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 and Product Updates; 06/29/2020

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
Deploy to Azure Container Instances with Docker Desktop	Azure
Introducing Azure Load Balancer insights using Azure Monitor for Networks	Azure
Simplifying declarative deployments in Azure	Azure
Azure.com operates on Azure part 1: Design principles and best practices	Azure
How Azure.com operates on Azure part 2: Technology and architecture	Azure
New and improved learning experience with Microsoft Learn	Learn
New scale-up SAP HANA reference architecture and more	AzureCAT
Azure portal June 2020 update	Tech Community
Business Applications
Behind the Tech: Drew Endy: Bioengineering pioneer	YouTube
Power BI Desktop June 2020 Feature Summary	PowerBI
Dynamics 365 Project Operations preview is now available	Dynamics
Windows
New on Microsoft Learn: Stay current with Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 Apps	Tech Community
App Dev
Azure Arc enabled data services with Travis Wright	YouTube
How to set up test environments in Azure for Developers	Mechanics
How Microsoft’s engineers learned the language of DevOps	IT Showcase
Elastic Jobs in Azure SQL Database – Part 1	Channel9
Microsoft 365
What’s new to Microsoft 365 in June	Microsoft 365
Drive effective meetings with Teams apps while working remote	Microsoft 365
Safe Documents is Generally Available	Microsoft 365
Security
CISO Stressbusters: Post #2: 4 tips for getting the first 6 months right as a new CISO	Security
Endpoint analytics is now available in public preview	Endpoint Manager
How Secure Score affects your governance	Tech Community
Feeling fatigued? Cloud-based SIEM relieves security team burnout	Security
Lessons learned from the Microsoft SOC—Part 3d: Zen and the art of threat hunting	Security
Defending Exchange servers under attack	Security
Modernizing the security operations center to better secure a remote workforce	Security
Proactively reduce lateral movement path risk to your organization with Azure ATP	Tech Community
MIP and Compliance V-blog#3: Setting up a secure collaboration environment – Security Admin POV	Security
Manufacturing Industry Blog
Microsoft acquires CyberX to accelerate and secure customers’ IoT deployments	Security
How the Virtual Twin Experience Can Help Manufacturers Ramp Up Production While Implementing Social Distancing in Factories	Delmia
7 Manufacturing Digitization Challenges — and How to Overcome Them	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.

Microsoft Tech News & Product Updates; 6/22/2020

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
Seven ways to achieve cost savings and deliver efficiencies with Azure infrastructure	Cloud Strategy
Minimize disruption with cost-effective backup and disaster recovery solutions on Azure	Backup & Recovery
Achieve higher performance and cost savings on Azure with virtual machine bursting	Backup & Recovery
Azure Cost Management + Billing updates – May 2020	Azure
Optimize your Azure costs to help meet your financial objectives	Cloud Strategy
Optimize costs and increase agility with the latest SAP on Azure offerings	SAP on Azure
Augmenting Azure Advisor Cost Recommendations for Automated Continuous Optimization – Part 2	Tech Community
Business Applications
Advancing Microsoft Teams on Azure—operating at pandemic scale	IT Pro
What’s New in Microsoft Forms | Features | May-June 2020	Microsoft Forms
Empowering Microsoft finance professionals to make data-driven decisions on cash flow	IT Showcase
2020 release wave 2 timeline for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform	Dynamics 365
Microsoft buys data modeling vendor ADRM Software	ZDNet
Windows
A calendar approach for keeping the modern workplace up to date	IT Pro
Transform Windows feature updates with a servicing calendar	IT Pro
App Dev
Cost optimization strategies for cloud-native application development	IT Pro
Using the BOT Framework Composer Tool	Tips & Tricks
Debugging Async Code: Parallel Stacks for Tasks	Visual Studio
Announcing .NET 5.0 Preview 5	,NET Blog
Microsoft 365
PowerPoint Live is now generally available	Microsoft 365
Upcoming Exchange Online Device Access and Conditional Access changes with Outlook mobile	Exchange
Visio as a tab in Microsoft Teams is generally available	Visio
Security
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) with Azure Security Center | Azure Friday	YouTube
Microsoft Threat Protection leads in real-world detection in MITRE ATT&CK evaluation	Security
Zero Trust—Part 1: Networking	Security
Exploiting a crisis: How cybercriminals behaved during the outbreak	Security
Inside Microsoft Threat Protection: Mapping attack chains from cloud to endpoint	Security
UEFI scanner brings Microsoft Defender ATP protection to a new level	Defender ATP
Start With the (Cybersecurity) End in Mind {Includes link to Verizon Data Breach Report]	CMTC
Manufacturing Industry Blog
A Holistic Approach to Developing a Modern Manufacturing Workforce	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.