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a banner depicting the title of the blog with tagline ”Your monthly IT admin blog for all things Microsoft 365” Welcome to the Microsoft 365 IT admin blog, your monthly source of tips, insights, and best practices for managing and optimizing your Microsoft 365 environment. In this edition, we cover topics the upcoming AMA on Microsoft 365 Copilot, general availability of Copilot and Bing Chat Enterprise, new and upcoming features in the Microsoft 365 admin center, new Teams Premium deployment and enablement guides, and the exclusive OneDrive event. Join the next AMA on Microsoft 365 Copilot We’ll be hosting the next AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Microsoft 365…

As teams are now more globally dispersed, virtual events have remained a constant to connect and bring people together regardless of where they are, while doing so at a lower cost and giving attendees flexibility, accessibility, and the ability to engage meaningfully. Over four years ago, we introduced Microsoft Teams Live Events, an experience to enable large-scale events across an organization for people to join from anywhere and across any device. However, Teams Live Events was built on a different platform than the familiar Teams meeting experience that many of us know. To simplify the virtual event experience on Teams, we are integrating our live event capab…

Noelle Russell is an experienced generative AI professional based in the United States who is dedicated to community building and accessibility. She has established several Microsoft generative AI user groups across the country that address topics such as image generation, marketing, and code generation. Her objective has been to support local voices and help communities to provide a space for everyone to feel included. One of the main trends in accessibility and generative AI that Noelle emphasizes is the ability to reach a broader audience across various languages and regions, making technology more inclusive. Furthermore, by applying generative models, she sta…

Developing ETLs/ELTs can be a complex process when you add in business logic, large amounts of data, and the high volume of table data that needs to be moved from source to target. This is especially true in analytical workloads involving Azure SQL when there is a need to either fully reload a table or incrementally update a table. In order to handle the logic to incrementally update a table or fully reload a table in Azure SQL (or Azure Synapse), we will need to create the following assets: Metadata table in Azure SQL This will contain the configurations needed to load each table end to end [*]Metadata driven pipelines Parent and child pipeline templates that …

We continue to expand the Microsoft AppSource ecosystem. For this volume, 85 new offers successfully met the onboarding criteria and went live. See details of the new offers below: Get it now in our marketplace [attachment=51385:name] AI Tutor - Teaching Assistant: This educational copilot automates the learning process, provides personalized support, and leverages NLP and ML developments. Key features include dialogue-based tutoring systems, progress tracking, and improved learner retention. The solution improves accessibility, flexibility, scalability, consistency, and data collection. [attachment=51386:name] Public Sector Citizen Engagement Platform: Th…

Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program newsletter on kuukausittain ilmestyvä uutiskirje, joka tarjoaa ajankohtaisia Microsoft-kumppaneille tarkoitettuja uutisia. Uutiskirjeen avulla pysyt ajan tasalla Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Programin hyödyistä ja Microsoftin asiantuntijoiden aiheista. Saat uusimmat myyntistrategiat, tuotetiedot ja ohjelmapäivitykset sekä tarvittavat liiketoiminta- ja markkinointiresurssit markkinoille pääsemiseksi. Uutiskirje tarjoaa myös kumppani- ja asiakasohjelmia, joita voit käyttää myynnin edistämiseen. Jatkossa kumppaneiden uutiskirjettä ei lähetetä enää paikallisesti Suomesta, vaan Microsoft julkaisee saman uutiskirjeen ympäri maailma…

Introduction In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, data is the lifeblood of any application or service. Developers and businesses often find themselves needing to adapt and scale their databases to meet changing requirements. One common scenario is the migration from Firebase Firestore, a popular NoSQL database, to Azure Cosmos DB, Microsoft's globally distributed, multi-model database service. This migration can be driven by various factors, such as performance optimization, scalability needs, compliance requirements, or a shift in the cloud ecosystem. In this comprehensive guide, we will take you on a journey through the process of migrating you…

Introduction Hi folks! My name is Felipe Binotto, Cloud Solution Architect, based in Australia. In this post, I will provide some tips and clarifications about Azure Firewall based on my experience from the field. Topics The following are the topics we are going to discuss. Azure Firewall Policy Inheritance Azure Firewall Rule Processing Logic Azure Firewall Rule Collection Group, Rule Collection and Rule naming Azure Firewall DNS Azure Firewall FQDN and URL Azure Firewall Logging IP Groups Inbound and Outbound connections SNAT Infrastructure-as-Code Rule Processing Logic This is an important topic to understan…

Prerequisites Microsoft Sentinel Log Analytics workspace Enabled Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence Data Connector Azure Logic Apps Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence API Access and Client App Registered Anomali ThreatStream API Credentials Access to the MDTI Feed playbook Introduction Ever-evolving cloud computing innovations have provided immeasurable benefits to individuals and businesses by publicly making technology available. Unfortunately, cybercriminals exploit this availability using a wide range of digital infrastructure to commit their attacks. With this growing digital landscape, cyber criminals continuously change thei…

While the Zero Trust security model has been around for a number of years, pressure to incorporate these security strategies has increased. Growing cyber threats mean it’s likely not a matter of ‘if’ an organization is breached, but ‘when’. According to Forrester, three-quarters of organizations reported one or more incidents in the past 12 months.[1] Cyber insurance companies are requiring policyholders to implement strategies like multifactor authentication (MFA). Even the US government is mandating that all federal agencies adopt Zero Trust architecture by 2024. 98% of attacks can be stopped with basic hygiene measures in place[2]—things like data encryption, mu…

By, Monilee Keller, VP of Product Management Technical Corner. In this month’s edition, we’ll cover the following key topics: Securing the channel spotlight, new commerce experience in CSP, membership, introducing the Surface Reseller Alliance Program, Co-sell, Microsoft commercial marketplace, and Partner Center roadmap. Zero Trust Security remains our utmost priority. In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, ensuring the safety of our systems, data, and interactions has never been more crucial. This edition takes a deep dive into the various ways in which we are actively addressing and enhancing security measures in Partner Center to provide you with va…

An optimal Windows 11 readiness plan addresses how you'll communicate with, train, and support employees so they can be productive on day one. Our Windows 11 onboarding kit offers templates that you can easily customize with your company's logo, name, and relevant resources. It also includes guidance to help you map out your overall upgrade plans and create meaningful training materials. We know, however, that not everyone is excited about change. That's why we've created a short, simple video on what it's like that first day using Windows 11. This video was developed in direct response to your feedback about the types of concerns your end users and, let's be ho…

Venue ExCeL London 1 Western Gateway Royal Victoria Dock London, England, United Kingdom E16 1XL Register Now Register today for Microsoft Build: AI Day in London. This free, one-day event helps developers discover new opportunities with AI and advance their knowledge and skills to deliver more value faster with AI and Microsoft Azure. Join Microsoft product and engineering experts to share ideas and unleash creativity with the power of AI. Who should attend: Developers, data scientists and cutting-edge technologists During this event, you’ll be able to: Discover new opportunities with generative AI and be the first to learn about the latest …

Fall for Intelligent Apps Are you ready to immerse yourself in the world of intelligent applications, cloud-scale data, and the incredible potential of AI? This Fall, join us for an exciting learning journey that will empower you to create highly differentiated digital experiences. From September 18th to October 31st, dive into the realm of intelligent app development with Azure and elevate your skill set. Intelligent Apps Skills Challenge Cloud-native app development is your gateway to building modern, containerized, and serverless apps that form the foundation of innovative solutions. During this Cloud Skills Challenge, you'll explore how to kicks…

Introduction: Efficiently managing temporary failures and timeouts is crucial in production environments when connecting to databases. In this article, we’ll explore how to implement a retry mechanism with sqlcmd in a Bash script, dynamically increasing timeouts with each failed attempt. Problem Statement: Operations can fail due to network issues, overloaded servers, or other temporary problems when interacting with databases. Implementing a retry mechanism helps address these temporary issues without manual intervention. Solution Overview: Below is a Bash script utilizing sqlcmd to interact with an SQL Server database. The script attempts to…

As previously announced, in March 2024 Microsoft is releasing a Public Preview for Inbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC for Exchange Online mail flow. This will complete Exchange Online’s support for SMTP DANE with DNSSEC, as outbound SMTP DANE with DNSSEC has been supported since March 2022. SMTP DANE is a security protocol that uses DNS to verify the authenticity of the certificates used for securing email communication with TLS and protecting against TLS downgrade attacks. DNSSEC is a set of extensions to DNS that provides cryptographic verification of DNS records, preventing DNS spoofing and adversary-in-the-middle attacks to DNS. To support inbound SMTP DANE with DNSS…

The Azure Functions team is thrilled to announce General Availability of version 4 of the Node.js programming model! This programming model is part of Azure Functions’ larger effort to provide a more flexible and intuitive experience for all supported languages. You may be aware that we announced General Availability of the new Python programming model for Azure Functions at MS Build this year. The new Node.js experience we ship today is a result of the valuable feedback we received from JavaScript and TypeScript developers through GitHub, surveys, user studies, as well as suggestions from internal Node.js experts working closely with customers. This blog post aim…

Microsoft is pleased to announce the release preview of Windows 11, version 23H2 annual feature update, which shares the same servicing branch and code base as Windows 11, version 22H2, and will be delivered via an enablement package (eKB). See Windows 11 Release information for more information on the annual feature update cadence. In support of the annual feature update, the Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP) will also release a Hardware Lab Kit (HLK) update to complement the feature updates within the Windows release. There is no plan to update the certification status issued by the HLK: the certification status that was used for the HLK for Windows 1…

We are thrilled to announce the general availability of DenyAction, a new effect in Azure Policy! With the introduction of Deny Action, policy enforcement now expands into blocking request based on actions to the resource. These deny action policy assignments can safeguard critical infrastructure by blocking unwarranted delete calls. Azure Policy expands its at-scale enforcement capabilities to assess requests based on action. Previously, Policy only supported the ‘deny’ effect which blocks requests based on resource configurations or properties. Now a newly added effect, Deny Action, extends that functionality to block based on intended request. Deny Ac…

We’re excited to announce that Azure Virtual Desktop Insights (AVDI) using the Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) is now generally available. The original version of Azure Virtual Desktop Insights utilizes the Log Analytics Agent, which is scheduled to in August of 2024. In anticipation of that, the new default AVD Insights experience for reporting at the host pool level is now powered by the AMA. What do I need to know? The largest change is that we’ve now made the AMA-powered AVDI experience at the host pool level the default option. This means there’s a new configuration workbook designed to configure the required Data Collection Rule (DCR) and perform the setup req…

Have you ever thought about the hidden risks behind cloud-native applications and how you can take a proactive approach to mitigating these risks across the development lifecycle? In this episode of the Uncovering Hidden Risks podcast, host Erica Toelle talks to Drew Nicholas, a Microsoft Principal Security Global Belt with in-depth experience as a cloud architect, and Daniela Villarreal a Sr. Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Listen to this episode on your favorite podcast platform: Main show page Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon RSS Feed Here are some of the key takeaways from the conversation: W…

365 EduCon – Chicago, October 30 – November 3, 2023. 365EduCon.com/Chicago What: 365 EduCon - Chicago (2023) (in-person only) -- A Microsoft 365 conference Register Now | Full sessions’ agenda (dates/times) [*]When & where: October 30 – November 3, 2023| McCormick Place South, Chicago, IL [*]Content: 1 Microsoft keynote and 1 AMA | 150+ overall sessions – 25+ Microsoft-led sessions (see all below) | 28 full and half day workshops [*]Presenters: 69 Event Presenters | 13 Microsoft Speakers [*]Twitter & hashtag: @365EduCon #365EduCon [*]Cost: Multiple options between $525 - $2,575 USD Register Now and save | Use the Microsoft Community discount code Mic…

Introduction In the fast-paced realm of DevOps, collaboration is paramount. However, as every team member brings their unique coding and documentation style to the table, achieving consistency can be a recurring challenge. Establishing and enforcing coding standards, often documented in lengthy Wiki pages or style guides, seems like a logical solution. But, as the saying goes, 'TL;DR' becomes the norm, leading to a cycle of confusion and inconsistency. In this blog post, I want to share my approach to achieving code consistency through automation. In the role of Platform DevOps engineer, my primary responsibilities involve working with various types of co…

Microsoft 365 lets you create, share, and collaborate all in one place with your favorite apps. Learn about an offer from high-performing Microsoft 365 partner Autopilot Workflow Solutions on Microsoft AppSource: [attachment=51302:name] Employee Onboarding Autopilot: Automate your employee onboarding process with Autopilot and Microsoft Teams. Instead of following up and chasing after information, your team can focus on more important tasks while new employees are seamlessly onboarded. Continue reading...

I was fascinated by a recent conversation about corporate communications with my good friend Liz. I had always thought that corporate communications was the domain of a Corporate Communications team. Sounds obvious - these are typically teams within an organization that are very skilled at writing and they manage all communications inside and outside of a corporation so that they present a favorable point of view. However, the point came up that, depending on our role, most of us can in fact be corporate communicators. We went on to talk about how corporate communications can take different forms and often serve a fundamental purpose for many roles, including the ones…