Category: Microsoft
Category Archives: Microsoft
MGDC for SharePoint FAQ: How do I process Deltas?
This is a follow up on the blog about delta datasets. If you haven’t read it yet, take a look at MGDC for SharePoint FAQ: How can I use Delta State Datasets?
Our team got some follow-up questions on this, so I thought it would make sense to write a little more and make things clear.
First of all, from some conversations with CoPilot, the basic SQL code for merging a delta would be something like this:
— Start a transaction
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
— Assuming the Users table has a primary key constraint on user_id
— and the UserChanges table has a foreign key constraint on user_id referencing Users
— First, delete the users that have operation = ‘Deleted’ in UserChanges
DELETE FROM Users
WHERE user_id IN
(SELECT user_id
FROM UserChanges
WHERE operation = ‘Deleted’);
— Next, update the users that have operation = ‘Updated’ in UserChanges
UPDATE Users
SET user_name = UC.user_name,
user_age = UC.user_age
FROM Users U
JOIN UserChanges UC ON U.user_id = UC.user_id
WHERE UC.operation = ‘Updated’;
— Finally, insert the users that have operation = ‘Created’ in UserChanges
INSERT INTO Users (user_id, user_name, user_age)
SELECT user_id, user_name, user_age
FROM UserChanges
WHERE operation = ‘Created’;
— Commit the transaction
COMMIT TRANSACTION;
Note that the column names used (shown here as user_id, user_name and user_age) need to be updated for each dataset, but the structure will be the same.
I also asked CoPilot to translate this SQL code to PySpark and it suggested the code below (with a few minor manual touches):
# Import SparkSession and functions
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql import functions as F
# Create SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName(“Delta dataset”).getOrCreate()
# Assuming the Users and UserChanges tables are already loaded as DataFrames
users = spark.table(“Users”)
user_changes = spark.table(“UserChanges”)
# First, delete the users that have operation = ‘Deleted’ in UserChanges
users = users.join(user_changes.filter(user_changes.operation == “Deleted”), “user_id”, “left_anti”)
# Next, update the users that have operation = ‘Updated’ in UserChanges
users = users.join(user_changes.filter(user_changes.operation == “Updated”), “user_id”, “left_outer”)
.select(F.coalesce(user_changes.user_name, users.user_name).alias(“user_name”),
F.coalesce(user_changes.user_age, users.user_age).alias(“user_age”),
users.user_id)
# Finally, insert the users that have operation = ‘Created’ in UserChanges
users = users.union(user_changes.filter(user_changes.operation == “Created”)
.select(“user_name”, “user_age”, “user_id”))
After that, there’s the question of how to run this in Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse.
I would suggest going with Azure Synapse. You could get some inspiration from the template that we published https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2207816. This includes examples of how to get the data and run a notebook to produce a new dataset.
Another good resource is this guide on “How to transform data by running a Synapse Notebook”. The link is at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/transform-data-synapse-notebook.
The more notable part missing from the code above is how to read the data from ADLS v2. For that, here is a link to stack overflow article on how to bring the data in and out of ADLS v2 using Linked Services. There is an article specifically on that at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/synapse-analytics/spark/tutorial-spark-pool-filesystem-spec.
That’s it! For more general information MGDC for SharePoint, visit the main blog at Links about SharePoint on MGDC.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Advancing Trust, Transparency, and Control with Copilot for Microsoft 365
Hello, Microsoft Tech Community! I’m excited to share some important updates about Copilot for Microsoft 365. As you may recall from TJ’s blog post on February 29, we’ve been working hard to enhance your experience with Copilot. Today, I’d like to highlight some key updates that will benefit our customers, as outlined in Paul Lorimer’s blog: Announcing the expansion of Microsoft’s data residency capabilities | Microsoft 365 Blog
Paul’s post delves into the expansion of our data residency capabilities. We understand that data control is paramount in today’s digital landscape. That’s why we’re ensuring that your interaction data with Copilot for Microsoft 365 (for eligible customers) will be stored in the location specified by your Microsoft 365 data residency settings. This is a significant step forward in our commitment to providing a secure and compliant environment for our enterprise and highlight regulated customers that have data particularly stringent requirements for how their data is stored.
But we’re not stopping there. Our vision is to democratize AI, making it accessible and beneficial for everyone. As we continue to innovate and enhance Copilot, our guiding principles remain the same: Trust, Transparency, and Control. These principles have always been at the heart of Microsoft 365, and they continue to shape our approach to Copilot. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to evolve Copilot for Microsoft 365.
Please reply with your questions and share your experiences and needs as you explore your Copilot and our Data Residency options.
More resources to get support your Copilot and AI journey:
Five tips for prompting AI: How we’re communicating better at Microsoft with Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft 365 – How Microsoft 365 Delivers Trustworthy AI (2024-01).docx
Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365
Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot Privacy and Protections
Apply principles of Zero Trust to Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365
Learn about retention for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Improved Next.js support (Preview) for Azure Static Web Apps
Next.js is a popular framework for building modern web applications with React, making it a common workload to deploy to Azure Static Web Apps’ optimized hosting of frontend web applications. We are excited to announce that we have improved our support for Next.js on Azure Static Web Apps (preview), increasing the compatibility with recent Next.js features and providing support for the newest Next.js versions, enabling you to deploy and run your Next.js applications with full feature access on Azure.
What’s new?
As we continue to iterate on our Next.js support during our preview, we’ve made fundamental improvements to ensure feature compatibility with the most recent and future versions of Next.js. Such improvements include support for the new React Server Components model in Next.js as well as hosting Next.js backend functions on dedicated App Service instances to ensure feature compatibility.
Support for Next.js 14, React Server Components, Server Actions, Server Side Rendering
With the introduction of the App Directory, React Server Components and Server Actions, it’s now possible to build full-stack components, where individual components exist server-side and have access to sensitive resources such as databases or APIs, providing a more integrated full-stack developer experience.
For instance, a single component can now contain both queries and mutations with database access, facilitating the componentization of code.
// Server Component
export default function Page() {
// handle queries, accessing databases or APIs securely here
// Server Action
async function create() {
‘use server’
// handle mutations, accessing databases or APIs securely here
// …
}
return (
// …
)
}
These features, including recent server-side developments for Next.js, are now better supported on Azure Static Web Apps. Support for the pages directory, which is still supported by Next.js 14, will also continue to work on Azure Static Web Apps.
Increased size limits of Next.js deployments
Previously, Next.js deployments were limited to 100mb due to the hosting restrictions of managed functions. Now, you can deploy Next.js applications up to 250mb in size to Azure Static Web Apps, with the Next.js statically exported sites supporting up to the regular Static Web Apps quotas now.
Partial support for staticwebapps.config.json
With the improved support for Next.js sites, the `staticwebapps.config.json` file which is used to provide configurations to the way your site is hosted by Azure Static Web Apps is now partially supported. While app-level configurations should still be completed within the `next.config.json` to configure the Next.js server, the `staticwebapps.config.json` file can still be used to limit routes to roles and other headers, routes, redirects or other configurations.
Support for Azure Static Web Apps authentication and authorization
Azure Static Web Apps provides built-in authentication and role-based authorization. You can now use this built-in authentication with Next.js sites to secure them. The client principal containing the information of the authenticated user can be accessed from the request headers and used to perform server-side operations within API routes, Server Actions or React Server Components. The following code snippet indicates how the user headers can be accessed from within a Next.js codebase.
import { headers } from ‘next/headers’
export default async function Home() {
const headersList = headers();
const clientPrincipal = JSON.parse(atob(headersList.get(‘x-ms-client-principal’) || ”))
return (
<main >
{clientPrincipal.userId}
</main>
);
}
Next.js backend functions hosted on a dedicated App Service plan
To ensure full feature compatibility with current and future Next.js releases, Next.js workloads on Azure Static Web Apps are uniquely hosted leveraging App Service. Static contents for Next.js workloads will continue to be hosted on Azure Static Web Apps globally distributed content store, and Next.js backend functions are hosted by Azure Static Web Apps with a dedicated App Service plan. This enables improved support for Next.js features, while retaining Static Web Apps’ existing pricing plans.
How can you activate these improvements?
These improvements have been rolled out to all regions of Azure Static Web Apps, and will take effect on your next deployment of a Next.js workload to your Static Web Apps resource.
Get started with Next.js on Azure Static Web Apps
We hope you find these improvements useful and helpful for your Next.js development. We are always looking for feedback and suggestions, and are actively reading and engaging in our community GitHub.
Get stated deploying Next.js sites on Azure Static Web Apps for free!
Share feedback for Next.js in the Azure Static Web Apps GitHub repository
Follow and tag our Twitter account for Azure Static Web Apps
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Accessibility in Microsoft 365 Core Apps
“Accessibility is not a bolt on. It’s something that must be built in to every product we make so that our products work for everyone. Only then will we empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. This is the inclusive culture we aspire to create” – Satya Nadella
Our journey in accessible technology is grounded in a shared conviction at Microsoft. As product makers, we believe in the obligation to build technology that truly empowers people, fostering an inherently equitable experience.
In this pursuit, we’ve embraced a mindset we call “shift left,” incorporating accessibility at every stage and right from the inception of designing and building our products.
Reflecting on my tenure, I’ve had the privilege of contributing to some of the world’s most impactful technologies, particularly with Office and Windows. Traditionally, these products were well established with years of development and only later received our focused attention on accessibility.
However, Copilot presented a rare opportunity for us to incorporate accessibility right from the inception of the product and therefore “shift left”, the entire design and development process. And what’s more, AI technologies like Copilot brought a unique opportunity to reshape how humans interact with computers in a way that makes the experience MORE equitable and transformative for all.
Now, integrated into our Microsoft 365 Core Apps, Copilot brings forth exciting capabilities. Our goal is to bridge the gap between your interaction with technology and how you express your ideas, making the user experience more inclusive and empowering for all.
At Copilot’s core lies a commitment to equity, underscoring our ongoing dedication to fostering a technology landscape that truly serves every individual, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Equity at Copilot’s Core
We are actively shifting left in our product development by making accessibility a core part of Copilot’s design and functionality. Copilot is designed to work well with assistive technologies, such as screen readers, magnifiers, contrast themes, and voice input, and to provide a seamless and intuitive user experience.
But in addition to that, Copilot is a tool designed to be accessible itself.
In this process, we have collaborated and co-innovated with a diverse set of customers, 600+ members of Microsoft’s employee disability community, partners in research and design, and the commitment of engineers and product makers to listen and be accountable.
To illustrate how Copilot can enhance accessibility, I want to share with you some highlights from engaging with participants who had early access to Copilot:
Drafting emails: Copilot can help create 1st drafts in a matter of minutes. This can be especially helpful to those who have more limited mobility and challenges typing. You can generate different versions of the email with different levels of formality and detail and ask Copilot to check their calendar and suggest a meeting time, just with a few clicks of a button.
Using voice commands: With Copilot, you can create entire PowerPoint presentations just using your voice. Just tell Copilot about what you want to create, and Copilot can generate relevant graphics and notes for slides.
These examples demonstrate how Copilot can save users time and effort, as well as help them express their ideas and communicate their expertise more effectively. They also show how Copilot can adapt to their preferences and needs and provide them with a supportive partner that can enhance their communication and productivity.
In addition to some of these areas of feedback, we also conducted a deep dive study with those of the neurodiverse community. The neurodiverse community (which makes up 10-20% of the world) faces common challenges that we can all relate to, but their lives are disproportionately affected by them. Examples include planning, focus, procrastination, communication, reading ease and comprehension, being overly literal, and fatigue.
For the neurodiverse community, our study showed that Copilot can be a powerful ally, offering assistance in overcoming these challenges. It serves as a facilitator for thought organization, acts as a springboard for writing tasks, aids in surmounting task initiation barriers, and assists in processing extensive information found in documents, messages, or emails.
Members of the community reported Copilot helping their communication effectiveness by distilling action items from team meetings and documents, generating summaries, adjusting the tone and context of their content, and bridging communication gaps.
As one of the participants in the study said, “For me, Copilot itself is accessibility. Having Copilot is like putting on glasses after I’ve been squinting my entire career. It is equity and I think as a neurodivergent individual, I can’t imagine going back.”
Making Accessible Content with Ease
On our journey to create products that are truly inclusive, we’re also empowering document authors to shift left and build better authoring habits by catching accessibility errors early in the doc creation process. Ensuring that your content is comprehensible to all individuals, irrespective of their visual abilities or preferences, is a crucial component of accessibility. To assist you in this endeavor, we have created the Accessibility Assistant, a robust tool that can detect and resolve potential problems in your documents, emails, and presentations. You can access the Accessibility Assistant from the Review tab in Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
New Features of the Accessibility Assistant include some of the following highlights:
The in-canvas notifications for readability is a feature that notifies you of accessibility hurdles for common issues, such as text color not meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) color contrast ratio or images lacking descriptions. You can use the inclusive color picker to choose an appropriate color from the suggested options and utilize the automatically generated image descriptions to provide alt-text, making it easier to create accessible content.
Quick fix card for multiple issues: This feature allows you to fix several issues of the same type with fewer clicks. For example, you can change the color of all the text that has low contrast in your document.
Per-slide toggle for PowerPoint: This feature enables you to view and fix the accessibility issues for each slide individually, instead of seeing them by categories. This can help you focus on your own slides and collaborate with others more easily.
These capabilities are designed to help you create accessible content faster and easier, and to ensure that everyone can access and enjoy your work. The Accessibility Assistant for Word Desktop has started rolling out to Insider Beta Channel users running Version 2012 (Build 17425.2000) or later. This feature for Outlook Desktop will be available in Insider Beta Channel by April 2024, followed by release to PowerPoint Desktop this summer
Our Commitment
At Microsoft, we believe that everyone has something valuable to offer, and that diversity of perspectives and experiences can enrich our products and services. That’s why we are committed to empowering everyone to achieve more, fostering an inherently equitable experience. Copilot is one of the ways that we are fulfilling this commitment, by providing a supportive partner that can help you with common challenges, enhance your communication, and bridge the gap between your interaction with technology and how you express your ideas.
But we also know that we are not done yet. We are still on a journey of understanding how AI and LLMs will continue to evolve and make the world a more equitable place. We are constantly learning from our customers, partners, and the disability community, and we are always looking for ways to improve our accessibility features and functionality. We welcome your feedback and suggestions on how we can make Copilot better for you and for everyone.
To learn more about Copilot and how to get started, please visit the Copilot website or the Copilot support page. To learn more about accessibility at Microsoft and how to access our accessibility features, please visit the Microsoft Accessibility website or the Disability Answer Desk. And to share your feedback or suggestions on Copilot, please use the feedback button (thumbs up or down).
Together, we can make the world a more equitable place for everyone.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Windows 11 Plans to Expand CLAT Support
Thank you everyone who responded to our recent IPv6 migration survey! We want you to know that we are committed to improving your IPv6 journey and these data are helpful in shaping our future plans.
To that end, just a quick update: we are committing to expanding our CLAT support to include non-cellular network interfaces in a future version of Windows 11. This will include discovery using the relevant parts of RFC 7050 (ipv4only.arpa DNS query), RFC 8781 (PREF64 option in RAs), and RFC 8925 (DHCP Option 108) standards. Once we do have functionality available for you to test in Windows Insiders builds, we will let you know.
We are looking forward to continuing to provide support for your platform networking needs!
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Optimize your Azure costs
Author introduction
Hi, I am Saira Shaik, Working Principal customer success account manager at Microsoft India.
This article will provide guidance to the customers who wants to Optimize their Azure costs by providing tools and resources to help customers to save cost, Understand and forecast your costs, Cost optimize workloads and Control costs.
Explore tools and resources to help you save
Find out about the tools, offers, and guidance designed to help you manage and optimize your Azure costs. Learn how to understand and forecast your bill, optimize workload costs, and control your spending.
8 ways to optimize the cost
1. Shut down unused resources.
Identify idle virtual machines (VMs), ExpressRoute circuits, and other resources with Azure Advisor. Get recommendations on which resources to shut down and see how much you would save.
Useful Links
Reduce service costs using Azure Advisor – Azure Advisor | Microsoft Learn
2. Right-size underused resources
Find underutilized resources with Azure Advisor—and get recommendations on how to reduce your spend by reconfiguring or consolidating them.
Useful Links
Reduce service costs using Azure Advisor – Azure Advisor | Microsoft Learn
3. Add an Azure savings plan for compute for dynamic workloads
Save up to 65 percent off pay-as-you-go pricing when you commit to spend a fixed hourly amount on compute services for one or three years.
Useful Links
Azure Savings Plan Savings – youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlrxD0HtieHjd-zn7u09YoGJY18ZrN1Hq
Introduction to Azure savings plan for compute (youtube.com)
Understanding your Azure savings plan recommendations (youtube.com)
How Azure savings plan is applied to a customer’s compute environment (youtube.com)
Azure Savings Plan for Compute | Microsoft Azure
4. Reserve instances for consistent workloads
Get a discount of up to 72 percent over pay-as-you-go pricing on Azure services when you prepay for a one- or three-year term with reservation pricing.Get a discount of up to 72 percent over pay-as-you-go pricing on Azure services when you prepay for a one- or three-year term with reservation pricing.
Useful Links
Reservations | Microsoft Azure
Advisor Clinic: Lower costs with Azure Virtual Machine reservations (youtube.com)
Model virtual machine costs with the Azure Cost Estimator Power BI Template (youtube.com)
5. Take advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit
AWS is up to five times more expensive than Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server. Save when you migrate your on-premises workloads to Azure.
Useful Links
Azure Hybrid Benefit—hybrid cloud | Microsoft Azure
Reduce costs and increase SQL license utilization using Azure Hybrid Benefit (youtube.com)
Managing and Optimizing Your Azure Hybrid Benefit Usage (With Tools!) – Microsoft Community Hub
6. Configure autoscaling
Save by dynamically allocating and de-allocating resources to match your performance needs.
Useful Links
Autoscaling guidance – Best practices for cloud applications | Microsoft Learn
7. Choose the right Azure compute service
Azure offers many ways to host your code. Operate more cost efficiently by selecting the right compute service for your application.
Useful Links
Choose an Azure compute service – Azure Architecture Center | Microsoft Learn
Armchair Architects: Exploring the relationship between Cost and Architecture (youtube.com)
8. Set up budgets and allocate costs to teams and projects
Create and manage budgets for the Azure services you use or subscribe to—and monitor your organization’s cloud spending—with Microsoft Cost Management.
Useful Links
Tutorial – Create and manage budgets – Microsoft Cost Management | Microsoft Learn
The Cloud Clinic: Use tagging and cost management tools to keep your org accountable (youtube.com)
Understand and forecast your costs
Monitor and analyze your Azure bill with Microsoft Cost Management. Set budgets and allocate spending to your teams and projects.
Estimate the costs for your next Azure projects using the Azure pricing calculator and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator.
Successfully build your cloud business case with key financial and technical guidance from Azure.
Useful Links
FinOps toolkit – Kick start your FinOps efforts (microsoft.github.io)
Azure Savings Dashboard – Microsoft Community Hub
Azure Cost Management Dashboard – Microsoft Community Hub
Cost optimize your workloads
Follow your Azure Advisor best practice recommendations for cost savings.
Review your workload architecture for cost optimization using the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Review assessment and the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework design documentation, well architected cost optimization implementation – Customer Offerings: Well-Architected Cost Optimization Implementation – Microsoft Community Hub
Save with Azure offers and licensing terms such as the Azure Hybrid Benefit, paying in advance for predictable workloads with reservations, Azure Spot Virtual Machines, Azure savings plan for compute, and Azure dev/test pricing.
Control your costs
Mitigate cloud spending risks by implementing cost management governance best practices at your company using the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure.
Implement cost controls and guardrails for your environment with Azure Policy.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Azure SQL MI premium-series memory optimized hw is now available in all regions with up to 40 vCores
Recently, we announced a number of Azure SQL Managed Instance improvements in Business Critical tier. In this article, we would like to highlight that the premium-series memory optimized hardware is now available in all Azure regions, up to 40 vCores!
What is new?
Having the latest and greatest hardware generation available for the Azure SQL Managed Instance Business Critical service tier can be crucial for the critical customer workloads. Until recently, premium-series memory optimized hardware generation was available only in a subset of Azure regions. Now you can have a SQL MI BC instance with premium-series memory optimized hardware in any Azure region up to 40 vCores.
This means that the new state for premium-series memory optimized hardware availability is:
Up to 40 vCores: available in every Azure region.
48, 56, 64, 80, 96 and 128 vCore options: for now, available in a subset of Azure regions.
Improve performance of your database workload with more memory per vCore
Increasing memory can improve the performance of applications and databases by reducing the need to read from disk and instead storing more data in memory, which is faster to access. You might want to consider upgrading to memory-optimized premium-series for several reasons:
Buffering and Caching: More memory can be utilized for caching frequently accessed data or buffering I/O operations, leading to faster response times and improved overall system performance.
Handling Larger Datasets: If the user is dealing with larger datasets or increasing workload demands, more memory can accommodate the additional data and processing requirements without experiencing slowdowns or performance bottlenecks.
Concurrency and Scalability: Higher memory capacity can support more concurrent users or processes, allowing the system to handle increased workload and scale effectively without sacrificing performance.
Complex Queries and Analytics: Memory-intensive operations such as complex queries, data analytics, and reporting often benefit from having more memory available to store intermediate results and perform calculations efficiently.
In-Memory Processing: Some databases and applications offer in-memory processing capabilities, where data is stored and manipulated entirely in memory for faster processing. Increasing memory allows for more data to be processed in-memory, resulting in faster query execution and data manipulation.
How to upgrade your instance to premium-series memory optimized hardware
You can scale your existing managed instance from Azure portal, PowerShell, Azure CLI or ARM templates. You can also utilize ‘online scaling’ with minimal downtime. See Scale resources – Azure SQL Database & Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn.
Summary
More memory for a managed instance can lead to improved performance, scalability, and efficiency in handling larger workloads, complex operations, and data processing tasks. This improvement in Azure SQL Managed Instance Business Critical makes premium-series memory optimized hardware available in all regions, up to 40 vCores.
If you’re still new to Azure SQL Managed Instance, now is a great time to get started and take Azure SQL Managed Instance for a spin!
Next steps:
Learn more about the latest innovation in Azure SQL Managed Instance.
Try SQL MI free of charge for the first 12 months.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Learn about AI and Microsoft Copilot for Security with Learn Live
Want to learn more about Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft is launching a Learn Live Series called “Getting Started with Microsoft Copilot for Security.” This weekly online seminar series will run from March 19th through April 9th and will review skill development resources and discuss topics related to AI and Copilot for Security.
Hosts Edward Walton, Andrea Fisher, and Rod Trent will guide you through four topics each with a corresponding Microsoft Learn module designed to help anyone interested in getting users ready for Microsoft Copilot for Security.
Fundamentals of Generative AI
March 19th 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm PDT
In this session, you will explore the way in which large language models (LLMs) enable AI applications and services to generate original content based on natural language input. You will also learn how generative AI enables the creation of AI-powered copilots that can assist humans in creative tasks. In this episode, you will:
Learn about the kinds of solutions AI can make possible and considerations for responsible AI practices
Understand generative AI’s place in the development of artificial intelligence
Understand large language models and their role in intelligent applications
Describe how Azure OpenAI supports intelligent application creation
Describe examples of copilots and good prompts
Fundamentals of Responsible Generative AI
March 27th 12:00 pm –1:30 pm PDT
Generative AI enables amazing creative solutions but must be implemented responsibly to minimize the risk of harmful content generation. In this episode, you will:
Describe an overall process for responsible generative AI solution development
Identify and prioritize potential harms relevant to a generative AI solution
Measure the presence of harms in a generative AI solution
Mitigate harms in a generative AI solution
Prepare to deploy and operate a generative AI solution responsibly
Get started with Microsoft Security Copilot
April 2nd 12:00pm – 1:30 pm PDT
Get acquainted with Microsoft Copilot for Security. You will be introduced to some basic terminology, how Microsoft Copilot for Security processes prompts, the elements of an effective prompt, and how to enable the solution. In this episode, you will:
Describe what Microsoft Copilot for Security is.
Describe the terminology of Microsoft Copilot for Security.
Describe how Microsoft Copilot for Security processes prompt requests.
Describe the elements of an effective prompt
Describe how to enable your Microsoft Copilot for Security solution.
Describe the core features of Microsoft Security Copilot
April 9th 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm PDT
Microsoft Copilot for Security has a rich set of features. Learn about available plugins that enable integration with various data sources, promptbooks, the ways you can export and share information from Copilot for Security, and much more. In this episode, you will:
Describe the features available in the standalone experience.
Describe the services to which Copilot for Security can integrate.
Describe the embedded experience
Jump-start your Copilot for Security journey and join us for the Learn Live series starting on Tuesday, March 19th!
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Announcing the Public Preview of Change Actor
Change Analysis
Identifying who made a change to your Azure resources and how the change was made just became easier! With Change Analysis, you can now see who initiated the change and with which client that change was made, for changes across all your tenants and subscriptions.
Audit, troubleshoot, and govern at scale
Changes should be available in under five minutes and are queryable for fourteen days. In addition, this support includes the ability to craft charts and pin results to Azure dashboards based on specific change queries.
What’s new: Actor Functionality
This added functionality is in private preview.
Who made the change
This can be either ‘AppId’ (client or Azure service) or email-ID of the user
E.g. changedBy: elizabeth@contoso.com
With which client the change was made
E.g. clientType: portal
What operation was called
Azure resource provider operations | Microsoft Learn
Try it out
You can try it out by querying the “resourcechanges” or “resourcecontainerchanges” tables in Azure Resource Graph.
Sample Queries
Here is documentation on how to query resourcechanges and resourcecontainerchanges in Azure Resource Graph. Get resource changes – Azure Resource Graph | Microsoft Learn
Summarization of who and which client were used to make resource changes in the last 7 days ordered by the number of changes
resourcechanges
| extend changeTime = todatetime(properties.changeAttributes.timestamp),
targetResourceId = tostring(properties.targetResourceId),
changeType = tostring(properties.changeType), changedBy = tostring(properties.changeAttributes.changedBy),
changedByType = properties.changeAttributes.changedByType,
clientType = tostring(properties.changeAttributes.clientType)
| where changeTime > ago(7d)
| project changeType, changedBy, changedByType, clientType
| summarize count() by changedBy, changeType, clientType
| order by count_ desc
Summarization of who and what operations were used to make resource changes ordered by the number of changes
resourcechanges
| extend changeTime = todatetime(properties.changeAttributes.timestamp),
targetResourceId = tostring(properties.targetResourceId),
operation = tostring(properties.changeAttributes.operation),
changeType = tostring(properties.changeType), changedBy = tostring(properties.changeAttributes.changedBy),
changedByType = properties.changeAttributes.changedByType,
clientType = tostring(properties.changeAttributes.clientType)
| project changeType, changedBy, operation
| summarize count() by changedBy, operation
| order by count_ desc
List resource container (resource group, subscription, and management group) changes. who made the change, what client was used, and which operation was called, ordered by the time of the change
resourcecontainerchanges
| extend changeTime = todatetime(properties.changeAttributes.timestamp),
targetResourceId = tostring(properties.targetResourceId),
operation=tostring(properties.changeAttributes.operation),
changeType = tostring(properties.changeType), changedBy = tostring(properties.changeAttributes.changedBy),
changedByType = properties.changeAttributes.changedByType,
clientType = tostring(properties.changeAttributes.clientType)
| project changeTime, changeType, changedBy, changedByType, clientType, operation, targetResourceId
| order by changeTime desc
FAQ
How do I use Change Analysis?
Change Analysis can be used by querying the resourcechanges or resourcecontainterchanges tables in Azure Resource Graph, such as with Azure Resource Graph Explorer in the Azure Portal or through the Azure Resource Graph APIs. More information can be found here: Get resource changes – Azure Resource Graph | Microsoft Learn.
What does unknown mean?
Unknown is displayed when the change happened on a client that is unrecognized.
Why are some of the changedBy values unspecified?
Some resources in the resourcechanges tables are not fully covered yet in the change actor functionality. This could be caused by a resource that has been affected by a system change or the RP needs to first send us the Who/How information. Unspecified is displayed when the resource is missing changedByType values and could be missing for either Creates or Updates. You may also see an increase in Unspecified values for these types,
virtualmachines
virtualmachinescalesets
publicipaddresses
disks
networkinterfaces
What resources are included?
You can try it out by querying the “resourcechanges” or “resourcecontainerchanges” tables in Azure Resource Graph.
Questions and Feedback
If you have any questions or want to provide direct input, you can reach out to us at (argchange@microsoft.com)
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