Let me help you learn the fundamentals of writing good code!

Hey there! I’m Mike Kanakos. Thanks for stopping by.

I started out in the trenches — managing Windows servers, configuring applications, fielding client fires, living the sysadmin life. Made plenty of mistakes along the way. Somewhere in there I got pulled into identity and access management, and that’s been the focus for most of my nearly 30-year career — figuring out Active Directory, Azure/Entra ID, PKI, SSO, MFA, and compliance automation, building automation platforms, passwordless authentication, and SOC2/SOX workflows along the way. These days I’m the Manager of Infrastructure Engineering at Guardant Health, a precision oncology company, where my team owns Identity, Storage, and Virtual Infrastructure and we build automation spanning on-prem and cloud identity services.

This site is where I write down what actually works. You’ll find guides on PowerShell, identity management, certificate services, and infrastructure automation—practical stuff aimed at people who already know the basics and just need to see how someone else solved the problem.

I’m a 6x Microsoft MVP for PowerShell and Azure. Along with fellow MVP Phil Bossman, I co-run the Research Triangle PowerShell User Group, because I like talking through solutions with other people dealing with the same challenges. We’ve grown into the largest PowerShell user group in the world—3,500 members and counting who get excited about PowerShell and making their work easier. If that’s you, come join us.

Outside this blog, I write about IAM, automation, and PowerShell for a few different outlets — deep-dive tutorials for Petri, quick-hit tips for 4sysops, and broader identity/infrastructure pieces for TechTarget and Progress/Ipswitch. I’ve also contributed chapters to a few community books: the PowerShell Conference Book volume 1 & 2, and #PS7Now: A Blogger’s Guide to Getting Started with PowerShell 7.

Look around, try some code, let me know if something helps—or doesn’t work.