JEDRZEJ LISOWSKI ⚡️ DevOps Engineer @ Swiss Life

⭐️ How Criminals Breach your Azure Environment #

In this session we look at how malicious attackers exploit even the slightest misconfigurations in your Azure environment. We go over typical MITRE attack techniques, such as phishing, credential enumeration, brute force password spraying and verification bypass and show how they are applied to Azure.
🙂 MARCO SCHMIDT ⚡️ Security Engineer @ GrabX Solutions
🙂 MANUEL MEYER ⚡️ Azure Architect @ GrabX Solutions

⭐️ Model Platform #

MoNet (‘Mo’del ‘Net’work) is a micro service based architecture developed by Axpo Solutions for model development and deployment. MoNet support models in multiple languages, is an API first platform and has been developed in Azure Cloud. In this session, we describe the motivations, the challenges and the architecture that underpins this initiative. 🙂 ARINDAM MITRA ⚡️ Senior IT Infrastructure Specialist @ Axpo | Microsoft Developer Technologies MVP

⭐️ Top 10 Best Practices for YAML Pipelines in Azure DevOps #

Azure Pipelines definitions can be defined with the new YAML standard since some time. We are sure that many have already created their first pipelines or migrated existing pipelines. So it’s high time to look at the most important best practices from our wealth of experience together. This session will show the top 10 best practices from many customer projects related to YAML pipelines. Among other things, topics such as splitting pipelines (chained builds), using templates, as well as ensuring enterprise specifications and quality assurance will be covered.
🙂 MARC MÜLLER ⚡️ Principal Consultant @ 4tecture GmbH

⭐️ Building an Enterprise Data Platform with Microsoft Fabric #

In this session we share our hands-on experience with using Microsoft Fabric to build a new enterprise data platform on one of our client projects. We’ll discuss the key differences between Fabric and classic data platform products such as Azure Synapse, its advantages and disadvantages, why we chose Fabric as the solution for our platform, and what impact Fabric has on the future of data platforms.
🙂 GERALD REIF ⚡️ Principal Architect, Director @ ipt Innovation Process Technology AG
🙂 WEILI GAO ⚡️ Principal Architect @ ipt Innovation Process Technology AG

⭐️ Implementing AI: Successes and Lessons from a Software Agency #

In this talk, we explore our journey of implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) within a software agency, detailing both our successes and the challenges we faced. We will share valuable lessons learned on communication, training, and change management for the internal rollout. Takeaways on governance and hands-on experiences from the rollout will be presented.

This talk is aimed at anyone interested in AI implementation within an organization. Join us for a candid insight into the transformation process and an open discussion on the challenges.
🙂 TOBIAS KLUGE ⚡️ Mr. AI @ Nexplore AG

⭐️ Extend Microsoft 365 Copilot and relax #

Microsoft 365 Copilot can be extended in various ways. If we are smart about it, we can automate the work of an information worker. By linking Copilot plugins, routine tasks can be massively simplified or carried out independently. All orchestrated by the Microsoft 365 Copilot “Operating Systems”. You will learn how to extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with Teams Extensions, Graph Connectors, Copilot Studio, Azure Open AI and Power Platform Custom Connectors and how you can use them to make your everyday work much easier.
🙂 DAVID SCHNEIDER ⚡️ CTO @ isolutions | Microsoft Regional Director & Microsoft 365 MVP

⭐️ FinOps in Azure: Unleashing Business Value through Cost Optimization Strategies #

In today’s fast-paced business world, cost optimization is a critical aspect of cloud computing, particularly in Microsoft Azure. Financial Operations (FinOps) is a new framework that bridges the gap between the finance and IT departments to help organizations manage their cloud expenses more efficiently. This breakout session will explore the best practices and strategies for implementing FinOps in Azure, including tools, techniques, and methodologies for optimizing costs. We will discuss practical ways to track and analyze your cloud usage, identify areas of waste, and optimize your resources to reduce costs. By attending this session, you’ll learn how to integrate FinOps into your Azure environment and make the most of your cloud investment.
🙂 FRANCISCO TELES ⚡️ Azure Specialist @ Microsoft

⭐️ Azure AI deep dive with Ausgleichskasse Basel Stadt #

Witihin this session, we will demonstrate how we implemented a “Chat GPT” like solution at the Ausgleichskasse Basel Stadt. We will dive into the technical details and present our learnings.
🙂 JÖRG BIERI ⚡️ CTO @ GARAIO AG
🙂 IVAN BABIC ⚡️ Developer @ GARAIO AG

⭐️ Digitalization, people and money #

Bitcoin and the Future of Money: What are the Impacts of Bitcoin on the Future of Money and Finance?
🙂 ANDREAS WENGER ⚡️ Bitcoiner, Economist & Humanist
🙂 PATRICK KÜHNI ⚡️ Bitcoiner, Avionic Engineer