Reaching for the Cloud

Reaching for the Cloud is a fortnightly newsletter for architects, technical leads, and IT decision-makers working in the Microsoft cloud. Each issue takes one topic, develops an argument, and gives you an honest view of where things actually stand, without the marketing gloss.

The Microsoft cloud moves fast. Not everything that gets announced matters. Not everything that matters gets announced. This newsletter tries to tell the difference.

Written by Richard Hogan, Global Chief Architect in IBM's Microsoft Practice, with over two decades of enterprise technology experience across Financial Services, public sector, and beyond.

Published every two weeks. No spam. No sponsored content.

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Newsletter Posts

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Jul 25, 2025•Reaching for the Cloud

Microsoft Sentinel Data Lake: Transforming Security Operations for the Future

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, staying ahead of threats requires constant innovation and adaptation. Microsoft has once again demonstrated its commitment to empowering security operations teams with the introduction of a groundbreaking update to its cloud-native Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platform, Microsoft Sentinel. Announced in July 2025, the new Microsoft Sentinel data… Continue Reading →

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May 27, 2025•Reaching for the Cloud

My Microsoft Certification Challenge & Journey

This week’s entry for Reaching for the Cloud slightly differs from the usual content I publish. It is unrelated to security or cloud strategy/technology and is more focused on a personal challenge or journey. About a week or so ago, someone made (probably a flippant) comment, indicating that they expect me to attain all the… Continue Reading →

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May 20, 2025•Reaching for the Cloud

Is the future of public cloud sovereign?

Brad Smith from Microsoft recently shared a blog post titled ‘Microsoft’s New European Digital Commitments (https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/04/30/european-digital-commitments/). This broad whitepaper covered a range of topics, including data centre expansion to provide scale for AI services and announcements around digital resiliency, security, encryption, and data and privacy commitments. However, two key points caught my attention: First, Microsoft… Continue Reading →

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Apr 29, 2025•Reaching for the Cloud

IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2025, Initial Thoughts

IBM produces two reports every year focused on cybersecurity: the X-Force Threat Intelligence Index and the Cost of a Data Breach Report. Both are invaluable sources of data for anyone interested in cybersecurity. The first of these reports, the Threat Intelligence Index, was released on April 17th. While I have not digested everything it contains,… Continue Reading →

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Apr 11, 2025•Reaching for the Cloud

Is Red Teaming the Perfect Use Case for Gen AI?

In general, enterprise adoption of Generative AI, has probably not been as rapid as most people were expecting. There are several reasons for this, some of which I have discussed previously, such as concerns over data security, privacy, bias etc. One area that I have not really covered previously is around use cases, I think… Continue Reading →

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Mar 31, 2025•Reaching for the Cloud

AI and Data Security: A New Concern?

Are the data security challenges of today different to those of the past? Introduction One of the areas impacting the adoption of Generative AI (substitute Generative for Agentic if you prefer) is that organisations are concerned about the status of data security across their estate, especially in the unstructured areas where AI can arguably provide… Continue Reading →

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