Kurt Shintaku's Blog

NOW AVAILABLE ON-DEMAND

Moving into the future, increases in our technological capabilities will be powered by technology out of our sight. Harry Shum, Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Technology and Research, calls this the “invisible revolution.” This revolution has become possible because of emerging technologies that didn’t exist a decade ago, like cloud computing, internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence.

Join our special event dedicated to how these emerging technologies are changing the world. You’ll hear leading researchers discuss and explore:

• What’s possible with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• How IoT is being used to make farms more productive and feed more people around the world.
• Human-computer interaction and the next wave of user interfaces controlled by voice,
  gaze or gesture.
• How data storage is becoming cheaper and energy-efficient by putting data centers under water.

Review the agenda of 15 speakers in & view the On-demand Recording of the Emerging Tech Virtual Summit here:

• VIDEO: Emerging Tech Virtual Summit – On-Demand Recording
  (3 hours) https://vts.inxpo.com/scripts/Server.nxp?LASCmd=AI:4;F:QS!10100&ShowKey=33380

Visio Online is a new way to view and share Visio drawings on the web.

You upload a .vsdx file to the cloud on either OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online. Then people can view the file in a web browser, even if they don’t have Visio installed.  (Reiterating, this is an online viewer within Office 365 Online & is NOT an editor for .vsdx files.)

Visio Online Preview works with the current versions of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

AVAILABILITY
Visio Online is currently in preview release so that customers can get an idea of what it’s like. Visio Online Preview is currently available to Office 365 First Release customers.  We expect Visio Online to be generally available by the end of 2016.

Here’s the online docs:

• WHAT IS VISIO ONLINE? https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-is-Visio-Online-991f80ce-ffed-4ada-9b66-c51a114cdaac?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US
• VISIO ONLINE FAQ
  https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Visio-Online-Frequently-Asked-Questions-e6647040-2fca-42ec-9fa5-d16a4e39e0ee?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US
• BASIC TASKS IN VISIO ONLINE
  https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Basic-tasks-in-Visio-Online-ab1ba49f-1c04-40c1-a7ba-f6cc47a0cdf7?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Understanding how your users are using Microsoft Office 365 is extremely important to you as an Office 365 admin. It allows you to monitor adoption, plan training, and to report back to your management with meaningful insights.

In 2016, we are introducing a variety of new reporting capabilities including:

• Activity reporting dashboard in the Office 365 admin center, giving you usage details down to the individual user level
• APIs, making it easy to integrate the data into your custom apps
  (Usage Reports API Preview coming Q4 2016)
• Power BI Content Pack, letting you combine the data with your user’s information. 
  (Usage Reports PowerBI Content Pack Preview Coming Q4 2016)

Here’s some examples of the usage reports that are included in the Power BI Content Pack:

• Communications
• Collaboration
• Office Activation
• OneDrive Usage
• Top Users – OneDrive
• SFB Usage
• Yammer Usage
• Top Users – Office 365
• SharePoint Usage
• Top Users – SharePoint

Watch this demo-heavy session to learn about the new capabilities and hear how administrators have been using the insights to drive feature adoption in their company.

Official Ignite On-demand video:

• VIDEO: Understand your users: what’s new in Office 365 Usage Reporting
  https://myignite.microsoft.com/videos/1260
• DOWNLOAD: PowerPoint Slide deck
  https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=6B7CF2BD5F47F487&resid=6B7CF2BD5F47F487%21163&authkey=AIDzH-3Ge_x0yPs&em=2&wdAr=1.7777777777777776

HOW TO SIGN UP FOR THE PREVIEW
If you are interested in participating in the preview, please following these instructions as documented in the presentation:

1. Send an email with your tenant name to O365UsagePowerBIPreview *AT* service *DOT* microsoft *DOT* com
2. We’ll prepare your data.  This process will take about 1-2 weeks
3. You will receive an email with access instructions

(The original 2015 announcement of Usage Reporting is located here: https://blogs.office.com/2015/05/05/whats-new-in-office-365-administration-from-microsoft-ignite/)

Are you a web developer?  Check out this new infographic “How web devs can eliminate distractions and cut right to the code”:

• DOWNLOAD: Infographic of How Web devs can Eliminate Distactions
  https://microsoft.docs.contently.com/v/how-web-devs-can-eliminate-distractions

Cutting Right to the Code: A web developer’s guide to help eliminate non-coding tasks and get code done faster
Also download our latest eBook, “Cutting Right to the Code: A web developer’s guide to help eliminate non-coding tasks and get code done faster”.

Minimizing your attack surface area with network-level security is one pain point that every web dev experiences. There are also necessary tasks like backups, scale planning, and logging, that cost you precious time too. This eBook, along with the included code samples, sample apps, and ARM templates, helps web developers eliminate a number of non-coding tasks and get coding faster. Some of the key areas where you’ll gain insight include identifying usage patterns and trends, hooking into content distribution networks, customizing search implementation, implementing your app’s user and access story, and configuring servers to scale out automatically.

Grab it here:

• DOWNLOAD: eBook, “Cutting Right to the Code: A web developer’s guide to help eliminate non-coding tasks and get code done faster”
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cutting-right-to-the-code-web/
  (Direct download available here: https://microsoft.docs.contently.com/v/cutting-right-to-the-code-a-web-developers-guide)

Missed the Microsoft Machine Learning & Data Science Summit 2016?

There were over 40 sessions delivered in Atlanta on September 26 – 27, 2016 from thought leaders and Microsoft engineers on the latest Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Open Source techniques and technologies.

See recordings of all the sessions here:

• Microsoft Machine Learning & Data Science Summit 2016
  https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Machine-Learning-and-Data-Sciences-Conference/Data-Science-Summit-2016

Missed Microsoft Ignite 2016? 

Here’s what Corp VP Julia White says were the “best parts” of Ignite 2016:

• The best part of Microsoft Ignite? How about 10 best parts.
  https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/MicrosoftIgnite/The-best-part-of-Microsoft-Ignite-How-about-10-best-parts

Check out the recordings of the sessions and keynotes at:

• Microsoft Ignite On-Demand
  Watch 800+ hours of idea-provoking content including Microsoft Ignite keynotes, overviews, deep dives, and more.
  https://myignite.microsoft.com/videos

We’re happy to announce the availability of our newest free ebook, Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure, Second Edition (ISBN 9781509302963), by Michael Collier and Robin Shahan.

Introduction

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, providing a wide variety of services you can use without purchasing and provisioning your own hardware. Azure enables the rapid development of solutions and provides the resources to accomplish tasks that may not be feasible in an on-premises environment. Azure’s compute, storage, network, and application services allow you to focus on building great solutions without the need to worry about how the physical infrastructure is assembled.

This book covers the fundamentals of Azure you need to start developing solutions right away. It concentrates on the features of the Azure platform that you are most likely to need to know rather than on every feature and service available on the platform. This book also provides several walkthroughs you can follow to learn how to create VMs and virtual networks, websites and storage accounts, and so on. In many cases, real-world tips are included to help you get the most out of your Azure experience.

In addition to its coverage of core Azure services, the book discusses common tools useful in creating and managing Azure-based solutions. The book wraps up by providing details on a few common business scenarios where Azure can provide compelling and valuable solutions, as well as a chapter providing overviews of some of the commonly used services not covered in the book.

Who should read this book

This book focuses on providing essential information about the key services of Azure for developers and IT professionals who are new to cloud computing. Detailed, step-by-step demonstrations are included to help the reader understand how to get started with each of the key services. This material is useful not only for those who have no prior experience with Azure, but also for those who need a refresher and those who may be familiar with one area but not others. Each chapter is standalone; there is no requirement that you perform the hands-on demonstrations from previous chapters to understand any particular chapter.

Grab the book here:

• DOWNLOAD: Free MSPress ebook: “Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure, Second Edition”
• Standard PDF: https://aka.ms/FundAzure2e/StndPDF
• Mobile PDF:
  https://aka.ms/FundAzure2e/MobPDF
• ePub/iPad
  https://aka.ms/FundAzure2e/epub
• MOBI/Kindle:
  https://aka.ms/FundAzure2e/mobi

Here are all the Community Meetups at happening at Microsoft Ignite.

• INFO: Meetups list at Microsoft Ignite this week
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Ignite-Meetups/Community-Meetups-at-Microsoft-Ignite/m-p/14155/thread-id/14

<taken from the announcement blog post>

Last May, we announced our vision, strategy, timeline and investment areas for SharePoint in Office 365 and on-premises. We unveiled our plan to bring cloud-born innovation to SharePoint Server 2016. Today, we’re excited to announce details for Feature Pack 1.

We’re pleased to announce that we’re ahead of schedule with our inaugural Feature Pack for SharePoint Server 2016. Feature Pack 1, available in November, brings several enhancements driven by recent innovation in Office 365 and feedback from you on UserVoice, including:

• Logging of administrative actions performed in Central Administration and with Windows PowerShell.
• Enhancements to MinRole to support small environments.
• A new OneDrive for Business user experience.
• Custom tiles in the SharePoint app launcher.
• Unified auditing across site collections on-premises and in Office 365.
• Unified taxonomy across on-premises and Office 365.
• OneDrive API 2.0.

We’re excited to share with you some of the details of Feature Pack 1 today.

Feature Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2016 is slated for November 2016.

Read more about the announcement here:

• OFFICE BLOG: Announcing Feature Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2016—cloud-born and future-proof
  https://blogs.office.com/2016/09/26/announcing-feature-pack-1-for-sharepoint-server-2016-cloud-born-and-future-proof/

We’re happy to announce the availability of our newest free ebook, Introducing Windows Server 2016 (ISBN 9780735697744), by John McCabe and the Windows Server team. Enjoy!

Windows Server has powered a generation of organizations, from small businesses to large enterprises. No matter what your area of expertise, this book will introduce you to the latest developments in Windows Server 2016. Each chapter has been written by either field experts or members of the product group, giving you the latest information on every improvement or new feature that is included in this version of Windows Server.

• DOWNLOAD: Free MSPress ebook: “Introducing Windows Server 2016” (Desktop PDF)
  https://aka.ms/WinServ16/StndPDF
• DOWNLOAD: Free MSPress ebook: “Introducing Windows Server 2016” (Mobile PDF)
  https://aka.ms/WinServ16/MobPDF

ePub and Mobi for Kindle formats will be available soon.