Kurt Shintaku's Blog

One of the biggest challenges in digital transformation is ensuring security, privacy, and compliance, especially with the rising number of cybersecurity attacks. Microsoft technology secures your digital transformation with unique intelligence, partnerships and a comprehensive platform for a holistic security strategy.  

In this workshop you will learn:

• How Microsoft centers its security, compliance, and privacy around identity and access management
• How to implement and administrate multi-layer threat protection
• How the Microsoft platform allows security administrators and IT Managers to manage and protect sensitive information with built-in intelligence
• How to use the vast array of controls to manage a secure, compliant, and privacy sensitive environme

DATE/TIME:
June 7, 2018 — 9:00 AM – 3:30 PM 

LOCATION:
Microsoft Technology Center – Irvine
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600
Irvine, California 92614

REGISTRATION:
http://boards.microsoft.com/public/item/202477?token=4bd95b09c1

Office 365 Multi-Geo Data Location provides enterprise-grade global data location controls, allowing administrators to control where each user’s Office 365 data is stored.

It enables a single tenant to span multiple geographic locations (Geos). For example, when Multi-Geo is enabled, customers can select the location of Exchange Online mailbox content (data at rest) on a per-user basis.

The service currently supports Exchange Online & OneDrive for Business.  It is an add-on service to select Office 365 subscriptions and costs USD $2/user/month for users in Satellite Geos.

• PRODUCT PAGE:
  https://products.office.com/en-us/business/multi-geo-capabilities
• DETAILS/PRICING & LICENSING: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Security-Privacy-and-Compliance/Get-global-data-location-controls-with-Multi-Geo-Capabilities-in/ba-p/182710
• DOCUMENTATION:
• ONEDRIVE/SHAREPOINT ONLINE: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/multi-geo-capabilities-in-onedrive-and-sharepoint-online-in-office-365
• EXCHANGE ONLINE: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/multi-geo-capabilities-in-exchange-online
• DATASHEET:
  https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE1YoWk

While it’s clear what the potentials of cloud computing are for your organization, it may be unclear the adjustments your IT organization will need to make in transitioning to the cloud.

This guide is designed to help your IT team more effectively implement and integrate cloud technologies. You’ll explore key cloud concepts as well as Azure-specific tips and tactics around: 

• General architectures that incorporate security, identity, and cloud design principles.
• DevOps and how it fits with cloud technologies. 
• Integrating, planning, and managing cloud resources. 
• Microsoft Azure governance.

Grab the guide here:

• DOWNLOAD: Free eBook, “Azure Strategy and Implementation guide” (.PDF, 5.7MB, 121 pgs)
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/azure-strategy-and-implementation-guide/

If you are a .NET developer or architect who wants to get started with Microsoft Azure, this book is for you!

Written by developers for developers in the .NET ecosystem, this guide will show you how to get started with Azure and which services you can use to run your .NET applications and store your data in a more efficient and secure way.

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Get the Azure Quick Start Guide for .NET Developers
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/get-the-azure-quick-start-guide-for-net-developers/
• DOWNLOAD: Free eBook, “Azure Quick Start Guide for .NET Developers”(.PDF, 744K)https://github.com/dotnet-architecture/eShopOnContainers/raw/dev/docs/MicrosoftAzure_StartGuide_Developers.pdf

Back in March 2018, we released the .MSI package for Microsoft Teams. 

If you’ve been interested in a .MSI deployable/configurable Teams client package (32-bit or 64-bit) to use with your SCCM configuration, this is probably what you want to take a look at.

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Teams for Windows Installer Package (.MSI)
  32-bit – http://aka.ms/teams32bitmsi
  64-bit – http://aka.ms/teams64bitmsi

• DOCUMENTATION: Install Microsoft Teams using MSI
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/msi-deployment

• DOCUMENTATION: Manage Teams during the transition to the new Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business Admin Center
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/manage-teams-skypeforbusiness-admin-center

Microsoft Forms is finally generally available for Office 365 Commercial subscriptions!  This means Office 365 F1, E1, E3, & E5 subscribers are all eligible to use the service. (Yes, I’m asking about GovCloud availability – but don’t know the answer yet.)

Today, we are excited to announce that Microsoft Forms, a simple app for creating surveys, quizzes, and polls, is generally available to all Office 365 commercial customers. Used by more than 3 million users in education, Forms was brought to commercial preview by customer demand last year. Thanks to more than 50,000 companies participating in the Preview program, Microsoft Forms is now enterprise ready, and, hence, we are removing the “Preview” label.

With Microsoft Forms, your employees can easily solicit client input, measure customer satisfaction, and organize team events, within minutes. The app is simple to use and works on any web browser, so it can be accessed from anywhere, anytime. With real time responses and automatic charts built in, Microsoft Forms makes it easy to understand the data right away. And for companies that want to custom brand their surveys, Forms supports the addition of themes, logo, and images. We also know that many users work in teams, so users can collaborate on a single form. Forms can be used within applications you know and love, such as Excel, SharePoint, Teams, Flow, and Sway.

Most recently, Microsoft Forms added many features that enterprises requested, such as SOC compliance, ability for IT admins to manage user licenses, and controls to enable sharing of Forms outside of their organization. For more complex surveys, we also added support question branching and Likert scales, plus an ability to collect 50,000 survey responses per form.

• SERVICE: Microsoft Forms
  Start your first form, poll, survey, or quiz here.
  http://forms.office.com
• ANNOUNCEMENT: Microsoft Forms is Enterprise Ready now!
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Forms-Blog/Microsoft-Forms-is-Enterprise-Ready-now/ba-p/186748
• TRAINING/DOCUMENTATION:
  https://support.office.com/en-us/forms

Visual Studio Live Share is an exciting new capability which allows developers to collaboratively edit and debug in real-time, from the comfort of their favorite tools.

It enables you to instantly share your entire project and locally running app, directly from Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code. You can then invite others to join your collaboration session, without requiring them to download the codebase, or install additional extensions or SDKs.

Visual Studio Live Share is currently in private preview but will enter public preview at Build on May 7th.

Check It Out Today!

• BETA: Visual Studio Live Share
  https://ptdrv.linkedin.com/oovnnw3

Our Technology Specialist for Voice Communications & Skype for Business, Arshad Shaikh, pointed out to me that there are also really deep courses available online that we host at EdX at no cost to customers. 

Here’s some of them:

1. Skype for Business: Infrastructure Planning and Design
2. Skype for Business: Infrastructure Implementation and Conferencing
3. Skype for Business: Voice Concepts and Planning
4. Skype for Business: Voice Hybrid and Routing
5. Skype for Business: Voice Advanced Workloads

See the entire list here:

• TRAINING: EdX online training for Skype for Business
  https://www.edx.org/course?search_query=Skype+for+business

All courses available for enrollment through Software Assurance Training Vouchers are listed on this database: http://savl-catalog.microsoft.com/:

Doing a search on Skype for Business reveals the following:

• Course20334 : Core Solutions of Skype for Business 2015
  This course teaches IT professionals how to plan, deploy, configure, and administer a Skype for Business 2015 solution.  Students will learn how to deploy a multi-site  and highly available Skype for Business infrastructure that supports instant messaging, conferencing, persistent chat, archiving and monitoring. Students will also learn how to manage, maintain and troubleshoot issues in the infrastructure. This course focuses primarily on the on-premises deployment of Skype for Business, but does include information on how to integrate the on-premises deployment with Skype for Business Online as well as how to migrate from previous versions of Lync Server. This course helps the student prepare for Exam 70-334.
• Course40409 : Deploying Voice Workloads for Skype for Business Online and Server 2015
  This five-day instructor-led course teaches how to design, plan, and deploy the various voice solutions available with Skype for Business Online and Skype for Business Server 2015. This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to configure and manage Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling, Cloud PBX with On-Premises PSTN Connectivity, Cloud Connector, and on-premises Enterprise Voice. This course will also provide procedures, guidelines, best practices, and other important considerations that will help you implement, optimize and troubleshoot Skype for Business Online and Skype for Business Server 2015 voice solutions. This course helps students prepare for Microsoft Exam 70-333 “Deploying Enterprise Voice with Skype for Business 2015”.

Both are 5 day courses.  In order to enroll, one needs to:

1. Select a Microsoft certified Training facility/”Learning Partner”.  This can be a New Horizons, a 360Training, or any number of other training centers:
   https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/find-partner.aspx
2. Have a Software Assurance Benefits administrator in your company create a Software Assurance Training Voucher for 5-days out of the company’s allocation (This will output a voucher ID):
   https://trainingbenefits.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/en/SATV/Pages/CreateVoucher.aspx
3. Schedule the class directly with the training company and reference your training voucher ID.

More details are available here:

• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/software-assurance-benefits.aspx

This is a multipart video series we did on Security with Microsoft CISO, Bret Arsenault, in December of 2017:

• VIDEO: Securing our Enterprise Episode 1: “Balancing security in the midst of a digital transformation”
  https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/blog/balancing-security-midst-digital-transformation/
• VIDEO: Securing our Enterprise Episode 2: “The importance of device health”
  https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/blog/importance-device-health/
• VIDEO: Securing our Enterprise Episode 3: "How Microsoft protects against identity compromise"
  https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/blog/how-microsoft-protects-against-identity-compromise/
• VIDEO: Securing the Enterprise Episode 4: “Sorting through the noise to protect the enterprise”
  https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/blog/sorting-noise-protect-enterprise/
• VIDEO: Securing the Enterprise Episode 5: “Fostering a risk-based culture to secure the enterprise”
  https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/blog/fostering-risk-based-culture-secure-enterprise/
• VIDEO: Securing the Enterprise Episode 6: “What cultural and digital transformation means to enterprise information security”
  https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/blog/cultural-digital-transformation-means-enterprise-information-security/