Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Have you ever belonged to another company’s Microsoft Team and then needed to remove yourself from that Team – and that organization entirely?

You can “Leave the Team” – and that process is pretty well documented.  But you’re still technically connected to that organization via Azure B2B and thus you’ll continue to see that organization listed within your “organizations” or tenants list within the Teams client.

What do I do with all these "XXXXXXXX(Guest)” organizations I still belong to?

How does one get rid of these entries?

LEAVE ORGANIZATION AS A GUEST USER
The answer is a little more convoluted than it should be.  You basically have to go into the Azure Portal using your company/org account and remove yourself as an Azure Active Directory B2B guest of these tenants/orgs.

1. In the Azure portal, click your name in the upper right and select View account.
2. Open your Access Panel, click your name in the upper right, and next to Organizations, select the settings icon (gear).
1. Note: If you’re not already signed in to the organization you want to leave, under Organizations, click the Sign in to leave organization link next to the organization’s name. After you’re signed in, click your name again in the upper right and next to Organizations, select the settings icon (gear).
3. Under Organizations, find the organization that you want to leave, and select Leave organization.
4. When asked to confirm, select Leave.

More elaborate directions are available here:

• DOCS: Leave an organization as a guest user
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/b2b/leave-the-organization

Recently a podcast called “Masters of Scale” by Reid Hoffman featured an interview with Bill Gates back in November 2019 that highlighted a very interesting principle (and backstory) of Microsoft.

There’s a segment of the interview that really resonated with me about Microsoft’s long term vision.  To quote one of Microsoft’s deep thinkers, Tren Griffin:

“This has always been the core Microsoft strategy.”

On software:

GATES: "Paul was totally critical to there being a Microsoft at all. Paul read about hardware. I didn’t like hardware. He drew me into that. Paul wanted us to actually build a personal computer. I said, ‘No, no. We’re just going to do software.’”

“​We’re going to do platforms – a computer on every desk…. We saw the importance of software when coupled with the miracle of the microprocessor and that there would be platforms initially – although it seems quite limited in today’s view."

"If our BASIC was on every machine – a library of BASIC programs – various applications, games to business applications, would be written in our BASIC, which had unique and proprietary aspects to it. Then anybody doing a new computer would want Microsoft BASIC."

"Then it became DOS, then it became Windows – but the economic model was the same [as BASIC]."

On Office:

GATES: ​We decided you had to do first-party applications. So that business model really gets its full proof in the late ’90s as Windows 95 ships and we do Office software around it.

​Excel leads 1-2-3 as Windows catches on; Word beats MultiMate, WordPerfect as Windows catches on. Microsoft Access beats Ashton-Tate, which ​PC Week ​ had this

column that said, "It was announced by Microsoft today that Ashton-Tate never existed." That was one of my favorite things and it was just funny. 

​There was this great panel where Mitch Kapor disagreed with me. He ran Lotus, a very important company. And I was promoting graphics interface, and at the end of the panel he said, "Bill is wrong. But he works so hard, he probably will succeed even though he’s wrong in this case." And I viewed that as quite a compliment, that my hardcore-ness could bend even the outcome of what was the right approach.

So we could do Word, and Excel, and Access, and a variety of products without slowing down. And because our strategy of building these Windows Office things that would integrate together required excellent execution. 

And in the end, the fact that we’ve bet on graphics interface, and the fact that our Excel worked better with PowerPoint, worked better with Word, which is this Office concept, the traditional competitors – Lotus, Ashton-Tate, WordPerfect – completely failed to achieve that kind of product. 

​And to this day that achievement of Office, which has now switched to online – that is Microsoft’s greatest asset.”

Taken from the transcript the interview in “Masters of Scale” with Reid Hoffman:

• TRANSCRIPT:
  https://mastersofscale.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mos-episode-transcript-bill-gates-.pdf
• AUDIO:
  https://mastersofscale.com/bill-gates-how-to-accelerate-history/

We are happy to announce the availability of two important books for expanding usage of Microsoft Teams.  In this digital age it’s important to remember that many people like to have a physical guide for their new experience!  Both books are affordable and our Conversational Geek book is short and the perfect leave behind at internal events for the launch of Microsoft Teams.  Use them both to deliver 100 & 200 level training content to your people.  And yes, both are available in digital format.

• You can get “Conversational Microsoft Teams”, a book for end users, for free as an eBook or purchase printed copies in bulk.
• “Adopt & Embrace Microsoft Teams” is  "Microsoft Teams for Managers" and available for purchase either as a Kindle book

Read more about these downloadable or purchasable books here:

• BLOG: Available Now! Conversational Teams & Teams for Managers Books
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/driving-adoption-blog/available-now-conversational-teams-amp-teams-for-managers-books/ba-p/1061625

This video walks you through the updated process to request assistance from Microsoft FastTrack for organizations setting up remote work and learning, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

• Learn more: https://msft.it/6002T5uwu
• Sign in: https://msft.it/6007T5udc

View the video here:

• VIDEO: How to request assistance from Microsoft FastTrack
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c5mXeprVek&feature=youtu.be

Private channels have been successfully rolled out to all Microsoft/Office 365 GCC customers. Please check your tenants to see their arrival. If you do not see them right away, please logout of Office 365 and Microsoft Teams, and sign back in.

If you are not familiar with Private Channels in Teams, please view the blog posts below to learn more.

• What are Private Channels?
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/private-channels
• IT – Life Cycle of Private Channels
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/private-channels-life-cycle-management
• What you can do with Private Channels
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/teams-can-have-standard-or-private-channels-de3e20b0-7494-439c-b7e5-75899ebe6a0e?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

(Thank you to Microsoft Customer Success Manager, Ambrosia Williams, for this information)

If you’re looking at establishing Azure subscriptions & resources, a naming convention is crucial to keeping organized.

Here’s some references to consider:

• SHAREGATE: What does a good Azure naming convention look like?
  https://sharegate.com/blog/what-does-a-good-azure-naming-convention-look-like
• IRONSTONE: Naming Conventions In Azure
  https://www.ironstoneit.com/blog/naming-conventions-for-azure
• PREMIER: Naming convention for Azure Resources
  https://www.liammoat.com/blog/2019/naming-convention-for-azure-resources
• GALLERY: Azure Governance Design Guide – Build Your Azure Naming Convention
  https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Azure-Governance-Design-bed3558a

It’s hopefully obvious how important doing this from day 1 is to your public cloud implementation.  This is documentation for yourself, your organization, and those supporting your institution in the years to come. (Not to mention, leaving your Azure subscription with the default name of “MICROSOFT AZURE ENTERPRISE” isn’t very indicative of having applied much thought or experience to your cloud to management or future administrators)

For example, a basic rule for Azure subscription naming conventions is highlighted in the first link:

• AZURE SUBSCRIPTION NAME FORMAT:
  <Company>-<Department>-<Product Line(optional)>-sub-<Environment>

A simple example of this would be:

• ENVIRONMENT:
  Company: Contoso
  Department: Finance
  Product Line: Internal Applications
  Environment: Production
• AZURE SUBSCRIPTION NAME:
  Con-Fin-Int-Sub-Prd

Here is some public content on Microsoft’s Office 365 Government.

• Office 365 US Government Service Description
  Detailed listing of what services you can expect from Office 365 Government
• Microsoft US Government Cloud eligibility validation
  Application form for validating oneself for Government Cloud/
• Office 365 GCC Trials (Gov only)
  90 day trial requests for Office 365 Government Community Cloud
• Ignite 2017: Office 365 for the US Government and defense industry
  A recorded presentation of Office 365 GCC/DoD
• Microsoft Trust Center
  Compliance & regulatory approvals for Microsoft Cloud worldwide – US & International

Microsoft Government Cloud Case Studies

• Case study: County enhances employee interactivity (King County, WA)
• Case study: City improves operational efficiency (City of Chicago)

Other Government relevant sites:

• Microsoft Tech Community
• Microsoft US Government Cloud Identity: On-Premises, Cloud, and Hybrid
• Office 365 GCC Endpoints – Office 365 GCC High Endpoints
• Power BI US Government Documentation
• Multi Factor Authentication (including PIV/CAC cards)

Microsoft Teams "Brady Bunch" view is coming. 3×3 live video grids with the necessary centrally-managed bandwidth controls, live text voice-to-text captioning, user/org-level broadcast security policies, regulatory policy & compliance reporting, etc. etc.

Revealed on, of all places, the Microsoft Education blog:

• BLOG: Microsoft Teams meetings for the classroom – what to use now, and what is coming soon
  https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2020/04/microsoft-teams-meetings-for-the-classroom-what-to-use-now-and-what-is-coming-soon/

(Yes, this is free)

Azure was designed for security and compliance. Learn how to leverage the built-in services to store your app data securely to ensure that only authorized services and clients have access to it.

These are the modules you will go over

1. Security, responsibility and Trust in Azure
1. Introduction
2. Cloud security is a shared responsibility
3. Tips from Azure Security Center
4. Identity & Access
5. Encryption
6. Overview of Azure certificates
7. Protect your network
8. Protect your shared documents
9. Azure Advanced Threat Protection
10. Understand Security Considerations for Application Lifecycle Management solutions
2. Top 5 security itesm to consider before pushing to production
   …
3. Configure security policies to manage data
   …
4. Security Azure Storage account
   …
5. Configure & manage secretes in Azure Key Vault
   …
6. Secure your Azure resources with Role-based Access Control
   …
7. Secure your Azure SQL Database
   …

Sign up now!  It’s free & a fantastic primer.

• TRAINING: Secure your cloud data (7 modules, 5hr 38min)
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/secure-your-cloud-data/

Yesterday, we announced a $20 million commitment to help 3rd parties develop solutions to COVID-19.

• Microsoft On The Issues: “Mobilizing AI for Health to fight against COVID-19”
  https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/04/09/ai-for-health-covid-19/

HOW TO APPLY FOR AZURE CREDIT
If you’d like to take advantage of this commitment of funding from Microsoft, the way to do this is by applying for funding through our partner, the COVID-19 HPC Consortium.

(There is no link on the AI-for-Health site to apply for grants.  The orchestration of grants are entirely done through the COVID-19 HPC Consortium.)

WHAT IS THE COVID-19 HPC CONSORTIUM?
The COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, a private-public effort spearheaded by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, for which Microsoft is providing researchers access to the world’s most powerful computing resources, which can significantly speed the pace of scientific discovery in the fight to stop the virus. Around the world, Microsoft’s research scientists, spanning computer science, biology, medicine and public health, are collaborating on projects in the consortium.

“The COVID-19 HPC Consortium encompasses computing capabilities from some of the most powerful and advanced computers in the world. We hope to empower researchers around the world to accelerate understanding of the COVID-19 virus and the development of treatments and vaccines to help address infections. Consortium members manage a range of computing capabilities that span from small clusters to some of the very largest supercomputers in the world.”

APPLICATION SITE:
To apply, visit:

• https://www.xsede.org/covid19-hpc-consortium

———-

Background articles:
https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-microsoft-join-white-house-team-unleash-high-performance-computing-covid-19/

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/22/ibm-amazon-google-and-microsoft-partner-with-white-house-to-provide-compute-resources-for-covid-19-research/