by Contributed | Aug 26, 2022 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Introduction
Transport Layer Security (TLS) provides server authentication and channel defenses (encryption and integrity verification) for communication between two applications such as a web browser and a web server. Optionally, TLS can provide client authentication, too.
Most TLS connections today use X.509 certificates, and core to certificates are root Certificate Authority (CA) certificates. For a client to successfully establish a secure connection to a server using TLS, the client system must trust the CA that issued the server’s certificate. The word ‘trust’ in this scenario means the client has the CA’s root certificate installed in the client system.
Later this year, we will update the root CA certificates used by all Azure services, including the database services such as Azure SQL Database, Cosmos DB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and Azure Database for MySQL.
This root certificate change might have implications for you as an Azure database user.
What is Changing?
Azure is changing the set of root certificates used by Azure services. Right now, almost all Azure services use one root CA certificate for TLS:
- Baltimore CyberTrust Root
By the end of the calendar year 2022, Azure services will chain up to one of the following CAs:
- DigiCert Global Root G2
- DigiCert Global Root CA
- Baltimore CyberTrust Root
- D-TRUST Root Class 3 CA 2
- Microsoft RSA Root Certificate Authority 2017
- Microsoft ECC Root Certificate Authority 2017
What’s the Impact?
Most Azure database users will see no impact because the new set of root CA certificates are commonly installed on systems including mobile devices. Their client code will continue to make secure connections to back-end databases on Azure.
The potential issue is if developers design their code in a way that restricts which root CA certs are valid and trusted. This is called Certificate Pinning. You could have, for example, a dozen roots on a device, but your application only trusts one specific root. So, in your code, you explicitly check for that certificate when making a TLS connection. This is usually performed by checking the thumbprint of the certificate in your code.
At the time of its invention, pinning seemed like a good idea, but it has since fallen out of favor as it leads to fragility. You can read one point of view from DigiCert at Stop Certificate Pinning | DigiCert.com.
A more concrete example is if your code pins the Baltimore CyberTrust Root CA certificate, but Cosmos DB uses the DigiCert Global Root CA certificate, then the client will not connect to Cosmos DB. If your code is C/C++ Windows code, another way to mimic certificate pinning is to use Certificate Trust Lists (CTL).
You can learn more about the certificates we will use at Azure TLS Certificate Changes | Microsoft Docs and the Cosmos DB specific post is at Upcoming changes to Azure Cosmos DB TLS certificates – Azure Cosmos DB Blog.
What You Need to Do
Review all your code that interacts with Azure services, including our PaaS database products and make sure TLS connections do not limit which root CA certificates are valid. For Windows C/C++ code, make sure there is no use of CTLs.
Installing Root CA Certificates
You probably won’t need to add the new root CA certificates to your clients, but if you do, here is how to do it on Ubuntu Linux Installing a root CA certificate in the trust store | Ubuntu and how to use Global Policy on Windows to deploy certificates to your enterprise Distribute Certificates to Client Computers by Using Group Policy | Microsoft Docs or manually How to install Windows 10/11 root certificates. Some applications might have their own root CA store and not rely on the operating system, however.
SQL Server IaaS is not Affected
Note that SQL Server running in a Windows or Linux Virtual Machine is not affected by this change because you can configure any certificate and root used by the database server within the operating system. You cannot do this when using PaaS Azure databases because certificates are handled by Azure.
Summary
Most people will see no issues at all with this update. Just perform a little due diligence on your client-side code to make sure it is not restricting CA certs.
Thanks to Ashutosh Korde for his review of this post.
by Contributed | Aug 26, 2022 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
This is the next segment of our blog series highlighting Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors who achieved the Gold milestone and have recently graduated from university. Each blog in the series features a different student and highlights their accomplishments, their experience with the Student Ambassador community, and what they’re up to now.
Today we meet Arsalan Khattak who is from Pakistan and recently graduated from the National University of Modern Languages – Islamabad with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
When you joined the Student Ambassador community in 2019, did you have specific goals you wanted to reach, such as a particular skill or quality?
The goal I had in my mind was to be a part of a community, connect with like-minded people, and help others by sharing my knowledge. I wanted to make an impact through my blogs, videos, and sessions. As a Student Ambassador, I believe I achieved what was possible. In 2021 alone, I impacted around 1500+ people with just my live streams for the GitHub Education Twitch Channel.
Arsalan’s livestream set-up
I also helped many students learn how to code. Also, I used to be too shy to give a public speech or even walk in front of many people. I believed that being in a community would be a great way to overcome my fear and get out of my comfort zone, and it has been a success.
What were the accomplishments that you’re the proudest of and why?
As a Student Ambassador, one of my visible and prominent contributions was speaking at a Microsoft Reactor virtual event about Visual Studio Code, where I went through the VS Code structure and taught how to customize it according to your needs, including setting up themes, extensions, customizing title, etc.
I helped a couple of Alpha Ambassadors with their efforts to be promoted to Beta level. I helped them with how to give good presentations and gave them tips on how to engage and present to their audiences as well as some good resources to get technical information and knowledge.
I am the founding member of MLSA Islamabad, one of the leading communities in Pakistan. MLSA Islamabad hosted some very successful events, such as Digital Design Roadshow, and I secured partnerships with international communities and companies like Telenor.
What are you doing now that you’ve graduated?
Currently, I am employed at Major League Hacking working in their Fellowship Department as a Program Associate where I help students learn market-required skills and stay updated with technologies. My long-term goal is to make my community focused on web technologies.
If you could redo your time as a Student Ambassador, is there anything you would have done differently?
There isn’t much that I would have done differently, but one thing is that I would have spent more time on soft skills, that is, time management, project management, etc. I believe I spent quite a lot of time focusing on technical skills but didn’t give much attention to my soft skills which actually hold an equal amount of importance in one’s career as tech skills do.
If you were to describe the community to a student who is interested in joining, what would you say about it to convince him or her to join?
A community is a group of like-minded people that come together to solve a shared struggle and problem. The problem could be something technical like helping juniors to level up their skills, or completely nontechnical helping kids to learn skating. Being in a community helps you grow and learn faster as you have like-minded people to help you solve problems, and you can also do a lot of networking and expand your connections. For example, when you join the Students Ambassador community, you get access to thousands of other Ambassadors all around the globe who have expertise in different domains.
What advice would you give to new Student Ambassadors?
My only advice to them is to get the most out of the community and network as much as possible. I have noticed some folks focusing just on the swags, which should not be the motivation to join a community. Everyone loves swag, including me, but treat it as an extra perk. The motivation should be expanding your network and connecting with industry experts and like-minded people.
What is your motto in life, your guiding principle?
My motto is to learn, build and open source. I help others learn technologies to build things with them and open source them. I do this by creating video content on my YouTube and Instagram accounts.
Planning content for a YouTube Video
What is one random fact about you that few people are aware of?
I can wiggle my ears.
Good luck to you in all your endeavors, Arsalan!
Readers, you can find Arsalan on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
by Contributed | Aug 26, 2022 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
by Contributed | Aug 25, 2022 | Business, Hybrid Work, Microsoft 365, Technology, Viva Goals, WorkLab
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In today’s shifting macroeconomic climate, Microsoft is focused on helping organizations in every industry use technology to overcome challenges and emerge stronger. From enabling hybrid work to bringing business processes into the flow of work, Microsoft 365 helps organizations deliver on their digital imperative so they can do more with less.
The post From intuitive sharing with OneDrive to driving prioritization with Viva Goals—here’s what’s new in Microsoft 365 appeared first on Microsoft 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
by Contributed | Aug 25, 2022 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
According to Forrester Consulting, today’s enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) have entered a new era. In this view, ERPs have become increasingly experience-driven to reflect their critical role in digital business and are characterized by agility and AI-driven processes. Forrester calls this new breed of ERP digital operations platforms (DOP). Within the context of DOPs, we are pleased to share the results of a recently commissioned Total Economic Impact (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft. The study examines the potential return on investment (ROI) that enterprises may realize by deploying Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance.
Methodology and purpose
Forrester’s TEI study is a methodology developed specifically to assist companies with the complexities of procuring technology solutions. The TEI study also aids technology vendors in objectively evaluating and communicating their solutions’ value proposition. To these ends, the TEI study discussed here provides a framework for business decision-makers to assess the potential financial impact of implementing Dynamics 365 Finance.
Ultimately, the financial impact of the 2022 study is a projection for a composite organization developed by Forrester through real-world interviews of four businesses that currently use Dynamics 365 Finance. These businesses’ experiences and the interviews’ results are aggregated to create a composite organization. For this study, the composite organization is a retail and wholesale business with 50 retail locations, 100 wholesale customers, 2,000 employees, 120 finance team members, and annual revenue of $750 million.
Keep reading to learn the key challenges facing the composite organization and critical findings of the study.
Key challenges
The organizations interviewed for the TEI study shared several common challenges, including:
- Legacy solutions with high maintenance costs.
- Significant customization of solutions.
- Lack of standardized financial processes.
- Reliance on manual processes and tribal knowledge.
- Lack of real-time visibility.
Ultimately, these challenges led the composite organization to search for and invest in a solution that could:
- Deliver out-of-the-box core financial and accounting processes.
- Empower financial teams with real-time visibility.
- Enable the organization to scale in step with current business demands.
Key findings
Dynamics 365 Finance enables organizations to overcome the limitations of heavily customized legacy ERP solutions. In so doing, it frees finance professionals from the burden of manual and cumbersome processes. At the same time, it provides access to real-time insights and a level of platform flexibility that previous solutions lacked, allowing organizations to keep pace with the speed of digital business.
Forrester’s study revealed three quantifiable impact areas: productivity improvements of finance team members, IT staff productivity improvements, and legacy cost savings. Let’s examine each of these areas in more detail to see how Dynamics 365 Finance delivers value to enterprise finance.
Finance staff productivity improvements
Before implementing Dynamics 365 Finance, interviewees pointed out how legacy ERP actively constrained the organization by requiring manual report creation and distribution. This meant that not only did financial processes require more headcount to support, but also that once reports were distributed, the information was often stale. Plus, process standardization was practically impossible because these organizations also had significantly different processes and systems in use depending on the region, location, and type of location (retail, office, and more).
Deploying Dynamics 365 Finance allowed the organizations to standardize and streamline financial processes across locations. At the same time, by leveraging real-time information and automation, finance teams were able to repurpose some team members to support higher-value-added work and avoid adding additional headcount through external hires.
The three-year present value of productivity improvements in finance staff was $2.30 million.
IT staff productivity improvements
Similarly, there were also IT staff productivity improvements as the organizations migrated from legacy, on-premises ERP solutions to the cloud-based ERP architecture of Dynamics 365 Finance. In most cases, the legacy solutions were in place for over a decade, leading to several challenges. Most notably, the ERP solutions had become highly customized over the years and required significant resources to administer and maintain functionality. This problem was particularly challenging because team members with expertise and knowledge of the various customizations had moved on to other roles or organizations. The lack of continuity made further customizations even more difficult and time-consuming.
By standardizing with Dynamics 365 Finance, the composite organization considerably reduced IT administrator and developer hours by deploying a solution that provided greater functionality with fewer customizations and was easier to support overall.
The IT staff productivity improvements present value over three years was $402,870.
Legacy cost savings
Dynamics 365 Finance also allowed the organizations to realize savings by avoiding costs that would have been incurred with their legacy solutions. By preventing these legacy costs, the move to Dynamics 365 Finance reduced infrastructure expenditures, decommissioned redundant solutions across regions and lines of business, reduced financial auditing expenses, and lowered the cost to scale with demand. The avoidance of these legacy costs resulted in a projected present value savings of $3.52 million over three years.
Other benefits
Beyond the quantifiable benefits above, the organizations interviewed for the TEI study also unlocked other benefits, such as:
- Real-time visibility and data which improved decision-making and agility.
- Improved regulatory compliance.
- Greater system availability.
- Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem.
- Better quality of life for finance employees.
Next steps
As we have seen here, Forrester’s TEI study uncovered three primary quantifiable impact areas and several soft benefits. Taken together, the study found that Dynamics 365 Finance delivered a total economic impact of $3.41 million in financial savings over three years. The total investment required was $2.8 million and provided an ROI of 122 percent.
To dig deeper into the results and to better understand what Dynamics 365 Finance can do for your business, check out our webinar covering a recent discussion of the TEI study with our guests, Forrester Senior Consultant Richard Cavallaro and Principal Analyst Leslie Joseph. You can also download and read the full study: The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance.
Sources:
Forrester. The Total Economic Impact Of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. July 2022.
The post The Total Economic Impact of Dynamics 365 Finance appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
Recent Comments