Kurt Shintaku's Blog

When Microsoft rolled out Intune to all its employee’s personal devices, (all devices accessing any corporate data at Microsoft must be enrolled in Intune) folks were naturally interested in knowing what information might be collected by Microsoft IT.

Microsoft is as vigilant about it’s employee’s privacy as it is with our customer’s.  The first thing users were presented with when enrolling their personal devices was information about what information the company would see and would not see:

• Microsoft can never see:
• Call & web history
• Location
• Email and text messages
• Contacts
• Password
• Calendar
• Camera roll
• Microsoft may see:
• Model
• Serial number
• Operating system
• App names
• Owner
• Device name
• Manufacturer
• Phone number (for corporate devices only)

This is available in greater detail online for individuals with questions about the data collected via Intune when enrolled.  You can read this info through the link below.

• INFO: "What information can your company see when you enroll your device in Microsoft Intune?”
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/intune-user-help/what-info-can-your-company-see-when-you-enroll-your-device-in-intune

If you’re wondering why Microsoft needed GitHub & why GitHub needed Microsoft, there’s several reasons, but at the core of it is the fact that putting GitHub together with the power of Microsoft Azure is a 1+1=3.

Every GitHub developer has to download, compile, test, edit & post their code to the service. Doing all of this locally on one’s own development system is a waste of productivity when you can:

• keep code in GitHub
• compile code in the cloud
• orchestrate the creation of test environments (VMs & cloud services) – entirely in the cloud
• access rentable devices like iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, etc. with different OS revisions for test use in the cloud (Xamarin Test Cloud)
• test one’s code in the cloud
• edit code in the cloud
• lather rinse repeat – all online
• save revisions in GitHub

GitHub gets direct access to the world’s largest, most powerful cloud & Microsoft gets more potential users of Microsoft Azure. 

…GitHub+Microsoft means more productive developers.

For more resources around this acquisition, check out the following link:

• GitHub+Microsoft Resources:
  https://view.pointdrive.linkedin.com/presentations/963289ec-c65f-493a-9d52-30e79a7f727d?auth=69ecaf58-d8db-4ba3-880e-c417f14b00ff

Here are some great articles explaining why this acquisition is important:

• BUSINESS INSIDER: “Microsoft is buying GitHub for $7.5 billion — here’s why it’s a smart move for Microsoft in the cloud wars with Amazon”
  http://www.businessinsider.com/why-microsoft-should-buy-github-2018-6
• GEEKWIRE: “Why would Microsoft want GitHub? Developers, developers, developers ― and the cloud”
  https://www.geekwire.com/2018/microsoft-want-github-developers-developers-developers-―-cloud/
• ARS TECHNICA: “Microsoft snaps up GitHub for $7.5 billion”
  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/06/microsoft-snaps-up-github-for-7-5-billion/
• ARS TECHNICA: “Everyone complaining about Microsoft buying GitHub needs to offer a better solution”
  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/06/everyone-complaining-about-microsoft-buying-github-needs-to-offer-a-better-solution/

Join us on Tuesday, June 26, 2018 for a virtual experience to learn tips and tricks for modernizing your infrastructure and applications—regardless of whether you’re running it on-premises or in the cloud.

Windows Server 2019 Virtual Summit
(Agenda)

• Keynote
• Tracks
• Hybrid
• Security
• Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)
• Application Platform

Details below:

• Date/Time:
  June 26, 2018
  9:00AM-1:00PM (PST)
• Save the Date:
  https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE2bymF
• Sign up for updates:
  https://info.microsoft.com/Windows-Server-Summit-Stay-Up-To-Date.html
• Registration:
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-server-summit

Wanna get started developing Java apps for the cloud with tutorials, tools, and libraries?

Check out our Azure for Java Developers site.

• Get started
• InteliJ, Maven, Eclipse, and VS Code plugins
• Code samples
• Azure Libraries for Java
• “Get Started Guides”
  Learn how to use Java with Azure services
• Deploy your first web app to Azure
• Deploy to Kubernetes
• Deploy to a Spring Boot app with Maven
• Microservices with Service Fabric
• Create a Java serverless function
• CI/CD to App Services with Jenkins

Visit the resources here:

• INFO: Azure for Java Developers
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/java/azure/?WT.mc_id=docsmsft-twitter

Today we are announcing the pre-pilot phase of Microsoft Training Services, a digital, customized learning service for Office 365 and Windows 10 that helps customers transform their organizations without investing heavily in training and change management resources.

To date, 25 organizations have participated in the pre-pilot phase, helping to develop and test the service. We’ve learned that customers face key challenges with training their employees how to use Microsoft apps and services:

• Landing the business-specific reasons that new tools are beneficial
• Customizing adoption and training content to meet the needs of their environment
• Keeping training content up-to-date
• Measuring the results of their training efforts
• Keeping IT and champions up-to-date on new features

Microsoft Training Services solves these problems by delivering:

• Customizable, flexible content – Admins choose to hide or show content based on their environment or build their own custom playlists that are tailored to the unique needs of their organization. End users make their own playlists and share them with coworkers.
• Experiences sized to the customer need – Our service offers training playlist tools to be incorporated within their existing sites or the full Toolkit for Teamwork experience which can provide the end to end out of the box website for customizable adoption & training content.
• Always up-to-date content: Microsoft Training Services content is continually and automatically updated, enabling organizations to provide a library of up-to-date learning content for end users and avoid the hassle of having to make the changes themselves.
• Measurement tools – Management gains valuable insights into the training materials users consume and the types of custom playlists they create and share.

No additional training resources or package purchases are required to use either the training content or full site experience solutions. Microsoft Training Services delivers training content from an Azure-hosted content store to a Web part hosted on the customer’s SharePoint communication site. A similar package can be installed that will provide the full Toolkit for Teamwork SharePoint Online full site experience.

Microsoft Training Services will be available as a pilot in late July 2018. To be added to the pilot waitlist or to learn more register at https://aka.ms/mtspilot.

Read the original announcement here:

• BETA: Introducing Microsoft Training Services
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint-Blog/Introducing-Microsoft-Training-Services/ba-p/195732

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/