Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Effective project managers know how to provide strategic value by helping their organization deliver on promises. And they also recognize that having the right tools is vital to getting the job done right. Whether you need the basics like creating schedules and tracking statuses, or you’re looking at managing more complicated processes, Project Online can help.

“A crash course in Project Online” explores how Project Online enables you to:

• deliver on time and within budget
• identify risks
• set milestones
• assess the value of progress

No matter which critical path you’re on, Project Online helps ensure you and your organization are successful.

• DOWNLOAD: Overview – “A crash course in Project Online”
  https://resources.office.com/ww-landing-Crash-course-in-Project-Online-eBook.html
  

Get to know Azure with overview demos and webinars on a range of topics — all live with Q&A.

Getting Started with Azure—live demo and Q&A
See Azure in action. Get an overview of the portal and popular products and participate in a live Q&A with Azure engineers. Learn how to easily start deploying resources.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00 AM Pacific Time
Register now >

Prepare for Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 End of Support
Learn how to migrate your applications and data to SQL Server 2017, Windows Server 2019, and Azure—before support ends in July 2019.
Thursday, July 12, 2018, 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Register now >

Connecting, Building, and Protecting Your Network
Explore the future of the cloud-centric network by looking at two new services and seeing how partners and customers are adapting their own networks to a cloud-based model.
Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Register now >

Turning Data into Insights for the Federal Government
Learn how to use analytics to inform decisions, streamline day-to-day operations, and create opportunities for better decisions and predictive abilities.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Register now >

Introduction to IoT for Decision Makers
Explore the benefits of connecting people, assets, processes, and systems with an Internet of Things (IoT) solution, along with how to maximize your business value.
Thursday July 26, 2018, 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Register now >

Here’s my tl;dr notes:

“Surface Go”: (Codenamed “Lingo”)

• 10” display touch & pen display
• 7th Generation Intel Pentium Gold Processor 4415Y – FANLESS
• 9 hours of battery
• 1.15 pounds and 8.3 mm thin
• Starts at $399
• $399 for 64GB eMMC/4GB RAM
• $549 for 128GB SSD/8GB RAM
• $521.55 Special pricing for eligible students, parents, teachers, and military.
• Features & Accessories:
• Surface’s signature Type Cover keyboard
• Built-in kickstand with full friction hinge that extends to 165 degrees
• Windows Hello camera for secure sign-in using face recognition
• Surface Connect port for charging & docking with Surface dock
• USB-C 3.1 for data, video, and charging
• Headphone jack; and a MicroSD card reader
• TPM 2.0 chip
• 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p Skype HD video
• 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video
• Options:
• Surface Go with Wi-Fi: July 10^th (preorder), Aug 2^nd (ship)
• Surface Go with LTE: Later in 2018

Tech Specs detailed on the Store site:

• Surface Go – Tech Specs
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface/8V9DP4LNKNSZ?activetab=pivot:techspecstab

Announcement here – including video:

• Meet Surface Go, starting at $399 MSRP, it’s the smallest and most affordable Surface yet
  https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2018/07/09/meet-surface-go-starting-at-399-msrp-its-the-smallest-and-most-affordable-surface-yet/#qQsDQuw3XysYfji0.97.

There’s a fascinating post written on “The Art of the Possible” blog around the topic of whether or not IT permits end users to create their own Microsoft Teams sites.

Here’s the intro:

Are you here looking for an answer to the question in the tile? If you are Microsoft partner helping our customer implement Teams or our customer in the process of implementing Teams, then it is likely this topic is being discussed. Almost every customer I work with asks me what other customers are doing about Teams provisioning? Are others allowing end users to create a new Team as and when they need or is there a review and approval process?

Few years back, this question was not even asked in large enterprises. In recent years, organizations have developed processes for provisioning SharePoint sites and file shares. This process usually included request from end user, followed by review and approval by IT prior to provisioning an additional content store. Then why this question now? What has changed that has prompted IT to even consider if end users should be allowed to create a new Team without any review and approval?

To understand this, lets understand why organizations have a process in place for provisioning:

…

Read more at the blog post:

• BLOG: Analysis: Who creates a new team in Microsoft Teams – End user or IT?
  https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/arbindo/2018/05/01/analysis-who-creates-a-new-team-in-microsoft-teams-end-user-or-it/

There’s an interesting debate between end users & IT pros orchestrated by the blog authors, BTW, that goes over this exact topic:

Enjoy hands-on learning on your schedule with our free, Self-paced Labs, and keep your cloud knowledge fresh.

There are 244 labs that you can execute online at no cost to you, complete with remote Virtual Machines, portal access, lab manuals, etc.

Here’s a sample:

• Getting Started with Azure Virtual Machines
• Advanced Azure Virtual Machine and Compute
• Manage, Secure, and Optimize migrated Azure workloads
• Monitor and Analyze Cloud Resources with Log Analytics and Application Insights
• Migrating assessed workloads with Azure Site Recovery
• Assessing on-premises VMware environments with Azure Migrate
• Building Intelligent Bot using Azure Web App Bot Service and Cosmos DB
• Microsoft Azure Administration for AWS Administrators
• …

Try out the labs here!

• TRAINING: Self-paced Hands-on Labs… online!https://www.microsoft.com/handsonlabs/SelfPacedLabs

Got a Surface Pro 3?  Have you updated the TPM module’s firmware?  Get ready for some big fun, if not. 

There’s a vulnerability in TPM that was reported a while ago that requires an update to the TPM chip firmware from 5.0.1089.2 to 5.62.3162.2.  Doing so is really laborious.

Because TPM touches certificates & the drive encryption, it’s a fairly involved & carefully orchestrated process that can take 30 minutes or more.  It involves:

1. Downloading & installing an Update tool to the local machine
2. Running the tool to format & create a bootable USB drive then unplug the drive
3. Suspend Bitlocker on your machine (Super critical step!)
4. Go into the UEFI boot menu of the Surface (Volume UP+Power)
1. Delete all Secure Boot Keys
2. Disable Secure Boot Control
3. Save the configuration
5. Reboot the computer (It will display a RED boot screen) then shut it down.
6. Plug in & boot up the bootable USB drive that was created (Volume DOWN+Power)
7. Update the TPM firmware using the steps from the booted USB key
8. Boot up Windows & verify that the TPM chip has been properly updates through TPM.MSC
9. Shutdown the PC & boot into the UEFI menu (Volume UP+Power)
10. Enable Secure Boot Control
11. Install Factory Default Keys
12. Resume Bitlocker
13. Reset Windows Hello for Business PIN by deleting the certificate container for Hello (certutil –deleteHelloContainer)

WHEW!
Not gonna lie – this isn’t for the light hearted.  I was very surprised that this process was what was required.

For detailed instructions, go to the following page:

• Surface Pro 3: Install and use the Surface Pro 3 Trusted Platform Module (TPM) update tool
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/help/4100374

NOT JUST FOR SURFACE DEVICES
While I described the hair-raising process that is required for Surface Pro 3s, this is technically required for ALL devices that have a TPM chip from what I understand – including Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, etc. although there are different less involved processes for those.

There are instructions available for this update for various hardware vendors including HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, Fujitsu, Panasonic, and others, on the Microsoft Support site so head on over there to see what the process is for your machine:

• Update your security processor (TPM) firmware
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4096377/windows-10-update-security-processor-tpm-firmware#firmwareupdates

A few months ago Paul Bowden, a Software Development Engineer from Microsoft for Office Deployment & Manageability did a presentation on “Deployment & Management of Office 365 ProPlus on Mac”.

I’ve not seen this information elsewhere so I thought I’d post his presentation here:

1. Office for Mac Community links and sites for more info
2. Native applications on the Mac versions, sizes, and contents of each app
3. Benefits of deployment architecture
4. How to deploy the bits in the enterprise
1. Deploying Office with Jamf
5. Deployment source automation (cached vs ondemand)
6. Network endpoints
7. Activation and licensing
8. License storage & conversion
1. VL to O365 license conversion
9. Office for Mac update channels
10. Update cadence recommendations
11. Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU)
12. MAU caching server
13. Roadmap
1. Today’s current deployment model of 4GB pagages
2. The future of Office update management
14. Deploying application settings
1. Comparisons with Office on PC/Windows

Grab the deck here:

• DOWNLOAD: Deployment & Management of Office 365 ProPlus on Mac
  https://1drv.ms/p/s!Ao0Dfn8MQdoArP4zWvo9SAuDu2p5TQ

[I’ve shared this before but it’s been updated a bit and is a worthwhile companion to the “Azure Strategic Implementation Guide”]

"Azure Onboarding Guide for IT Organizations”, is a popular document for our customers in IT and is usually a good resource to review top to bottom as a starting point to understanding the considerations to adopting Azure cloud services as an organization.

It covers:

1. Moving to the cloud
2. Managing security, compliance, and data privacy
3. Azure enterprise administration
4. Integrating Azure into the corporate network
5. Extending Active Directory to Azure
6. Operating Azure IaaS Services
7. Migrating existing services to Azure
8. Offering management for cloud-based services

(When you review it, you’ll notice that it’s more tactical as opposed to the eBook I shared earlier entitled, “Azure Strategy & Implementation Guide” making it a good guide for IT pros.)

• DOWNLOAD: "Azure Onboarding Guide for IT Organizations"
  https://azure.microsoft.com/mediahandler/files/resourcefiles/d8e7430c-8f62-4bbb-9ca2-f2bc877b48bd/Azure%20Onboarding%20Guide%20for%20IT%20Organizations.pdf

Gartner Group just published a analysis report on Microsoft Teams entitled, “Why Microsoft Teams Will Soon Be Just as Common as Outlook”. 

It is only available to Gartner customers & subscribers however the table of contents alone is a fascinating overview of questions that I’m sure many people have about Teams and it’s role in enterprise collaboration.

Taken from summary:

Microsoft Teams is playing an increasingly unifying and expanding role in Office 365. This report guides technical professionals on getting the most value out of Teams, analyzes Teams’ impact on the rest of Office 365, and assesses Teams’ strengths and weaknesses.

…

Download the report here if you are a Gartner subscriber:

• Gartner: “Why Microsoft Teams Will Soon Be Just as Common as Outlook”
  https://www.gartner.com/doc/3879669/microsoft-teams-soon-just-common

Our LinkedIn subsidiary announced that military spouses will be eligible to receive LinkedIn Premium upgrades, including access to the LinkedIn Learning library. (Many assets formerly from the acqusition of Lynda.com)

Faced with frequent moves and deployments, military spouses have a unique challenge when it comes to growing their careers – in fact, they are four times more likely to be unemployed than their civilian counterparts. In order to help set them up for success, re-skilling and re-training are key as well as identifying remote and flexible work options.

To help solve this pressing challenge, LinkedIn is expanding our military and veterans program to include military spouses through a new partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Spouse Education and Career Opportunities program. Beginning this July, we’ll provide one year of LinkedIn Premium to every military spouse during each of their moves to new installations to help their career transitions, and once again upon conclusion of military service.

This will include free access to our online library of more than 12,000 LinkedIn Learning courses, including our newly-launched learning path designed to help military spouses succeed in flexible, freelance, or remote work opportunities. We’ll be working to foster this community through the DoD’s growing military spouse LinkedIn group, as well as directing employers to this community as a top source of talent.

Read the entire announcement here.

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Welcoming Military Spouses to LinkedIn’s Military and Veterans Program
  https://blog.linkedin.com/2018/june/11/welcoming-military-spouses-to-linkedins-military-and-veterans-program
• ANNOUNCEMENT: DoD Partners With LinkedIn, Offers Military Spouses Free Membership
  https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1554303/dod-partners-with-linkedin-offers-military-spouses-free-membership/

For details on how to enroll, check out the Spouce Education & Career Opportunities site on Millitary OneSource at:

• SECO – LinkedIn Premium
  https://myseco.militaryonesource.mil/portal/content/view/8256