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Virtual OC
About

Paul Wood

Paul is a Microsoft cloud consultant and founder of Virtual OC. He blends delivery leadership with hands-on build work, helping public sector and regulated enterprises modernise securely, automate the busywork, and keep stakeholders confident throughout the change.

Focus areas

  • Designing automation guardrails across PowerShell, Azure Automation, Logic Apps, and API Management.
  • Advising on Microsoft Copilot Studio adoption and responsible AI workflows.
  • Modern workplace security with Entra ID, Global Secure Access, and conditional access baselines.
  • Executive-ready delivery comms so technology decisions stay aligned to outcomes.

How Paul works

  • Comfortable in the details: builds the automations, writes the runbooks, joins incident bridges.
  • Operator mindset: balances resilience, governance, and productivity for hybrid estates.
  • Transparent storyteller: distils progress for execs with evidence, risks, and next steps.

Selected engagements

UK public sector2024

Copilot readiness with enterprise guardrails

Built a Microsoft Copilot adoption programme that aligned information protection, data boundaries, and exec communication so 20k staff could experiment safely.

  • Copilot
  • Data Governance
  • Change Management
Regulated enterprise2023

Automation runway for product teams

Stood up reusable integration templates, pipelines, and runbooks so app squads could ship Logic Apps and Power Platform automations without breaching policy.

  • Logic Apps
  • Power Platform
  • Governance
Financial services2022

Hybrid cloud integration playbook

Delivered an API-led platform connecting Azure, AWS, and on-prem systems with hardened API Management policies, observability, and incident automation.

  • Azure
  • AWS
  • API Management

Timeline

  1. 2024
    Founder, Virtual OC
    Virtual OC

    Built a modern publication platform to share pragmatic guidance on Microsoft cloud automation with daily AI-assisted posts.

  2. 2020
    Principal Consultant
    Microsoft cloud specialist

    Guided public sector and regulated enterprises through Microsoft 365 modernisation, zero-trust baselines, and automation delivery.

  3. 2015
    Cloud & automation engineer
    UK enterprise

    Introduced automation, observability, and runbook-led operations for hybrid estates using Microsoft-first tooling.

Connect

Interested in collaborating or booking Paul for a speaking engagement? Reach out via the contact form or connect on LinkedIn to start the conversation.