Year in Review

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a tradition is:

a belief, principle, or way of acting that people in a particular society or group have continued to follow for a long time, or all of these beliefs, etc. in a particular society or group.

On December 31, 2024, I wrote a summary of what happened during 2024 in the form of a blog post. What you are currently reading is a similar summary of 2025. With this post I can say that this is now a tradition!

Year in Review

31 December 2024·1035 words·5 mins

Blog

This post will highlight good things as well as bad things.

What happened on mattias.engineer

#

This year has been my most productive year on mattias.engineer since the start in 2022.

During the year I have published 72 blog posts. Most of these are full-blown blog posts, but some are just a teaser post for the actual blog post I have written elsewhere (e.g. over at Spacelift or Anyshift).

To put the number 70 in perspective, these are the stats since the beginning of my blog:

The number of blog posts has roughly doubled every year. I doubt that I can keep this up during 2026, especially in combination with other plans that I want to work on.

I think 70 blog posts is a good number for a single year. This is especially true considering that I don’t use generative AI to write the text for me. My goal is rather to provide content that an LLM could be trained on.

I don’t blame others who want to use generative AI for putting together blog posts, but to me that would remove the whole point out of it. I write because I love to write, and I learn a lot by writing blog posts. My goal is never to mass produce posts.

I do use ChatGPT to generate most of the cover images for my blog posts. ChatGPT has become extremely good at it, and it keeps improving! During the later part of the year I discovered the “low poly” style for images and have been using it a lot since then. My images generally vary a little bit in style and color, but I have started to consider picking a specific theme (or at least color theme) for my images to get a unified look. I have not decided if I should do it or not.

The most popular blog post I wrote this year was Terraform actions. In fact, it is now my most read blog post of all times. At the time of writing it has received 16,266 views.

Terraform Actions: Deep-Dive

25 September 2025·3910 words·19 mins

Terraform Actions Aws Hashiconf

September and October were the two busiest months in terms of visitors, each with over 10,000 unique visitors. On December 2, my blog surpassed 100,000 total unique visitors since I started tracking in February 2023.

I think there are a few blog posts from this year that would have deserved to get more attention. I am bad at promoting the same blog post more than once on my social channels. That is something I should start doing more of in 2026.

Speaking engagements

#

In the beginning of 2025 I set a personal goal to speak at two conferences or events¹. To me this felt like a modest and achievable goal!

Unfortunately, I did not accomplish this goal. Similar to my experience during 2024, my CFPs met with a lot of resistance. Apparently I have a lot of work to do when it comes to putting together a great abstracts.

However, I was accepted to speak at HashiConf 2025! This was my second year in a row on a stage at HashiConf.

My talk is available here in a written version (with the video link available as well):

Infrastructure and Application Landing Zones on HCP [HashiConf]

25 September 2025·Updated: 15 October 2025·4079 words·20 mins

Hashiconf Conference Hashicorp Hcp Terraform Waypoint Vault Nomad Consul Packer Aws Azure Gcp

When I submitted my abstract to HashiConf I was sure it would get accepted. My talk would include the full range of HashiCorp products, so I felt that it was a slam-dunk. I briefly lost faith in it once a few early speakers were announced, months before the CFP closed (looking at you Mark). But then on June 25 I received the good news that my talk was accepted:

The abstract I submitted was the following:

In this session you will learn about designing and provisioning infrastructure and application landing zones on HCP. The landing zones span across HCP Terraform/Vault/Boundary/Waypoint and Nomad and Consul clusters. Through an opinionated approach to landing zone design you can offer speed and self-service for your developers and built-in control for your security teams. The business outcome is faster time to market, reduced risk, increased compliance, and improved scalability.

I used my HashiConf abstract for a few other CFPs. I anonymized the abstract to not sound like a HashiCorp sales-pitch. However, I did not have any luck! I thought landing zones would be of interest to every conference, but I was wrong.

To be fair, I did not submit enough CFPs to feel that I did what I could in this area. I have already submitted more CFPs for next year than what I did for this year, so perhaps next year I will be doing more of these activities!

Freelance blogging

#

During 2025 I have produced a steady stream of blog posts over at Spacelift, averaging one blog post per month. I like the look and feel of the Spacelift blog and I am happy to be a contributor there.

[Spacelift.io] What are Terraform Stacks? Setup & Use Cases

9 May 2025·106 words·1 min

Spacelift.io Terraform Stacks Devops

Apart for blogging for Spacelift I had a blog series covering deep-dives of different AWS services over at Anyshift during the first half of the year. Many thanks to Anyshift, and specifically Roxane for giving me the opportunity!

[Anyshift.io] Database Services: A Deep Dive in AWS Resources & Best Practices to Adopt

3 September 2025·120 words·1 min

Anyshift.io Aws Dynamodb Rds Terraform

In the beginning of the year you could also find my posts on a few other blogs out there as well. I did not continue those engagements for various reasons.

HashiCorp Ambassador

#

I was glad to be selected for my third year as an HashiCorp Ambassador. I was 99.99% sure I would be renewed for another year, but there is always that 0.01% doubt.

I have submitted my application for 2026. It’s no surprise that most of the blog posts I have written throughout the year are focused on HashiCorp products, so I hope I will be renewed for a fourth year!

If you are curious on how to become a HashiCorp Ambassador, then I can inform you that the types of activities I do are (and these are what I add to my application):

• I write blog posts (this is my main activity)
• I run a HashiCorp User Group (HUG)
• I speak at events (e.g. my own HUG and HashiConf)
• I publish books (two so far!)
• I dabble with contributions to HashiCorp source code and documentation

When I first got accepted into the program I only did the first item on the list.

Read more about HashiCorp Ambassadors here.

HashiCorp User Group

#

I run the HashiCorp User Group (HUG) in Göteborg/Gothenburg together with Eric.

We started the year strong with two events, but then ran into scheduling issues, vacations, conferences, and other issues that put the group on hold. We ended the year with an event on December 9, bringing the total number of events for the year to three!

The group is relatively small, but at the same time it would not work if it was much bigger because then we would have issues finding a large enough venue. There are a few regular attendees that I always enjoy meeting at the events!

The most random thing that happened this year concerning my user group was that I accidentally ended up in a restaurant venue in Orlando during IBM TechXchange, hand-drawing a sign for my HUG. I also ended up recruiting a member to the group who is based in Gothenburg and happened to be in Orlando for the conference.

The photo below is from Chris Williams, showing the sign and an enthusiastic Rob Barnes (other faces anonymized by me!):

Next year I hope to get one or two early events in the year, but I am fully aware this might not be a reality.

Microsoft MVP

#

Early this year I was contacted by fellow HashiCorp Ambassador (and Microsoft MVP) Ritesh Hegde who wanted to nominate me to be a Microsoft MVP.

I won’t lie, I have wanted to become a Microsoft MVP for some time but I promised myself I would never ask to be nominated. I wanted to be recognized and nominated without influencing anybody to make this decision. I even worked together with a number of Microsoft MVPs for close to two years without getting a hint of a nomination², so I was really glad when Ritesh reached out!

Once nominated I sent my application and waited patiently for the 90 days the review process takes. Then, on 1st of June I got the final decision: I was now a Microsoft MVP in the Azure Infrastructure as Code category.

Following my nomination I have continued producing content like before, with a slight preference for posting Azure-related content. However, I have not stopped posting content related to AWS or other platforms.

Books

#

This year I released the Azure edition of my Terraform Authoring and Operations Professional study guide!

This edition of the book closely follows the AWS edition, but it had to be extended to cover a few necessary details for Azure.

I am confident the book will prepare you for the types of tasks you will encounter during the exam. Speaking of exam, when will the actual exam for Azure be available? I did the alpha testing of the exam in September, and once the alpha testing is done there will be a period of beta testing, followed by the release of the exam. I have no further insights into when it will be available, but I hope it will happen in the first half of 2026! To be seen.

My book is available (in digital format) on Leanpub.

Apart from the Azure book my AWS book has been going strong. I have given away many physical copies of the book throughout the year. In fact, I have not sold a single physical copy. If you want one, you can have it for free - assuming you win one of the competitions that I arrange! During the year I’ve had two LinkedIn Live events where I have given away books, and I arranged a giveaway competition live during HashiConf.

Apart from my self-published books I did submit a book proposal to O’Reilly earlier this year but got it rejected. I put some effort into that proposal so I had some confidence it would be accepted, but not at this time.

LinkedIn

#

LinkedIn is not the perfect platform, but it’s currently the only social platform where I am active apart from my blog.

I’ve grown with a bit over 2000 followers this year, which is close to a 100% increase in overall followers. In my “LinkedIn wrapped” summary of the year it said I have actually gained over 3000 followers. I suppose they include followers that later unfollowed - and if they do, I am worried about that large number!

An unfortunate trend on LinkedIn is AI-slop. I don’t think LinkedIn is unique in this, of course. I see tons of Terraform-related posts bring up the same thing over and over again. These posts usually follow the following format:

Hook

Extend the hook a little bit. Explain that you didn’t do whatever the post is about but now you’re doing it. Alternatively explain how you see tons of teams and organizations do this.

This is why it matters
✅ Bullet point 1
✅ Bullet point 2
✅ Bullet point 3

A question

There are certain pictures that get repeated ad-infinitum as well, the most common one I see is this:

I find it frustrating that these specific posts are promoting a structure that is not ideal. And it keeps getting repeated over and over, each person slightly editing the message. Where does it originally come from? Why do people keep sharing it? I have many questions!

I also see many posts related to modifying the Terraform state using terraform state commands and the terraform import command. These are legacy commands. You should prefer using the configuration-driven option to import, move, and remove resources.

When I encounter these posts I try to add a comment about this, slowly informing one person at a time of the “new” way of doing it. New in the sense that it has been available for 1-2 years already.

Conferences

#

I did not go to many conferences this year. The exhaustive list is as follows:

• HashiDays (London)
• HashiConf (San Francisco)
• IBM TechXchange (Orlando)

(I do not include work-related conferences in this list.)

Next year I will hopefully go to a few more. I am already booked to go to the MVP Summit in Redmond at the end of March. Looking forward to that!

I also hope to visit HashiConf/TechXchange (both in Atlanta at the same dates) and perhaps Microsoft Ignite in San Francisco. Plus, if any of my submitted talks to various conferences is accepted I will of course go there as well!

YouTube

#

Last year I mentioned that perhaps 2025 will be the year I start producing YouTube content. That did not happen. I would say I am closer than ever to take the required step. Maybe 2026 will be the year?

The closest I got this year was that I recorded a lightboard session at IBM TechXchange. I did it just to try out the technology, and it was amazing! If I had a spare $30,000 I would definitely buy the complete setup. I am considering buying a cheaper desktop-version instead, to be seen!

Consulting

#

On January 13 I started a new position as a cloud engineer/architect consultant at Accelerate. Accelerate was a partner with HashiCorp, and is now a partner with IBM. This has allowed me to work almost exclusively with HashiCorp products in some way throughout the year. My work has mainly revolved around Terraform, but a little bit of Vault and Consul has made guest appearances.

This has not only been a happy tale. When you work with HashiCorp products professionally you encounter the dark side of the coin: billing, contracts, etc. I am not going to lie: the pricing feels a bit aggressive for some of the features you are paying for. There, I said it! The pricing makes promoting HashiCorp products a challenge.

Summary

#

What to make of this year? Overall I am satisfied with what I achieved this year.

The best parts from the year:

• I am very satisfied with what I accomplished blog-wise, both here on mattias.engineer and as a freelance blogger elsewhere.
• Work-wise I have had a good year where I got to do a lot of fun and rewarding work, and I hope it will continue in the same spirit next year.
• I got two recognitions that I am very proud of: Microsoft MVP and HashiCorp Ambassador.

The most spectacular failures from this year were:

• Only got one speaking abstract accepted (HashiConf).
• Got a book proposal to O’Reilly rejected.
• I applied to become an AWS Community Builder early in the year but my application was rejected. I didn’t mention this somewhere else in this post because there was no good section to put it in!

What are my goals for 2026?

• Keep producing quality blog posts. I do not have a goal of producing more blog content than during 2025!
• Speak more! I do not want to set a numeric goal this year, but let’s just say that more than 1 occasion would be great!
• Go to a few more conferences throughout the year to learn more, meet more people, and get more fun swag!
• If the winds are just right I hope to be renewed as an HashiCorp Ambassador and Microsoft MVP!
• Get started with my YouTube channel. Let’s make this goal official to keep me accountable!

I have one more exciting thing coming up that I have already started working on, more on that soon!