Microsoft Support & Discussions

In the previous installment of this mini-series, we covered basic scenarios involving private endpoints. If you aren’t familiar with private endpoints and Private Link in general, it might be a good idea to quickly review them to get the feel of how they apply when Azure SQL Managed Instance is in the mix. In this article, we’ll dive into more involved scenarios that build on those from last week: 5. Hub and spoke topology 6. Partner or ISV giving access to their customers 7. Two SQLs talking to each other: linked server, transactional replication 8. Failover group listener using private endpoints Ready? Let’s go! 5. Hub and spoke topo…

We're adding a variety of new capabilities with Intune’s August (2308) service release. In an important development for frontline workers to help resolve device issues faster and more efficiently, Remote Help for Android is now available. We’ve also expanded our analytical AI offerings. You’ll find settings insights that offer valuable information on configurations used successfully by other organizations. You can also utilize anomaly detection device cohorts to more proactively improve user experiences. Finally, we’ve also released a new device attestation solution jointly developed with Samsung that offers extra protection for Samsung devices. We want to hear from yo…

Back to school is here! As educational institutions gear up for another productive semester, it's essential to harness the power of technology to streamline processes. To ensure a smooth start, I will introduce you to some invaluable tips for utilizing Forms effectively in different EDU scenarios. Whether you're an educator aiming to collect student input and assess comprehension, or a student gearing up for upcoming exams, these Form tips will undeniably enhance the efficiency and organization of your tasks. Let's delve into these valuable insights! You can also try out these tips starting from this amazing template. Live presentation capability in Forms and Po…

In the month of May 2023, our internal Customer Support team reported an error, which was affecting Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Israel for events that were scheduled for March 2024 and onwards. This was resulting in the meeting times in Israel being off by one hour. On further investigation, it was realized that it was happening due to a missing registry in one of the internal systems. To ensure that this issue is proactively resolved, Microsoft will release the following Windows updates. This change is available in the August 2023 Cumulative Update preview released on August 22, 2023, for the 20H2 and the newer versions of Windows 10 and 11. All other supporte…

Windows 365 Frontline offers flexible, affordable options for scenarios beyond shift work. This allows organizations to take greater advantage of the simplicity, deployment, and management that Windows 365 delivers. What is Windows 365 Frontline? With the recent release of Windows 365 Frontline, companies now have an affordable solution offering additional flexibility for workers who don't need 24/7 access to dedicated Cloud PCs. This approach supports more elastic and distributed organizations, helping workers who are part time, on a rotation schedule, working across time zones, or are contingent staff. Windows 365 Frontline licenses are applied at the tenant …

We continue to expand the Azure Marketplace ecosystem. For this volume, 96 new offers successfully met the onboarding criteria and went live. See details of the new offers below: Get it now in our marketplace [attachment=48478:name] Academy 365: The Academy 365 app lets managers assign courses and learning paths to team members, monitor progress, and track success as they learn how to use Microsoft 365. This app is available only in Armenian. [attachment=48479:name] AdInsure Cloud for Life: AdInsure Life & Annuities Cloud delivers RESTful integration APIs via software as a service (SaaS) to support life insurance carriers’ content, sales, a…

On July 18 at Microsoft Inspire 2023, Microsoft announced the new Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, the next generation of the company’s partner program that empowers every partner to deliver customer value by leveraging Microsoft AI and the Microsoft Cloud. Available to partners now, the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program builds on and replaces its predecessor program, the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program, to provide partners with a comprehensive portfolio of investments for all business models, at every stage of maturity, from startups to ISV partners and services partners to device partners – helping them realize the benefits of integrating AI capabilities int…

AVL und Microsoft haben eine strategische Partnerschaft geschlossen, um sichere KI-basierte Cloudlösungen für effiziente und nachhaltige Fahrzeugentwicklung anzubieten. Durch die Nutzung von Daten in der Cloud und intelligenter Algorithmen können Entwicklungszyklen beschleunigt und nachhaltiger gestaltet werden. Rund 3000 Software-Expert*innen bei AVL arbeiten virtuell an der Entwicklung umweltfreundlicher Fahrzeuge. Daten aus Simulation und Testing werden in der Cloud zusammengeführt und mithilfe von KI ausgewertet. Die Partnerschaft von AVL und Microsoft ermöglicht eine breite Integration von AVLs Software-Tools über die Cloud und fördert kollaborative Lösungen i…

Microsoft Azure Compute is pleased to announce the introduction of new throttling policies for compute API requests. These throttling policies are designed to reduce the throttling experienced by customers on Azure Virtual Machine and Virtual Machine Scale Set API requests. The new throttling policies offer several benefits: They will replace the existing multiple throttling time windows by 1 minute. This will ensure faster retries, shorter lock out periods and a uniform measure of 1 minute for all throttling limits. No single resource can use up all the limits under a subscription as limits are defined at resource level in the new policies. Token Bucket Algorithm i…

Copilot is an AI feature that allows you describe what you need in plain English. In Microsoft Power Apps, this gives you the opportunity to describe what type of app you need and what data the app should collect. Copilot builds a responsive Canvas Apps application and through the processing of building, it creates a Dataverse Table with columns and populated sample data. An environment deployed in the United States region and English language (United States) is required to use Copilot in your Power Apps Environment. In this blog post, I will be showing you how to create a new environment deployed in the United States region and how to create a Leave Management App…

Socket.IO powers a variety of real-time applications. We have been conducting user study with Socket.IO users for the past few months and had to chance to meet the core maintainer of the open-source project. We were pleasantly surprised by the variety of applications built using Socket.IO, from identity management to robotics, not just chat apps. Scaling out Socket.IO apps can be frustrating for developers. Overwhelmingly, users reported their love of the “intuitive APIs” and how easy it is to get productive with the library once they get over the initial learning curve. However, scaling out a Socket.IO app is where the most frustration and difficulty li…

Today, we are announcing the deprecation of the classic Exchange admin center (EAC) in Microsoft 365 operated by 21Vianet. The modern EAC is already available in Microsoft 365 operated by 21Vianet and can be accessed at Sign in to your account. The classic EAC will be deprecated by September 30, 2023. After this date, admins in this environment will not be able to use the classic EAC. The modern EAC offers an array of new features, including a streamlined interface, enhanced performance, and security. We recommend admins in this environment transition to the modern EAC as soon as possible. To learn more about the modern EAC, see Exchange admin center in Exchange…

Microsoft Fabric provides both Data Lakehouse and Data Warehouse platforms for Data Analytics. In a separate post, I illustrated a Metadata Driven Pipeline pattern for Microsoft Fabric following the medallion architecture with Fabric Data Lakehouses used for both the Bronze and Gold layers and SQL views over tables for the Silver layer. Fabric Data Lakehouse is perfect for landing data into the Bronze layer. And if I can host my star schema in a Fabric Data Lakehouse, why consider Fabric Data Warehouse as the Gold layer? Because Fabric Data Warehouse has some features that may be a better fit for your organization. Consider Fabric Data Warehouse for the Gold laye…

We’re excited to announce the release of the new Edge Browser Control in Microsoft Access! This control allows you to seamlessly integrate modern web content into your Access forms and reports. How to use the Edge Browser control You can find the new control in design view in the control gallery on the Form Design tab in the Controls section: In form view, select the control, specify a URL, and select OK. Switch to form view and you’re up and running! New capabilities and important changes Unlike the old browser control, you can use the new Edge browser control in continuous forms, reports, and renders for printing. To access E…

We are pleased to announce the general availability of FSLogix 2210 hotfix 2 (2.9.8612.60056). Important News! Following our last blog post, we encountered a last-minute process change. FSLogix 2210 hotfix 2 can be found in the Azure Marketplace images of Windows multi-session that also include Microsoft 365 apps. Images without Microsoft 365 apps have 2210 hotfix 1 (2.9.8440.42104) pre-installed. In the upcoming September 12th, 2023 update of the Azure Marketplace images, all images will have 2210 hotfix 2 (2.9.8612.60056) pre-installed. What's new in FSLogix 2210 hotfix 2? This hotfix provides major bugfixes to the Cloud Cache components of FSL…

Adaptive Card-based Loop components are live and actionable units of productivity that stay in sync and can move freely across Microsoft 365 apps, starting with Microsoft Teams and Outlook. At Build ‘22, we announced a private preview for developers to create Adaptive Card-based Loop components, and since then we have partnered with organizations such as SAP, Zoho and Priority Matrix to build experiences that will allow their users to bring live business data into chats and emails. Previously, we shared with you the variety of scenarios that our partners have been working on. We’re excited to announce that Adaptive Card-based Loop components are now available in publ…

Introduction If you're a PLSQL developer, it's highly improbable that you haven't leveraged DBMS_OUTPUT in your code. This essential package often proves indispensable for debugging extensive pieces of code. By inserting console messages at critical junctures within your code, you're able to debug and untangle complexities. However, it's worth noting that occasionally, an unintended consequence arises—numerous DBMS_OUTPUT console messages inadvertently find their way into the production codebase. DBMS_OUTPUT lacks an inherent mechanism for establishing a configurable debug level that can be seamlessly deactivated within a production environment. Now, en…

You can now have greater control over how users of devices in your organization receive optional Windows updates. We care deeply and work hard to develop optional updates that support productivity. Now you have greater timing flexibility to preview and implement improvements on Windows 11, version 22H2 and later. Let’s review what’s special about optional updates before jumping into practical ways for you to control them. Editor's note 8.23.2023: We have corrected the location of the policy for devices managed with Windows Update for Business or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) inline below. About optional Windows updates Optional non-securit…

Introduction In the battle against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, it is crucial to have robust protection mechanisms in place. Azure DDoS Protection provides a powerful shield for your infrastructure, but how can you ensure it can handle real-world scenarios? This blog post walks you through DDoS simulation testing and its role in evaluating and enhancing Azure DDoS Protection. Discover how simulation testing can fortify your defenses and enable you to confidently withstand DDoS attacks. Azure DDoS Protection Overview Azure DDoS Protection is a comprehensive security solution offered by Microsoft Azure to protect applications and resources from…

Leveraging Microsoft Sentinel workbooks for reporting to leadership is a common use case. A common concern is granting recipients access to Microsoft Sentinel or all of the tables within the workspace. Using some different RBAC components, this can be done. Components: Table-level RBAC Resource-level RBAC How It Works: Table-level RBAC: Access to the data that is leveraged within the workspace is set at the table level. This prevents the user from being able to read data from the other tables while still being able to see the required data within the workbook. Resource-level RBAC: Access to just the resource as needed. The resource here is t…

Attack Simulation Training is an intelligent phish risk reduction tool that measures behavior change and automates deployment of an integrated security awareness training program across an organization. It is available with Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P2 plan. We are thrilled to announce that Attack Simulation Training now includes an exciting new feature: "How-to Guides" that can be sent to users to provide instructions to recipient on how to complete important security tasks. This capability is designed to provide a lightweight guidance to end users on how to report a phishing message directly through email. By delivering these guides di…

Announcing new enhancements for Azure VMware Solution I’m writing to you today from VMware Explore in Las Vegas, where my team and I are excited to meet with customers and partners in person! Most organizations recognize that by running workloads in the cloud, they can achieve more resilience and security while setting themselves up for agility and innovation to meet any business challenge or opportunity. Azure VMware Solution allows customers to migrate to the cloud more quickly, leveraging existing skillsets and little need for refactoring. “We’ve become 100 percent based in Azure in three and a half years, gaining a modern technology footprint and performance…

For more than 30 years, Microsoft Certifications have provided proof of world-class technical proficiency. We are focusing on innovative solutions that improve the accessibility and real-world relevance of our certifications. I am pleased to announce that we are adding a powerful new resource designed to help with all role-based (associate, expert, and specialty) certification exams. On August 22, we will begin updating our exams so that you will be able to access Microsoft Learn as you complete your exam. This resource will be available in all role-based and specialty exams in all languages by mid-September. How often do you say in your daily life, “I’ll just look…

Python is one of the most popular programming languages today, loved by businesses and students alike and Excel is an essential tool to organize, manipulate and analyze all kinds of data. But, until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to make those two worlds work together. Today, we are excited to introduce the Public Preview of Python in Excel – making it possible to integrate Python and Excel analytics within the same Excel grid for uninterrupted workflow. Python in Excel combines Python's powerful data analysis and visualization libraries with Excel's features you know and love. You can manipulate and explore data in Excel using Python plots and libraries, a…

NOTE: The following is a post authored by our partner Tiger Technology. Tiger Technology has been a valued partner in the Azure Storage ecosystem for many years and we are happy to have them share details on their innovative solution! Read more here about how Tiger Bridge can help you seamlessly extend your on-premises storage to Azure! Karl Rautenstrauch Principal PM, Azure Storage By 2025, the collective sum of global data, whether it is generated, captured, or replicated will reach 175 zettabytes (1ZB = 1 trillion gigabytes), the International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts. This surge in data generation has propelled organizations into a race aga…