Microsoft Tech News and Product Updates: 05/25/20

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
Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes preview and new ecosystem partners	Azure
Evolving Azure AD for every user and any identity with External Identities	Tech Community
Business Continuity with Azure – Backup	Tech Community
Business Applications
The Computing Revolution	YouTube
Windows
Everything new from Microsoft Edge at Build 2020	Windows
App Dev
Microsoft Build Book of News [Summary of news from the event]	Book of News
Developer Velocity: Empowering developers to fuel business performance	Azure
Azure Synapse Analytics: Insights for all	Azure
Build 2020 – Introducing Bot Framework Virtual Assistant 1.0	Tech Community
Serverless Event-based Automation with PowerShell & Azure Functions	Microsoft Mechanics
Mark Russinovich on Azure innovation and more!	Channel 9
Build announcements: Azure Synapse Analytics in public preview and more	James Serra
Microsoft 365
Here’s what’s new and coming soon to Microsoft 365	Microsoft 365
Announcing Microsoft Lists – Your smart information tracking app in Microsoft 365	Tech Community
What’s New in Microsoft Teams | Build Edition 2020	Tech Community
Understanding and troubleshooting Out of Office (OOF) replies	Tech Community
Galactic Collaboration Summit – upcoming online training event	Tech Community
New capabilities coming to the Microsoft Graph	Tech Community
Take Microsoft Search further with Microsoft Graph connectors	Tech Community
Security
Microsoft Information Protection and Compliance Deployment Acceleration Guide	Tech Community
Microsoft Build brings new innovations and capabilities to keep developers and customers secure	Security
Build support for open source in your organization	Security
Success in security: reining in entropy	Security
Cybersecurity best practices to implement highly secured devices	Security
Manufacturing Industry Blog
Simple Trends That Will Continue to Drive ERP	MBT Mag

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 & – Overview on YouTube by Stephen Rose. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 & Part 5
• 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.

Upcoming Training

Power Apps: Search here for App in a Day workshops, Free online training at Learn

Azure Developer:  events

Office 365 & Teams: Join the  Adoption Monthly Community Calls

Azure: Microsoft Cloud Workshop hosts extensive hands on labs and workshop content

Queensryche | Operation: Mindcrime

I enjoy listening to concept albums. They are  rock-n-rolls’ operas. A glass of wine and a pair of headphones is all I need to listen to a great story. The images are up to me I’m my own director and the movie is different every time.  These posts pay homage to some of my favorites.

Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime

Government corruption, economic inequality, priests involved in sex scandals and Dr. X. What more could anyone ask for? It’s a great story. Here is the cliff notes version.

Nikki a heroin addict lies in near catatonic state in a mental institution  when memories of the past come flooding back. Disillusioned by society he is manipulated into joining a secret organization dedicated to revolution which is  led by Dr. X We can sense Dr. X is evil however Nikki is desperate for answers and falls for the trap. Dr. X brainwashes Nikki into becoming a hitman for his organization.

Through Dr. X Nikki is introduced to Father William a corrupt priest who offers the services of a teenage prostitute turned nun named Sister Mary. Nikki begins to fall in love with Mary and questions his own actions and those of Dr. X. Realizing that Mary is a threat Dr X orders Nikki to kill her and Father William. Nikki kills the priest but cannot bring himself to hurt Mary. He decides he has to leave the organization and confronts Dr. X. Conflicted and confused he returns to Mary only to find her dead.

Nikki cannot cope with the loss and the possibility that he might have been responsible for Marys murder and he goes insane. He is arrested for the murder of Mary and the others he committed. He now suffers almost complete memory loss and is put into a mental hospital. The story comes full circle ending with Nikki looking into a mirror not recognizing who he is or what he has become.

This was their 3rd studio album released in spring of 1988. At the time I owned a record store with my niece and nephew in law. We specialized in all thing hard rock and heavy metal. As soon as we opened the case it was on the stores sound system. We were blown away. This album is truly stellar throughout. There are no weak cuts. You are taken on a virtual roller coaster ride of emotions as you see Nikkis life collapse through the eyes of a stranger.  

Unfortunately, bands don’t make much money from streaming music, If you can please support them by seeing live shows, buying CDs and merchandise.

Augmented Reality: Helping Business Adjust to Remote Work Challenges

Augmented reality [AR] superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world providing a composite view. Sounds like science fiction though it is a very commonly used  technology. Gamers are very familiar with it.  Two of the most popular video games in the world  Pokemon Go and Minecraft Earth use AR. If you are not familiar with those games google tiger on your phone. You’ll see an option for 3D and one to see the 3D image in your environment. With just my cell phone and the cloud I can see a tiger in my environment and really get an idea of its veracity, size and movement.

Here is an image of a tiger emerging from the rose bushes next to my house. Not real of course just a super imposed 3D model.

In business AR changes the way we collaborate. Just like the tiger appearing in my garden a product lets say a hammer can appear virtually in 3D allowing meeting participants from anywhere to see and interact with the design and the components. They can brainstorm on ways to improve or solve a problem remotely as if they were all in the same room. Another business use is the remote expert. In this example an expert can see an environment and use 3d images and annotations to remotely troubleshoot a problem. Many companies have successfully integrated AR technology. One example is Ford Motor Company who uses AR to design vechiles.

The impact on business will be even greater as more use cases emerge due to covid-19 crisis. Here are some examples I have encountered with my clients in the last few weeks;

Field Service – This client supports business critical equipment and is paid to be onsite with the equipment in case it malfunctions. Now only essential employees are allowed onsite. The technician being employed by my client is no longer allowed to be onsite. Using AR the expert can see the equipment exactly as the essential workers sees it and remotely instruct the onsite employee on how to remediate the issue using annotations and instructions that appear in the field of vison of the onsite employee.

Training – This client creates very complex industrial products throughout the world. Their experts travel the globe training new employees on the production floor. Now travel is severely restricted and in some cases impossible. Using AR the experts no longer need to travel and can provide nearly hands on training from anywhere in the world. They see through the eyes of the trainee and can easily instruct through 3d models and on-screen annotations. An additional benefic gained was the use of real time translation breaking down language barriers.

Sales– This client makes high tech office equipment. They have showrooms to display the equipment and offer pre and post sales support. Now their customers cannot visit the showroom. Using AR their customers can remotely see a 3D model and see how their configuration will actually look in their office space.

AR is here. Its an inexpensive and mature technology when used creativity can add tremendous value to a business process.

Microsoft Tech News and Product Updates: 5/18/2020

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
Announcing the general availability of Azure Spot Virtual Machines	Azure
Business Applications
Learn how to deliver insights faster with Azure Synapse Analytics	Azure
New Dynamics 365 Manufacturing Accelerator for supplier management	Dynamics 365
Windows
App Dev
Enabling developers to work remotely	Tips & Tricks
Overview of the Microsoft identity platform for developers	YouTube
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) on the Power Platform explained	PowerApps
TWC9: #MSBuild Preview, VS Codespaces, GitHub Satellite, TypeScript 3.9 and more	Channel 9
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon is a free online, 36 hour event happening May 27-28 2020. We will have sessions going the whole time with speakers from around the globe. This event is free for all wanting to attend. Come join us as we talk about the many different pieces of Microsoft 365 including Azure.	M365 Virtual Marathon
Today, we start by announcing the general availability of the new Monthly Enterprise Channel and a few other changes that modernize the way you service Microsoft 365 Apps, as you deliver the latest productivity value to your businesses	Tech Community
Automate teams provisioning with the Request-a-team app template	Tech Community
Top 10 keyboard shortcuts to make you a Microsoft Teams super user	Tech Community
Empower your employees to capture customer feedback in Microsoft Teams	Tech Community
How to configure the new Room Finder in Outlook	Tech Community
Security
Monitor your Azure workload compliance with Azure Security Benchmark	Azure
Announcing general availability of ‘know your data’ (discovery and review capabilities) in the Microsoft 365 compliance center	Tech Community
Microsoft helps employees work securely from home using a Zero Trust strategy	IT Showcase
Empowering your remote workforce with end-user security awareness	Security
Open-sourcing new COVID-19 threat intelligence	Security
Manufacturing Industry Blog
Supercharging Industrial IoT	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 – Overview 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.

Upcoming Training

Power Apps: Search here for App in a Day workshops, Free online training at Learn

Azure Developer:  events

Office 365 & Teams: Join the  Adoption Monthly Community Calls

Azure: Microsoft Cloud Workshop hosts extensive hands on labs and workshop content

Microsoft Tech News and Product Updates: 5/11/2020

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend.

I want to point out 2 important security changes from last week;

• We’re extending the ability to use Azure AD single sign-on (SSO) for an unlimited number of cloud apps at no extra cost.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) along with security defaults is free across all Azure AD pricing tiers, so every one of your apps can also be protected.

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Microsoft announces next evolution of Azure VMware Solution	Azure
Manage and find data with Blob Index for Azure Storage—now in preview	Azure
Azure HPC Cache – File caching for high-performance computing (HPC)	YouTube
Azure AD Mailbag: What is identity provisioning and why does it matter?	Tech Community
Migrate Virtual Desktops to Azure	Tech Community
How to migrate Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to Azure and Windows Virtual Desktop	Mechanics
Business Applications
Power BI Desktop April 2020 Feature Summary	PowerBI
How Microsoft and American Express help merchants battle fraud	Dynamics 365
Windows
Introducing Surface Go 2, Surface Book 3, Surface Headphones 2 and Surface Earbuds	Microsoft
Microsoft completes new Microsoft Edge browser deployment, experiences performance boost	IT Showcase
Getting started: Windows Virtual Desktop ARM-based Azure portal	Tech Community
App Dev
Minecraft Earth and Azure Cosmos DB part 1: Extending Minecraft into our real world	Cloud Strategyv
How to create dev environments in minutes with Visual Studio Codespaces	YouTube
Exploring the Microsoft Graph Toolkit	Channel9
Query Acceleration for ADLS	James Serra
Microsoft 365
Whiteboarding and Brainstorming in Microsoft Teams	Tech Community
Reply All Storm Protection in Exchange Online	Tech Community
Workplace Analytics May 2020 Feature updates	Tech Community
Screen Recording For Training Videos and Communications with Microsoft Stream	Tech Community
Set up a delegate to take your calls in Microsoft Teams	YouTube
How to set up self-service password reset for Microsoft 365	YouTube
Security
Protect your accounts with smarter ways to sign in on World Passwordless Day	Security
Support Tip: Intune Co-Managed Windows 10 Device Apps in Pending State	Intune
Microsoft researchers work with Intel Labs to explore new deep learning approaches for malware classification	Security
Manufacturing Industry Blog
Supplier Quality Problems During a Global Pandemic	MBTMag
Introduction to the Azure Sphere OS	IoT

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  and Part 3 – Overview 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.

Upcoming Training

Power Apps: Search here for App in a Day workshops, Free online training at Learn

Azure Developer:  events

Office 365 & Teams: Join the  Adoption Monthly Community Calls

Azure: Microsoft Cloud Workshop hosts extensive hands on labs and workshop content

Microsoft Tech News and Product Updates: 5/4/2020

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

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Enable remote work faster with new Windows Virtual Desktop capabilities	Azure
Azure Cost Management + Billing updates – April 2020	Azure
Learn how to reduce costs with Azure	Tips & Tricks
Unlimited SSO and new Azure AD features to simplify secure access management	Tech Community
Business Applications
Exploring Microsoft Power Virtual Agents	YouTube
Collaborate better with link previews for Power BI in Microsoft Teams (Preview)	PowerBI
Windows
Steps to Deploy Edge to Thousands of Devices	Mechanics
App Dev
Build is digital and free!	Build Site & Registration
Do You Know Azure Cosmos Db Built-In Notebooks?	Tech Community
Accessing Managed Instance via SSMS	James Serra
Microsoft 365
What’s New with Microsoft 365 | April 2020	YouTube
How leaders can bring employees together during COVID-19	Microsoft 365
What’s New in Microsoft Teams | April 2020	Tech Community
A Refreshing New Look for Teams Phones!	Tech Community
Introducing new Teams certified devices	Tech Community
Microsoft Learn Supports Remote Technical Skilling	Tech Community
Security
New Data Loss Prevention capabilities in public preview	Blog
Introducing Azure confidential computing	YouTube
New tools to help IT empower employees securely in a remote work world​	Microsoft 365
Managing and Securing Devices Utilizing Conditional Access Policies at Microsoft	Tech Community
Microsoft Threat Protection will automatically turn on for eligible license holders	Tech Community
Using a Zero Trust strategy to secure Microsoft’s network during remote work	It Showcase
Zero Trust Deployment Guide for Microsoft Azure Active Directory	Security
Manufacturing Industry Blog
Lean Innovation: What Manufacturers Can Learn From the Tech Sector’s Appropriation of Lean Thinking	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 – Overview 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.

Upcoming Training

Power Apps: Search here for App in a Day workshops, Free online training at Learn

Azure Developer:  events

Office 365 & Teams: Join the  Adoption Monthly Community Calls

Azure: Microsoft Cloud Workshop hosts extensive hands on labs and workshop content

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