RunAs Radio

How can Microsoft Copilot make your intranet better? Richard chats with Susan Hanley about her experiences adding Copilot into the intranet via the Copilot Studio and Viva Engage. Susan talks about the challenges of getting your intranet data in order - most notably, archiving old information so that it doesn't clutter up a Copilot with out-of-date and inaccurate data. The conversation explores making smaller Copilots focused on specific domains, like company policy. It's still the early days for copilots, so there are some challenges to getting things done right, but the potential is there!LinksRestricting SharePoint SearchCopilot with Commercial Data ProtectionM365 CopilotMicrosoft Copilot StudioCopilot for Viva EngageViva ConnectionsViva SuiteAnswers in VivaRecorded May 10, 2024

How are your company's Apple devices connected to the enterprise? Richard talks to Michael Epping about the recent additions in Entra that support the authentication of Apple MacOS and iPadOS devices. Michael discusses Apple's Secure Enclave as the equivalent of Trusted Platform Management in Windows. With Entra Platform SSO, you can now use that authentication to access Azure resources and, ultimately, on-premises Kerberos-secured resources! These features are still in public preview but fully supported, and more is coming!LinksMicrosoft IntuneWindows AutopilotMicrosoft Entra HybridMicrosoft Entra SSO Plug-in for Apple DevicesApple Secure EnclaveIntegrate Apple Devices with Microsoft Entra IDApple Automated Device EnrollmentEntra Conditional AccessmacOS Platform Single Sign-onJoin a Mac device with Microsoft Entra IDRecorded May 13, 2024

How can you use PowerApps to extend the functionality of other apps? Richard talks to Christina Wheeler about her efforts to teach folks to use PowerApps to add the functionality they need to Dynamics 365 and elsewhere! Christina talks about her move to Microsoft, shifting from SharePoint to PowerApps, but still essentially doing the same thing - finding customer solutions. The conversation ranges over the power of the Dataverse to provide access to all sorts of data and the emerging role of the Microsoft Copilot Studio to build custom copilots for your organization. LinksDataverseConnect to Dynamics 365 from Power AppsXrmToolboxModel-Driven Apps in Power AppsCanvas Apps in Power AppsMicrosoft Power FxMicrosoft Copilot StudioMicrosoft Bot FrameworkAI CopilotPower Up ProgramPower Platform ConferenceRecorded April 26, 2024

Two old guys talk about Windows AGAIN? Richard brings back Paul Thurrott for the tenth time to discuss Windows more. This time, the discussion focuses on the end of life for Windows 10 - currently October 2025. Paul discusses how it used to be April 2025, but that's not enough time. Is it enough time now? The conversation spans other Windows-related topics, including alternative versions like Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop. And what about Windows 12? There is a bit of speculation at the end of a longer show - weigh in with your thoughts on what's next for Windows!LinksEnd of Support for Windows 10, 8.1, and 7Windows AutopilotWindows CopilotMicrosoft IntuneWindows 365Microsoft EntraAzure Virtual DesktopRecorded April 26, 2024

Machine learning models need updating - what's the reliable way to do it? While in Romania, Richard sat down with Annie Talvasto to talk about her work helping to build DevOps practices around machine learning: Building repeatable processes for data ingestions, cleaning, organization, model building, and deployment. The challenges are the arrays of skilled people needed to operate and evaluate the pipeline - it takes domain experts to know if the machine learning results are accurate and valuable. Tooling can help, but it is only in the early days. If your organization is keen to get machine learning into the company, you need to do some careful planning!LinksJupyter NotebookPandasMLFlowAzure Machine LearningRecorded April 20, 2024

How's your identity governance? Richard talks to Jef Kazimer from Microsoft about Entra's capabilities to help you have robust governance around identity. Jef talks about the lifecycle of identity - when someone joins the organization and a new identity gets created, privileges changing as roles evolve, to the eventual offboarding when that person departs. The same sort of cycle exists for devices, too - the question is only how much work you must do to get through those cycles. Entra offers tooling to get identity changes out of your support tickets - make your life easier with effective identity governance! LinksMicrosoft EntraConditional AccessMicrosoft Entra Permission ManagementRoad to the CloudEntitlement ManagementMy Access PortalJust Enough AdministrationPrivileged Access WorkstationEntra Lifecycle WorkflowsAzure Logic AppsUsage and Insight Reports in Entra425 ShowRecorded April 26, 2024

How does artificial intelligence fit in with SQL Server? At the Microsoft Fabric Conference in Las Vegas, Richard sat down with Muazma Fahid and Bob Ward to discuss the AI developments in SQL Server. Muazma talks about SQL Server as a crucial source of data for building machine learning models and the new features added to make SQL Server a key store for vector data and other elements of machine learning. There's also Copilot for Azure SQL Data to help with diagnostics in your databases and to use natural language to write queries - it SQL Server Natural Language Query all over again, but certainly better than ever. LinksResponsible AI PracticesPhi-2Retrieval Augmented GenerationCopilot for Azure SQL DataJSON in SQL ServerRegEx in SQL Serversp_invoke_external_rest_endpointSQL AIRecorded March 27, 2024

Have you downloaded the latest version of PowerShell? While at the MVP Summit in Redmond, Washington, Richard sat down with Sydney Smith to discuss some of the features in PowerShell 7.4. Sydney talks about the successful delivery of PSResourceGet and PSReadline, two long-in-development features that have reached their so-called "1.0" state. The conversation also digs into the ongoing challenge of some sysadmins sticking with PowerShell 5.1, the last of the Windows-only versions. Today, PowerShell 7 has feature parity with 5.1 and many new features that improve the quality, security, and capabilities of PowerShell. Try the latest!LinksPowerShell 7.4PowerShell on GitHubPowerShell in Visual Studio CodeGet PowerShellRecorded March 11, 2024

How can GitHub Copilot help you? Richard chats with Damian Brady at NDC Sydney about the power of GitHub Copilot to help you understand and write the bits of code you need - whether you're using PowerShell, understanding a RegEx expression, or trying to get a Bash prompt right. GitHub Copilot and help to explain the code you've got, even across workspaces - so you can find all the scripts that changes might impact. And if you think it's time to rewrite some old scripts into more modern languages, GitHub Copilot can help with that, too!LinksGitHub Copilot for BusinessGitHub DependabotGitHub Code ScanningGitHub Copilot in the CLIRecorded February 14, 2024

As Artificial Intelligence enters our organizations, how do we secure them? While at NDC in Sydney, Richard sat down with Sarah Young to discuss the challenges of securing these new technologies. Sarah talks a bit about the fundamentals - in the end, AI technology is just more software and needs all the same authentication and authorization that other apps need. However, there are some unique aspects and potential exploits that you can address through tooling and education. We're all learning these new AI technologies and how to apply them in our organizations - training is essential!LinksAzure OpenAI ServiceSystem Message Framework and Template Recommendations for Large Language ModelsMicrosoft PurviewMicrosoft EntraNot with a Bug, But with a StickerRecorded February 14, 2024

How can Microsoft Copilot for Security help you? While at NDC in Sydney, Richard chatted with George Coldham about Microsoft Copilot for Security - combining GPT-4 with information about Microsoft security products and your organization's resources in Azure to provide guidance and insight into making your company more secure. George talks about how it's early days for this copilot - and it's only in preview so far. Bringing together the vast array of security products that Microsoft makes, Microsoft Copilot for Security brings the ability of Large Language Models to summarize data to help you understand where the organization's security vulnerabilities exist and how to address them. You want to get in on this preview!LinksMicrosoft Copilot for SecurityUnified Security Operations PlatformMicrosoft SentinelMicrosoft Security Portals and Admin CentersMicrosoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft Defender for CloudMicrosoft EntraMicrosoft PurviewMicrosoft PrivaKusto Query LanguageMicrosoft Defender Threat IntelligenceRecorded February 13, 2024

What can GitHub do for you? While at NDC London, Richard chatted with April Edwards about how GitHub can help sysadmins - and everyone in your organization! In the end, GitHub is an engine for managing work, with GitHub Actions kicking off workflows that can send messages, run all sorts of code, activate scripts, and more. Ultimately, you get a good report of what happened - or didn't happen. And over time, those scripts can mature to be more reliable and detailed - and keep a record of every change. LinksGitHub ActionsPesterDev ContainersPowerShell 5.1GitHub Advanced SecurityGitHub Code ScanningDependabotGitHub CopilotRecorded February 2, 2024

Aren't we all platform engineers? Steve Buchanan says yes! But there's more to it - and Steve talks about the mindset of looking beyond individual products that we might have skills with and owning the entire problem of providing platforms for your organization to get work done. The conversation dives into the many products that can help our applications function better and the challenge of making them secure and fast. Are containers the solution? Possibly! It's your platform; focus on the fundamentals and go further!LinksVS CodeFile Server Resource ManagerAzure Kubernetes ServiceKubernetes NamespacesOpen Service Mesh in AKSMicrosoft Defender for ContainersAzure Chaos StudioAzure Virtual DesktopGitHub CodespacesAKS with Azure PipelinesAzure DraftSecurity CopilotRecorded February 5, 2024

What do you know about large language models? While at NDC in London, Richard sat down with Dr. Jodie Burchell to discuss how machine learning has reached this new technological milestone. Jodie talks about different types of machine learning and how large language models fit into the landscape. The conversation explores where LLMs come from, what they are good at, and what they should not be used for. They are not intelligent and certainly not a panacea for work - but they can be valuable when used correctly!LinksGPT-2Microsoft AI SupercomputerGPT-NeoX-20BJodie Burchell on .NET RocksAnthropicGitHub CopilotRetrieval Augmented GenerationThe Busy Persons' Into to LLMs by Anderj KarpathyRecorded February 1, 2024

Have you upgraded to TLS 1.3? While at NDC in London, Richard chatted with Scott Helme about his work moving companies onto the latest version of TLS. But do you need to? Scott talks about how SSL 2 and 3 were used until they were broken by the black hats, leading to a panic to update quickly. While there is no evidence that TLS 1 and 1.1 are breached, they are already deprecated - and are slower than the later versions. Want a performance boost? Move to TLS 1.3!LinksKeybaseAPI Root Certificate ExpiryLet's EncryptBrownout Notice at GitHubWhen Logging Causes Security IncidentsDeprecation SHA-1Google Post Quantum EncryptionRecorded February 1, 2024

How are we going to manage the use of M365 Copilot? Richard chats with Martina Grom about her experiences helping organizations prepare for M365 Copilot. Martina talks about getting your data estate in shape - and the challenge that represents in terms of identifying what data should be available within an organization. The conversation also digs into the larger picture of the Microsoft Graph - all the information about how people interact on M365, the resources they create and use, and the potential the Graph offers to help with productivity. It's still early days, but it's never too early to work hard on ensuring we have the right governance in place to allow Copilot to help the company succeed!LinksSLRProjectMicrosoft DelveMicrosoft PurviewGitHub Copilot PoliciesData, Privacy, and Security for M365 CopilotExtend Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365Manage Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 with the Copilot pageManage access to public web content in Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 responsesMicrosoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 RequirementsProtect your sensitive data with Microsoft PurviewMicrosoft 365 Copilot Readiness AssessmentRecorded January 5, 2024

What's coming next for Windows Server? Richard chats with Jeff Woolsey about the latest information around Windows Server vNext! Jeff discusses how customer feedback influences Windows Server and the challenges of moving folks to the latest versions. Server vNext is designed to live in a cloud hybrid world and includes improvements for interacting with Azure, but it also has plenty of on-premises features. The conversation turns to Active Directory and its ongoing modernization to make it more secure, robust, and scalable. The same goes for the rest of the Windows Server - coming soon!LinksWindows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure EditionAzure ArcStorage Spaces DirectWindows Server vNext Talk from IgniteRecorded December 14, 2023

How does your company organize information? Richard chats with Emily Mancini about the metadata in SharePoint. Emily points out that if you're using Teams, you're using SharePoint - it's all under the hood. And that means any files are being tagged with metadata whether you do it intentionally or not. Taking control of your metadata can mean more effective searches and managing surprises with tools like M365 Copilot. Metadata can help you protect sensitive data and make existing data visible to the people needing it. Spending a few hours with it can make a huge difference!LinksMicrosoft 365 & Power Platform CommunityLeft UnchartedSharePointMicrosoft 365 CopilotMicrosoft 365 Governance QuestionsSharePoint Term SetsSharePoint Content TypesEmily's Blog Post of Building Metadata in SharePoint OnlineRecorded January 4, 2024

How do you manage cloud-native applications? While at Ignite in Seattle, Richard chatted with Brendan Burns about ongoing efforts to develop tools to make building and operating cloud-native applications more manageable. Brendan discusses the challenges around building apps with Kubernetes and how next-generation tools like Radius and Dapr try to address those problems to make it easier to make the right choices. There's a powerful intersection between sysadmins and developers when making manageable applications in the cloud!Links:RadiusKubernetesAzure Kubernetes ServiceAzure Resource ManagerAzure BicepOpen Application Modeldapr.NET AspireRecorded November 16, 2023

Is there a strategy for buying software licenses? Richard talks with Mary Jo Foley about her new role at Directions on Microsoft, including her experiences around the multi-day workshops on effectively buying software licenses today. Mary Jo talks about understanding the entire landscape of software licenses your organization needs, how they are used, and how you can build a strategy to negotiate a better licensing cost for your organization. You already do much of the work for this, but bringing everything together is a challenge - but worth it!Links:Directions on MicrosoftDynamics 365Copilot for Microsoft 365Microsoft PurviewMicrosoft PrivaMicrosoft Security CopilotLicensing Boot CampRecorded December 14, 2023

How can artificial intelligence help sysadmins? While at Ignite in Seattle, Richard talked with Gil Pekelman of Atera about their AI for IT product. Gil talks about developing smart instrumentation for IT and extensively monitoring machines and networks to give you a broad overview of your infrastructure. Then OpenAI expanded its capabilities - allowing users to submit report requests to a large language model that can act as a copilot or an autopilot, able to resolve tickets or prepare them for a sysadmin to act quickly. Links:AteraOpenAIAzure OpenAI ServiceRecorded November 16, 2023

How is the Power Platform evolving? Richard chats with April Dunnam about the latest on the Power Platform - especially the emergence of Large Language Models like Copilot. April talks about how it's possible to use Copilots in Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Automate to help you build your automation - and how writing prompts can help you think through what you're trying to make. The conversation also digs into providing Copilots to users so that you spend less time creating UX and more time building features that the users can request. It's a Copilot world - we're just living in it!Links:Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence Starter KitAI Copilot OverviewCopilot in PowerBIPower Automate CopilotResponsive Layouts in Canvas AppsBuilding a Multi-Language Power AppMicrosoft Copilot StudioPower Apps ConnectorsMicrosoft CopilotsPower Apps PromptsRecorded December 11, 2023

Active Directory is still part of our lives - but can we make it more robust? Richard talks to Jerry Devore about his ongoing blog series on hardening Active Directory. Jerry talks about credential drift - decisions made in the past to turn down (or off!) security features in AD that made sense at the time but are no longer relevant. Most of these efforts only consume time - no products are involved, or the products are free. Check out the links in the show notes for Compliance tools that can help you find vulnerabilities in your infrastructure, including AD. Links:Pass-the-Hash White PaperMITRE ATT&CKWindows LAPSEnable NTLM 2 AuthenticationLDAP SigningForest and Domain Functional LevelsCredential GuardMicrosoft IntuneSecurity Compliance Toolkit and BaselinesRecorded November 20, 2023

Another year of doing more with less? While at Ignite in Seattle, Richard sat down with Erin Chapple to talk about her work on Azure Infrastructure and the challenges around the cloud - more instances of everything, more to manage, more to pay attention to. And yet, budgets are not increasing! Erin talks about improving utilization within the cloud and broadening monitoring to cover everything you care about on-premises or on any cloud. And then there are the new copilots. Work to set up? Perhaps. But Azure Copilot can help you understand what's happening in your Azure tenant and how to utilize it more effectively. You can do more with less!Links:Azure CopilotRecorded November 16, 2023

For the last show of 2023, let’s look back at the year and speculate about 2024. Richard flies solo to talk about what he’s learned the past year and some thoughts about going forward into the next year. Economic concerns continue to play a significant role in sysadmin life – companies are holding back on spending but still expecting all the services. And new technologies like large language models look to play a significant role in our lives – if we choose to take advantage of them!Links:Large Language Models in Business with Ulrika HedlundGetting Ready for M365 Copilot with Karoliina KettukariPatching in 2023 with Sami LaihoResponding to a Ransomware Attack with Dana EppPlan for Windows 10 EOS with Windows 11, Windows 3655, and ESURecorded December 22, 2023

What's an Azure Arc Guest Configuration? Richard talks to Jodi Boone about the freshly renamed Machine Configuration for Azure Arc. It turns out "guest" is a problematic word - but being able to set policy around machine configurations can make your life much easier. Jodi talks about using existing policy templates, along with Desired State Configuration, to customize configurations so that they can be applied to multiple virtual machines on Azure, on-premises, and in other cloud environments. Links:Configuration for Azure Arc-enabled ServersDesired State ConfigurationAzure Automation State ConfigurationMicrosoft Defender for CloudAzure Arc-enabled KubernetesAzure Management ServicesDSC Extension for LinuxSetting up a Machine Configuration Authoring EnviromentRecorded November 3, 2023

The holiday season is upon us! What do you get your favorite sysadmin? Richard brings back his friends Joey Snow & Rick Claus to discuss some of their favorite sysadmin gifts this year. From simple gadgets that flashback to the early days of tech to the newest and latest versions of favorite products, there's an incredible array of goodies here. Please share it with the folks who struggle to find the perfect present for the sysadmins in their lives!Links:Meater 2Floppy Disk CoastersAnker 747 USB ChargerDig2GoSurface Pro 9Slim Run EthernetObsbot Tiny 2Alpaca HoodieAnker Portable ChargerAnker GaNPrime Power BankEmber Temperature Control Smart Mug 2Rocketbook Core Reusable Smart NotebookTetris LED LightsMandalorian Stand for Echo DotNES Entertainment FlaskRecorded November 17, 2023

Can M365 help modernize your workplace? Richard chats with Sharon Weaver about her work helping companies migrate into M365 and how it helps provide more options to workers. Sharon talks about how the pandemic accelerated the process and the challenge of finding a new normal today. The conversation also dives into good information architecture for helping with productivity and using tools like Viva Insights to understand more about how you work - and your coworkers!Links:SharePoint OnlineMicrosoft TeamsThe Power of Full EngagementMicrosoft Viva InsightsCommunity DaysRecorded November 1, 2023

We're all using zero trust - but are we using it well? Richard talks to Nicolas Blank about his work helping to develop the Zero Trust Adoption Framework. Nicolas talks about resisting the buzzword effect and avoiding looking at zero trust as a set of products because it isn't - it's really about the people and processes in your organization that keep things secure. The conversation also digs into the tabletop exercises needed to create priorities for security - not everything in your organization needs the same level of protection or effort. It pays to work through scenarios!Links:Zero Trust Adoption FrameworkMicrosoft Entra IDRansomware Recovery ReadinessMimiKatzRecorded October 12, 2023

How do telcos use the cloud? Richard talks to Jennelle Crothers about her work with Azure Operator Nexus, a set of services and tooling for telecommunications companies. Jennelle talks about a meeting of the minds between telcos like AT&T and Microsoft - both organizations have a lot of infrastructure, but the cloud is also an architecture that can help provide more sophisticated and resilient services. It's an area of the cloud you may not have seen much of, but it will impact devices going forward - this is our connectivity we're exploring here!Links:Introducing Azure Operator NexusAzure Operator NexusWhat is Azure Operator Nexus?Azure StackRancherRecorded October 12, 2023

So, what's Microsoft Entra all about? Richard chats with VPN guru Richard Hicks about his experiences with Microsoft Entra. More than just a new name for Azure Active Directory, Entra includes essential tooling to provide secure access to all sorts of services - and not only Microsoft ones! Richard talks about how Azure Conditional Access can be applied across all types of Microsoft products and with Entra Application Proxy, you can access your internal services and servers. Many of the capabilities are in preview now - but the future looks bright for Entra and Conditional Access!Links:Microsoft EntraMicrosoft Global Secure Access ClientAzure Conditional AccessMicrosoft Entra Private AccessMicrosoft Entra Application ProxyRDP using NPS and EntraMicrosoft Secure Access Service EdgeImplementing Always On VPNRecorded October 10, 2023

How do large language models fit into your organization? Richard chats with Ulrika Hedlund about the challenges sysadmins face with large language models in their company. Ulrika talks about how employees are already using large language models like ChatGPT - potentially risking leaking company data. Tools like Bing Chat Enterprise bring the same capabilities as ChatGPT but with a focus on keeping company data secure. Once you're comfortable with Bing Chat, you can explore Microsoft 365 Copilot, which can index company data as part of its model. Training is essential, as is good data protection management, but the productivity benefits can be huge!Links:Bing Chat EnterpriseMicrosoft 365 CopilotCopilot LicensingRecorded October 10, 2023

How does green fit into IT? Richard talks with Mike Halsey about his book The Green IT Guide. Mike starts out talking about not waiting for government regulation - there are things we can do today to reduce our organization's environmental impact. The trend is to keep PCs longer, but what happens when you need new ones? There are more organizations than ever for repurposing old PCs and other devices and recycling. The conversation also digs into right-to-repair, with replaceable batteries and upgradable parts. We can do a lot just by including environmental impact in our buying decisions!Links:The Green IT GuideFramework LaptopRecorded October 12, 2023

How do you choose an Azure data storage solution? Richard talks to Nicole Stevens about her experiences helping companies move data into the cloud - typically in SQL Server. The obvious answer is Azure SQL, but that doesn't always make it the best solution! Nicole talks about a customer moving to Cosmos DB for the unstructured data capabilities and a lot of speed. But does the price make sense? All these factors are in play in choosing a data storage solution, and there is never one right choice - often, a mix of services makes the most sense!Links:Azure SQLAzure Cosmos DBAPIs in Cosmos DBAzure Table StorageAzure Queue StorageAzure Messaging Servicesdapr - Distributed Application RuntimeMicrosoft CertificationsData Architecture GuideData Landing Zones Azure Security BaselinesRecorded September 6, 2023

What can large language models do for you and your organization? Richard chats with Seth Juarez about the reality behind large language models like ChatGPT – how they are built, what they are good at, and most importantly, what they are not suitable for. Seth talks about the tremendous hype around these technologies and how to cut through the noise to focus on the value they can provide. As an IT Pro, you will be asked how to utilize large language models, so it is helpful to clearly understand their potential and help your company benefit from them while minimizing the risks.Links:ChatGPTGitHub CopilotMicrosoft Security CopilotRecorded September 18, 2023

Ready to inject a little chaos into your systems? Richard talks to Kelly Shortridge about her book Security Chaos Engineering. Kelly discusses the challenges of modern cybersecurity - how do you find weaknesses in your infrastructure and security systems? This leads to a discussion about challenging assumptions by exploring the workflows that exist in your infrastructure today. Exploring the workflows shows where assumptions exist, and that opens the door to testing them. There's sure to be some low-hanging fruit you can deal with, but eventually, you're left with tests that have to be set loose on your system - and you'll find out how resilient you really are!Links:FastlySecurity Chaos EngineeringDeciduousRecorded August 22, 2023

It's episode 900! Richard brings friend Dana Epp onto the show to talk a bit about the last one hundred episodes of RunAs Radio - and a little look to the future as well. With Dana around, you know there will be lots of security conversation. Over the past hundred shows, ransomware has had quite the story arc, especially around Exchange Server and other products. The conversation then turns to more future-looking topics, including the various Microsoft Copilots being built - could these be tools to help sysadmins? Probably a topic for episode 1000!Links:Windows SandboxMicrosoft VivaMicrosoft Purview Data Loss PreventionRecorded September 15, 2023

Your SharePoint is on-premises (at least for now), but you want to take advantage of some of those cool SharePoint Online features - is there a way? Richard talks with Sandy Ussia about her talk at the Thrive Conference in Slovenia about how on-premises SharePoint can use Power Automate and other tools to create powerful workflows. Sandy discusses the limits of the free version of Power Automate and how paying for the premium edition lets you build workflows that will more than cover the license cost. The conversation also dives into the subscription model of on-premises SharePoint 2019, which looks to be the final destination for on-premises SharePoint, with ongoing support and features being added!Links:Thrive ConferenceLightning ToolsUpgrade to SharePoint Server Subscription EditionPower Automate and SharePointPower Automate DesktopPower Automate PricingSharePoint On-Premises Data GatewayRecorded August 1, 2023

How do PowerBI and Microsoft Fabric work together? Richard talks to Mike Carlo about his experiences with Fabric so far. Mike explains how it is early days for Fabric and something you should experiment with, not roll out to production. The conversation dives into how we structure data analytics and the potential of Fabric to bring forward more of the pipeline work that analytics needs - so you can explore and get results faster. This leads to the idea of a new relationship between analysts and data engineers, one where you generate results first, then can optimize them with back-end engineering. There is enormous potential in PowerBI and Fabric together to change the data analytics game!Links:PowerBI.TipsDataBricksPowerBIAzure Synapse AnalyticsMicrosoft FabricAzure Data FactoryThe Infinite GameRecorded August 4, 2023

2023 has been a challenging year for sysadmins so far - how do we do more with less? Richard talks to Sonia Cuff about the current climate for IT in organizations and how we can still be successful. It's not all about building new things but being more efficient. Sonia talks about measuring more precisely - making sure that the expenses that IT has get assigned to revenue centers so that you're not cutting indiscriminately but associating costs with income - then those costs will more naturally adjust. The conversation also dives into new technologies that can be explored on the basis that they can improve efficiency - like large language models and their associated products. There's still a lot to do, but with a slightly different focus!Links:Reality-Based LeadershipAzure Sticker ShockFinOps FoundationChatGPTM365 CopilotOld People's Home From 4 Years OldsRecorded July 27, 2023

How would your organization report a data breach? Richard talks to Troy Hunt about his experiences with Have I Been Pwned and some good and not-so-good breach reporting. Troy talks about the importance of planning - making decisions about how to report is hard to do when you're under stress. And who do you report to? Are there regulatory requirements? What about your customers? Most people want to know if the data they entrusted to you has been stolen. And if you did want to contact every customer involved in a breach, how would you do that? This is a conversation for the C-suite, but you can start it!Links:Have I Been Pwnedsecurity.txtBeg BountyRecorded July 17, 2023

Are you ready for M365 Copilot? Richard talks with Karoliina Kettukari about what we can expect from M365 Copilot and how you can help your organization prepare for it. Karoliina discusses the more straightforward aspects of M365 Copilot we can expect, such as taking advantage of more of the features in the Office suite of products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The situation is more interesting when considering how Copilot could surface information from within your organization. Now you need to be thorough about identifying sensitive information and data governance as a whole. Plenty of policy and training is needed around these tools, but the benefits could be huge!Links:Microsoft 365 CopilotMicrosoft Copilot SalesOffice DelveCollaboration GovernanceRecorded August 8, 2023

What is Microsoft Fabric, and why do you want some? Richard talks to Andrew Snodgrass of Directions on Microsoft about Microsoft's recently announced Fabric product. Andrew explains that Fabric is an effort to integrate the various data products, including PowerBI, DataLake, Data Factory, and Data Warehousing, under a standard banner. It is early days for Fabric, but it's a great time to take it out for a spin for those who haven't dug into Azure data analytics products. But if you have existing implementations of PowerBI and many other data products, test carefully - the migration paths aren't simple!Links:Microsoft FabricAzure Synapse AnalyticsAzure Data FactoryPower BIFabric WorkspacesOneLakeKusto Query Language (KQL)Parquet Files in FabricMicrosoft PurviewOneLake File ExplorerRecorded July 12, 2023

PowerShellGet V3 is getting close to release - what should we expect? Richard chats with Sydney Smith about the key features of PSG3 - especially the support for third-party and private repositories. Sydney talks about how developing the tool in the open on GitHub has helped steer the module into a great version. While there are some breaking changes, there's also a Compat module to help bridge the gap. And now PSG3 is part of PowerShell 7.4 - so we should see some exciting news this fall!Links:PSReadLinePowerShell 7.4 PreviewPowerShellGetPowerShell GalleryArtifactoryPowerShellGet 3 BetaPowerShellGet on GitHubRecorded July 10, 2023

How does Azure continue to evolve and grow? While at Build in Seattle, Richard chatted with Azure CTO Mark Russinovich about the evolution of Azure and where it is going. Mark talks about the challenges of the recent explosion in large language models like GPT3 and ChatGPT - the sheer amount of cloud computing resources necessary to generate these enormous models, much less operate them at scale. The conversation explores ongoing innovation in architecture and hardware design, including a discussion on the results of Project Natick, the underwater data center experiments of a few years ago. There are more innovations to come!Links:Project NatickRecorded May 25, 2023

What are your options for upgrading to Windows 11? Richard talks to Julie Andreacola about her experiences helping organizations make the move from Windows 10 to 11. Julie talks about the power of Windows Update for Business Deployment Services to simplify the OS update while still giving the users some control - you can set a deadline for when they must update, but the user can pick a time within that deadline to let it happen. Applications don't have a problem with the OS update, since, under the hood, it's Windows 10.1. Same for group policy - do some testing, but expect things to go well - the migration to Windows 11 looks good!Links:Windows 11 Onboarding ToolkitFocus AssistantWindows 11 Live CaptionsWindows Update for Business Deployment ServiceWindows AutopilotWindows Update for BusinessRecorded June 16, 2023

Integrated communication is everywhere! While at Build in Seattle, Richard talked with Bob Serr, the VP of Azure Communication Services (ACS) at Microsoft. Bob discusses how ACS provides tooling to integrate voice, text, and video into any application through Azure. This leads to a broader conversation about the power of deeper communication, especially for difficult discussions like tech support. Can adding video make it easier to diagnose a problem? And what is the role of the new large language model technologies coming from OpenAI in providing automated communications? There are a lot of possibilities available today!Links:Azure Communication ServicesAzure OpenAI ServiceRecorded May 25, 2023

How do you secure the sprawling array of services your organization depends on? Richard talks to Karinne Bessette about her experiences working with companies with virtually no internal infrastructure - using Software-as-a-Service products from various providers and finding their glue to keep multiple bits working together. Karinne talks about putting together teams to understand how workflows function first - then trying to put some governance around it. Single sign-on is a great place to start, but the solutions depend on what tools you're using. This is the new reality we're working in - we must find a way to secure it!Links:Azure Single Sign OnOktaZero TrustData Loss PreventionAzure PurviewMicrosoft SyntexRecorded June 5, 2023

Windows 11 is coming to your organization - do you know how to deploy it? Richard talks to Johan Arwidmark about the need to get to work testing the deployment of Windows 11: Microsoft isn't giving us much of a choice about moving to it! Johan discusses the available deployment strategies, including Configuration Manager, Intune/Autopilot, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and more. Odds are, you will have to make some changes to how you deploy Windows to make things go smoothly with Windows 11, so it's a good time to get testing!Links:Windows 11Support for Windows 11 in Configuration ManagerMicrosoft Deployment ToolkitWindows AutopilotMicrosoft IntunePowerShell DeploymentPSAppDeployToolkitRecorded May 30, 2023

Whether you know it or not, Power Platform apps are proliferating! While at Techorama in Antwerp, Richard chatted with Luise Freese about her work with companies discovering that users are building Power Apps at alarming rates. Luise talks about the ability of users to find solutions in the Power Platform tools, often because they have enough security privileges (or demand them) to get access to data and systems... without many controls in place to ensure those resources are used correctly or securely! This leads to a conversation around providing guide rails for Power Platform developers, using security and governance. Get your telemetry cranked up - likely, you already have Power App proliferating!Links:Create Reusable Custom FunctionsComponent LibrariesDynamics 365Microsoft DataverseMicrosoft Power Platform Center of Excellence Starter KitRecorded May 16, 2023