Let's Talk Azure!

This week we discussed Azure Automation. Azure automations allows you develop processes in PowerShell and Python and deploy this content to Azure to manage and orchestrate. Azure automations can run in Azure or other non Azure resources. Highly connected and flexible, Azure automation provides a great amount of value for organisations to use automation to boost productivity and reduce repeatable tasks being carried out manually. Sam takes the lead with providing insights such as: What automation is and why it’s important for organisations. How Azure Automation can help. How it develop and deploy automations. Integrations and networking Costs What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss how passwordless authentication can help organisations to improve their authentication health and increase their security posture. Alan explains the concept and the solutions available. Alan also covers the rebrand of Azure AD to Microsoft Entra ID. Some of the areas we cover: What is passwordless authentication. What are the benefits of introducing passwordless to your organisation. What does Microsoft Entra ID provide for passwordless authentication. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure Confidential Ledger can help organisations to create private tamper proof stores of data. Sam explains the features of the solution and the benefits that it can bring: Why would an organisation need a tamper proof data store? What is Azure Confidential Ledger? How can Microsoft / Azure be kept out of the data store? What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss why it is important to have a Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solution in place. Alan explains the benefits of CSPM, and dives into Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Topics that we covered are: What is Cloud Security Posture Management and why it is important What is Microsoft Defender for Cloud’s approach to CSPM What is the Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark What are the pricing tiers for CSPM What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

This week we discuss Azure Functions. Azure Functions allows you to build serverless applications on top of Azure. Serverless functions allow you to bring your code and let Azure handle the hosting and management of infrastructure. Functions typically deal with one business case at a time, allowing for a microservices architecture to be used, potentially improving interoperability and collaboration.Sam takes the lead with providing insights such as:What Azure Functions areThe advantages of server less applicationsWhich languages are supportedIntegrations and networkingHosting optionsCostsWhat did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

This week we discuss how to manage Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) securely in an organisation. With hybrid working on the rise, more flexibility is needed to reduce costs, but not as the compromise of security. Alan takes the lead, providing insights such as: What is BYOD What the challenges of adopting BYOD How Microsoft technologies can help secure BYOD App Protection Policies Session Control Conditional Access The license's needed to use the technologies discussed Read transcript

This week we discuss Defender for DevOps. It gives you visibility of your security posture within your CI/CD processes. Improves your threat protection and hardening of your Infrastructure-as-code (IaC) resources. Fully integrated with Defender for Cloud, Defender for DevOps is simple to roll out and provides a wealth of security insight. Sam takes the lead with providing insights such as: What DevOps is Why DevSecOps and SecDevOps are important Which platforms are supported What security insights can be shown How to configure Defender for DevOps How it integrates with your processes How to monitor it How much it costs What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

It's the Season 3 Finale! Where has the time gone! Alan and Sam discuss the season, what their favorite episode were. They discuss some of the announcements at Microsoft Build 2023 that peaked their interest. Microsoft Build 2023 Book of News What did you think of this episode and season? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss the difference between Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). Alan goes through what to consider when choosing which technology to use for different scenarios. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss Azure DevOps services and its features. Sam gives us a tour of the features and benefits of Azure DevOps and how it can be integrated into your development process. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss all of the features of Windows 365. Alan goes through the pricing, benefits and how organisations can use this to provide secure access to their environments. Windows 365 Cloud PC Plans and Pricing | Microsoft Compare Windows 365 Business and Enterprise | Microsoft Learn What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure Load Testing can streamlined you load testing QA process. Bring your JMeter scripts, configure the service and let Azure and Microsoft take care of the rest. Sam runs us through the why load testing is important, what the service can do and how simple it is to configure. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure Firewall can help secure your network environment. Alan discusses how to set it up, and when you should decide to use it over Network Virtual Appliances (NVA). They also discuss the pricing and how it might compare to NVA or on-premises firewalls. What is Azure Firewall? | Microsoft Learn Choosing the right Azure Firewall SKU to meet your needs | Microsoft Learn What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss Azure API Management. Sam explains the key features and benefits of using API management to manage your APIs at scale. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss the Azure Private Link and how it can secure your services. Alan goes through the functionality available and the benefits of using Azure Private Endpoints to access PaaS. Alan also announces his new achievement of becoming a Microsoft MVP in Security. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Azure static Web applications. Part of Azure App Service, static web apps allows developers to deploy static web applications in conjunction with serverless function applications with modern development tooling and hosting support. We discuss the key features and benefits that Azure Static Web apps brings. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss the new Intune licences that have recently been released. Alan goes through the new functionality that is coming to Intune and why they help manage and support your endpoints. MS Blogpost MS Intune Plans and Pricing What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss the functionality provided by Azure Cognitive Services, a group of AI powered cognitive solutions that can rapidly add advanced cognitive functionality to your applications and services, build on top of advanced pre trained models to accelerate your products abilities. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss how Power Platform solutions can help manage your lo-code/no-code application lifecycle. Alan runs through what a solution can be used for and what can be managed in Power Platform. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.Read transcript

Alan and Sam discuss how The Azure Developer CLI can be used to help automate and manage key points in the application development lifecycle. Sam discusses what the Azure Developer CLI (azd) is, the functionality and benefits that it brings and examples of how you can use it in your own projects. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure Key vault can help secure your certificates, keys, and secrets. Alan goes though the types of vaults you can use and how you can secure the access to the secrets. They also cover the various uses for key vault within azure services and application development. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure Stack solutions can help bring the capabilities of Azure management plane to your on-premises and edge environments. Sam goes through the three solutions, what their capabilities are and example use cases / workloads. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Microsoft Defender for Office (MDO) can be used to protect users from phishing attacks. Alan will go through all the security benefits, as well some of the education training features included in MDO. We will discuss how this tie into the Microsoft 365 Defender portal and XDR. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Confidential Computing can be used to add additional zero trust principle layers to workloads running in Azure. Confidential Computing gives administrators multiple levels to layers of confidentiality in Azure. Sam takes us through what can be achieved and the impact this can have within your organisation. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Microsoft’s Privileged Identity Management (PIM) can be used to improve your identity Security. PIM gives the ability to provide just-in-time access to management roles in Azure AD and Azure. Alan also goes into detail around the user experience and how PIM can be extended outside of the Microsoft Cloud. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam explain 15 ways that you can save costs in Azure…. ssh…. don’t tell Microsoft! If you have workloads in Azure, we hope that you will find some ideas that will enable you to save some money, who doesn’t love doing the same for less? What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) can be used provide application and virtual desktops from anywhere. Alan discusses how AVD works, the benefits to organisations, management and the cost. He discuss how you the solution can be deployed via Code and why you should check it out. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure MFA can be used to improve you security posture. MFA is ubiquitous in 2023, however utilizing MFA in a secure and user first experience can be challenging. In this episode we aim to give you the knowledge and experience we have gained working on many MFA related projects over the years. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Season 2 has gone. They discuss their best episodes, the podcast stats and what the plans are for Season 3 in the new year. We would like to say thank all their listeners of this season and look forward to providing content in the next season. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Microsoft XDR and why it is now becoming a requirement in organisations. They both take the role of the 'Expert' and explains what XDR is, how it helps reduce security risk. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Microsoft Power Platform and why it is a useful tool have in an organisation. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains how you can easily build internal apps, automate process, and present data using the platform. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Microsoft Defender for IoT and why it is a useful tool have in an organisation to reduce cyber risk. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains how you can easily discover your device exposure risk and start to prioritise the remediation. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Microsoft Sentinel can help organisations have visibility of malicious activity in their environment. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains the capability of Microsoft Sentinel and how it is for any size organisation. Alan dives into the process from log ingestion to automated response to an incident. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Microsoft Ignite 2022, the announcements and how the in-person experience vs remote was. Sam quizzes Alan on his experience in Seattle and ignite. Link to the Ignite 2022 Book of News - Here What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Azure Sphere, it's features and the security and operational value it can bring to your IoT estate. Sam takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains his experience with the Azure Sphere Development Kit. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Microsoft's Threat Vulnerability Management and why it is a useful tool have in an organisation to reduce cyber risk. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains how you can easily discover your device exposure risk and start to prioritise remediations. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how server applications in Azure can help you to more efficiently build applications for your business in a different way to traditional application development. We both take the role of the 'Expert' and give our experiences using these technologies to build applications for our customers. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Microsoft Purview Information Protection can help label, classify and protect your data in Office 365 . Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains how you can easily start labelling document, as well as encrypt them to protect data leaving your organisation. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how the Microsoft Purview – Data Governance Portal can help you to manage and govern your organisations data. Sam takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains the 'Train the Trainer' event that he participated in with Microsoft and gives an overview of the product. Link to the Microsoft Purview Workshop: https://github.com/tayganr/purviewlab Many thanks to the team at Microsoft for their time to take us through the workshop and give get guidance to all participants. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Identity Governance within Azure AD, part of Microsoft's Entra family of identity products can help with your user lifecycle. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains how Entitlement Management, Access Reviews and Privileged Access can secure, review, and give access. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam take a first look at Microsoft Entra permissions management. Sam takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains how the product allows you to discover and remediate permissions creep in your multi-cloud environments. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Microsoft Defender for Cloud can help Secure your multi-cloud environments. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains how you can easily gain visibility of your multi-cloud environment and how you secure it using protection workloads. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam take a look at The Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure. Sam takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains his experience with the Cloud Adoption framework and highlights the reasoning about considering using the framework. Get Started with Azure Cloud Adoption Framework What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Azure AD, part of the Microsoft Entra family can secure your identity in the cloud. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains his viewpoint of the product and why we should consider the premium features within Azure AD to secure and manage cloud identity. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss all things Azure Policy, a way to manage Azure compliance at scale. Sam takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains his viewpoint of the product/tooling and why it can help organisations to track their compliance level and enforce policies in Azure. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss how Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) can simplify device management whilst making it easy to secure them. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains his viewpoint of the product and why we should adopt MEM in our organisation. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss Terraform, a popular choice in the Infrastructure as Code space. Sam takes the role of 'Expert' and explains his viewpoint of the product and why we should be utilising Terraform in our organisation and recommending it to our customers. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

Alan and Sam discuss all things Entra, a 'new' product offering by Microsoft. Alan takes the role of the 'Expert' and explains his initial viewpoint of the product and why we should all be excited about this new product family from Microsoft. Entra is very new at the time of recording, and we give our first impressions on the product family and give you a high level overview of it's functionality What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

In this episode, Alan and Sam discuss the Podcast, what's happened and what we are planning over the next season. Also with a big a apology that we have been absent for over a year. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.

In this episode Alan and Sam deep dive into Infrastructure as Code and specifically ARM Templates inside of Azure. We talk about what infrastructure as code is and how it can improve your infrastructure deployment process. What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.