New on Microsoft AppSource – December 8-14, 2023

New on Microsoft AppSource – December 8-14, 2023

by | Dec 28, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

We continue to expand the Microsoft AppSource ecosystem. For this volume, 115 new offers successfully met the onboarding criteria and went live. See details of the new offers below:



































































































































































































































































































































































































Akamai Segmentation: This product from Akamai Technologies simplifies and accelerates segmentation projects, providing affordable and context-rich visibility into traffic across cloud, PaaS, on-prem, and hybrid environments. It offers a single infrastructure-agnostic tool to manage policies across all environments, attaches policies to workloads, and provides an overlay segmentation solution that reduces friction and decreases convergence time.
Drill Down Combo Bar PRO (Pin): From ZoomCharts, Drill Down Combo Bar PRO (Pin) is a customizable chart used by 80% of Fortune 200 companies. It offers multiple chart types, stacking and clustering options, on-chart interactions, and full customization. Popular use cases include sales and marketing, human resources, accounting and finance, and manufacturing. The visual is mobile-friendly and comes with 30 days of free access to paid features.
Drill Down Timeline PRO (Pin): This customizable visual from ZoomCharts allows for time-based data visualization and drill-down to specific periods. The visual is suitable for various industries, including banking, sales, IT, logistics, and manufacturing. It offers in-app purchases and comes with 30 days free access to paid features. ZoomCharts visuals are mobile-friendly and offer interactive drilldowns, smooth animations, and rich customization options.
Drill Down Waterfall PRO (Pin): This customizable chart from ZoomCharts, known for its smooth animations, offers intuitive and interactive drilldowns, zooming, and rich customization options for creating reports that empower business users. Popular use cases include accounting, inventory management, human resources, and sales/marketing. The visual is mobile-friendly and comes with 30 days free access to paid features. 
GDPR Registry: A data registry is essential for companies to keep track of personal data and potential breaches. From PD-Consult, GDPR Registry keeps track of all the personal data a company gathers. It contains information on what, where, why, and how long data is kept. In case of a data leak, the breach registry is also included.
HumanSoft – HR Solution Built on Power Platform: HumanSoft from Genbil Software is comprehensive HCM software for medium to large organizations. It integrates with Microsoft Teams and covers the entire employee lifecycle from hiring to retiring, including core HR functions, self-service portal, recruitment, onboarding/offboarding, learning and development, performance and recognition, talent and succession management, and reporting and analytics.
Kollective EdgeCache: Kollective’s EdgeCache is a video-caching platform that streamlines bandwidth requests, groups streaming traffic to a central point, and limits concurrent connections to supercharge network efficiencies. It requires no additional hardware and can handle requests behind a firewall, enable backhaul network setups, and simplify tunneled remote worker scenarios.

Go further with workshops, proofs of concept, and implementations
Contract Management System: 4-Week Implementation: From LTIMindtree, the Contract Manager app automates creation, review, approval, and signing. It eliminates manual activities, enhances collaboration, increases efficiency, and provides an audit trail. The implementation process includes discovery, assessment, design, and MVP. The deliverables include a technical design document, architecture diagram, recommendations, and app inventory.
Copilot Discovery Assessment: This MindWorks discovery assessment prepares customers for Microsoft Copilot adoption. It helps identify business scenarios, optimize workplace technology, and leverage AI. It includes the Envision Workshop, which showcases Copilot use cases and designs custom use cases for corporations. Also included is the Advisory, which helps build AI and Copilot strategy, calculate ROI, and develop an implementation road map.
Crafting Your Vision with the AI and Copilot Blueprint: 10-Week Program: From Changing Social, this program offers AI-powered training and readiness services to help organizations fully utilize Microsoft 365. The service includes a comprehensive introduction to AI, deep dives into Copilot’s functionalities, and training on apps and permissions. The program also includes stakeholder mapping, pilot deployment, and executive coaching.
Customer Portal: 4-Month Implementation: From Spyglass MTG, this implementation helps organizations create customer collaboration portals using Microsoft Power Pages. The process involves reviewing current engagement methods, identifying gaps, designing and implementing the portal, and providing post-implementation support. The result is a fully functional portal that enhances customer engagement and communication strategies.
Deployment Advisor: 1-Week Implementation: This tool from LTIMindtree compares Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solutions and counts components in both environments, helping end users understand differences between solutions. It saves time during development and deployment, improves solution quality, and predicts and prevents issues that could impact revenue. Ideal for comparing instances and ensuring they’re in sync.
Dynamics 365 Business Central QuickStart Basic: Prysma offers implementation services for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, including financial management, sales, inventory, and purchasing. The team provides consultation, training, data migration, and support. The client is responsible for data extraction and validation, and for designating a key user. Joint tasks include defining analytical dimensions and configuration.
Dynamics 365 Business Central Workshop: From Covenant Technology Partners, this workshop identifies a company’s needs in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central through staff interviews and process analysis. It evaluates current accounting software, maps current and future processes, conducts gap analysis, and creates a road map for implementing solutions. The workshop can be conducted in two four-hour sessions or multiple days.
Enhance Identity Security with Entra ID P2: 6-Week Implementation/Proof of Concept: This service from Bulletproof provides Microsoft 365 customers with best practice implementations and understanding of Entra ID P2, which offers a comprehensive solution with features such as multi-factor authentication, conditional access policies, identity protection, privileged identity management, and password-less authentication. 
Expense720 Onboarding: Expense720 is a simple-to-use app that digitizes invoice- and expense-handling processes, helping to avoid common problems such as time-consuming tasks, slow approvals, compliance challenges, security concerns, and inefficiencies. On720.com offers onboarding services to ensure successful implementation and setup, with consultancy available for more advanced use cases. 
FSM Mobility: 8-Week Consultation and Implementation Workshop: FSM Mobility Application streamlines field technicians’ work order journey with immediate data sync across devices. LTIMindtree offers a free workshop to assess field service productivity and create a modernization road map. The Field Service Mobile Application complements the Field Service Module and can be customized as per business requirements.
HCLTech’s PDOC Digital Workplace Migration and Modernization Services: HCLTech offers services for Microsoft 365, covering modernization assessment, migration services, Windows 11 transformation, Azure Virtual Desktop migration and implementation, virtual workplace, and workplace automation solutions. Its services enable enterprises to enhance productivity, collaboration, security, and user experience. 
Incident Response Retainer: Sentinel Technologies offers incident response services for Microsoft 365, providing remote and on-site support, tried and tested tools, full-scope forensics analysis, and technical expertise beyond cyber security.  Sentinel’s around-the-clock rapid response helps minimize business impacts and restore normal service. Insurance and third-party friendly. It has proactive services, discounted rates, contracted service levels, and flexible use provisions.
MDS AI + Copilot Technical Advisory Workshop: 3-Day Engagement: This Maureen Data Systems workshop includes three defined milestones to help customers assess different Copilot solutions and align their enterprise productivity with their business objectives. At the end of the workshop, customers will have identified specific enterprise AI objectives and received guidance from experienced IT professionals.
MDS Microsoft 365 Copilot Extensibility Workshop: 3-Day Engagement: This Maureen Data Systems workshop covers three defined milestones and includes sharing Microsoft Azure concepts and delivering a detailed road map. Outcomes include a Copilot customization and connection strategy, evaluation of content and data operations, technical insight, and responsible AI practices.
Microsoft 365 Compliance Consulting: Fujitsu offers specialized consulting services for achieving data security and compliance for Microsoft Azure and 365. Fujitsu, a global system integrator with extensive experience in compliance consulting for Azure and Microsoft 365, identifies personal data, assesses existing privacy practices, and provides recommendations for improvement. 
Microsoft 365 Copilot Immersive Workshop: 2-Day Workshop: This service from Noventiq helps organizations explore the possibilities of AI with Microsoft Copilot and create an implementation and adoption plan tailored to their needs. The workshop showcases Copilot capabilities within Microsoft 365 and aims to accelerate AI and Copilot journeys, empower users, increase user satisfaction and engagement, and drive innovation and transformation.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Optimization: Alfa Connections offers a workshop to help customers migrate data to Microsoft 365 Copilot effectively and securely. The workshop provides reports and suggestions on data challenges, governance, security, and adoption. The engagement includes identifying high-value scenarios, showcasing intelligence, and developing an implementation plan.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness: Alfa Connections offers a workshop to help customers migrate data to Microsoft 365 Copilot effectively and securely. The workshop provides reports and suggestions on data challenges, governance, security, and adoption. The engagement includes identifying high-value scenarios, showcasing intelligence, and developing an implementation plan.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness Workshop: Advaiya Solutions’ Microsoft 365 Copilot workshop offers insights into its capabilities, live demos of common tasks, and strategies for harnessing its power. Professionals across various industries can attend to gain insights into the potential impact of Copilot on productivity, efficiency, and the overall digital experience.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Workshop: This Trans4mation IT workshop targets business decision makers, IT professionals, and adoption managers. It offers insights into AI integration and practical applications tailored to participants’ needs. The workshop covers Microsoft 365 Copilot, with inspiring presentations on AI possibilities and strategic planning for implementation. Participants gain practical skills and strategies for effective AI integration. 
Microsoft 365 Information Protection: 1-Day Workshop: Grant Thornton offers a workshop that provides strategic and technical advice on Microsoft 365 implementation, including discovery and classification of data, labeling strategy, metrics development, system integration, and data governance. The workshop helps establish goals, identify solutions, develop a roadmap, enhance security posture, and determine metrics for program accomplishments and risks.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Copilot Training: 3-Hour Session: Advaiya Solutions’ Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Copilot Training helps sellers and administrators maximize seller-customer engagement through an intelligent assistant. The three-hour session covers using Copilot with CRM, Teams, and Outlook, and attendees will gain proficiency in Copilot and effective prompts. Customizations and configurations can also be added.
Securing On-Prem AD with Defender for Identity: 3-Week Implementation/Proof of Concept: This service from Bulletproof helps detect advanced attacks in hybrid environments by monitoring user behavior and activities with learning-based analytics. It protects user identities and credentials stored in Active Directory and provides clear incident information on a simple timeline for fast triage.
SVA Workshop: Microsoft and Data Protection: Available only in German, this workshop from SVA discusses the challenges of protecting IT systems from unwanted disruptions and attacks, particularly in the context of cloud computing. It explores the legal and regulatory frameworks necessary for efficient use of cloud services, with a focus on Microsoft’s approach to data privacy and security in the German and European markets. 

Contact our partners
3DL
App Catalog
Aptean Profiles for Food and Beverage
BASE-One
BE-terna Connector App Commerce Interface to Fashion
Business Central Upgrade: 2-Hour Assessment
CAAPS (Complete Automated Accounts Payable Solution)
CAP Bati
Cloud Phone System
CloudMonitor Enterprise FinOps
CRM Launchpad
Croatian Payroll Module
Cyber Security and Digital Infrastructure
Cyber Security Assessment
Data Integrator for Power Automate SFTP
DataViz Power BI Assessment
Decisio Cloud for Water (C4W) – Leakage and Demand Management
Decisio Cloud for Water (C4W)
E-Invoicing Solution
Engagy360
Epiq Microsoft 365 Copilot Optimization with Microsoft Purview
ERP Link for Solidworks, Autodesk, Siemens, PTC, EPLAN
EvergreenWorx Operations
Eye Able
Financial Services Blueprint
Footprints AI
Fx Email Analyzer
Garage Hive UK Features
GO Portal for tegossuite
GO Portal for tegossuite – ECM Adapter
GodTier
H&G Microsoft 365 Control: 2-Hour Assessment
Hailey HR
Haufe X360
Horizon Chart by Powerviz
Hotel Suite
Information Management: 3- to 4-Week Assessment
Information Management – Records Management Capability Assessment and Microsoft 365 Road Map: 5-Week Assessment
Integrated Supply Chain Management for the Automotive Industry
iStratgo HR, Performance and Talent Management Software
John Deere Financial Dealer Integration
KailoFlow
Kalpataru Field Sales Force Application
Kameleon Document Automation
Karman Reporting Hub
Kortext Arcturus Transactable Offer
Lighthouse Microsoft Data Security Check: 4-Week Assessment
LS Retail Delivery
Madden Analytics Integration
Meeting Workspace Service
Metaverse
Microsoft Entra: IAM Review and Assessment
Migr8 for Dynamics 365 Customer Service
Migr8 for Dynamics 365 Field Service
Migr8 for Dynamics 365 Project Operations
Migration Assistance for Business Central: 3-Week Assessment
Monitoring Service for Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktops
Nintex Automation
Offision
Outerbounds Platform
People.ai Graph Connector
Pitric SaaS
Point-to-Point (P2P) Migration and App Modernization: 4-Week Assessment
Power BI Governance Plan: 3-Week Assessment
Power Platform: 2-Week Discovery and Assessment
PowerBPM Enterprise Process Management System
PowerEIP Enterprise Information Portal
PZE PM Synchronisation
Quality Control
Quantium Technology
RepsMate PoC
Reward Management
Self Service Portal – Alna HR Office WTA Advanced
SharePoint Migration Services: 4-Week Assessment Followed by Estimated Duration of Implementation
SIEVERS Connector to SharePoint
Skan Process Intelligence
SoftForge Checklists
Spendkey
Success Insurance Reporting and Intermediary System (IRIS)
Tiklo
Translate.Website
VR 360 with AI
Workheld Flow
Yoonit

 


This content was generated by Microsoft Azure OpenAI and then revised by human editors.

Securely uploading blob files to Azure Storage from API Management

Securely uploading blob files to Azure Storage from API Management

by | Dec 27, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Agenda


This article will provide a demonstration on how to utilize either SAS token authentication or managed identity from API Management to make requests to Azure Storage. Furthermore, it will explore and compare the differences between these two options.


 


Comparision


The choice between Managed Identity and SAS Token depends on factors such as the level of control required, the duration of access, and the specific security requirements of your application. Both options offer different levels of access control and security features for accessing Azure Storage.


 


Azure Managed Identity vs. SAS (Shared Access Signature) Token




















Authentication Advantage Disadvantage
Azure Managed Identity

  1. Azure Managed Identity provides an automatic and seamless way to authenticate with Azure Storage.

  2. Managed Identity allows you to specify the necessary scopes and permissions required for accessing Azure Storage. You can assign specific roles to the managed identity.

  3. With Managed Identity, you can assign RBAC roles at a granular level to control access to Azure Storage resources.

  4. Managed Identity offers a secure way to access Azure Storage, as it eliminates the need to store and manage secrets or credentials in your application code.

  1. While Managed Identity offers RBAC, the level of granularity might be limited compared to SAS tokens.

  2. Managed Identity tokens have a default lifetime and are automatically refreshed by Azure. There is limited control over token expiration.
SAS Token

  1. SAS token allows you to define specific permissions and access levels for resources in Azure Storage. This includes read, write, delete, or list operations.

  2. SAS tokens are generated for specific resources or containers in Azure Storage, providing a more restricted access scope compared to managed identities.

  3. You can set an expiration time for the SAS token, after which it becomes invalid. This provides an additional layer of security and helps to control access to storage resources.

  4. With SAS tokens, you can grant temporary access to specific resources or containers without the need for permanent credentials.

  1. SAS tokens require manual generation and management, which can be cumbersome and time-consuming, especially when dealing with multiple client applications or frequent token rotation.

  2. SAS tokens have an expiration date, and once expired, they become invalid. This requires additional effort to generate and distribute new tokens to maintain access, which may impact the continuity of your application.

  3. If not properly secured, an exposed SAS token could lead to unauthorized access to your Azure Storage resources. It is crucial to ensure secure handling and storage of SAS tokens to prevent potential security breaches.

  4. Revoking access granted through a SAS token can be challenging, as it usually requires updating the access policy or generating a new token. This might cause inconvenience and delay if you need to revoke access quickly and efficiently.

 


It is crucial to select the appropriate authentication method for accessing Azure Storage based on your specific use cases. For instance, if the permission for your client applications is permanent and long-term, it may be preferable to leverage Azure Managed Identity, as the assigned permission remains in place indefinitely. On the other hand, if you only need to grant temporary access to your client applications, it is more suitable to use SAS Token. SAS tokens can be created with an expiration date, and the permission will automatically expire once the token becomes invalid. This grants more control over the duration of access for temporary scenarios.


 


Below are the instructions to implement both Azure Managed Identity and SAS Token authentication options.


 


OPTION 1: Authentication via managed identity


This shows you how to create a managed identity for an Azure API Management instance and how to use it to access Azure Storage. A managed identity generated by Microsoft Entra ID allows your API Management instance to easily and securely access Azure Storage which is protected by Microsoft Entra ID. Azure manages this identity, so you don’t have to provision or rotate any secrets. 


 


Configuration


The initial step involves enabling the managed identity for your APIM service, followed by assigning the appropriate permissions for blob uploading. You must go to the “Managed identities” blade to enable the system assigned identity firstly.


Una_Chen_2-1703492073243.png


 


To add the storage permission, you can navigate to the same blade and click on the “Azure role assignments” button. It is important to carefully consider the role assignment based on your specific use cases, as there are multiple built-in roles available for authorizing access to blob data using Microsoft Azure Active Directory. For testing purposes, you can grant the “Storage Blob Data Contributor” permission to the managed identity.


Una_Chen_3-1703492300610.png


 


For more detailed information regarding the built-in roles for blobs, please refer to the documentation provided below.



Assign an Azure role for access to blob data – Azure Storage | Microsoft Learn


Authorize access to blobs using Microsoft Entra ID – Azure Storage | Microsoft Learn


 


Policy


In the section, I included a policy for authentication with managed identity and also for rewriting the blob path. This example utilizes the name of the storage account that is set within the named values.


 


 


 


 

<rewrite-uri template="@{
       var requestId = context.RequestId;
       return $"/{{blob-container-name}}/log-{requestId}.txt?{{blob-sas-token}}";

       2019-07-07


       BlockBlob

@(context.Request.Body.As(preserveContent: true))

 


 


 


 


 


Within the section, to make the error response from Storage side easier to troubleshoot, I use the policy to convert the response format, because it is generated in XML format.


 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 


Error example:


Una_Chen_4-1702888659061.png


 


Test


Simply using the test panel to do a test and check if everything works fine. The response will come back with 201-Created when the file has been uploaded successfully.


Una_Chen_2-1703493199335.png


 


The file upload to the storage container was successful.


Una_Chen_3-1703493212905.png


 


OPTION 2: Access Storage through SAS token 


This is a method to access Storage Account from APIM service using SAS token. By setting the SAS token as named values, it can help reuse the SAS token. 


 


One thing you might need to be careful about is that the SAS token should be handled and maintained manually because there is no integration between Storage Account and Key Vault for key re-creation.


 


Prerequisite


A SAS token is required before implementation. There are some ways to create a SAS token. You can generate the token from the Azure portal by selecting “Shared Access Signature” from the menu and providing the necessary information.


Una_Chen_0-1702888659042.png


 


Additionally, both Azure PowerShell and Azure CLI can be utilized to generate the token.


– By using the Azure PowerShell, the examples within the below documentation can help you to create the SAS token.


New-AzStorageAccountSASToken (Az.Storage) | Microsoft Learn


– By using Azure CLI


az storage account | Microsoft Learn


Example:


Una_Chen_1-1702888659048.png


 


Configuration


After generating the SAS token, let’s move forward to API management service to set up the required configurations to restore the SAS token in the Named values on for API reference.


Una_Chen_1-1703492056898.png


 


Policy


In the section, I added the policy for rewriting the blob path as well as assigning the SAS token. This example uses the name of Storage Account that is set in the named values.


 


 


 


 

<rewrite-uri template="@{
       var requestId = context.RequestId;
       return $"/{{blob-container-name}}/log-{requestId}.txt?{{blob-sas-token}}";

       2019-07-07


       BlockBlob

@(context.Request.Body.As(preserveContent: true))

 


 


 


 


 


Within the section, to make the error response from Storage side easier to troubleshoot, I use the policy to convert the response format, because it is generated in XML format.


 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 


Error example:


Una_Chen_4-1702888659061.png


 


Test


Simply using the test panel to do a test and check if everything works fine. The response will come back with 201-Created when the file has been uploaded successfully.


Una_Chen_0-1703493125789.png


 


The file upload to the storage container was successful.


Una_Chen_1-1703493148473.png


 


Conclusion


In conclusion, both Azure Managed Identity and SAS Token authentication methods offer secure ways to upload blob files to Azure Storage from API Management.


 


Azure Managed Identity provides seamless authentication and eliminates the need to store and manage credentials, improving security. It allows for granular access control through RBAC and is suitable for permanent permission scenarios. However, it is limited to Azure services and requires dependency on Azure AD.


 


SAS Token authentication offers greater flexibility with temporary access and fine-grained control over permissions. It allows for the generation of tokens with specific expiration dates, providing enhanced security. However, SAS token management can be more complex, requiring manual generation and distribution of tokens.


 


When choosing between the two methods, consider the longevity of permissions needed and the level of control required. Azure Managed Identity is ideal for long-term permissions. Assess your specific use case to determine the most secure and convenient authentication approach for uploading blob files to Azure Storage from API Management.



 

Adoption News and Resources – Wrapping up 2023

by | Dec 22, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Hello Friends!  It’s been a crazy 2023 and I have to believe that 2024 will be equally fast paced.  I posted a video with 3 tips to start the year strong in 2024 given all we are work on across Microsoft 365, Copilot and employee experience areas at Microsoft.  I hope you mostly fun and also useful. 


 


 


I know you will appreciate the downloadable copies of our LinkedIn Adoption Newsletter that I’ve created for you.  If you subscribe to our Microsoft Adoption News on LinkedIn then that is wonderful, but if not I wanted to give you a special link here so you don’t have to click around.  These documents have all the recent resources we’ve posted on adoption.microsoft.com (AMC), information from across our community and notes about AMC itself.  I’ve also included the digital download of an Adoption News Special Supplement – It’s not about the AI, it’s about the Trust – On Becoming an AI Powered Organization.  LinkedIn article links are here for the main Newsletter and here for the supplemental paper in case you’d rather engage or share from there.  


In this paper I discuss hypothesis and practices yielded from observing early adoption of Copilot experiences, reviewing research and listening to adoption specialist around the world.  I’m interested to hear your perspective on the micro-action mapping and the insights that precede that.  


 


Heather Cook and I will return on Monday, January 8th with another fast-paced episode of Mondays at Microsoft to help us keep track of the changes we find ourselves navigating.  I hope you can join us, when we stream live at 8am Pacific for 30 minutes or replay.  


 


More than anything I want to say thank you for all you are doing across the communities and in your organization.  We are the compass that will keep AI adoption on track.  My team and I are so thrilled to share this journey with you!  


 


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Check This Out! (CTO!) Guide (November 2023)

Check This Out! (CTO!) Guide (November 2023)

by | Dec 22, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Hi everyone! Brandon Wilson here once again with this month’s “Check This Out!” (CTO!) guide, and apologies for the delay!


 


These posts are only intended to be your guide, to lead you to some content of interest, and are just a way we are trying to help our readers a bit more, whether that is learning, troubleshooting, or just finding new content sources! We will give you a bit of a taste of the blog content itself, provide you a way to get to the source content directly, and help to introduce you to some other blogs you may not be aware of that you might find helpful. 


From all of us on the Core Infrastructure and Security Tech Community blog team, thanks for your continued reading and support!


 


 


BrandonWilson_30-1703283204399.jpeg


 


 


Title: Collecting Debug Information from Containerized Applications


Source: Ask The Performance Team


Author: Will Aftring


Publication Date: 11/17/2023


Content excerpt:


This blog post will assume that you have a fundamental understanding of Windows containers. If that isn’t the case, then then I highly recommend reading Get started: Run your first Windows container.


Many developers and IT Admins are in the midst of migrating long standing applications into containers to take advantage of the myriad of benefits made available with containerization.


NOTE: Not all applications are able to equally take advantage of the benefits of containerization. It is another tool for the toolbox to be used at your discretion.


But moving an existing application into a container can be a bit tricky. With this blog post I hope to help make that process a little bit easier for you.


 


BrandonWilson_1-1703282242295.jpeg


 


 


Title: Bring Azure to your System Center environment: Announcing GA of SCVMM enabled by Azure Arc


Source: Azure Arc


Author: Karthik_KR07


Publication Date: 11/15/2023


Content excerpt:


At Microsoft, we’re committed to providing our customers with the tools they need to succeed wherever they are. By extending Azure services to the customer’s preferred environments like System Center, we empower customers with access to Azure’s potential along with a consistent experience across their hybrid estate.  
Today we’re excited to deliver on that commitment as we announce that System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) enabled by Azure Arc is now generally available to manage SCVMM resources in Azure. 


 


BrandonWilson_2-1703282292509.jpeg


 


 


Title: The first Windows Server 2012/R2 ESU Patches are out! Are you protected?


Source: Azure Arc


Author: Aurnov Chattopadhyay


Publication Date: 11/27/2023


Content excerpt:


It’s been almost two weeks since the first post-End of Life Patch Tuesday for Windows Server 2012/R2.  To receive that critical security patch from November’s Patch Tuesday, your servers must be enrolled in Extended Security Updates. Fortunately, it’s not too late. You can enroll in WS2012 ESUs enabled by Azure Arc anytime, with just a few steps!


 


BrandonWilson_3-1703282305646.jpeg


 


 


Title: Discover the latest Azure optimization skilling resources


Source: Azure Architecture


Author: Megan Pennie


Publication Date: 11/8/2023


Content excerpt:


Optimizing your Azure cloud investments is crucial for your organization’s success, helping you minimize unnecessary expenses, and ultimately drive better ROI. At Microsoft, we’re committed to optimizing your Azure environments and teaching you how to do it with resources, tools, and guidance, supporting continuous improvement of your cloud architectures and workloads, in both new and existing projects. We want you to gain confidence to reach your cloud goals, to become more effective and efficient when you have a better grasp of how to work in the cloud most successfully. To do that, our wide range of optimization skilling opportunities help you confidently achieve your cloud goals, resulting in more effectiveness and efficiency through a deeper knowledge of successful cloud operations.


 


BrandonWilson_4-1703282315575.jpeg


 


 


Title: Deepening Well-Architected guidance for workloads hosted on Azure


Source: Azure Architecture


Author: Uli Homann


Publication Date: 11/14/2023


Content excerpt:


I am excited to announce a comprehensive refresh of the Well-Architected Framework for designing and running optimized workloads on Azure. Customers will not only get great, consistent guidance for making architectural trade-offs for their workloads, but they’ll also have much more precise instructions on how to implement this guidance within the context of their organization.


 


BrandonWilson_5-1703282326686.jpeg


 


 


Title: Start Your Cloud Adoption Journey with the New Azure Expert Assessment Offering!


Source: Azure Architecture


Author: Pratima Sharma


Publication Date: 11/28/2023


Content excerpt:


Are you looking for a way to accelerate your cloud journey and optimize your IT infrastructure, data, and applications? If so, you might be interested in the Brand New Azure Expert Assessment Offering!  It is being launched as a new option within the Microsoft Solution Assessment Program.  This is a free one-to-one offering from Microsoft that helps you plan your cloud adoption by collaborating with a Certified Azure  Expert who will personally guide you through the assessment, and will make remediation recommendations for your organization.


 


BrandonWilson_6-1703282334101.jpeg


 


 


Title: Reduce Compute Costs by Pausing VMs (now in public preview)


Source: Azure Compute


Author: Ankit Jain


Publication Date: 11/15/2023


Content excerpt:


We are excited to announce that Azure is making it easier for customers to reduce Compute costs by providing them the ability to hibernate Virtual Machines (VMs). Starting today, customers can hibernate their VMs and resume them at a later time. Hibernating a VM deallocates the machine while persisting the VM’s in-memory state. While the VM is hibernated, customers don’t pay for the Compute costs associated with the VM and only pay for storage and networking resources associated with the VM. Customers can later start back these VMs when needed and all their apps and processes that were previously running simply resume from their last state.


 


BrandonWilson_7-1703282347194.jpeg


 


 


Title: Security and ransomware protection with Azure Backup


Source: Azure Governance and Management


Author: Utsav Raghuvanshi


Publication Date: 11/17/2023


Content excerpt:


Ransomware attacks can cause significant damage to organizations and individuals, including data loss, security breaches, and costly business disruptions. When successful, they can disable a business’ core IT infrastructure, and cause destruction that could have a debilitating impact on the physical, economic security or safety of a business. And unfortunately, over the last few years, the number of ransomware attacks have seen a significant growth in their numbers as well as their sophistication. Having a sound BCDR strategy in place is essential to meeting your overall goals when it comes to ensuring security against ransomware attacks and minimizing their possible impact on your business. To make sure all customers are well protected against such attacks, Azure Backup provides a host of capabilities, some built-in while others optional, that significantly improve the security of your backups. In this article, we discuss some such capabilities offered by Azure Backup that can help you prepare better to recover from ransomware attacks as well as other data loss scenarios.


 


BrandonWilson_8-1703282357552.jpeg


 


 


Title: Improve visibility into workload-related spend using Copilot in Microsoft Cost Management


Source: Azure Governance and Management


Author: Antonio Ortoll


Publication Date: 11/20/2023


Content excerpt:


Reducing spend is more important than ever given today’s dynamic economy. Today’s businesses strive to create efficiencies that safeguard against unpredictable shifts in the economy, beat competitors, and prioritize what matters most.  But accomplishing this is less about cutting costs and more about the ability to continuously optimize your cloud investments. Continuous optimization can help you drive innovation, productivity, and agility and realize an ongoing cycle of growth and innovation in your business.  


 


BrandonWilson_9-1703282414996.jpeg


 


 


Title: Using Azure Site Recovery & Microsoft Defender for Servers to securely failover to malware-free VMs


Source: Azure Governance and Management


Author: Utsav Raghuvanshi


Publication Date: 11/29/2023


Content excerpt:


In this article, we will see how Azure Site Recovery offers an automated way to help you ensure that all your DR data, to which you would fail over, is safe and free of any malware using Microsoft Defender for Cloud.


Azure Site Recovery helps ensure business continuity by keeping business apps and workloads running during outages. Site Recovery replicates workloads running on physical and virtual machines (VMs) from a primary site to a secondary location. After the primary location is running again, you can fail back to it. Azure Site Recovery provides Recovery Plans to impose order, and automate the actions needed at each step, using Azure Automation runbooks for failover to Azure, or scripts.


 


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Title: Accelerate Innovation with Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate


Source: Azure Migration and Modernization


Author: Cyril Belikoff


Publication Date: 11/15/2023


Content excerpt:


In July this year, we announced the launch of Azure Migrate and Modernize, and Azure Innovate, our flagship offerings to help accelerate your move to the cloud. Azure Migrate and Modernize helps you migrate and modernize your existing applications, data and infrastructure to Azure, while Azure Innovate helps you with your advanced innovation needs such as infusing AI into your apps and experiences, advanced analytics, and building custom cloud native applications. 


 


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Title: Secure your subnet via private subnet and explicit outbound methods


Source: Azure Networking


Author: Brian Lehr, Aimee Littleton


Publication Date: 11/16/2023


Content excerpt:


While there are multiple methods for obtaining explicit outbound connectivity to the internet from your virtual machines on Azure, there is also one method for implicit outbound connectivity – default outbound access.  When virtual machines (VMs) are created in a virtual network without any explicit outbound connectivity, they are assigned a default outbound public IP address.  These IP addresses may seem convenient, but they have a number of issues and therefore are only used as a “last resort”…


 


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Title: Understanding Azure DDoS Protection: A Closer Look


Source: Azure Network Security


Author: David Frazee


Publication Date: 11/15/2023


Content excerpt:


Azure DDoS Protection is a service that constantly innovates itself to protect customers from ever-changing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. One of the major challenges of cloud computing is ensuring customer solutions maintain security and application availability. Microsoft has been addressing this challenge with its Azure DDoS Protection service, which was launched in public preview in 2017 and became generally available in 2018. Since its inception, Microsoft has renamed its Azure DDoS Protection service to better reflect its capabilities and features. We’ll discuss how this protection service has transformed through the years and provide more insights into the levels of protection offered by the separate tiers.


 


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Title: 2023 Holiday DDoS Protection Guide


Source: Azure Network Security


Author: Amir Dahan


Publication Date: 11/21/2023


Content excerpt:


As the holiday season approaches, businesses and organizations should brace for an increase in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Historically, this period has seen a spike in such attacks, targeting sectors like e-commerce and gaming that experience heightened activity. DDoS threats persist throughout the year, but the holiday season’s unique combination of increased online activity and heightened cyber threats makes it a critical time for heightened vigilance.


 


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Title: Personal Desktop Autoscale on Azure Virtual Desktop generally available


Source: Azure Virtual Desktop


Author: Jessie Duan


Publication Date: 11/28/2023


Content excerpt:


We are excited to announce that Personal Desktop Autoscale on Azure Virtual Desktop is generally available as of November 15, 2023! With this feature, organizations with personal host pools can optimize costs by shutting down or hibernating idle session hosts, while ensuring that session hosts can be started when needed.


 


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Title: Microsoft Assessments – Milestones


Source: Core Infrastructure and Security


Author: Felipe Binotto


Publication Date: 11/7/2023


Content excerpt:


In this post, I want to talk about Microsoft Assessments but more specifically Microsoft Assessments Milestones because they are a very useful tool which is not widely used.


In case you don’t know what Microsoft Assessments are, they are a free, online platform that helps you evaluate your business strategies and workloads. They work through a series of questions and recommendations that result in a curated guidance report that is actionable and informative. 


 


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Title: Azure MMA Agent Bulk Removal


Source: Core Infrastructure and Security


Author: Paul Bergson


Publication Date: 11/13/2023


Content excerpt:


In the following sections of this blog, I will provide a step-by-step guide to help you migrate away from MMA to AMA. This guide is designed to make the transition as smooth and seamless as possible, minimizing any potential disruptions to your monitoring workflow.


But that is not all. To make things even easier, there is a GitHub site that hosts the necessary binaries for this migration process. These binaries will be used to install a set of utilities in Azure, including a process dashboard. This dashboard will provide you with a visual representation of the migration process, making it easier to track and manage.


 


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Title: Active Directory Hardening Series – Part 2 – Removing SMBv1


Source: Core Infrastructure and Security


Author: Jerry Devore


Publication Date: 11/20/2023


Content excerpt:


Ok, let’s get into today’s topic which is removing SMBv1 from domain controllers.  Like my previous blog on NTLM, a lot of great content has already been written on SMBv1.   My objective is to not to rehash the why but rather focus on how you can take action in a production environment.


 


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Title: The Twelve Days of Blog-mas: No.1 – A Creative Use for Intune Remediations


Source: Core Infrastructure and Security


Author: Michael Hildebrand


Publication Date: 11/28/2023


Content excerpt:


For Post #1, I offer to you a quick’n’easy way to use Intune Remediations to get some info from Windows PCs.


Last reboot dates/times are frequently used as simple indicators of life for devices.  I was asked if this is captured anywhere in Intune and oddly, I’d never looked – but as I went hunting through Intune (Portal and Graph), the more I looked, the more I couldn’t find it anywhere obvious.  “Surely it can’t be THIS hard…?“


 


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Title: Connecting to Azure Services on the Microsoft Global Network 


Source: Core Infrastructure and Security


Author: Preston Romney


Publication Date: 11/28/2023


Content excerpt:


Azure Services and the solutions you deploy into Azure are connected to the Microsoft global wide-area network also known as the Microsoft Global Network or the Azure Backbone. There are a few different ways to connect to an Azure service from a subnet, depending on your requirements around securing access to these services. Your requirements should dictate which method you choose. There are some common misconceptions around connectivity, and the goal of this article is to provide some clarity around connecting to Azure Services.


 


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Title: The Twelve Days of Blog-mas: No.2 – Windows Web Sign in and Passwordless


Source: Core Infrastructure and Security


Author: Michael Hildebrand


Publication Date: 11/29/2023


Content excerpt:


Hi folks – welcome to the second post in the holiday ’23 series.


Today’s post is about a capability that came to preview long ago but recently surprised much of the world and moved to General Availability (GA).


 


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Title: The Twelve Days of Blog-mas: No.3 – Windows Local Admin Password Solution (LAPS)


Source: Core Infrastructure and Security


Author: Michael Hildebrand


Publication Date: 11/30/2023


Content excerpt:


Buenos días and welcome to número tres in the holiday ’23 series. 


This one is sure to please the crowd – it’s the NEW AND IMPROVED easy to setup/deploy/use solution for when IT Ops/Support needs a local admin ID and password to perform some management task(s) on a Windows endpoint. 


 


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Title: First Party Services Adoption for Migrated Virtual Machines via Azure Policy


Source: FastTrack for Azure


Author: Alejandra8481


Publication Date: 11/2/2023


Content excerpt:


Server migrations to Azure Virtual Machines either through Azure Migrate or via a redeploy approach can benefit from Azure policies to accelerate adoption of Azure first party services across BCDR, Security, Monitoring and Management. 


Our Cloud Adoption Framework’s guidance for Azure Landing Zones already provides a good baseline of recommended Azure policies. However, a variation to this baseline is described in this article with a focus on newly migrated Azure Virtual Machine resources.  


 


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Title: Windows Events, how to collect them in Sentinel and which way is preferred to detect Incidents


Source: FastTrack for Azure


Author: Lizet Pena De Sola


Publication Date: 11/20/2023


Content excerpt:


How can a SOC team ingest and analyze Windows Logs with Microsoft Sentinel? What are the main options to ingest Windows Logs into a Log Analytics Workspace and use Microsoft Sentinel as a SIEM to manage security incidents from events recorded on these logs?


Read on to find out!


 


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Title: Step-by-Step : Assign access packages automatically based on user properties in Microsoft Entra ID


Source: ITOps Talk


Author: Dishan Francis


Publication Date: 11/27/2023


Content excerpt:


Traditionally, during the setup of an access package, you could specify who can request access, including users and groups in the organization’s directory or guest users. Now, you have the option to use an automatic assignment policy to manage access packages. This policy includes membership rules that evaluate user attribute values to determine access. You can create one automatic assignment policy per access package, which can assess built-in user attributes or custom attribute values generated by third-party HR systems and on-premises directories. Behind the scenes, Entitlement Management automatically creates dynamic security groups based on the policy rules, which are adjusted as the rules change. 


 


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Title: Extended Security Updates (ESUs): Online or proxy activation


Source: Windows IT Pro


Author: Poornima Priyadarshini


Publication Date: 11/9/2023


Content excerpt:


When your Windows products reach the end of support, Extended Security Updates (ESUs) are there to protect your organization while you modernize your estate. To take advantage of this optional service, you’d purchase and download ESU product keys, install them, and finally activate the extended support.


 


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Title: Windows Server 2012/R2: Extended Security Updates


Source: Windows IT Pro


Author: Poornima Priyadarshini


Publication Date: 11/9/2023


Content excerpt:


You can now get three additional years of Extended Security Updates (ESUs) if you need more time to upgrade and modernize your Windows Server 2012, Windows Server R2, or Windows Embedded Server 2012 R2 on Azure. This also applies to Azure Stack HCI, Azure Stack Hub, and other Azure products.


 


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Title: Universal Print makes cloud printing truly “universal”


Source: Windows IT Pro


Author: Robert Cunningham


Publication Date: 11/15/2023


Content excerpt:


Universal Print is a cloud-based print solution that enables a simple, rich, and secure print experience for users while also reducing time and effort for IT pros. By shifting print management to the cloud, IT professionals can simplify administration and end-users can easily print, reducing the expense of organizations’ print infrastructure.


 


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Title: Copilot coming to Windows 10


Source: Windows IT Pro


Author: Alan Meeus


Publication Date: 11/20/2023


Content excerpt:


Today, we start to roll out Copilot in Windows (in preview) for Windows 10, version 22H2 to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Channel. Bringing Copilot to Windows 10 enables organizations managing both Windows 11 and Windows 10 devices to continue considering a rollout of Copilot in Windows and provide this powerful productivity experience to more of their workforce.


 


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Previous CTO! Guides:



 


Additional resources:


Get Rewarded for Sharing Your Experience with Azure Machine Learning

Get Rewarded for Sharing Your Experience with Azure Machine Learning

by | Dec 22, 2023 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have become essential tools for businesses to stay competitive in today’s data-driven world. Whether you’re working with traditional ML or generative AI, with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, we strive to empower your data science and app developments teams to build, fine-tune, evaluate, deploy, and manage high-quality models at scale, with confidence. The platform is built to help organizations accelerate time to value with industry-leading MLOps, open-source interoperability, responsible AI practices, integrated tools, and built-in governance, security, and compliance for running machine learning workloads anywhere. We continually improve with the valued input of our customers.


 


Your voice matters—help other organizations learn about Azure Machine Learning


We humbly invite our customers to get rewarded for sharing your first-hand experience working with Azure Machine Learning by writing a review on Gartner Peer Insights. Your review will not only assist other developers, data scientists, and technical decision-makers in their platform evaluation process, but also help shape the future of our platform. Thank you for your time and feedback!


 















Write a review and claim your reward*
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*Reward: You will receive a $25 gift card, a 3-month subscription to Gartner research, or a donation to a charitable cause as a token of our appreciation.

 


Writing a Review is Simple:



  • Highlight your experience using Azure Machine Learning.

  • Personal emails are not accepted, so please use your business email or sign in with LinkedIn.

  • You must attest to not being an employee, partner, consultant, reseller, or a direct competitor of Microsoft.

  • Explore past reviews here: Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Reviews


 


What is Gartner Peer Insights?


Gartner Peer Insights is a trusted online platform where IT professionals and technology decision-makers read and write reviews and ratings for various IT software and services. Your review holds immense value in helping others make informed decisions and finding solutions that meet their unique needs.


 


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Terms and Conditions Apply:



  • Your privacy is paramount, as only your role, industry, and organization size will be displayed.

  • The reviewer must be an Azure AI customer and be a working enterprise professional including technology decision-makers, enterprise-level users, executives, and their teams (e.g., students and freelancers are not allowed to submit a review). The reviewer must: attest to the authenticity of the review by certifying that (i) he or she is not an employee of Microsoft a partner of Microsoft or a direct competitor of Microsoft; (ii) employed by an organization with an exclusive relationship with the product being reviewed (this includes exclusive partners, value-added resellers, system integrators, and consultants); and (iii) the feedback is based entirely on his or her own personal experience with Microsoft’s Azure AI.

  • The offer is good only for those who submit a product review on Gartner Peer Insights and receive confirmation their review has been approved by Gartner. Limited to one reward per person. This offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with any other offer. The offer is valid while supplies last. It is not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if there are any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient.  Any gift returned as non-deliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow 6-8 weeks for shipment of your gift. Microsoft reserves the right to cancel, change, or suspend this offer at any time without notice. This offer is not applicable in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Crimea, Russia, and China. For more information, please refer to Gartner Peer Programs Community Guidelines.


 


Your Privacy Matters:


Rest assured that the respondent’s information will only be used for the purpose of mailing the gifts to recipients. For more information, please review our Microsoft Privacy Statement.