PowerShell 7.7 and DSC 3.3 with Jason Helmick

Can AI make customer relationships better without taking the human out of them? Richard talks to Angeliki Patsiavou about the changing role of CRM in the age of AI. As agents make CRM increasingly invisible, they can summarize customer history, identify opportunities, support negotiations, and help people work more effectively. Still, they can also amplify bad data and turn authentic conversations into agents talking to agents. Angeliki argues for keeping humans in the loop while rethinking CRM interfaces, governance, and even the economics of token-based AI services. The opportunity isn't to replace relationships with AI, but to use AI to give people better context and more time to build those relationships.LinksMicrosoft CRMSalesforceRecorded Oct 5, 2026

Where are PowerShell and Desired State Configuration going next? Richard talks to Jason Helmick about PowerShell 7.7 and DSC 3.3. Jason explains how DSC has evolved from configuring Windows Server into a lightweight, cross-platform configuration engine underlying tools like WinGet Configure, with integrations into other automation platforms on the way. The conversation also digs into PowerShell's annual release cadence, the continuing challenge of moving enterprises from Windows PowerShell 5.1 to PowerShell 7, and Microsoft's efforts to make that migration easier. And Jason discusses how the latest wave of security work is changing PowerShell engineering while the team tries to keep twenty years of automation working.Linkspowershell.orgDSC v3.3.0WinGet ConfigurationWindows Server Update ServicesMicrosoft IntunePowerShellHow Not To Hate PowerShellPowerShell 7.7Migrating from Windows PowerShell 5.1 to PowerShell 7PSScriptAnalyzer ModuleRecorded Oct 1, 2026

Why are so many organizations considering PostgreSQL alongside SQL Server? Richard talks to Elizabeth Christensen about PostgreSQL and its growing role in modern enterprise data platforms. Elizabeth explains how PostgreSQL’s open-source roots, extensibility model, and broad cloud support have helped it become a mainstream choice for everything from new applications to SQL Server migration projects. They discuss the practical realities of administration, backups, high availability, security integration with Microsoft Entra, and the ecosystem of tools and extensions that surround PostgreSQL. The conversation also explores how PostgreSQL is evolving beyond traditional transactional workloads, connecting to modern analytics platforms, object storage, AI-driven reporting, and open data formats while remaining a proven database platform for enterprises, governments, and cloud providers.LinksDatabasusCloudNativePGAzure Database for PostgreSQLAmazon RDS for PostgreSQLCloud SQL for PostgreSQLSnowflake PostgresDBeaverpgAdminPostgreSQL 18.0Red Hat EnterprisePostgres.appRedgate PostgreSQL Resources & ToolsPostGISApache IcebergApache ParquetMetabaseStreamlitApache DatasketchesDuckDBRecorded Sept 10, 2026

What are the risks of using agents in your organization? While at NDC in Oslo, Richard sat down with Will Velida to talk about the OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications. AI agents promise productivity gains, but they also introduce entirely new attack surfaces. Richard and Will explore threats such as prompt injection, agent goal hijacking, memory poisoning, privilege abuse, and cascading failures across multi-agent workflows. They also discuss the tooling, governance frameworks, and security practices organizations need to adopt to move agentic applications from proof-of-concept to production safely.LinksOWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026Microsoft PurviewOpenTelemetry AI Agent ObservabilityMicrosoft Agent Governance ToolkitMicrosoft AI FoundryHugging FaceAgent PluginsMicrosoft Entra Agent ID DocumentationAgentic AuthorizationRecorded Sept 17, 2026

Turning on every tool in M365 is rarely a successful strategy - so how do you choose? Richard chats with Joy Apple about her work as a consultant helping organizations use the huge array of products in the M365 universe. Joy talks about meeting people where they are - understanding how they currently work, and then finding tools that can best amplify their productivity. Collaboration tools are a huge part of that story - finding ways to work together is always a challenge. And that's one of the many reasons there are so many tools in M365... It's all about addressing what people want to do! Links OneDrive Viva Engage Search in M365 Copilot Microsoft Planner Microsoft Loop Azure SRE Agent Recorded Sep 1, 2026

What can Cloudflare do for you? While at KCDC in Kansas City, Richard chatted with Bob Fornal about how his organization uses Cloudflare - not just for content delivery or DDoS protection, but also edge compute - and more! Bob talks about moving workloads between the client and server, where Cloudflare Workers can run some code and save time while staying secure. This leads to a broader conversation about introducing these tools to your organization - it's not likely something web developers will ask for. Still, it can help them, and collaboration between development and operations is always a positive in an organization!LinksCloudflarePlanetscaleAzure Front DoorCloudflare WorkersRecorded Sep 11, 2026

How is artificial intelligence changing cybersecurity and penetration testing? Richard talks to Paula Januszkiewicz about how her team now uses large language models throughout the security workflow, from vulnerability research and data analysis to penetration testing and incident response. Paula explains that AI hasn't replaced security professionals, but it has dramatically accelerated the work, making it possible to analyze more data, build better tools, and identify attack paths faster than ever before. The conversation also explores the defender's perspective, including monitoring, logging, incident response, and why organizations still need to eliminate insecure technologies like NTLM. AI is changing cybersecurity rapidly, but the fundamentals of security remain the same.LinksDefense at AI SpeedClaude MythosMicrosoft SentinelAutomatic Attack Disruption with Liz TeschRecorded Aug 26, 2026

Microsoft offers a surprising number of ways to build agents in Microsoft 365. Which one should you choose? Richard talks to Andrew Connell about the evolving Microsoft 365 Copilot landscape and the four major approaches to building agents. Starting with SharePoint Agents for document-focused scenarios, Andrew walks through Agent Builder inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, the increasingly popular Copilot Studio in the Power Platform ecosystem, and the often-overlooked Agents Toolkit for VS Code. Along the way, he discusses governance, licensing, publishing models, security concerns, and when Azure Foundry makes sense. The result is a practical guide to understanding Microsoft's growing agent platform and choosing the right tool for your organization.LinksMicrosoft Copilot ArchitectureSharePoint AgentsAgent Builder in Microsoft 365 CopilotMicrosoft Copilot StudioAgents ToolkitMicrosoft FoundryRecorded Sep 2, 2026

How has patching changed in 2026? Richard chats with patching goddess Susan Bradley about what she's seeing in vendor patches and how they're affecting consumers and businesses. On one hand, you have the security risk of unpatched servers, which puts a lot of pressure on sysadmins to deploy patches immediately. And, at the same time, the number of patches has grown massively as tools like Anthropic's Fable have revealed far more vulnerabilities. Then there are the vendors that are slow to get fixes out for drivers and firmware for existing systems, increasing the risk of serious failures - it's not easy patching in 2026! Links UEFI Secure Boot with Richard Hicks Reassess your Windows Update Policies Dell Hotfix HP Bitlocker Loop Suspend BitLocker Protection End of Support for Office 2016 and 2019 Recorded Aug 21, 2026

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) was deprecated in Sept 2024 - when does it go away? Richard talks to Adam Marshall about how WSUS is still an essential service for Configuration Manager, included with Server 2025 and V.Next - it's not going anywhere! Adam talks about the use cases WSUS covers that no other update solution does, especially granular control of updates and offline scenarios. And while Microsoft is still feeding updates into the WSUS stack, no new code is going into the solution, making it hard to maintain. That is why Adam has been building WAM - WSUS Automated Maintenance. The stack includes free and paid tools, and all of them make your WSUS life easier! Links Windows Server Update Services Microsoft Intune Windows Update for Business Configuration Manager Windows Autopatch WSUS Automated Management Recorded Aug 20, 2026