The first meetup of the year took place on Tuesday 3rd March at the Hilton Hotel at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton.
As proud sponsors of this Microsoft cloud meetup, Mexa Solutions joined more than 35 attendees, including professionals and end users. We spent the evening networking, chatting with clients and candidates, and listening to some great speakers.
A Community Powered Evening
We arrived early to help set up the event room, which sits within the cricket ground, making it a quirky venue. By around 6:30 to 6:45 attendees started to arrive, all looking excited for the evening to begin.
Everyone was welcomed and given a name badge so it was easy to mingle and chat with fellow attendees. A bit of networking took place before everyone started to take their seats ready for the evening to begin.
Interactive Quiz
This year the user group started a little differently with an interactive Q and A that allowed the audience to take part in questions around the three topics of the evening from the speakers. It was great to see the whole room get involved.
Nathan did a great job of putting this section together and we cannot wait for it to feature in future events.
Session 1 With Mitesh Chauhan
Mitesh Chauhan, the Managing Director at LA Net, who also kindly sponsored the event, was the first to deliver his talk. His presentation was titled “Are There Gremlins in Your Azure Environment Leaving Doors Open?”
In his session he explained what to check and how to keep Azure environments secure and compliant. He shared the top five items from his checklist and demonstrated how his team kept customer secure scores at 80 percent and above.
Session 2 With Anthony Mashford
Anthony Mashford, a Cloud Solutions Architect at NetApp working in the EMEA Azure Business Group, was the next speaker to take to the floor. His talk focused on the topic “Storage is the foundation. Everything else is scaffolding.”
During the session he explored how cloud migrations often start with applications but can slow down when the data layer struggles to keep up.
This session flipped that approach by prioritising the data foundation first, making application cutovers faster, safer, and easier to modernise. We also looked at Azure native first party storage services built for enterprise performance and reliability, and why these capabilities are critical when moving demanding workloads and shared file estates into Azure.
Networking and Dinner
We then took an extended break to grab some food and make the most of the networking opportunities. It was great to see both new and familiar faces and have a proper catch up with people.
It was also nice to see people we have helped place at different companies within the cloud and technology space.
3rd Speaker Ed O’Brien
After the short break it was Ed O’Brien’s turn. Ed is a Cloud Practice Director for Sopra Steria. In his talk titled “ERA of Unified Cloud Control How AI is Reshaping IT in 2026” he explained how AI has shifted from supporting IT to actually running it.
In 2026 cloud, operations, security, and engineering are converging under AI driven unified control, with platforms predicting, governing, and self optimising with minimal human intervention.
He explored how this autonomy is redefining the way enterprises build, secure, and operate cloud at scale, and highlighted what leaders need to do to stay ahead.
Final Wrap Up
Before we said goodbye, Nathan ran one final Q and A using the answers gathered from the first session at the start of the evening. This was really insightful as we saw all three speakers have the chance to answer the questions.
Once that was finished we had the opportunity to select three lucky attendees who won the big prizes of the evening.
- 3 day ticket to the European Power Platform Conference
- 3 day ticket to ESPC 2026
- 3 day ticket to DynamicsMinds 2026
It was such a great evening seeing both new and familiar faces, which makes us even more excited for the upcoming events and a massive shout out to Aaron Randell for putting together another great evening.
Next Events
The South Coast Microsoft User Group has two more events taking place this year on May 5th and July 7th. Speakers are already confirmed and you can sign up now. We looked forward to seeing you there!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the South Coast Cloud User Group?
The South Coast Cloud User Group is a community led meetup for cloud professionals, IT specialists, developers, and technology enthusiasts interested in Microsoft cloud technologies. The events focus on learning, networking, and sharing knowledge around platforms such as Azure, Power Platform, and other cloud solutions.
Where are the events held?
The March 2026 meetup took place at the Hilton at the Utilita Bowl, located within the Utilita Bowl cricket ground. The venue offers a unique setting for networking and technical discussions.
Was there networking at the event?
Yes. The meetup included dedicated networking time before the talks and during the dinner break, giving attendees the opportunity to connect with other professionals, discuss cloud technologies, and share experiences from across the industry.
When is the next meetup?
The next events from the Microsoft South Coast Cloud User Group are scheduled for 5th of May and 7th of July, and attendees can sign up through the Meetup page.
This blog was written by Hollie Agombar, Senior Digital Marketing Executive at Mexa Solutions