If you request Volume Licensing support from the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal, there’s a dedicated support team for users who access volume licensing contracts in the Microsoft 365 admin center. To request support for volume licensing, use the following steps:

  1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, select Help & support.
  2. In the query box, type “manage volume licensing” together with your question to help target your query more accurately. If you see a drop-down list, select the item closest to your question, or continue typing your question, then press Enter.
  3. If the results don’t help, at the bottom, select Contact Support.
  4. Enter a description of your issue, specify the license ID or VL agreement number your issue relates to, confirm your contact number and email address, select your preferred contact method, and then select Contact me.

If you’re a volume licensing admin but are unable to access the admin center, you can create an online support request.

[taken from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/get-help-support?view=o365-worldwide#volume-licensing-support]

Attend the Fabric Community Conference 2025 with over 5,000 of your fellow data, Fabric & Power BI professionals to hear & learn about:

  • Using Fabric as their end-to-end analytics platform.
  • Achieving cost efficiencies & rapid time-to-market for AI & BI solutions
  • Attaining robust security & governance that’s easier to manage
  • Adding SQL databases to Fabric so both transactional and analytical workloads can run on a single unified SaaS data platform

Come see:

  • 4 keynotes, 215 sessions, and 20 full-day workshops
  • Everything on Microsoft’s data platform—Fabric, Power BI, SQL, AI, and more

Cost:

  • Full Conference Pass $1899
  • Use code FABINSIDER for a $400 discount

Dates:

  • Main conference: March 31-April 2, 2025
  • Workshops: March 29, 30 & April 3, 2025

Location:

Register today at:

Get ready to connect, code, and grow at Microsoft Build. This your moment to connect with your peers. Your moment to skill up and get hands-on with code. Your moment to learn more about the latest AI innovations.

Date:
May 19-22, 2025
(Session catalog available April 8)

Location:
Seattle Convention Center | Arch
800 Pike St, Seattle, WA 98101

Cost:
Last year, Microsoft Build 2024 registrations were $1825/attendee.

Registration:
Registration is not yet available however every year, the Microsoft Build Conference registers completely full in minutes after the registration site goes live. Be prepared to register with your credit card the moment it’s available by signing up for notifications when the regsite goes live here: https://build.microsoft.com/

This month we announced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new integrated offering that will help every organization rapidly and securely scale their transformation for the AI era.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat makes it easier than ever for every employee in your organization to interact with AI using a single pane of glass, offering three powerful capabilities:

  • A free, secure AI chat powered by the latest large language models like GPT-4o so everyone in your organization can start with the same, essential organizing layer for AI, documented in our Copilot Chat & Agents Overview Guide.
  • Agents accessed through an intuitive chat experience on a metered basis, so you can transform business processes across your entire organization, documented in our Copilot Chat & Agents Overview Guide.
  • IT controls to ensure enterprise-grade security, privacy, compliance, and management, documented in our Copilot Chat IT Controls & Setup Guide.

Now, you can empower every employee with AI capabilities by offering Copilot Chat to those new to AI at work. This new offering complements our best-in-class Microsoft 365 Copilot experience and can help you unlock the full ROI of AI within your organization that only comes from broad adoption.

To assist you in getting started with Copilot Chat:

  1. There is a Copilot Chat YouTube Playlist of video content providing demonstrations & guidance around the use of Copilot Chat for your organization.
  2. We’ve developed a Copilot Success Kit with resources designed to streamline and accelerate your AI journey with Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  3. For Copilot Chat & Agents specifically, we also have Starter Kit available which includes, among other things:

Learn more about this announcement on our blog.

Frequently Asked Questions:

  • How is this licensed?
    It’s tied to your Entra ID Premium P1 licensing. Every user needs to have an Entra ID Premium P1 license minimally, which comes with every user subscription license of Microsoft 365 E3/G3 or above
  • What about customers with Microsoft 365 GCC cloud instances?
    Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (free with Entra ID) will be available in April 2025.
    Microsoft 365 Copilot (not free) is available through subscription license purchases now.

Watch this 20min interview with Microsoft Executive VP Jason Zander, as he explains the breakthrough in Quantum Computing announced by Microsoft’s Strategic Missions & Technologies. This is a fairly thorough discussion explaining:

  • what makes Microsoft’s topological qubit unique compared to other quantum qubit technologies used elsewhere such as superconducting, trapped ion, neutral atom & photonics
  • why Microsoft’s “topoconductor” was critical to this breakthrough & what makes this quantum breakthrough a “new state of matter”
  • why Majorana 1’s initial 8 qubits are differentiated from other quantum technologies sporting “larger qubit counts”
  • how Microsoft delivers 24 reliable error-corrected qubits in Azure Quantum today & what makes this a practical application
  • why having the potential for more than 1 million qubits on a single chip is so important
  • the general timeline/roadmap for Majorana 1, Microsoft’s Quantum-on-a-Chip offering
  • the initial use cases for Microsoft’s quantum computing technology & the ecosystem
  • the 3rd party evaluation of the topological qubit by DARPA’s physicists, resulting in Microsoft’s selection as a finalist for their scalable quantum computer research program

Summary: Microsoft Unveils First Quantum Computing Chip – Bloomberg News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOP4WbP2TbM

Microsoft announced a major milestone in its quantum computing efforts on Wednesday, unveiling its first quantum computing chip, called Majorana 1. Jason Zander, Microsoft’s executive VP of strategic missions and technologies explains this breakthrough and how it gets quantum computing technology closer to real world applications. Zander speaks to Bloomberg Technology’s Jackie Davalos.

Microsoft’s new revolutionary quantum computing technology delivers massive scale – far exceeding that of any other quantum solution today.

Microsoft’s new “Majorana 1” quantum computing chip is poised to transform the quantum computing industry as the world’s first Quantum Processing Unit (QPU). (p.s. Majorana is pronounced “my-yor-rana”)

Some notes:

VIDEOS:
Watch Microsoft Technical Fellow, Krysta Svore, VP Advanced Quantum Development explain what this breakthrough advancement means for Microsoft customers:

The following videos are also available at Microsoft’s Azure Quantum news site:

MICROSOFT’S QUANTUM INVESTMENT:
This augments Microsoft decade’s long investment in quantum technology & elevates its quantum offerings: (See What is Azure Quantum?)

  • Azure Quantum Workspace
    An environment for running & managing quantum programs on real quantum hardware of their choice & monitoring quantum jobs. Provides customers with $500 of free Azure Quantum credits for each quantum hardware provider.
  • Quantum Development Kit
    A free tool in Visual Studio Code that empowers developers to write quantum programs in Q#, Qiskit & Cirq, making it versatile for developers working with different quantum programming languages.
  • Azure Quantum Elements
    Accelerates scientific discovery by providing simulation workflows optimized for Azure High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters, AI-accelerated computing, and integration with quantum tools. It enables researchers to simulate quantum mechanical systems, such as molecules, and experiment with existing quantum hardware.
  • Azure Quantum Partners
    Microsoft already makes available quantum hardware from other providers to offer diverse quantum resources, including:
    • IONQ: Trapped-ion quantum computers with up to 11 fully connected qubits
    • PASQAL: Neutral atom-based quantum processors with long coherence times
    • Quantinuum: Trapped-ion systems with high-fidelity qubits and low error rates
    • Rigetti: Superconducting qubit-based quantum processors with fast gate times
    • …and more.

Read more about Microsoft’s announcement here:

To get started using Azure Quantum:

Microsoft has multiple blog platforms on multiple domains and depending on your needs, you may need to go to a different one. The largest of these Microsoft blog platforms is the Microsoft Community Hub, also known as the TechCommunity, which is largely focused on technical information from various Microsoft product groups for IT Professionals.

Here’s a list of the blogs available on the Microsoft Community Hub:

Posted by: kurtsh | February 18, 2025

EVENT: Azure CosmosDB Conf 2025 – April 15, 2025

Join us for our 5th annual Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2025, a free virtual developer event co-hosted by Microsoft and the Azure Cosmos DB community.

Tune in to learn why Azure Cosmos DB is the leading database for the era of AI and modern app development. Dive into a dynamic mix of sessions from Microsoft and community experts, showcasing their innovative projects and breakthroughs. Join our engaging 3-hour live show and explore additional sessions on-demand. Mark your calendar for April 15, 2025, and join us online for an exciting day of learning, sharing, and inspiration!

Visit https://aka.ms/azurecosmosdbconf to register!

Reflecting on 2024: A Look Back
Last year’s sessions at the Azure CosmosDB Conf 2024 event were filled with groundbreaking insights, innovative use cases, and practical demonstrations that illuminated the vast possibilities of Azure Cosmos DB. As we prepare for 2025, let’s take a moment to look back at some of the standout sessions and memorable moments from Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2024.

  • Playlist of All 2024 Talks: Relive the entire conference experience by browsing through the full playlist of sessions. This collection showcases a variety of topics and deep dives that spanned the event.
  • Highlight Reel: Get a taste of the most exciting moments with the Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2024 Highlight Reel, capturing the energy, key announcements, and high-impact sessions that defined the conference.

We’re all being asked to do more with less.  Maximizing ROI for every dollar is now more important than ever.  It’s critical that technology decision makers have the information needed to make those tough calls around where to invest.  You’re familiar with Windows, but what about the tangible benefits it provides for the organization and employees? 

Here’s an opportunity to gather timely information to help truly understand the value of Windows Enterprise. Grab a coffee or quick bite then join us for any of the six, quick-hit, 20-minute sessions.  

These sessions, led by subject matter experts and available live and on-demand, delve into topics such as: 

And more! See the list of upcoming Windows Enterprise webinars & register at:

Microsoft Cybersecurity Incident Response, Senior Security Researcher, Lukas Beran maintains an amazing security web site & a great security YouTube channel which documents ways to protect your Microsoft cloud & on-premises footprint.

He posts regularly about Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, Microsoft Intune & Office 365. For example, here’s a list of some of his amazing videos:

If you are responsible for cybersecurity in your organization & work with Microsoft technologies, I highly encourage you to parse through Lukas’ web site & YouTube channel.

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