Microsoft Support & Discussions

In this blog we discussed customer pricing needs and how they match different phases of the cloud journey, and we provided various tools and resources to help you with your cloud pricing questions. Now, we will dive deeper into how Azure pricing works and how you can learn more about it. We will use the example of Contoso, a hypothetical digital media company, to show how they use Azure pricing resources to guide their migration to the cloud. Consider the cloud through testing and learning Contoso is considering moving their on-premises environment to the cloud to meet their growing demand for content, expand their services globally, and reduce their ope…

We continue to expand the Azure Marketplace ecosystem. For this volume, 141 new offers successfully met the onboarding criteria and went live. See details of the new offers below: [HEADING=2]Get it now in our marketplace[/HEADING] [attachment=54340:name] Adminer: ATH Infosystems has created this image containing Adminer, a powerful and user-friendly database management tool designed to simplify database administration tasks. It provides a comprehensive interface for managing various database systems, offering an efficient and versatile solution for database operations. [attachment=54341:name] AlmaLinux 8 - ARM64: Nuvemnest has created this image containing A…

Exploring Generative AI Solutions: A Customer-Centric Approach When faced with specific challenges, customers often seek Generative AI solutions. These solutions, while powerful, come with inherent complexity. They involve integrating diverse data sources, augmenting data, automating business processes, and gathering input from end users. To successfully implement such solutions and leverage publicly available Accelerators, users must possess technical expertise, allocate sufficient time for implementation, and adhere to best practices. Additionally, they need to carefully evaluate which solution aligns with their unique issue. Microsoft recognizes these cha…

[HEADING=1]Overview[/HEADING] The Azure Cost Optimization workbook is a powerful tool that helps you monitor and optimize your Azure costs. It provides you with a comprehensive overview of your Azure environment and offers actionable insights and recommendations based on the Well-Architected Framework Cost Optimization pillar. This workbook is natively available on Azure Advisor for all customers, and an editable version is also available as part of the FinOps toolkit. If you haven't used it already, the workbook template is offered in Advisor gallery and does not require any setup. Here is how you can get started: 1) Navigate to Workbooks gallery i…

We are happy to announce that, we’ve released an enhanced version of [iCODE]fn_get_audit_file[/iCODE]. Now, customers can easily specify their desired time range to retrieve audit logs more efficiently. The [iCODE]sys.fn_get_audit_file_v2[/iCODE] function in Azure SQL Database is designed to retrieve audit log data with enhanced efficiency compared to its predecessor, [iCODE]sys.fn_get_audit_file[/iCODE]. The new function introduces time-based filtering at both the file and record levels, providing significant performance improvements, particularly for queries targeting specific time ranges. [HEADING=1]Function Syntax[/HEADING] [iCODE]sys.fn_get_audit_fi…

Hello! Abdulhamid here! I am a Microsoft student ambassador writing from Aston University, where I am studying Applied Artificial Intelligence. I'm excited to share insights on leveraging Azure AI and OpenAI to build cutting-edge applications. Whether you're a fellow student, a developer, or an AI enthusiast, this step-by-step guide will help you harness the power of OpenAI’s models to enhance existing apps or create new innovative ones. With Azure AI Studio offering a wide array of AI services that can be easily deployed, and the new Azure OpenAI services granting access to advanced generative models, integrating these tools has become more straightforward than ever. …

[HEADING=2]Introduction[/HEADING] When integrating Azure OpenAI’s powerful models into your production environment, it’s essential to follow best practices to ensure security, reliability, and scalability. Azure provides a robust platform with enterprise capabilities that, when leveraged with OpenAI models like GPT-4, DALL-E 3, and various embedding models, can revolutionize how businesses interact with AI. This guidance document contains best practices for scaling OpenAI applications within Azure, detailing resource organization, quota management, rate limiting, and the strategic use of Provisioned Throughput Units (PTUs) and Azure API Management (APIM) for efficient …

In this monthly blog series focused on M365, we will be sharing product updates, notable reads, and other new resources that can be leveraged by developers who are building apps for the commercial marketplace. Spotlight Discover the power of customization with Microsoft Copilot extensions. Get Started. Watch our foundational Build breakout session for a comprehensive guide to customizing Microsoft Copilot. View on demand >> Learn how you can build Copilot extensions to enrich and Microsoft Copilot. Watch how >> Build your own custom copilots for Microsoft Teams with the Teams AI Library and Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code, now generall…

[JUSTIFY]Azure Advisor provides a personalized approach to receiving recommendations for your server by analyzing its configuration and telemetry data. This service aims to enhance various aspects of your server, including reliability, cost efficiency, security, operational excellence, and performance. By leveraging Azure Advisor, you gain access to tailored, proactive, and actionable recommendations designed to help your server operate at its optimal level. You can now receive new recommendations that include checks for long-running queries, orphaned prepared transactions, databases approaching the 1 billion transaction usage limit (to prevent potential transaction …

We are excited to announce that Windows Server 2025 is available in public preview and ready for you to download in the Evaluation Center. This is the latest in our Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) releases, and it’s scheduled to be generally available later this calendar year. Feedback from customers like you has helped us transform Windows Server 2025 into what we hope you’ll agree is our most secure and innovative version yet. This release delivers advanced security, new Azure hybrid features, a high-performance platform for your existing apps and AI workloads, and a modernized Windows Server experience. Read on for just a few highlights,1 then try it for yourself. …

[HEADING=1]Learn from experts and get ready for the future of Windows Server[/HEADING] Stay ahead of the curve and learn about the latest innovations and best practices in the world of Windows Server. Session recordings from the Windows Server Summit 2024 virtual event sponsored by Intel® are available on-demand. Designed for experienced IT professionals and IT leaders, the event will help deepen knowledge and skills of Windows Server and managing Windows Server workloads in hybrid cloud environments. The event includes talks by Microsoft product engineers, Intel® experts, and Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) sharing insights and tips to get the most out…

[HEADING=1]Explore how Xbox drives efficiency using Windows Server and SQL Server on Azure[/HEADING] Would you like to avoid spending your weekends patching servers? The new Hotpatch feature in Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition addresses this pain point—it can reduce many IT teams’ headaches including reboot failures and coordinating multitier workloads. It increases productivity and end-user uptime and can reduce the vulnerability window that would result if an update is delayed. To demonstrate how Hotpatching works, we’ve brought in an example from our very own Xbox team. In this article you’ll learn how Microsoft has been using Hotpatch with Windows S…

This year, Microsoft Ignite 2023 took place in Seattle, Washington from November 12 to 15, 2023 and it was such a wonderful experience to meet and interact with nearly 5,000 of you in person, and many more online across the globe. One common theme stood out throughout the event: the potential of AI is becoming reality, and it’s happening right now. One news roundup even called Microsoft’s vision for AI an “everyday reality.”1 Read more about the economic impact of AI in business and industries in a recent IDC study that Microsoft commissioned. However, as many organizations like yours are eager to innovate with AI for various use cases, it is also very important, if no…

We are grateful for the trust our customers have placed in Windows Server 2012/R2 as a part of their organizations for the past decade. With this release of Windows Server having launched 10 years ago, it reaches end of support on October 10th, 2023, per our 10-year lifecycle policy. After this date, no more security patches will be released for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2. To stay protected and compliant, we wanted to outline three options for customers from Azure. [HEADING=1]Modernize with PaaS or upgrade to a newer version in Azure[/HEADING] Modernization provides organizations with a more future-proof solution by using a cloud-first approach or updating to a…

As organizations are eager to adopt the latest technological advancements in AI and cloud-native services, they continue to trust Windows Server as the secure and foundational platform for their mission-critical workloads. This July, we are celebrating an incredible 30-year anniversary of Windows Server! We’re grateful for all the support of our customers who have helped us continually evolve Windows Server over the years, and we continue to innovate with new features that will meet the needs of our customers today and in the years to come. [HEADING=1]Options to stay protected for Windows Server 2012/R2 end of support [/HEADING] As new features and functionality lig…

Deploying web applications in the cloud can often be a complex task, involving multiple steps and intricate configurations. App Spaces aims to streamline this process, offering a straightforward approach to hosting web applications. This blog post will guide you through deploying a "Sample Space," specifically the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) sample space, to demonstrate how easily you can set up and manage a RAG type application using App Spaces. [HEADING=2]What is App Spaces?[/HEADING] App Spaces is a versatile service within Microsoft Azure designed to simplify the deployment and management of web applications. It provides several deployment options: …

[JUSTIFY]Azure Advisor provides a personalized approach to receiving recommendations for your server by analyzing its configuration and telemetry data. This service aims to enhance various aspects of your server, including reliability, cost efficiency, security, operational excellence, and performance. By leveraging Azure Advisor, you gain access to tailored, proactive, and actionable recommendations designed to help your server operate at its optimal level. You can now receive new recommendations that include checks for long-running queries, orphaned prepared transactions, databases approaching the 1 billion transaction usage limit (to prevent potential transaction …

[HEADING=2]Introduction[/HEADING] The adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) technologies is accelerating, driven by the transformative potential they offer across various sectors. Recently, we hosted a customer round table conference at Microsoft Build, focusing on the journeys and adoption of GenAI using Azure AI services. Industry leaders from diverse fields shared their experiences, challenges, and strategies, providing invaluable insights into the practical application of Generative AI. [HEADING=2]Azure AI Services: A Pillar in Generative AI Use Cases[/HEADING] Azure AI services play a crucial role in enabling businesses to leverage Generative AI effectively.…

By Nicole Dezen, Chief Partner Officer and Corporate Vice President, Global Partner Solutions Earlier this year, we shared that we are evolving the partner event formerly called Microsoft Inspire to align with our flagship customer event, Microsoft Ignite. For the first time ever, this year’s Microsoft Ignite event will have partners join key customers and leading industry executives for an in-person experience in Chicago, Illinois on November 18-22, 2024. Participants will also be able to join digitally. In preparation for Ignite and the start of our fiscal year, we are inviting our partners to join us for a digital event starting July 10, 2024, called MCAP…

One thing is true for most AI Applications - it's easy to get yourself in trouble if you're not careful. AI is all about probability, and the probability of it being incorrect, or behaving unexpectedly for a new input is practically never zero. In the classic chatbot days, this often meant getting an answer about something you're not asking about, or the good old "I did not understand" default answer we all "love" to see when we're having an issue. But with Generative AI, mistakes are much more nuanced, and may take the appearance of plain misinformation and, even worse, harmful content! In this article, we'll cover some of the guidelines you can adopt to minimize …

Since the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard became generally available on March 27th we’ve seen a huge amount of interest and usage from customers seeking to understand the impact of their Copilot for Microsoft 365 investments. We’ve listened to your feedback, and today we’re pleased to share a set of feature announcements and best practices to help you maximize your Copilot Dashboard usage. As a reminder, starting in 2024 Q3, the Copilot Dashboard will no longer require a Viva license to access, and will be included in your Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscription. To access the Copilot Dashboard, simply navigate to aka.ms/CopilotDashboard from your browser or ope…

Last Ignite we showed our plans for Copilot in Outlook and how the new Outlook for Windows would get the most recent features first. We also know that our customers still rely on the classic version of Outlook for a lot of their work and to improve their Copilot experience we have been rolling out Copilot features into classic Outlook over the last few months. For future Copilot features, we will continue to release first in the new Outlook for Windows and web, with Mac and mobile fast following, and classic releasing between 3 and 12 months after the first roll out. Copilot in classic Outlook for Windows is already available for most customers in Current…

Allowing only the form owner to receive response notifications has long been a pain point for many users. But that's no longer a problem! You can now add or remove people or groups from the response notification emails, for forms or quizzes, keeping everyone in the loop! Let’s check how it works together. Add recipients To add others, first go to the form’s settings and click “Get email notification of each response”. Then you can proceed to add your desired recipients with a name, email address or a group in your organization. Add recipients for response notification Selected recipients get notified When a new response is submitted, all those lis…

This article assumes knowledge of how to create Microsoft Sentinel Analytic Rules, Automation Rules, and playbooks. Create the playbook You will want to create the playbook first, since one will need to be created before it can be used in the Automation rule. In the example shown below, the playbook will iterate through all the alerts in the incident and generate a task based on information in that alert. Keep in mind that you will need to grant the Managed Identity access to the Microsoft Sentinel instance so that it can add the task to the incident. Create sample Analytic rule When you are creating a new playbook, you will need to test it. …

Microsoft partners like Tollring deliver transact-capable offers, which allow you to purchase directly from AppSource. Learn about this offer below: [attachment=54264:name] Analytics 365 Call Analytics: Tollring's Analytics 365 for Microsoft Teams Phone helps organizations of all sizes manage communications throughout their call center and customer-facing teams. Get the insight needed to monitor call activity, staffing levels, and performance with Analytics 365. You'll be able to filter calls, select dashboard views, and create wallboards to keep everyone informed. Continue reading...