Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 9/14/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Please find below an overview of last weeks product news, post and announcements. 

YouTube or Tips & Tricks

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Simplify financial reporting with cost allocation—now in preview	Azure
Business Applications
Empowering NFL clubs and fans with help from the Microsoft Playbook	Microsoft 365
How the Miami HEAT digitally transformed their fan engagement	Dynamics 365
Windows
Changes to improve security for Windows devices scanning WSUS	Windows
Universal Print preview available for Windows 10 Enterprise and Education	Windows
App Dev
Blazor and Azure Functions for Serverless Websites | Azure Tips and Tricks	YouTube
Loading Petabytes of Data to Azure	Azure
Celebrate #SkillUpSeptember with Some Digital Swag!	Tech Community
The Countdown Show {Ignite]	Channel9
Microsoft 365
New discounts on meeting and calling experiences in Microsoft Teams [Free Audio Conferencing & more]	Microsoft 365
Workplace Analytics September 2020 feature updates	Microsoft 365
Security
Azure Active Directory External Identities goes premium with advanced security for B2C	Azure
How to Protect Office 365 with Azure Sentinel	Sentinel
Do I Have Weak Passwords In My Organization…?	Security
The Shiproom: Prioritizing user experience with security	Security
Accelerate your adoption of SIEM using Azure Sentinel and a new offer from Microsoft	Sentinel
Auto-Triage Infrequent Country Alerts using MCAS & Power Automate	Security
Microsoft Says Russian Hackers Targeting US Campaigns	MBT
Manufacturing	Manufacturing Blog
Vision AI made simple by new Azure IoT Central template	Tech Community
Vroom with a view: HoloLens 2 powers faster fixes for Mercedes-Benz USA	Transform
A New Season of Innovation	MAPI

View previous weeks news, tech posts and announcements here on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter @MrLouisG

Your Microsoft team  and I value your partnership and we are committed to helping you achieve more.  Please reach out to us if you need assistance. Have a great week!

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 9/7/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Please find below an overview of last weeks product news, post and announcements. 

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Connector for AWS in Azure Cost Management + Billing is now generally available	Azure
5 ways to optimize your backup costs with Azure Backup	Azure
Azure Cost Management + Billing updates – August 2020	Azure
Azure Shared Disk Support for Clustered SAP ASCS/SCS on Windows Cluster	SAP
Business Applications
Managing speaking engagements at Microsoft with the Microsoft Power Platform	IT Showcase
Ways you can deliver quick and agile customer experiences	Dynamics 365
Windows
Microsoft Expressive Pixels: a platform for creativity, inclusion and innovation	Windows
Update on Adobe Flash Player End of Support	Windows
App Dev
Start your DevOps pipeline in the Azure Cloud	Tech Community
Learn how to deploy .NET Core apps to Azure with GitHub Actions	Channel 9
Cosmos DB Referencing Tables	James Serra
Microsoft 365
TLS 1.0 and 1.1 deprecation	Office 365
SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: August 2020	SharePoint
What’s New in Microsoft Teams | August 2020	Teams
Microsoft Lists in Microsoft Teams is now generally available	Teams
Microsoft Teams Devices for Shared Spaces July and August Update	Teams
Application Guard for M365 Apps public preview	M365
What’s New with Microsoft 365 | August 2020	YouTube
Security
How Microsoft does Zero Trust	YouTube
Mitigating vulnerabilities with identity security posture assessments	Tech Community
New & Updated Security Tools (Group Policy)	Tech Community
Microsoft Security: What cybersecurity skills do I need to become a CISO?	Security
Force firmware code to be measured and attested by Secure Launch on Windows 10	Security
3 ways Microsoft 365 can help you reduce helpdesk costs	Security
Manufacturing	Manufacturing Blog
US Productivity Jumped Record 10.1% in Q2, But Output Sunk	MBT

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 8/31/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Please find below an overview of last weeks product news, post and announcements. 

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Enterprise-Scale and Azure Policy for policy-driven governance	Tech Community
Business Applications
Empowering remote learning with Azure Cognitive Services	Azure
How Azure Synapse Analytics can help you respond, adapt, and save	Azure
Yammer community helps Microsoft employees navigate tumultuous immigration climate	IT Showcase
Windows
Network optimization tips for on-premises Office installs and updates	Tech Community
Microsoft Edge Browser; Security & Compatibility Update	Mechanics
App Dev
Database Assessments within Azure Migrate	Tech Community
What is Azure SQL Edge | Data Exposed	Tech Community
How to migrate web apps to Azure App Service	Mechanics
Choose Your Own Adventure With Power Platform	Channel 9
Microsoft 365
Agile IT management of your SharePoint-powered intelligent intranet	SharePoint
Migrate your content into Microsoft 365	SharePoint
Organize your content your way with Project Moca	Outlook
what’s new to Microsoft 365 August 2020	Microsoft 365
transcription and voice commands in Word	Word (web)
Building knowledge management in Teams	Teams
Security
Automation in Cloud App Security	Tech Community
Security baseline for Microsoft Edge version 85	Tech Community
Rethinking IoT/OT Security to Mitigate Cyberthreats	Security
Microsoft Zero Trust deployment guide for your applications	Security
Stopping Active Directory attacks and other post-exploitation behavior with AMSI and machine learning	Security
How can Microsoft Threat Protection help reduce the risk from phishing?	Security
How do I implement a Zero Trust security model for my Microsoft remote workforce?	Security
Manufacturing	Manufacturing Blog
Prepare and certify your devices for IoT Plug and Play	Azure
Introducing a new series on Tech Community: Ask the IoT Expert	Tech Community
Supply Chain and Logistics Management in Dynamics 365	Mechanics
Insider Threats Increasing for Manufacturers	MAPI
Cyber Security for Smart Factories	Deloitte

View previous weeks news, tech posts and announcements here on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter @MrLouisG

Have a great week!

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 8/17/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend.

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Azure Security Best Practices	Tips & Tricks
How to optimize your Azure workload costs	Azure
Enterprise-Scale for Azure landing zones	Tech Community
azure-arc-2020-updates-bring-azure-services-and-management-to-any-infrastructure	Mechanics
Business Applications
How Microsoft’s Helpdesk is propelling the company forward during remote working	IT Showcase
power-platform-admin-center-unified-it-management-experience	Mechanics
power-apps-new-capabilities-building-zero-to-low-code-apps	Mechanics
Bringing Mixed Reality to Power Apps with Alex Tran	MSDN
Windows
Security best practices for Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)	Tech Community
Prioritize investments in tools to accelerate Windows deployment	Tech Community
App Dev
The Developer’s Guide to Azure	Azure
A Closer Look at Data Platform Capabilities in Project Oakdale	Power Apps
SQL on-demand in Azure Synapse Analytics	James Serra
How Azure App Configuration helps developers roll out new features	MSDN
Microsoft 365
Six tips to make the most of Microsoft To Do on Windows	Tech Community
Microsoft’s enterprise network design for the cloud era	YouTube
Security
Getting started with Teams compliance	Tech Community
Built-in vulnerability assessment for VMs in Azure Security Center	Tech Community
Do you have a false sense of cloud security?	Security
Manufacturing	Industry Blog
Microsoft tests hydrogen fuel cells for backup power at datacenters	Microsoft News
The Shift That Will Accelerate Smart Manufacturing Jobs	MBT Mag
Build safer, securer workplaces with IoT during the pandemic	MSDN

View previous weeks news, tech posts and announcements here on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter @MrLouisG

Have a great week!

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 8/3/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. A couple of items of note from last week;

Our Teams CSMs during a virtual coffee shop. For more tips on maintain a connected culture check out Matt’s blog to review how remote work is affecting all of us see MICROSOFT ANALYZED DATA ON ITS NEWLY REMOTE WORKFORCE

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Creating cloud ready environments with Azure landing zones	Azure
Azure Cost Management + Billing updates – July 2020	Azure
New Windows Virtual Desktop capabilities now generally available	Azure
Achieve High-Availability for SAP HANA Scale-Out on SLES with HSR and automatic failover	SAP
Business Applications
Advancing resilience through chaos engineering and fault injection	Azure
Microsoft field technicians get their mobility back with Dynamics 365 app	IT Showcase
A Closer Look at Data Platform Capabilities in Dataflex for Teams	Power Apps
Windows
Enabling secure remote work using Windows Virtual Desktop | Azure Friday	YouTube
Introducing the Bing Enterprise Homepage	Search
Introducing the Microsoft Edge enterprise roadmap and release schedule	Edge
App Dev
Eight ways to optimize costs on Azure SQL	Azure
Azure Synapse | On Demand Serverless Compute	Mechanics
Azure Synapse | Dynamics Data Masking	Mechanics
Azure Hybrid Benefit update: Expanded rights for Microsoft SQL Server	Licensing
Microsoft 365
SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: July 2020	SharePoint
New capabilities for Teams Management | July 2020	Teams
What’s New in Microsoft Teams | July 2020	Teams
To Do is now integrated with the Microsoft 365 suite of applications	ToDo
Announcing Tasks in Microsoft Teams public rollout	Teams | Planner
Basic Authentication and Exchange Online – July Update	Exchange
What’s New with Microsoft 365 | July 2020	YouTube
Security
Boost security of your remote workers with confidence using Security Policy Advisor	Microsoft 365
Empower your analysts to reduce burnout in your security operations center	Security
Inside Microsoft Threat Protection: Solving cross-domain security incidents through the power of correlation analytics	Security
Guiding principles of our identity strategy: staying ahead of evolving customer needs	Security
Manufacturing	Industry Blog
Aiming for more than just net zero	Azure
How Automation and AI May Help Level the Playing Field for Women in Manufacturing	NIST

View previous weeks news, tech posts and announcements here on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter @MrLouisG

Please reach out to us if you need assistance. Have a great week!

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 7/27/20

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. A couple of items of note from last week;

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Introducing the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework	Azure
Deliver hybrid cloud capabilities with the next generation of Azure Stack HCI	Azure
Using Azure Lighthouse and Azure Monitor for SAP Solutions to view telemetry across Multiple Tenants	SAP
How to manage Azure resources with the new PowerShell Invoke-AzRestMethod cmdlet	Tech Community
Enabling secure remote work using Windows Virtual Desktop	Channel 9
Business Applications
Using Microsoft Azure to develop a robust external supplier API catalog	IT Showcase
How to use Power Platform | Getting Started	Mechanics
On-premises data gateway July 2020 update is now available	PowerBI
Democratizing customer feedback with the new Dynamics 365 Customer Voice	Customer Voice
Windows
Explore and validate Windows 10 builds with Windows Insider Channels	Tech Community
New Surface Hub OS update released for public preview	Tech Community
Windows 10 roaming settings for remote work scenarios	Tech Community
Announcing the public preview of Universal Print	Tech Community
App Dev
Learn everything you need to know about Azure Data Explorer	Tech Community
Announcing Machine Learning on Azure SQL Managed Instance Limited Preview!	Tech Community
Business Continuity in SQL Database	James Serra
Microsoft 365
Sync Up – a OneDrive podcast : Episode 11, “Introducing Add to OneDrive”	OneDrive
Lists GA | “A home for all your lists” 🎙 – The Intrazone podcast	Lists
The New Employee Onboarding hub – Improving the new hire experience	SharePoint
New Meeting and Calling Experience in Microsoft Teams!	Teams
Teams is shaping the future of work with low code features to enhance your digital workspace	Teams
From new experiences in Microsoft Teams to better data protection—here’s what’s new in Microsoft 365 in July	Microsoft 365
Reimagining how NBA fans and teams experience the game of basketball with Together mode in Microsoft Teams	Teams
New Meeting intelligence in Insights pane in Outlook	Outlook
Introducing Microsoft Dataflex, a new low-code data platform for Microsoft Teams	Teams
Security
Advancing Privacy with Zero-Knowledge Proof Credentials	Tech Community
Creating a Custom Dashboard for Azure Security Center with Azure Resource Graph	Tech Community
Announcing high value asset tagging in Microsoft Defender ATP	Tech Community
Announcing general availability of the new version of Microsoft Secure Score	Tech Community
Announcing public preview of Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention	Tech Community
Announcing public preview of Double Key Encryption for Microsoft 365	Tech Community
Seeing the big picture: Deep learning-based fusion of behavior signals for threat detection	Security
Cyber security trends that are here to stay and how to detect and recover from ransomware attacks	Security
Preventing data loss and mitigating risk in today’s remote work environment	Security
Manufacturing	Industry Blog
Build safer, more resilient workplaces with IoT solutions	IoT
5 ways to evolve your Firstline Workforce for the new normal	Teams
Azure Synapse | Just in time inventory at Aggreko	Mechanics
High-Mix/Low-Volume Manufacturers Are a Sweet Spot for Collaborative Robots	NIST

View previous weeks news, tech posts and announcements here on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter @MrLouisG

Remote Work Resources

• Enabling remote work with Microsoft 365 Part 1, Part 2,  Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 6 – Series on YouTube by Stephen Rose
• If you own Office 365 and are currently deploying Teams, we have multiple free programs we can offer to assist. If you are interested, we can schedule a 30-minute call to review the available resources.
• If you have users that are not licensed for Teams, we are offering a free 6-month Office 365 E1 subscription to our clients affected by COVID-19.
• Microsoft is offering Windows Virtual Desktop at reduced rates.  If you are interested, we can schedule a call to review options.
• We have created a PowerApps CRISIS COMMUNICATION template and reclassified Push Notifications from premium to standard licensing so you can use the apps full functionality.  Details are available here. Schedule a remote MTC session to review app and provide deployment guidance.
• To assist our customers and community in their crisis response efforts, we’re extending the Priority Notifications promotion into the second half of 2020. Ongoing access to Priority Notifications will be available to facilitate in crisis response and recovery efforts. After the promotion period ends, licensed users will be able to send Priority Notifications according to the terms of their subscription.
• Leverage a bot to answer questions and keep employees up to date. Here is a the template for FAQ Plus.  You can find a description of other available templates here.
•  Build a Crisis FAQ bot using Power Virtual Agents
• Build a crisis management site in SharePoint to connect people and information here is the blog post and the Look Book so you can add to your tenant.
• In partnership with Commvault we are offering free data protection for devices through 9/1. Please see offer here.
• The Microsoft Work from Home Guide can be downloaded from this blog post. This is the guide Microsoft distributed to its employees.
• Partner PTC is offering use of their AR Remote Assist Product Vuforia Chalk for free through June.
•  Dynamics 365 Remote Assist allows field technicians and engineers to collaborate with colleagues and experts from different locations, reducing travel and resolving some of the immediate obstacles facing us all. Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Dynamics 365 Remote Assist may be available free of charge for up to 6 months if you are implementing a solution in response to COVID-19, either on a Microsoft-provided template or custom implementation.  
• User Solutions, a producer of production scheduling software systems, announces it will offer Resource Manager for Excel (RMX), a standalone production scheduling and materials requirements planning system, free of charge to manufacturers temporarily repurposing their production lines in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
• Microsoft has created a detailed guide for enabling remote work designed for IT Pros. It can be downloaded from this blog post.
•  New identity features help empower essential Firstline Workers

Join the community Microsoft Tech Community: Enabling Remote Work

Please see my post Enabling Remote Workers for a categorized overview of resources and my Enabling Remote Workers PointDrive for a more comprehensive list of documentation.

Have a great week!

Workforce Transformation: Building Digital Skills

As we beginning emerging from the global pandemic and worldwide recession we face the daunting task of rebuilding. Though different for every business, similar themes like changing business models, resiliency in supply chain, modernizing business process and realigning security to new threats have emerged.

Common to solving these and all the others tasks on our seamlessly endless to do list is our people. By transforming our workforce, increasing digital skills and engagement we enable  every employee to rebuild, renew and rethink our business. We have the opportunity to come out of this pandemic stronger than ever before. The key is investing in our people.

This Sway provides a summary of programs Microsoft offers designed to increase digit IQ and prepare for the new world we are all face.

Click on this image to launch Sway

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 7/20/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. A couple of items of note from last week;

Economic Impact: Teams as a Platform

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Announcing the general availability of Azure shared disks and new Azure Disk Storage enhancements	Azure
Running SD-WAN virtual appliances natively in Azure Virtual WAN	Azure
Protecting Windows Virtual Desktop environments with Azure Security Center	Azure
Run high scale workloads on Blob storage with new 200 TB object sizes	Azure
Designing a Secure Cloud-Native Architecture using Kubernetes on Azure	YouTube
Introducing Azure Monitor for SAP Solutions | Azure Friday	YouTube
Azure Monitor best practices and recommendations | Azure Monitor Virtual Series	YouTube
SAP on Azure General Update – July 2020	Tech Community
Business Applications
Preparing for what’s next: Financial considerations for cloud migration	Azure
Azure Maps Power BI visual now in preview	Azure
Are you a Power Platform App Maker? Now’s the time to get certified	Tech Community
How to Build No Code Chat Bots	Mechanics
Announcing public preview of external tools in Power BI Desktop	PowerBI
Windows
Security baseline for Microsoft Edge v84	Security
App Dev
The Benefits of Advanced Threat Protection in Azure SQL Database	Channel 9
Azure SQL and IoT	Channel 9
Microsoft 365
Prefrontal Project Cortex	Tech Community
Total Economic Impact™ Of using Microsoft Teams as a platform and Teams with Power Platform	Tech Community
Managing your availability in Microsoft Teams	Tech Community
Get more control of your day with Microsoft 365	Microsoft 365
Security
Intune announcing public preview for Android Enterprise corporate-owned devices with a work profile	Tech Community
New version of Microsoft Secure Score	Tech Community
5 cybersecurity paradigm shifts that will lead to more inclusive digital experiences	Security
Prevent and detect more identity-based attacks with Azure Active Directory	Security
CISO Stressbusters Post #3: 3 ways to share accountability for security risk management	Security
Manufacturing	Industry Blog
Azure Time Series Insights Gen2: Leading the next generation of industrial IoT analytics platforms	Azure
Uncertainty Leads Manufacturing C-Level Expectations for Remainder of 2020	MAPI

View previous weeks news, tech posts and announcements here on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter @MrLouisG

Remote Work Resources

• Enabling remote work with Microsoft 365 Part 1, Part 2,  Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 6 – Series on YouTube by Stephen Rose
• If you own Office 365 and are currently deploying Teams, we have multiple free programs we can offer to assist. If you are interested, we can schedule a 30-minute call to review the available resources.
• If you have users that are not licensed for Teams, we are offering a free 6-month Office 365 E1 subscription to our clients affected by COVID-19.
• Microsoft is offering Windows Virtual Desktop at reduced rates.  If you are interested, we can schedule a call to review options.
• We have created a PowerApps CRISIS COMMUNICATION template and reclassified Push Notifications from premium to standard licensing so you can use the apps full functionality.  Details are available here. Schedule a remote MTC session to review app and provide deployment guidance.
• To assist our customers and community in their crisis response efforts, we’re extending the Priority Notifications promotion into the second half of 2020. Ongoing access to Priority Notifications will be available to facilitate in crisis response and recovery efforts. After the promotion period ends, licensed users will be able to send Priority Notifications according to the terms of their subscription.
• Leverage a bot to answer questions and keep employees up to date. Here is a the template for FAQ Plus.  You can find a description of other available templates here.
•  Build a Crisis FAQ bot using Power Virtual Agents
• Build a crisis management site in SharePoint to connect people and information here is the blog post and the Look Book so you can add to your tenant.
• In partnership with Commvault we are offering free data protection for devices through 9/1. Please see offer here.
• The Microsoft Work from Home Guide can be downloaded from this blog post. This is the guide Microsoft distributed to its employees.
• Partner PTC is offering use of their AR Remote Assist Product Vuforia Chalk for free through June.
•  Dynamics 365 Remote Assist allows field technicians and engineers to collaborate with colleagues and experts from different locations, reducing travel and resolving some of the immediate obstacles facing us all. Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Dynamics 365 Remote Assist may be available free of charge for up to 6 months if you are implementing a solution in response to COVID-19, either on a Microsoft-provided template or custom implementation.  
• User Solutions, a producer of production scheduling software systems, announces it will offer Resource Manager for Excel (RMX), a standalone production scheduling and materials requirements planning system, free of charge to manufacturers temporarily repurposing their production lines in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
• Microsoft has created a detailed guide for enabling remote work designed for IT Pros. It can be downloaded from this blog post.
•  New identity features help empower essential Firstline Workers

Join the community Microsoft Tech Community: Enabling Remote Work

Please see my post Enabling Remote Workers for a categorized overview of resources and my Enabling Remote Workers PointDrive for a more comprehensive list of documentation.

Have a great week!

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 7/13/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Please find below an overview of available resources and what’s new at Microsoft.

The Future of Work

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
How to create dashboards with Azure Monitor data	YouTube
Assess your VMware workloads for a move to Azure VMware Solution with Azure Migrate	Tech Community
Microsoft Azure Advisor: How to Improve performance, security, and reliability of your Azure VMs	Tech Community
SQL Server 2019 is released for SAP NetWeaver	Tech Community
Business Applications
Making buildings smarter with Azure IoT	Azure
Azure AI: Build mission-critical AI apps with new Cognitive Services capabilities	Azure
Easily add voice commands to your apps with Custom Commands	Tech Community
Streamlining Microsoft’s payment processes with Microsoft Power Automate	IT Showcase
How to manage the Power Platform at enterprise scale AND help solve REAL problems with Alan Chai	Channel9
Power BI Desktop June 2020 Feature Summary	Power BI
2020 release wave 2 plans for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform now available	Dynamics 365
Microsoft acquires Orions Systems to expand Dynamics 365 capabilities	Dynamics 365
Windows
Proactively monitor ARM-based Windows Virtual Desktop with Azure Log Analytics and Azure Monitor	Tech Community
App Dev
Azure Certifications for Developers	Tips & Tricks
One Ops Question: What are Azure Blueprints?	Tech Community
GDPR for Database Developers	Tech Community
Accelerate extraction of text, data and structure from your documents with Form Recognizer	Tech Community
Microsoft 365
On-demand training sessions for SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Yammer, and Stream – 2020-H2	Tech Community
Introducing Microsoft Teams displays	Tech Community
Re-imagine meeting room experiences with Teams-enabled devices for shared spaces	Tech Community
Teams: How to get the most from Together mode	Tech Community
Add additional properties to the profile card using the profile API in Microsoft Graph	Tech Community
The future of work—the good, the challenging & the unknown	Microsoft 365
Security
Introducing event timeline – an innovative, new way to manage your security exposure	Tech Community
Microsoft Security Matters Newsletter – June 2020	Tech Community
Microsoft Threat Protection advanced hunting cheat sheet	Tech Community
Announcing GA: Mark new files as “sensitive by default” in OneDrive & SharePoint	Tech Community
Security Controls in Azure Security Center: Secure Management Ports	Tech Community
Information Protection: Notes from the field	Tech Community
New study shows customers save time, resources and improve security with Microsoft Cloud App Security	Security
Inside Microsoft Threat Protection: Correlating and consolidating attacks into incidents	Security
Manufacturing Industry Blog
Making buildings smarter with Azure IoT	Azure
Recognizing Supplier Quality Problems Before They Spread	MBT

View previous weeks news, tech posts and announcements here on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter @MrLouisG

Remote Work Resources

• Enabling remote work with Microsoft 365 Part 1, Part 2,  Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 6 – Series on YouTube by Stephen Rose
• If you own Office 365 and are currently deploying Teams, we have multiple free programs we can offer to assist. If you are interested, we can schedule a 30-minute call to review the available resources.
• If you have users that are not licensed for Teams, we are offering a free 6-month Office 365 E1 subscription to our clients affected by COVID-19.
• Microsoft is offering Windows Virtual Desktop at reduced rates.  If you are interested, we can schedule a call to review options.
• We have created a PowerApps CRISIS COMMUNICATION template and reclassified Push Notifications from premium to standard licensing so you can use the apps full functionality.  Details are available here. Schedule a remote MTC session to review app and provide deployment guidance.
• To assist our customers and community in their crisis response efforts, we’re extending the Priority Notifications promotion into the second half of 2020. Ongoing access to Priority Notifications will be available to facilitate in crisis response and recovery efforts. After the promotion period ends, licensed users will be able to send Priority Notifications according to the terms of their subscription.
• Leverage a bot to answer questions and keep employees up to date. Here is a the template for FAQ Plus.  You can find a description of other available templates here.
•  Build a Crisis FAQ bot using Power Virtual Agents
• Build a crisis management site in SharePoint to connect people and information here is the blog post and the Look Book so you can add to your tenant.
• In partnership with Commvault we are offering free data protection for devices through 9/1. Please see offer here.
• The Microsoft Work from Home Guide can be downloaded from this blog post. This is the guide Microsoft distributed to its employees.
• Partner PTC is offering use of their AR Remote Assist Product Vuforia Chalk for free through June.
•  Dynamics 365 Remote Assist allows field technicians and engineers to collaborate with colleagues and experts from different locations, reducing travel and resolving some of the immediate obstacles facing us all. Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Dynamics 365 Remote Assist may be available free of charge for up to 6 months if you are implementing a solution in response to COVID-19, either on a Microsoft-provided template or custom implementation.  
• User Solutions, a producer of production scheduling software systems, announces it will offer Resource Manager for Excel (RMX), a standalone production scheduling and materials requirements planning system, free of charge to manufacturers temporarily repurposing their production lines in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
• Microsoft has created a detailed guide for enabling remote work designed for IT Pros. It can be downloaded from this blog post.
•  New identity features help empower essential Firstline Workers

Join the community Microsoft Tech Community: Enabling Remote Work

Please see my post Enabling Remote Workers for a categorized overview of resources and my Enabling Remote Workers PointDrive for a more comprehensive list of documentation.

Have a great week!

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates: 7/6/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. Please find below an overview of available resources and what’s new at Microsoft

Just Announced! Microsoft Global Skills Initiative YouTube

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Cost optimization with Windows containers	YouTube
Build, distribute, and deploy application updates to Azure virtual machine scale sets	Azure
Azure Firewall Manager is now generally available	Azure
Adventures deploying Windows Virtual Desktop into Production	Tech Community
Released: Public Preview for SQL Server Management Pack (7.0.23.0)	Tech Community
One Ops Question: What are Azure Blueprints?	IT OPS
Business Applications
Exploring Power Virtual Agents	Tips & Tricks
Gain deeper insights from customer reviews using Opinion Mining	Tech Community
Learn everything you need to know about Azure Data Explorer	Tech Community
Learn how to convert your ideas to solutions with Power Platform	Power Apps
Windows
Enabling remote work for IT Pros	IT Pro
Simplified Windows Update settings for end users	Tech Community
Reduce the size of multilingual Windows images with LXPs	Tech Community
App Dev
How to save on low priority workloads with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure Spot	YouTube
Landing your App on Azure, going: Paas, Serverless or Containers. Intro	Tech Community
Monitoring SQL Server with Azure Sentinel	Tech Community
SQL Server | Best Options for Database Migration into Azure	Tech Community
Updating to Azure Functions v3 in Visual Studio	Tech Community
ASP.NET Core Series: Getting started with the Worker templates	Channel 9
Microsoft 365
What’s New with Microsoft 365 | June 2020	YouTube
SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: June 2020	Tech Community
Microsoft Teams Updates | May 2020 and Beyond	Mechanics
What’s New in Microsoft Teams | June 2020	Tech Community
Introducing new OneDrive features to share and collaborate across work and life	Microsoft 365
5 Tips for migrating existing Line of Business applications to Microsoft Teams you can do today	Teams
A new learning app in Microsoft Teams	YouTube
Security
Assess your CCPA compliance with Microsoft Compliance Score	Security
How to Defend Users from Interception Attacks via SMB Client Defense	Tech Community
General Availability: Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels in Teams/SharePoint sites	Security
Announcing the Android Enterprise security configuration framework	Security
Malware detection in real-time	Tech Community
The psychology of social engineering—the “soft” side of cybercrime	Security
Afternoon Cyber Tea: Cybersecurity & IoT: New risks and how to minimize them	Security
Best security, compliance, and privacy practices for the rapid deployment of publicly facing Microsoft Power Apps intake forms	Security
Manufacturing Industry Blog
Azure Digital Twins: Powering the next generation of IoT connected solutions	Azure
Azure Digital Twins Preview New Capabilities	Channel 9
How the Virtual Twin Experience Can Help Manufacturers Ramp Up Production While Implementing Social Distancing in Factories	Delmia

View previous weeks news, tech posts and announcements here on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter @MrLouisG

Remote Work Resources

• Enabling remote work with Microsoft 365 Part 1, Part 2,  Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 6 – Series on YouTube by Stephen Rose
• If you own Office 365 and are currently deploying Teams, we have multiple free programs we can offer to assist. If you are interested, we can schedule a 30-minute call to review the available resources.
• If you have users that are not licensed for Teams, we are offering a free 6-month Office 365 E1 subscription to our clients affected by COVID-19.
• Microsoft is offering Windows Virtual Desktop at reduced rates.  If you are interested, we can schedule a call to review options.
• We have created a PowerApps CRISIS COMMUNICATION template and reclassified Push Notifications from premium to standard licensing so you can use the apps full functionality.  Details are available here. Schedule a remote MTC session to review app and provide deployment guidance.
• To assist our customers and community in their crisis response efforts, we’re extending the Priority Notifications promotion into the second half of 2020. Ongoing access to Priority Notifications will be available to facilitate in crisis response and recovery efforts. After the promotion period ends, licensed users will be able to send Priority Notifications according to the terms of their subscription.
• Leverage a bot to answer questions and keep employees up to date. Here is a the template for FAQ Plus.  You can find a description of other available templates here.
•  Build a Crisis FAQ bot using Power Virtual Agents
• Build a crisis management site in SharePoint to connect people and information here is the blog post and the Look Book so you can add to your tenant.
• In partnership with Commvault we are offering free data protection for devices through 9/1. Please see offer here.
• The Microsoft Work from Home Guide can be downloaded from this blog post. This is the guide Microsoft distributed to its employees.
• Partner PTC is offering use of their AR Remote Assist Product Vuforia Chalk for free through June.
•  Dynamics 365 Remote Assist allows field technicians and engineers to collaborate with colleagues and experts from different locations, reducing travel and resolving some of the immediate obstacles facing us all. Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Dynamics 365 Remote Assist may be available free of charge for up to 6 months if you are implementing a solution in response to COVID-19, either on a Microsoft-provided template or custom implementation.  
• User Solutions, a producer of production scheduling software systems, announces it will offer Resource Manager for Excel (RMX), a standalone production scheduling and materials requirements planning system, free of charge to manufacturers temporarily repurposing their production lines in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
• Microsoft has created a detailed guide for enabling remote work designed for IT Pros. It can be downloaded from this blog post.
•  New identity features help empower essential Firstline Workers

Join the community Microsoft Tech Community: Enabling Remote Work

Please see my post Enabling Remote Workers for a categorized overview of resources and my Enabling Remote Workers PointDrive for a more comprehensive list of documentation.

Have a great week!