Collab365 MicroJobs: I will build you a Dev Farm in Azure

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If you’re struggling to find help or keep up to date with Microsoft SharePoint then I will build you a basic SharePoint 2013/2016/2019 Dev farm in Azure.

I am now a registered Freelancer on Collab365 MicroJobs – the brand new marketplace dedicated to Microsoft professionals.

Here are 4 reasons that the Collab365 Team have spent months building the site:

  1. You often need expert Microsoft help just for a couple of hours.
  2. You can’t keep up with everything Microsoft is releasing.
  3. You find it hard to find Microsoft experts on other non-dedicated sites. There are just too many other subjects covered.
  4. You don’t have time to go through a lengthy interview process.

I personally love the concept and have actually just posted a MicroJob. Here are the details…

How I can help you …


Building out a SharePoint farm to use as a Dev/Test environment can be a long tedious process.  It also usually requires hardware resources that aren\’t always available.  Using Azure you can spin up new VMs relatively quickly, but installing and configuring SharePoint can still take a significant amount of time.  There are pre-built Azure templates, but these often don\’t provide the flexibility needed to configure a specific environment.
Using a combination of PowerShell and Desired State Configuration (DSC) we will design and build a basic  server farm consisting of three (3) virtual machines (AD, SQL, and SharePoint) to your specifications.  The farm will include the following:

  • One (1) Active Directory domain controller configured to the domain name of your choice containing ten (10) Service accounts to support installation of SQL and SharePoint
  • One (1) SQL server configured using a domain service account to support SharePoint
  • One (1) SharePoint 2013, 2016 or 2019 server
  • Up to three (3) Web Applications
  • Up to ten (10) Site Collections
  • Core Service Applications (Application Management, Managed Metadata, Search, Secure Store, State, Subscription Settings,  Usage, & User Profile)

Not included:

  • Configuration of Office 365 hybrid
  • Configuration of SQL reporting services
  • Configuration of Office Online Server

How does it work and what about payment?
Paying for online services with people that you don’t know can be worrying for both parties. The buyer often doesn’t want to pay until they’re happy that the Freelancer has completed the work. Likewise the Freelancer wants to be sure they will be recompensed for their time and commitment. Collab365 MicroJobs helps both the buyer and the Freelancer in these ways:

  1. The buyer pays up front and the money is securely held in the MicroJobs Stripe Connect platform account.
  2. The Freelancer can then begin the work in the knowledge that the payment has been made.
  3. Once the buyer is happy that the work is complete and to their satisfaction, the funds become available to the Freelancer.
  4. There’s even a dispute management function in case of a disagreement. But it won’t on my MicroJob! As long as we agree what’s needed up front and keep talking the entire way through, you won’t be disappointed.

Note: Once I’ve completed the work, I’d love it if you could write a review for me. This will allow others to see what a fantastic job I did for you.
What if we need to add extra’s to the job after I’ve started?
It’s really easy for us to discuss your extra requirement (using the chat feature on the site) and for us to agree a price and add it to the order.
If you’d like me to help you, here are the steps to hire me …

  1. View my MicroJob.
  2. On that page click the “Buy” button.
  3. You’ll need to register as a buyer on the MicroJobs site, but this only takes a minute and will also allow you to purchase MicroJobs from other awesome Freelancers.

If you need to contact me then please use the “contact” button and ask me any questions before purchasing.

Presentation to Cincinnati SPUG: Protecting Your Content with SharePoint DLP

security and compliance centerLast week I presented a talk to the Cincinnati SharePoint User’s Group entitled, “Protecting your Content: Demystifying Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
in SharePoint 2016
”. I couldn’t make it to the user group in person, but they were nice enough to let me present it via Skype. At the end of the talk I promised to post my slides.

You can download a read only copy of the slides from the talk using the link below:

Protecting your Content: Demystifying Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

SharePoint Fest – DC Wrap-up & Slides

My wife and I really enjoyed our visit to Washington DC last week.  The conference attendees were great and both my sessions and workshop were well attended.  It was a pleasure to feel that I was sharing information that people really wanted to learn about.  The week was even better because at night we got to spend time with my daughter, son-in-law, and 6 month old granddaughter.  Getting to present at a conference and spend time with family and friends is a great combination.

I promised to make my slides available, so I’ve uploaded them here.  They are also available on the SharePoint Fest DC site for attendees.  If you have any follow-up questions please email me at pstork@dontpapanic.com.  You can download a copy of the slides from each talk using the links below:

WS 203 – Office 365 Feature Explosion: What should you be using

ADM 105 – Protecting your Content: Demystifying Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in SharePoint

BV 204 – Implementing SharePoint: Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail

SPT 202 – Ensuring Business Continuity: Planning for High Availability and Disaster Recovery in SharePoint



SharePoint Fest – Denver Wrap-up, Slides, and Demos

My wife and I really enjoyed our visit to Denver last week.  The conference attendees were great and asked a lot of good questions at both of my sessions.  It was a pleasure to feel that I was sharing information that people really wanted to learn about.  It was even more exciting because this was my first chance to present under the logo of my own company.  As you’ve probably seen on my web site I’ve left Blue Chip Consulting and launched my own one man firm under then name Don’t Pa..Panic Consulting.  The Denver conference was just two weeks after deciding to go independent.  So everything looked bright and shiny and new, to go with my new business cards.

The one thing that didn’t go well were the demos in my DLP talk.  Despite checking them the night before, the SharePoint sites I was using for demos refused to load during my talk.  I also tried demoing creating a new custom DLP policy and although that worked perfectly at 6:30 AM, when trying it for my talk PowerShell threw an error saying it couldn’t find the Exchange endpoint on the server.  So I promised to spend some time this week recording the demos and making them available here.  Note: I’m still working on the recordings, but they will be up soon.

I also promised to make my slides available, so I’ve uploaded them here.  They are also available on the SharePoint Fest Denver site for attendees.  If you have any follow-up questions please email me at pstork@dontpapanic.com.  You can download a copy of the slides from each talk using the links below:

ECM 104 – OneDrive for Business: How to manage Sharing and Syncing with the Next Gen client

ECM 203 – Protecting your Content: Demystifying Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in SharePoint

DLP Demos

Demo1: Creating Compliance Policy & eDiscovery Centers

More Soon !


SharePoint Fest – DC Wrap-up and Slides

SPFDC17PortalBadgev2I continue to feel honored that SharePoint Fest invites me to present at their conferences.  The most recent even was in DC a couple weeks ago.  The attendees were great and both of my talks were well received. As always I really enjoyed the conference and the discussions I had with attendees and the other presenters. This is one of the few times each year that I get to see a lot of my friends who live all over the world.  The next conference is in Denver in June.  I hope to see you there.

I had lots of attendees at both sessions who asked for the slides so I’ve uploaded them here.  They are also available on the SharePoint Fest DC site.  If you have any follow-up questions please email me at paul.stork@bluechip-llc.com.  You can download a copy of the slides from each talk using the links below:

BV 202 – SharePoint 2016: What’s New and Why should I Upgrade?

ECM 104 – Protecting your Content: Demystifying Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in SharePoint 2016