Interview with an MVP, MCC, Partner, & Azure Wiki Ninja: Ryen (Kia Zhi) Tang

Today's interview is with a Microsoft MVP, Ryen Tang!

Ryen Kia Zhi Tang

Ryen Kia Zhi Tang's avatar

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Some of Ryen’s statistics:

  • 6K+ Recognition Points
  • 12 Wiki Articles
  • 153 Wiki Edits

 

Some of Ryen’s Wiki articles:

 

Ryen has done so much! Let’s get to the interview!

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Who are you, where are you, and what do you do?

I am Ryen (Kia Zhi) Tang.  I am based in Auckland, New Zealand and have been living in New Zealand over 10 years.  I was originally from Singapore – where I started my IT career as a system consultant.  Currently I am working as a Lead Engineer for Spark NZ Ltd providing Microsoft technologies consultation and infrastructure solution for our government and enterprise clients.

Ryen01

What are your big projects right now?

Personally, I am focusing closely on Nano Server developments and finding use case for infrastructure or application implementation in large enterprise environment for Spark NZ and our clients. I am working on next Wiki article related Azure and Nano Server that will tie some knots to some previous Wiki articles. I’m also spending R&D time for SQL Server on RedHat, System Center 2016 upgrades and Microsoft Azure Stack environment. And lastly, I have to work on my Windows Server 2016 certifications soon.

 

What is TechNet Wiki for? Who is it for?

I see TechNet Wiki serves as a centralised collaborative knowledgebase on how to design, implement and manage Microsoft technologies according to the experiences gained by experts around the globe.  This is a great place for a wide range of audience to also co-create ideas or solutions, ranging from IT fresh starters to experts and leaders.

Ryen02

What do you do with TechNet Wiki, and how does that fit into the rest of your job?

I enjoy contributing TechNet Wiki related to Microsoft technologies implementation using mostly PowerShell and sharing knowledge I gained from my job.  I also make great use of TechNet Wiki as a channel to gain others’ insights they’ve learnt from their experiences, which in turn help me in bringing unstructured ideas to live – fast tracking solving certain challenges at work at times.

 

In what other sites and communities do you contribute your technical knowledge?

During my free time, I will blog https://ryentang.wordpress.com/ , do a little bit of tweeting https://twitter.com/kiazhi/ , write some PowerShell codes that will be post in TechNet Gallery or read TechNet Forum and answer some questions. From time to time, I attend conferences and communities meetups to participate in discussion and share my knowledge or view.

Ryen03

On what Wiki articles do you spend most of your time?

Since we all have to spend time wisely, I am spending most of my time on Microsoft Azure and Nano Server Wiki articles because of my personal interest. I focus on these areas because of global public cloud infrastructure trend and values gain from the new born in the cloud operating system that is leaner and meaner than before which may introduce to NZ IT Industry in near future.

 

What are your favorite Wiki articles you’ve contributed?

My favourite Wiki article is Windows Nano Server: Virtualization with VMware vSphere.  At the time I drafted the article, there was no complete article out there that demonstrated in detail on how to deploy a Nano Server into VMware vSphere.  I also enjoyed that fact that I received a lot of positive feedbacks and questions.  This inspired me to improve this Wiki article content regularly closely after Microsoft product group released Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 to 5. Since the favourite Wiki article published, it has expanded to other Wiki articles such as:

 

What could we do differently on TechNet Wiki?

I fell in love with docs.microsoft.com platform and will hope to see TechNet Wiki migrated to this awesome collaborative platform where it has livefyre sidenotes. In term of the existing TechNet Wiki, I would like see Format Code Block to include PowerShell language and update the Featured Articles list.

 

What does success look like for TechNet Wiki?

The success of TechNet Wiki will be the existing breadth and depth of collective knowledge collected from experienced expert contributing articles to educate their audiences on existing technology, providing tractions in learning new technology and inspiring audiences to interact or spawn more new ideas.

 

Do you have any tips for new Wiki authors?

Honestly, I’m still learning to be a good author and do have my own challenges. Therefore, I advise new Wiki authors to focus on technology where you have a lot of interest in, share your knowledge or experience on technology where your strength is and always have good references on the topic for audiences to follow up further about the topic if required. It is fine to make mistake along the way and we have a great community that can assist you if needed.

Finally, my last advice to all Wiki contributors would be for them to always remember that a high quality TechNet Wiki article will get paid off in a term of reputation when your contribution in this digital age community is like a market place where one may get noticed once it is published online. (Just like salt water fishing, once you cast our bait and you will start to get some nibble.)

 

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Thank you Ryen for your community contributions!

Everyone, please join me in thanking Ryen!

 

Wiki yours,

– Ninja Ed