Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Large organizations frequently provision a singular instance of Azure OpenAI Service that is shared across multiple internal departments. This shared use necessitates an efficient mechanism for allocating costs to each business unit or consumer, based on the number of tokens consumed.

This article delves into how chargeback is calculated for each business unit based on their token usage.

• Calculating Chargebacks for Business Units/Projects Utilizing a Shared Azure OpenAI Instance
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/apps-on-azure-blog/calculating-chargebacks-for-business-units-projects-utilizing-a/ba-p/3909202

To help every customer get AI-ready, we’re rolling out Semantic Index for Copilot, which connects you with your organization’s most relevant and actionable information.

Semantic Index for Copilot is a sophisticated map of your user and company data. For example, when you ask it about the “March Sales Report,” it doesn’t simply look for documents with those words in the file name or body. Instead, it understands that “sales reports are produced by Kelly on the finance team and created in Excel.”

And it uses that conceptual understanding to determine your intent and help you find what you need. The Semantic Index for Copilot is critical to getting relevant, actionable responses to prompts in Microsoft 365 Copilot. And it enhances enterprise search results for E3 and E5 customers—whether they are using Copilot or not.

Learn more about this new capability in Microsoft 365 E3 and E5:

https://msft.it/60499jBCt

#Microsoft365

<stolen from Samir Saini>

Attention State, County, Local Government IT Innovators! September has arrived, and I’m thrilled to share my lineup of the Top 5 Must-Attend Microsoft virtual training & learning events for you. Get ready to supercharge your digital transformation journey with the Microsoft Cloud!

🔒 9/5 – CYBERSECURITY – Protect Data and Mitigate Risk: https://mktoevents.com/Microsoft+Event/405792/157-GQE-382 Learn how to secure data and reduce risks with Microsoft Purview Information Protection and risk mgmt. solutions. Explore how to manage data protection policies across your organization and protect your people and data against cyberthreats.

☁ 9/7 – INFRASTRUCTURE – Modernize Your Infrastructure and Workloads https://msevents.microsoft.com/event?id=2286485869
Learn about the benefits of migrating and modernizing your workloads in the Azure cloud or in an hybrid cloud environment to strengthen reliability and security and accelerate innovation!

🤖 9/14 – GENERATIVE AI – The Future of Work with AI! https://msevents.microsoft.com/event?id=1453252446
Learn about our Azure OpenAI service, how to fine-tune language models to your specific needs across a variety of use cases, from summarization to content and code generation…and so much more!

💻 9/19 – MODERN WORK – Evolving Work with Windows in the Cloud https://msevents.microsoft.com/event?id=4226906705
Learn about the evolution of Windows, including our Windows 365 Cloud PC offering and Azure Virtual Desktop, and how these solutions are helping to manage hybrid work setups while safeguarding data across devices.

⚙ 9/21 – LOW-CODE/NO CODE – Power Platform & Copilot https://msevents.microsoft.com/event?id=4046052840
Learn more about the Power Platform with Azure, helping you do more with less by modernizing legacy apps, building new ones, automating manual processes, or generating insights for anyone in our organization.

Microsoft continues to develop and advance cloud services to meet the full spectrum of government needs while complying with United States regulatory standards for classification and security. The latest of these tools, generative AI capabilities through Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, can help government agencies improve efficiency, enhance productivity, and unlock new insights from their data.

Many agencies require a higher level of security given the sensitivity of government data. Microsoft Azure Government provides the stringent security and compliance standards they need to meet government requirements for sensitive data.

Currently, large language models that power generative AI tools live in the commercial cloud. For government customers, Microsoft has developed a new architecture that enables government agencies to securely access the large language models in the commercial environment from Azure Government allowing those users to maintain the stringent security requirements necessary for government cloud operations.

If you’re an Azure Government customer (United States federal, state, and local government or their partners), you now have the opportunity to use the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service through purpose-built, AI-optimized infrastructure providing access to OpenAI’s advanced generative models.

…

Read the full article at:

BLOG: Unlock new insights with Azure OpenAI Service for government

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/unlock-new-insights-with-azure-openai-service-for-government/

Wanna get off of Group Policy & on-prem configuration policy management?

Is your GP a mess & are you constantly running GPResults cuz you don’t know how GPOs are going to impact your users & devices?  

Are you looking to move to cloud-based Intune policy to eliminate the need corpnet or VPN connectivity to apply policies?

The Group Policy analytics tool can help you overcome these challenges by providing:

• A detailed report for each GPO that shows you the settings, conflicts, usage, and Intune equivalent policy (if one exists).
• A migration tool that lets you export your GPO settings to Intune policies and apply them to your devices.

You can use Group Policy analytics to import, analyze, and migrate GPOs and their settings.  Read about it and the “Group Policy Migration Readiness” report here:

• BLOG: The Group Policy analytics tool is now generally available
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/intune-customer-success/the-group-policy-analytics-tool-is-now-generally-available/ba-p/3913190
• DOCS: Use Microsoft Intune to analyze and import group policies
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/configuration/group-policy-analytics

Are you looking for:

1. SUPERVISION: Directly-supervised case during Critical Situations & issues of the highest severity
2. ESCALATION: Managed escalation for matters that increase in urgency or need increase attention
3. SECURITY 911: Immediate assistance during breaches, compromises, ransomware, DDOS attacks & other cybersecurity incidents
4. RESPONSE TIMES: Documented & defined Service Response Times
5. ADVISORY: Expert technical assistance & guidance for deployments, configurations
6. TROUBLESHOOTING: 24/7 technical support for all cloud & software product solutions from Microsoft
7. TRAINING: Unique, one-of-a-kind workshops from a catalog of over 500 course offerings, available in-person or virtually from experienced support engineers
8. ENHANCED SUPPORT: Access more than 8 add-on support services for differing needs including
1. Designated Engineering
2. Mission Critical Support
3. Enhanced Response
4. Developer Support
5. Office 365 Engineering Direct
6. …
9. ENGINEERING ACCESS: Cases may be escalated to product engineering for review when the issue is confirmed to be a product issue by support
10. CHANGE REQUESTS: “Design change requests” may be submitted to engineering for missing functionality
11. ROOT CAUSE: Analysis reports are generated to share with exec management to understand root cause & what is being done to prevent the issue from happening in the future
12. PROACTIVE ASSISTANCE: Accelerate the progress of IT staff-led Microsoft projects with expert support engineering assistance through a catalog of over 1000+ Unified Proactive offerings.

If this sounds like what you’re interested in, you’re looking to enroll in Microsoft Unified Enterprise Support.  Support agreements start at $50K for existing Microsoft customers with Master Business Agreements.

Contact your Microsoft Account Executive to be put in touch with a Microsoft Services Executive to discuss Unified Enterprise Support.

Read more about Unified Enterprise support below.

• SITE: Unified Enterprise Support Overview:
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/unifiedsupport/overview
• DOWNLOAD: Unified Support Overview datasheet
  https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RWSHNl
• DETAILS: Support Plan Details
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/unifiedsupport/details

Azure Governance Visualizer (AzGovViz) is a PowerShell script that iterates through an Azure tenant’s management group hierarchy down to the subscription level.   You can run the script either for your Tenant Root Group or any other Management Group.

By polling Azure ARM, Storage and Microsoft Graph APIs, the script captures data from the most relevant Azure governance capabilities such as:

• Azure Policy
• Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)
• Azure Blueprints

From the collected data, the visualizer shows your hierarchy map, creates a tenant summary, and builds granular scope insights about your management groups and subscriptions.

Do you want to get granular insights on your technical Azure Governance implementation? – document it in CSV, HTML, Markdown and JSON? Azure Governance Visualizer is a PowerShell based script that iterates your Azure Tenant´s Management Group hierarchy down to Subscription level. It captures most relevant Azure governance capabilities such as Azure Policy, RBAC and Blueprints and a lot more. From the collected data Azure Governance Visualizer provides visibility on your HierarchyMap, creates a TenantSummary, creates DefinitionInsights and builds granular ScopeInsights on Management Groups and Subscriptions. The technical requirements as well as the required permissions are minimal.

The visualizer provides a holistic overview of your technical Azure Governance implementation by connecting the dots.

• DOWNLOAD: Azure Governance Visualizer
  https://github.com/azure/azure-governance-visualizer

If you have Windows Server 2012/R2 or SQL Server 2012/R2 still deployed on-prem and plan on purchasing Extended Security Updates, there are new Windows Server/SQL Server 2012/R2 Extended Security Update “subscription SKUs” coming out on September 1st, which incorporate Azure Arc.

This will be the only way to obtain Extended Security Updates for either product.  These SKUs will be monthly subscriptions:

• What are the benefits of Extended Security Updates (ESUs) enabled by Azure Arc?
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/end-of-support/extended-security-updates-frequently-asked-questions?view=sql-server-ver16#what-are-the-benefits-of-extended-security-updates-esus-enabled-by-azure-arc
• How to get Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2012 R2
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/extended-security-updates-deploy
• How to prepare to deliver Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2012 through Azure Arc
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-arc/servers/prepare-extended-security-updates

REQUIREMENTS:
In order to purchase the NEW ESUs, you must have Software Assurance through Volume Licensing Programs such as an Enterprise Agreement (EA), Enterprise Agreement Subscription (EAS), Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES), or Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE).

These NEW SKUs replace the old Volume License Service Center (VLSC) licensed Windows/SQL Server ESU SKUs. Customers can no longer subscribe to the old ESU SKUs unless they cannot use Azure Arc. Customers without Azure enrollments will be required to get them to deploy Azure Arc & subscribe to ESUs.  The old VLSC ESU SKUs will not listed on any price sheet for purchase.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:

• Overview of Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2012 R2 | Microsoft Learn
• Plan your Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 End of Support – Microsoft Windows Server Blog
• Your options for SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 end of support – Microsoft SQL Server Blog
• Windows Server and SQL Server End of Support | Microsoft
• New Extended Security Updates (ESUs) enabled by Azure Arc | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure
• ESUs, Extended Security Updates, Windows Server, SQL server, hybrid, Azure Arc (microsoft.com)
• How to prepare to deliver Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2012 through Azure Arc – Azure Arc | Microsoft Learn
• Extended Security Updates for SQL Server and Windows Server | Microsoft
• New options for Windows Server 2012/R2 end of support from Azure – Microsoft Windows Server Blog

Microsoft researchers used AI to assist the American Red Cross in analyzing maps of Lahaina, Maui to identify damage to buildings.  “This is critical because they need to understand where to send people, which areas need to [be] prioritized, which part are they not considering,” according to Chief Scientist for Microsoft AI for Good, Juan M. Lavista Ferres:

Our hearts go out to the residents of Maui in the wake of this week’s devastating storm and wildfires. Microsoft is working with the American Red Cross and Planet on a preliminary assessment of the damage in Lahaina in order to help first responders and relief organizations in their critical work.

We have run our damage assessment AI models on the satellite images we received from Planet and have maps of the affected buildings. If your organization would benefit from the underlying data in this report—please contact me. We are committed to sharing this information in support of the response efforts.

There are a total of 2,810 buildings in the study area. Out of these, we estimate that at least 1722 buildings were damaged.

• 1,088 are between 0 and 20% damaged.
• 110 are between 20-40% damaged.
• 169 are between 40-60% damaged.
• 238 are between 60-80% damaged.
• 1,205 are between 80-100% damaged
  

Please note: Our AI model determines if a building has been affected based on satellite imagery. While we strive for accuracy, satellite data has its limitations. The provided maps should be used as a preliminary reference and verified on the ground for a comprehensive assessment.

Read more here:

• Microsoft AI tool reveals swath of devastation from Maui wildfire – GeekWire
  https://www.geekwire.com/2023/wildfires-and-microsoft-and-amazon/