Celebrating Two Years of Cloudy Shenanigans!

December 1st 2023 marked the very first post on AgderInThe.Cloud, and somehow two full years have already passed. What started as a small idea has grown into a shared space for knowledge, experience and the occasional very honest reality check.

This blog is written by a group of people who live and breathe different parts of the Microsoft 365 world. Some of us work deep in Compliance, others in identity security, governance, endpoint, reporting and the wider security landscape. What makes this work is how exceptionally well we function as a team. We complement each other across disciplines, challenge each other daily and fill in the gaps where others leave off. The result is broader insight, better discussions and far more useful content for everyone reading.

Here is to another year of learning, sharing and growing together. Thank you for reading, reacting, challenging us and cheering us on. We are very much looking forward to what the next year will bring.❤️

Some statistics for you number-nerds out there 😉

Users

• Total Views:  47 219 – increase from last year 66,5%
• Total Visitors:  31 063 – increase from last year 100%
• Average views per day: 129 – increase from last year 67,5%
• Average visitors per day: 85 – increase from last year 100,6%
• All time high for a single day: 08.01.2025 – 413 visitors
• Top 3 most popular months both in visitors and views:
  • 1. September: 4 146 visitors and 6 244 views
  • 2. November: 3 541 visitors and 4 964 views
  • 2. May: 3 344 visitors and 4 976 views

Posts

• Top referring domains Google and LinkedIn – Thank you everyone and please keep sharing ⁠ 
• Total posts 54 = average 4,75 posts per month
• Most active months are a tie – May and November, with 8 posts
• Most read post: “Conditional Access device filter – no, not that one, the good one!” with 2 817 views!
• Top 3 most active countries:
  • United States: 8 083 visitors
  • Norway: 3 700 visitors
  • United Kingdom: 2494 visitors

Highlights from the year

The interest in AgderInThe.Cloud has kept growing all year and we are genuinely grateful for every single reader, share and conversation. It still slightly amazes us that people voluntarily read our opinions on identity and access governance, Copilot and the occasional necessary reality check.

AI and agents have been everywhere again this year, often louder than they are useful. We deliberately took a calmer and more grown up route. Less magic button fantasy, more data structure, governance and hard work before the fireworks. The feedback has been clear, people are tired of hype and ready to build something that actually works.

• Security Copilot is also moving closer to everyday reality in Microsoft 365. With Security Copilot coming to M365 E5 customers, security operations are about to change pace in a very real way. We will definitely return to this in much more detail.

Governance and control have been at the heart of what we publish. Our deep dives into Entra ID Governance, cleanup, access lifecycle and maturity have sparked a lot of honest conversations with customers who are finally ready to face what is actually living in their tenant. It turns out that getting control is still far more valuable than adding yet another shiny feature.

• We have also been lucky enough to be mentioned several times in the Entra News newsletter, which is both flattering and a gentle reminder that people really are paying attention to what is being shared. We highly recommend subscribing if Entra is even remotely your thing.

Behind the blog there is also a very active group of people. While the site publishes the thoughts, the work happens everywhere else.

• Per-Torben took the stage as a speaker at Workplace Ninjas Norway.
• Åsne and Per-Torben both spoke at NIC in Oslo, which is always a highlight with a room full of people who actually care about getting this right.
• Åsne has also been very mobile this year. Three trips to Iceland for sessions, three different MVP Days in Trondheim, Stavanger and Oslo, plus Security Day for Digi Rogaland. And that is just the last two months. Airports and hotel breakfasts are now basically a lifestyle.

AgderInThe.Cloud is written by a group who live in different parts of the Microsoft 365 world, spanning security, identity, compliance, governance, endpoint, automation and reporting. We work very differently, think very differently and that is exactly why it works. The blog exists because of that mix and because we are not afraid to challenge each other before we publish.

Thank you for staying with us through another year of opinions, lessons learned and occasional stubbornness. Next year will bring more AI, more agents and absolutely no reduction in the need for grown up governance.