Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast

In Episode 352, Ben and Scott discuss their workflow and approach for "Read it later" services and Scott introduces Ben to a new service he's started using called Omnivore. Then they discuss a new feature coming to a SharePoint site and e-mail inbox near you - newsletter publishing from SharePoint. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes Raindrop.io Omnivore.app Lenny's Newsletter Introducing new SharePoint news for email feature SharePoint News in Outlook About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In Episode 351, Ben and Scott catch up on some of the latest news around Power Automate, Microsoft Entra, and Microsoft Excel. First, they discuss the Public Preview of Application Insights integration with Power Automate for debugging your cloud flows. Next, they break down the still in Private Preview features of platform SSO for macOS clients. And then they close on some exciting announcements around the addition of Python functions to Microsoft Excel. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes Announcing the integration of Power Automate telemetry data with Azure Application Insights Workspace-based Application Insights resources Set up Application Insights with Power Automate (preview) Coming Soon – Platform SSO for macOS Microsoft Enterprise SSO plug-in for Apple devices 10 ways Microsoft Intune improves Apple device management Introducing a New Flexible Way of Bringing Identities from Any Source into Microsoft Entra ID! Frequently asked questions about API-driven inbound provisioning (Public preview) Announcing Python in Excel: Combining the power of Python and the flexibility of Excel. Data security and Python in Excel Introducing Python in Excel 😱 About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In Episode 350, Ben and Scott talk about some of the ambiguity in features between several types of Teams channels, a new model that includes access to Microsoft Learn for those taking role-based Microsoft certification exams, and a simplified experience for creating and managing CDN endpoints using Azure Front Door for Azure Storage customers. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes Overview of teams and channels in Microsoft Teams Introducing a new resource for all role-based Microsoft Certification exams Open Book Microsoft Certification Exams | Interview with Microsoft's Liberty Munson Quick create Azure Front Door endpoints for Azure Storage accounts About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In Episode 349, Ben and Scott talk through considerations for working with Azure Policy to enable diagnostic settings at scale. Along the way they also talk about helpful tools that are available that can help you get your environment configured the way you need even quicker. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes Create diagnostic settings at scale using Azure Policies and Initiatives Microsoft Sentinel content hub catalog Create-AzDiagPolicy Documentation for Azure Policy scripts Microsoft.PolicyInsights RBAC Remediate non-compliant resources with Azure Policy Manage access to Log Analytics workspaces Microsoft Sentinel workspace architecture best practices Azure Resource Graph sample queries for Azure Policy Azure Governance Visualizer aka AzGovViz Community Policy Repo About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In Episode 348, Ben and Scott start the discussion focusing on the shifting dynamics of open-source tool access for customers, particularly in light of HashiCorp's decision to transition to a Business Source License (BSL). This move essentially limits what competitors can do with their code, requiring them to acquire a commercial license from HashiCorp if developing. While the change doesn't significantly impact customers who primarily use Terraform for deploying and managing resources, it may have significant implications for companies building competitive services based on HashiCorp's community products. As the discussion progresses, Ben and Scott transition into an exploration of Azure subscriptions. They suggested that businesses, especially those in their early stages, should create more Azure subscriptions than they think they need. This is due to a paradigm shift from treating resource groups as units of management aligned with business needs to viewing subscriptions in the same way. The conversation emphasized the importance of understanding this concept and planning accordingly when setting up Azure. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes HashiCorp adopts Business Source License How Red Hat’s License Change Is Reinvigorating Enterprise Linux Distros Enable all paid plans on your subscription Create Azure subscriptions programmatically What are Azure management groups? Subscription considerations and recommendations Create your initial Azure subscriptions What is an Azure landing zone? Move networking resources to new resource group or subscription About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In Episode 347, Ben and Scott sit down with Merill Fernando to discuss the tools and content Merill is building to support Microsoft Entra customers. Merill is a Principal Product Manager in the Microsoft CAT team with a focus on Microsoft Graph for Identity and brings his experiences working with Microsoft Entra customers to the masses. In the conversation, we explore Merill's various contributions to technical tools aimed at simplifying complex processes when working with the Microsoft Cloud. His creations include CMD.Ms, a tool that streamlines access to different Microsoft services; Azure AD Exporter, a tool that exports your entire Microsoft Entra ID configuration and Azure AD B2C into JSON files; and Graph X-ray, a Chrome extension that converts API calls into code in your preferred language. Lastly, He highlighted the 'Weekly Dose of Microsoft Entra' newsletter as an ideal resource for keeping up-to-date with relevant news, blog posts and videos. To learn more from Merill and keep up with Microsoft Entra news, sign up for his newsletter at entra.news. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes cmd.ms Neat new feature in public preview for dynamic groups idPowerToys https://idpowertoys.com/assets/mindmaps/entra-v1.pdf microsoft/azureadexporter Graph X-Ray :Beta Update-MgUser (Microsoft.Graph.Users) Update-MgUserExtension (Microsoft.Graph.Users) New-MgUser (Microsoft.Graph.Users) Welcome to the Graph PowerShell Samples Community Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In Episode 346, Ben and Scott discuss how some of the recent attacks on Microsoft 365 customers have led to Microsoft, in partnership with CISA, offering expanded cloud logging capabilities to all customers for no additional charge. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes Microsoft is shutting down Cortana, and Apple should do the same with Siri Types of Power Automate licenses CISA and Microsoft Partnership Expands Access to Logging Capabilities Broadly Expanding cloud logging to give customers deeper security visibility Auditing solutions in Microsoft Purview Stolen Microsoft Security Key – Potential Breaches Beyond Outlook Microsoft mitigates China-based threat actor Storm-0558 targeting of customer email Analysis of Storm-0558 techniques for unauthorized email access About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In episode 345, Ben and Scott discuss the upcoming Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Archive services, as well as the pricing and value of Microsoft Co-Pilot. Microsoft 365 backup and Microsoft 365 archive services will provide users with options for backing up data in Microsoft 365, including SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange. They also discuss the benefits this will have on purchasing backup service directly from Microsoft, as well as how third-party backup providers can take advantage of this announcement. They also discuss how Microsoft 365 Archive, will complement Microsoft 365 Backup by offering cold to cool data storage for inactive data in Microsoft 365. This service aims to provide cost savings for storing older content while maintaining administrative search capabilities and other functionalities. The conversation then moves on to the pricing and value of Microsoft Co-Pilot. They discuss the potential benefits of using Co-Pilot for tasks like drafting proposals or generating meeting notes. However, they also express concerns about the pricing compared to existing licensing models and whether the value delivered by Co-Pilot justifies the cost. They speculate on how organizations might justify the expense based on time savings and productivity gains. Overall, they express a mix of excitement and skepticism about Copilot and emphasize the need to see it in action before fully evaluating the value. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes Share Your Home Assistant Configs on GitHub Automatically Welcome to Microsoft Inspire 2023: Introducing Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Archive Manage content at scale with Microsoft Syntex Licensing for Microsoft Syntex Find the right Microsoft 365 enterprise plan for your organization Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot-A whole new way to work Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot - your copilot for work About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In Episode 344, Ben and Scott invite Andrew Connell, SharePoint developer extraordinaire and founder of Voitanos on the show to talk about your options when it comes to developing modern web applications that interact with SharePoint and Teams. There's a lot to unpack here - when or even should you build a SharePoint app? Is it better to just build and deploy web apps that you can control end-to-end? Listen in to find out. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes Real World Example: Build Web Apps - not M365 or Teams Apps Build Web Apps - not Microsoft 365, Teams, or SPFx Apps Learn the SharePoint Schedule (SPFx) - All Courses Creating your first Microsoft 365 Developer tenant Microsoft 365 Developer Program SharePoint Add-ins Overview of the SharePoint Framework Understand Microsoft Teams apps and their capabilities SaaS COGS: What To Consider In Your Cost Of Goods Sold Yo Teams Meet Your Citizen Developer Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice Overview of Viva Connections About Andrew Connell Andrew is a web developer who loves to learn new in tech and help others learn! Microsoft has recognized me every year since 2005 with its annual MVP Award. I started teaching in 2007 in just about every way I can. During most of that time, I’ve focused on enterprise platforms like Microsoft Azure & Microsoft 365 including, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams. Connect with AC Voitanos LinkedIn YouTube Threads Twitter About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.

In Episode 343, Ben and Scott start to tackle the great renaming of Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID (or MEID). Except for the places that it didn't get renamed. It's not confusing at all. They discuss the implications of the rename and the potential confusion it could cause, as well as explore new product announcements related to Microsoft's foray into the security service edge market. They also provide resources for understanding the rename and navigating Microsoft Intra. Overall, they have some frustration with the renaming exercise, but acknowledge that it probably is a good thing and when it comes down to it, is largely a just a rename of the service. Like what you hear and want to support the show? Check out our membership options. Show Notes Announcing new innovations in Microsoft Entra Microsoft Entra Plans & Pricing Azure AD is being renamed to Microsoft Entra ID New name for Azure Active Directory Azure AD Renamed! Enter Microsoft Entra ID Microsoft Entra External ID? public preview: Developer-centric platform Planning for customer identity and access management (preview) Identity PowerToys https://idpowertoys.com/assets/mindmaps/entra-v1.pdf Microsoft Entra Expands into Security Service Edge with Two New Offerings About the sponsors Intelligink utilizes their skill and passion for the Microsoft cloud to empower their customers with the freedom to focus on their core business. They partner with them to implement and administer their cloud technology deployments and solutions. Visit Intelligink.com for more info.