Tag Archives: microsoft
Candidly Copilot Episode 3
Welcome to the Candidly Copilot podcast episode 3. In this edition of Candidly Copilot, we discuss those first steps with Microsoft 365 Copilot, or the initial Crawl. Discussed and demonstrated are: Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Copilot with Enterprise Data Protection, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Additionally, hosts Chad Stout and Michael Gannotti shared the prompt of the week (a winner for Forms).
Resources:
Check out ALL upcoming, and previously recorded, Candidly Copilot podcasts here
Prompt of the Week: “I’d like to create a survey for a group of Smartter Health Pediatric Cancer Institute Clinicians to better understand their day-to-day experience as Clinicians, communicating with colleagues, finding the appropriate information for their work with patients, and completing their professional training and education. I’d also like to understand how they are feeling about the demands on their time in regards to work hours in the hospital, how is this affecting time outside of the workplace, and how they think their time could be better allocated to improve productivity in the workplace, improve educational and training opportunities, remove stress in the workplace and at home, and by extension improve patient outcomes.”
Microsoft 365 Copilot – Microsoft Adoption
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Partner Case Study Series | Icertis
Contracts are the foundation of commerce. They govern every dollar in and out of the enterprise while serving as the definitive source of truth for business relationships. Yet, within many organizations, contract life cycle management remains fragmented across various departments such as legal, procurement, finance, and sales. Ineffective contract management can lead to revenue loss, unnecessary expenses, unwanted renewals, and in the worst cases, noncompliance or breach of contract situations that might result in fines or litigation.
Driven by a shared commitment to customer success, Icertis and Microsoft have partnered over the last decade to reimagine contract management as AI-driven contract intelligence that empowers customers to extract insights from their contract data and better realize the original intentions of every commercial agreement. “30 percent of the Fortune 100 use the Icertis platform for their global contracting needs because Icertis helps customers increase revenue and efficiency, reduce risks, and ensure compliance. We attribute much of our success to our close, longstanding relationship with Microsoft,” says Deanna Lanier, Chief Strategy Officer at Icertis.
The groundbreaking introduction of generative AI, fortified by the security of Microsoft Azure, is now poised to further transform contract intelligence with the release of Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) Copilots.
**Explore all case studies or submit your own**
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I don’t really know how to request this so I will put Reminder in Outlook
I don’t want to create a meeting just a little reminder if I just post in the date I want it lets me type in what I assume is a reminder. I click on it and I think its just a reminder – can I also send various people this same reminder? because it is not a meeting. Just wondering if I am overthinking this?
I don’t want to create a meeting just a little reminder if I just post in the date I want it lets me type in what I assume is a reminder. I click on it and I think its just a reminder – can I also send various people this same reminder? because it is not a meeting. Just wondering if I am overthinking this? Read More
Drivers to install Windows after wiping out partisions
I have two servers (an old physical server and a VM hosted by VMware Workstation) with 3 iSCSI disks each.
A previous Linux installation was wiped out using Gparted from both servers.
When I try to install Windows Server 2022 I can’t select any drive to install Windows and I am requested to load a driver.
Where can I find the driver to recognize the disks?
What can I do with Gparted or any other tool to make the disks visible by Windows installer?
By the way, I can install Linux on both servers without any problem.
Regards
I have two servers (an old physical server and a VM hosted by VMware Workstation) with 3 iSCSI disks each.A previous Linux installation was wiped out using Gparted from both servers.When I try to install Windows Server 2022 I can’t select any drive to install Windows and I am requested to load a driver.Where can I find the driver to recognize the disks?What can I do with Gparted or any other tool to make the disks visible by Windows installer?By the way, I can install Linux on both servers without any problem.Regards Read More
Enhancing Federal AI Safety: Responsible and Secure AI Sandbox
Who Should Read This
This document will be beneficial to Federal Executives including Chief Information Officer, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Data Officer, AI Lead, AI Scientist, and Data Scientist, among others.
Introduction
This white paper explores the philosophy and implementation strategy of the Federal Responsible and Secure Artificial Intelligence (AI) Sandbox, an initiative aimed at promoting responsible and secure AI practices within federal government agencies. A subsequent article will follow, providing an in-depth examination of the technical aspects of the Federal Responsible and Secure AI Sandbox. AI is transforming federal government operations by enhancing efficiency, fostering innovation, allowing the workforce to do more with less, and empowering employees to focus on creative tasks while reducing repetitive work. As AI technologies become essential in federal agencies, establishing a responsible, secure, and ethical framework for their development and deployment is crucial. This need aligns with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) M-24-10, which mandates the appointment of Chief AI Officers, the formation of agency AI governance boards, the development of compliance plans, and the creation of AI use case inventory. Emphasizing best practices from both the private sector and academia within this framework can accelerate risk management, addressing a traditionally measured governmental response to emerging risks. An exemplary tool in this regard is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AI Risk Repository, a dynamic and extensive database that catalogs and classifies a wide range of AI-related risks, thereby supporting informed decision-making for policymakers, researchers, and industry professionals.
Dispersed Data
We must acknowledge the considerable value of data, especially in how it is structured across various operating divisions, staffing divisions, and bureaus, where it is currently fragmented. These divisions frequently encounter challenges in accessing each other’s data, highlighting the need for an effective data brokerage system. Such a system would allow divisions to access and utilize dispersed data, significantly enhancing its value.
Introducing new tools and creating an environment that encourages the exploration of dispersed data can lead to new discoveries in previously uncharted areas. This strategy not only capitalizes on the inherent value of data but also opens possibilities for previously unattainable innovative uses and applications.
AI Executive Orders, Laws, and Regulations
In recent years, several laws and executive orders have been enacted to govern the use of AI across various sectors in the United States, ensuring that its deployment is ethical, secure, and compliant with existing regulations. Notably, the US needs to maintain its competitive advantage by leveraging AI. To leverage this capability responsibly, the Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (2019) and the Executive Order on Promoting the Use of Trustworthy AI in the Federal Government (2020) set the groundwork for AI governance. The National AI Initiative Act of 2020 further bolsters this foundation by promoting AI research and policy development. In the realm of standards and frameworks, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed the AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) to guide risk assessments in AI systems.
Specific sectors have additional regulatory requirements. For instance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ensures the protection of personal health information in AI applications within healthcare. The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requires federal agencies to safeguard their data and systems, including those using AI technologies. While the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU regulation, its implications extend to U.S. entities handling data of EU citizens,impacting international AI practices.
Moreover, ethical guidelines from entities such as the Defense Innovation Board provide principles for the Department of Defense’s AI use, emphasizing ethical considerations. Civil rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), ensure that AI technologies are non-discriminatory and accessible. Additionally, sector-specific regulations in the financial and transportation sectors, such as those from the Dodd-Frank Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), govern AI use in financial services, aviation, and autonomous vehicles.
Problem Statement
Despite the immense potential of AI, several concerns hinder its vast adoption in the federal space:
Ethical and Bias Concerns: AI systems can perpetuate biases and ethical dilemmas, potentially leading to unfair outcomes and loss of public trust.
Regulatory Compliance: Navigating the complex landscape of federal regulations and ensuring compliance with AI-related executive orders listed above.
Risk Management: Identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks associated with AI deployment is critical but often lacks a structured approach.
Inter-agency Collaboration: There is a need for cohesive collaboration both across different federal agencies and internally among the bureaus and operating divisions to share best practices and harmonize AI strategies.
Cost-Benefit: Integrating AI into federal operations involves initial investment, ongoing maintenance, data management, training, integration with existing systems, scalability, and risk management costs. However, these costs can be outweighed by the benefits, including enhanced productivity, increased efficiency, and robust data analysis for informed decision-making. enhanced cybersecurity via threat detection and response.
The AI Sandbox: A Solution for Responsible and Secure AI
To meet their objectives, federal agencies are encouraged to develop a responsible and secure AI sandbox. This controlled environment will allow for the development, testing, evaluation, and sharing of AI technologies while ensuring adherence to ethical, reliable, secure, and responsible guidelines. Moreover, the AI Sandbox will allow sufficient testing before AI-powered applications securely head into production. Such a proactive approach not only fosters innovation and collaboration but also mitigates risks and enhances public trust through a commitment to transparency, accountability, and fairness in AI deployment, incorporating these principles within both the data and AI pipelines.
Establishing this sandbox is crucial for fostering innovation and ensuring compliance with standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and OMB. The sandbox provides a safe space where developers of all skill levels can experiment with AI tools and applications without compromising the integrity of live environments. A well-designed AI sandbox significantly enhances business value by enabling the testing and development of AI systems under realistic conditions without risking actual data or operational systems. This setup promotes iterative testing of AI models, leading to more robust and dependable AI deployments. Such environments also encourage the reuse of existing tools and resources, minimizing duplication and waste. Safe and rapid iteration within a sandbox speeds up the refinement of AI applications, reducing time to deployment and improving return on investment.
Integrating such a sandbox into federal IT operations proves advantageous for developing specialized domain models in secure environments (such as clouds) and for adopting pre-trained large language models (LLMs). A sandbox facilitates controlled testing of large language models (LLMs), AI red teaming, and jailbreaking, along with overall security assessments. This environment allows for better prediction of operational costs associated with API calls, compute resources, and data management when scaled.
Implementation
Establishment of the Sandbox:
Infrastructure: Developing the technical infrastructure required for the sandbox, including secure data environments and computational resources.
Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging key stakeholders, including roles in IT, security, privacy, acquisition, civil rights, and governance boards to define sandbox objectives and priorities.
Development of AI Projects:
Pilot Programs: Launching pilot AI projects within the sandbox to test and refine AI solutions.
Iterative Testing: Using an iterative approach to continuously test, evaluate, and improve AI systems.
Compliance and Governance:
Steering Committee: Establishing a steering committee comprising of key stakeholders from bureaus and operating divisions to oversee sandbox activities.
Continuous Monitoring: Implementing continuous monitoring mechanisms to ensure AI systems adhere to ethical guidelines, security, and regulatory requirements.
Training and Capacity Building:
Workshops and Training: Conducting workshops and training sessions to build AI literacy and capacity within federal agencies.
Resource Development: Developing resources, including guidelines and toolkits, to support responsible AI development and deployment.
Distinguish between Data Pipeline and AI Pipeline
In many scenarios, especially in complex and sensitive environments like federal operations, it can be advantageous to distinguish between a data pipeline and an AI pipeline. It is important to recognize that federal agencies operate interconnected systems where AI-generated content introduces new elements. Security and data governance systems are essential to safeguard this newly created data.
Specialization of Functions
Data Pipeline: Focuses primarily on data collection, storage, processing, and management. It ensures that data is accurately captured, maintained, and made available in a structured format suitable for various uses. This pipeline handles tasks such as data cleansing, transformation, and aggregation, which are foundational before any advanced analysis or modeling.
AI Pipeline: Concentrates on building, training, deploying, and monitoring AI models. This pipeline uses processed data to develop models that can generate insights, make predictions, or automate decisions.
Security and Compliance
Data Sensitivity and Privacy: Separate pipelines allow for more controlled and secure handling of sensitive data, with stringent access controls and compliance measures specific to data handling and storage.
Regulatory Compliance: In environments subject to rigorous regulatory requirements, having distinct pipelines helps in implementing specific compliance measures more effectively, tailored to each stage of data handling and AI processing.
Scalability and Maintenance
Scalability: Separating the pipelines allows each to be scaled independently based on specific needs. For instance, data collection might need to be scaled differently compared to model training frequency.
Ease of Maintenance: Issues can be isolated and addressed more efficiently when pipelines are separate. Updates or changes made to the AI models do not necessarily disrupt the data pipeline, and vice versa.
Optimization of Resources
Resource Allocation: Different resources (like computational power and storage) can be allocated more effectively according to the unique demands of each pipeline. For example, AI models might require more powerful GPUs for training, while data pipelines might need robust databases.
Cost Efficiency: Managing resources based on the specific needs of data processing and AI model development can lead to better cost efficiency.
Innovation and Flexibility
Modularity: Having separate pipelines promotes modularity, allowing teams to experiment, update, and deploy changes in one area without affecting the other. This modularity is crucial for rapid testing and integration of new technologies or approaches.
Adaptability: Separate pipelines enhance the ability to adapt to new data sources, emerging AI technologies, or changing business needs without comprehensive overhauls of the entire system.
Risk Management
Risk Isolation: By decoupling the data handling from AI model training and deployment, it’s easier to isolate and manage risks associated with each process. For instance, failure in the AI pipeline (e.g. a model producing incorrect predictions) will not compromise the integrity of the data pipeline.
While there are advantages to maintaining distinct data and AI pipelines, the decision ultimately depends on the specific organizational needs, the nature of the data, the complexity of the AI tasks, and the regulatory environment. For federal applications, where security, compliance, and reliability are paramount, separating these pipelines can provide clearer governance, better risk management, and more focused compliance with legal and ethical standards.
Responsibilities
Setting up a responsible and secure AI sandbox varies based on the size of an agency and its progress in AI integration at a department-level, aligning with their AI strategy, a responsible and secure AI sandbox could sit in their headquarters, for larger agencies additional sandboxes could sit at operating divisions and bureaus level.
Conclusion
The Federal Responsible and Secure AI sandbox represents a proactive and structured approach to fostering responsible AI practices within federal agencies. By aligning with the NIST AI RMF, White House AI Executive Orders, OMB memos, and federal regulations and standards, the sandbox ensures a comprehensive framework for ethical AI development and deployment. Through collaboration, transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement, the sandbox will enable federal agencies to harness the transformative power of AI while safeguarding public trust and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. This thought leadership initiative addresses current challenges and paves the way for a future where AI contributes positively, responsibly, securely to federal government operations, empowering every person and every organization to achieve more.
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How Copilots are helping customers and partners drive pragmatic innovation to achieve business results that matter
The pace of AI innovation today continues to be extraordinary, and at Microsoft we are focused on helping organizations embrace it. By providing our customers with the most advanced AI technology across every product we build — combined with our unparalleled partner ecosystem and co-innovation approach — we are helping them make real progress in ways that matter. I am proud to share over 100 customer stories from this quarter alone showing how we are helping customers accelerate AI Transformation — no matter where they are on their journey.
Recently during the Microsoft AI Tour, I spoke with customers who shared ways they are adopting Copilots to empower human achievement, democratize intelligence and realize significant business value. I also discussed the concept of an AI-first business process and the differentiation you can drive when bringing together the power of Copilots and human ambition with the autonomous capabilities of an agent. I was inspired by the outcomes our customers have achieved through pragmatic innovation and the progress they are making to evolve the future of industry. I am pleased to share ten stories from the past quarter that illustrate how Copilots have yielded results for our customers, while highlighting AI Transformation experiences in their own words.
Accenture and Avanade have a long history of helping customers implement cutting-edge solutions, with internal testing a key factor in their ability to deliver customizable Microsoft solutions with deep expertise. Putting Microsoft 365 Copilot into the hands of employees helped them realize ways to increase productivity, with 52% of employees seeing a positive impact on the quality of their work, 31% reporting less cognitive fatigue and 84% finding Copilot’s suggestions fair, respectful and non-biased. Accenture also piloted GitHub Copilot to help build better solutions faster with developers spending less time debugging, resulting in 95% of developers reporting they enjoyed coding more.
“Using our extensive Microsoft technology expertise and practical learnings from our own experience implementing Microsoft 365 Copilot, our solutions empower clients to fully tap into Microsoft AI capabilities.”
Veit Siegenheim, Global Future of Work Lead at Avanade
Nigerian multinational financial services group Access Holdings Plc. serves more than 56 million customers across 18 countries. As the business grew and transitioned from a small bank to a major holding company, it adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot to address challenges in data management, meeting productivity and software development. With the integration of Copilot into daily tools, the company significantly enhanced efficiency and engagement across the business. Writing code now takes two hours instead of eight, chatbots can be launched in 10 days instead of three months and presentations can be prepared in 45 minutes instead of six hours. Copilot has also driven a 25% increase in staff engagement during meetings.
“To inspire everyone in the organization to take advantage of AI, we knew we had to integrate AI into the tools people use every day. Microsoft 365 Copilot made the most sense and was a natural fit for us.”
Lanre Bamisebi, Executive Director IT and Digitalization at Access Holdings, Plc.
To improve resident services and reinvent customer engagement, the City of Burlington, Ontario, embraced AI and low-code tools to develop new online services that transform and automate internal processes. In just eight weeks, the city utilized Copilot Studio to develop and launch a custom copilot designed to help residents quickly find answers to frequently asked questions. The city also developed a portal that streamlines building permit reviews and enables customers to track the status of their own applications. As a result, the average time it takes to process a permit approval decreased from 15 weeks to 5-7 weeks, allowing more time for city employees to evaluate complex submissions.
“Our staff and citizens do not have to worry about mundane tasks as much anymore. Now they’re able to have rich, collaborative conversations about how to creatively solve problems, making for a much more fulfilling and rewarding work and customer experience.”
Chad MacDonald, Executive Director and Chief Information Officer at the City of Burlington
Finastra empowers financial institutions with leading software for lending, payments, treasury, capital markets and universal banking. To transform its marketing processes, the company used Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate tasks, enhance content creation, improve analytics and personalize customer interactions. Since integrating Copilot, the team reduced time-to-market for campaigns from three months to less than one. Copilot also significantly reduced the time marketers spend generating and gathering insights from each campaign, with employees citing a 20%-50% time savings across tasks like full-funnel analysis, supply management analysis and budget management.
“Copilot makes you more effective because you get better insights, and it makes you more efficient because you can produce results faster. It also makes work more meaningful and fun because your team can focus on what matters — strategy, creativity and everything that sets you apart from the competition.”
Joerg Klueckmann, Head of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Finastra
GoTo Group provides technology infrastructure and solutions across Indonesia. It is bending the curve on innovation by significantly enhancing productivity and code quality across its engineering teams by adopting GitHub Copilot. With real-time code suggestions, chat assistance and the ability to break down complex coding concepts, the company has saved over seven hours per week and achieved a 30% code acceptance rate within the first month. With 1,000 engineers already using GitHub Copilot, the tool allows them to innovate faster, reduce errors and focus more time on complex tasks to deliver greater value to their users.
“GitHub Copilot has significantly reduced syntax errors and provided helpful autocomplete features, eliminating repetitive tasks and making coding more efficient. This has allowed me to focus on the more complex elements in building great software.”
Nayana Hodi, Engineering Manager at GoTo Group
South Africa’s Milpark Education faced operational challenges when shifting to online learning due to legacy systems slowing down student interactions and support. Through close collaboration with Enterprisecloud, Milpark migrated its back-office infrastructure to Azure within three months, replacing its legacy student admissions system with an extensible, integrated digital platform powered by technologies such as Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio. In just four months, the educational institution improved efficiency and accuracy of student support, decreasing the average resolution time by 50% and escalations by more than 30%.
“Using Copilot, agents are now able to use generative AI to rapidly get up to speed on case details and respond to students using standardized templates that help them provide more personalized and professional responses. The results speak for themselves.”
Shaun Dale, Managing Director at Enterprisecloud
For over two decades, Teladoc Health has been offering a broad spectrum of services to patients using virtual care services — from primary care to chronic condition management. After the rapid growth of telehealth adoption post-pandemic, operational efficiency was instrumental in managing internal processes and external client interactions. By deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot and using Copilot in Power Automate, the company has reshaped business processes to help employees realize greater time savings while enhancing the client experience. The Copilots and agents helped employees save five hours per week and thousands of enterprise hours annually by eliminating mundane daily processes and fostering better cross-department communications, while also helping new employees get set up to run their workflows 20% faster.
“Copilot is changing the way we work. It’s not just about saving time; it’s about enhancing the quality of our work, allowing us to focus on what truly matters: delivering exceptional care to our members.”
Heather Underhill, SVP Client Experience & Operations at Teladoc Health
International energy company Uniper adopted a single-cloud strategy with Azure as its foundation to drive rapid AI innovation. To help its employees focus on using core competencies, the company implemented Microsoft 365 Copilot to reduce time spent on manual and repetitive tasks, and help workers focus on more pressing work, such as developing enhanced solutions to speed up the energy transition. Its in-house auditors have already increased productivity by 80% by using Copilot to create plans and checklists. Uniper is also using Copilot for Security to help identify risks twice as fast and take appropriate action sooner.
“As an operator of critical infrastructure, we have to contend with a growing number of reports of phishing and attacks by hackers. AI can help us implement a sensible way of managing the sheer number of threats.”
Damian Bunyan, CIO at Uniper
British telecommunications company Vodafone has transformed its workplace productivity with Microsoft 365 Copilot, already seeing strong ROI from its adoption. In early trials, Copilot saved employees an average of three hours per week by using the tool to draft emails, summarize meetings and search for information. Copilot is also enriching the employee experience, with 90% of users reporting they are eager to continue using Copilot and 60% citing improved work quality. For Vodafone’s legal and compliance team, Copilot has significantly accelerated the processes of drafting new contracts, reducing the time required to complete this work by one hour. As a result of these efficiency gains, Vodafone is rolling out Copilot to 68,000 employees.
“Our AI journey is focusing on three areas: operational efficiency inside the organization; rewiring the business to provide an enhanced customer experience; and unlocking growth opportunities through new products and services that we can create around generative AI. Copilot will help drive all three.”
Scott Petty, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone
Wallenius Wilhelmsen, a global leader in roll-on/roll-off shipping and vehicle logistics, is empowering better decision-making while fostering a culture of innovation and inclusion with AI tools. After participating in an early access program, the company broadly adopted Microsoft Copilot 365 to help streamline processes, enhance data management and improve communication across its 28 countries. To help strengthen Copilot immersion and realize value faster, they introduced a seven-week Microsoft Viva campaign to teach, communicate and measure Copilot adoption. The campaign resulted in 80% of employees using Copilot, with some teams realizing time savings of at least 30 minutes per day. The company also uses Copilot Dashboard to manage usage and gather user feedback, helping demonstrate ROI and measure results outside of time savings alone.
“Copilot changes the way we think and work while keeping us curious and open to embracing opportunities. I think that is the sort of benefit that is not so measurable, but important. So, my time management and structured approach to my everyday work life has been enhanced with Copilot and Viva.”
Martin Hvatum, Senior Global Cash Manager at Wallenius Wilhelmsen
I believe that no other company has a better foundation to facilitate your AI Transformation than Microsoft. As we look ahead to Microsoft Ignite, I am excited by the latest innovation we will announce as a company, and the customer and partner experiences we will share. We remain committed to driving innovation that creates value in ways that matter most to our customers, and believe we are at our best when we serve others. There has never been a better opportunity for us to accomplish our mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more than now, and I look forward to the ways we will partner together to help you achieve more with AI.
AI Customer Stories from FY25 Q1
Accelleron: Accelleron turbocharges IT support solutions and resolution times with Power Platform
Agnostic Intelligence: Agnostic Intelligence transforms risk management with Azure OpenAI Service, achieving up to 80% time savings
Alaska Airlines: How Alaska Airlines uses technology to ensure its passengers have a seamless journey from ticket purchase to baggage pickup
Allgeier: Allgeier empowers organizations to own and expand data operations
ANZ Group: ANZ launches first-of-its-kind AI Immersion Centre in partnership with Microsoft
Asahi Europe & International: Asahi Europe & International charts new paths in employee productivity with Microsoft Copilot
Auburn University: Auburn University empowers thousands of students, faculty and staff to explore new ways of using AI with Microsoft Copilot
Avanade: Avanade equips 10,000 employees with Microsoft Fabric skills to help customers become AI-driven and future-ready
Azerbaijan Airlines: Azerbaijan Airlines expands data access to increase efficiency by 70% with Microsoft Dynamics 365
Aztec Group: Aztec Group uses Copilot for Microsoft 365 to enhance the client experience whilst powering efficiencies
Bader Sultan: Bader Sultan uses Microsoft Copilot to boost productivity and serve clients faster
BaptistCare: BaptistCare supports aging Australians and tackles workforce shortages through Microsoft 365 Copilot
Barbeque Mania!: Barbecue Mania! centralizes your data with Microsoft Azure and saves $3.5 million over 5 years
Bank of Montreal: Bank of Montreal reduces costs by 30% with Azure
BlackRock: How BlackRock’s ‘flight crew’ helped Copilot for Microsoft 365 take off
Capita: Capita uses GitHub Copilot to free developers and deliver faster for customers
Cassidy: Cassidy and Azure OpenAI Service: Making AI simple for all
Cdiscount: Cdiscount, Azure OpenAI Service and GitHub Copilot join forces for e-commerce
Celebal: Celebal drives custom business transformations with Microsoft Fabric
Chalhoub Group: Chalhoub Group’s People Analytics team speeds reporting with Microsoft Fabric
ClearBank: ClearBank processes 20 million payments a month — up from 8,000 — with platform built on Azure
Cloud Services: Faster with Fabric: Cloud Services breaks new ground with Microsoft
Coles Supermarkets: Coles Supermarkets embraces AI, cloud applications in 500-plus stores with Azure Stack HCI
Commercial Bank of Dubai: Commercial Bank of Dubai: innovating a future proof banking platform with Microsoft Azure
CPFL: CPFL expands its data repository by 1500% with Mega Lake project on Microsoft Azure
Cummins: Cummins uses Microsoft Purview to automate information governance more efficiently in the age of AI
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA): DEWA pioneers the use of Azure AI Services in delivering utility services
Digi Rogaland: Digi Rogaland prioritizes student safety with Bouvet and Microsoft Fabric
Eastman: Eastman catalyzes cybersecurity defenses with Copilot for Security
E.ON: A modern workspace in transition: E.ON relies on generative AI to manage data floods with Copilot for Microsoft 365
EPAM Systems: Efficiency inside and out: EPAM streamlines communications for teams and clients with Copilot for Microsoft 365
EY: EY redefines sustainability performance management with Microsoft
Fast Shop: Fast Shop consolidated its data platform on Microsoft Azure and is now ready for the era of AI
FIDO Tech: AI tool uses sound to pinpoint leaky pipes, saving precious drinking water
Florida Crystals Corporation: Telecom expenses for Florida Crystals dropped 78% with Teams Phone and Teams Rooms
Four Agency: Four Agency innovates with Microsoft 365 Copilot to deliver better work faster
Fractal: Fractal builds innovative retail and consumer goods solutions with Microsoft’s AI offerings including Azure OpenAI Service
GE Aerospace: GE Aerospace launches company-wide generative AI platform for employees
Georgia Tech Institute for Data Engineering and Science: Georgia Tech is accelerating the future of electric vehicles using Azure OpenAI Service
Hitachi Solutions: Hitachi Solutions transforms internal operations with Microsoft Fabric
IBM Consulting: How IBM Consulting drives AI-powered innovation with Fabric expertise
iLink Digital: Transforming user-driven analytics with Microsoft Fabric
Insight Enterprises: Insight Enterprises achieves 93% Microsoft Copilot use rate, streamlining business operations to pave the way for customer success
Intesa Sanpaolo: Intesa Sanpaolo accrues big cybersecurity dividends with Microsoft Sentinel, Copilot for Security
ITOCHU Corporation: ITOCHU uses Microsoft Fabric and Azure AI Studio to evolve its data analytics dashboard into a service delivering instant recommendations
IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU): IU revolutionizes learning for its students with the AI study buddy Syntea and Azure OpenAI Service
John Cockerill: John Cockerill engages pro developers to build enterprise-wide apps with Power Platform
Kaya Limited: Kaya Limited elevates customer experience and operational efficiency with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power BI
LexisNexis: LexisNexis elevates legal work with AI using Copilot for Microsoft 365
Lionbridge: Lionbridge disrupts localization industry using Azure OpenAI Service and reduces turnaround times by up to 30%
Lotte Hotels & Resorts: Hotelier becomes a citizen developer, building a smart work culture based on Power Platform and hyper-automated work environment
Lumen Technologies: Microsoft and Lumen Technologies partner to power the future of AI and enable digital transformation to benefit hundreds of millions of customers
LS ELECTRIC: LS ELECTRIC uses data to optimize power consumption with Sight Machine and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing
MAIRE: MAIRE, transforming the energy sector and an entire company culture with Microsoft 365 Copilot
Mandelbulb Technologies: Early-adopter Mandelbulb Technologies finds success with Fabric
McKnight Foundation: McKnight Foundation accelerates its mission and supports community partners with Microsoft 365 Copilot
MISO: MISO undergoes a digital transformation with Microsoft Industry Solutions Delivery
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI): Recognizing the essence of AI and building the future with clients: MHI’s DI to create proprietary architecture using Azure OpenAI Service
Molslinjen: Molslinjen develops an AI-powered dynamic pricing strategy with Azure Databricks
National Australia Bank: National Australia Bank invests in an efficient, cloud-managed future with Windows 11 Enterprise
Nagel-Group: Works agreements and contracts: Nagel-Group uses Azure OpenAI Service to help employees find information
NC Fusion: Elevating experiences with AI, from productivity to personalization
National Football League Players Association: The National Football League Players Association and Xoriant use Azure AI Services to provide protection to players across 32 teams
Northwestern Medicine: Northwestern Medicine deploys DAX Copilot embedded in Epic within its enterprise to improve patient and physician experiences
Oncoclínicas: Oncoclínicas creates web portal and mobile app to store clinical and medical procedures with Azure Cognitive Services
PA Consulting: PA Consulting saves hours a week with Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Copilot for Sales
Parexel: Parexel speeds operational insights by 70% using Microsoft Azure, accelerating data product delivery and reducing manual work
Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC): From weeks to days, hours to seconds: PIC automates work processes to save time with Microsoft 365 Copilot
PKSHA Technology: PKSHA leans on Copilot for Microsoft 365 as part of their team
Planted: Planted combines economic growth and environmental sustainability — with Microsoft Azure OpenAI
Profisee: Profisee eliminates data siloes within Microsoft Fabric
Programa De Atención Domiciliaria: The Home Care Program in Panama helped more than 17,000 people with the power of Microsoft Power Automate
PwC: PwC scales GenAI for enterprise with Microsoft Azure AI
QNET: QNET increases security response efficiency 60 percent with Microsoft Security Solutions
RTI International: Research nonprofit RTI International improves the human condition with Microsoft 365 Copilot
Rijksmuseum: Rijksmuseum transforms how art lovers engage with the museum, with Dynamics 365
Sandvik Coromant: Sandvik Coromant hones sales experience with Microsoft Copilot for Sales
Share.Market: Share.Market redefines the investment experience with Microsoft Azure
Simpson Associates: Simpson Associates spurs justice for at-risk communities with Azure AI
Softchoice: Softchoice harnesses Microsoft Copilot and reduces content creation time by up to 70%, accelerating customer AI journeys with its experience
Sonata Software: Sonata Software goes from early adopter to market leader with Fabric
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS): SWISS targets 30% cost savings, increased passenger satisfaction with Azure
SymphonyAI: SymphonyAI is solving real problems across industries with Azure AI
Syndigo: Syndigo accelerates digital commerce for its customers by more than 40% with Azure
TAL: TAL and Microsoft join forces on strategic technology deal
Tecnológico de Monterrey: Tecnológico de Monterrey university pioneers ambitious AI-powered learning ecosystem
Telstra: Telstra and Microsoft expand strategic partnership to power Australia’s AI future
The University of Sydney: The University of Sydney utilizes the power of Azure OpenAI to allow professors to create their own AI assistants
Torfaen County Borough: Torfaen County Borough Council streamlines organizational support for Social Care using Copilot for Microsoft 365
Trace3: Trace3 expands the realm of clients’ possibilities with Windows 11 Pro and Microsoft Copilot
Unilever: Unilever is reinventing the fundamentals of research and development with Azure Quantum Elements
University of Wisconsin: Microsoft collaborates with Mass General Brigham and University of Wisconsin–Madison to further advance AI foundation models for medical imaging
Via: Marketplace, online support, and remote work: Via embraces the digital world supported by Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure
Virgin Atlantic: How Virgin Atlantic is flying higher with Copilot
Virgin Money: Redi, set, go: Virgin Money delivers exceptional customer experiences with Microsoft Copilot Studio
Visier: Visier achieves performance improvements of up to five times using Azure OpenAI Service
World2Meet (W2M): World2Meet, the travel company providing a better customer experience and operations with a new virtual assistant powered by Microsoft Azure
Xavier College: Xavier College begins a process of modernizing its student information systems on Dynamics 365 and AI, unlocking powerful insights
ZEISS: More time for research: ZEISS supports businesses and researchers with ZEISS arivis Cloud based on Microsoft Azure
ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF Group): ZF Group builds manufacturing efficiency with over 25,000 apps on Power Platform
The post How Copilots are helping customers and partners drive pragmatic innovation to achieve business results that matter appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog.
The pace of AI innovation today continues to be extraordinary, and at Microsoft we are focused on helping organizations embrace it. By providing our customers with the most advanced AI technology across every product we build — combined with our unparalleled partner ecosystem and co-innovation approach — we are helping them make real progress in…
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Deploy Intelligent SpringBoot Apps Using Azure OpenAI and Azure App Service
Intelligent apps with Azure OpenAI are easier than ever to configure and deploy, especially when using a PaaS platform like Azure App Service for hosting.
While this demo is a full tutorial for deploying an App Service Web App, Database, Managed Identity, and Azure OpenAI, most of the code and instructions for each section can be repurposed for individually unique use-cases. If you already know how to perform some of these actions (there’s ample documentation on most of this in Microsoft Learn Documentation), feel free to skip ahead and focus on the sections most useful to your needs. Each section builds on the previous, but the code and general principles can be applied to a wide range of applications.
The application source code for this article is available on GitHub and was originally forked from the Azure Samples version of the Spring PetClinic application. This version of petclinic is largely the same, but with the addition of an Intelligent ChatBot powered by Azure OpenAI. All resources in this demo are securely connected using Azure Managed Identity for secure passwordless connections.
The Portal
Creating Azure Resources
Starting with the portal actions, while these can all be performed over CLI or Bicep, the portal is the easiest way to show the actions required to set up your application.
App Service
We’ll start by creating our App Service Plan and Web App in the portal. In the Azure Portal, select App Service and choose to create a Web App.
On the App Service Create page, we need to choose Java Version 11 and Java SE (Embedded Web Server). The choice of Java SE allows us to run any JVM based language (ex: Kotlin, Scala, etc.) with an embedded web server on the App Service Platform, in this case, a SpringBoot app written in standard Java. You’ll also need to name your Web App and choose an App Service Plan, I’ve chosen P0V3, but B1 should also work for this app.
Next, we’ll need to deploy a database.
MySQL Database
In the Azure Portal, select Azure Database for MySQL flexible servers, and choose the quick create option for the MySQL option (no WordPress needed. On the create page for the Flexible server, ensure that you have a standard (B1) compute SKU with at least 20GiB storage, Dev/Test workload is sufficient for a sample application like this one. After choosing a name, region, admin username and password, create your MySQL Server.
Now we have a database, on to Azure OpenAI!
Azure OpenAI
In the Azure Portal, choose Azure OpenAI service and click create. After choosing your options for naming, resource group, etc. (this demo uses an S0 sku), create your OpenAI service. In the Azure OpenAI Studio, be sure to select and deploy the gpt-35-turbo model, this is what we will use for chat completions in our SpringBoot app.
Managed Identities
To connect all our resources together, we will use Managed Identity. This ensures our connections are handled by Microsoft Entra in a secure, passwordless setup. There are no secrets to manage here. With our Managed Identities properly configured, your Azure resources will automatically have the permissions to connect to each other securely without any need for secrets management.
Starting with our App Service Web App, let’s first enable a system assigned identity for this service under Settings > Identity.
After enabling our system assigned identity for our Web App, we’ll need to create some user assigned managed identity resources. One for our MySQL database and one for our Azure OpenAI resource. We’ll also use the Azure OpenAI identity for GitHub Actions later, but you can always create a Managed Identity resource per resource access if desired, or even use a single user managed identity for all resource access associated with this application. The passwordless end-result is the same either way.
Starting with our identity for Azure OpenAI, go to Managed Identities in the portal and click create. After naming your identity, go to Azure role assignments and click Add role assignment. Here, I’ve enabled this identity to be a few things, a Cognitive Services OpenAI user on my Azure OpenAI resource, a Cognitive Services Contributor on my resource group for this app, and a Website Contributor to the Staging slot of my App Service Web App.
Next, let’s create our identity for the MySQL database. In this case, I left this one a bit open-ended. Following the same procedure as the last Managed Identity, but in this case making our MySQL related identity a Contributor to our resource-group as a whole. This allows us to effectively have one Managed Identity that can “contribute” to anything in the selected resource group. In this case, we’re only interested in the MySQL server.
Securely Connecting Our Resources
Now that we’ve created all our managed identities, let’s add them to our Web App. After browsing to our App Service Web App in the portal, select Settings > Identity > User assigned. Here we’ll add the two identities we just created.
We’re almost done, but for this next connection, we need to use the Azure CLI and Service Connector. In your terminal, run the following command to securely connect your MySQL database to your Web App using Service Connector.
az webapp connection create mysql-flexible –resource-group ${RESOURCE_GROUP} –name ${WEBAPP_NAME} –target-resource-group ${RESOURCE_GROUP} –server ${MYSQL_SERVER_NAME} –database petclinic –user-identity client-id=${MYSQL_MANAGED_IDENTITY_CLIENT_ID} subs-id=${SUBSCRIPTION_ID} mysql-identity-id=${MYSQL_MANAGED_IDENTITY_OBJECT_ID} –client-type java
Be sure to store the username produced here, this will be important later. Now all our resources are securely connected! On to the source code to put all these resources to good use.
The Source Code
Dependencies
Our first stop is the pom.xml file. Be sure to include the following dependencies in your pom.xml file. Remember, the full source code for this application is available on GitHub.
<dependency>
<groupId>com.azure</groupId>
<artifactId>azure-ai-openai</artifactId>
<version>1.0.0-beta.8</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.azure</groupId>
<artifactId>azure-identity</artifactId>
<version>1.12.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>mysql</groupId>
<artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
<version>8.0.30</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.azure</groupId>
<artifactId>azure-identity-extensions</artifactId>
<version>1.1.5</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
After adding the required dependencies, let’s look at the Chatbot source code itself.
Application Source Code for Intelligent Chatbot using SpringBoot & Azure OpenAI
Starting off with directory structure, the Chatbot in its entirety lives here:
srcmainjavaorgspringframeworksamplespetclinicchat
This directory contains 3 files, ChatController.java, WebSocketConfig.java, and WebSocketEventListener.java. Let’s examine the ChatController individually and take a quick look at our WebSocket related files.
This is some boilerplate code for a pretty standard Chatbot using Web Sockets running in a SpringBoot app. The goal of this basic chat controller is that it can be reused, modified, or otherwise repurposed for a wide range of uses.
While I won’t go line-by-line, I’ll highlight a few major parts of the code. The first being the dependencies associated with Azure OpenAI and Managed Identity, these are all essential.
import com.azure.ai.openai.OpenAIClient;
import com.azure.ai.openai.OpenAIClientBuilder;
import com.azure.ai.openai.models.ChatChoice;
import com.azure.ai.openai.models.ChatCompletions;
import com.azure.ai.openai.models.ChatCompletionsOptions;
import com.azure.ai.openai.models.ChatRequestMessage;
import com.azure.ai.openai.models.ChatRequestAssistantMessage;
import com.azure.ai.openai.models.ChatRequestSystemMessage;
import com.azure.ai.openai.models.ChatRequestUserMessage;
import com.azure.ai.openai.models.ChatResponseMessage;
import com.azure.identity.DefaultAzureCredentialBuilder;
import com.azure.core.credential.TokenCredential;
Next let’s look at the ChatController class. The sendMessageAI method contains the majority of our Chatbot configuration. The following lines contain the Managed Identity connection to Azure OpenAI.
TokenCredential defaultCredential = new DefaultAzureCredentialBuilder().build();
OpenAIClient client = new OpenAIClientBuilder().credential(defaultCredential).endpoint(“https://java-demo.openai.azure.com/”).buildClient();
The remaining content of the method handles the AI portion of the chatbot, in this case, instructing our Azure OpenAI model on what role to play during our chat and handling the receiving and answering of user provided chat messages. All of this is done over the Web Socket spec defined in WebSocketConfig.java and WebSocketEventListener.java.
The remaining methods in this file define the control flow for messages sent by the user (sendMessage), and users added to the chat (addUser).
The Azure OpenAI connection and usage scenario may seem simple to set up (and it is), but the results are incredibly powerful and the possibilities for integrations with business apps are limitless. Now that we’ve seen the OpenAI setup, let’s look at our database connection.
Database Connection with Managed Identity
Back when we made our managed identities and used Service Connector to connect our database and web app, you should have received a MySQL username that looks something like: aad_mysqlflexible_abcd. Now we’ll take this username and add it to our SpringBoot configuration file, in this case, the one for MySQL called application-mysql.properties. Edit the file to include your database URL and MYSQL username like the example below.
# database init, supports mysql too
database=mysql
spring.datasource.url=${MYSQL_URL:jdbc:mysql://java-jdemo-mysql-db.mysql.database.azure.com/petclinic}
spring.datasource.username=${MYSQL_USER:aad_mysqlflexible_e8bir}
# SQL is written to be idempotent so this is safe
spring.sql.init.mode=always
Setting spring.sql.init.mode=always lets us execute the data.sql file in our resources/ directory automatically on startup.
In just a few steps, we’ve connected a MySQL database to our App Service web app using managed identity and service connector for secure passwordless database connections. Next up, we’ll look at some of our deployment options.
Deployments
Deployments – CLI
Let’s look at deploying our app, starting with the Azure CLI and Maven. The first step with any Maven-based build and release for a Java application is to build our app. We can start by running a Maven build using the following command:
mvn package -DskipTests
I’m skipping tests for the purpose of demonstration, but you may want to avoid this with a production app.
Next up, deploy your application JAR file with the Azure CLI like this:
az webapp deploy –resource-group ${RESOURCE_GROUP} –name ${WEBAPP_NAME} –src-path target/${APPNAME_AND_VERSION}.jar
Checking your deployed application, you should see something like this:
Now browsing to the chat tab should give you the option to chat with an AI assistant powered by Azure OpenAI!
If that seems easy, it’s because it is. We can add our own data, modify the behavior of our chatbot, and even AI framework we’re using for the app, but we’ll save that for a later post.
Deployments – GitHub Actions with Managed Identity
CLI deployments are a great way to get started, but CI/CD is typically the preferred deployment method for web apps. Using GitHub Actions with Azure App Service, CI/CD is straightforward and easy to configure. In this case, having our Managed Identities already configured will make it even easier.
Starting off, we’ll need to browse to our web app in the Azure portal and select Deployment > Deployment Center. Here we can configure our app to deploy from a number of different sources, but we’ll select GitHub for now. Picking our Organization, Repository, and Branch, we’re then allowed to create a new workflow file or add a new one. Let’s just add a new one, which we can preview later. This workflow just performs a standard Maven build and deployment to our app on merges into main.
We’ll address the notice at the top of the page in the next section, but for now let’s look at the authentication settings. Here we can use an existing user-assigned identity (Managed Identity), or we can create a new one. If you’re on a Free, Basic, or Standard SKU, select your preferred identity (or create a new one) and click save. Otherwise, click Discard and continue to the next section to set up a staging slot for your web app.
Using Deployment Slots (Premium SKU Required)
To set up deployment slots for your app, you must be on a Premium SKU. Browse to your web app > Deployment > Deployment Slots and click Add.
Here you can name your staging slot and clone the settings of your production slot. After adding the slot, click on it to switch over to your new staging slot. Now on the staging slot, we’ll configure GitHub Actions deployments just as we did before. Under Deployment > Deployment Center we’ll fill out the form naming GitHub as our source, specifying Organization, Repository, Branch, selecting to add a new workflow and configuring our user-assigned identity for auth. After clicking save, a deployment will be kicked off and the app will be deployed to your staging slot.
Slot Swap into Production
While the staging slot is great for ensuring our app is fully functional before we deploy to production, eventually, we’ll need to officially swap our slots and deploy our production app. To do this, go back to Deployment > Deployment slots and select Swap. Here you’ll need to set your source and the staging slot and target as the production slot. After clicking start swap and waiting for the changes to complete, your application from staging will be fully deployed and running in production.
Now any time a change is made, the staging slot will be updated first and, after a manual review, can be swapped into production at any time. This also works in reverse, if a production app is having issues, swapping the previous version from the staging slot can effectively revert a change that had unintended consequences.
Conclusion
Configuring and deploying secure OpenAI powered applications to Azure App Service has never been easier! With the flexibility of the PaaS platform, the passwordless connections, and the power of Azure OpenAI, the concepts demonstrated here can be applied to a wide range of applications. Reach out with any questions or comments, this article will contain links in the future to other versions of the same app using LangChain4j and SpringAI.
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Streamline Your Azure Workflow: Introducing GitHub Copilot for Azure in VS Code
I’m excited to announce the public preview of GitHub Copilot for Azure – a new addition to your toolkit that seamlessly integrates with GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code. Think of it as your personal assistant for navigating the Azure cloud. Instead of switching between your IDE and the Azure portal to manage infrastructure or search for commands and arguments, focus on what you do best – writing code. Whether you’re provisioning services or deploying apps, just ask @azure in GitHub Copilot Chat and handle it all right inside your editor.
You can get started right now by installing GitHub Copilot for Azure from the VS Code Marketplace!
GitHub Copilot for Azure can help with…
Learning about Azure
GIF demonstrating learning about Azure
GitHub Copilot for Azure makes learning about Azure services a breeze, whether you’re new to the platform or a seasoned pro. It pulls in relevant, up-to-date documentation like answers on Azure OpenAI models, Azure AI Search, or even how pricing works for services like Azure SQL, all within your coding environment. Instead of searching through multiple sources, @azure surfaces the info you need on-the-fly, letting you understand key services without ever leaving your editor. This makes it super handy for developers just starting with Azure, helping them grasp complex concepts faster, while also saving time for experienced developers who need quick reminders or details on the latest services and features.
Suggested prompts for learning
@azure Give me a detailed description of Azure AI Search
@azure Which azure services can run my container?
Deploying
GIF showing how to search for and deploy an azd template
GitHub Copilot for Azure takes the hassle out of deploying your apps by guiding you through tasks like setting up resources or automating deployments. Whether you’re building a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) app with Python, creating a CI/CD pipeline, or using the Azure Developer CLI (azd) to deploy your project, @azure can suggest app templates, the right commands and configurations straight from your code editor. No need to search for sample applications, look up CLI commands or YAML syntax – @azure fills in the blanks for you. This is especially helpful when you need to quickly spin up services or tear them down, saving you time and letting you focus on writing great code instead of managing infrastructure.
Suggested prompts for deploying
@azure Can you help me build an RAG chat app with GPT-4o?
@azure List the regions where GPT-4o is available
Troubleshooting
GIF demonstrating how to diagnose an app issue
Sometimes things go wrong. When they do GitHub Copilot for Azure simplifies diagnosing and troubleshooting by providing quick insights into your application’s performance and resource issues.
Whether you’re trying to figure out why your Kubernetes cluster is sluggish or the root cause of those annoying 500 errors on your website, @azurehas your back. It helps by performing diagnoses, searching logs, and pointing you toward potential issues without having to search through documentation or manually run multiple checks. This speeds up the troubleshooting process, letting you zero in on problems faster and get your app or service back to full speed with less frustration.
Building on that, @azure doesn’t just help identify problems – it actively assists in fixing them too. Once you’ve pinpointed what’s causing your resource or app issues, @azure can suggest solutions, like optimizing configurations, scaling resources, or fixing code that’s causing those 500 errors. For example, if your Kubernetes cluster is running slow, @azure might recommend changes to your deployment settings or resource limits. If you’re dealing with quota exhaustion or performance bottlenecks, it can offer tips on how to scale efficiently. Essentially, @azure becomes your go-to tool for both diagnosing and resolving issues, so you can focus on improving your app rather than troubleshooting for hours.
Suggested prompts for troubleshooting
@azure Why is my ReallyImportantWebsite webapp running slow?
@azure Are there any errors in the logs of my SuperCoolDemo Container App?
Operating
GIF demonstrating searching for Azure resources
Following troubleshooting, GitHub Copilot for Azure also helps you stay on top of resource operations. After resolving issues, it’s crucial to ensure your resources are being used properly, and @azure makes this easy. For example, you can quickly ask @azure how many Azure OpenAI deployments you have or request a count of your storage accounts in eastus, sorted by size. This immediate access to resource data helps you optimize your setup by identifying over-provisioned resources, rebalancing workloads, or fine-tuning configurations – all without leaving your coding environment. It streamlines the process of managing resources and keeping everything running smoothly, making sure you’re not only fixing problems but also preventing new ones from cropping up.
Suggested prompts for operating
@azure how many web app plans using the free tier do I have deployed grouped by region sorted by highest to lowest?
@azure How do I list all the pods in my AKS cluster?
Slash Commands give you more control
GitHub Copilot for Azure is new, and sometimes it may not understand what you want, but it has slash commands that you can use to specify your intent:
@azure /helpto see what kinds of things @azure can do
@azure /learnto learn about Azure
@azure /resourcesfor info on your Azure resources
@azure /diagnose to figure out what’s wrong with your applications
@azure /changeTenantto choose the Azure tenant you want to use
Get started now!
GitHub Copilot for Azure is currently in public preview, and can installed from the VS Code Marketplace: Get GitHub Copilot for Azure
Share your thoughts
We would love to know what you think, good or bad! Use the “Thumbs Up” and “Thumbs Down” buttons to tell us, and you can open issues in our GitHub repo. We would love to hear from you about how we can improve and help you with your Azure journey.
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Announcing availability of AlmaLinux as an endorsed Linux distribution in Azure
Linux has become the most popular operating system on Azure as over 60% of customer cores run Linux-based workloads. We are committed to continuously investing in the platform to enhance the Linux and open source experience in Azure, ensuring we meet the evolving needs of our customers.
AlmaLinux has been available in the Azure Marketplace for over three years and we are excited to announce it is now an endorsed Linux distribution in Azure. AlmaLinux is a free, community-owned, enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and offers long-term stability and security features. AlmaLinux is used by a wide range of customers in Azure and has become an increasing popular choice as CentOS Linux users look for alternatives following its end of life. The endorsement of AlmaLinux in Azure is a testament to its reliability, security, and performance.
“The AlmaLinux OS Foundation is thrilled that AlmaLinux has been recognized as an endorsed Linux distribution in Azure. This endorsement underscores our commitment to providing a stable, secure, and high-performance Linux distribution for enterprise environments. Being an endorsed distribution in Azure not only validates the reliability and quality of AlmaLinux but also ensures that our users can confidently deploy and manage their workloads in Azure.” – benny Vasquez, Chair of the Board, AlmaLinux OS Foundation
What does being an endorsed Linux distribution in Azure mean?
Customers have the flexibility to deploy any Linux distribution in Azure from several different image sources – Azure Marketplace, custom, or community gallery. Each source provides a different expectation for quality, utility, and support. A subset of the Linux distributions in Azure, which includes Ubuntu, Debian, Flatcar, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Enterprise Linux, and now AlmaLinux, are known as endorsed distributions. While a Linux distribution being endorsed is not an official recommendation from Microsoft, it indicates that the distribution has met the following criteria:
Market and customer demand: We’ve received signals about the market and customer demand of the Linux distribution and its usage in Azure.
Contract: We have a contractual agreement ensuring update cadences and remediation targets with the provider of the distribution, which can be the actual provider of the Linux distribution (e.g. Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE, etc.) or another vendor who is responsible for image publishing.
Engineering relationship: There is a close engineering relationship between Microsoft and the Linux distribution provider with ongoing forums to discuss issues, customer feedback, new Azure feature enablement and future updates.
Content mirror in Azure: The Linux distribution provider maintains content and infrastructure across multiple Azure regions ensuring consistency of the update user experience and providing speedy, in-network software installation.
As an endorsed Linux distribution, AlmaLinux will adhere to testing and update standards, while also receiving support as detailed in Microsoft’s Linux and open source support policy.
Get started with AlmaLinux on Azure
AlmaLinux is available through the Azure Marketplace for both x64 and Arm64 architectures, including Microsoft’s latest Cobalt 100-based virtual machines, as well as a customized image for HPC workloads. AlmaLinux images are also available through Community Gallery and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
Learn more
Read the AlmaLinux press release
View the session from Open Source Summit North America to get an inside look into the engineering efforts at Microsoft that ensure your favorite Linux distributions run well on Azure
Read the migration guide to learn how to convert your current OS to AlmaLinux using the AlmaLinux migration tool
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Don’t miss out: Six Copilot learning opportunities for everyone
Remember the early days of the internet? I do. It was like discovering a new world. I spent hours diving into the depths of cyberspace, amazed at the endless information just a few clicks away. I felt like I had the world’s largest library right at my fingertips. Fast-forward to today, and we’re moving from the era of search engines to the age of the prompt. Now, instead of just typing keywords, we craft detailed, thoughtful queries with precision and intent. If you’re looking to stay current with AI, learning these new skills isn’t just useful—it’s a career-defining move.
In this transformative era of computing, as AI promises to revolutionize our lives and businesses, Microsoft Copilot stands out as a powerful ally. Technical learners can start building their Copilot skills on the Copilot learning hub on Microsoft Learn. And there are many ways that other learners can skill up to fully harness its potential.
Remember, Copilot is for everyone! It can enhance productivity, collaboration, efficiency, and more, and for the learner, understanding its nuances and adapting effectively are key to maximizing its benefits!
As a Microsoft Technical Trainer actively engaging with learners on Microsoft Copilot usage, I’m glad to share my advice here on six essential learning opportunities that can help you realize the full potential of Copilot at work.
Craft effective prompts. A key skill for many learners is the ability to create effective prompts for Copilot—making the most of its efficiency to crush their everyday tasks. If you need to write clear, concise instructions that yield accurate results in the Microsoft 365 apps that you use regularly, I recommend the Craft effective prompts for Microsoft 365 Copilot learning path on Microsoft Learn.
Refine completions. Occasionally, Copilot provides an unexpected answer. In this scenario, you need to validate its output and refine it as necessary. But how do you do this?
Focus on the art of the prompt. Get a good start on Examine how to build an effective prompt, specifying goal, context, expectations, and source. This article offers detailed guidance on crafting a highly effective prompt to get exactly what you’re looking for.
Use grounding and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Grounding feeds your model the right info for spot-on answers, and RAG fetches the freshest data to keep it current. Together, they help ensure that your Copilot completions are sharp, relevant, and on point. To get the expert’s edge on how to source your prompt, I recommend the section on grounding in Prompt engineering techniques in the Azure OpenAI Service documentation on Microsoft Learn.
Understand relevance. Knowing how to integrate Copilot effectively into your everyday workflow is crucial. To learn how Copilot can directly align with your specific job tasks or career, check out the Empower your workforce with Microsoft 365 Copilot Use Cases learning path on Microsoft Learn. It offers detailed use cases for operations, finance, marketing, HR, IT, sales, executives, and more. If you’re looking for ways to see how Copilot is relevant to your personal life, read Microsoft Copilot personal and work experiences explained.
Clarify privacy. Many learners have questions about Copilot and their private information. It’s important to know that Copilot is designed with data safety in mind. Microsoft 365 Copilot is designed with top-notch privacy and security measures that respect your organization’s data security and is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regulations. Your data stays yours, and Microsoft doesn’t use it to train its models. Find out more in Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Make the most of Copilot—everywhere. Copilot is available in many Microsoft technologies and services, including Microsoft 365 apps, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. For specifics how to use Copilot in each Microsoft 365 app, see Microsoft 365 Copilot and Reinvent productivity with Microsoft 365 Copilot. It’s also available in Windows on the Start menu or taskbar and more, as highlighted in Discover the power of AI with Copilot.
Boost collaboration and more with Microsoft 365 Copilot Teams and discover how to accelerate efficiency with Copilot in Dynamics 365. Learn to harness the power of Copilot in Microsoft Fabric to find actionable data insights for your organization. Build better apps faster with Copilot in Microsoft Power Platform. Plus, streamline Azure operations and management with Copilot in Azure. Find out how to make the most of Copilot in Microsoft Edge. You can even use Copilot to create unique images and designs with Image Creator in Bing.
Build your proficiency. If you’ve used Copilot for a while and you want to advance to the next level, I recommend integrating this cutting-edge technology into your everyday tasks to maximize your efficiency. Practice and exploration can accelerate your learning process. And level up your prompting skills with advanced prompt engineering techniques, as explored in the Azure OpenAI Service documentation on Microsoft Learn.
Try a free version of Copilot, or download the Copilot mobile app to get started. Now that we’ve explored some of the top opportunities for learning about Copilot and perfecting your skills, use this cutting-edge AI technology with confidence to drive your everyday projects, making the most of your everywhere, always available assistant.
Meet Barbara Andrews, Microsoft Learn expert
Barbara Andrews began her professional career as an accountant but soon discovered that she loves technology and has a passion for learning and teaching. She has worked with almost every on-premises Microsoft server technology (except Exchange Server) and has worked her way through many Azure services. As a Microsoft Technical Trainer, Barbara specializes in Azure infrastructure, data, and AI. She has a passion for helping working professionals and career changers build skills and pursue their dream careers, and she has upskilled more than 20,000 students, both online and in person.
Learn more about Barbara Andrews.
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Smart card redirection support for YubiKeys in Windows App on iOS
We’re excited to announce the public preview of smart card redirection support for YubiKeys is now available in Windows App on iOS version 11.0.4.
Microsoft and Yubico have partnered to deliver an improved experience for YubiKey and Windows App users. Now customers using Windows App can connect their YubiKey to their Apple iPhone or iPad and use it within the virtual Windows session to stay secure and productive. The Yubico integration supports the latest YubiKey 5 portfolio.
Screen capture with a pop-up of a smart card sign in.
For more details, visit Redirect local devices, audio, and folders in Windows App.
Continue the conversation. Find best practices. Bookmark the Windows Tech Community, then follow us @MSWindowsITPro on X and on LinkedIn. Looking for support? Visit Windows on Microsoft Q&A.
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Meet Microsoft Entra at Ignite 2024: November 18-22
Microsoft Ignite is just around the corner, taking place from Monday, November 18, 2024 through Friday, November 22, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois and digitally. This event is the ultimate gathering for IT and Security professionals, developers, and business leaders from every corner of the world. During Ignite, dive into the latest AI innovations for AI transformation to learn from the brightest minds in the industry. Plus, discover solutions to help modernize and manage intelligent apps, protect your data, supercharge productivity, and expand your services. You’ll also have endless opportunities to network with partners and grow your community or business. While in-person passes are sold out, you can still register to participate online.
This year, we’re thrilled about our sessions on Microsoft Entra. These breakouts are your all-access pass to not only hear about the cutting-edge advancements in identity and access management (IAM), but also to engage with Microsoft Entra experts and team members behind these innovations. Whether you’re curious about advancing your Zero Trust architecture with identity and network, delving into the latest advancements in generative AI for securing access, or exploring our unified approach to identity and network access controls, we’ve got you covered!
Your complete guide to Microsoft Entra at Ignite:
Secure access for any identity to any resource with Microsoft Entra
Secure access for your workforce with the new Microsoft Entra Suite
Accelerate your Zero Trust journey: Unify Identity and Network Access
Bring passkey into your passwordless journey with Microsoft Entra ID
Security Copilot + Microsoft Entra: Secure access at the speed of AI
Secure access to privileged apps and resources with Microsoft Entra ID
Breakout sessions
Secure access for any identity to any resource with Microsoft Entra
BRK313 – Wednesday, November 20 | 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM CDT
https://aka.ms/Ignite2024/BRK313
Dive deep into the newest innovations and announcements for identity and network security solutions to establish Zero Trust access controls, secure access for employees, customers, and partners, and secure access in any cloud. Plus, see how generative AI and admin center tools boost efficiency and scale for your team.
Speakers: Alex Simons, Nichole Peterson
Secure access for your workforce with the new Microsoft Entra Suite
BRK314 – Wednesday, November 20 | 1:15 PM – 2:00 PM CDT
https://aka.ms/Ignite2024/BRK314
Identity is your first line of defense. But when identity and network access solutions operate in isolation and not in tandem, they can lead to increased complexity and inconsistent policies. Join us to learn how unifying Conditional Access across identities and network can help simplify your Zero Trust architecture. Find out how Microsoft Entra Suite can streamline employee onboarding, modernize remote access, and secure access to on-premises applications and internet resources.
Speakers: Irina Nechaeva, Jef Kazimer
Note for Microsoft partners: We are also hosting session BRK332 on Thursday, November 21st for you to learn about Microsoft Entra Suite and relevant business opportunities.
Accelerate your Zero Trust journey: Unify Identity and Network Access
BRK326 – Thursday, November 21 | 9:45 AM – 10:30 AM CDT
https://aka.ms/Ignite2024/BRK326
Discover how to accelerate your Zero Trust journey with a unified approach across identity and network. We will explore how Microsoft’s identity-centric Security Service Edge (SSE) solution can help you secure access to all private, on-premises, internet, and SaaS applications and resources from anywhere. Join us to learn about Microsoft’s technology partnerships, where you can further enhance your organization’s security posture.
Speakers: Sinead O’Donovan, John Savill, Abdi Saeedadabi
Theater sessions
Bring passkey into your passwordless journey with Microsoft Entra ID
THR659 – Thursday, November 21 | 5:15 PM – 5:45 PM CDT
https://aka.ms/Ignite2024/THR659
Many of our customers are either already deploying passwordless credentials or planning to do so in the next few years. Meanwhile, the industry is buzzing with excitement about passkeys. But what exactly are passkeys, and what do they mean for your organization’s passwordless journey? Join the Microsoft Entra ID product team as we explore the impact of passkeys on the passwordless ecosystem and share insights from Microsoft’s own passkey implementation and customer experiences.
Speaker: Nitika Gupta
Security Copilot + Microsoft Entra: Secure access at the speed of AI
THR556 – Wednesday, November 20 | 4:15 PM – 4:30 PM CDT
https://aka.ms/Ignite2024/THR556
Discover how Security Copilot and Microsoft Entra revolutionize identity and access management using GenAI to strengthen Zero Trust. Accelerate tasks like troubleshooting and policy management to reduce downtime. Elevate security teams by bridging skill gaps, improving decision-making, and guiding complex tasks, ensuring a strong security posture in an evolving threat landscape. Scale with AI by automating insights and streamlining security operations.
Speakers: Sarah Scott, Mitch Muro
Lab session
Secure access to privileged apps and resources with Microsoft Entra ID
LAB546 – Wednesday, November 20 | 6:30 PM – 7:45 PM, Thursday, November 21 | 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM CDT
https://aka.ms/Ignite2024/LAB456
Enable your organization to confidently deploy privileged apps in alignment with Zero Trust. In this hands-on session, you’ll learn to prevent identity-based attacks and secure access to resources with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). You’ll enable passkeys, phishing-resistant authentication, and Conditional Access, as well as implement access management, enable continuous access evaluation, and more, using labs from SC-300: Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator Associate.
Speakers: Robert Stewart, Danielle Augustin
Community Roundtable: Microsoft Entra Suite: Secure access for your employees
Join us for an engaging community table conversation, COM1053 about the Microsoft Entra Suite. Whether you’re just beginning or looking to enhance your knowledge, this discussion will provide actionable insights and foster a collaborative environment for sharing experiences and strategies to help you further your Zero Trust user access security. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn from peers and experts alike!
Expert meetup
Want to connect with Microsoft Entra experts and team members in-person while at Ignite? Visit the Expert meetup stations in the Microsoft Hub to ask questions and view demos.
Catch us at the Secure the Night party
Join Microsoft Security’s “Secure the Night” party on November 20 for an evening of exciting entertainment, food and refreshments, and the opportunity to connect informally with our Microsoft Security teams.
Make sure to bring your Microsoft Ignite Badge for entry.
Registration is OPEN and is required to attend.
The entire team looks forward to meeting you at Microsoft Ignite, whether in Chicago or in the chat rooms for our breakout sessions. Your feedback and partnership are essential to the continuous development of Microsoft Entra innovations.
Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, learn, and grow at Microsoft Ignite 2024!
Irina Nechaeva
General Manager, Microsoft Entra
Learn more about Microsoft Entra
Prevent identity attacks, ensure least privilege access, unify access controls, and improve the experience for users with comprehensive identity and network access solutions across on-premises and clouds.
Microsoft Entra Suite | Microsoft Security Blog
Microsoft Entra News and Insights | Microsoft Security Blog
Microsoft Entra blog | Tech Community
Microsoft Entra documentation | Microsoft Learn
Microsoft Entra discussions | Microsoft Community
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Conditionally hide item in custom gallery view
Hi all,
Is there a way to conditionally hide an item in a custom view (gallery) based on the value of a Yes/No column? See screenshot below for my attempt using CSS ‘display’, but I find that it still leaves an empty slot in the list.
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Hi all, Is there a way to conditionally hide an item in a custom view (gallery) based on the value of a Yes/No column? See screenshot below for my attempt using CSS ‘display’, but I find that it still leaves an empty slot in the list. Any suggestions? Thank you! Read More
Download Price List – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/developer/get-a-price-sheet
Hi guys, check if you can help me out.
I’m trying to download the price list of my customer, I’m following this documentation here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/developer/get-a-price-sheet the problem is that I don’t have privileges to access this resource.
I’m using an access token retrieved through the OAuth2 user consent, I have an WebApplication created on my Microsoft Entra ID, this application has the permissions below:
I’m able to receive the authorization code and exchange it to an access code normaly, however this access code is not working when I try to use it to retrieve the price list, where is how I’m doing it:
var market = “EU”; // Two-letter country/region code
var view = “updatedlicensebased”; // Type of price sheet view
var requestUri = $”https://api.partner.microsoft.com/v1.0/sales/pricesheets(Market='{market}’,PricesheetView='{view}’)/$value”;
System.Net.Http.HttpRequestMessage linesMarketplaceReq6 = new System.Net.Http.HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, requestUri);
linesMarketplaceReq6.Headers.Authorization = new System.Net.Http.Headers.AuthenticationHeaderValue(“Bearer”, accessToken);
linesMarketplaceReq6.Headers.Host = “api.partner.microsoft.com”;
var linesMarketplaceResult6 = client.Send(linesMarketplaceReq6);
var result6 = await linesMarketplaceResult6.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
var t = await linesMarketplaceResult6.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
t.Dump();
The response is: { “statusCode”: 401, “message”: “Unauthorized: Invalid Authorization header” }
Then I found this thread here
https://github.com/microsoft/Partner-Center-PowerShell/issues/405#issuecomment-1709773538
which tells me to get a new access_code using the current refresh_code, but changing the resource to https://api.partner.microsoft.com , but I when I try to do it I receive other error:
{“error”:”invalid_grant”,”error_description”:”AADSTS65001: The user or administrator has not consented to use the application with ID ’92b24bbe-bbe0-44e9-b9ca-35ba915bab5e’ named ‘SITC-CSP’. Send an interactive authorization request for this user and resource., …,”suberror”:”consent_required”}
Code to get the new access_code using the refresh token:
using var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, new Uri($”https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenantId}/oauth2/token”))
{
Content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(new[]
{
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“resource”, “https://api.partner.microsoft-int.com”),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“client_id”, “<client_id>”),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“client_secret”, “<client_secret>”),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“grant_type”, “refresh_token”),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“refresh_token”, refreshToken),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“scope”, “openid”),
})
};
request.Headers.Add(“ContentType”,”application/x-www-form-urlencoded”);
var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
var data = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
data.Dump();
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Hi guys, check if you can help me out. I’m trying to download the price list of my customer, I’m following this documentation here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/developer/get-a-price-sheet the problem is that I don’t have privileges to access this resource. I’m using an access token retrieved through the OAuth2 user consent, I have an WebApplication created on my Microsoft Entra ID, this application has the permissions below:I’m able to receive the authorization code and exchange it to an access code normaly, however this access code is not working when I try to use it to retrieve the price list, where is how I’m doing it: var market = “EU”; // Two-letter country/region code
var view = “updatedlicensebased”; // Type of price sheet view
var requestUri = $”https://api.partner.microsoft.com/v1.0/sales/pricesheets(Market='{market}’,PricesheetView='{view}’)/$value”;
System.Net.Http.HttpRequestMessage linesMarketplaceReq6 = new System.Net.Http.HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, requestUri);
linesMarketplaceReq6.Headers.Authorization = new System.Net.Http.Headers.AuthenticationHeaderValue(“Bearer”, accessToken);
linesMarketplaceReq6.Headers.Host = “api.partner.microsoft.com”;
var linesMarketplaceResult6 = client.Send(linesMarketplaceReq6);
var result6 = await linesMarketplaceResult6.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
var t = await linesMarketplaceResult6.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
t.Dump(); The response is: { “statusCode”: 401, “message”: “Unauthorized: Invalid Authorization header” }Then I found this thread herehttps://github.com/microsoft/Partner-Center-PowerShell/issues/405#issuecomment-1709773538which tells me to get a new access_code using the current refresh_code, but changing the resource to https://api.partner.microsoft.com , but I when I try to do it I receive other error:{“error”:”invalid_grant”,”error_description”:”AADSTS65001: The user or administrator has not consented to use the application with ID ’92b24bbe-bbe0-44e9-b9ca-35ba915bab5e’ named ‘SITC-CSP’. Send an interactive authorization request for this user and resource., …,”suberror”:”consent_required”}Code to get the new access_code using the refresh token: using var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, new Uri($”https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenantId}/oauth2/token”))
{
Content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(new[]
{
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“resource”, “https://api.partner.microsoft-int.com”),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“client_id”, “<client_id>”),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“client_secret”, “<client_secret>”),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“grant_type”, “refresh_token”),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“refresh_token”, refreshToken),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>(“scope”, “openid”),
})
};
request.Headers.Add(“ContentType”,”application/x-www-form-urlencoded”);
var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
var data = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
data.Dump(); Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! Read More
Failed sign in after reset of windows 10
Hi good people,
I was trying to use a PC that had been setting around for a couple of years. My coworker did not remember the password and we decided to just reset the PC and delete everything on it. However, after I had done so I end up back on the sign in screen, for an account that is not an admin, and when I sign in using the pin I get “The user profile service service failed to sign-in. User profile cannot be loaded.”. I was hoping that after the reset (cleaning all drives), I would end up with a clean PC as if I just bought it.
Any help is appreciated as I am lost.
Thanks in advance.
Hi good people, I was trying to use a PC that had been setting around for a couple of years. My coworker did not remember the password and we decided to just reset the PC and delete everything on it. However, after I had done so I end up back on the sign in screen, for an account that is not an admin, and when I sign in using the pin I get “The user profile service service failed to sign-in. User profile cannot be loaded.”. I was hoping that after the reset (cleaning all drives), I would end up with a clean PC as if I just bought it. Any help is appreciated as I am lost.Thanks in advance. Read More
Outlook for Windows
Hi – I would appreciate some help if possible.
I have been using Microsoft Outlook for many years but have now had to start using Outlook for Windows for my Outlook e-mail account as MS Outlook no longer supports it.
Microsoft Outlook gave the option to add and delete fields such as ‘From’, ‘Subject’ ‘Received’ etc by right clicking and choosing ‘Customize Current View’. I found this very useful as I added an ‘Action’ column where I could add reminders and comments for particular e-mails.
Is there a way I can do similar in Outlook for Windows as all it displays is ‘From’, ‘Subject’ and ‘Received’.
When I right click in the row it just gives ‘Sort Ascending’, Sort Descending’ or ‘Change the View’, which then gives just three options of ‘Roomy’, ‘Cosy’ or ‘Compact’.
Grateful if anyone has some advice.
Regards
Malcolm
Hi – I would appreciate some help if possible.I have been using Microsoft Outlook for many years but have now had to start using Outlook for Windows for my Outlook e-mail account as MS Outlook no longer supports it.Microsoft Outlook gave the option to add and delete fields such as ‘From’, ‘Subject’ ‘Received’ etc by right clicking and choosing ‘Customize Current View’. I found this very useful as I added an ‘Action’ column where I could add reminders and comments for particular e-mails.Is there a way I can do similar in Outlook for Windows as all it displays is ‘From’, ‘Subject’ and ‘Received’.When I right click in the row it just gives ‘Sort Ascending’, Sort Descending’ or ‘Change the View’, which then gives just three options of ‘Roomy’, ‘Cosy’ or ‘Compact’.Grateful if anyone has some advice.RegardsMalcolm Read More
Digital signage in Teams Rooms brings your messages to your meeting spaces
Digital signage in Microsoft Teams Rooms expands communications into your meeting spaces, enhancing employee engagement and connection. When your Teams Rooms devices are not used for meetings nor presentations, you can set them up to run in signage mode, where the front-of-room displays show dynamic content and relevant information in rotation. You can showcase company news, organization updates, upcoming events, internal campaigns, and more, enabling IT, Communications, HR, and Facilities to share messages directly with employees in between meetings and maximizing your existing Teams Rooms hardware investments.
Teams Rooms display as digital signage when idle.
Customize signage mode to fit your organization’s needs and preferences
Signage mode fills the front-of-room display with content while keeping the room information and calendar preview visible in the Teams Rooms banner, so users remain aware of the room context while viewing signage content. If you prefer to have signage content occupy the entire front-of-room display without any room information overlayed, you can hide the Teams Rooms banner. A simple tap on the touch console in signage mode seamlessly returns the device to the Teams Rooms home screen.
Digital signage on the front of room display and a close-up on a touch console display. When you tap, the room display reverts to the Teams Rooms home screen.
To give you full control and flexibility, signage mode activates and deactivates based on the timers you set. You can set the number of minutes the device has been idle for before signage mode is activated, as well as how many minutes before a meeting is scheduled to start before signage mode is deactivated. To ensure users who arrive early in the room before a meeting starts and those who linger in the room after a meeting ends can see signage content, you can set the activation and deactivation timers to the lowest possible values.
In addition to being able to specify the signage mode activation and deactivation timers, you can also set whether signage mode adheres to the operating system’s screen timeout settings. To avoid screen burn and comply with sustainability mandates, you can keep the default behavior of signage mode which adheres to the screen timeout settings for most of your devices. However, if you have devices that are placed in rooms with glass walls or common open areas with high foot traffic, you have the option to have signage mode ignore the screen timeout settings for these devices to ensure maximum visibility of signage content.
Seamlessly integrate with supported digital signage providers
We are excited to partner with Appspace and XOGO to bring their digital signage solutions to Teams Rooms to help you easily create, deploy, and manage content for digital signage. Appspace and XOGO are trusted third-party options built into the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal for you to enable as a signage source.
Our native integrations with Appspace and XOGO support the automatic registration of Teams Rooms devices into their content management systems, streamlining device onboarding and management. As part of the integration, Appspace and XOGO will receive the names of the rooms that are registered in their system so you can properly identify your Teams Rooms devices within Appspace and XOGO. Once your rooms are registered into Appspace or XOGO, you can update and manage the signage content in your rooms directly from their respective content management systems.
For customers who are not using any of the supported digital signage providers, you may add custom web URLs as a signage source.
Admin controls for digital signage in the Pro Management portal.
Remotely manage digital signage settings at scale with flexible management permissions
You can conveniently configure tenant-wide and room-specific digital signage settings directly from the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal. Setting up digital signage for your organization is straightforward: just enable the digital signage feature at the tenant-level, add a signage source, and assign the signage source and settings to your rooms.
To activate integrations with one of our supported digital signage providers, simply select your provider of choice from the signage source options and enter a valid integration ID from Appspace or XOGO. You can access the Appspace Teams Rooms setup guide here, and the XOGO Teams Rooms setup guide here. If you want to enable a web URL as a signage source, select the custom option and enter a valid web URL. Make sure that your web URL meets our requirements to ensure it loads successfully.
Assigning signage source and settings to your rooms is built with scale in mind. You can assign signage source and settings to multiple rooms and/or room groups at once, simplifying your digital signage management workflow.
We understand that digital signage administration may not look the same for each organization. Some customers may want to centrally manage digital signage, while others may want to assign digital signage management to local admins. By default, the Teams Rooms Pro Manager and the M365 Global Admin roles have rights to manage digital signage management for the tenant. However, you can grant digital signage tenant management and/or digital signage room management permissions from the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal to additional users using the role-based access control per your desired governance model.
Digital signage is currently available for Teams Rooms on Windows, Teams Rooms Pro license, and commercial cloud customers. Integrations with third-party digital signage providers require a separate subscription with the provider. Contact Appspace and XOGO directly for quotes. Support for Government Community Cloud, Government Community Cloud High, Department of Defense, and Teams Rooms on Android will be added in the future.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
VMware HCX Design with Azure VMware Solution
Overview
VMware HCX is one of the Azure VMware Solution components that generates a large number of service requests from our customers. The Azure VMware Solution product group has worked to cover the most common design considerations that you should know about when using VMware HCX with the Azure VMware Solution.
Azure VMware Solution is a VMware validated first party Azure service from Microsoft that provides private clouds containing VMware vSphere clusters built from dedicated bare-metal Azure infrastructure. It enables customers to leverage their existing investments in VMware skills and tools, allowing them to focus on developing and running their VMware-based workloads on Azure.
VMware HCX is the mobility and migration software used by the Azure VMware Solution to connect remote VMware vSphere environments to the Azure VMware Solution. These remote VMware vSphere environments can be on-premises, co-location or cloud-based instances.
Figure 1 – Azure VMware Solution with VMware HCX Service Mesh
In the next section, I will introduce the architectural components of the Azure VMware Solution.
Architectural Components
The diagram below describes the architectural components of the Azure VMware Solution.
Figure 2 – Azure VMware Solution Architectural Components
Each Azure VMware Solution architectural component has the following function:
Azure Subscription: Used to provide controlled access, budget and quota management for the Azure VMware Solution.
Azure Region: Physical locations around the world where we group data centers into Availability Zones (AZs) and then group AZs into regions.
Azure Resource Group: Container used to place Azure services and resources into logical groups.
Azure VMware Solution Private Cloud: Uses VMware software, including vCenter Server, NSX software-defined networking, vSAN software-defined storage, and Azure bare-metal ESXi hosts to provide compute, networking, and storage resources. Azure NetApp Files, Azure Elastic SAN, and Pure Cloud Block Store are also supported.
Azure VMware Solution Resource Cluster: Uses VMware software, including vSAN software-defined storage, and Azure bare-metal ESXi hosts to provide compute, networking, and storage resources for customer workloads by scaling out the Azure VMware Solution private cloud. Azure NetApp Files, Azure Elastic SAN, and Pure Cloud Block Store are also supported.
VMware HCX: Provides mobility, migration, and network extension services.
VMware Site Recovery: Provides Disaster Recovery automation, and storage replication services with VMware vSphere Replication. Third party Disaster Recovery solutions Zerto DR and JetStream DR are also supported.
Dedicated Microsoft Enterprise Edge (D-MSEE): Router that provides connectivity between Azure cloud and the Azure VMware Solution private cloud instance.
Azure Virtual Network (VNet): Private network used to connect Azure services and resources together.
Azure Route Server: Enables network appliances to exchange dynamic route information with Azure networks.
Azure Virtual Network Gateway: Cross premises gateway for connecting Azure services and resources to other private networks using IPSec VPN, ExpressRoute, and VNet to VNet.
Azure ExpressRoute: Provides high-speed private connections between Azure data centers and on-premises or colocation infrastructure.
Azure Virtual WAN (vWAN): Aggregates networking, security, and routing functions together into a single unified Wide Area Network (WAN).
In the next section, I will describe the design considerations for VMware HCX when used with the Azure VMware Solution.
Design Considerations
When deploying VMware HCX be sure to consider the following design considerations for a successful migration to the Azure VMware Solution.
Design Consideration 1: Multi-Site Network Extension Topology. Multi-site Network Extension topologies are supported by VMware HCX. These should be used in specific cases and discussed in-depth with your architecture team before adoption.
VMware HCX Network Extension appliances do have the capability to extend the same on-prem network to multiple Azure VMware Solution destinations. It is important to note that a common broadcast domain will be used across all environments. Below is a summary of the supported types of multi-site network extensions.
Topology 1: One-to-Many/”V” Architecture: In a One-to-Many topology, a source network can be extended to multiple (up to 3) Azure VMware Solution environments. Here are the design implications when utilizing a one-to-many network extension deployment.
VMware HCX uses point-to-point appliance pairs (NE appliances cannot connect to multiple destinations). It is important to note that a common broadcast domain will be used across all connected sites.
Figure 3 – One-to-Many Network Extension Topology
Extending the same source network to three different Azure VMware Solution is also supported under the one-to-many network extension topology.
Figure 4 – One-to-Many Network Extension Topology
Topology 2: Daisy Chain/”L” Architecture: Daisy chaining or the “L” shaped topology network extension is a supported architecture with VMware HCX. It can be used when you are looking to extend the same network across multiple sites.
In a Daisy chain or “L” shaped topology, the same network can be extended up to 3 environments. This will utilize a common broadcast domain across all connected sites. Please note in this configuration the gateway remains on-premises, additional latency will be incurred.
Figure 5 – Daisy Chain/ “L” Network Extension Topology
Topology 3: Any-to-Any Architecture: For an any-to-any network extension to be supported, the network extension can only be extended between two destinations. Please note, it is supported to have VMware HCX migrations between three sites in a closed loop architecture.
Figure 6 – Any-to-Any Network Extension Topology
Design Consideration 2: MTU requirements for Network Profiles. When configuring your Network profiles in VMware HCX it is important to take into consideration the MTU size of each profile. Be sure to validate the required MTU, as requirements change depending on how connectivity to VMware HCX will be established from on-premises (IPSec VPN, Azure ExpressRoute or VMware NSX Public IP).
Use this guide of recommended MTU sizes for the Network Profiles when connecting to Azure VMware Solution:
Connectivity Method
Management
Uplink
Replication
vMotion
Azure ExpressRoute
1500
1500
1500 or 9000
1500 or 9000
VMware HCX over IPSec VPN
1500
1300
1500 or 9000
1500 or 9000
VMware HCX over VMware NSX Public IP
1500
1500
1500 or 9000
1500 or 9000
Table 1 – VMware HCX Network Profile MTU Sizes
Design Consideration 3: Limitations of number of VMware HCX Mobility Optimized Networking (MON) enabled VMs. When Deploying VMware HCX in Azure VMware Solution, the default HCX Manager size is set to 4 vCPU and 12 GB of memory.
With this default configuration you will have the following limitations when it comes to VMs with MON enabled:
250 VMs with MON enabled
100 Network Extension with MON enabled
100 concurrent Migration to MON enabled networks
Within Azure VMware Solution, the option to increase the vCPU and memory configuration of the HCX Manager is possible through a Run Command. The HCX Manager will be increased to 8 vCPU and 24 GB of memory.
With a scaled-up HCX Manager the MON limitations are increased:
900 VMs with MON enabled
100 Network Extensions with MON enabled
100 concurrent Migrations to MON enabled networks.
Figure 7 – Azure VMware Solution Run Command for VMware HCX
Design Consideration 4: DHCP Server on a MON Network Extension. When using DHCP on a MON enabled network, be sure that the default gateway IP and DHCP server IP are not the same. Having the IP address of the default gateway and DHCP server the same, can lead to network disruptions on a MON enabled network. The Network Gateway for the extended segment can provide DHCP services but must have a unique IP address for the DHCP server.
Design Consideration 5 – Anti-Patterns: Try to avoid using these anti-patterns in your recoverability design. The following Multi-Site Network Extension Topologies are not supported with VMware HCX.
Topology 1: One-to-Many/”V” Architecture: Extending an on-prem site to a fourth Azure VMware Solution private cloud is not supported through VMware HCX.
Figure 8 – Unsupported One-to-Many Network Extension Topology
Topology 2: Daisy Chain/”L” Architecture: Extending an on-prem site to a fourth Azure VMware Solution private cloud is not supported in a Daisy Chain/ “L” shape architecture. This will exceed the hop-limit of VMware HCX.
Figure 9 – Unsupported Daisy Chain/ “L” Network Extension Topology
Topology 3: Any-to-Any Architecture: The any-to-any multi-site network extension is supported by VMware. VMware HCX does not support a closed loop layer 2 extension in this type of design. VMware network extension appliances do not detect or mitigate loops that may occur in a closed loop setup.
Figure 10 – Unsupported Any-to-Any Network Extension Topology
In the following section, I will describe the next steps that would need to be made to progress this high-level design estimate towards a validated detailed design.
Next Steps
The Azure VMware Solution sizing estimate should be assessed using Azure Migrate. With large enterprise solutions for strategic and major customers, an Azure VMware Solution Solutions Architect from Azure, VMware, or a VMware Partner should be engaged to ensure the solution is correctly sized to deliver business value with the minimum of risk. This should also include an application dependency assessment to understand the mapping between application groups and identify areas of data gravity, application network traffic flows, and network latency dependencies.
Summary
In this post, we described helpful design considerations when using VMware HCX with the Azure VMware Solution.
In this post, we took a closer look at the architectural building blocks of Azure VMware Solution, and the design considerations of using VMware HCX with the Azure VMware Solution. We also discussed the next steps to continue an Azure VMware Solution design.
If you are interested in the Azure VMware Solution, please use these resources to learn more about the service:
Homepage: Azure VMware Solution
Documentation: Azure VMware Solution
SLA: SLA for Azure VMware Solution
Azure Regions: Azure Products by Region
Design: Availability Design Considerations
Design: Recoverability Design Considerations
Design: Performance Design Considerations
Design: Security Design Considerations
VMware Ports and Protocols for HCX VMware HCX – VMware Ports and Protocols
VMware Interoperability Matrix Product Interoperability Matrix (vmware.com)
VMware HCX: Configuration & Best Practices
Troubleshooting: VMware HCX Troubleshooting with Azure VMware Solution
GitHub repository: Azure/azure-vmware-solution
Well-Architected Framework: Azure VMware Solution workloads
Cloud Adoption Framework: Introduction to the Azure VMware Solution adoption scenario
Network connectivity scenarios: Enterprise-scale network topology and connectivity for Azure VMware Solution
Enterprise Scale Landing Zone: Enterprise-scale for Microsoft Azure VMware Solution
Enterprise Scale GitHub repository: Azure/Enterprise-Scale-for-AVS
Azure CLI: Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) Overview
PowerShell module: Az.VMware Module
Azure Resource Manager: Microsoft.AVS/privateClouds
REST API: Azure VMware Solution REST API
Terraform provider: azurerm_vmware_private_cloud Terraform Registry
Author Bios
Ricky Perez is a Senior Technical Program Manager in the Azure VMware Solution product group at Microsoft. His background is in solution architecture with experience in public cloud and core infrastructure services.
Jason Trammell is a Senior Software Engineer in the Azure VMware Solution engineering group at Microsoft.
Kenyon Hensler is a Principal Technical Program Manager in the Azure VMware Solution product group at Microsoft. His background is in system engineering with experience across all facets of enterprise networking and compute stacks.
René van den Bedem is a Principal Technical Program Manager in the Azure VMware Solution product group at Microsoft. His background is in enterprise architecture with extensive experience across all facets of the enterprise, public cloud & service provider spaces, including digital transformation and the business, enterprise, and technology architecture stacks. René works backwards from the problem to be solved and designs solutions that deliver business value with the minimum of risk. In addition to being the first quadruple VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX), he is also a Dell Technologies Certified Master Enterprise Architect, a Nutanix Platform Expert (NPX), and a VMware vExpert.
Link to PPTX Diagrams: azure-vmware-solution/azure-vmware-master-diagrams
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Connecting to Azure SQL Database using SQLAlchemy and Microsoft Entra authentication
In this blog, we will focus on a common solution that demonstrates how to securely connect to an Azure SQL Database using Microsoft Entra Authentication with the current logged in user. It leverages the SQLAlchemy library for Python, integrating Entra’s secure identity framework with your database connection.
Key Steps:
Set Current User as Admin: You begin by configuring an Azure Entra account as the admin for the Azure SQL Server.
Configure Firewall Rules: Ensure that your machine or application has access by adding its IP address to the Azure SQL Server firewall.
Create Secure Connection: Finally, the Python SQLAlchemy library is used to connect to the database, relying on Microsoft Entra authentication instead of hard-coded credentials.
With this setup, we achieve a secure, credential-less connection to Azure SQL Database!
Comparing Azure SQL Authentication Methods
Before diving into the solution, let’s compare authentication methods. When it comes to securing access to your Azure SQL Database, the method you choose for authentication can significantly impact both the security and manageability of your applications. There are two primary methods commonly used: SQL Authentication, which relies on username and password credentials, and Microsoft Entra Managed Identity, which utilizes Microsoft Entra ID (formally Azure AD) for identity and access management.
SQL Authentication Drawbacks
SQL Authentication, while straightforward, comes with inherent security risks and management burdens. One of the main concerns is the reliance on hard-coded or stored credentials, often passed through connection strings in application code or configuration files. Additionally, using the stored static credentials allows continued access until explicitly revoked, enlarging your database’s attack surface. For example, when using SQL Authentication, developers might include connection credentials like this:
connection_string = “Driver={SQL Server};Server=tcp:yourserver.database.windows.net,1433;Database=yourdb;Uid=yourusername;Pwd=yourpassword;”
In this example, embedding the username and password in the application introduces several vulnerabilities:
Credential Exposure: If the codebase is shared, leaked, or compromised, database credentials can be exposed.
Secret Management: You need solutions like Azure Key Vault to securely store and rotate credentials, adding complexity.
Credential Rotations: SQL credentials require manual or automated rotation, increasing operational overhead.
Improved Security with Microsoft Entra authentication
Microsoft Entra authentication (formerly known as Azure AD) offers a more secure and manageable way to authenticate applications and users to Azure SQL Database. Instead of relying on stored credentials, Microsoft Entra uses tokens generated dynamically and securely by Azure’s identity management system, eliminating the need for static credentials in your applications or configuration files.
Key Security Advantages:
Credential-less Access: No need to store or transmit sensitive credentials (username and password) in code or configuration files.
Time-Limited Access: Entra-generated tokens have limited lifetimes, reducing the risk of misuse or unauthorized access over extended periods.
Centralized Management: Entra integrates seamlessly with other Azure services, providing centralized identity and access control across your applications.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): By using Entra authentication, access can be more finely tuned using RBAC, meaning users only get the permissions they need to perform their tasks.
In contrast to SQL Authentication, which requires manually revoking credentials, Microsoft Entra authentication ensures that when access to an account is revoked, it immediately affects all Azure services, preventing further unauthorized access. This vastly reduces the risk of security breaches due to stale credentials lingering in code repositories or configuration files.
Pre-requisites
An Azure subscription.
An Azure SQL database configured with Microsoft Entra authentication. You can create one using the Create database quickstart.
The latest version of the Azure CLI.
Visual Studio Code with the Python extension.
Python 3.8 or later.
ODBC Driver for SQL Server
Configure the Database
Setting Current User as Azure SQL DB Admin
First, you need to set your current Azure AD user as the Azure SQL Admin for your database. Follow the steps below:
Navigate to Your Azure SQL Server:
Log in to the Azure Portal.
Search for and select your Azure SQL Server (not the individual database).
Set Azure AD Admin:
In the left-hand menu, under Settings, click on Microsoft Entra ID.
Select Support Only Microsoft Entra authentication for this server to ensures no one can access the database server using SQL login credentials.
Click on Set admin.
In the Add admin pane, search for your user account.
Select your account and click Select.
This will set your user as a database admin and allow it to login using Microsoft Entra authentication.
Click on Save.
Adding Your IP Address to the Azure SQL Server Firewall
To ensure your connection to Azure SQL Database is secure and allowed, you will need to add your IP address to the server’s firewall rules. This step prevents unauthorized IPs from accessing your server while allowing your trusted IP to connect. Follow these steps:
Navigate to Your Azure SQL Server:
Log in to the Azure Portal.
Search for and select your Azure SQL Server.
Configure Firewall Settings:
In the left-hand menu under Security, select Networking.
In the Public network access section, enable Selected networks to allow the firewall rule in order to whitelist your IP address.
Under the Firewall rules section, click on Add your client IPv4 address. This will automatically detect your current IP address and add it to the list of allowed addresses.
Click on Allow Azure services and resources to access this server. This will allow your web app running on Azure to access the database.
Click on Save.
At this point, we have set up an Azure AD user as the admin for the Azure SQL Server, enforcing Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) authentication and eliminating the need for SQL login credentials. This reduces the risk of credential exposure while streamlining identity management. We also added your IP to the Azure SQL Server firewall whitelist, ensuring only authorized IP addresses can connect, minimizing exposure to external threats.
With these security measures in place, we are ready to securely connect and interact with the Azure SQL Database using Python, leveraging Microsoft for seamless, credential-free authentication.
Set up the project
Now that the database setup is complete, we are ready to implement and use the code that will interact with the database. We will be using SQLAlchemy, which provides many database capabilities for python developers, like ORM capabilities and connection pooling.
1. Open Visual Studio Code and create a new folder for your project and change directory into it.
mkdir python-sql-azure
cd python-sql-azure
2. Create a requirements.txt file with the following content:
pyodbc
fastapi
uvicorn[standard]
pydantic
azure-identity
sqlalchemy
3. Create a start.sh file (this is only needed if you plan to deploy this project to azure)
gunicorn -w 4 -k uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker app:app
4. Create an app.py file with the content below:
import struct
import urllib
from typing import Union, Optional
from fastapi import FastAPI, HTTPException
from pydantic import BaseModel
import sqlalchemy as db
from sqlalchemy import String, select, event
from sqlalchemy.orm import Session, Mapped, mapped_column
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential
driver_name = ‘{ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server}’
server_name = ‘<server_name>’
database_name = ‘<database_name>’
connection_string = ‘Driver={};Server=tcp:{}.database.windows.net,1433;Database={};Encrypt=yes;TrustServerCertificate=no;Connection Timeout=30’.format(driver_name, server_name, database_name)
Base = declarative_base()
credential = DefaultAzureCredential()
class UserSchema(BaseModel):
first_name: str
last_name: Union[str, None] = None
class User(Base):
__tablename__ = “user”
id: Mapped[int] = mapped_column(primary_key=True)
first_name: Mapped[str] = mapped_column(String(30))
last_name: Mapped[Optional[str]]
def __repr__(self) -> str:
return f”User(id={self.id!r}, first_name={self.first_name!r}, last_name={self.last_name!r})”
def get_engine():
params = urllib.parse.quote(connection_string)
url = “mssql+pyodbc:///?odbc_connect={0}”.format(params)
return db.create_engine(url, pool_size=1, max_overflow=0)
engine = get_engine()
# from https://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/20/core/engines.html#generating-dynamic-authentication-tokens
@event.listens_for(engine, “do_connect”)
def provide_token(dialect, conn_rec, cargs, cparams):
“””
Called before the engine creates a new connection. Injects an EntraID token into the connection parameters.
“””
print(‘creating new token’)
token_bytes = credential.get_token(“https://database.windows.net/.default”).token.encode(“UTF-16-LE”)
token_struct = struct.pack(f'<I{len(token_bytes)}s’, len(token_bytes), token_bytes)
SQL_COPT_SS_ACCESS_TOKEN = 1256 # This connection option is defined by microsoft in msodbcsql.h
cparams[“attrs_before”] = {SQL_COPT_SS_ACCESS_TOKEN: token_struct}
# set up the database
Base.metadata.create_all(engine)
app = FastAPI()
@app.get(“/all”)
def get_users():
with Session(engine) as session:
stmt = select(User)
rows = []
for user in session.scalars(stmt):
print(user.id, user.first_name, user.last_name)
rows.append(f”{user.id}, {user.first_name}, {user.last_name}”)
return rows
@app.get(“/user/{user_id}”)
def get_user(user_id: int):
with Session(engine) as session:
stmt = select(User).where(User.id == user_id)
user = session.execute(stmt).scalar()
if not user:
raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail=”User not found”)
return f”{user.id}, {user.first_name}, {user.last_name}”
@app.post(“/user”)
def create_user(item: UserSchema):
with Session(engine) as session:
user = User(first_name=item.first_name, last_name=item.last_name)
session.add(user)
session.commit()
return item
Notes:
make sure to update the server_name and database_name variables in the code above with the names you used to create both the SQL server and the database
The provide_token method will be called every time a database connection is created by the engine. It’s responsible for injecting the EntraID token so it can successfully authenticate to the database. This is necessary in order to always have a fresh token when creating a connection, otherwise if we had a static token that was already expired, it would never be able to connect again to the database.
Running Locally
1. Create a virtual environment for the app
py -m venv .venv
.venvscriptsactivate
2. Install requirements
pip install -r requirements.txt
3. Run the app.py file in Visual Studio Code.
uvicorn app:app –reload
4. Open the Swagger UI at http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs
5. Create a new user using the Create User endpoint
6. Try Get User and Get Users endpoints
Running on Azure
1. Use the az webapp up to deploy the code to App Service.
az webapp up –resource-group <resource-group-name> –name <web-app-name>
2. Use the az webapp config set command to configure App Service to use the start.sh file.
az webapp config set –resource-group <resource-group-name> –name <web-app-name> –startup-file start.sh
3. Use the az webapp identity assign command to enable a system-assigned managed identity for the App Service. This is needed because we will grant database access to this identity, with specific roles.
az webapp identity assign –resource-group <resource-group-name> –name <web-app-name>
4. Grant permissions to the web app identity by running the SQL commands below on your database. The first commanda creates a database user for the web app and the following ones sets data reader/writer roles (you can find more details about roles at Database-level roles – SQL Server | Microsoft Learn). By doing this we guarantee that the web app has the least privilege.
CREATE USER [<web-app-name>] FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER
ALTER ROLE db_datareader ADD MEMBER [<web-app-name>]
ALTER ROLE db_datawriter ADD MEMBER [<web-app-name>]
5. Open the Swagger UI at https://<web-app-name>.azurewebsites.net/docs and test the endpoints again
References
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Microsoft 365 Copilot - Small Business Guide to Set Up Copilot
Take a look at how wave two of Microsoft 365 Copilot can specifically help your small business by leveraging the secure application of generative AI with your work data. Use it to author presentations and content, reduce digital debt to focus on what’s important as you engage with customers, and automate everyday tasks and processes. For IT, see how to light up Microsoft 365 Copilot in your tenant, and get tips and resources for onboarding your organization.
Mary David Pasch, Principal Product Manager for Microsoft 365 Copilot, joins Jeremy Chapman to share how to use Copilot to save time, drive productivity, and foster stronger connections with your customers.
Boost productivity and efficiency.
Focus on essential tasks, attract and retain customers, and automate processes with ease — no coding required. See how Microsoft 365 Copilot benefits your small business.
Create custom experiences.
Set up a Copilot agent to quickly find answers from your company’s knowledge base during customer calls. Create custom experiences to help with everyday repeatable tasks using Microsoft 365 Copilot. Start here.
Apply Copilot to specific areas.
Get free role-based guidance to use AI effectively for Customer Service, Finance, HR, and IT. Transform specific areas of your business using Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Watch the full video here:
QUICK LINKS:
00:00 — Microsoft 365 Copilot Small Business Guide
00:53 — Save time
02:14 — Privacy & safety
05:03 — How Microsoft 365 Copilot can assist you
06:24 — Work smarter, improve skill sets
08:13 — Create custom experiences
08:48 — Enable Copilot and onboard users
10:28 — How to apply Copilot to specific areas in your company
12:18 — Guidance & resources
14:07 — Wrap up
Link References
Watch our whole series at https://aka.ms/CopilotSMBMechanics
Check out our show on preparing for Copilot at https://aka.ms/SMBOversharingMechanics
See how to create custom experiences at https://aka.ms/Wave2Mechanics
Use role-based scenario guidance at https://aka.ms/AIforAll
Get a Success Kit at https://aka.ms/CopilotSMBSuccesskit
Sign up for or watch Quickstart Training at https://aka.ms/QuickStartCopilot
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Video Transcript:
– Generative AI is leveling the playing field, removing previous productivity barriers, which is really good news, especially if you run or work for a smaller company. And today, we’re going to look at how wave two of Microsoft 365 Copilot can specifically help your small or medium-sized business by enabling a secure application of generative AI with your work data to rapidly author presentations and content, reducing digital debt to focus on and follow up on what’s important to you as you engage with your customers and making it easier than ever to automate everyday tasks and processes. In fact, for IT, we’re also going to show you how simple it is to light up Microsoft 365 Copilot in your tenant and share tips and resources for onboarding your organization. I’m joined, once again, by engineer Mary Pasch from the Copilot Platform team. Welcome back.
– Yeah, thank you for having me back.
– So last time you were on, we actually introduced wave two of Microsoft 365 Copilot. So how has the Microsoft 365 Copilot experience been crafted with small businesses in mind?
– So top of the list here, and this is a universal theme, is how we can help you save time, whether you’re running the business or an employee. We know that many of you often wear many hats and there’s more work than time. And Microsoft 365 Copilot is there to assist you as you work. It’s part of your favorite apps, such as Microsoft Teams, as well as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and more. And it’s integrated in the browser and across apps with Business Chat. It works directly with your work data and can help you to focus on what’s important, boosting how much you can get done. The experience supports your core business functions, whether that’s attracting customers and assisting with marketing efforts, or retaining them through more timely communications while you’re on the go by suggesting responses and generating a solid draft that you can iterate on further. And we’ve also made it easier than ever to customize the data you use with Copilot and quickly automate tasks using Copilot Studio, where, with zero code, you can connect Microsoft 365 Copilot to data, for example, sitting in your support systems. And this can be almost any system that you might be using. Or you can automate repetitive tasks. For example, documenting day-to-day customer interactions.
– Right, and because Microsoft 365 Copilot uniquely works with your data, the experience is, by default, tailored to your specific needs.
– It is, and because it’s your work data, it remains private and safe with enterprise-grade security, along with other capabilities like identifying and blocking harmful content.
– And we should really unpack this a bit because, I know one of the core concerns of small businesses is really who gets to use generative AI inside of their organization, whether that’s linked to perceived costs or maybe the fear of leaking company data.
– And it’s totally normal for you to start with just a small group of select managers in your company, which is important to get them on board, except the majority of the rest of your company is probably using AI tools right now, even if they don’t have access to premium AI services like Microsoft 365 Copilot. And the risk is they may end up using less safe, free alternatives and potentially pasting private work data into unprotected prompts just to be able to use GenAI as they work.
– Of course, all this can lead to data loss and those free services, they might even train their models based on your data.
– Right, which is why I say if you’re evaluating Microsoft 365 Copilot today and you’re starting with just a few users, it’s a good idea to at least have the rest of your company sign in with their work account to use the free Microsoft Copilot experience, which doesn’t integrate automatically with your work content. But even if you cut and paste work data into a prompt to generate content and responses, your prompts, with your data and the response, are all private. They remain separate to our models and are not used for training. And all the interactions are auditable in Microsoft Purview, which, if you haven’t used it before, is available with Business, Standard, and Premium. Then, as you make Microsoft 365 Copilot available to more people, it connects to your work data, but importantly, it only has access to the data that you have access to. As users reference files with data sensitivity labels, the security controls you have in place are respected and your experience is personalized based on your level of access to information. And with these permissions, you can, for example, reference Word documents to build your own personalized PowerPoint presentation, complete with complementing imagery, using Microsoft 365 Copilot, in just a few seconds. And it even authors the notes with references so that you can check the source.
– And what’s really important here is ensuring that you have the right permission set up for things like information access, especially for data that’s stored in SharePoint for different people, different team functions or different groups because when you do, Microsoft 365 Copilot will, as we mentioned, respect those controls that you have in place. In fact, I checked out the recent show that we did on preparing for Copilot at aka.ms/SMBOversharingMechanics. And this is something that you’ll want to do to govern information discovery in your organization regardless of whether you deploy Copilot or not.
– And that peace of mind really opens up the breadth of what Microsoft 365 Copilot can offer. And there are lots of ways it can assist you. This is a first look of how Copilot can help you triage your inbox in minutes, helping you prioritize what’s there. It analyzes all of your emails using both the content of your messages and the context of your job, like who your manager is and who’s on your team, to highlight what’s most important. You can then sort by priority based on Copilot’s analysis. So if we look at this email from a new customer, Tailwind Traders, when selected, Copilot shares why it thinks it’s significant and highlights what action you need to take. This is a key customer for the next few months, so you teach Copilot that all emails mentioning them are a top priority. And beyond email, Copilot and Teams helps you to quickly generate meeting summaries, can suggest action items, summarize your various chat conversations, and even provide answers to specific questions. BizChat can then go across communication modalities so that you can prioritize your time and stay connected. For example, as you work with customers and stakeholders, it makes it easy to find the right file or information in less time by letting Microsoft 365 Copilot search across all your related files and recent communication across apps.
– And what I like here is that from a business perspective, it’s like you’re giving everyone their own personal assistant to augment how much they can do, which is a net positive, then, for the top line.
– And this isn’t about replacing people in the workforce, which, some people might fear. This is all about removing burden and helping you work smarter and also learn and improve your skillset. For example, if you’ve never done a request for a proposal, or RFP, before, you can ask Microsoft 365 Copilot and point it to relevant information sources like I’m doing here using the forward slash in Word to reference files. And because our models are trained on the most common proposal types and document formats, Copilot will generate relevant outputs based on the work information you pointed to to create a tailored RFP. So now you aren’t stuck with a blank page, you get a great starting point. And because source material is referenced, it’s easier to check for accuracy. I’ll give you another example. Maybe you’ve been asked to summarize the biggest sales opportunities based on recent lead generation efforts, but you aren’t that well-versed in Excel. Well, using natural language. You can ask Copilot to summarize what those opportunities are, and you can see it surfaces up the top insights from the data and you can then go further by asking it to visualize the opportunity by customer type and it presents it in a chart. And as it’s doing all this, it also provides an explanation of how it’s going about the task so that you can reproduce the same steps yourself if you ever want to do this again in the future. And one more thing I’ll show you, beyond text, you can also quickly create visual content, which is good if you’re someone with great ideas but not necessarily a creative talent, or maybe you just don’t have the time. Microsoft 365 Copilot in work mode creates custom-generated images, which means you can quickly generate, for example, suitable images for your social media campaigns or website.
– And these examples here provide a really good taste in terms of what you can do to use Microsoft 365 Copilot personally for business functions like maybe sales, or business analysis, and also marketing,
– Right, and for the different teams across your company, this is where we make it easier to create custom experiences that can help with everyday, repeatable tasks. For example, for your technical support staff on calls with customers, you can create a Copilot agent that’s able to quickly find answers to customer questions on the fly from your company’s knowledge base. This is as easy as using Copilot and SharePoint and pointing it to the files you want Copilot to reference in responses.
– And on our last show, by the way, you know, we saw how you can actually create these, which, you can check out at aka.ms/Wave2Mechanics. Why don’t we switch gears though and really look at enabling Copilot for your company because it’s not that complicated. It’s as simple as assigning Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses to your managed users in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. And you’ll see here on the left navigation pane, you’ll just need to select Users, then the Active users, and you’ll just choose the ones that you want to assign license to from that list. Now, you’ll click on, again, Manage product licenses in the User details pane, then Assign more. And under Licenses, check the box next to Microsoft 365 Copilot to assign the license and hit Save changes. And that’s it. Then Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities are just going to light up across their Microsoft 365 desktop and web experiences, and they’ll get access to powerful business chat experiences as well for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Then, to extend Copilot experiences to mobile devices, you can also use your preferred device management tools like, for example, Microsoft Intune, as you can see here, to install the Microsoft 365 app with integrated Copilot capabilities and others on managed phones. That said, as with any new technology, there’s always some onboarding necessary for things like Copilot.
– And this is where, as a best practice, it’s a good idea to look across the different disciplines in your company, whether that’s your finance and marketing teams, your sales people, customer service staff, or recruitment with human resources. It’s a good idea to look at those business functions where introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot can provide the most help during your initial rollout. This way, there’s also more peer-to-peer learning and shared best practices, which can help before you scale Copilot out to the rest of your company.
– And by the way, if you’re looking for ways and ideas to apply Microsoft 365 Copilot to specific areas in your company, a really great tool to use is role-based scenario guidance to start that conversation with users in these different areas about their pain points, their opportunities, and also ideas, which you can get to at aka.ms/AIforAll. You can see all the different company disciplines here, everything from Customer Service, Finance, Human Resources, and others. I’m going to scroll back up here and choose Using Copilot in IT because that’s how I roll. But here, I can see all the different functional area KPIs, everything from IT budget variance to Average support ticket resolution. And when I click into the top one, it tells me more about that KPI and where Copilot can help, like drafting and analyzing surveys to find out what people like or could live without maybe to save costs, and other practical applications. Now, what I really like, though, are the functional scenarios here on the left, and I use Generate IT prompts a lot. And Copilot is great for researching technical topics, creating how-to documentation, and even authoring scripts to automate tasks. In fact, I’m going to scroll up here. I’m going to copy this sample prompt to research a topic, in this case, Power Automate. Now I’m going to head over to Copilot and I’ll paste it in. Now I’ll just replace this tool, service text variable here with the words Power Automate. There we go. And hit Enter. And Copilot drafts this nice comprehensive response with a high level description of Power Automate, its options, steps to plan my implementation, recommendations for creating flows, which is what you do with Power Automate, starting with templates. And below that, there’s some high-level best practices for long-term viability. At the very bottom, I can see that everything was grounded using Microsoft Learn articles for Power Automate, so I know that I can trust the output. That said, though, there’s also more general knowledge that you’ll want to share with everyone in your company when you onboard them as well.
– Yes, and this is an area where we have a lot of best practice guidance. We’ve created an end-to-end guide with resources you need to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot with a Success Kit, which you can find at aka.ms/CopilotSMBSuccesskit. This is a downloadable ZIP file with a lot of helpful files and templates to get you started. Here you can see that it has a complete checklist, highlighting all the steps for implementing Copilot. There’s a detailed implementation guide in PowerPoint with all the steps we covered today, even a How it Works explainer video from Microsoft Mechanics. And to save you time, the user enablement toolkit has pre-written an email across all of the roles we saw earlier. In fact, I’ll open the Sales folder and you’ll see seven email templates for an introduction and others for what you can do in each app. If I open the first one, you’ll see that you only need to add your company logo header to personalize it, along with the recipient, team name, and the signature. And that’s it. Additionally, you can give users training on prompt authoring because the more descriptive you are, the better the responses will be. So make sure that you provide the intended outcome, additional context, and reference specific information sources where needed, like when we built the request for proposal earlier. The role-based email templates for each app also highlight a few repeatable prompts to try, including where to reference people, topics and files for the best responses. And if you have Microsoft 365 Copilot running, there’s even an interactive online Quickstart Training available in multiple languages that you and users can sign up for, watch on demand at aka.ms/QuickStartCopilot.
– And these are all resources that are available right now for free.
– Yes, they are. And we keep updating them, thanks to your feedback.
– Thanks so much for joining us today, Mary. These were just a few highlights for how Microsoft 365 Copilot can help. But of course, the best way to know for sure is to try it out for yourself. And you can see our complete Microsoft 365 Copilot series for small and medium-sized businesses at aka.ms/CopilotSMBMechanics. Be sure to subscribe to Mechanics for more of the latest tech updates and explanations, and thanks so much for watching.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
