Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Are you an IT Professional wondering how you can help your organization drive digital transformation with peace of mind?

Join this session to learn how the Power Platform governance and security capabilities can help you strike the proper balance between faster solution delivery and safeguarding company data!

• MyMBAS – Enhancing the Admin Experience with Power Platform Governance
  https://mymbas.microsoft.com/sessions/5a42f335-932f-460a-9d6f-23b3392455e7

“Microsoft 365 Connectivity” in the Admin Center & “Microsoft 365 Network Connectivity Test Too” are now generally available!

We frequently hear from customers that they are concerned whether their users are getting the best possible performance and experience with Microsoft 365, which is often determined by the quality of connectivity that their users have and how Microsoft 365 connections are handled by the networks and network solutions between the client and Microsoft.  Customers ask how they can measure and see the quality of network connectivity for their Microsoft 365 users and get insights how to optimize it further. That’s why we are excited to announce the General Availability of Microsoft 365 Admin Center Connectivity and the Microsoft 365 network connectivity test tool!

Using existing network connectivity tests in Microsoft 365 can provide network assessments and insights. They are aggregated to represent the network connectivity of a work location in use by an Microsoft 365 customer. This can be very valuable in identifying potential network connectivity improvements that would improve performance and provide a better user experience for Microsoft 365 users.

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Read more about these new tools here:

• Microsoft 365 admin center network connectivity is now generally available
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/microsoft-365-admin-center-network-connectivity-is-now-generally/ba-p/2344877

Learn how to simplify infrastructure management, improve security, and reduce cost with our Windows Virtual Desktop Migration Guide for Remote Desktop Services.

Windows Virtual Desktop Migration Guide for Remote Desktop Services
Simplify infrastructure management, improve security, and reduce costs by migrating your Remote Desktop Services environment to Windows Virtual Desktop. Explore the benefits of moving your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to the cloud and learn how to migrate in seven steps. 

You’ll learn how to:

• Spend less time maintaining your infrastructure by using a VDI managed service.
• Take advantage of integrated end-to-end security for users, apps, and data. 
• Optimize costs by using your existing licenses and paying only for what you use.  
• Migrate to Windows Virtual Desktop with step-by-step guidance.

Sign up for the guide:

• Migrate Remote Desktop Services to Windows Virtual Desktop
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/windows-virtual-desktop-migration-guide-for-remote-desktop-services/

We connected with our world-wide community and now we can start adapting, activating, and accelerating our businesses.

If you missed it, sign in to check out on-demand content from the event.

• Microsoft Business Applications Summit – On-Demand
  https://mymbas.microsoft.com/home

Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architectures (MCRA) is updated and available for download.

The Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architectures (MCRA) describe Microsoft’s cybersecurity capabilities. The diagrams describe how Microsoft security capabilities integrate with Microsoft platforms and 3rd party platforms like Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, 3rd party apps like ServiceNow and salesforce, and 3rd party platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The reference architectures are primarily composed of detailed technical diagrams on Microsoft cybersecurity capabilities, zero trust user access, security operations, operational technology (OT), multi-cloud and cross-platform capabilities, attack chain coverage, azure native security controls, and security organizational functions.

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Download the file here:

• Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architectures – Security documentation
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cybersecurity-reference-architecture/mcra

Corey Sanders, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, on June 29 to learn how to be more productive and agile with hybrid solutions.

Be more productive and agile with hybrid cloud solutions

Build your strategy for fueling innovation and productivity with comprehensive solutions from Azure—the cloud built for hybrid.

Register now for this free digital event to:

• Get the latest announcements about Azure Arc–enabled data services as well as news about other Azure Arc and Azure Stack HCI offerings.
• Hear customers discuss how they’re using Azure to achieve their goals and turn their hybrid strategies into reality.
• Watch demos of Azure hybrid solutions being used in customer environments.
• Learn how to get the most out of your hybrid investments with insights from Azure leaders, product experts, and partners.

You’ll also have the chance to get answers to your hybrid questions from product experts during the live chat and from Microsoft leaders during the live Q&A panel.

• Date/Time:
  Tuesday, June 29, 2021 | 9:00–11:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7)
• Registration:
  Azure Hybrid and Multicloud Digital Event
  https://azurehybriddigitalevent.eventcore.com/auth/login?ocid=AID3032310_QSG_529828

Version 1.5.0 of the Terraform AzureAD provider lets you manage your Azure Active Directory resources using the Microsoft Graph API.

Microsoft Graph is a unified API for accessing Azure Active Directory and the Microsoft 365 productivity suite. In addition to the new Microsoft 365 functionality, it replaces the Azure Active Directory Graph API, which is scheduled to be deactivated in June 2022. Ahead of this timeline, we are pleased to announce support for Microsoft Graph in the Terraform AzureAD provider, offering immediate benefits to practitioners.

• Microsoft Graph produces faster response times than Azure Active Directory Graph and completes asynchronous actions more quickly.
• It returns more up to date information from Azure Active Directory, reducing the likelihood of consistency-related errors during a Terraform apply operation.

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For more information, read the following:

• Terraform AzureAD Provider Now Supports Microsoft Graph
  https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/terraform-azuread-provider-now-supports-microsoft-graph

Office Scripts is generally available. Office Scripts is an automation feature-set in Excel for the Web that allows users with all levels of programming experience to automate their repetitive workflows.

Basically, if you regularly acquire an Excel spreadsheet that you need to reformat (hiding columns, set conditional formatting on cells, add charts, etc.):

1. Office Scripts can record the settings you apply.
2. The script is saved to OneDrive.
3. The user can edit the script directly within Excel for the Web using the built-in Code Editor
4. The script can be rerun on on future spreadsheets, applying all your formatting & changes

Office Script is available for Office 365 E3/E5. (Note: Office Scripts is not available for GCC/non-commercial clouds & there is no immediate roadmap – yes, I’ve pinged the Program Manager)

For a demo on how this is done:

• VIDEO: What’s new in Office Scripts for Excel on the web
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94YYO3xiSOI

Read more about the release here:

• RELEASE: Office Scripts is now generally available
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/office-scripts-is-now-generally-available/ba-p/2352548
• DOCS: Office Scripts documentation – Office Scripts
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/scripts/

Today, Microsoft announced the new “Power Apps Developer Plan”, unveiled at Microsoft Build 2021.

• All the features
• All the Dataverse
• All the sharing
• Free for dev and test.

Forever.

Power Apps Developer Plan

What’s included
You get a free developer environment to develop and test apps, including support for premium and custom connectors, Dataverse, and additional developer environments.

• Power Apps—Create and test unlimited apps with Dataverse and premium connectors.
• Power Automate—Automate workflows between applications and services.
• Dataverse—Build a data model that all your apps can use.
• Connect Your Data—Connect to data sources using connectors or with Custom APIs.
• Pick your tool—Use Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and Azure services to create the solutions you need.

The Power Apps Developer Plan is restricted to building and testing apps to validate prior to production. To distribute apps for production purposes, choose a plan from the Power Apps pricing page.

Note:  There are a few limitations: (So people don’t use Developer Plan for production use)

• All users on this plan will see a banner saying the app is in dev/test when using.
• The environments will have infra limits that are plenty for user testing but not prod scale (no HA/DR, about 2 millions rows max, deleted after inactivity, etc)

For details on how to take advantage of this new offer, visit:

• SIGN UP: Power Apps Developer Plan
  https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/developerplan/
• DOCS: Power Apps Developer Plan – Power Apps
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/developer-plan

We are excited to announce the public preview of Azure Security Center (ASC) integration with GitHub Actions… our first steps towards building shared tooling and experience by extending the reporting from container scans into Azure Security Center.

With this tighter integration we are allowing DevSecOps teams to run vulnerability scans, resolve findings, and visualize the security posture of workflows within their CI/CD pipeline.

CI/CD vulnerability scanning of container images helps shift security left by offering increased visibility and control and by providing CI/CD scan assessments to Azure Security Center (ASC). Now, your security teams can access a holistic, 360-degree view across CI/CD pipelines and runtime resources through CI/CD scan assessments in ASC. DevSecOps teams will now receive greater, shared insight into development practices and potentially vulnerable code, containers, and infrastructure.

Going forward, any workflow that pushes a container image without a scan action present will alert the user with an ASC recommendation. Each ASC recommendation details the affected resources along with a proposed remediation path and steps to help each path achieve a “healthy” state. Below are details on how to enable the new capabilities across GitHub and Azure to get you started with your DevSecOps journey.

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For more details on what the workflow looks like & how to enable this feature, visit:

• Kickstart collaborative DevSecOps practices with GitHub and Azure
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-developer-community-blog/kickstart-collaborative-devsecops-practices-with-github-and/ba-p/2357730