Kurt Shintaku's Blog

If you missed Microsoft Ignite 2020, and would like to see the keynotes, here’s a list of all the links to the recordings of everyone from our CEO, Satya Nadella, to Jason Zander, Exec VP of Azure, to Jarad Spataro, Corp VP of Microsoft 365.

Most are 30-60min long.

• KEY01 – “Building Digital Resilience”
  Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
• KEY02 – “Invent with Purpose on Azure” 
  Julia White, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure
• KEY03 – “Microsoft Power Platform: Fill the App Gap and Supercharge Organizational Agility”
  James Phillips, President, Business Applications Group
• KEY04 – “The Future of Work”
  Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft 365
• KEY05 – “Microsoft Dynamics 365: Reimagine How You Can Meet The Needs of Tomorrow”
  Alysa Taylor, Corporate Vice President,  Business Applications
• KEY06 – “Achieve resilience with Security, Compliance, and Identity
  Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President, Security, Compliance, and Identity
• KEY07 – “Are we there yet? App Development in Azure”
  Scott Hanselman, Partner Program Manager
• KEY08 – “Envisioning the Future: How Microsoft Approaches Innovation”
  Mitra Azizirad, Corporate Vice President, Artificial Intelligence
• KEY09 – “Panos and Brad Unplugged: A Conversation About New Hybrid Workstyles with Windows and Microsoft 365”
  Panos Panay, Chief Product Officer
  Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft 365 (Deployment & Management)
• KEY10 – Microsoft Azure Unplugged with Jason and Billy”
  Billy Anders, Corporate Vice President, Azure CxP – Engineering & Customer Experience
  Jason Zander, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Azure

I recently passed the AI-900 “Microsoft AI Fundamentals” certification and got a lot of people asking me about it.

I’ve typed up the following information for anyone looking to get the AI-900 cert under their belt because I think they might be gotchas for some. These are the things I personally got tested on.
(Please note that the exam content is changing Oct 20^th so take the exam soon if you plan to use the internal materials to prep)

• Machine Learning
  There is an expectation that you have directly used – or at least witnessed the proper usage of https://ml.azure.com – “Azure Machine Learning Designer” & “Automated ML”.
• Watch how to build a pipeline, how to prep your dataset, where to apply algorithms, and when to split data.
  Ex: “Where in the pipeline do you split data?” “Why do you do that?” “Where do you apply ML algorithms?”
• Pay attention to the selection of Automated ML “task types” & what algorithms you can block like ElasticNet, ExtremeRandomTrees, XGBootRegressor, etc.
  Ex: “What are examples of 2 algorithms could be blocked in your Automated ML model training?”
• Know the difference between “Feature Selection” vs “Feature Engineering” in Automated ML
  Ex: “What are examples of Feature Selection?” “Examples of Feature Engineering?” “When do you use them in the configuring your Automated ML run?”
• Cognitive Services
  There is an expectation that you can determine when to apply Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Computer Vision, & Azure Custom Vision – and what is required to implement them in Azure & how to use them in applications.
• Pay attention to the diversity of services Cognitive Services provides, Computer Vision provides and what Custom Vision offers beyond custom data modeling.
  Ex: “Does Computer Vision offer optical character recognition?” “Do you need to provide custom data for Custom Vision?” “Why not use Azure Cognitive Services over Computer Vision?
• Pay attention to the differences between Text Analytics, Language Understanding Intelligent Service, Bot Service, QnA Maker.
  Ex: “Do you need to provide LUIS with custom models?” “Can you use LUIS with Bot Service?” “Does QnA Maker refresh it’s model when you change your QnA data?”
• Understand what the I/O parameters of a creating & using a Cognitive Services resource.
  Ex: “What is required to stand up a Cognitive Services resource in Azure?” “Name two properties that a Cognitive Resource produces for you to use it in your application?”

• Exam Prep Resources
• AI-900 Exam prep
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/ai-90
• AI-900 Exam Skills Outline
  https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4wGpB
• AI-900 Exam Registration
  https://examregistration.microsoft.com/?locale=en-us&examcode=AI-900&examname=Exam%20AI-900:%20Microsoft%20Azure%20AI%20Fundamentals&returnToLearningUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.microsoft.com%2Flearn%2Fcertifications%2Fexams%2Fai-900
• Stanisla’s Prep Post for AI-900
  Stanislas Quastana is a Microsoft Employee & a Cloud Solutions Architect.  He wrote a blog post that’s much more extensive than mine that, in reviewing the content, would be a good primer: 
  https://stanislas.io/2020/07/01/preparation-guide-for-ai-900-microsoft-azure-ai-fundamentals-certification/

We recently published an amazing series of videos that go over Azure SQL soup to nuts from installation to security to high availability to performance to everything in between.

Here’s the chapters:

• Introduction to Azure SQL Deployment and Configuration | Azure SQL Bootcamp (Session 1)
  Starting with a brief history of why and how we built Azure SQL, you’ll then learn about the various deployment options and service tiers, including what to use when. This includes Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL managed instance and SQL Server in Azure VMs. Understanding what Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) encompasses and how it compares to the SQL Server “box” will help level-set what you get (and don’t get) when you move to the cloud.
  We’ll then get in to covering deployment, configuration, and other getting started related tasks for Azure SQL. You’ll learn how you should plan for deployment, deploy, and verify your deployment, and how it compares to SQL Server. Then, you’ll learn how deploying and configuring databases compares, plus some insights on loading data.

• Secure Azure SQL and Deliver Consistent Performance | Azure SQL Bootcamp (Session 2)
  Ensuring security and compliance of your data is always a top priority. You’ll learn how to use Azure SQL to secure your data, how to configure logins and users, how to use tools and techniques for monitoring security, how to ensure your data meets industry and regulatory compliance standards, and how to leverage the extra benefits and intelligence that is only available in Azure. We’ll also cover some of the networking considerations for securing SQL.
  You’ve also been responsible for getting your SQL fast, keeping it fast, and making it fast again when something is wrong. We’ll show you how to leverage your existing performance skills, processes, and tools and apply them to Azure SQL, including taking advantage of the intelligence in Azure to keep your database tuned.
  

• Deploy Highly Available SQL Solutions & Solve Real-world Scenarios | Azure SQL Bootcamp (Session 3)
  Depending on the SLA your business requires, Azure SQL has the options you need including built-in capabilities. You will learn how to translate your knowledge of backup/restore, Always on failover cluster instances, and Always On availability groups with the options for business continuity in Azure SQL. In the final activity, we’ll validate your Azure SQL expertise with a challenging problem-solution exercise. We’ll then broaden your horizons to the many other opportunities and resources for personal and corporate growth that Azure offer.

• Create Solutions with Azure SQL and Get Your Questions Answered | Azure SQL Bootcamp (Session 4)
  You probably have a lot of questions after drinking from the firehose for three days. In this final session, we’ll discuss potential solutions for the problem-solution exercise from Wednesday, and how you can continue to expand on your Azure SQL knowledge and capabilities. Then, we’ll open it up for an AMA with Bob Ward and Anna Hoffman.

Access the training list here:

• TRAINING: Azure SQL Bootcamp (On-demand)
  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlrxD0HtieHjveswk8_gkPD42Te48X4zG&WT.mc_id=learnlive-video-learn

Archana Balakrishnan joins Scott Hanselman to show how Azure Lighthouse can manage hundreds of customers, thousands of subscriptions, and millions of resources from a unified control plane.

Azure Lighthouse helps deliver managed services with comprehensive and robust management tooling available in Azure.

Benefits include:

• SINGLE SIGN ON – With a single ID, manage all your customers/departments & their subscriptions – instead of logging into each Azure environment with a different identity.
• ONE CONSOLE – View all your managed customers from a single pane of glass
• FLEXIBLE ROLES – Empower departments to select what rights/permissions to grant your organization (an individual or a group)_ as a manager of part/all of their Azure environment.
• ON-PREM MANAGEMENT – Manage on-premises servers (through an agent installed on them)
• ENFORCE POLICIES – Establish and assign policies to ensure adherence to rules & identify systems that are not compliant
• MONITOR COMPLIANCE – Aggregate & view policy compliance, health issues & severity across all subscriptions
• DEPLOY WORKBOOKS – Apply administrative workbooks – like Backup – to identify who’s being backed up, which subscriptions have backups have failed, etc.

Video table of contents:

• 0:00 – Intro
• 0:23 – Episode start
• 2:53 – Demo
• 11:27 – Final Q&A

Learning more about Azure Lighthouse:

• Azure Lighthouse overview
  https://aka.ms/azfr/630/01
• What is Azure Lighthouse?
  https://aka.ms/azfr/630/02
• Azure Lighthouse docs
  https://aka.ms/azfr/630/03
• Azure Lighthouse templates on GitHub
  https://aka.ms/azfr/630/04
• Azure Lighthouse blog post
  https://aka.ms/azfr/630/05
• Create a free account (Azure)
  https://aka.ms/azfr/630/free

Watch the full overview & video demonstration here:

• VIDEO: Azure Lighthouse: A unified control plane for managing Azure at scale | Azure Friday
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Db_AFKCzM&feature=youtu.be

Language Understanding (LUIS) authoring authentication changed from an email account to an Azure resource. Although it’s not currently required, switching to an Azure resource will be enforced in the future.

And that future is Nov 2nd, 2020.

If you’re using LUIS today, be aware that you need to switch over your implementation to Azure resource authentication… otherwise your implementation of LUIS will no longer work.

Read more on what this is and how to migrate here:

• DOCS: Migrate to an Azure resource authoring key
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/luis/luis-migration-authoring

Wanna make sure you’re plugged in to all the big news being released at Ignite?

We have a single site called the “Book of News” for Microsoft Ignite 2020 that lists all our major announcements:

The Microsoft Ignite 2020 Book of News is your guide to the key news items that we are announcing at Ignite. To make the Book of News more interactive, we’ve created a live site that we hope you will find engaging and easy to navigate. Instead of scrolling through pages of content, you now have the option to select the items you are interested in from the table of contents. We hope the new changes will help you get all the information, executive insight and context you need.

This thing is massive.  Be sure to click on the “hamburger menu” (three horizontal lines) in the upper right hand corner to reveal the “Tablet of Contents” – otherwise you’ll be scrolling for ever.  Here’s a glimpse of what’s covered:

• 1. AZURE

  • Azure and Application Development news with Julia White and Frank Shaw

  • 1.1. Azure AI

  • 1.2 Azure Data

  • 1.3 Azure Datacenters

  • 1.4 Azure Dev and Ecosystem

  • 1.5 Azure Hybrid, Azure Infra, Azure Migrate

  • 1.6 Azure IoT

  • 1.7 Azure MR

  • 1.8 Azure Networking

  • 1.9 Windows Virtual Desktop

• 2. BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

  • D365 and Power Platform news with Alysa Taylor & Frank Shaw

  • 2.1 Power Platform

  • 2.2 Dynamics 365

• 3. INNOVATION AND INDUSTRY CLOUD

  • 3.1 Innovation

  • 3.2 Industry Cloud

• 4. MICROSOFT 365

  • M365 news with Jared Spataro and Frank Shaw

  • 4.1 Cortana

  • 4.2 Excel

  • 4.3 Insights and wellbeing

  • 4.4 IT Pro

  • 4.5 Outlook

  • 4.6 Project Cortex

  • 4.7 Microsoft Search

  • 4.8 SharePoint and Yammer

  • 4.9 Microsoft Stream

  • 4.10 Microsoft Teams

• 5. SECURITY, COMPLIANCE AND IDENTITY

  • Security news with Vasu Jakkal and Frank Shaw

  • 5.1 Security

  • 5.2 Compliance

  • 5.3 Identity

  • 5.4. Azure Security

• 6. WINDOWS, EDGE AND DEVICES

  • 6.1 Windows

  • 6.2 Edge

  • 6.3 Devices

Check it out here:

• INFO: “Book of News” for Microsoft Ignite 2020
  https://news.microsoft.com/ignite-2020-book-of-news/

Today, we are thrilled to announce the Public Preview of a built-in cross-tenant mailbox migration service that enables you to move mailboxes between tenants with minimal on-premises infrastructure dependencies (the new service eliminates some but not all on-premises components). The new cross-tenant mailbox migration service eliminates the need to offboard and onboard mailboxes, resulting in a faster and lower-cost migration. This is particularly beneficial for organizations undergoing mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, or splits.

The new move process includes enhanced security, as well as the ability to scope moves. It uses an Enterprise Application in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and Azure Key Vault, allowing tenant admins to manage both authorization and the scoping of mailbox migrations from one tenant to another. Cross-tenant mailbox migrations use an invitation and consent model to establish the Azure AD Enterprise Application used for authentication between tenants.

…

Read more at the announcement here::

• BETA: Cross-tenant Exchange Online mailbox migration in now in Public Preview
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/cross-tenant-mailbox-migration-in-now-in-public-preview/ba-p/1692465

Compliance Manager simplifies compliance and helps reduce risk. Compliance Manager translates complex regulatory requirements to specific controls and through compliance score, provides a quantifiable measure of compliance.

Today, we are excited to announce General Availability for Compliance Manager!

Compliance Manager helps simplify the way you manage compliance by recommending actions you can take to comply with industry regulations and standards that matter most to you.

Before you dive in, it’s helpful to understand the key components you’ll see. A control is a requirement of a regulation, standard, or policy. An action is an activity that helps implement a control. An assessment is a grouping of controls from a specific regulation, standard, or policy.

Assess your current compliance posture
Your dashboard reflects real-time data. We’ll provide you with an initial compliance score based on common regulations and standards. Score breakdowns by category help you prioritize areas that need attention.

Take actions to improve your compliance
Quickly see which actions will help you complete assessments. Detailed implementation guidance tells you what steps to take and directs you to the appropriate solution. Your score updates when you complete actions, and we continuously scan your environment to show you what needs attention.

You can start using Compliance Manager by visiting the Microsoft 365 compliance center.

Additional resources:

• Watch this video to learn how to get started right away and watch these videos for further details
• Learn more about how to work with Compliance Manager here
• Join us for product demo and Q&A over webinars in your region:
  United States:  https://aka.ms/GetInvite-ComplianceManagerWebinarPST

Compliance Manager is generally available to Microsoft 365 and Office 365 customers today.

Read all about it in our blog:

• Announcing general availability of Microsoft Compliance Manager
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-security-and/announcing-general-availability-of-microsoft-compliance-manager/ba-p/1679846

Would you like to publish your free/busy information from your calendar so other people outside of your organization can see it from Office 365?  You still can – but you’ll need to do it from the Outlook Web experience.

If you have Microsoft 365 or another email service based on Microsoft Exchange Online, use Outlook on the web to share your calendar with people inside or outside your organization. Depending on the permission you give them, they can view your calendar, edit it, or act as your delegate for meeting requests.

…

In Calendar settings, you can publish your calendar so anyone can view your calendar or subscribe to it.

1. In Calendar view, select Settings > View all Outlook settings.

2. Select Shared calendars.

3. Under Publish a calendar, choose which calendar you want to publish and how much detail people can see.

4. Select Publish.

5. If you choose an HTML link, recipients can copy and paste the URL in a browser to view your calendar in a new browser window.

   If you choose an ICS link, recipients can download the ICS file and import it into Outlook. This will add your events into their calendar, but recipients won’t automatically receive any updates to your calendar. Alternatively, recipients can use the ICS link to subscribe to your calendar through Outlook. They’ll see your calendar alongside their own and will automatically receive any updates to your calendar.

Notes:

• HTML and ICS calendars are read-only, so recipients won’t be able to edit your calendar.
• How often your ICS calendar syncs depends on the recipient’s email provider.

Taken from:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/share-your-calendar-in-outlook-on-the-web-7ecef8ae-139c-40d9-bae2-a23977ee58d5

Here are the published guides for various product groups at Microsoft Ignite 2020 this week.

• SharePoint, OneNote, Planner, Stream, Visio, Project Cortex, List
• Outlook
• Developers
• Internet of Things
• Planner & Task Management
• OneDrive
• Microsoft 365
• PowerApps

—————-

SharePoint, OneNote, Planner, Stream, Visio, Project Cortex, Lists
Find out what’s in store for #SharePoint, OneDrive, MicrosoftPlanner, MicrosoftStream, Visio, ProjectCortex, MicrosoftLists, and more. View the related session catalog here:

• Microsoft Ignite 2020 guide to SharePoint, OneDrive, Planner, Stream, Visio and Lists
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-sharepoint-blog/microsoft-ignite-2020-guide-to-sharepoint-onedrive-planner/ba-p/1662401

Outlook
This post is to highlight all the information specific to Outlook at Ignite 2020.  If you’d like a comprehensive compilation of content across Exchange, Outlook and Bookings you can check out the Exchange Team blog.

• Brighter days start with a great Outlook
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/outlook-blog/brighter-days-start-with-a-great-outlook/ba-p/1636688

Developers
It’s that time of the year again! Are you all ready for Ignite 2020? We are absolutely thrilled to be joining you this year for our all-digital Ignite conference. For those of you who are new, Ignite is our biggest Microsoft conference where – among many other things – you can get the latest updates on Microsoft Teams platform, Microsoft Graph, Windows and cross platform development, SharePoint, Office Add-ins, and more!

Things are going to look a little different this year, so we’re going to walk you through the steps to make the most of the event.

• Buckle up and get ready for Ignite 2020!
  https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blogs/buckle-up-and-get-ready-for-ignite-2020

Internet of Things (IoT)
Not only did the IoT teams prepare some cool announcements but we also prepared new learning content and connecting opportunity.  Here is the full list of IoT content and sessions we prepared for you Ignite.

• IoT at Microsoft Ignite 2020
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/internet-of-things/iot-at-microsoft-ignite-2020/ba-p/1673323

Planner, Tasks in Teams and Task Management
Here’s a quick rundown of sessions to get you started if you’re looking to learn more about Planner, Tasks in Teams, and other task management capabilities across Microsoft 365.

• Guide to Microsoft Ignite 2020 – Task Management Edition
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/planner-blog/guide-to-microsoft-ignite-2020-task-management-edition/ba-p/1662465

OneDrive
Ignite is just round the corner and we can’t wait to celebrate the product innovations with you. Check out your guide to Microsoft OneDrive sessions at Microsoft Ignite.

• Your guide to Microsoft OneDrive @ Ignite 2020
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/your-guide-to-microsoft-onedrive-ignite-2020/ba-p/1675607

Microsoft 365 for Administrators
Microsoft Ignite, our yearly flagship event for Microsoft products and technologies, is a 48-hour digital event experience taking place from September 22-24, 2020. Ignite, of course, is a very different event this year. On the one hand, it is a single global event where everyone gets the same news, information, content, and experience at the same time. But on the other hand, I will miss the many personal connections that take place at our in-person events. I look forward to the day when in-person events resume, but until then, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share with you now an amazing collection of video content covering the incredible work being done across Microsoft 365.

• Microsoft 365 Admin Guide to Ignite 2020 (Part 1) – IT Efficiency and Agility
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/microsoft-365-admin-guide-to-ignite-2020-part-1-it-efficiency/ba-p/1661053
• Microsoft 365 Admin Guide to Ignite 2020 (Part 2) – Modern Cloud Management
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/microsoft-365-admin-guide-to-ignite-2020-part-2-modern-cloud/ba-p/1669526
• Microsoft 365 Admin Guide to Ignite 2020 (Part 3) – Investments in Complex Organizations
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/microsoft-365-admin-guide-to-ignite-2020-part-3-investments-in/ba-p/1669547

PowerApps
Below are a list of the sessions focusing on Power Apps and the Power Platform at this year’s Ignite.  We hope you have a chance to join us for some of these great topics so you can learn more about the Power Platform and how it can enhance the efficiency of your organization.    

• Power Apps at Microsoft Ignite Virtual Conference
  https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-apps-at-microsoft-ignite-virtual-conference/