Walk away with
a clearer path
than you arrived with.
The speaker who turns curiosity into career currency. He helps organizations stop fearing AI and start using it.
Whether you’re an event planner looking for a speaker, a tech professional chasing certifications, a small business owner trying to put AI to work, or an MSP expanding your offerings, Sly built everything here around one outcome:
You leave knowing what to do next, and believing you can do it.
“The goal was never the certifications. It was always who I was becoming.”
Sly Gittens
How Sly Can Help You
Four doors.
Pick the one that’s yours.
Tap a card to go straight to what you came for.
Founder · Tech Simplified
Not here to impress you.
Here to move you forward.
Sylvester “Sly” Gittens fell in love with computers at age eight. Taking old machines apart, putting them back together, and learning everything about what made them work. Routers. Switches. Packet captures. The guts of it.
That curiosity never left. At the University at Buffalo, he majored in Business Administration with a dual concentration in IT and Marketing. He bet early that the intersection would matter. Then Facebook and Google became the biggest marketing companies on Earth, and the bet paid off.
From there, the learning stacked: servers, switches, data centers, virtualization, cybersecurity, cloud, AI. Each wave was another chance to get curious. Today, as Microsoft’s Global Cross Solution Architect, he works with some of the company’s largest partners worldwide, redefining how they go to market so their teams can empower the Microsoft channel to make real impact in real communities.
He also founded Tech Simplified (103K+ YouTube subscribers), hosts the top-10 globally ranked Women in Technology podcast, and wrote two books. One for his daughter. One for anyone trying to stay ahead.
It looks like hustle. It’s actually just curiosity, still doing its job since age eight.
He keynoted the University at Buffalo Class of 2026 and guest-lectured to the senior marketing class at SUNY Brockport. He has delivered sessions at Pax8 Beyond Amsterdam, Microsoft, Ingram Micro, WIT Network, 100 Black Men, and Anclote High School. He wrote two books. One for his daughter. One for anyone trying to stay ahead. He hosts a globally top-10 ranked podcast amplifying women in tech.
Everything Sly does is designed to give someone else a shorter path to clarity. Your next step gets easier because Sly has already walked it.
This is my heartbeat.
This is my why.
Before the keynotes, before Microsoft, before Tech Simplified, there's Molly and the kids. Everything on this site exists because they do. The curiosity that started at age eight? They are the reason I keep it burning.
When I talk about building a legacy, this is what I mean. When I say my daughter inspired the Women in Technology podcast. I mean it. When I write a book called Daddy’s Little Girl. It's for her, first.
The Gittens family. Roots in Barbados and Brooklyn. Always Be Learning.
Your audience arrives
with questions.
They leave with answers.
Sly doesn’t deliver information, he shifts perspective. His keynotes are built for the moment when an audience needs to stop fearing change and start moving through it.
What your audience experiences
Real rooms. Real audiences. Real energy.
Class of 2026
Career Talk
Everything to make
booking easy.
Social Proof
What people say after
working with Sly.
From audiences. From mentees. From people Sly has shared the stage with.
Sly is a rare combination of technical excellence and charismatic leadership. His ability to connect with people, whether through training, thought leadership, or partner strategy, is second to none. Anyone who has the chance to work with Sly will quickly see why he’s a force in the industry.
Sly possesses a remarkable ability to break down complex concepts into digestible pieces. His attentiveness to my learning needs was commendable, he consistently ensured I grasped each topic thoroughly before moving forward. His mentorship significantly contributed to my professional growth.
Sly is a remarkable alumnus. Each event he attends, he brings his passion for helping others; his enthusiasm and energy are contagious. Our students leave his sessions uplifted and with a list of action items to follow up on. Sly’s dedication to our students and school is phenomenal.
Sly has a one of a kind mindset and is always trying to progress himself as well as others around him. What I found most unique about Sly is his generosity to help others and his creativity. He has shown his capability to succeed in any project or role he takes part in.
Stop guessing.
Pick your path.
Sly has 100+ certifications. He’s walked every one of these roads. These four roadmaps distill that experience into a clear, step-by-step path, so you stop wondering where to start and start building credentials that open real doors.
Forget certs for a second. Which of these actually sounds exciting to you?
Pick the one that sounds closest. There’s no wrong answer.
Your answer tells me how fast to go.
Based on your answers, this path fits best.
Microsoft is retiring 11 certifications in 2026 and launching new AI-focused replacements. The paths below reflect the latest roadmap, including AI-900→AI-901 and the new AI-103.
Become a Microsoft AI Expert
Walk away ready to build, deploy, and lead AI solutions on Azure.
View roadmap →Full Guide AvailableBecome a Microsoft Security Expert
Walk away qualified to protect, detect, and respond at enterprise scale.
View roadmap →Full Guide AvailableBecome a Microsoft Data Expert
Walk away able to design, manage, and extract value from enterprise data.
View roadmap →Full Guide AvailableBecome a Cloud Infrastructure Expert
Walk away qualified to build and architect the cloud environments companies run on.
View roadmap →Full Guide AvailableBetween certs? Keep learning for free.
Real walkthroughs. Real labs. Zero paywalls. New content every week.
Always Be Learning, in writing.
Field notes from the AI, cloud, and security frontier. New essays drop on Substack — this list updates itself.
Read it once.
Use it for years.
Daddy’s Little Girl
Stories From A First-Time Dad
Written for Gabriella. Felt by every parent who’s looked at their child and thought: I want to be someone worth looking up to.
Permission to be present. For the parent who wants to lead at home the same way they lead everywhere else, with intention.
Always Be Learning
The Mindset That Powers Success
The Always Be Learning mindset isn’t motivation. It’s infrastructure. This book shows you how to build it.
A repeatable system for staying ahead, in any industry, at any career stage. Built from 100+ certifications and one unshakeable belief.
Hear from the women
actually building the future.
Ranked top 10 globally, Women in Technology with Sly Gittens gives you direct access to the conversations, decisions, and breakthroughs of women reshaping the tech industry.
“I have a daughter who’s going to grow up in tech. I want her to see what’s possible.”, Sly
Available everywhere you listen
On leading with purpose, navigating tech as a woman, and building a legacy that outlasts any title.