This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
At Microsoft Ignite 2023, we’re excited to announce Microsoft Copilot Studio, a low-code tool to customize Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 and build standalone copilots.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
At Microsoft Ignite 2023, we are announcing new innovations across Microsoft Copilot—one copilot experience that runs across all our surfaces, understanding your context on the web, on your PC, and at work to bring the right skills to you when you need them across work and life.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Microsoft Copilot presents an opportunity to reimagine the way we work—turning natural language into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet. With AI, organizations can unearth value in the mountain of data across productivity tools like Microsoft 365 and business applications.
To this end, earlier this year, we introduced Microsoft Copilot for Dynamics 365, the world’s first AI copilot natively built for CRM and ERP. Since then, more than 130,000 organizations have experienced copilot capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform firsthand. In fact, a survey revealed that 70 percent of the Copilot users were more productive, 73 percent could complete tasks faster, and 68 percent of users improved the quality of their work.
Organizations, however, depend on a range of business applications across roles and functions, from customer relationship management (CRM) systems for marketing, sales, and service roles to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for finance, supply chain, and operations departments. At Microsoft Ignite, we are announcing new Microsoft Copilot experiences that empower organizations to unlock value from a multitude of systems of record. In conjunction with these copilot experiences, we are announcing new and updated copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 applications.
Microsoft Ignite 2023
Access recordings of keynotes and sessions, including opportunities to learn about the copilot capabilities announced.
Updates to Copilot for Dynamics 365 to drive efficiency across the organization, featuring capabilities that help marketing, sales, and field service professionals provide exceptional customer experiences.
Introduction of Microsoft Copilot for Service and Microsoft Copilot for Sales, the evolution of Sales Copilot, bringing together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 with role-specific insights and actions. Both provide flexibility to integrate with an organization’s existing contact center and CRM systems respectively.
Together, these capabilities empower organizations to harness secure and enterprise-ready, generative AI experiences, helping employees to perform at their highest potential across every role and function.
Reimagine ways to drive efficiency across the organization with Copilot for Dynamics 365
We’re introducing new and enhanced copilot capabilities for Dynamics 365 that help marketers, sellers, and field service professionals elevate customer experiences.
The following Copilot updates are in addition to recently-announced copilot and demand planning capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, as well as the 2023 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, a six-month rollout of new and enhanced capabilities scheduled for release between October 2023 and March 2024.
Copilot delivers answers and information to field service workers in a chat-based conversation
Field service workers depend on quick access to a variety of customer and technical information precisely at the moment it is needed. A recent survey by Microsoft highlighted that not being able to easily find the information they need ranks in the top five disruptive issues faced by frontline workers in their current day-to-day role.1 This can significantly affect key performance indicators such as first-time fix rates, customer satisfaction, and retention.
We’re introducing AI-powered experiences for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service, available for preview in December, that enable frontline workers to quickly access information on a job site by asking questions in conversational language, directly within Teams.
We’re also announcing the general availability of AI-assisted work order creation and technician scheduling, and the public preview of financial and inventory data flow between Dynamics 365 Field Service and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist are available at no additional cost.
Reimagining CRM systems with natural language experiences
The innovation and scale of Copilot have established Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales as an innovative leader in sales technology, as recognized by Gartner and Forrester. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales enhances seller productivity and effectiveness in their flow of work, enabling them to automate the sales processes and make informed decisions with AI-powered insights and actions. Copilot features help sellers save time, boost productivity, and eliminate mundane workloads to maintain focus on connecting with customers and closing deals.
We’re announcing new copilot experiences in Dynamics 365 Sales that allow sellers to interact with their data using natural language.
Now in preview, sellers can use their own words to get contextual insights and recommendations for leads and opportunities.
In addition, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales has a new full-screen view where sellers can use natural language or prebuilt prompts to gain a quick understanding of customers, deals, meetings, forecasts, and more. The feature is now available in Asia and Europe and will be available in North America in December.
Deliver more personalized customer experiences with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
New capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights provide a deeper understanding of target customers and segments, helping to hyper-personalize campaign content and improve engagement.
Available for preview in December, sellers can use Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to instantly generate a customer profile summary—including demographic, transactional, behavioral, and analytics data—to uncover key insights on customers. The capability is available for organizations that have both Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise or Premium subscriptions.
We continue to build capabilities that enable a seamless handoff from marketing to sellers. Now in preview, marketers can qualify their leads using metrics such as engagement scores, ensuring marketing and sales teams maximize the opportunity pipeline and improve win rates.
Adding to our growing ecosystem, we’re announcing a unique partnership with Optimizely. In preview this December, organizations can use the segments and journeys built in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights directly within Optimizely. This enables Optimizely users to build personalized campaigns in real time without writing any code. Through bi-directional integrations, organizations can deliver hyper-personalized omnichannel experiences across web, social, email, and offline channels.
Bring together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 and business insights and actions
Most organizations depend on a range of applications to manage the business, including CRM, ERP, and supply chain management systems. Integrating innovative technology, like generative AI, into these systems can be challenging—especially when security, privacy, and compliance are a top priority.
Responding to this need, we’re introducing a new category of Microsoft Copilot solutions that tap into data from various applications—including Microsoft 365 and third-party systems of record—to bring a new level of efficiency and automation to business functions across the organization.
Modernize the contact center with Microsoft Copilot for Service
In a recent Microsoft survey, it was revealed that three out of four customer service agents feel less inspired and motivated by their work. With insufficient focus time, over half of them are struggling to deliver exceptional customer service and efficiently address customer issues.1 The surveyed agents express confidence that AI can positively impact their performance, as well as provide, analytical insights, including trend and sentiment analysis.
We’re meeting the needs of service agents with a Microsoft Copilot solution that integrates generative AI capabilities into the tools and processes that they depend on every day. Microsoft Copilot for Service integrates an organization’s trusted knowledge with the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to boost agent productivity in the tools they already use every day, such as Outlook and Teams; providing AI-guided answers and resources personalized for each customer issue and conversation.
Microsoft Copilot for Service provides the flexibility to integrate with an organization’s existing CRM and contact center systems. Organizations can train Microsoft Copilot for Service using trusted websites, knowledgebase articles, files, and other critical data sources from their existing contact center to unlock generative AI-powered guidance across all of their data. Microsoft Copilot for Service provides out-of-the-box integrations with Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk, and can be extended to other systems through a vast array of more than 1,100 prebuilt and custom connectors.
Copilot for Service can be further customized with Microsoft Copilot Studio, also announced at Microsoft Ignite 2023. With Copilot Studio, service teams can fine-tune copilot experiences by incorporating their own data, logic, and actions tailored for specific scenarios, frequent conversations, or other unique use cases.
Copilot for Service will be available in public preview in early December and generally available in early 2024. Pricing is USD50 per user per month. Learn more about Microsoft Copilot for Service.
Unlock sales productivity in the flow of work
Microsoft Copilot for Sales is the evolution of Sales Copilot, used by leading brands including 10,000 sellers within the Microsoft sales team. A recent survey revealed that 83 percent of Microsoft sellers claim that Microsoft Copilot for Sales helps them improve productivity, with sellers saving an average of 90 minutes per week.1 Read our ebook on the AI advantage for sellers for details.
Copilot for Sales brings together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 in seller workflows, using customer data within the CRM system they already use, along with information in documents, email, and chats from Microsoft 365 applications.
The innovations enabled in Copilot for Sales include a newly integrated experience with Microsoft Word and Teams. Sellers can prompt Copilot to create a meeting preparation brief in Word, automatically populated with customer information such as an account and opportunity summary, names and titles of meeting participants, pending tasks, and highlights from recent meetings and email threads. In addition, meeting recaps in Microsoft Teams can surface action items and tasks, key performance indicators (KPIs), and sales keywords mentioned. These experiences help sellers save time and energy, generate innovative ideas, build stronger customer relationships, and ultimately close more deals.
Like Copilot for Service, sellers can customize AI-assisted sales processes with Copilot Studio, bringing tailored experiences informed by their own data, logic, and actions for specific scenarios.
Copilot for Sales2 will be available in the first quarter of 2024 for USD50 per user per month.
Learn more at Microsoft Ignite
Register for Microsoft Ignite to access on-demand recordings of keynotes and sessions, including opportunities to learn about the copilot capabilities announced. You have the opportunity to engage with the global community online, regardless of your location, and participate in live discussions at no cost. To get started, we recommend the following sessions:
2 Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Premium customers will retain rights to capabilities in Sales Copilot. As today’s news demonstrates, copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales will continue to innovate. To get the full value of the new Copilot for Sales, including access to Copilot for Microsoft 365, customers will work with their Microsoft account representative to upgrade.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, effective communication is the key to success for any business. Apple Messages for Business (AMB) isn’t just for personal chats and emojis. It can also be a powerful tool for businesses to streamline communication, enhance customer engagement, and drive growth. With Dynamics 365 Customer Service, you can use AMB to expand your consumer reach, reduce costs, and provide a seamless experience for both businesses and customers. In this blog post, we’ll delve into some compelling benefits and best practices to help you harness the full potential of AMB in your Customer Service organization.
Expand your global reach to mobile users
Apple’s ubiquity is one of its most significant advantages. With over 2 billion active devices worldwide, AMB provides a unique platform to tap into a global audience. Whether your business operates locally or has a worldwide presence, leveraging AMB ensures that you can reach your audience wherever they are, without the limitations of geographical boundaries.
Drive customer engagement with multiple entry points
Apple Messages for Business offers a multitude of entry points for customer engagement. Customers can initiate conversations by searching for your company in Apple Maps, Safari, or Search and simply tapping the Messages icon. Additionally, integrating a messaging link into your website, app, or other touchpoints makes it convenient for customers to start a conversation. These diverse entry points cater to different customer preferences, ensuring that you’re meeting them where they are most comfortable.
Deflect calls with Apple’s Message Suggest
An ingenious feature that can significantly benefit businesses is Apple’s Message Suggest. When your business registers a phone number with Apple, Message Suggest proactively presents the option to chat when users attempt to call your business via Safari, Maps, Siri, or Search. By offering a messaging alternative, Message Suggest helps deflect voice calls to text-based messaging, reducing costs associated with voice support. This shift toward messaging can also enhance customer experience, as it aligns with modern communication preferences.
Provide enhanced mobile customer experiences using rich messages
The Apple Messages for Business channel offers support for a wide range of rich messages. This synergy leads to enriched customer experiences, fostering loyalty and increasing customer lifetime value. Utilizing rich messages in Dynamics 365 Customer Service offers customers the ability to tap more and type less. This approach simplifies customer interactions, enabling users to access information and resolve issues with fewer keystrokes.
Advanced message routing
Apple Messages for Business allows businesses to fine-tune message routing using intent and group IDs. This advanced routing capability ensures that messages are directed to the right team, streamlining communication and improving response times. This level of customization enables businesses to tailor their messaging strategy to meet specific needs, further enhancing the customer experience.
In conclusion,by implementing these best practices and leveraging the unique benefits of AMB, your business can stay ahead of the curve in the competitive world of modern communication. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with your audience in a way that aligns with their preferences and expectations. Start harnessing the power of AMB in your organization today.
Better together
As a digital channel, the addition of Apple Messages for Business expands and unifies the core omnichannel capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Service with a configurable, high-productivity interface. It provides contextual customer identification, real-time notifications, integrated communications, and agent productivity tools, including rich messages, knowledge base integration, and search. Apple Messages for Business helps deliver more innovation and opportunities to your digital contact center to empower you to continually exceed customer expectations.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
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.
Background
Cloud services have become an essential part of the success of most companies today. The scale and flexibility of the cloud offer organizations the ability to optimize and innovate in ways not previously possible. As organizations continue to expand cloud services as part of their IT strategies, it is important to establish standards that create a culture of excellence that enables teams to fully realize the benefits of the modern technologies available in the cloud.
At Microsoft, we put huge importance on helping customers be successful and publish guidance that teaches every step of the journey and how to establish those standards. For Azure, that collection of adoption and architecture guidance is referred to as Azure Patterns and Practices.
The Patterns and Practices guidance has three main elements:
Each element focuses on different parts of the overall adoption of Azure and speaks to specific audiences, such as WAF and workload teams.
What is a workload?
The term workload in the context of the Well-Architected Framework refers to a collection of application resources, data, and supporting infrastructure that function together towards a defined business goal.
Well-architected is a state that is achieved and maintained through design and continuous improvement. You optimize through a design process that results in an architecture that delivers what the business needs while minimizing risk and expense.
For us, the workload standard of excellence is defined in the Well-architected Framework – a set of principles, considerations, and trade-offs that cover the core elements of workload architecture. As with all of the Well-architected Framework content, this guidance is based on proven experience from Microsoft’s customer-facing technical experts. The Well-architected Framework continues to receive updates from working with customers, partners, and our technical teams.
Today we have published updates across each of the core pillars of WAF which represent a huge amount of experience and learning from across Microsoft.
The refreshed and expanded Well-Architected Framework brings together guidance to help workload teams design, build, and optimize great workloads in the cloud. It is intended to shape discussions and decisions within workload teams and help create standards that should be applied continuously to all workloads.
Details of the refreshed Well-Architected Framework
Over the past six months, Microsoft’s cloud solution architects refreshed the Well-Architected Framework by compiling the learnings and experience of over 10,000 engagements that had leveraged the WAF and its assessment.
All five pillars of the Well-Architected Framework now follow a common structure that consists exclusively of design principles, design review checklists, trade-offs, recommendation guides, and cloud design patterns.
Design principles. Presents goal-oriented principles that build a foundation for the workload. Each principle includes a set of recommended approaches and the benefits of taking those approaches. The principles for each pillar have changed in terms of content and coverage.
Design review checklists. Lists roughly codified recommendations that drive action. Use the checklists during the design phase of your new workload and to evaluate brownfield workloads.
Trade-offs. Describes tradeoffs with other pillars. Many design decisions force a tradeoff. It’s vital to understand how achieving the goals of one pillar might make achieving the goals of another pillar more challenging.
Recommendation guides. Every design review checklist recommendation is associated with one or more guides. They explain the key strategies to fulfill that recommendation. They also include how Azure can facilitate workload design to help achieve that recommendation. Some of these guides are new, and others are refreshed versions of guides that cover a similar concept.
The recommendation guides include trade-offs along with risks.
This icon indicates a trade-off:
This icon indicates a risk:
Cloud design patterns. Build your design on proven, common architecture patterns. The Azure Architecture Center maintains the Cloud Design Patterns catalog. Each pillar includes descriptions of the cloud design patterns that are relevant to the goals of the pillar and how they support the pillar.
The Well-Architected Review assessment has also been refreshed. Specifically, the “Core Well-Architected Review” option now aligns to the new content structure in the Well-Architected Framework. Every question in every pillar maps to the design review checklist for that pillar. All choices for the questions correlate to the recommendation guides for the related checklist item.
Using the guidance
The Well-architected Framework is intended to help workload teams throughout the process of designing and running workloads in the cloud.
Here are three key ways in which the guidance can help your team be successful:
Use the Well-architected Framework as the basis for your organization’s approach to designing and improving cloud workloads.
Establish the concept of achieving and maintaining a state of well-architected as a best practice for all workload teams
Regularly review each workload to find opportunities to optimize further – use learnings from operations and new technology capabilities to refine elements such as running costs, or attributes aligned to performance, reliability, or security
To learn more, see the new hub page for the Well-Architected Framework: aka.ms/waf
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Sellers need to navigate large amounts of information to better engage with customers. It’s imperative that they can do that with ease. With the world becoming much more technology aware, sales people expect the business applications they use to be as easy to engage as an app they use in their personal life.
The modern update is a new design option that gives your model-driven apps such as Dynamics 365 Sales a sleek and modern appearance, with improved readability, accessibility, and usability. It also aligns with the Fluent Design System, Microsoft’s design language for creating harmonious and engaging experiences across devices and platforms.
The features and benefits of the modern update include:
Updated read-only style with a lock icon to indicate non-editable fields.
Updated option set, date time, and duration fields with new Fluent drop-down and combo box controls.
Updated dashboards with a new command bar and integrated sub grids that use the new Power Apps grid control.
Customizable app header colors to match your organizational branding.
A new feature toggle in the header that lets end users try the new look and switch back at any time.
We understand that each organization has its own nuances and may need more control over the look and feel of the application. They also need added flexibility to switch between different styles according to preference. The modern update is an opt-in feature that does not affect your existing apps or customizations. You can try the new look, by turning on the toggle in the top header bar.
Try the new modern update by turning on the toggle in the top header bad (highlighted red rectangle)
As soon as you do that, your app will convert into the new look. You can go back to the classic look by turning off the toggle.
Revert to the classic look by turning off the toggle (highlighted red rectangle)
We plan to make the new look as default experiences in the upcoming releases. As we are constantly improving the system based on your input and suggestions, please share your feedback with us.
Meiko Lopez
Normal
Joe Cicero
2
277
2023-11-09T21:37:00Z
2023-11-09T21:37:00Z
3
719
4101
34
9
4811
16.00
0x010100A389A42144AF8541BAAFF21480674075
Clean
Clean
false
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
AR-SA
Service Delivery Manager Profile: Meiko Lopez
Defender Experts for XDR
“Be steadfast in the truth – providing comfort and assurance to the customers that you will help them to a resolution.”
-Meiko Lopez, Sr. Product Manager
In the dynamic world of cybersecurity, heroes emerge to safeguard our customers’ digital realm. One such hero is Meiko Lopez, a senior product manager within Microsoft’s service delivery arm for the Defender Experts for XDR service. With almost 13 years of experience at Microsoft, Meiko brings a wealth of knowledge, skills, and a unique approach to the cybersecurity landscape.
Who is Meiko Lopez?
Meiko (pronounced mee-ko) Lopez introduces herself: “My name is Meiko Lopez, and I am a service delivery manager (SDM) for the Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR service.” Her journey at Microsoft has been nothing short of extraordinary.
What did you do before becoming an SDM?
Meiko’s journey at Microsoft is a testament to her dedication and versatility. She started as a technical account manager, now known as a customer success account manager. In this role, she served as a “Cyber Champ,” assisting enterprise customers in crafting and executing their IT strategies and aligning them with Microsoft’s solutions. Her early experiences also included roles as a project manager, where she helped customers recover and rebuild their infrastructure after cybersecurity breaches, enhancing their security posture for the long term.
Meiko’s transition to a cyber architect role further showcased her technical prowess and leadership. Through these diverse roles, she developed a strong network of partnerships and honed both her business acumen and technical skills. These experiences have enabled her to help customers reach new heights in their cybersecurity journey.
What is your typical “day in the life” of an SDM?
Meiko’s day as an SDM is filled with activities aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction and service performance. She conducts operational syncs with her customers, discussing service health and alignment with their business objectives. These discussions also serve as an avenue for collecting feedback and suggestions for operational, technical, and relationship improvements.
In addition to customer interactions, Meiko collaborates with other product managers to share customer feedback and prioritize needs. She engages with her team members on various initiatives that enhance visibility both inside and outside their organization, making the Defender Experts for XDR service even more powerful. Her day wraps up by inputting insights from various stakeholders to track backlog items that ultimately improve the service.
How do you customize your approach for each customer?
Meiko’s success lies in her ability to customize her partnership with each customer. She takes the time to understand their unique business and operational context. She reviews notes from past conversations, connects with internal stakeholders aligned to the customer, and reviews Defender Experts operational insights to identify areas that will demonstrate value during their discussions. Active engagement with the team of analysts also provides a deeper understanding of the customer’s environment and how they can improve technically.
How do you balance technical expertise with the human element?
In the world of cybersecurity, balancing technical expertise with the human element is paramount. Meiko emphasizes the importance of empathy in high-stakes situations. She believes that technical understanding, coupled with the ability to convey information effectively to the appropriate audience, is the key to success. Communication is the linchpin that ensures resolution and instills confidence in customers.
Meiko’s advice to those aspiring to enter the cybersecurity field is simple yet powerful: “Go for it. Gain the foundation and grow from there. There are so many facets of cybersecurity that the possibilities are endless. Network and connect with those in cybersecurity to get a first-hand account of what your future could entail. Find what works best for you.”
What are some of your unique strengths and qualities?
Beyond her technical skills, Meiko’s unique strengths and qualities benefit her customers in cybersecurity. She’s known for her personable nature, which fosters trust and credibility. In the cybersecurity space, trust is everything, and Meiko’s ability to connect with others has proven invaluable. Her calm demeanor in critical situations provides assurance to customers that they have a dedicated and dependable ally in their corner.
Meiko Lopez’s journey is a testament to the diverse opportunities and paths within the cybersecurity field, and her commitment to excellence serves as an inspiration for those entering this dynamic and vital field.
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.
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!
As many of you know, Windows Server 2012 is reaching end-of-support (EoS) on October 10, 2023. Extended Security enabled by Azure Arc is the best way for customers to get trusted security updates and benefit from cloud capabilities including discovery, management, and patching, all in one offering.
Bad actors can expose a new security vulnerability to initiate a DDoS attack on a customer’s infrastructure. This attack is leveraged against servers implementing the HTTP/2 protocol. Windows, .NET Kestrel, and HTTP .Sys (IIS) web servers are also impacted by the attack. Azure Guest Patching Service keeps customers secure by ensuring the latest security and critical updates are applied using Safe Deployment Practices on their VM and VM Scale Sets.
Some of you may recall back in June we posted a blog introducing AMBA and since then we’ve received a huge amount of interest and adoption in its use as well as hearing from you on what you needed to be able to use AMBA in your environment.
We’ve made significant investment and progress in addressing feedback and fixes and I’m pleased to announce the AMBA pattern for ALZ is now GA! As part of GA we’re also integrating the recommended alerts into the ALZ Azure Portal reference implementation for new deployments (please visit https://aka.ms/alz/portal) with Bicep and Terraform support planned in the near future.
Everyone is under pressure to cut costs these days. But in times of economic flux, it’s not just about cutting costs. A successful approach lies in the ability to continuously optimize and prioritize what matters most to drive innovation, productivity, and agility and to realize an ongoing cycle of growth and innovation.Reinvestment opens the opportunity to maintain momentum when everyone else is seeking to downsize – that’s the competitive advantage optimization offers your business.
We are excited to announce support for Azure RBAC resources in Azure Resource Graph (ARG) via the AuthorizationResources table! You can query your Role Assignments, Role Definitions, and Classic Admins resources. With this table, you’ll be able to quickly answer questions such as “how many users are using a role definition?” or “how many role assignments are used?” or “how many role definitions are used?”. Then, you can act on the results to clean up unused role definitions, remove redundant role assignments, or optimize your existing role assignments using AAD Groups.
We are happy to share that built-in Azure Monitor alerts for Azure Site Recovery is now in public preview.
With this integration, Azure Site Recovery users will now have:
A way to route notifications for alerts to any of the destinations supported by Azure Monitor – which includes email, ITSM, Webhook, Functions etc.
An alerting experience for Azure Site Recovery which is consistent with the alerting experience currently available for many other Azure resource types.
Enhanced flexibility in terms of choosing which scenarios to get notified for, ability to suppress notifications during planned maintenance windows, and so on.
We are excited to announce the general availability to configure Azure Change Tracking & Inventory using the Azure Monitor agent (AMA)
The Change Tracking and Inventory service tracks changes to Files, Registry, Software, Services and Daemons and uses the MMA (Microsoft Monitoring Agent)/OMS (Operations Management Suite) agent.
If you are using Azure Storage to host your website, you might want to enable HTTPS Only to ensure secure communication between the client and the server. However, setting up a custom domain with HTTPS Only enabled can be a bit tricky. In this blog, we will guide you through the step-by-step process of setting up a custom domain for your Azure Storage account with HTTPS Only enabled.
Suppose you have a specific requirement wherein the user should not have access to view the File Share, Queue, and Table Storage Services Data. The user should only be able to access and view the containers within the storage account. In this blog, we will delve into the methods and techniques to fulfil this requirement.
Azure Key Vault is essential for securely managing keys, secrets, and certificates. Managed Identities (MI) allow Azure resources to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication without any credentials in your code. For those looking to swiftly test Managed Identities for Azure Key Vault access from a Virtual Machine, this blog provides step-by-step implementation details. We will delve into both User Assigned Managed Identity (UAMI) and System Assigned Managed Identity (SAMI), helping you determine the best approach for your needs.
Intune is very well known for its ability to manage both devices (aka. MDM) and applications (aka.MAM). The core difference between these two options lies back to the level of management that companies require, or employees accept.
While MDM is seen an appropriate way to manage company-owned devices or a full zero trust environment; MAM is useful when a company wants to make sure employees can use their personal devices to run applications that access to company data, and limit what can be done with that data. From that perspective, it can improve zero trust posture of a company as well; making sure that applications used to access certain data such as the company data complies with certain criteria, that is defined in the application protection policy.
Azure Private Endpoints (PE) offer a robust and secure method for establishing connections via a private link. This blog focuses on utilizing PEs to link a Private Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster with a Storage account, aiming to assist in quick Proof-of-Concept setups. Although we spotlight the Storage service, the insights can be seamlessly applied to other Azure services.
Here is Part 2 of my Blog Defender Definition Updates with ConfigMgr – Part 1 – Learnings from the Field
Currently Defender Definition Updates are called Security Intelligence Update for Windows Defender Antivirus. To keep it consistent with Part 1 of my Blog, I will keep calling them Definition Updates – The updates that are released multiple times per day.
For a long time, if you were using the multi-tenant, PaaS version on many Azure services, then you had to access them over the internet with no way to restrict access just to your resources. This restriction was primarily down to the complexity of doing this sort of restrictions with a multi-tenant service. At that time, the only way to get this sort of restriction was to look at using single-tenant solutions like App Service Environment or running service yourself in a VM instead of using PaaS.
In today’s fast-paced technological landscape, cloud integration and automation have ascended as twin pillars of modern business efficiency. Microsoft’s Azure and Power Automate are two titans in this arena, each offering a unique set of capabilities. But what if we could marry the vast cloud resources of Azure with the intuitive workflow automation of Power Automate? In this article, we’ll embark on a digital journey to explore how you can seamlessly call Azure Resource APIs from Power Automate, unlocking new vistas of potential for your business processes. Whether you’re an Azure aficionado, a Power Automate pro, or someone just stepping into the cloud, strap in and let’s dive deep into this integration!
Azure Networking is the foundation of your infrastructure in Azure. Each month we bring you an update on What’s new in Azure Networking.
In this blog post, we’ll cover what’s new with Azure Networking in September 2023. In this blog post, we will cover the following announcements and how they can help you.
Gateway Load Balancer IPv6 Support
Sensitive Data Protection for Application Gateway Web Application Firewall
Domain fronting update on Azure Front Door and Azure CDN
New Monitoring and Logging Updates in Azure Firewall
Microsoft has recently introduced a range of new security tools and features for the Microsoft Entra product family, aimed at helping organizations improve their security posture. With the ever-increasing sophistication of cyber-attacks and the increasing use of cloud-based services and the proliferation of mobile devices, it is essential that organizations have effective tools in place to manage their security scope.
Today, we’re sharing the new feature releases for the last quarter (July – September 2023) and the change announcements (September 2023 change management train). We also communicate these changes on release notes and via email. We’re continuing to make it easier for our customers to manage lifecycle changes (deprecations, retirements, service breaking changes) within the new Entra admin center as well.
As part of our mission to enable customers to manage access with least privilege, we’re excited to announce the general availability of two additions to Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM): PIM for Groups and PIM integration with Conditional Access.
Within an organization, inactive user accounts can persist for various reasons, including former employees, service providers, and service accounts associated with products or services. These accounts may remain inactive temporarily or for extended periods. If an account remains inactive for 90 days or more, it is more likely to remain inactive. It’s crucial to periodically review these inactive accounts and eliminate any that are unnecessary. Microsoft Entra ID Governance Access Reviews now offers the capability to detect inactive accounts effectively.
Today we’re excited to announce the public preview of Microsoft Graph Activity Logs. Have you wondered what applications are doing with the access you’ve granted them? Have you discovered a compromised user and hoped to find out what operations they have performed? If so, you can now gain full visibility into all HTTP requests accessing your tenant’s resources through the Microsoft Graph API.
We have received feedback from you—our customers—about the need to have user level language localization. We understand that users would like to receive notifications that have their text adapted to their local language, customs, and standards.
We have added logic to check multiple places for language information to make the best possible choice for what language we should send an email in, and these changes are now generally available for Privileged Identity Management, Access Reviews and Entitlement Management.
Today we’re excited to announce the general availability of Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) with Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft Intune. This capability is available for both Microsoft Entra joined and Microsoft Entra hybrid joined devices. It empowers every organization to protect and secure their local administrator account on Windows and mitigate any Pass-the-Hash (PtH) and lateral traversal type of attacks.
Since our public preview announcement in April 2023, we’ve continued to see significant growth in deployment and usage of Windows LAPS across thousands of customers and millions of devices. Thank you!
We’re excited to share the public preview of delegating Azure role assignment management using conditions. This preview gives you the ability to enable others to assign Azure roles but add restrictions on the roles they can assign and who they can assign roles to.
Elevate your security with improved Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) logs. Now you can know who initiated the actions for each device to aid in threat detection and analysis. Whether you’re in cybersecurity, IT, performance, or software development, diagnosing cybersecurity threats has never been easier. In this article, get ready to:
Learn about Windows event tracing.
Find new security-related information on a Windows device.
As Windows evolves to meet the needs of our ever-changing world, the way we protect users must also evolve to address modern security challenges. A foundational pillar of Windows security is user authentication. We are working on strengthening user authentication by expanding the reliability and flexibility of Kerberos and reducing dependencies on NT LAN Manager (NTLM).
Kerberos has been the default Windows authentication protocol since 2000, but there are still scenarios where it can’t be used and where Windows falls back to NTLM. Our team is building new features for Windows 11, Initial and Pass Through Authentication Using Kerberos (IAKerb) and a local Key Distribution Center (KDC) for Kerberos, to address these cases. We are also introducing improved NTLM auditing and management functionality to give your organization more insight into your NTLM usage and better control for removing it.
The future is passwordless. Microsoft has an ongoing commitment with other industry leaders to enable a world without passwords. Today, we are excited to announce an improved Windows passwordless experience to organizations starting with the September 2023 update for Windows 11, version 22H2.
When you update devices running Windows 11, version 22H2 to version 23H2, you’ll get the capabilities we have delivered as part of continuous innovation, including those announced in September, enabled by default. These include:…
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Advanced Configuration
In this final part of the Field Service Mobile offline blog series, we will discuss some of the more advanced configuration and recommendations for IT pros and partners to get the most out of their offline application.
Limit relationships to avoid slow-running data queries.
In addition to limiting data being downloaded, it is also important to limit the complexity of expensive SQL queries that are run to fetch that data. Gains realized by reducing data can be offset by complex queries which take longer run on the server. The following best practices can be considered when defining relationships:
If your data model includes several levels of relationships generating multiple joins across tables, consider using simple filters like ‘all records’; it can be faster to download more data up front as part of the one-time initial sync so more frequent delta syncs will be faster without the complex queries.
If using time-based filters to reduce records, it is recommended to use time ranges with fixed boundaries. For the most efficient sync experience, you could include fixed time window of last month, current month and next month. If requiring more dynamic time-based filtering, filter using Created on in the last N-days. Using these filtering techniques will help support downloading only recent, relevant data for the Frontline Worker.
Avoid using both custom data filters and selecting relationships on the same table. This will result in complex queries impacting performance.
NOTE: Be aware that using a custom filter creates an OR with relationships, and each relationship creates as an OR as well.
Avoid self-joins, where a table is making a circular reference with the same table within customer filters.
If using time-based calendar items that result in downloading many related records and files, consider reducing that time window to reduce total data download
Leveraging ODATA to view Offline Profile configuration.
Makers may be able to better evaluate joins and complexity of their offline profile by viewing those joins directly via API. The following APIs can be used to view details of the offline profile.
OData call used to return JSON of the mobile offline profile showing profile filters.
This is the fetch xml for offline profile items for any entity within the profile. This could be used to inspect the complexity and relationships.
NOTE: For the snippets below
{orgurl} is your CRM organization URL
{profileID} is the GUID for your mobile offline profile
{entityname} the logical name of your entity
{entitysetname} is the plural name you assign for your entity (must be lower case)
{fetchXml}: Return value from your get filter ODATA call
To get started you can locate your profile id leveraging:
https://{orgurl}/api/data/v9.0/mobileofflineprofileitemfilters?$filter=_mobileofflineprofileid_value eq ‘{profileID}’ and returnedtypecode eq '{entityname}' and type eq 2&$select=fetchXml,returnedtypecode
To get the ODATA to test FetchXML for an entity you are including in your profile:
Understanding Application data & schema changes and their impact on Offline Sync
The offline sync client uses Dataverse change tracking to find updated records to download. Even a minor change to one column will trigger the re-download of the entire record. Watch out for processes that automatically update many records on a frequent basis as this will lead to longer synchronization times.
Similarly, when the schema of a data table changes, the offline sync client will re-download records in that table to ensure that no data is missed. Whenever possible, avoid schema changes to offline-enabled tables. When schema changes are required, group them together in a single release or solution update so that data is only re-downloaded for each table one time.
Leverage “online light up” for edge cases, or scenarios that may not require offline access.
There are some scenarios where offline access may not be necessary. An example of this may be iOT data which is only a live feed from a connected device that is only accessible online.
In these cases, you can include that table as part of the user experience in the application, but not include it in the mobile offline profile. By doing so, the views for that table will be accessible to the Field Service Mobile users only when the network is available.
Leveraging online light up for online-only scenarios helps to reduce data which would otherwise need to be synchronized to the device. It is a great way to meet business needs for uncommon or edge-case scenarios without having to download more data for standard business scenarios that must function offline.
This concludes our 3-part blog series on getting the best of your Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile application setup. If there are new enhancement suggestions, it is recommended to submit those asks via the Field Service Mobile Ideas portal: Field Service Mobile – Ideas. This will allow the product team to evaluate new requests and plan for future product release waves.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
t’s gearing up to be an exciting week November 14th – 17th as we prepare for this year’s Microsoft Ignite and PASS Data Summit all happening at once! While across the way we’ll be sharing the latest from Microsoft all up, taking place at the Convention Center. We’re excited to be with our community digging into all things data. We’re back as premier sponsors together with our partners at Intel. With over 30+ sessions we’ll cover everything from ground to the cloud, with SQL Server, Azure SQL, all the way up to powering analytics for your data with Microsoft Fabric. This year, we’ll also bring in our developer community with sessions covering our solutions for open-source database, PostgreSQL.
We hope you’ll join us to “Connect, Share and Learn” alongside the rest of your peers at the PASS community. The official event kicks off with our keynote Wednesday morning with Shireesh Thota Vice President of Azure Databases who’s been hard at work getting ready for the event:
This workshop will provide a technically led driven approach to translating your knowledge and skills from SQL Server to Azure SQL. You will experience an immersive look at Azure SQL including hands-on labs, no Azure subscription required.
In this workshop, we’ll dedicate a full day to deep diving into each one of these new features such as JSON, Data API builder, calling REST endpoints, Azure function integrations and much more, so that you’ll learn how to take advantage of them right away. Also being covered:
Understand the use cases
Gain practical knowledge that can be used right away
Keynote
Wednesday: Shireesh Thota, Vice President of Azure Join Microsoft’s Shireesh Thota and Microsoft engineering leaders for a keynote delivered live from Seattle. We’ll showcase how the latest from Microsoft across databases, analytics, including the recently announced Fabric, seamlessly integrate to accelerate the power of your data.
General Sessions
30+ more sessions over three days:Check them all out here. From SQL Server to Azure SQL and analytics and governance, Microsoft’s experts will bring the latest product develops to help you build the right data platform to solve your business needs.
Connect, Grow, Learn with us!
As a special offer from Microsoft, enter the code AZURE150 at checkout to receive $150 off on the 3-Day conference pass (in-person).
SQL Server: 30 and thriving!
Already registered? Pop on by opening night as we say Happy Birthday SQL Server!
Recent Comments