Category: Microsoft
Category Archives: Microsoft
.net maui random errors – Bundle Resource ‘.DS_Store’ not found on disk
since I started migrating a xamarin project to MAUI, I’ve been surprised and disappointed by how often a new (or previously working )project suddenly fails with a time-wasting obscure issue (it seems v brittle!)
the latest one I’m experiencing is this:
/usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk/16.4.7125/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(3,3): Error: Bundle Resource ‘.DS_Store’ not found on disk (should be at ‘/Users/xxx/Documents/2022 onwards/manually copied/_Projects/residence System/tabletUI/MAUI version/maui_respad/respad2023/Resources/.DS_Store’)
(maui_respad)
I don’t know where to begin dealing with this error, if anyone can shed any light on what causes this it would be a big help…?
since I started migrating a xamarin project to MAUI, I’ve been surprised and disappointed by how often a new (or previously working )project suddenly fails with a time-wasting obscure issue (it seems v brittle!) the latest one I’m experiencing is this:/usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk/16.4.7125/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(3,3): Error: Bundle Resource ‘.DS_Store’ not found on disk (should be at ‘/Users/xxx/Documents/2022 onwards/manually copied/_Projects/residence System/tabletUI/MAUI version/maui_respad/respad2023/Resources/.DS_Store’)(maui_respad) I don’t know where to begin dealing with this error, if anyone can shed any light on what causes this it would be a big help…? Read More
Makeing colums easy
Hello
Can anyone help me to figure out if there is an easy way of doing such column style text without putting every single word into a single column?
HelloCan anyone help me to figure out if there is an easy way of doing such column style text without putting every single word into a single column? Read More
Deploy apps to Azure Container Apps easily with .NET Aspire
The recently announced .NET 8’s Aspire stack for building cloud-native apps is a great match for Azure Container Apps. .NET Aspire was designed to easily manage applications comprised of a series of interdependent microservices. Container Apps is also tailored for microservices and built on cloud native tech which means .NET Aspire integrates to it seamlessly– right out of the box!
Furthermore, the .NET Aspire stack offers a tailored deployment experience for ACA through the Azure Developer CLI (AZD), which lets you create, provision, and deploy the Azure resources for your Aspire solution with a single command.
In this blog post, we discuss the benefits of hosting your apps in ACA versus an unmanaged cluster. We will also show you just how easy it is to get started by walking through sample code.
Why Azure Container Apps?
Azure Container Apps (ACA) is a platform for running container-first applications and microservices. It is powered by Kubernetes but is far simpler to use and manage for the average developer. Teams using ACA can focus on building their applications and getting to production instead of having to learn the intricacies of cluster management just to get started.
It is also a great option if you want flexibility and minimize costs. As a serverless environment, ACA offers both pay-per-use consumption hosting that scales to 0 and dedicated specialized compute hosting with fixed pricing and reliability. With full support for open sources technologies like Dapr and KEDA, ACA allows developers to draw from best practices and tools of the broader microservices ecosystem – all from a single platform!
These features make ACA a great choice for developers who want to build applications for the cloud with minimal overhead and complexity. If you’re curious, read on – we will go through some sample code so you can see for yourself just how fast and easy it is to deploy a .NET Aspire solution to ACA.
Get started with .NET 8 and .NET Aspire
Haven’t had a chance to experience the .NET Aspire stack? To add the workload to your .NET environment, you will need the following:
.NET 8.0
Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) or code editor of your choice, such as:
Visual Studio 2022 Preview version 17.9 or higher
Visual Studio Code
Make sure you have Docker running before starting the example.
There are two ways to set up the .NET Aspire workload, depending on your choice of IDE.
Use the Visual Studio installer
This is the method we will use for our examples to take advantage of additional benefits like built-in templates and easier initial setup configuration.
Open the Visual Studio Installer.
Select Modify next to Visual Studio 2022 Preview.
Select the ASP.NET and web development workload.
On the Installation details panel, select .NET Aspire SDK (Preview).
Select Modify to install the .NET Aspire component.
Use the dotnet workload install aspire command
If you are not using Visual Studio, you can install the .NET Aspire workload from the .NET CLI. Use the command below:
dotnet workload install aspire
Create a new .NET Aspire solution
To create a new .NET Aspire solution, reference this documentation.
Set up the Azure Developer CLI
The Azure Developer CLI (AZD) is a new open-source tool that accelerates deployment to Azure. Not only does AZD let you create, provision, and deploy the Azure resources for your Aspire solution with a single command, it integrates broadly with .NET tools and can be accessed from both Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio.
AZD builds upon the foundation of the Azure CLI and Bicep. In the same way that ACA simplifies Kubernetes, AZD simplifies deployment by providing smart defaults for Aspire solutions. You can further customize the bicep templates pulled in by AZD if required.
You can install AZD using this documentation.
Initialize your project for ACA
Now, let’s create an AZD environment for our .NET Aspire app. Having multiple apps in the same environment allows them to communicate with each other.
Run the following command in /AspireSample/AspireSample.AppHost:
azd init
Within a few seconds, AZD will detect that this is a .NET Aspire app and suggest a deployment to ACA. Confirm and continue.
AZD now shows each of the components of our .NET Aspire solution. You can now choose which ones you want deployed publicly, meaning they will have HTTP ingress open to all internet traffic. In this starter application, there is a frontend and an API. We want the web frontend to be public while the API should be private only to the ACA environment.
To get that set-up, select webfrontend.
Finally, we will set up the environment name – for example, dev and prod and test. Provide the environment name and continue.
AZD then completes the initialization of the app and generates a markdown file that provides details about what the CLI did under the hood.
Deploy your project to ACA
AZD lets you provision and deploy your solution in a single step. First, however, we need to authenticate with Azure AD so we can call the Azure resource management APIs.
To do so, run the following command to launch a browser to authenticate the command-line session:
azd auth login
Now, we will provision and deploy our application:
azd up
You will then be asked for the subscription and location you would like to deploy to.
Note: If you get the error above after running azd up, make sure you have an Admin user on the registry. Open the Azure Portal and navigate to the subscription you deployed to.
Enter the Container registry / Settings / Access keys, and then select the Admin user checkbox. This will generate a username and two passwords for you to access the ACR resource.
You will be prompted for your username and password. Enter the values shown in Azure Portal. For more information, see Enable admin user.
AZD will generate links to the web frontend and API service applications. The final line of the terminal output contains a link to the Azure Portal page that shows all the deployed resources.
The Azure Portal offers a large variety of resources to help you scale and understand your application. Not only are there tools to manage costs, performance, and security, you can set your application to scale depending on incoming demand.
That’s it! To learn more about what AZD is doing under the hood to provision and deploy your app, you can read through this documentation.
Now, we will take a quick look at what the same process looks like if we were deploying to an unmanaged Kubernetes cluster.
Initialize your project for an unmanaged cluster
You cannot use AZD to set up your project for deployment to your own cluster. Instead, you will need to download a community tool called Aspir8. You can find more information on the project by reading the .NET team’s blog post on .NET Aspire Preview 2 and looking through its documentation.
At a high level, you initialize your project through a CLI command with options based on your needs. The tool does not offer much of the AZD functionality we discussed earlier, such as deploying some components of your solution publicly and others privately. In addition, you will need to manually pass in information that is automated in AZD due to its integration with other Azure resources.
Deploy your project to your own cluster
To deploy your project to your own cluster, you will need to first build the projects and containers. That generates a manifest file, which is a YAML or JSON file that manages version configurations alongside your code. Additional manifests will be generated depending on the complexity of your cluster.
Then, you will have to manually apply those manifests to a cluster for deployment. There are a variety of other tasks automated by AZD that you must handle for your own cluster, such as secret management. Instead of having security, observability, and scalability integrated into a single platform, functionality must be pieced together from across the microservices ecosystem by the developer team.
Next Steps
Congratulations, you can now deploy Aspire apps to ACA. You should now have a better understanding of the benefits of deploying your Aspire app to ACA as opposed to unmanaged infra. Thank you for reading!
Want to learn more? You can…
Review the Azure Container Apps docs.
Learn more about pricing details from the Azure Container Apps pricing page.
Reach us directly at any time via our GitHub microsoft/azure-container-apps repo.
Connect with the Azure Container Apps team on Twitter and Discord.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Startup Growth and Tech Community
Haifeng Liu is a Microsoft Azure MVP who has been supporting tech communities in China for more than 13 years. In a recent blog post we published (New Tech & Connections from Asian MVP Communities), we introduced the first Prompt Engineering Conf in Shanghai, China, which he organized.
As a professional, Haifeng’s role involves leveraging his technical knowledge in business to provide solutions that are beneficial to society as an entrepreneur. He expresses his ambition as “my entrepreneurial goal is to empower enterprise growth with AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content) technology and create outstanding value” and shares their journey in business and community so far.
At the end of 2022, Haifeng launched ChatU, a BMaaS (Bare metal-as-a-service) platform that integrates multiple large models. These models include the latest AI technologies such as ChatGPT and Azure OpenAI Service. In striving for better product development, close collaboration with Microsoft was a focus. Due to its excellent flexibility and customizability, ChatU rapidly grew into a market leader for AIGC solutions, attracting 1,000 paid enterprise customers and nearly 100,000 end-users in a very short period.
“This integration approach reduces the cost and threshold of using AI products, enabling more people to enjoy the convenience of AI technology. At the same time, ChatU also provides rich APIs and tools to facilitate user secondary development and customization, improving the adaptability and scalability of the solution,” he says.
The growth of Haifeng’s business was backed by Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, aiding entrepreneurs worldwide. He tells us about his experience with the program, stating that with, “enhanced Azure credit and local network’s help, the platform makes more opportunities for my company.”
As a business leader who has been growing in both business and community, Haifeng talks about the business benefits of engaging with communities based on personal experience: “Participating in the technology community can bring more resources and support to enterprises, allowing them to gain more technical knowledge, industry experience, and business opportunities, so as to better grasp market trends and user needs, providing strong support for the development of enterprises. Secondly, it can enhance the brand image and influence of enterprises, attracting more investment and partners, creating more opportunities for the development of enterprises. In addition, it can bring more innovation and competitive advantages to enterprises, allowing them to access more innovative technologies and business models, stimulating their innovation inspiration, and promoting their continuous development.”
Finally, as an experienced entrepreneur, Haifeng shares a message for those looking to start their own business.
“Entrepreneurship is both an adventure and an opportunity for growth. Whether you work in a large company or start your own business, you must always maintain curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, constantly learn, grow, and progress. In the process of entrepreneurship, you will encounter various challenges and difficulties, but as long as you maintain firm belief and determination, constantly work hard, and strive, you will definitely be able to overcome all difficulties and achieve your dreams.”
Haifeng continues, “entrepreneurship is not only about making money, but also about realizing one’s own value and dreams. As long as you love your career and devote yourself wholeheartedly to it, you will definitely be able to create your own value in life. Wishing all those who are considering starting their own businesses a speedy realization of their dreams!”
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Viva People Science Industry Trends: Retail
Welcome to the fourth edition of Microsoft Viva People Science industry trends, where the Viva People Science team share learnings from customers across a range of different industries. Drawing on data spanning over 150 countries, 10 million employees, and millions of survey comments, we uncover the unique employee experience challenges and best practices for each industry.
In this blog, @Jamie_Cunningham and I share our insights on the state of employee engagement in the retail industry. You can also access the recording from our recent live webinar, where we discussed this topic in depth.
Let’s first look at what’s impacting the retail industry today. In summary, we are hearing about market volatility, supply chain constraints, changing consumer behavior, technological advancements, labor pressures, and rising costs. According to the Deloitte Retail Trends 2023 report, the top-of-mind issues for retail leaders are:
Growth versus sustainability: Retailers need to balance the short-term pressures of profitability and cash flow with the long-term goals of environmental and social responsibility.
Consumer confidence and retail sales: Retailers need to cope with the uncertain and volatile consumer demand, which is influenced by factors such as inflation, health concerns, and government policies.
Leadership quality and brand strength: Retailers need to demonstrate strong and visionary leadership, as well as to build and maintain a distinctive and trusted brand identity.
Technological innovation: Retailers need to leverage technology and data to create personalized, seamless, and omnichannel customer experiences, as well as to optimize their operations and supply chains.
These issues require retailers to be agile, resilient, and innovative in their employee experience strategies and execution. The retail industry also faces some specific challenges in attracting and retaining talent, such as:
Rewards: Retail jobs often pay comparatively lower wages and benefits to other industries and can lack recognition and rewards for employees’ hard work.
Wellbeing: Retail employees often deal with high-stress, low-flexibility, and high-risk work environments, which can affect their physical and mental health.
Growth: Retail employees often perceive limited opportunities for career advancement, skill development, and learning, which can lead to disengagement and attrition.
According to Glint benchmark data (2023), employee engagement in retail has declined by two points between 2021 and 2022. It’s clear that retailers need to invest in improving the employee experience, especially for the frontline workers, who are the face of the brand and the key to customer loyalty. So, how do they do this? Here are three examples of how retailers we’ve worked with have addressed the needs of their employees with the support of Microsoft Viva:
1. Create a compelling future
We worked with the leadership team of a MENA (Middle East and North Africa) based retailer to recognize that there was a connection between their ability to communicate the future of the direction of the organization effectively, and the degree to which employees saw a future for themselves in the organization. The team committed to clarifying how the business initiatives they were rolling out connected to future work opportunities for their teams.
2. Build bridges with frontline employees
According to the Microsoft Work Trend Report (2022), sixty-three percent of all frontline workers say messages from leadership don’t make it to them. A global fashion brand recognised after several years of employee listening that the actions being taken by leadership were not being felt on the shop floor. We worked with them to adopt a simplified action taking model with one clear commitment from leaders, that was efficient and effective in terms of communication and adoption. They also increased their investment in manager enablement to support better conversations within teams, when results from Viva Glint were released. This simplified approach led to improved perceptions of the listening process, and greater clarity at all levels on where to focus for a positive employee experience.
3. One internal team, one goal
Through an Executive Consultation with leaders of a UK retailer, it was identified that wellbeing was a risk for the business that unless addressed, would severely impact their priorities. With that in mind, the team created internal alignment – to prioritise wellbeing through both training investment and policy changes, resulting in a thirteen-point improvement in the wellbeing score year over year.
Conclusions
To succeed in this dynamic and competitive market, retailers need to focus on their most valuable asset: their employees. By investing in the employee experience, especially for the frontline workers, retailers can boost their employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and business performance.
A downloadable one-page summary is also available with this blog for you to share with your colleagues and leaders.
Leave a comment below to let us know if this resonates with what you are seeing with your employees in this industry.
References:
Deloitte retail trends report (2023)
Microsoft Work Trend Index special report (2022)
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
we noticed you are connecting from an older client ({0}) message
I’ve started getting annoying popup message:
we noticed you are connecting from an older client ({0}). for better experience and reliable connection, please update to the latest client
All my rdp clients are up to date. Any idea?
I’ve started getting annoying popup message:we noticed you are connecting from an older client ({0}). for better experience and reliable connection, please update to the latest clientAll my rdp clients are up to date. Any idea? Read More
10 Essential Tips for Using OneDrive at Work or School
These days, many of us are trying to do more in less time. When it comes to working with your files, you probably know that OneDrive keeps your files protected and easily accessible across your devices. But there are also many features that you can use in OneDrive to keep your work or school day running smoothly. Here are ten tips that will help you get the most out of OneDrive:
1. Use OneDrive’s new views to find shared files quickly
OneDrive has been completely redesigned to make it faster and simpler to get to all your personal, shared, and team files. The new OneDrive for Web let’s you:
• See your recent and most relevant files in the For you and Recent sections
• Find all the files you have shared and that have been shared with you in Shared view
• See your meeting recordings and all files shared in meetings in the Meetings view
• View your files organized by the people you collaborate with in the People view
Try it -> Login into OneDrive for Web or go to office.com and navigate to OneDrive. See the OneDrive quick start guide for more details.
2. Protect your files and get anywhere access with Folder Backup
Have you ever experienced the dreaded blue screen, lost your laptop, or needed a file from your PC or Mac when you only have your phone or tablet on hand? If you said yes to any of these questions, then you know how important it is to have a copy of your files in the cloud. OneDrive’s Folder Backup (also known as Known Folder Move) automatically syncs your Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders to the cloud, so you can access them from anywhere and protect them from loss.
Try it -> To turn on folder backup, select the OneDrive cloud icon in your system tray, select the Settings icon, and then select Settings. In the Settings dialog, select Sync and back up, and then select Manage back up. Use the toggles to choose the folders you want to back up, and then select Start backup. Learn more: Folder backup for PCs and Folder backup for Mac.
3. Access all your OneDrive files in Microsoft Teams
If you spend your day working in Microsoft Teams, chatting, meeting, and collaborating with colleagues, you can save time and stay in the context of your work by accessing your OneDrive files directly through the OneDrive app in Teams.
Try it-> In Teams, select Files or OneDrive on the left sidebar. This opens your OneDrive, giving you easy access to your files. Learn more.
4. Restore previous file versions
Collaboration is a huge part of modern work, but sometimes collaborators make changes that don’t work. Or, maybe a client tells you they liked an earlier version of your work better. Whatever the reason, you can use version history to restore any OneDrive file to a previous point in time, up to 30 days after the file was modified. This works on Microsoft 365 files, PDFs, CAD files, photos, videos, and more.
Try it -> Open OneDrive for Web or File Explorer then right-click the file you want to restore. Select Version history. Click the ellipses (…) next the version of the file you want to revert to, and then select Restore. Learn more about restoring files in OneDrive.
5. Turn on auto-save for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files
When you store your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in OneDrive, AutoSave is enabled by default in Microsoft 365. This means you have up-to-the-second versions of your files saved in the cloud, so if your computer crashes or your battery dies, you won’t have to worry about losing all your hard work!
Try it-> Open or create a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file. In the upper left you’ll see an AutoSave toggle. Turn it to “on” and your file will be stored in OneDrive, autosaved and protected. Learn more about AutoSave in Microsoft 365.
6. Access your files anywhere with the OneDrive mobile app
Sometimes you need to access files when you don’t have your PC or Mac. With the OneDrive mobile app you can open, edit, and share files on the go. Bonus: The app also includes a scanning feature, so you can convert paper documents into PDFs. You can even scan multiple pages and combine them in a single PDF, plus you can sign docs after you scan them with just your finger.
Try it -> Download the OneDrive mobile app on your phone or tablet and sign in to your Microsoft account. Learn more about accessing files in the OneDrive mobile app.
Bonus: To scan documents tap the camera icon, then point your camera at a document, whiteboard, business cards or whatever you want to scan. Tap the white circle to scan. If you need to sign or mark up a document, simply select more then the pen icon, and you can mark up or sign the PDF with your finger. Learn more about scanning.
7. Favorite your important files
When you mark a file or folder as a favorite anywhere in Microsoft 365 it allows you to easily find and access the file in OneDrive or in Office.com.
Try it -> To favorite a file simply tap the star icon next to file in Office, OneDrive or anywhere else your files appear in Microsoft 365. Sometimes the star icon is in the file menu which can be accessed by tapping the ellipses (…) near the file name. To access your favorites go to OneDrive for Web or office.com and. Learn more.
8. Customize the color of your folders
Did you know that you can change the color of a folder in your OneDrive? Adding color to folders gives you at-a-glance signals to locate your content while adding a touch of personality to your OneDrive.
Try it-> Right-click on a folder within a SharePoint Document Library or OneDrive and choose Folder Color. Select one of the 16 different available colors.
9. Use file and folder shortcuts
Shortcuts in OneDrive let you keep shared files alongside your own content in OneDrive, making it easy to get back to shared files. You can add a shortcut to a file, folder or an entire document library.
Try it-> In OneDrive for Web right-click on any shared file or folder, and then select Add shortcut. Shortcuts are badged with an arrow icon (in OneDrive) and a link icon (in File Explorer) to help differentiate them from other folders. Learn more.
10. Adjust your Files On-Demand setting
Depending on your needs, you may want all your OneDrive files saved locally, all your files in the cloud only, or a mix of both. You can adjust those settings using Files On-Demand. Note: All your cloud-only files will still appear in your folders and in File Explorer, but you’ll need to be connected to the internet to open them.
Getting Started -> To use Files On-Demand, select the OneDrive cloud icon in your system tray, select the Settings icon, and then select Settings, then select advanced settings. From here you can select Free up disk space or Download all files. Learn more.
From staying organized to collaborating with others, these tips can help you optimize your file storage so you save time and stay productive. Want to learn more about what’s new in OneDrive? Download the OneDrive quick start guide or sign up for the OneDrive newsletter.
Paul Diamond is the product marketing manager for Microsoft OneDrive and Stream. He’s an award-winning short story writer, and he launched many Kindle features, such as Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Singles, over a decade ago when we worked at Amazon. His side-hustles include driving his kids to sports practice, walking his dogs, and vacuuming pet hair from the floor daily.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Documentation for pktmon is incomplete
When running `pktmon start help` I get a list of options which doesn’t include the –etw flag. And yet that flag is operational. I’m using Windows 10 build 19045.3930, pktmon version is 10.0.19041.3636.
Why would this flag be missing from `pktmon start help`?
When running `pktmon start help` I get a list of options which doesn’t include the –etw flag. And yet that flag is operational. I’m using Windows 10 build 19045.3930, pktmon version is 10.0.19041.3636. Why would this flag be missing from `pktmon start help`? Read More
What’s New in Microsoft EDU – Bett 2024 Edition
Welcome to our update for Microsoft Education and our special Bett 2024 edition! The Bett conference takes place in London during the week of January 24th – January 26th, and Microsoft Education has a bunch of exciting updates to share! For our full Bett 2024 schedule of sessions and live classroom events, please visit and download our Microsoft Bett 2024 schedule PDF.
January Bett Topics:
2. Teams EDU updates, including AI
3. Loop
5. Reflect
6. OneNote EDU
1. Reading Coach
Reading Coach in Microsoft Teams was already providing learners with personalized reading practice, and instant feedback about pronunciation and fluency, while also giving insights back to educators. Today, we are announcing Reading Coach as a standalone app that also provides personalized, engaging, consistent, and independent reading fluency practice. It is available for free as a Windows application and a web app to use in the classroom or at home with a Microsoft account.
Available now for use at home: Reading Coach is now available in public preview to use at home. To get started, sign-up at https://coach.microsoft.com
Reading Coach allows learners to create unique AI-generated stories by choosing characters and settings from a curated collection of options. The AI generated story is moderated for content quality, safety and age appropriateness following Microsoft’s Responsible AI guidelines. Learners read the story in the Immersive Reader accessible reading surface that has been shown to especially support struggling readers.
As learners read the story out aloud, speech-to-text artificial intelligence analyzes their reading fluency, detects words they find challenging, and records the readers’ accuracy, speed and time spent reading. Readers get to choose what happens in each story chapter, charting their own reading journey through the story. Words they found challenging in the previous chapter are automatically included in the next chapter. This makes the practice immediately adaptive. Readers also get fluency coaching on the words they found challenging after each story chapter. Effort-focused badges, unlocking new characters and settings for the next story keeps learner engaged in the flow of reading motivating even reluctant readers.
Available in February 2024 for use in school: IT Administrators can sign-up for public preview at https://aka.ms/readingcoachschoolsignup. Educators can sign-up for the Reading Coach educator community at https://aka.ms/readingcoach-educatorcommunity.
Learn more about how Reading Coach works on the support documentation pages.
2. Microsoft Teams for Education updates
Using generative AI to create rubrics in Assignments
Rubrics are a useful tool to communicate the expectations for the assignments to the students, and to provide an easy and effective way for the educator to grade and give specific feedback to the students. However, creating detailed rubrics can take a lot of time. With generative AI integrated into Assignments, you just need to enter what you want the rubric to assess, and Assignments will suggest criteria for you and complete the rubric for you. You have the control as the educator, and you can add more levels or criteria and let AI fill out a first draft for you.
When: Private Preview targeted for Jan
Using generative AI to create instructions in Assignments
We have been working on ways to save time for educators by improving our products with AI. We are doing this first for Classwork, Assignments and Reading Progress. These features are all designed to fit the needs of the educators, save time for educators, and always let the educator decide on the final content. For Assignments Instructions, we are examining the information and giving multiple suggestions for how to enrich the content, such as adding more details, adding learning objectives, emphasizing key concept and even making your assignments more interesting. The educator always has the choice and can generate different options, and after the content is created, can always make further edits and updates to the content.
When: Private Preview targeted for Jan
Using generative AI to create modules in Classwork
Classwork is a new app in Teams that helps you manage your curriculum and lets educators create and organize class resources such as Assignments, Files, Links, Channels, Class Notebook pages, and more. With AI enabled Classwork module generation, educators can get assistance creating a course outline and drafting modules and descriptions based on the subject, student grade level, and class learning objectives. The educator is always in the driver’s seat and can choose to edit, delete, or regenerate modules before adding them to Classwork.
When: Private Preview targeted for Feb
Admin Controls for generative AI features
The IT Administrators can control the educators’ access to these generative AI features. A new control will be available in the Institute settings tab under Education Section of the Teams admin center.
Check-in with students using Reflect as they complete their assignment
Educators want to know how students feel about the work they do. They may have different emotions, such as stress, happiness, or engagement when they deal with schoolwork. We have now introduced a feature that lets educators enable Reflect Check-in on an assignment. So, when students submit their work, they will be automatically asked how they felt about the assignments. The educator can see the students’ responses directly inside the Assignments Grading experience, to track the changes over time for a student and how the whole class felt about the assignment in the together view.
When: Rolling out in January
Reuse of Modules
Available now, you can now reuse your modules between Class Teams. Whether you are looking to teach the same class again, are teaching multiple instances of a class, or want to hand off curriculum to another educator, Classwork will allow you to reuse content including Assignments, Files, and Links easily. Simply make sure you are the owner of the Class Team the content is coming from, and then click “Reuse from existing” in the new Team.
Note: Support for Class Notebook and Channel resources is coming soon. Learn more at https://aka.ms/ClassworkReuseSupport.
When: Available now
3. Loop App availability for Education customers
Microsoft Loop is a flexible, AI-powered collaboration app that can help you think, plan, and create together! We’re excited to share that Loop will be included in Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 plans, including Student Use Benefit users in early March. Office 365 A1 customers can create Loop workspaces and pages until June 30th, 2024. After this date, they will still have access to these existing workspaces and pages, however will need M365 A3/A5 license to create new ones.
Loop is made up of three key parts:
Loop components: Portable pieces of content (like tables, checklists, or paragraphs) that sync across all the places they are shared. For example, you can start a list in a Loop component to gather student project ideas for the next unit. Share the component in an Outlook email, Teams chat or channel, Whiteboard, and Word for the web document. The list stays up to date wherever it has been shared! Watch this video to see components in action.
Loop pages: Flexible canvases in the Loop app where you can bring together people and all your components, links, tasks, and data. Start a planning page for your next field trip where you can track schedules and to-dos. Easily share the page across apps with your fellow teachers to capture their ideas too. Check out this video on Loop pages and workspaces.
Loop workspaces: Shared spaces that allow teachers and students to track everything important to a class project in one place. Students can work together on a class project, creating pages for each phase. They can include document links, record video of themselves, and co-author in real-time.
With Copilot in Loop you have a new classroom assistant that works side by side with you. It can save you time and energy by doing things like finding relevant documents for your Loop workspace, helping you generate and refine ideas, and keeping you focused and on track with automatically generated summaries of your class projects.
Watch this video to learn more about Microsoft Loop and try Loop today!
4. Microsoft Copilot expanded availability in Education
We’re thrilled to announce several expansions for education audiences. Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection will be available to all faculty and higher education students ages 18 and above. Microsoft Copilot is also now powered by GPT-4 Turbo and is available on both iOS and Android devices. And, Copilot for Microsoft 365 eligibility will now include Microsoft and Office 365 A3 or A5 education faculty and staff with no seat minimum requirement.
Our efforts are guided by our AI principles and Responsible AI Standard and build on decades of research on grounding and privacy-preserving machine learning. Additionally, our Customer Copyright Commitment means education customers can be confident using our services and the output they generate without worrying about copyright claims. We look forward to exploring the potential for these offers in education, iterating and improving, and supporting all education organizations in the era of AI.
5. Reflect updates
Integrate Reflect with your LMS
We are happy to share that you can now seamlessly integrate Reflect with your Learning Management System (LMS) to create impactful check-ins, gain wellbeing insights, and build a happier, healthier learning community. Reflect LMS integrations are free and designed in compliance with the latest Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standards, ensuring robust security and simple installation within your district or institutional environment of Canvas, Schoology, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, and Blackboard Learn.
Learn more and get step-by-step instructions for setting up this integration with your LMS.
When: available now.
Unlock powerful wellbeing insights
We are thrilled to introduce a new dashboard for tracking Reflect data over time. This capability allows you to monitor when learners feel pleasant and motivated, as well as identify times and areas where attention may be needed. The check-in creator can follow trends over time, filter for specific dates and questions, and explore data at both the class and course levels, as well as the individual student level. This enables targeted personal support based on their wellbeing needs.
When: available now.
6. OneNote
Built-in Class Notebook Toolbar for OneNote Desktop 365
To support educators in their transition from the OneNote Windows 10 app to the M365 Desktop version of OneNote, starting in February, the Class Notebook toolbar can be enabled through the in-app settings experience so educators will no longer need to go through the process of downloading and installing the Class Notebook add-in.
This improvement will bring all of the features that educators have come to love in the Class Notebook toolbar experience in the Windows 10 app over to the M365 Desktop version.
When: These changes will reach the monthly update channel during the month of March 2024 and will reach the semi annual update channel in July.
We are thrilled to announce that OneNote will join the M365 ecosystem of apps to host Loop components! Just as you’ve seen with Teams, Outlook, and Word, we will be bringing the ability to add Loop components into your OneNote notebook.
In addition, you’ll be able to create and insert Loop components directly from the Insert menu in OneNote!
When: Rolling out to Microsoft 365 Insiders in the coming weeks
And finally, just to recap all the news we have for you this month, here’s a quick review of all the features that are generally available or are rolling out now:
Reading Coach stand-alone app
Teams for Education updates
• Rubric generation AI – private preview
• Assignment Instructions generation AI – private preview
• Classwork module generation AI – private preview
• Teams Admin controls for generative AI features
• Classwork Reuse globally available
• Reflect in Assignments globally available
Loop app availability announcement for EDU (March)
Microsoft Copilot
• Copilot with Data Protection available for faculty and students 18+
• Copilot for iOS and Android availability
• Copilot for Windows 11 availability
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 availability for Faculty
Reflect updates
• LMS updates
• Well-being Insights
OneNote updates
• Class Notebook toolbar built-in to OneNote Desktop 365
• Loop component creation and embed
Have any feedback to share with us? As always, we’d love to hear it!
Mike Tholfsen
Group Product Manager
Microsoft Education
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
New on Microsoft AppSource: January 1-11, 2024
We continue to expand the Microsoft AppSource ecosystem. For this volume, 220 new offers successfully met the onboarding criteria and went live. See details of the new offers below:
Get it now in our marketplace
Analytics 365 – Teams Call Analytics: This solution from Tollring provides insights into customer communications on Microsoft Teams Phone, helping organizations manage call center and customer-facing teams. Web-based delivery offers an intuitive dashboard with multiple views, comprehensive metrics, and the ability to create wallboards. Customers can set targets and KPIs for contextual insight, visualize end-to-end call journeys, and sync with Microsoft 365.
Battle Road Atom Engine: This offer from Carahsoft is a cloud game engine that can simulate scenarios as large as a planet or as small as a single vehicle. It allows teams to collaborate, plan, and operate their scenarios in real time via a shared persistent world user experience. The platform runs completely in the cloud, eliminating the need for local software or expensive hardware.
Beat: Our artificial intelligence (AI) tutors in Microsoft Teams and provides personalized training in AI fundamentals, guiding students based on their preferences. We offer flexible course settings and can explore advanced topics beyond the basic curriculum. TeraTeams’ goal is to spark potential and help clients master AI-related knowledge with firm decision-making and leadership.
BeesWall License: BeesWall offers a digital knowledge library that makes it simple to access and organize your files and information, providing seamless data governance for efficient organization and deep focus. It saves time for data scientists and custodians by cleaning and organizing information on-premises or on the cloud, especially for digital marketing.
Data Lake Connector: Intelligent Plant’s Industrial App Store Data Lake Connector transfers data from your real-time historian to Microsoft Azure Event Hub, making it easily accessible for storage in your data lake. Once within the Event Hub, data becomes accessible for effortless storage within your designated data lake. The streamlined process ensures efficient management and utilization of valuable data resources.
Engage: From Udyamo, Engage is an app that streamlines employee recognition and communication within an organization. It allows for easy shout-outs, increased transparency, and improved company culture. The app provides managers with data on employee recognition and progress tracking.
Extra360: This platform from Extra Loyalty Solutions enhances customer engagement and loyalty through promotions, integrated digital wallet solutions, data-driven decisions, omni-channel engagement, gamification techniques, and scalability. It offers bespoke solutions to cater to unique business needs and has a proven track record of effectiveness in the marketplace. The platform is versatile and adaptable, catering to a diverse range of sectors.
Imperium Sales CPQ: This offer from Imperium Dynamics is a quote management solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales. It offers easy product configuration, swift quoting, and efficient order creation. The intuitive customer-facing portal empowers businesses to create a comprehensive product catalog that allows customers to conveniently request quotes. It reduces errors, empowers upselling and co-selling, and elevates customer experience.
Label Printer: This app from System Solutions allows for easy label creation and customization directly from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Labels can include text, numbers, and barcodes for item pricing and tracking. Labels can be printed based on price changes, sales orders, purchase orders, and unit of measure. Available in English for Canada and the United States.
LawToolBox AI: This offer from LawToolBox.com enhances the core LawToolBox for Microsoft 365 with advanced deadline and appointment extraction and rules-based calendaring in Microsoft Teams and Outlook. It extracts deadlines from emails and attachments, maps deadlines from links to civil rules and other documents, and summarizes emails and attachments.
MarketServe: MarketServe simplifies the process of publishing applications on Azure Marketplace. This Cloudserve Systems product offers an intuitive interface, efficient submission process, optimization assistance, comprehensive guidance, faster time-to-market, and increased visibility. It’s a strategic partner for success on Azure Marketplace.
OLS360 Platform (Essential and Advanced): This no-code platform from One Logic Solutions offers cost-effective solutions for growth and innovation. It provides data mart integration, multi-level security, customized SLAs, and task scheduling. The platform has essential and advanced plans, with dynamic menus and customized intranet pages. OLS360 combines advanced technology with practical applicability for efficient and productive management.
Processifier Process Mining: This process mining visual from Processifier simplifies achieving actionable insights for confident decision-making in Microsoft Power BI without complex data integration projects. Try the trial version and upgrade to the full version. Aso, check out the feature-rich Power BI application for graph visualization, conformance checking, variant analysis, and advanced process discovery.
Repairs and Refurbishment: ReverseLogix simplifies the management of returns, repairs, and parts replacement. It helps recover more value from every unit, reduces environmental impact, and identifies consistent trends or problematic product issues faster. The centralized, cloud-based platform enables seamless coordination of in-warranty and out-of-warranty repairs, and provides total visibility at every step in the process.
Returns Initiation: ReverseLogix’s Returns Initiation module streamlines the returns process with a branded portal, RMA initiation, image and document capture, shipping labels, and notifications. The platform also handles repairs, refurbishments, and tax calculations, making it a comprehensive solution for managing returns.
Returns Processing: ReverseLogix offers an end-to-end reverse logistics management platform to optimize returns processing, improve efficiency, and standardize decision-making. The platform centralizes operations, provides real-time data, and enables effective communication with customers. Enhanced returns processing ensures products are restocked, repaired, and recommerced efficiently.
Customer Engagement for Dynamics 365: Solgari’s Microsoft AI customer engagement solution connects customers to the right people quickly, allowing communication through any preferred channel. The app offers advanced self-service options and skills-based routing, with real-time conversation summary and sentiment analysis. Supervisors can monitor and mentor agents mid-call, while business leaders are protected by industry-specific regulations.
Think Open AI Offer: This solution from Think AI uses large language models to automate document processing and data extraction with up to 100% accuracy without requiring machine learning training. It can be customized for various industries and departments, and can extract structured and intelligent information from documents for further data analytics. The solution also includes a Chrome or Microsoft Edge extension for real-time chat and report generation.
Vimheslo: From European Code Factory, Vimheslo is a password management app that allows you to store and share passwords with team members. It generates strong passwords that comply with the Cyber Security Act. The free version allows up to five passwords, while the unlimited version requires contacting Vimheslo.
Go further with workshops, proofs of concept, and implementations
Accessibility: 1- to 2-Day Workshop: Nexer Group offers practical and strategic consultancy to guide organizations on using Microsoft 365 to build inclusive workplaces, products, and services. It addresses challenges, embeds the European Accessibility Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines expertise, and ties into the Microsoft Horizon strategy for inclusive digital infrastructure, Accessibility as a Service, and improved productivity and efficiency.
Consultancy for Microsoft 365: Imperium Dynamics offers comprehensive consulting services for Microsoft 365, including seamless transition, integration with existing systems, efficient implementation, ongoing support, and training. Its team develops customized solutions and provides comprehensive training sessions to empower users. ID also offers dedicated support to optimize the benefits of Microsoft 365 as businesses evolve and grow.
Copilot Countdown – AI Adoption Journey: Advania provides support for organizations to leverage the Microsoft Copilot suite and AI tools. The service is driven in phases to ensure good governance in adapting AI tools, including identifying opportunities, understanding risks, piloting and deploying, and managing change. The service offers personalized plans, security recommendations, and training seminars.
Copilot Countdown – AI Opportunity Workshop: This Advania service helps organizations create personalized plans for using AI solutions, including Copilot for Microsoft 365. The plan includes deployment recommendations and an estimated timeline. The workshop covers the current state of AI, large language models, and Copilot’s capabilities and benefits. Gain insight into AI’s potential for improving employee experience and productivity.
Copilot Countdown – AI Pilot and Deploy Consulting: This Advania service helps organizations prepare for the integration of Copilot for Microsoft 365 by ensuring a secure IT environment, successful deployment, and understanding of benefits and challenges. It accelerates AI journeys, enhances employee experience and productivity, ensures security and compliance, and provides expert guidance.
Copilot Countdown – AI Rollout and Scale Consulting: This Advania service helps organizations adopt Copilot through training seminars, support workshops, and a tailored playbook. It accelerates adoption of Copilot for Microsoft 365 and other AI solutions, empowers employees to use it effectively and responsibly, and measures outcomes and benefits. It also provides guidelines for discovering new use cases.
Copilot Countdown – AI Security Workshop: This Advania service helps organizations prepare for the deployment of Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Azure OpenAI solutions. It provides recommendations for immediate security and policy actions, risk analysis, and understanding of Copilot standards. The workshop covers technical requirements, risks and challenges of AI solutions, risk analysis, and environment assessment.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 Extensibility FastStart: 4-Week Implementation: Copilot for Microsoft 365 can streamline processes and provide fast access to data held in other platforms, transforming the employee experience. Advania’s expertise in developing Copilot plugins and integrations can unlock its potential as a unifying layer across company systems, allowing employees to complete tasks without leaving the Copilot interface.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 Workshop: This Copilot for Microsoft 365 Workshop from Netrix Global is a three-phase engagement that helps customers assess needs, understand Copilot’s capabilities, identify persona-based scenarios, and define an actionable roadmap. The workshop includes a self-guided assessment, presentations and demos, and a plan development phase based on real personas in the organization.
Copilot Launchpad Training Package: Advania offers an AI kickstart training package to help businesses improve employee experience and productivity with AI and automation solutions. The package includes familiarizing with Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Azure OpenAI, examining readiness, managing security, and successfully deploying Copilot products.
Data Adoption Roadmap: The EpicData Data Adoption Roadmap is a program that assesses an organization’s data adoption level and provides tailored training on skills such data ingestion and modeling. It emphasizes building a data community within the organization and promotes a culture of continuous learning. The program’s transparent pricing makes it accessible to all.
Data#3 Copilot for Microsoft 365: Extension: Data#3 offers extension services for Copilot for Microsoft 365, including developing a business case, performing a readiness assessment, change management, and training. It also provides advice on extending Copilot, integrating third-party solutions, and implementing Microsoft 365 with third-party solutions.
Data#3 Copilot for Microsoft 365: Implementation: Data#3 offers implementation services for Copilot for Microsoft 365, including developing a business case, performing a readiness assessment, and providing training services. It works with organizations to understand their technical landscape and ensure the deployment is aligned with the planned rollout.
Data#3 Copilot for Microsoft 365: Organizational Change Management: Data#3 helps organizations implement Copilot for Microsoft 365. Its services include developing a business case, performing a readiness assessment, training staff, and extending Copilot. The structured approach can improve adoption, reduce the risk of failure, and increase employee engagement. Data#3 also helps organizations prepare, manage, and sustain the adoption of Copilot.
Dynamics 365 Customer Service Consulting: Imperium Dynamics offers customized Microsoft 365 Customer Service consulting solutions to meet specific business requirements. It conducts a thorough evaluation and provides tailored training and ongoing support to ensure efficient implementation. ID’s experts help identify customer service needs and choose the right features for seamless integration.
Dynamics 365 Sales Elevate: Imperium Dynamics offers tools and expertise to transform sales processes, enhance productivity, and drive growth. It provides customized packages with comprehensive features, training, and support to maximize the value of Microsoft 365 Sales. The package is recommended for enterprise-level businesses seeking unparalleled sales performance.
Dynamics 365 Sales Ignite: Imperium Dynamics offers tools and expertise to transform sales processes, enhance productivity, and drive growth. It provides customized packages designed to meet the unique needs of each organization, with comprehensive training and support. It also offers improved forecasting, 360-degree customer view, and scalability.
Dynamics_365_Sales_Transform: Imperium Dynamics offers customized solutions for businesses seeking to enhance sales processes and drive growth. With Dynamics Sales Hub, businesses can capture leads from various sources, gain access to advanced sales tools, and improve forecasting. The solution is scalable and provides real-time data and analytics for accurate sales forecasts. Recommended for growing businesses seeking an integrated sales solution.
Evo-Soft Consultancy Offer: BCN Group’s ERP assessment and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation consultancy provides an overview of how your business operates with your existing business applications, identifying gaps, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies in processes. From this information, BCN will recommend how it can help you transition to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Globalization LATAM Chile Implementation: This AW offer for Chile includes tax determination, electronic invoicing, tax reporting, bank payments, and commercial documents. AW’s team of more than 100 professionals provides ongoing support and additional solutions for a complete and personalized experience.
Globalization LATAM Costa Rica Implementation: This AW offer for Costa Rica includes tax determination, electronic invoicing, tax reporting, bank payments, and commercial documents. AW’s team of more than 100 professionals provides ongoing support and additional solutions for a personalized experience.
Globalization LATAM Nicaragua Implementation: This AW offer for Nicaragua includes tax determination, electronic invoicing, tax reporting, bank payments, and commercial documents. AW’s team of more than 100 professionals provides ongoing support and additional solutions for a personalized experience.
Globalization LATAM Panama Implementation: This AW offer for Panama includes tax determination, electronic invoicing, tax reporting, bank payments, and commercial documents. The AW team of more than 100 professionals provides ongoing support and additional solutions for a personalized experience.
Hyperautomation Consulting: Hiberus offers tailored services for organizational transformation, leveraging Microsoft technologies to connect people and processes. Solutions include automated contract and procurement workflows, enhanced security and scalability, real-time business insights, and ongoing support and maintenance. Hiberus specializes in optimizing global digital transformation journeys for enterprise and government organizations.
Improve Organizational Efficiencies: 4-Week Assessment and Proof of Concept: CongruentX is a technology consulting firm that helps businesses increase efficiency, decrease costs, and boost revenue by analyzing processes and aligning technology with people and processes. CongruentX uses design thinking to simplify technology for users and has a track record of success with satisfied clients.
MC4N Gift Aid Add-on: 30-Day Implementation: Kerv Digital’s accelerator for fundraising and engagement automates and streamlines claims submission to HMRC. It requires Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit (MC4N) with Fundraising and Engagement, and offers customizable processes, real-time tracking, and compliance with HMRC guidelines. The solution reduces manual efforts and enhances accuracy in claims processing.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption: 4-Week Deployment: Talan’s Copilot AI tool revolutionizes business processes. Talan offers a three-step approach to help teams understand and adopt the tool, including acculturation to generative AI, training on how to speak to Copilot, and deep dives to identify use cases for specific job functions.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Consulting and Training Service: Este Bilisim explains the highlights and use cases of Microsoft 365 Copilot, showcasing its potential through live demos. This service features hands-on scenarios for Microsoft PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, and Loop.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Workshop: Microsoft Copilot, integrated into Microsoft 365, streamlines tasks and enhances collaboration with AI. Quisitive’s Microsoft 365 Copilot Workshop offers a three-phase engagement to assess needs, prioritize scenarios, and define an actionable roadmap. Benefits include understanding Copilot, built-in AI-powered tools, and access to AI and productivity experts.
Microsoft 365 Evergreen Lifecycle: This Atos International offer helps manage feature changes, reducing risk of confusion and loss of productivity. It covers Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, Yammer, Viva Suite, Windows 11, Apps for Enterprise, Azure Active Directory, Defender, and more. Presentations by an expert and license review with feedback are included.
Microsoft 365 Mergers and Acquisitions: 4-Week Implementation: This Spyglass implementation migrates data to its desired destination across Microsoft 365, Azure, and third-party solutions. Security and compliance are ensured for data and users affected by migration activities. The implementation includes data discovery, security assessment, migration, testing, and training. Price is based on specific needs of the customer.
Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit Direct Debit Add-on: 30-Day Implementation: This implementation from Kerv Digital automates and streamlines regular donation collection via direct debit for non-profit organizations. It includes features such as effortless setup, campaign integration, and comprehensive BACS report processing. The package enhances fundraising efficiency and reliability while ensuring compliance and accuracy.
Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit Fundraising Foundation: 3-Month Implementation: Kerv Digital’s packaged service helps charities migrate to Microsoft’s fundraising app. It offers pre-built templates to migrate data and on-demand training to ensure a seamless transition. The service includes comprehensive insight into fundraising architecture, streamlined management of stakeholder data, and efficient handling of donation inflows.
Microsoft Copilot for Edge and Windows (Bing Chat Enterprise) Adoption: 4-Week Implementation: Long View Systems’ Microsoft Copilot for Edge and Windows adoption offer includes discovery workshops to develop personas and use cases, a governance workshop to review guidelines, an adoption plan with communication and training, and technical coordination for enabling Copilot.
Microsoft Teams Room Lifecycle Planning: Microsoft Teams offers integrated video, voice, and data for businesses. AVI-SPL’s Lifecycle Planning service prepares organizations for a scalable, secure, and easy-to-use collaboration environment. The service includes a consultant-led workshop, documented findings, and recommendations for long-term success.
Migrate Email to Microsoft 365: 3- to 8-Week Implementation: This implementation plan from Provisions Group helps migrate on-premises Microsoft Exchange Servers to Microsoft 365. It includes assessing the current environment, designing a migration plan, setting up and running test migration, and testing and cutover. The plan provides recommendations for tools, approach, timeline, and team approach.
Email Migration via IMAP: Migrating IMAP files to Microsoft 365 or Office 365 can offer improved access, security, collaboration, and productivity. The migration project from Lattine Group includes email history migration up to 35MB, but not contacts or calendars. The scope covers assessment, implementation, and validation, with actions required from both the client and Lattine.
Office 365 Proof of Concept/Pilot: 5-Day Consulting Service: IT Partner offers a pilot project to help with the successful rollout of Microsoft 365, providing resources, tools, and experts to drive adoption and customize services. The project includes tenant creation, user account setup, and reviewing Microsoft 365 ROI. Client responsibilities include providing necessary data and access to servers.
Power Apps Scoping: 1-Week Workshop: Microsoft Power Apps can automate business processes, track implementations, and roll out enterprise applications. Fractal Analytics offers expert consulting in a workshop format to help teams develop apps. The workshop includes stakeholder calls, interviews, application design, scoping, and project planning. Deliverables include a project plan and statement of work for application build-out.
Power BI Consultancy: Imperium Dynamics offers specialized consulting services to help businesses unlock the full potential of Microsoft Power BI. Its experts streamline implementation, facilitate seamless integration with existing systems, assist in data management and integration, and provide ongoing support and training. ID works with clients to develop customized solutions and offer comprehensive training sessions to empower users.
Proof of Concept Solution – Microsoft 365 Copilot: KPCS CZ provides a personalized exploration of Copilot’s capabilities within a business context. The service aims to enhance productivity, creativity, and security while providing valuable insights and expert guidance. Customers can witness firsthand how Copilot streamlines processes and receive a strategic roadmap for full-scale implementation.
SharePoint Online – Migration with Metadata: 3-Week Consulting Service: Managed Metadata in Microsoft SharePoint allows for efficient organization and migration of files and folders, preserving metadata when transitioning from other platforms. IT Partner ensures compatibility, effective structuring, and secure migration, with additional services available. A comprehensive project closeout report is provided.
SharePoint Online and Office 365 Apps Customization: 3-Day Consulting Service: IT Partner helps businesses optimize and customize their Microsoft 365 environment. It provides expert assistance in deployment, configuration, and customization, empowering clients to explore and utilize advanced features. IT Partner services extend beyond the basics, allowing clients to customize the look and feel of Microsoft Cloud Services.
Strategic Power BI Dashboards for Driving Your Business: Data Mind offers dynamic, interactive, and real-time data visualizations that are easy to understand and act upon. Its expert team develops dashboards that reflect critical business metrics, integrating data from various sources into a consolidated, interactive visual experience. The dashboards provide clarity, drive decision-making, and move your business toward its aims.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 Adoption Pack: TDG offers a three-step program for digital transformation: diagnosis, immersion experience, proof of concept. The program includes a comprehensive analysis of the IT infrastructure, training on Microsoft 365 services, and testing of data security measures. The proof-of-concept phase evaluates the collaboration solution and establishes a zero-trust Copilot environment.
Training – Power BI DAX Bootcamp: This EpicData course delves into the technical aspects of DAX in Microsoft Power BI, teaching various use cases and best practices for writing performant formulas for common and advanced business scenarios. It aims to provide a deeper understanding of DAX.
Training – Power BI Fundamentals: This EpicData course for Microsoft Power BI covers everything from tool introduction to hands-on data visualization and storytelling techniques. It also includes guidance on transforming and connecting data to various sources, as well as DAX and M code. The course combines theory, demonstrations, and exercises to prepare you for your data journey.
Windows 365: 10-Day Pilot Service: This Ultima Business Solutions service is a comprehensive engagement that helps evaluate the potential of Microsoft Windows 365. It covers planning, deployment, and training stages, and provides expert guidance and best practices. The service offers insights into hybrid work end-user computing goals and objectives and delivers a detailed report with findings and next steps.
Contact our partners
6clicks SaaS-Based GRC Platform
Acceler8: Planning Workshop for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Cloud Implementations
Accessibility and Inclusion Awareness Session
AI Readiness and Analytics Health Check – Gold
AI Readiness and Analytics Health Check – Platinum
AI Readiness and Analytics Health Check – Silver
Allsop Platform – Order Automation
Amazon to Dynamics 365 Business Central with Burq.io
Amazon to Dynamics 365 Finance with Burq.io
Aptean Pricing Matrix for Food and Beverage
Barcode Scanning Add-On for D365
BI Reporting – AOVPN Reporting
Bonuses and Accruals Extension PL
Bridgit Properia Preventative Maintenance
Copilot for Microsoft 365 Security and Readiness Assessment
Copilot for Microsoft 365 Technical Readiness: 2-Week Assessment
CPQ/Contract Management for Microsoft Dynamics 365
Czech Language for LS Central (Czechia)
Data Quality App for Dynamics 365 and Power Apps for Nonprofit Organizations
Data#3 Copilot for Microsoft 365 – Business Case
Database Query with Generative AI
Dynaway EAM Analytics for Business Central
Ecommerce Suite – Solution with PIM, B2B, B2C, CMS, DAM, and Template Builder
ESG Materiality Assessment for Microsoft Sustainability Manager: 6-Week Assessment
Fintech Enablement Platform Release V1.0
Gift Registry for Dynamics 365
Gurusoft Integration with Plugins
Implementation for Microsoft Synapse – Unified Data Estate
Information Governance Pre-Study
insighto for Digital Stakeholder Insights
Intune Secure Score: 1-Week Assessment
LSM Macedonian Language for Dynamics 365 Business Central
Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness Assessment
Microsoft 365 Copilot: 1-Day Assessment
Microsoft ERP AIM Assessment for Dynamics On-Premises Customers
Microsoft Licensing Cost Optimization: 3-Day Assessment
Order Staging Pebblestone Feature
OutOnSite – Field Service Management Software
Power BI User Experience (UX) Review: 5-Day Assessment
Quality Requirements and Specifications
Readiness Assessment for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Red Maple Advanced Credit Cards for Business Central
Sales Commission Based on Cash Receipt
Security Copilot Readiness Assessment
SMART Payroll and SMART HCM and LMS Connector
Synoptek Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CRM): 3-Week Assessment
TASK: End-to-End Transaction Management Platform
tegossuite – NA for Electronic Asset Disposition
VisualSP In-App Training for Dynamics 365 Business Central
This content was generated by Microsoft Azure OpenAI and then revised by human editors.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Agentless malware scanning for servers with Defender for Cloud
In the past year, we have been progressively enhancing our CNAPP solution with additional agentless security capabilities. It started with the capability to review installed software and identify vulnerabilities. We then expanded the platform to secret scanning to mitigate the risk of lateral movement.
Today, we’re excited to announce our latest addition: agentless malware scanning for servers. This marks an important step in our trajectory towards hybrid VM security, where we combine agent-based and agentless protection to ensure comprehensive coverage across Azure, AWS, and GCP environments. Agentless malware scanning seamlessly incorporates into our agentless scanning platform, now also leveraging Microsoft Defender Antivirus (MDAV), Microsoft’s powerful anti-malware engine to detect threats and malicious files, generating security alerts for further investigation.
Why agentless malware scanning?
While traditional Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) agents offer unparalleled depth in threat prevention, detection, and response, achieving (and maintaining) complete coverage can be challenging, and sophisticated attackers can leverage temporary and persistent blind spots to launch a successful attack. Complementing your fundamental agent-based coverage, agentless malware scanning provides a second effective layer of threat detection, particularly in situations like:
VMs unprotected by EDR – In rapidly changing cloud environments, maintaining agent coverage across all VMs is a continuous effort, and it’s not uncommon for servers to be unprotected due to operational challenges or oversight. Agentless malware scanning ensures that these servers don’t remain complete blind spots; it is capable of detecting threats lurking on VMs where an EDR agent is absent and provides essential leads for investigations.
EDR posture and configuration issues – VMs with EDR might still be partially vulnerable due to issues like outdated configurations or mismanaged exclusions. Misuse or overuse of file and path exclusions, often aimed at optimizing performance, can inadvertently open security loopholes. This is particularly risky as certain threat actors exploit these blind spots. Agentless malware scanning, as an out-of-band scan of the VM, provides full coverage of the server filesystem and consistently utilizes Microsoft’s latest models, signatures, and feeds.
Ultimately, it provides an additional safety net against those risks, without added complexity or performance impact on your servers.
How does it work?
This latest addition extends Defender for Cloud’s agentless scanning for VMs capability, already assessing your Azure, AWS and GCP VMs for security issues without relying on running agents or network connectivity. We have also recently published a technical deep dive on the technology.
Until today, agentless scanning continuously conducted periodic inspections of your VM filesystems to surface posture issues, and now extending to threat detection as well, it harnesses the power of MDAV engine to detect malicious files on VMs. Onboarded VMs undergo a daily inspection, with MDAV scans combining signature-based with heuristic methods to assess files. Each scan utilizes our latest signatures and threat intelligence feeds to detect threats early on.
When malicious files are detected, Defender for Cloud generates detailed alerts with context, enabling you to conduct further investigations into the threat.
Enablement
Agentless malware scanning is included with Defender for Servers P2 and becomes an integral part for VMs already enabled for agentless scanning. If you are using both – no action is needed, the new capability is already covering your VMs.
As a reminder, agentless scanning for VMs is automatically enabled with new onboardings to Defender for Servers P2. However, if you wish to validate or enable it, you can take these steps. To monitor your coverage, you can also use the built-in coverage workbook which provides insights about the plan enabled on a subscription and whether agentless scanning is active.
Alert investigation
As soon as malware has been detected on a machine, a corresponding security alert will be created.
Alerts will be flagged as “alertname (agentless)” to indicate that agentless malware scanning created the individual security alert. Additionally, there might be several alerts with the same name on a machine. This indicates the same family of malware was detected in various files or file paths.
When selecting an alert, Defender for Cloud will display an alert summary and allow you to view full details, including information about the affected resource, detected malware, file paths, and more.
Lastly, at Microsoft Ignite 2023, we announced the new Defender for Cloud alerts integration with Microsoft Defender XDR. The new integration already includes alerts created by agentless malware scanning.
To learn how to create a test alert for agentless malware scanning in your environment, please read this documentation.
Summary
By combining agentless and agent-based solutions, Defender for Cloud enhances your threat detection coverage. While agent-based anti-malware provides unmatched detection and prevention capacities and real-time protection, agentless malware scanning serves as a valuable complement, addressing potential blind spots without imposing performance impact or leaving a footprint on the machine.
With this latest addition, we enhance Defender for Cloud’s native server protection capabilities within Defender for Servers Plan 2, covering virtual machines across Azure, AWS, and GCP cloud environments.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Did any one using MDE that setup control devices control through GPO successful?
Hi All,
I’ll been working with support for 2 months now but still didn’t successful whitelisting specific USB devices by MDE Devices Control.
I’ll seen this problem on reddit last week too.
Following the official instructions doesn’t work at all and after a few investigation we “learn” need to config the correct “AssessMask” to whitelisting. However, All the network printer blocked by Devices Control.
Anyone have the same issue?
Hi All, I’ll been working with support for 2 months now but still didn’t successful whitelisting specific USB devices by MDE Devices Control. I’ll seen this problem on reddit last week too.Reddit – Dive into anything Following the official instructions doesn’t work at all and after a few investigation we “learn” need to config the correct “AssessMask” to whitelisting. However, All the network printer blocked by Devices Control. Anyone have the same issue? Read More
Save up to 50% on your compute costs: SQL MI Business Critical improved its storage-to-vCore ratio
Many database workloads require a significant data volume, but do not need a large number of vCores. For such workloads, migration to Azure SQL Managed Instance was often prohibitively expensive since the storage-to-vCore ratio had been a blocker. Customers sometimes had to buy more vCores than their workloads required to be able to unlock the required amount of storage. Microsoft is constantly improving the SQL MI service and allowing you to migrate more of your mission-critical workloads to SQL MI. We are excited to tell you that in SQL MI Business Critical you are now getting up to twice as much storage for the same number of vCores!
What is new?
Business Critical
Before
Now (New in blue)
Max instance storage size (reserved)
Premium-series:
– 1 TB for 4, 8 vCores
– 2 TB for 16, 24 vCores
– 4 TB for 32 vCores
– 5.5 TB for 40, 64, 80 vCores
Memory optimized premium-series:
– 1 TB for 4, 8 vCores
– 2 TB for 16, 24 vCores
– 4 TB for 32 vCores
– 5.5 TB for 40 vCores
– 16 TB for 64 vCores
Premium-series:
– 1 TB for 4, 6 vCores
– 2 TB for 8, 10, 12 vCores
– 4 TB for 16, 20 vCores
– 5.5 TB for 24, 32, 40, (64, 80, 96, 128 vCores)
– 16 TB for 64, 80, 96 and 128 vCores (in certain regions, see blog)
Memory optimized premium-series:
– 1 TB for 4, 6 vCores
– 2 TB for 8, 10, 12 vCores
– 4 TB for 16, 20 vCores
– 5.5 TB for 24 vCores
– 8 TB for 32, 40 vCores
– 12 TB for 48 and 56 vCores
– 16 TB for 64, 80, 96 and 128 vCores
Why is improved Storage-to-vCore Ratio important?
Improved storage-to-vCore ratio means that you have access to up to three times the storage per vCore as before (details in the table above). This brings the following benefits:
Improved Scalability: With more storage at your disposal, your instance can effortlessly scale to meet growing data demands. Whether it is a sudden influx of customer data or expanding analytics, your instance will not skip a beat.
Cost-Effective Growth: While your storage capacity is doubling, your vCore count does not have to increase at the same rate. In SQL MI, you got used to vCore-based purchasing model (What is Azure SQL Managed Instance? – Azure SQL Managed Instance | Microsoft Learn) and this improvement can lead to significant cost savings as you are using fewer vCores. Additionally, with a smaller number of vCores, you need a smaller number of SQL Licenses. It is also cost saving mechanism as you can pay less or reuse licenses that you now have free for some other workload.
Seamless Data Management: If you are dealing with large datasets or heavy transactional workloads, you now have more room to breathe. Complex queries and extensive data sets will feel right at home in your upgraded database environment.
This enhancement is not just about numbers; it is about empowering your business to do more. Whether you are running a global e-commerce platform, handling massive customer databases, or driving real-time analytics, this storage upgrade is designed to support your ambitious data-driven projects.
How to save up to 50% on your database compute costs
STEP 1: Check on your CPU and storage usage.
You can find this on Azure Portal, here is an example:
STEP 2: Explore if the new storage-to-vCore limits allow you to downsize your instance.
In our example, we ran our 32 vCore instance since we needed more than 2 TB of storage, but our CPU usage was less than 50% all the time (32% maximum). With new storage-to-vCore limits, we can downsize our instance to 16 vCores and thereby save 50% on our database compute costs.
STEP 3: Scale your managed instance.
You can scale your 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
If you are already using Azure SQL Managed Instance Business Critical, now is the time to explore how this storage boost can improve your database performance and lower your costs. And if you’re in the market for a high-performance, scalable, and reliable database solution, look no further, now is a great time to get started and take Azure SQL Managed Instance for a spin. Thank you for reading and enjoy better storage-to-vCore limits of SQL Managed Instance Business Critical service tier.
Next steps:
Get started with SQL Managed Instance with our Quick Start reference guide.
Learn more about the latest innovation in Azure SQL Managed Instance
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AI Chat App Hack: A Guide for Technical Students
Dive into the AI Chat App Hack: A Guide for Technical Students
Hello, tech enthusiasts! If you’re interested in AI and chat apps, there’s an exciting opportunity you won’t want to miss: the AI Chat App Hack .
This blog post will guide you through what it is, why you should participate, and how to get started.
What is the AI Chat App Hack?
The AI Chat App Hack is a virtual hackathon hosted by Microsoft. It’s designed to help developers learn how to build their own Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) chat apps using Python . The hackathon runs from January 29th to February 12th.
What is RAG?
This allows developers to ask questions of their own data and get answers that are relevant to the context of the question here are the most popular RAG chat sample repository.
RAG Resources
Tutorial: Get started with the Python enterprise chat sample using RAG
GitHub Universe: Quickly build and deploy OpenAI apps on Azure, infused with your own data
Azure AI resources for Python developers
Using Llamaindex with Azure AI Search
AI Discord community
Why Participate?
Participating in the AI Chat App Hack is a fantastic way to expand your technical skills, particularly in the field of AI. You’ll have the opportunity to:
Learn how to build a RAG Chat App using Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, and Python.
Extend the app for your own data sources.
Collaborate with other developers from around the world.
Win exciting prizes.
How to Get Started
Getting started with the AI Chat App Hack is simple. Here are the steps you need to follow:
Visit the AI Chat App Hack page and register.
Introduce yourself to the community.
Apply for Azure OpenAI access.
Start hacking on January 29th.
Join live sessions for learning and inspiration.
Remember, you can either team up (max 3 team members) or fly solo to join the hacking .
Make sure to register for Hack Together before starting to build your project .
Conclusion
The AI Chat App Hack is a unique opportunity to dive into the world of AI and chat apps. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, this event offers valuable learning experiences and the chance to connect with a global community of tech enthusiasts. So why wait? Register today and start your AI journey!
For more information, visit the AI Chat App Hack page. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Happy hacking!
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Introducing custom shapes in Visio for the web
The Microsoft Visio team is excited to announce that Visio for the web will now support custom shapes, a feature that many of you have been asking for! Users with a Visio Plan 2 license will be able to import custom shapes in the form of a Visio stencil file (.vssx), which can be created using the Visio desktop app or downloaded from a third-party source. You can then use the shapes to create and edit diagrams in Visio for the web—just like you do with the built-in shapes.
This feature, which is currently rolling out to users, can help to enhance your diagrams by enabling the use of shapes that are tailored to your specific needs and scenarios. For example, you can use custom shapes to represent your organization’s products, services, processes, or standards. You can also use custom shapes from third-party sources that offer specialized content for different domains and industries, such as engineering, healthcare, education, and more.
How to add custom shapes in Visio for the web
Adding custom shapes in Visio for the web is simple, but please note that a Visio Plan 2 license is required. To start, navigate to the Shapes pane and select the Plus button (+), then select the Custom Shapes tab.
A cropped image of a blank drawing in Visio for the web highlighting the Plus button in the Shapes pane.
A cropped image of a blank drawing in Visio for the web highlighting the new Custom Shapes tab in the Shapes pane.
Select the Add Custom Shapes drop-down, then select the appropriate option for uploading a custom shapes stencil (.vssx) file from a OneDrive folder or local device.
A cropped image of a blank drawing in Visio for the web demonstrating how to add a new custom shapes stencil.
Once the file is uploaded, you will see the new custom shapes available in the Shapes pane. From here, you can add the shapes to your drawing by dragging and dropping them on to the canvas.
Upload multiple stencil files and use them in the same diagram or use your custom shapes along with the built-in shapes available in Visio for the web. Any custom shapes that you upload from your local device will also get uploaded to a new “My Shapes” folder on OneDrive, where you can copy, move, edit, rename, share, and delete shapes as needed.
How to share custom shapes with others
The process for sharing your diagrams created with custom shapes is no different than sharing any diagram created in Visio for the web. However, remember to also share the stencil (.vssx) files, so others within your organization can access the custom shapes and use them in their own diagrams.
Note that, when a user first opens the diagram, they will see the custom shapes stencil pinned to the Shapes pane. If they have access to the stencil file (i.e., you’ve shared the stencil file with them), they will be able to edit the file using the same custom shapes. If they do not already have access to the stencil file, they will see an error message and the option to ask for access. Without access to the stencil, they can still view and edit the diagram using the built-in shapes in Visio for the web.
Learn more and give feedback
We hope you enjoy using custom shapes in Visio for the web and find it useful for creating more specific diagrams. To learn more about how to use custom shapes, read the support article, “Create, save, and share custom stencils”. As always, we invite you to provide any feedback or suggestions via the Visio Feedback Portal or directly in the Visio web app using “Give Feedback to Microsoft” in the bottom right corner.
Did you know? The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is where you can get the latest updates on productivity apps and intelligent cloud services. Check out what features are in development or coming soon to Visio for the web on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap.
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Number definition in excel
When ever I type number in a cell For exemple 120 it is show 1.2 or 1 will be seen 0.01
how do I change it. when I go to cell proporty it doesn’t help.
Thanks for the help
Shani
When ever I type number in a cell For exemple 120 it is show 1.2 or 1 will be seen 0.01how do I change it. when I go to cell proporty it doesn’t help. Thanks for the help Shani Read More
Displaying Categories in a Group Calender
In Outlook desktop …. When a user sets up a 2nd calendar to share with team members, they are able to see the category assigned to each meeting or event, however when one sets up a group calendar (all users are owners) categories are unique to the individual user’s outlook setup.
Is there a way to assign categories to meetings so that ALL users can see them?
In Outlook desktop …. When a user sets up a 2nd calendar to share with team members, they are able to see the category assigned to each meeting or event, however when one sets up a group calendar (all users are owners) categories are unique to the individual user’s outlook setup. Is there a way to assign categories to meetings so that ALL users can see them? Read More
Protecting Azure VM against Zonal/Regional outages using Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup
Guidance for protecting Azure Virtual Machine against Zonal/Regional outages using Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup
Summary
Disaster Recovery (DR) and Backup are two ways to recover from outages. To ensure that you have the necessary controls to protect your data even when relying on native tools included by your provider, you must get familiar with the platform features, weigh in the cost and benefits, and formulate a data protection strategy that best works for your business. The following provides a summary of choices provided by Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery:
You can recover your Azure Virtual Machines and databases against zonal outages by using Azure Backup. In the event of an outage, you can recover to either the secondary availability zone or the secondary paired Azure region, with a RPO (Recovery Point Objective) of approximately 36 hours.
You can recover your Azure Virtual Machines against outages by using Azure Site Recovery. In the event of an outage, you can recover to either the secondary availability zone or the secondary Azure region, with a RPO (Recovery Point Objective) of approximately 5 minutes and an RTO (Recovery Time Objective) of less than 1 hour.
Outage scenarios and options:
Zonal Outage
Regional Outage
Azure Backup
You can protect zone-pinned/non-zone-pinned VM from a vault with Zonal-redundant storage (ZRS) enabled.
You can restore an Azure VM from the default zone to other availability zones within that region (Cross Zonal Restore – CZR).
You can enable Cross Region Restore (CRR) on vault with GRS redundancy, to get the ability to view the backup items in the secondary region.
You can restore an Azure VMs from backed-up data in the secondary region Peven if the primary region is (un)available.
Azure Site Recovery
Zone-to-Zone disaster recovery option makes it possible to replicate and orchestrate the failover of applications in Azure across Azure Availability Zones within a given region.
Azure-to-Azure disaster recovery makes it possible replicate and fail over your applications across Azure region, across continents.
When it comes to protecting your Azure Virtual Machines from unwanted downtime and data loss, it is important to be familiar with several concepts, strategies, tools, and capabilities to make informed decisions. Review the subsequent sections for more detailed information.
Concepts
Azure provides high availability, disaster recovery, and backup solutions that can enable your applications to meet business availability requirements and recovery objectives. The following summarizes the key concepts and capabilities.
Azure is divided physically and logically into units called Azure regions. There are many Azure regions across the world.
Some of the Azure regions provide availability zones. An availability zone are physically separated groups of datacenters within a region. Each availability zone has independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. Azure availability zones help protect your deployment from datacenter failures.
When you deploy into an Azure region that contains availability zones, you can use multiple availability zones together. Doing so you can keep separate copies of your application and data within separate physical datacenters in a large metropolitan area.
Each datacenter is assigned to a physical zone. Physical zones are mapped to logical zones in your Azure subscription, and different subscriptions might have a different mapping order.
Availability Sets ensures the Azure VMs are deployed across multiple isolated hardware nodes in a cluster within a single Availability Zone (AZ). If a hardware or software failure happens, only a subset of your VMs are impacted and your overall solution stays operational. Availability Sets are essential for building redundancy for your cloud solution. Each VM in an Availability Set is assigned a Fault Domain and an Update Domain by the Azure Platform. Using this, you could host multiple tier app with each fault domain. Here the Fault Domain shares a common power source and a network switch. A failure in a fault domain will cause all the app resources in that fault domain to become unavailable.
Availability sets protect against failures within a Data Center
Availability Zones protect against failure from the entire Data Center, within a single Region.
Azure Paired regions (within same geography to maintain data residency) protect against failure from entire Regional outage. A primary and secondary region together form a region pair. Within Geography, for certain regions Azure provides list of regional pairs (for ex. Geography: Australia, Regional Pair A: Australia East, Regional Pair B: Australia Southeast). For complete list, refer Azure regional pairs.
Certain regions do not have paired region (ex. Qatar, Poland, Israel etc.). also have a paired region to support cross-region replication based on proximity and other factors.
For regions that support Paired regions, Azure uses cross-region replication to asynchronously replicates applications and data from one region to another paired region.
During VM creation, a VM can be pinned/not-pinned to a zone based on configuration choices as shown below:
Non-Zone Pinned: VM created with “No infrastructure redundancy required” is created without any zone
Zone Pinned: In this example, +Create VM > Basics tab, the TestVM will be created in
East US region > “Zone 1”.
After creating the VM, if you try to edit its Availability Zone property, it will not allow – indicating that it is pinned to “Zone 1”
Zone Pinned: By multi-selecting Zone 1, 2, 3, the create step will automatically create multiple VM instances: TestVM-1 (in Zone 1), TestVM-2 (in Zone 2), and TestVM-3 (in Zone 3)
Certain Azure services, such as Azure Storage takes advantage of cross-region replication and provides two options for copying data to a secondary – GRS (Geo-redundant storage (GRS) and Geo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS). With GRS or GZRS, the data in the secondary region isn’t available for read or write access unless there’s a failover to the primary region. Storage failover is not automatic, it is either initiated by Microsoft (Microsoft-managed failover) or by you (Customer-managed failover) (learn more).
Shared responsibility becomes the crux of your strategic decision-making when it comes to disaster recovery. Azure doesn’t require you to use cross-region replication, and not all Azure services automatically replicate data or automatically fall back from a failed region to cross-replicate to another enabled region. Depending on which option you choose that best fits your needs, you are responsible for configuring the recovery and replication.
Availability sets protect against failures within a Data Center
Availability Zones protect against failure from the entire Data Center, within a single Region. If you choose Zone-redundant resource, then your resources are spread across multiple availability zones. Microsoft manages spreading requests across zones and the replication of data across zones. If an outage occurs in a single availability zone, Microsoft manages failover automatically. You can choose Zonal resources (i.e. with no redundancy, it is pinned to a single availability zone, then no automatic protection is provided during Zone outage. You’re responsible for managing data replication, distributing requests across zones and failover.)
Azure Paired regions (within same geography to maintain data residency) protect against failure from entire Regional outage. A primary and secondary region together form a region pair. Azure uses cross-region replication to asynchronously replicates applications and data from one region to another paired region. Azure services, such as Azure Storage takes advantage of cross-region replication for copying your data to a secondary region with additional options such as GRS (Geo-redundant storage (GRS)
Azure Backup options to protect VMs and databases against Zonal and Regional outages
For Azure Virtual Machines and databases protected using Azure Backup, in an event of outage you can recover to (based on configuration) Secondary availability zone (or) Secondary paired Azure region, with an RPO: ~36 hrs.
Configuration to handle Zonal outage
You can restore an Azure VM from the default zone to any available zones, this referred as Cross Zonal Restore (CZR). During restore you have the flexibility to choose and restore VM to availability zone drop within that region.
To use this functionality, the following pre-requisites must be met:
The source protected Azure VM is zone pinned/non-zone pinned.
The recovery point is present in vault tier only (Snapshots only or snapshot and vault tier are not supported)
The recovery option is to either create a new VM or to restore disks (replace disks option replaces source data and hence the availability zone option is not applicable)
Creating VM/disks in the same region when vault’s storage redundancy is ZRS (Doesn’t work when vault’s storage redundancy is GRS even though the source VM is zone pinned)
If the pinned zone is unavailable, you won’t be able to restore the data to another zone because the backed-up data isn’t zonally replicated. The restore in availability zones is possible from recovery points in vault tier only.
Supported only for managed VMs.
CZR supports restore with Managed System Identities (MSI).
CZR supports restore of an Azure zone pinned/non-zone pinned VM from a vault with Zonal-redundant storage (ZRS) enabled.
CZR supports restore of zone-pinned VM only from a vault with Cross Region Restore (CRR) (if the secondary region supports zones).
CZR is supported from secondary regions.
It’s unsupported from snapshots restore point.
It’s unsupported for Encrypted Azure VMs.
Like Azure VM, you can now restore Azure VM disks from the default zone to any available zones. Default zone is the zone in which the VM disks reside.
Configuration to handle Regional outage
Cross Region restore can be used to restore Azure VMs in the secondary region, which is an Azure paired region.
If CRR is enabled, you can view the backup items in the secondary region. From the portal, go to Recovery Services vault > Backup items. Select Secondary Region to view the items in the secondary region.
Primary Region
Secondary Region
Restore in secondary region – The secondary region restore user experience will be similar to the primary region restore user experience. When configuring details in the Restore Configuration pane to configure your restore, you’ll be prompted to provide only secondary region parameters.
Azure Backup leverages storage accounts’ read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) capability to support restores from a secondary region. You must factor in latency in the backed up data being available for a restore in the secondary region, due to delays in storage replication from primary to secondary.
To avail this, many pre-requisites must be met:
You can restore all the Azure VMs for the selected recovery point if the backup is done in the secondary region.
It’s unsupported from snapshots restore point. During the backup, snapshots aren’t replicated to the secondary region. Only the data stored in the vault is replicated. So secondary region restores are only vault tier restores.
Restore options is available with “Create a VM” or “Restore Disks”, “Replace existing disks” option is not supported.
Cross Region Restore is supported only for a Recovery Services vault that uses the GRS replication type.
Virtual machines (VMs) created through Azure Resource Manager and encrypted Azure VMs are supported. VMs created through the classic deployment model aren’t supported. You can restore the VM or its disk.
SQL Server or SAP HANA databases hosted on Azure VMs are supported. You can restore databases or their files.
MARS Agent is supported for vaults without private endpoint (preview).
Review the support matrix for a list of supported managed types and regions.
Using Cross Region Restore will incur additional charges. Once you enable Cross Region restore, it might take up to 48 hours for the backup items to be available in secondary regions. Learn more about pricing.
Cross Region Restore currently can’t be reverted to GRS or LRS after the protection starts for the first time.
Currently, secondary region RPO is 36 hours. This is because the RPO in the primary region is 24 hours and can take up to 12 hours to replicate the backup data from the primary to the secondary region.
Review the permissions required to use Cross Region Restore.
CRR is currently not supported for machines running on Ultra disks.
CRR restores CMK (customer-managed keys) enabled Azure VMs, which aren’t backed-up in a CMK enabled Recovery Services vault, as non-CMK enabled VMs in the secondary region.
For CRR, the Staging Location (that is the storage account location) must be in the region that the Recovery Services vault treats as the secondary region. For example, a Recovery Services vault is located in East US 2 region (with Geo-Redundancy and Cross Region Restore enabled). This means that the secondary region would be Central US. Therefore, you need to create a storage account in Central US to perform a Cross Region Restore of the VM.
ASR options to protect VMs against Zonal and Regional outages
For Azure Virtual Machines protected using Azure Site Recovery, in an event of outage you can recover to (based on configuration) Secondary availability zone (or) Secondary Azure region, with an RPO: ~5 min and RTO <1 hr.
Configuration to handle Zonal outage
The Zone-to-Zone disaster recovery option makes it possible to replicate and orchestrate the failover of applications in Azure across Azure Availability Zones within a given region. This capability suites those who require maintaining data residency and local compliance, reducing the complexity of configuring a DR strategy in a secondary region, latency, and improving the recovery point objective (RPO).
If a single Azure availability zone is compromised, fail over your VMs to a different zone within the same region and access them from the secondary availability zone.
If VM is already deployed in an Availability Zone, then from Azure portal > Virtual machines > select the VM > In Backup + disaster recovery, select Disaster recovery > on the Basics tab, for Disaster recovery between availability zones?, select Yes, and complete the steps (learn more)
From VM portal experience
From Recovery Services Vault portal
This feature is limited to Azure VM in Availability Zones, make sure you are familiar all pre-requisites and supported regions.
Configuration to handle Regional outage
You can use ASR to protect virtual machines (VM) to a different target region for Regional DR. For example, as shown below your source VM located in East US is protected to target UK West region (learn more).
Make sure you are familiar with supported platform features.
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Ingest data using Splunk Universal forwarder into Azure Data Explorer
Introduction
In today’s data-driven world, it’s essential to collect, analyze, and gain insights from various logs and data sources. Azure Data Explorer (aka Kusto) is a cloud-based data analytics platform designed for analyzing and visualizing large volumes of data in real time and is particularly well-suited for log time series and telemetry data. Its real-time capabilities make it a valuable resource for organizations looking to gain insights from their data such as forecasting, anomaly detection, and prediction among various other capabilities. More on leveraging the power of Kusto can be found here.
Splunk Universal Forwarder, commonly referred to as “Splunk UF,” is a lightweight version of the Splunk Enterprise software. It is specifically designed for the sole purpose of collecting and forwarding log data and machine data from various sources to a central Splunk Enterprise server or a Splunk Cloud deployment. Splunk Universal Forwarder serves as an agent that simplifies the process of data collection and forwarding, making it an essential component in a Splunk deployment. More details on Splunk Universal Forwarder can be found here
In this article, we will talk about how we forward logs using Splunk Universal Forwarder to Azure Data Explorer (Kusto) using Kusto Splunk Univeral Forwarder Connector.
System Architecture
To forward logs or Splunk logs to Kusto, we need the Splunk Universal Forwarder to be installed in the same machine where the logs are located. The Splunk Universal Forwarder will be configured to send messages via TCP 9997 port (default port) to another system that will be hosting the Kusto Splunk Universal Forwarder Connector. This connector will be listening to the messages arriving on the TCP 9997 port and will forward the logs to Kusto. The following diagram represents the setup.
Prerequisites
Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:
Splunk Universal Forwarder: Install Splunk Universal Forwarder on the machine where your logs originate. For the Installation guide please refer here.
Azure Data Explorer (Kusto): Set up an Azure Data Explorer cluster and database to receive the logs. More on this can be found here.
Azure Active Directory Application: Create an Azure AD application and service principal to enable communication between Splunk and Kusto.
Docker: Docker needs to be installed in the system which will be required to configure and run the Kusto Splunk Universal Forwarder connector.
Step 1: Configure Splunk Universal Forwarder
While setting up Splunk Universal Forwarder the receiving indexer needs to be configured to point to the system hosting Kusto Splunk Universal Forwarder Connector. Destination Indexer can be left blank. For setting up the Windows Universal Forwarder please refer to the following screenshot. Further details on the receiving indexer configuration can be found here.
Configure inputs.conf: Navigate to the folder where Splunk Universal Forwarder is installed and then to /etc/system/local/ folder. Inputs.conf needs to be modified/created to enable the universal forwarder to read logs from. Example configuration can be found below. more on configuration of Inputs.conf can be found here.[default]
index = default
disabled = false
[monitor://C:Program FilesSplunkvarlogsplunkmodinput_eventgen.log*]
sourcetype = modinput_eventgen
Configure outputs.conf: Navigate to the folder where Splunk Universal Forwarder is installed and then to /etc/system/local/ folder. Outputs.conf file needs to be created/modified to enable universal forwarder to determine the location to forward the logs to, in our case the hostname and port of system hosting Kusto Splunk Universal Forwarder connector. An example configuration can be found below. More details on the outputs.conf can be found here[tcpout]
defaultGroup = default-autolb-group
sendCookedData=false
[tcpout:default-autolb-group]
server = 127.0.0.1:9997
[tcpout-server://127.0.0.1:9997]
Restart the Splunk Universal Forwarder after the changes.
Step 2: Configure Kusto Splunk Universal Forwarder Connector
Download/Clone the connector from the github repo.
Navigate to the base directory of the connector.cd .SplunkADXForwarder
Edit the config.yml by entering the required kusto credentials and database to enable the connector to send the data to kusto.ingest_url : <ingest URL>
client_id : <azure-client-id>
client_secret : <azure-client-secret>
authority : <authority>
database_name : <kusto-database-name>
table_name : <kusto-table-name>
table_mapping_name :
data_format : csv
Docker builddocker build -t splunk-forwarder-listener
Docker rundocker run -p 9997:9997 splunk-forwarder-listener
Step 3: Verify Data In Azure Data Explorer (Kusto)
Once the docker starts running, data is sent to your Azure Data Explorer table. You can verify that the data is ingested by running a query in the web UI query editor.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we have demonstrated how to ingest data using Splunk Universal Forwarder to route data to Azure Data Explorer, a powerful cloud-based data analytics platform. By using the Kusto Splunk Universal Forwarder Connector, we can easily forward logs from various sources to Kusto and perform real-time analysis and visualization. This enables us to gain insights from our data and leverage the capabilities of Kusto for various scenarios such as forecasting, anomaly detection, and prediction. We hope this article helps you get started with Splunk and Kusto integration and explore the benefits of both technologies.
Important
This connector can be used in Real-Time Analytics in Microsoft Fabric. Use the instructions in this article with the following exceptions:
If required, create databases using the instructions in Create a KQL database.
If required, create tables using the instructions in Create an empty table.
Get query or ingestion URIs using the instructions in Copy URI.
Run queries in a KQL queryset.
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Continued region expansion: Azure Data Factory is generally available in two more regions
Azure Data Factory is now available in two new regions:
Israel Central
Italy North
You can now provision Data Factory in the new regions in order to co-locate your Extract-Transform-Load logic with your data lake and compute.
See the full set of Azure Data Factory supported regions.
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