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Sat in some tension after the exam, waiting for the results, but there it is: Officially a Claude Certified Architect for now! I was genuinely (happily) surprised by most of the learnings I took away studying and practicing for this cert. Most of course are of direct importance to working with Claude's various components and how to influence Anthropic's models, but some I expect to have broader impact outside of just the Anthropic ecosystem (better prompting & AI application practices, strengthening evals, etc.). Can recommend for anyone working with LLMs, and looking forward to helping clients on their AI workloads even more from this point onward. With thanks to CloudNation IG&H for putting us on the route to becoming an Anthropic partner!

Glad to share that I have completed the Certificate Programme in "Digital Transformation and AI for Leaders" from IIM Indore. The programme offered a solid grounding in how digital technologies and AI are reshaping business strategy and leadership. A good learning experience to stay current in a fast-evolving landscape. #DigitalTransformation #AI #IIMIndore #Leadership

𝐌𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐈 Many discussions around generative AI focus on whether it is beneficial or detrimental. I see a lot of posts where people are enthusiastic on what it can do. I see similar amount of posts where people are frustrated about it's limitations. My significant concern is the lack of understanding about how it truly operates, which leads to unrealistic expectations, misuse and risks. When I give an AI training, I keep explaining people how it works and what's inherit limitations are. 𝐀 𝐜𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐬 𝐀𝐈 Let's look at another example. Most individuals are familiar with the capabilities and limitations of a car; it can drive but cannot fly. Next, responsible usage is key —observing speed limits near schools and navigating slippery corners carefully. It can save you a lot of travel time, it can boost your ego and it can help you connect with friends and families. But it remains a car that can just drive. While you can sit in a car, touch it and feel it - in contrast - generative AI is less tangible. Making it harder to grasp its capabilities. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐋𝐌? Many new generative AI tools function primarily as prediction machines, trained on vast datasets with billions of parameters. They lack the ability to sense, feel, or learn instantly. Essentially, they are pretrained models with a degree of randomness, and their context window—the number of tokens they can process—is limited. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤? Most recent tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, are all build around the same technique. They predict the next token (word, part of an image, video fragment, etc). They do that by parsing the input to vectors. Similar words (like man and women) have vectors that are pointing to almost the same direction. These vectors go through several layers (called Neural Networks with transformers). In the final layer, that results into multiple possible next vectors (again, that could be words, part of an image, video fragment, etc) Each possible next token has a probability (chance that that's the next one). With a bit of randomness, the next token is picked. That is added to the input. Here are some key limitations of AI: ❌ It cannot instantly learn from its mistakes. ❌ It cannot feel or understand the emotional context of your requests. ❌ It does not retain a deep understanding of previous inquiries. ❌ It cannot build relationships. ❌ It cannot verify the accuracy of information. On the other hand, generative AI excels at: ✔️ Recognizing patterns in text, images, and videos. ✔️ Predicting what is likely to come next. ✔️ Writing texts, generating code, and crafting comments. ✔️ Creating photo's, illustrations ✔️ Summarizing large amounts of texts ✔️ etc. But, ultimately, it remains a machine with inherent randomness. It can help you with many tasks. It can do a lot, but it remains a prediction machine. Let's utilize it for its intended purposes. #vibe #sdlc #genai #ai #LLM

Well well well! Happily joined CloudNation last December, so much so that I'm very happy to share: Next to my architect duties, I'm stepping up as a new Azure Team Manager. I'll be leading a team of fellow engineers & consultants both on providing excellent Azure services, as well as helping adopt & shape AI-assisted / agentic engineering practices. And couldn't have chosen a more exciting time to do so, in the middle of our acquisition by IG&H so plenty to do! Big thanks to the CloudNation MT for their trust in me to take this forward, and an especially big thanks to Jordy van Paassen ☁︎, Mick Nieman, Hans Reinhart and Arnoud Zuurbier for helping me get ready for this journey.

𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨. CloudNation joining IG&H marks the start of a new chapter — one where we can keep shaping our future with a strong strategic partner alongside us. Excited about what this combination unlocks and where we can take CloudNation next. Onwards 🚀 #CloudNation #AWS #Cloud #IG&H

Absolutely, Great conversations and truly valuable time spent.

4 years ago, I first started doing tech talks on a stage outside of my own employers. One of the first places to give me a chance to share my stuff was Developers.nl (now PSG technauts) with their TechNights, where I talked about topics like compliance automation as well as the finer details & culture behind high performance software engineering. You know, the stuff I can't seem to stop talking about 😅 So it's a fun full circle moment to, years later and now under the CloudNation flag, be invited back to PSG technauts. Once again I can share my thoughts and insights in an age where every week brings new genAI tools, frameworks and (to be very honest, sometimes undue) hype. On the 2nd of March you can find me in Nieuwegein with food and drinks included! https://lnkd.in/eiMyfMCH It wouldn't be a me-talk if I'm not poking fun at the industry at large with memes everywhere, but I also want to go back to those early talks of mine and see if there's some full circle moments to be made there too. What, provably (even if limited), has stood the test of time when it comes to our ways of working as engineers and what's going to be new? Let's discuss. Big thanks to Samira Ibirane and Peter Smeets at PSG technauts for having me once again, hope to see you there!

After a period of working in both Azure/AWS but primarily AWS, about time I shored up my certs in Azure again, as times they are a-changin'. Starting with SC-900 to catch up on most EntraID updates but surely more to follow 💪

Super happy to have joined CloudNation! Have been able to dive headfirst into a few very interesting Azure-related projects and meet awesome people in just the first 2 weeks. Once I've fully landed I'll undoubtedly be back with some blogs, vlogs and perhaps a podcast or two. If there's anything you'd like to hear about, let me know :)