Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Your SharePoint intranet in Office 365 is a connected workplace. Imagine your entire company moving through information life cycles – through creation and dissemination – with ease and coordination. It is an intranet built for teamwork– to keep people informed, engaged and moving forward.

Microsoft disclosed many new announcements at this week’s SharePoint Conference (#SPC18) in Las Vegas), including SharePoint spaces – new immersive, mixed reality experiences for anyone, on any device.

Read on to learn what’s coming for your intranet – across team sites, communication sites, hub sites, news, pages, web parts, mobile apps and more. We’re excited to share this with you for the first time and look forward to working with you as a trusted partner to achieve your desired outcomes.

(Be sure to scroll to the bottom for the FAQ which talks about release timeframes, roles of different collaboration solutions, etc.)

• BLOG: “What’s new for your intranet in Office 365”
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/What-s-new-for-your-intranet-in-Office-365/ba-p/194168

Take a structured approach to designing your cloud applications. This cloud computing architecture e-book focuses on architecture, design, and implementation—considerations that apply no matter which cloud platform you choose. The guide includes steps for:

• Choosing the right cloud application architecture style for your app or solution.
• Selecting appropriate compute and data store technologies.
• Incorporating 10 design principles to build a scalable, resilient, and manageable application.
• Following the five pillars of software quality to ensure your cloud app is successful.
• Using design patterns that specifically apply to the problem you’re trying to solve.

Download the 300-page cloud architecture e-book to explore these best practices, and get access to design review checklists, reference architectures, and more.

• DOWNLOAD: Free MS Press eBook, “Cloud Application Architecture Guide” (.PDF, 333pgs, 9.0MB)
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/campaigns/cloud-application-architecture-guide/

We recently completed the acqusition of Semantic Machines – a conversational AI company. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement:

We are excited to announce today that we have acquired Semantic Machines Inc., a Berkeley, California-based company that has developed a revolutionary new approach to building conversational AI. Their work uses the power of machine learning to enable users to discover, access and interact with information and services in a much more natural way, and with significantly less effort.

The company is led by many pioneers in conversational AI, including technology entrepreneur Dan Roth and two of the most prominent and innovative natural language AI researchers in the world, UC Berkeley professor Dan Klein and Stanford University professor Percy Liang, as well as former Apple chief speech scientist Larry Gillick.

…

Read more at the announcement blog here:

• NEWS: Microsoft acquires Semantic Machines, advancing the state of conversational AI
  https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2018/05/20/microsoft-acquires-semantic-machines-advancing-the-state-of-conversational-ai/

The opening keynote at SharePoint Conference North America on May 21, 2018 is available on-demand.

During this keynote, you will hear from Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jeff Teper and General Manager Seth Patton as they share the latest product innovations and roadmap across SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer, Microsoft Teams, and Office 365.

The page also lists all announcements made at SharePoint Conference 2018, including:

• SharePoint Server 2019
• Microsoft Training Services
• SharePoint Intelligence & Automation
• New Capabilities of OneDrive
• Security & Compliance announcements for SharePoint & OneDrive
• etc.

Watch the video here:

• VIDEO: SharePoint Virtual Summit On Demand (1hr 46min)
  https://resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sharepoint-virtual-summit-2018/

We’re bringing our community together for the first-ever Microsoft Business Applications Summit, the place for Dynamics 365, Power BI, Excel, PowerApps and Microsoft Flow users to connect, collaborate and pack in as much learning as possible.

Come for exclusive access to expert insights, a vibrant community ranging from expert users to knowledgeable explorers and summertime in Seattle; it doesn’t get much better.

Connect with experts

Meet the engineers behind your favorite business applications.

• Go one-on-one with Microsoft engineers—get answers to your toughest questions
• Hear from product experts, and see the future of business applications before anyone else

Collaborate with community

Collaborate with fellow attendees and immerse yourself in a vibrant community.

• Build your community through networking events, workshops, and a partner expo
• Network with your peers, join a user group meetup and share best practices

Learn new skills

All things Dynamics 365, Power BI, Excel, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow under one roof. Learn how Microsoft Business Applications adapt to your needs and help you innovate.

• Something for everyone with 14 pre-days, more than 120 sessions and hands-on workshops from industry experts
• Get inspired with keynotes from top Microsoft executives, plus visionaries like bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell

Dates:
July 22-24, 2018

Location:
Washington State Convention Center
705 Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98101

Registration:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/businessapplicationssummit/

Per communication from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft will be acquiring GitHub for $7.5B:

This morning we announced an agreement to acquire GitHub, a service that millions of developers around the world — including thousands of us at Microsoft — rely on to write code together. You can read my blog post on how we envision the opportunity ahead.

From our earliest days, Microsoft has been a developer-first company, and together with GitHub we will advance our mission to empower every developer in every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Once the acquisition closes later this year, GitHub will be led by CEO Nat Friedman, an open source veteran and founder of Xamarin, who will continue to report to Scott Guthrie.

Read the official details of this announcement at the links below:

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Microsoft to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion
  https://news.microsoft.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-to-acquire-github-for-7-5-billion/
• BLOG: Satya Nadella on acquisition of GitHub
  https://blogs.microsoft.com/?p=52553832

Microsoft Future Decoded is a 2-day conference that we hold annually in London in which we discuss the future technology by way of our highest technology executives.

For those that missed it,   We went over, among other things:

• Reinvention of Business Processes through modularity, common data models, data graphs, and composite apps
• Workplace Transformation & the Surface Book 2 & Mixed Reality
• Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing & the Intelligent Cloud

Here’s a recap of last year’s event in 2017:

• Microsoft Future Decoded 2017 – what you may have missed
  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mpn_uk/2017/11/03/microsoft-future-decoded-2017-what-you-may-have-missed/

The event’s keynotes will be live streamed on both days.

Here’s the announcement of the 2018 event:

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Microsoft Future Decoded 2018 – October 31, 2018 – November 1st, 2018
  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mpn_uk/2018/05/30/microsoft-future-decoded-2018/

For the fifth consecutive year, Gartner has positioned Microsoft as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Worldwide, 2018.

Microsoft Azure IaaS has been designed to meet all your workload needs. Azure offers unique hybrid deployment models and industry-leading compliance and security. Azure supports open source technologies, so you can use the tools you prefer.

Gartner’s extensive evaluation of IaaS providers covers strengths, cautions, and recommended uses of the top cloud vendors. Download the full Gartner report to learn more.

• DOWNLOAD: Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Infrastructure as a Service – 2018 Research Report
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/gartner-iaas-magic-quadrant/en-us/

*Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Did you know that Microsoft recommends that you don’t set an expiration for end user passwords?

We have a Microsoft research paper that documents our guidelines/recommendations.

This paper provides Microsoft’s recommendations for password management based on current research and lessons from our own experience as one of the largest Identity Providers (IdPs) in the world. It covers recommendations for end users and identity administrators.

Microsoft sees over 10 million username/password pair attacks every day. This gives us a unique vantage point to understand the role of passwords in account takeover. The guidance in this paper is scoped to users of Microsoft’s identity platforms (Azure Active Directory, Active Directory, and Microsoft account) though it generalizes to other platforms.

Download the paper here:

• WHITEPAPER: Password Guidance
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/password-guidance/?from=http%3A%2F%2Fresearch.microsoft.com%2Fpubs%2F265143%2Fmicrosoft_password_guidance.pdf

Finding Mastery is a podcast that explores how the best in the world master their craft.

Host and high performance psychologist, Dr. Michael Gervais, interviews people excelling in the most hostile environments to discover the mental skills used to push the boundaries.

Each episode features inspiring stories from the world’s best athletes, brilliant business minds, and the musicians and artists changing our perspective of what’s possible. Thoughtful, spontaneous, and engaging, Dr. Michael Gervais provides insights to help listeners live connected to their potential and pursue their very best.

Dr. Gervais’ unique perspective and expertise are relevant to many different industries and audiences.

This past week’s episode was Episode 120, “Satya Nadella”:

Satya Nadella needs no introduction. He and his team are guiding one the world’s most significant high-tech companies. He’s the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, and one of only three in their history.

The first time I met him (in 2014, when he was just a handful of weeks in as CEO) I was struck by how deeply he listened, his authentic curiosity to learn, and the clarity of how he organized his thoughts.

It was apparent that he deeply valued, and was going to thoughtfully design, a culture at Microsoft for people to find and connect to their purpose — to experience their life efforts with deep meaning — while at the same time, holding true to their mission of empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

That is so rich. It’s what we all want. To live a life of purpose and meaning — and to really make a difference with what we do, and how we do it.

This conversation explores where that comes from for him.

As this conversation unfolds, it became amazingly apparent that at the center of his approach is: empathy — the ability to experience what another person is experiencing, from their perspective.

As most of you know, Pete Carroll and I formed the company Compete to Create to share the insights that he and I have come to understand about how to train the mind to amplify culture and performance — and it’s been a privilege to work inside the organization with the people at Microsoft who have in turn taught us so much about what it means to be great.

I’m excited to introduce Satya to this community; one of the brightest minds our world has to offer. I hope you soak it up…

• The importance of creating a shared purpose at Microsoft
• How he shaped his vision for what Microsoft should be
• The most critical relationship for Microsoft: from concept to capability to culture
• His biggest strength: acknowledging his weaknesses
• How he creates space for himself
• Why having a deep sense of empathy is critical to meet customer needs
• The impact having his child Zane had on him and the way he looks at life
• The meaning behind “hit refresh”
• Why he’s such a big believer in having a growth mindset
• Striving for balance between confidence and humility
• His thoughts on mastery

Download this episode of Dr. Gervais’ podcast here:

• PODCAST: Finding Mastery– Episode 120, “Satya Nadella”
  https://findingmastery.net/satya-nadella