What It Means to Be a Microsoft MVP in Azure Infrastructure as Code

After more than 15 years of working with Microsoft products, I’ve always seen the MVP program as the gold standard in our industry. The people who held that title were the ones I looked up to — experts who weren’t just brilliant at what they did, but who went out of their way to share knowledge and give back to the community.

For a long time, I stayed on the sidelines. Inspired, yes — but also unsure. Unsure if I had something valuable enough to share. Unsure if I belonged in the same conversation.

This year, I decided to step forward. I put myself out there in ways I hadn’t before: sharing more, speaking more, contributing more. And to my surprise — and honestly, a fair amount of humility — I’ve been recognised as a Microsoft MVP in Azure Infrastructure as Code.

That sentence still feels surreal to write!

MVP stands for Most Valuable Professional. It’s Microsoft’s way of recognising people who go above and beyond in their field — not just by being technically skilled, but by actively sharing knowledge with others.

MVPs aren’t Microsoft employees. We don’t get the award for passing exams or working on one big project. Instead, it’s about community impact: contributing to open-source projects, speaking at events, writing content, mentoring, giving feedback, and generally helping others to succeed with Microsoft technologies.

It’s recognition not just for what you know, but for what you share.

Most MVPs fall into broad categories like Azure, Data Platform, or Microsoft 365. Azure Infrastructure as Code is far more specialised — and as of today, there are only around twelve MVPs in this category in the UK.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is about taking the chaos of cloud infrastructure and turning it into something you can trust: code that builds environments the same way every time, that scales reliably, and that makes complex systems manageable. In Azure, that means working with tools like Bicep, ARM templates, and Terraform, keeping up with a platform that evolves almost weekly, and finding ways to translate all of that into something useful for the real world.

To be recognised as an MVP here isn’t just about writing templates or pipelines. It’s about helping shape the future of Azure IaC itself — feeding back to Microsoft, creating tools and resources that others can use, and standing in that tricky space between Microsoft and the people actually building in the cloud.

That’s why this recognition means so much to me. It isn’t a medal you pin on your profile. It’s a responsibility. It’s about standing alongside the community, continuing to share knowledge, and making sure that as Azure keeps growing, nobody is left behind trying to figure it out alone.

I’m incredibly grateful — to the community that’s taught me so much, to the people who encouraged me to share more, and to everyone who’s ever asked questions, given feedback, or challenged me to think differently. All of those moments add up.

For me, being an MVP isn’t about standing above others. It’s about standing alongside them. And I can’t wait to keep doing just that.