Riccardo Becker works full time as a principal IT architect for CGI in the Netherlands. He holds several certifications and his background in computing goes way back to 1998, when he started working with good old Visual Basic 5.0 (or was it 6.0?). Ever since, he has fulfilled several roles, such as a developer, lead developer, architect, project leader, practice manager. Recently, he decided to accept the role of a principal IT architect where he focuses on innovation, cutting-edge technology, and specifically on Microsoft Azure, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing in general.

In 2007, he joined the Microsoft LEAP program where he got a peek at the move Microsoft was about to make on their road to the cloud. Pat Helland gave him that insight, and since the first release of Microsoft Azure on PDC 2008, he started to focus on it, keeping track of the progress and the maturity of the platform. In the past few years, he has also done a lot of work on incubation with his employer, raising awareness of cloud computing in general and Microsoft Azure in particular.