Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Continue learning with highlighted sessions and explore the full session catalog focused on cloud development, AI, .NET, collaborative apps, data platform, developer tools, DevSecOps and SRE, low-code, and Windows.

Don’t miss this sessions from the May 2023 Build event:

• Microsoft Build Opening
• The era of the AI Copilot
• Next generation AI for developers with the Microsoft Cloud
• How to build next-gen AI services with NVIDIA AI on Azure Cloud
• Getting started with generative AI using Azure OpenAI Service
• Inject the power of the cloud and AI into your development workflow
• …

And more. See the entire catalog here:

• Microsoft Build 2023 On-demand Session Catalog
  https://build.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions

We are proud to announce that Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has been recognized as a leader in The Forrester Wave ™: Enterprise Email Security, Q2 2023 report, which we believe demonstrates its strong track record for being a comprehensive and robust email and collaboration security solution.

Forrester noted that “Microsoft’s continued investment in security is paying off as it protects end users from attacks that target communication and collaboration environments in addition to email,” and that “email and collaboration security are key elements of Microsoft’s extended detection and response (XDR) strategy, adding prevention capabilities to its unified approach to detection, investigation, response, and remediation.”

The Forrester Wave report evaluates email security solutions based on criteria that include email filtering capabilities, threat intelligence, data leak prevention control enforcement, endpoint detection and response (EDR) and XDR integrations, performance, and product strategy. In the latest evaluation for Q2 2023, Defender for Office 365 has demonstrated its excellence in these areas, offering a range of industry-leading capabilities that set it apart from its competitors. Defender for Office 365 received the highest possible score in the incident response, threat intelligence, EDR and XDR solutions integration criteria, as well as in the product vision and roadmap.

…

Read the rest of the blog post here:

• Microsoft a Leader in the 2023 Forrester Wave for Email Security
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/06/12/forrester-names-microsoft-a-leader-in-the-2023-enterprise-email-security-wave/
• Forrester Wave ™: Enterprise Email Security, Q2 2023 report 
  https://reprints2.forrester.com/#/assets/2/108/RES178496/report

The Public Sector Center of Expertise provides thought leadership and research enabling digital transformation and innovation in the public sector. Find lessons, insights, and best practices to help advance your own digital transformation.

Digital technology has increasingly helped public sector organizations address global challenges in recent years, from ensuring public safety and protecting the environment, to enabling new ways of living, learning, and working during a global pandemic.

In the years ahead, we believe that cloud technology, artificial intelligence and data will further enable governments to deliver agile services to citizens and societies around the world. Moreover, as digital services become an intrinsic part of government, the technology industry must continue to be a trusted partner on their digital transformation journey.

The Microsoft Public Sector Center of Expertise supports the evolution of public sector organizations by sharing insights and best practices, research, and resources on digital innovation. Our Public Sector Future podcast delves into these topics with global expert interviews.

Our aim is to help public sector organizations on their journey to becoming truly intelligent organizations that use real-time data to inform policy, provide security and compliance, better manage people and finances, and leverage responsible AI to protect citizens and make informed decisions.

We provide case studies to inspire, guidance to support implementation of digital transformation approaches, and knowledge to build understanding of the fundamentals needed for the journey.

Join us here as we share important lessons learned, challenges, and opportunities in our collective efforts to help nations leverage the power of digital to deliver social good.

CURRENT TOPICS
Current topics you can find on the Public Sector Center of Expertise:

• Latest Thinking: Skilling Your Workforce
• Insights into Generative AI Technology
• Generative AI and the Public Sector
• Future of Infrastructure Podcast Series
• Public Sector Future Podcast Series

CONTENT LIBRARY
There is a huge library of information available at the Public Sector Center of Expertise content library with various dedicated collections including:

• Public Sector Cybersecurity
• Public Sector Cloud
• Public Sector Artificial Intelligence

For all Public Sector CoE content, visit:

• Microsoft Public Sector Center of Expertise
  https://wwps.microsoft.com/

Microsoft Fabric is an all-in-one analytics solution for enterprises that covers everything from data movement to data science, Real-Time Analytics, and business intelligence. It offers a comprehensive suite of services, including data lake, data engineering, and data integration, all in one place.  With Fabric, you don’t need to piece together different services from multiple vendors. Instead, you can enjoy a highly integrated, end-to-end, and easy-to-use product that is designed to simplify your analytics needs.

The platform is built on a foundation of Software as a Service (SaaS), which takes simplicity and integration to a whole new level.  And it’s powered by Artificial Intelligence.  Azure OpenAI Service is integrated into every level of Microsoft Fabric to provide dataflows, data pipelines & full function development to remove the drudgery of building code to data management.  A CoPilot AI will be available for Microsoft Fabric soon as well.

And while it’s in public preview, it’s fully production ready:  We have a variety of customers deployed already like Ferguson, T-Mobile & Aon.

What happens to current Microsoft analytics solutions? 

Existing Microsoft products such as Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Data Explorer will continue to provide a robust, enterprise-grade platform as a service (PaaS) solution for data analytics. Fabric represents an evolution of those offerings in the form of a simplified SaaS solution that can connect to existing PaaS offerings. Customers will be able to upgrade from their current products into Fabric at their own pace. 

Our announcement is posted here & explains the solution well:

• Introducing Microsoft Fabric: The data platform for the era of AI
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-microsoft-fabric-data-analytics-for-the-era-of-ai/

For a deeper dive into the solution, visit:

• What is Microsoft Fabric – Microsoft Fabric
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/get-started/microsoft-fabric-overview
• eBook: “Unlocking Transformative Data Value with Microsoft Fabric” (49pg, .PDF)
  https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-unlocking-transformative-data-value-with-microsoft-fabric.html
• Free Trial: “Microsoft Fabric”
  https://aka.ms/try-fabric

Are you a developer? Interested in viewing Microsoft Build 2023 highlights…
…& also screening “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”?

Better hurry up… limited seating!

——————

Microsoft Events: "Microsoft Build Spotlight: Los Angeles"

Tuesday June 20, 2023, 5:15PM-9:30PM

Join local developers and experts at Microsoft Build Los Angeles, AMC The Grove 14, an event for developers by developers. Explore the latest in developer tools and solutions in your region, gain skills to build the future, and uncover ways to adapt easily with a trusted, integrated data platform.

Come together with peers on June 20^th, to discover new opportunities with AI, advance your knowledge and skills, and connect with engineer experts and cutting-edge partners. The event will be a triple feature night of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Movie Screening, Microsoft Build Los Angeles keynote and highlights, and an Ask the Expert panel session.

Key topics

• What’s new for developers in Microsoft Windows and .NET
• How AI accelerates your projects
• Cloud platform innovations
• Building collaborative apps
• Transforming your data & analytics
• Advancements in developer tools
• DevSecOps & SRE news
• Low-code solutions

—————-

• Date/Time:
  Tuesday June 20, 2023
  5:15PM-9:30PM
• Location:
  AMC The Grove 14
  189 The Grove Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90036
• Registration:
  Microsoft Events – Microsoft Build Spotlight: Los Angeles
  https://msevents.microsoft.com/event?id=92329548&wt.mc_id=AID3058918_QSG_EML_643905&ocid_source=AID3058918_QSG_EML_643905

Azure OpenAI Services (access to ChatGPT & GPT-4, DALL-E 2, etc.) is not enabled for people by default.  In order for an Azure Commercial cloud instance to get it enabled, simply follow the instructions below.

Please submit this form to register for approval to access and use Azure OpenAI’s Limited Access text and code and/or DALL·E 2 text to image models (as indicated in the form). All use cases must be registered. 

Azure OpenAI Service requires registration and is currently only available to approved enterprise customers and partners. Learn more about limited access to Azure OpenAI Service here.

…

To begin the process of getting it enabled:

• Request Access to Azure OpenAI Service from your Azure subscription
  https://customervoice.microsoft.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=v4j5cvGGr0GRqy180BHbR7en2Ais5pxKtso_Pz4b1_xUOFA5Qk1UWDRBMjg0WFhPMkIzTzhKQ1dWNyQlQCN0PWcu
  (For background on “Limited Access to OpenAI Service”, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/cognitive-services/openai/limited-access?context=%2Fazure%2Fcognitive-services%2Fopenai%2Fcontext%2Fcontext)
• Request to be placed on the OpenAI GPT-4 waitlist
  https://aka.ms/oai/get-gpt4
  (For background on this, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/openai/how-to/chatgpt?pivots=programming-language-chat-completions)

Are you a public sector data analytics or data reporting contact using Microsoft Power BI or are you planning on it? 

Here are some resources to look at to pursue to develop your Power BI instance and your expertise of the service.

• Power BI Government Users Group
  (Biweekly meetings)
  https://powergi.blog/ 
• Power BI Community Forums
  https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Forums/ct-p/PBI_Comm_Forums
• Power BI Center of Excellence “toolkit”
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/center-of-excellence-establish
• Power BI End User Training
  http://aka.ms/adoptiontraining
• Power BI IT Professional Training
  https://esi.microsoft.com 
  (Only available for ESI-enrolled Microsoft managed customers)
• Power BI Whitepaper Library https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/whitepapers
  • Planning a Power BI Enterprise Deployment
  • Security
  • Power BI Premium Planning and Deployment
  • Power BI and Dataflows
  • Advanced Analytics with Power BI
  • Distribute Power BI content to external guest users using Azure Active Directory B2B
  • Power BI migration overview
  • Bidirectional filtering
• Unified Support Workshops & Engagements
  (Download datasheets for engagements at: Unified Offerings – Power BI.zip.  Only available for Microsoft Unified Support customers)

• Activate – Power Platform: Governance with COE
• Activate Business Analytics with Power BI
• Power BI Assessment
• Power BI Clinic
• Security: Microsoft Defender – Advanced Dashboards with Power BI
• WorkshopPLUS – Data AI: Advanced Data Analytics with Power BI
• WorkshopPLUS – Data AI: Business Analytics with Power BI
• WorkshopPLUS – Office 365: Usage Reporting –
• WorkshopPLUS – Power BI in Microsoft Teams for End Users

Let GitHub do the hard work of ensuring that tokens, private keys, and other code secrets are not exposed in your repository through GitHub Secret Scanning.

Secret scanning alerts for users are available for free on all public repositories. Organizations using GitHub Enterprise Cloud with a license for GitHub Advanced Security can also enable secret scanning alerts for users on their private and internal repositories. For more information, see "About secret scanning" and "About GitHub Advanced Security."

• Proactively prevent secret leaks with GitHub Advanced Security secret scanning
  https://github.blog/2022-04-04-push-protection-github-advanced-security/

In the meantime…

HOW TO REMOVE CREDENTIALS FROM YOUR AZURE APPLICATION CODE
Here’s instruction on how to removing credentials (where possible) when dealing with Azure application development:

• Getting rid of credentials in Azure – Part 1 (microsoft.com)
• Getting rid of credentials in Azure – Part 2 (EasyAuth) (microsoft.com)
• Getting rid of credentials in Azure – Part 3 (EasyAuth & Managed Identity) (microsoft.com)

Having a strategy on ensuring proper cost management of your Azure cloud instance should be top priority for cloud-enabled organizations.

This is a blog post & a FREE eBook that we’ve made available that goes over Azure Cost Governance top to bottom, including how billing works, cost optimization, setting guardrails and thresholds for your usage, etc.

Make sure you’re spending your budget on Azure wisely & optimally by driving toward “cloud efficiency” with Cost Governance.

What is cloud efficiency?

It is the capacity to utilize cloud resources in the best possible way, and at the lowest possible cost while, at the same time, minimizing the waste of resources, and thus of energy and carbon emissions. It’s a combination of cost—how you handle and govern your cloud infrastructure, carbon—how you can keep carbon emissions at a minimum, and energy—how the application uses electricity, and how you can optimize these three areas to make the cheapest, more modern, efficient, and sustainable application. In this post, we will explore why you should immediately start your cloud cost management and governance process.

Cloud cost optimization is essential for companies as it directly impacts their bottom line and OPEX expenses. The cost of cloud computing can quickly add up, especially for businesses with a high volume of data or high traffic, and mission-critical applications.

Cloud cost optimization is what makes workloads more efficient, but what are its benefits?

• Understanding, measuring, optimizing, and tracking your cloud costs. Having full control of your monthly bill should be your primary goal.
• Reduce carbon emissions. Cloud computing consumes a significant amount of energy, and the increased usage of cloud resources has resulted in a substantial increase in carbon emissions. Cloud providers are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint, but businesses can also play a significant role in reducing carbon emissions by optimizing their cloud resources.
• Improve the performance of applications. This can significantly impact user experience, as slow or unresponsive applications can lead to frustrated customers and lost revenue. By optimizing cloud resources, companies can ensure that their applications run smoothly, improving customer satisfaction, and decreasing cloud spend.
• Saving on your application’s cost in a systematic way can give you a budget for additional features, refactoring, and innovation.

…

This article below goes over the different ways Azure users can optimize their costs.  The eBook reviews how billing works specifically for customers with EAs as well as other contacting scenarios.  For example:

Read about the 4 main cloud cost optimization strategies here:

• BLOG: “4 cloud cost optimization strategies with Microsoft Azure”
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/4-cloud-cost-optimization-strategies-with-microsoft-azure/

Download the FREE eBook on Azure Cost Governance here:

• eBook: Azure Cost Governance E-book by Packt (315pgs, .PDF)
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/the-road-to-azure-cost-governance/

Wanna keep management appraised of how much money you’re saving the organization through proper cost optimization techniques?

This Power BI .PBIT dashboard for customers to import into Power BI that shows how much money they’re saving on Azure optimization techniques like Azure Reservations, Azure Savings Plan, or Azure Consumption Commitment discount.

For more information, visit:

• Azure Savings Dashboard – Microsoft Community Hub
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/core-infrastructure-and-security/azure-savings-dashboard/ba-p/3816131