Community Champion - April 2021

Karl Cooke Karl Cooke - @Karl_ITNerd

About

I’m very excited to be featured as Cloud Champion for April! Thank you so much! I really enjoy being part of this amazing community.

So, a little about me… My name is Karl Cooke and I live in Antrim, Northern Ireland. I’m married and have 4 children (3 girls and 1 boy). I work for ActionPoint Technology Group, who are an MSP and Microsoft partner based in Ireland, as an Implementation Specialist. My primary focus is Azure with some Microsoft 365 thrown in for good measure. I’ve been working for ActionPoint now for just over a year. Great company to work for! My role involves designing and deploying Azure and M365 solutions for customers of all sizes.

I have been in the IT industry for about 10 years now, previous to that I worked as a Partnership Manager for a finance company. In 2011 I started my own business (part-time) repairing computers for people in the local area. I’ve been full time for the last 7 years having worked my way up through the helpdesk to the project-based work I do now.

I really love Azure and enjoy learning as much as I can about it every day. I’m currently chasing the Azure Solutions Architect Expert cert.

Community:

If you follow my Blog or follow me on Twitter you will know that I love community! I believe that each one of us has something we can give back to the communities we exist in. It’s so exciting to be able to help other people on their journey.

The CloudFamily community is such a welcoming place. I’ve made connections, and hopefully friends :), in this community that I wouldn’t have made if CloudFamily didn’t exist. You are all awesome humans!

I’ve been a long-time observer in the tech community but over the last 6 months I’ve made a conscious effort to give as much back to the community as possible. I’m very active on Twitter and I blog at https://irishtechie.com/.

I’m also a co-organiser for the Limerick DotNet Azure User Group https://www.meetup.com/Limerick-DotNet/. Check out our meetup page for upcoming events.

For the rest of 2021, I’ll be looking to ramp up the community engagement by releasing more blog posts and working towards delivering my first user group talk before the end of the year. You can all hold me accountable for that goal!! :).

Later this month, I’ll be appearing on the CloudWithChris show. My friend Thomas Thornton and I also just recorded an episode of the JonnyChipz “In Conversation with…” show with John Lunn.

I’m looking forward to continuing to contribute to this amazing community.

Check out the links below for ways to connect with me. I’m always happy to make new friends! If I can help you in any way, please reach out.
Karl Cooke Karl Cooke, Thomans Thornton and John Lunn

Here is a list of my current Microsoft Exams :)
Karl Cooke Karl Cooke

Contact Info