Kurt Shintaku's Blog

If you’ve made investments in Windows Server, you may want further understand how to take advantage of Windows Azure for sending workloads to the cloud for more elastic, more cost-effective operations.

Microsoft’s growth is predominantly a result of the growth of Windows Azure: Azure now accounts for close to 90% of all web-facing computers at Microsoft. Windows Azure has grown by almost 50% since May 2013, during the February 2014 Web Server survey Netcraft found 27,000 web-facing computers (both Windows and Linux) using the cloud computing platform.  Many of Microsoft’s own services are powered by Windows Azure including Office 365, Xbox Live, Skype, and OneDrive.

Windows Azure Web Sites service — available to the general public since June 2013 — may be the driving force behind Azure’s growth. This Platform as a Service allows existing applications written in ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, Node.js, or Python to be deployed on an automatically scaling platform without managing individual computers. Microsoft also provides pre-configured software packages, such as WordPress, which can be used immediately with the Web Site service.

Read more here:
http://microsoft-news.com/report-microsoft-edges-ahead-of-amazon-to-become-the-largest-windows-hosting-company/

First, we introduced Office 365 Message Encryption – i.e. the ability send public secured emails to recipients without requiring any add-ins or additional technologies on either the sender or recipient’s computers.  This service is available at no additional cost to Office 365 E3/E4 subscribers.

Now, we’re introducing S/MIME as well for Office 365, enabling public key encryption & digital signing of messaging data, and again, at no additional cost to Office 365 E3/E4 subscribers.

Recently, we published a blog post that outlines how strongly committed we are to protecting our customers’ information. A key aspect of our strategy is to expand encryption across all our services. Earlier this month, we announced Office 365 Message Encryption, a new service that allows you to send encrypted mail to anyone. As part of our ongoing focus on encryption, we announced yesterday that we’re bringing S/MIME capability to Office 365 and Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1. With this release, customers will have S/MIME support across Outlook, Outlook Web App (OWA), and Exchange ActiveSync clients. S/MIME for Outlook and EAS is already available on Exchange Online and S/MIME on OWA is being rolled out and is expected to be completed by early April.

S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a standard for public key encryption and digital signing of MIME data, and it is defined in a number of Requests for Comments (RFCs): 3369, 3370, 3850, and 3851. S/MIME allows a user to: (1) encrypt an email and (2) digitally sign an email, and thus provides cryptographic security services such as authentication, message integrity, and non-repudiation of origin (using digital signatures). It also helps enhance privacy and data security (using encryption) for electronic messaging. You can learn more about S/MIME in this technet article.

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Read more here:

• S/MIME encryption now in Office 365
  http://blogs.office.com/2014/02/26/smime-encryption-now-in-office-365/

Containing twenty-four design patterns and ten related guidance topics, this guide articulates the benefit of applying patterns by showing how each piece can fit into the big picture of cloud application architectures.

It also discusses the benefits and considerations for each pattern. Most of the patterns have code samples or snippets that show how to implement the patterns using the features of Windows Azure. However the majority of topics described in this guide are equally relevant to all kinds of distributed systems, whether hosted on Windows Azure or on other cloud platforms.

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Best Practices eBook, “Cloud Design Patterns” (236pgs, .PDF 5.8MB, ePUB 3.4MB)
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42026

In case you missed it, this was our 2014 Super Bowl commercial entitled, “Empowering”.

This one minute production is a collage of many of the ways that people are empowered & inspired through technology.  For more on any of these stories, click on one of the story videos below:

• Steve Gleason: No White Flags (2:24)
• Sarah Churman: Hearing for the first time (1:52)
• Braylon O’Neill: Making Strides (2:07)
• Hal Lasko: Painting With Technology (2:01)
• Surgeons: Operate With Kinect (1:15)
• Mystery Skype: Connecting Classrooms Around The World (1:58)
• Celebrating the Heroic Women of 2013 (1:00)

With Exchange 2013, we released a new data loss prevention (DLP) capability based on deep content analysis that helps you identify, monitor, and protect sensitive information. We’re continually looking to expand our DLP capabilities, and today we’re bringing two new ones to you—Document Fingerprinting and Policy Tips in Outlook Web App (OWA). Both are being rolled out for Office 365 users right now, and they’ll be part of the Exchange Server 2013 SP1 release for our on-premises users (please stay tuned for more information on SP1).

Watch this short video that explains what DLP has to offer today and how the new capabilities can help your organization be more compliant.

Read more:

• BLOG: Data loss prevention in Exchange just got better
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2014/02/25/data-loss-prevention-in-exchange-just-got-better.aspx

Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available for download! Please make sure to read the release notes before installing SP1. The final build number for Exchange Server 2013 SP1 is 15.00.0847.032.

SP1 has already been deployed to thousands of production mailboxes in customer environments via the Exchange Server Technology Adoption Program (TAP). In addition to including fixes, SP1 provides enhancements to improve the Exchange 2013 experience. These include enhancements in security and compliance, architecture and administration, and user experiences. These key enhancements are introduced below.

• ANNOUNCEMENT: Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2014/02/25/exchange-server-2013-service-pack-1-available.aspx
• DOWNLOAD: Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1
  http://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=41994

Just a reminder that the Microsoft Exchange Conference 2014 is coming up soon!  If you haven’t registered, you ought to do so now!

Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC) is the premier global event for Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 professionals to enhance their skills and meet with peers, speakers and the people who actually build and maintain the product.

With hundreds of educational breakouts, interactive sessions and evening events to foster productive networking, MEC allows Exchange administrators, IT Pros and Developers to elevate their career potential and enhance their overall knowledge of Microsoft Exchange.

• Microsoft Exchange Conference Event Site
  http://iammec.com/
• MEC Conference Sessions List
  http://www.iammec.com/Sessions.aspx
• MEC Conference FAQ
  http://www.iammec.com/FAQ.aspx

For those of you involved with Microsoft technologies, looking to budget & book for the upcoming year’s educational & networking events, this is my list of upcoming conferences, registration URLs, and their locations in order of execution based on my own knowledge:

• Mar 3-6, 2014 : Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2014 – Las Vegas, NV
  http://www.sharepointconference.com/
• Mar 31-Apr 2, 2014 : Microsoft Exchange Conference 2014 – Austin, TX
  http://www.iammec.com/
• April 1-3, 2014: ALM Forum Seattle – Seattle, WA (Independent) http://www.alm-forum.com/
• April 2-4, 2014: Microsoft BUILD Conference – San Francisco, CA http://www.buildwindows.com
• May 12-15, 2014: Microsoft TechEd North America 2014 – Houston, TX
  http://northamerica.msteched.com/
• July 13-17, 2014: Worldwide Partner Conference – Washington, D.C.
  http://www.digitalwpc.com/WPC2014/Pages/Registration.aspx
• Nov 4-7, 2014:  PASS Summit 2014 – Seattle, WA (Independent) http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2014/Splash.aspx

If you’ve ever wanted to broadcast the live audio & video of the video game you’re playing on your Xbox One, you will have the opportunity to do so on March 11.

Xbox One will be introducing Twitch.TV broadcast capability, allowing anyone with an Xbox One & a Xbox Live Gold subscription to showcase their skills live on the Internet and broadcast their gameplay to viewers such as friends, relatives, or anyone really.

All it takes is to utter, “Xbox, Broadcast.”

How’s that for easy?  This capability is a platform defining function that has long been in the works and looks to be a a great way for people to follow others, create better social gaming, and learn how to play. 

Join in on the fun on your Xbox One!

• Broadcast your awesome game action with Twitch, coming to Xbox One March 11
  http://news.xbox.com/2014/02/xbox-one-twitch-broadcasting

Microsoft Office 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) provides the latest updates for Office 2013. This service pack includes two kinds of fixes:

• Previously unreleased fixes that are included in this service pack. In addition to general product fixes, these fixes include improvements in stability, performance, and security.
• All the monthly security updates that were released through January 2014, and all the Cumulative Updates that were released through December 2013.

The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
Note If you have a 32-bit version of Office 2013 installed on a 64-bit version of Windows, you should install the Office 2013 SP1 32-bit package.

• Download the Microsoft Office 2013 SP1 32-bit package now
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8fe8d26b-0b6a-4f2a-ba6f-17d2dc20149e

• Download the Microsoft Office 2013 SP1 64-bit package now
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=18179326-e1bf-4f5b-8399-649f22976c61

For more information about the service pack, visit:

• Office 2013 Service Pack 1 brings security enhancements, expanded functionality
  http://blogs.office.com/2014/02/25/office-2013-service-pack-1-now-available/
• Description of Microsoft Office 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817430
• List of all Service Pack 1 (SP1) packages for Microsoft Office 2013 and related desktop products
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2850036