Kurt Shintaku's Blog

For customers renewing their Enterprise Agreements or agreements involving Software Assurance, the Software Assurance Benefits policies have changed in 2020.

Here are some details around what has happened to Software Assurance Planning Services:

What are the key changes that occurred with Software Assurance Benefits earlier this year?
Below are key changes that occurred with Software Assurance Benefits in early calendar year 2020:

• February 1, 2020: DPS cloud engagements retired and all cloud customers will be directed to FastTrack programs. For DPS cloud engagement vouchers created before February 1, 2020, customers have 180 days to redeem and use the cloud engagement voucher. Customers have until January 2022 to use their deployment planning days for on-premises planning.
• Due to impacts from COVID-19, Microsoft is extending active vouchers for an additional 90 days for those vouchers created before 1 April 2020. This applies to all active Deployment Planning Services vouchers for cloud and on-premises engagements. To help our customers and partners work as efficiently as possible while remote, we’re also waiving the onsite requirement policy for delivery partners and allowing for remote Deployment Planning Services engagements through June 30, 2020. We still expect partners to provide customers with collaborative consultative sessions resulting in a comprehensive and actionable deployment plan.
• February 1, 2021: Customers will no longer accrue DPS days.
• New contracts won’t have any DPS days assigned and existing contracts won’t receive any additional DPS days.
• Current customers can continue to use any accrued DPS days until January 1, 2022.

For more details on this and other Software Assurance Benefits, visit:

• FAQ: Software Assurance Benefits | Microsoft Volume Licensing
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/licensing-programs/faq-software-assurance

Microsoft Teams has become the new way to work for over 115 million daily users who come together every day to meet, call, chat, and collaborate.

Today, we are honored to be recognized by Gartner as a Leader for both Meeting Solutions and Unified Communications as a Service in their latest Magic Quadrants. Microsoft was positioned highest among all vendors for ability to execute in both reports. This is Microsoft’s second consecutive year as a Leader for Unified Communications as a Service and the 14^th time in which Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader for Meetings Solutions.

Read and download the full report here:

• Microsoft Teams recognized as a Leader in Gartner UCaaS and Meetings Solutions Magic Quadrants – Microsoft 365 Blog
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/11/23/microsoft-teams-recognized-as-a-leader-in-gartner-ucaas-and-meetings-solutions-magic-quadrants/

For organizations deploying Microsoft Teams looking for guidance on how to plan & structure Teams and Channels in their organization, the following may be useful:

• Guidance for Organizing Teams and Channels in Microsoft Teams (21min)
  Watch this video to get guidance on how to structure your teams and channels in Microsoft Teams.  Learn about how to leverage Private Channels to streamline your team creation.  View example team and channel configurations.
  Video: https://youtu.be/WkAVgNKn0hs
  PowerPoint Download: https://teamworktools.azurewebsites.net/championtools/OrganizingTeamsandChannelsDec2019.pptx

The presentation goes over different structures that can be applied to Teams and Teams Channels when deploying, however it also talks to how these structures can be implemented at the same time to encourage cross-organizational sharing.

When organizing the content of the Teams themselves, the following “Best Practices” guidance may be useful:

• Best practices for organizing teams in Microsoft Teams
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/best-practices-organizing

• Manage large teams in Microsoft Teams – Best practices
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/best-practices-large-groups

Customers with SQL Server with Software Assurance on Microsoft licensing contracts like Enterprise Agreements are uniquely entitled to use their SQL Server licensing in Microsoft Azure to reduce their cloud operations costs by upwards of 50%. (And up to 80% using Azure Reserved Instances or “reservations”)

(I emphasize the word “uniquely” because this is exclusively a benefit for SQL Server customers moving to Azure. The following “Azure Hybrid Benefit” cannot be applied to AWS, GCP or other cloud services)

HOW TO SAVE COSTS ON SQL DATABASE LICENSING IN AZURE
Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server provides the following:

1. 4-TO-1 LICENSE RIGHTS IN AZURE
   Providing 4 cores of SQL in Azure General Purpose SKU licensing for every 1 core of SQL Server Enterprise on Software Assurance (Yes, this is 4-to-1 and unique to Azure, i.e. not available in AWS or GCP)
2. LICENSING RIGHTS FOR AZURE SQL PAAS
   Providing the ability to move to either
• Azure VMs running SQL Server (IaaS)
• Azure SQL Managed Instance (PaaS)
  (Yes, applying your SQL Server licenses to a cloud “scalable/elastic” SQL database aka SQL PaaS is unique to Azure and not available in AWS or GCP)

HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF AZURE SQL HYBRID BENEFIT
The following instructions can dramatically reduce your Azure billing costs – by as much as 50% – for these VMs running SQL Server.

• BLOG: Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-hybrid-benefit-for-sql-server-on-azure-virtual-machines/
• INFO: Automatically Register Your Azure SQL Virtual Machines with SQL Server IaaS Agent extension today
  “…simply tick a consent checkbox and allow Microsoft to automatically register all existing and future SQL Server Virtual Machines in your subscription”
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/register-your-azure-sql-virtual-machines-with-sql-server-iaas-agent-extension-today/
• DOCS: Azure Hybrid Benefit – Azure SQL Database & SQL Managed Instance
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/azure-hybrid-benefit

Check out the next version of QnA Maker featuring cutting-edge deep learning and advances like better relevance and precise answering.

The next version of QnA Maker advances several core capabilities like better relevance and precise answering, by introducing state-of-art deep learning technologies. In addition, it also simplifies resource management by reducing the number of resources deployed. The latest version will enable customers with strict geo requirements to deploy the service in the region of their choice end-to-end.

• What’s new in QnA Maker
• Manage QnA Maker Resources
• Migrate a knowledge base using export-import
• Create a Free account (Azure)
• Deep Learning vs. Machine Learning
• Get Started with Machine Learning

Watch the video:

• AI Show: Introducing QnA managed: Now in Public Preview
  https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/AI-Show/Introducing-QnA-managed-Now-in-Public-Preview/?ocid=AID2463683&wt.mc_id=ai-c9-sejuare

Adopting DevOps at an enterprise scale? Get tips to make sure you’re setting up the right environment for your developers to innovate:

Although many organizations are adopting DevOps, implementing effective practices at enterprise-scale can be difficult. Read the Enterprise DevOps Report 2020–2021, a Microsoft and Sogeti research study of more than 250 cloud and DevOps implementations. From the report, learn how to scale your DevOps practices to improve business metrics, customer satisfaction, and Developer Velocity—creating the right environment for developers to innovate. Use the study’s recommendations as a blueprint for your successful adoption of enterprise DevOps.

You’ll learn about:

• Six key areas of enterprise IT, including governance, that face significant challenges as part of an enterprise DevOps transformation.
• Common ideologies and patterns followed by top performing adopters to address the challenges of enterprise DevOps.
• Strategies implemented by successful enterprises to build continuous governance, security, quality, and compliance into their engineering processes.
• DevOps best practices to enable your organization to support distributed teams and remote work.

Watch the webcast here:

• WEBCAST: Best Practices for Enterprise-Wide DevOps Adoption
  https://info.microsoft.com/ww-ondemand-azure-webinar-series-learn-best-practices-for-enterprise-wide-devops-adoption.html?lcid=en-us

Microsoft has been selected to provide the underlying cloud technology platform for the Air Force’s top modernization priority, “Advanced Battle Management System”.

As a measure of our support for the mission of flying, fighting and winning in air, space and cyberspace, our Microsoft Federal team is honored to be selected to support the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), the U.S. Air Force’s top modernization priority. We join other companies that have been collectively awarded $950 million in indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts to compete for future efforts enabling Joint All–Domain Command and Control.

…

Our trusted Microsoft Azure Government cloud will serve as the underlying technology platform for these needed solutions, providing the ability to fuse data from disparate sources to generate a more robust operating picture and operations across the battlespace. From leveraging GitHub tools to adding Azure Cognitive Services smart API capabilities, developers will be able to create integrated, intelligent apps enabling rapid human decision–making, even without having direct AI or data science skills or knowledge. 

Read the entire announcement here:

• U.S. Air Force selects Microsoft for Advanced Battle Management System
  https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/industry-blog/microsoft-in-business/government/2020/11/16/u-s-air-force-selects-microsoft-for-advanced-battle-management-system/

Setting up impromptu or planned polls/surveys within Microsoft Teams meetings just got really easy with the release of “Polls in Teams Meetings”

As we had announced at Ignite, Forms’ integration with Teams brings the power of polls to your meetings. We are delighted to inform you that we are rolling out Polls in Teams Meetings.

These polls leverage the infrastructure and capabilities of the Forms product to enhance your virtual meeting experiences. Whether you are running a large-scale training session, leading your monthly all hands, or teaching in a remote classroom , Polls in Teams meetings enables meeting presenters to get real time feedback and turn attendees into active participants.

For more on how to use this new feature, visit:

• Microsoft Forms Brings Polls to Teams Meetings
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-forms-blog/microsoft-forms-brings-polls-to-teams-meetings/ba-p/1886317

This August 2020, we released a new series of eBooks for OneNote.  One of them is entitled, “OneNote for Meetings”.

In this eBook, you’ll learn:

• How templates can help to streamline note-taking in meetings

• How to take notes in meetings with OneNote

• How to share and track meeting notes in OneNote, Outlook, and Teams

Get the free ebook here:

• DOWNLOAD: OneNote for Meetings (7.4MB, PDF)
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/download-free-ebooks-for-microsoft-onenote-4e08cf8b-dc37-4229-bdef-1f580220b6f5#ebook3

Note:  There are also other free downloadable eBooks available for the following:

• OneNote Essentials

• OneNote for Team Collaboration

• OneNote for Meetings

• OneNote for Life Moments

• OneNote Tips & Tricks