Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Some organizations that own Windows Server Datacenter Edition on Software Assurance (a.k.a. license maintenance) have also deployed Azure Virtual Machines running Windows Server Datacenter Edition without taking advantage of the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit, despite being eligible.

If a user is eligible, Azure Hybrid Use Benefit enables the user to take advantage of their existing Windows Server Datacenter Edition licensing while on Software Assurance, and NOT have to pay for a Windows Server license while running an analogous Virtual Machine within Azure.

The result is roughly a 40% savings on Azure billing.  And it’s only available on Microsoft’s cloud.

HOW TO ENABLE EXISTING VMS TO USE AZURE HYBRID USE BENEFIT
If you have Virtual Machines eligible for the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit, that are not currently taking advantage of it, you don’t need to redeploy the workload to Azure.

Below is the PowerShell command to convert existing VMs to use Azure Hybrid Use Benefit:

$vm = Get-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroup "rg-name" -Name "vm-name"

$vm.LicenseType = "Windows_Server"

Update-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName rg-name

James Phillips, Corporate VP for Business Applications, invites you to join us for the “Microsoft Business Applications Virtual Spring Launch” event!

Get a first-hand look at the Spring 2018 Business Applications update to see how modern, intelligent technologies can transform your operations, improve engagement with your customers, and help move your business forward.

Join the virtual webcast event featuring James Phillips, Corporate Vice President, Business Applications Group. We’ll take a look at many of the new capabilities across Dynamics 365, Power BI, and the Business Application Platform and will showcase how these technologies can help drive your digital transformation.

• DATE/TIME
  March 28, 2018
  8:00 am PST | 11:00am EST
• REGISTRATION
  http://aka.ms/virtualspringlaunch
• ADD TO CALENDAR
  https://presentations.akamaized.net/FileLibrary/1951/24/BusinessApplicationsVirtualSpringLaunchEvent2018.ics

Microsoft Visio helps you simplify and communicate complex information with data-linked diagrams that you can create in just a few clicks.

Visio makes diagramming simple. Whether you want to quickly capture a flowchart that you brainstormed on a whiteboard, map an IT network, build an organizational chart, document a business process, or draw a floor plan, Visio helps you work visually.

Learn how to take advantage of these tools by registering for this webcast series.  Here’s some of the topics:

• See new & improved features inside Visio 2016
• Collaborate for innovation and improvement
• The 3 C’s of Visio Stencils
• Visualize project status by linking Project to Visio
• Visio Online Preview
• Introducing powerful new features in Visio
• Your GPS to more effective Visio process maps
• Create value stream maps with Visio 2016
• Visio techniques to make you a power user
• Visio Online Viewer & Visio Viewer for iPad & Microsoft’s cross platform vision for Visio

Register here:

• TRAINING: Visio Webcast Series (On-demand)
  https://resources.office.com/en-us-landing-EnvisionwhatyoucandowithVisioseries.html

Freakonomics Radio’s Stephen Dubner had a 40min interview with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, where he asks about what Microsoft’s growth & cultural changes, about his ascendance to CEO & what got him there, & the impact his upbringing had on his views on leadership.

What follows is a conversation with Satya Nadella, the C.E.O. of Microsoft. It was recorded in September, 2017, soon after Nadella published a book, called Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone. The interview was done for our six-part series, “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.” And now we’re releasing — as special episodes like this one — our full, lightly edited conversations. Some of the facts are already outdated — Microsoft’s market cap, for instance, has grown a lot more than $250 billion since we spoke. Hope you enjoy.

Listen to the full interview below:

• AUDIO: “Extra: Satya Nadella Full Interview”
  http://freakonomics.com/podcast/satya-nadella/ 

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or iTunes below:

• PODCAST: Subscribe to Freakonomics Radio: http://pca.st/MuZ5

Ever had problems with Office 365’s applications?

Have you tried the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365?

How does it work?
Support and Recovery Assistant works by running tests to figure out what’s wrong. It can fix many problems for you, or it can tell you how to fix them yourself.

• Problems with Outlook
• Outlook stops responding
• Can’t receive emails
• Outlook keeps asking for my password
• Shared mailboxes or shared calendars don’t work.
• Outlook keeps saying "Trying to connect…" or "Disconnecte
• Problems with Office 365 email on your phone
• I can’t sync my email
• Email app keeps asking for my password
• Trouble setting up Office apps
• Where do I go to install Office?
• I can’t activate Office
• I need help setting up my Office 365 email in Outlook

Installation
The installation is a 195KB stub that installs a 98.8MB .NET application.

After accepting the Terms of Use screen, you’ll be sent to the main page.  In the upper right hand corner, you can sign-in to your Office 365 account to kick things off.

Download the tool from the site below.

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365
  https://diagnostics.outlook.com/#/?env=officeportal

Registration opens at 9:00 AM PST, February 15, 2018.

Microsoft Build
May 7-9, 2018
Seattle, WA
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/build

Save the date:
https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE1PE9R

Big news for those looking for help in defending all your client devices from threats.

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection coming to Windows 7 SP1 & Windows 8.1
Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (WDATP) is coming to Windows 7 SP1 & Windows 8.1.  It was announced yesterday that starting this summer, customers moving to Windows 10 can add Windows Defender ATP Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) functionality to their Windows 7, and Windows 8.1 devices, and get a holistic view across their endpoints.

For Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, we are building a behavioral based EDR solution to give security teams rich insights into threats on their endpoints. All detections and events are surfaced in Windows Defender Security Center, the cloud-based console for Windows Defender ATP. Security teams benefit from correlated alerts for known and unknown adversaries, additional threat intelligence, and a detailed machine timeline for further investigations and manual response options.

Although this solution can run side-by-side with third-party antivirus solutions, it is better together with Windows Defender Antivirus (also known as System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) for down-level). With Windows Defender Antivirus, security teams can see all malware detections and trigger response actions to prevent the spread of malware, in the same console.

More WDATP Cross Platform support for iOS, Android, MacOS, & Linux through partners
We previously announced CROSS-PLATFORM support for Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection technology to detect, protect, and respond to security threats against macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android through partnerships with Bitdefender, Lookout, and Ziften.

We are now extending this partnership with SentinelOne Endpoint Protection & their EDR technology.  Read about it here.

• BLOG: Announcing: Windows Defender ATP support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1
  https://blogs.windows.com/business/2018/02/12/announcing-windows-defender-atp-support-for-windows-7-and-windows-8-1/#c1zFfAUIcw6RRxD7.97

For more information on Post-breach Security Technology & Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, visit the following:

• PRODUCT: Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection
  https://aka.ms/wdatp
• DOWNLOAD: Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Information Kit
  https://info.microsoft.com/ATPInformationKit-Registration.html
• STUDY: The Total Economic ImpactTM of Microsoft Windows Defender ATP
  https://info.microsoft.com/WNDWS-Forrester-TEI-Registration.html
• WHITEPAPER: Post Breach Dealing with Advanced Threats Whitepaper
  https://info.microsoft.com/Dealingwithadvancedthreats.html
• WEBCAST: The New Post-Breach Approach to Endpoint Security
  https://info.microsoft.com/Post-breachapproachtoendpointsecurity_OnDemand.html
• RESEARCH: Windows Defender ATP Blog
  https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/tag/windows-defender-atp/?source=mmpc

The LinkedIn Resume Assistant for Word for Windows is now available to Office 365 Subscribers who receive updates through the Monthly Channel starting February 7, 2018 in select regions. The following blog post announcements discuss the general availability milestone.

• LinkedIn: How to rock your resume with Resume Assistant from LinkedIn + Microsoft
• Microsoft: Craft a compelling resume with Resume Assistant, powered by LinkedIn – Now Available

Availability

The LinkedIn Resume Assistant is only available for Windows versions of Word at this time. 

• Insiders Channels: November 9, 2017
• Monthly Channel: February 7, 2018
• Language: English
• Regions: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, New Zealand, United, Kingdom, and United States of America

The LinkedIn Resume Assistant requires an Office 365 Client subscription such as Office 365 Business or Office 365 ProPlus (the client can be a part of offering like Business Premium, E3, or E5)

Office setting for LinkedIn feature integration

LinkedIn feature integration can be enabled or disabled through a setting by going to the  File > Options, General tab in Excel, Word, PowerPoint or Outlook. When the setting is checked or unchecked in any of the four applications, all four applications respect the change.

This setting is available as a Group Policy.

Documentation

The following help articles are available from either Microsoft or LinkedIn related to this release.

Resume Assistant

• Microsoft: Write your best resume in Word with help from LinkedIn (Contains 2 minute video overview of feature)
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn features integrated into the Resume Assistant

LinkedIn Integration

• Microsoft: About LinkedIn information and features in Microsoft apps and services
• Microsoft: Enabling LinkedIn integration in Azure Active Directory
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn Public Profile Visibility

November Blog Posts:

• Microsoft: Bringing AI to job seekers with Resume Assistant in Word powered by LinkedIn
• LinkedIn: Creating your resume just got a whole lot easier with Microsoft and LinkedIn

The "Secure DevOps Kit for Azure" (will be referred to as ‘AzSDK’ henceforth) is a collection of scripts, tools, extensions, automations, etc. that caters to the end to end Azure subscription and resource security needs for dev ops teams using extensive automation and smoothly integrating security into native dev ops workflows helping accomplish secure dev ops with these 6 focus areas:

1. Secure the subscription: A secure cloud subscription provides a core foundation upon which subsequent development and deployment activities can be conducted. An engineering team should have the capabilities to deploy and configure security in the subscription including elements such as alerts, ARM policies, RBAC, Security Center policies, JEA, Resource Locks, etc. Likewise, it should be possible to check that all settings are in conformance to a secure baseline.
2. Enable secure development: During the coding and early development stages, developers should have the ability to write secure code and to test the secure configuration of their cloud applications. Just like build verification tests (BVTs), we introduce the concept of security verification tests (SVTs) which can check for security of various resource types in Azure.
3. Integrate security into CICD: Test automation is a core tenet of devops. We emphasize this by providing the ability to run SVTs as part of the VSTS CICD pipeline. These SVTs can be used to ensure that the target subscription used to deploy a cloud application and the Azure resources the application is built upon are all setup in a secure manner.
4. Continuous Assurance: In the constantly changing dev ops environment, it is important to move away from the mindset of security being a milestone. We have to treat security as a continuously varying state of a system. This is made possible through capabilities that enable continuous assurance using a combination of automation runbooks, schedules, etc.
5. Alerting & Monitoring: Visibility of security status is important for individual application teams and also for central enterprise teams. We provide solutions that cater to the needs of both. Moreover, the solution spans across all stages of dev ops in effect bridging the gap between the dev team and the ops team from a security standpoint through the single, integrated views it generates.
6. Cloud Risk Governance: Lastly, underlying all activities in the kit is a telemetry framework that generates events capturing usage, adoption, evaluation results, etc. This allows us to make measured improvements to security targeting areas of high risk and maximum usage before others.

Read more here/download it here:

• DOWNLOAD: Secure DevOps Kit for Azure
  https://github.com/azsdk/azsdk-docs