YouTube Channels July 2019
Introduction
You would think that to learn new skills in tech would be a costly affair by going to formal classroom training, subscription services such as Pluralsight, or even books.
However there is so much freely available content out there you can pretty much learn anything for free. One great resource to use is youTube. It’s not just for vloggers and ‘influencers’!
I subscribe to a few channels that have lots of excellent content so I thought I would share and hope you find something useful.
vBrownbag
Channel: vBrownBag
I think this was the first tech channel that I subscribed to simply because of the great content and speakers. Published weekly the vBrownbag team get people like me and you to cover topics such as ‘Automating Sysadmin Tasks with Python with Gina Bueno’, ‘VMware 6.7 APIs and Automation with Kyle Ruddy’, and ‘Using Terraform with vSphere, Colin Westwater’ - blatant plug there at the end!
The channel also hosts all the vBrownbag sessions from VMworld and they get those videos posted very quickly after the recording. Pretty much my favourite channel on YouTube.
VMworld
Channel: VMworld
With VMworld in the US coming up and Europe later in the year it’s worth subscribing to this channel. It posts selected sessions from VMworld, keynotes, and interviews from VMworld TV. If you can’t attend VMworld this is the next best thing.
PowerShell Conference EU
Channel: PowerShell Conference EU
This is a channel that hosts all the talks that have held at the annual PowerShell Conference EU held in Hannover, Germany. PowerShell is an essential skill Ops people need so administer a wide range of systems. The conference is aimed at the more advanced PowerShell user so the videos cover some great topics such as ‘PowerShell Engine Internals - Dongbo Wang’, ‘Claus Thude Nielsen- Docker and PowerShell: How to develop your scripts with confidence’ and ‘Ravikanth Chaganti - Designing a distributed flexible validation framework for Test in Production’.
Pretty advanced topics but very, very interesting. Thanks to the organisers for posting the content.
PowerShell.org
Channel: PowerShell.org
In a similar vein the the PowerShell Conference EU this channel hosts the videos from the US based PowerShell Summit. Again these are advanced videos covering topics such as ‘Publishing and Managing Modules in an Internal Repository by Kevin Marquette’, ‘PowerShell Remoting Internals by Paul Higinbotham’, and ‘Ansible for the Windows Admin by Jeremy Murrah’. Amazing learning opportunities here.
GitHub Training & Guides
Channel: GitHub Training & Guides
This is a channel run by GitHub that provides valuable training in GitHub and Git in general. Topics covered are things like ‘What’s a Repository?’, ‘GitHub Learning Lab’, and ‘Getting Started with GitHub’. Git (and GitHub) is a vital skill in todays IT landscape so get learning folks.
VMware Education & Certification
Channel: VMware Education & Certification
There is some marketing material here from VMware, but some great videos include ‘Understanding VMware Cloud on AWS’, VMware certification stories from the community and vCenter on Windows Upgrade.
DevOps Conference
Channel: DevOps Conference
DevOps Con is described as the Conference for Continuous Delivery, Microservices, Docker, Clouds & Lean Business. DevOps is something I am interested in to further my skill set so the videos are very useful. Topics covered include ‘Infrastructure as Code – Lessons learned from Dev to Ops’, ‘100 ideas to bring DevOps in an organization’, and ‘Seven Security Sins’. A wide range of topics so I am sure you will find something worth watching.
Packet Pushers
Channel: Packet Pushers
Packet Pushers are a well known podcast powerhouse but also publish a lot of videos to YouTube. Networking heavy content but that fits with the podcasts. A mixture of short and long form videos such as ‘What Skills Will Futureproof My Networking Career?’, ‘What Are The Pros & Cons Of A Career In Consulting?’, and ‘Managing Network Switches With Puppet’. This channel is a worthy complement to the podcasts.
Microsoft Mechanics
Channel: Microsoft Mechanics
Microsoft Mechanics is a lot of videos aimed at IT Pros covering Azure, Office 365, Server, PowerShell, AI, etc. The videos are high quality and very informative. Videos are posted frequently and range from a couple to thirty minutes. Plenty of choices to watch while eating lunch.
Microsoft Ignite
Channel: Microsoft Ignite
The last conference channel is Microsoft Ignite which is held yearly. All sessions from Ignite are posted here and cover typical Microsoft technologies such as Office 365, Azure, Windows 10, etc. If you have an interest in Microsoft products you will find a session here.
Wrap Up
I hope you find a channel worth subscribing to in this list. I have learnt a lot watching videos from them all.
I would love to hear your recommendations for gems I don’t know about. Reach out to me on Twitter.