Microsoft Tech News and Product Updates: 11/2/2020

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

Looking to drive adoption and create a better user experience?  Pin a commonly used app to Teams.  In the example pictured above I’ve pinned our intranet “MSW” to the rail (left side control bar). Now I don’t need to leave teams to access company news and information.

Product News, Tech Posts & Announcements from last week

Azure Infrastructure
Taking your automation to the next level with PowerShell 7	YouTube
Azure Cost Management and Billing updates – October 2020	Azure
Collecting and displaying niping network latency measurements with Azure Monitor	SAP
First Look at Azure Automanage	Tech Community
Business Applications
Microsoft unlocks the full potential of the smart building ecosystem	IoT
Power BI October 2020 Feature Summary	Power BI
Windows
Plan to deploy and manage updates for Windows 10 and Office	YouTube
Windows updates and recovery: smooth and seamless for IT and end users	YouTube
App Dev
5 Things you didn’t know about Azure Cognitive Services | Azure Tips and Tricks	YouTube
Azure SQL Auditing of Microsoft support operation is now in Preview	Tech Community
Understanding Azure Arc Enabled SQL Server	Channel 9
Policy as Code with Terraform and Sentinel	Channel 9
Microsoft 365
SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: October 2020	SharePoint
What’s New in Microsoft Teams | October 2020	Teams
New training resources for Microsoft Teams admins and IT Pros on MS Learn	Teams
Connect to your own data with more new data types in Excel	Excel
Microsoft Productivity Score and personalized experiences—here’s what’s new to Microsoft 365 in October	Microsoft 365
How to Manage SharePoint and Microsoft Teams with PowerShell Core	SharePoint
A practical guide for managing sharing with OneDrive	OneDrive
Announcing Multi-Geo coverage in Germany and Norway	Microsoft 365
Security
Announcing the Investigation Insights Workbook	Security
Unilever CISO on balancing business risks with cybersecurity	Security
Back to the future: What the Jericho Forum taught us about modern security	Security
Advanced Incident Management for Office and Endpoint DLP using Azure Sentinel	Security
Connect your Favorite Apps to Microsoft Cloud App Security	Security
Manufacturing	Manufacturing Blog
Microsoft named a Leader in the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Industrial IoT Platforms	IIoT
The Future of Connected Devices	NIST
Automating for a Touchless Supply Chain	MBT

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

Have a great week!

Technology Strategist

Microsoft Manufacturing

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

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: 7/13/2020

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.