The Cloud Architects Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Cloud Architects
A podcast about best practice, guidance, news and cutting edge Microsoft cloud technologies. Interviews with passionate people in the cloud space, hosted by MVPs Nicolas Blank (twitter.com/nicolasblank), Warren du Toit (twitter.com/warrendt) and Chris Goosen (twitter.com/chrisgoosen) This podcast is brought to you by KEMP Technologies. We chose KEMP as a sponsor due to their amazing Cloud product line. For more information, visit KEMP on the web at https://kemptechnologies.com
Same product, new name - RIP Azure AD/long live Entra ID! In this episode we're joined by long-time friend of the show Michael Van Horenbeeck to discuss the recent Entra related announcements and Microsoft's expansion into Security Service Edge (SSE) with two new products – Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Microsoft Entra Private Access. We've all heard the TLAs PIM, PAW, and talk of Tier0 configurations, but what are these and how are these relevant to the modern admin? Should we be evolving the way we manage our environments or is it just a matter of buying new technologies to hopefully keep us ahead of bad actors? Michael shares his thoughts. Michael Van Horenbeeck specializes in a variety of products and services from the Microsoft 365 product stack, more specifically within Enterprise Mobility + Security, Azure Active Directory, Office 365, etc. He is one of the handful experts in the world to hold both the Microsoft Certified Solutions Masters for Messaging certification and the Office Apps & Services MVP award at the same time. Over the last 18 years, he has worked with various technologies and solutions from different vendors, mainly focusing in the area of Security, Messaging, Collaboration and Intelligent Communications. He works with customers around the globe, helping them to design, implement, migrate, consolidate and secure various solutions and services based on Microsoft's M365 offerings. You can also find him speaking at several international conferences such as Microsoft Ignite, TechSummits, Mobile Workplace Conference. Follow Michael on Twitter (https://twitter.com/vanhybrid) also be sure to check out Microsoft 365 Security For IT Pros here (https://m365securitybook.com)Click the icon below to listen.
In this episode we're joined by long-time friend Robby Pedrica as we talk about Open-source software. We asked Robby about Open-source technologies in the enterprise and discussed the history, ins and outs of using Open-source projects in your environment. Robby Pedrica is a IT & Network Security Consultant and Owner of XStore. Robby has been in the IT industry for 33 years, and has focused on the data storage, network security and Linux for the last 23 years. Robby have specializes in firewalling across numerous products, storage virtualization solutions and Linux administration with load-balancing, cluster storage environments and databases amongst others. You can connect with Robby on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbypedrica/) Be sure to check out Robby's Blog (https://www.xstore.co.za/stuff/)Click the icon below to listen.
What is insider risk and how does it differ from an insider threat? Did you know that these are not always bad actors or malicious acts? We were curios about insider risk management, insider threat detection and everything that goes along with it, so we asked Zach Luze to unpack this vast topic for us. Zach Luze is the Microsoft Cloud and Data Security Advisory Lead at Kudelski Security. Zach is an experienced information security professional with a passion for data security and insider risk management. You can connect with Zach on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachluze/)Click the icon below to listen.
We recently had a great time talking to fellow Microsoft MVP Tom Arbuthnot about all things Microsoft Teams - covered some of the great community work Tom is involved with and discussed Teams call quality, meeting etiquette and how work from home has brought about a massive increase in meetings for many of us. Warren also gives some interesting financial advice *(Not intended to be taken as real financial advice..). Tom Arbuthnot is the Co-Founder of Empowering.Cloud and Solutions Director at Pure IP. A Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Master, Tom stays up to date with industry news and developments and has the opportunity to share information and opinions on TomTalks.blog, the UCToday.com Microsoft Podcast and his TomTalks.email list. He regularly speaks at events around the world. He is highly engaged with the Microsoft community in person and online. You can find Tom on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tomarbuthnot Be sure to check out: * Tom Talks - https://tomtalks.blog * empowering.cloud - https://empowering.cloudClick the icon below to listen.
We love Exchange Server! No, really - I've personally been working with Exchange Server in some form or fashion since Exchange Server 5.5 in the late '90s and in some circles that makes me a late bloomer. It is difficult to ignore what seems like an endless list of day-zero vulnerabilities that have plagued our old friend over the last 12 - 18 months. These vulnerabilities have seen security researchers pointing the finger and the tech press calling Exchange Server a security liability. It's 2022, should you really still be hosting your own email? In this episode, Nic and I discuss the relevance of Exchange Server and attempt to answer this question. During this episode we refer to a couple of recent articles, here are the links: Your Microsoft Exchange Server Is a Security Liability - https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-exchange-server-vulnerabilities/It Really is Time to Say Goodbye to On-Premises Exchange - https://practical365.com/time-to-dump-exchange-server/Click the icon below to listen.
We apologize for the poor audio at the beginning of this episode - we're not sure what happened, but it does improve as the episode progresses. What is DevOps? The answer will often differ depending on who you ask. In this episode we asked Prashanth from Chef that question. He shares some great insights with us, including how DevOps practices can be used in an infrastructure and IT operations context. We also delve into Infrastructure as code (IaC) and its usefulness for provisioning and configuration management. Prashanth Nanjundappa is the VP, Product Management at chef.io. He is a Product Leader with 20 years of global experience in building & launching Enterprise and Consumer products with a proven expertise in building B2B SaaS and PaaS products at scale across Healthcare, Cloud Telephony, CRM, Analytics, Video/Metadata domain. You can find Prashanth on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/prashanthhn/)Click the icon below to listen.
Microsoft first announced the deprecation of Basic Authentication in September 2019 with the intention of starting the retirement process in October 2020. Those plans were subsequently postponed and needless to say it's been a long journey for many organizations to prepare for the inevitable. Sadly though, it seems not everyone received the memo and there are many organizations that still use basic auth extensively. Our old friend, Greg Taylor has been examining the telemetry and shared some interesting insights with us. We talk more about this change, what it means for you and how you can prepare for it (if you haven't already!) The clock is ticking.. Greg Taylor is a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft and is focused on Exchange Online protocols and security in Microsoft 365. Greg spent many years as part of the Exchange Engineering and Customer Experience teams, designing and building Exchange features, working with large enterprise customers, presenting at public events and working with technology communities. Greg also ran the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) and Architect (MCA) and Exchange Ranger Programs for Microsoft, an elite 3-6 week in-person Redmond based program, training Microsoft and partner consultants and engineers how to design and troubleshoot the world’s largest and most complex Exchange deployments. You can find Greg on Twitter (https://twitter.com/gregtaylor_msft) Not sure if and how this affects you and your organization or interested to know more? Check out: Deprecation of Basic authentication in Exchange Online(https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/deprecation-of-basic-authentication-exchange-online)Click the icon below to listen.
In this episode we chat to James "UCMadScientist" Arber. Some of you may know him as the guy who ran Doom on a Sonus/Ribbon SBC 1000 or set fire to a Polycom CX series phone, but James is also extremely knowledgable when it comes to all things Microsoft Teams. We had a lot of fun talking about the current state of Teams, room systems, devices, and the importance of using your dongle. James Arber, a.k.a "UCMadScientist" is an experienced UC Consultant and one of only 4 Microsoft Unified Communications MVP's in Australia. Skilled in Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Lync, VoIP deployment and troubleshooting. Microsoft Community Contributor and regular presenter at the Melbourne UC UserGroup. Father of 4 with a hint of "Mad Scientist" and a dash of car nut.. You can connect with James on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesarber/) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/UCMadScientist) and be sure to check out his blog (https://www.ucmadscientist.com) Don't forget to check out our blog: https://thearchitects.cloud/2022/08/17/episode-66-use-your-dongle/Click the icon below to listen.
As an IT professional, governance and compliance have never been the sexiest of concepts. For many of us, these are things that distract us once a year when they require the yearly tick-in-the-box. It is important that we face the reality of the world we live in though and understand that we do have a responsibility of bridging two worlds. In this episode we had the opportunity to sit down with Rufaro Warinda to talk all about compliance, ISO 27001, CIS and a whole bunch of other acronyms. Rufaro does a fantastic job of explaining various concepts like the difference between legislative and regulatory compliance and we also take a look at how Microsoft technologies map to the new ISO controls. Rufaro Warinda is a Modern Work Cloud Analyst. He has a qualification in Industrial Engineering with an emphasis on process optimization, business analysis, security, compliance and identity management in the modern workplace (M365 & Azure). He has experience in the implementation of Information Security Management Systems (ISO/IEC 27001:2013), in order to assist organizations with maintaining governance and industry best practices as they expand into the digital workspace. You can connect with Rufaro on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rufaro-warinda-975b26187/) Here's a link to Rufaro's really handy reference New ISO 27001:2022 controls & How Microsoft Saves the Day.(https://thearchitects.cloud/downloads/ISO_27001_and_Microsoft_365.pdf)Click the icon below to listen.
We recently had a lot of fun connecting with Koos Goossens to talk about Microsoft Sentinel. Koos has a wealth of knowledge and shared some great tips on getting started with Sentinel, the importance of cost management and why a product != process. Koos Goossens is passionate about all things Microsoft Cloud and Security related. In his current role. he has been focussing on implementing Microsoft Sentinel and improving Security Operation Centers by helping with the development of new detections and fine-tuning, but also applying processes for automatic enrichments and investigations. KQL and Azure Logic Apps are two of my new best friends. You can connect with Koos on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/koos-goossens/) and can also check him out on Medium (https://medium.com/@koosg) Here's a link to Koos's blog on how to Optimize your Microsoft Sentinel pricing (https://medium.com/wortell/optimize-microsoft-sentinel-pricing-ca9901840b75)Click the icon below to listen.
This episode is all about certifications. I sat my first industry certification exam in the late 1990's and it's safe to say that certifications and the way the industry views them has changed a lot over the years. Are certifications important or even relevant anymore? This can be a very polarizing topic, I recently asked Sly Gittens from Tech Simplified all about it. Sly Gittens is a Partner Technology Strategist at Microsoft and runs the Tech Simplified YouTube channel. A lifelong learner and ever-curious about the world, Sly is committed to personal and professional development for myself and for those around him. His YouTube channel provides resources to help simplify the cloud certification journey. Sly is also incredibly passionate about supporting Women In Technology and has a WIT interview series were he talks to Women who keep moving forward no matter the obstacles in their way. You can connect with Sly on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/slygittens/) and can also check him out on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiZFfxc52ANSYp0Qxm3CKIA)Click the icon below to listen.
We recently had the pleasure of talking to a long time friend of the show Jay Gundotra. Jay is incredibly passionate about the community and you have most probably seen the ENow Software booth or attended one of their parties at Ignite or some other industry event. We talk about his journey from Exchange Server specialist to Founder and CEO and how everyone has a unique journey. We also get deep about how it is important to learn from our own experiences - good or bad and how self care is vital to longevity in our industry today. Jay Gundotra is the technical founder and CEO of ENow, a leader in the Microsoft systems management space. With over 20 years of experience in Unified Communications and Network computing, he has led ENow to deliver effective monitoring and analytics software to customers in over 130 countries. This has included enterprise companies like Coca Cola, Volkswagen, NYSE, Facebook, DirectTV, CBRE, NBA and Wendy’s. You can connect with Jay on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-gundotra-19079a/)Click the icon below to listen.
In this episode we had the pleasure of talking to Kexin Ye and hearing her inspirational story of personal growth and how she went from selling Fair trade "coffee to fighting to tech". We also talk about chaos engineering, technical debt and the importance of a sound cloud strategy. If you're interested in chaos engineering, here are some additional links you might want to check out: Chaos engineering (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/framework/resiliency/chaos-engineering) & What is Azure Chaos Studio Preview (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/chaos-studio/chaos-studio-overview) Kexin Ye is a Woman in Tech, 3rd culture kid, entrepreneur at heart and one of the top contestants on Asia’s The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition. You can connect with Kexin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kexin-ye) Don't forget to check out our blog: https://thearchitects.cloud/2022/03/16/episode-61-inner-warrior/Click the icon below to listen.
We're back for our first episode of 2022! We had so much fun catching up in-person in Cape Town last month to record this one. In this episode we're joined by fellow MVP Alistair Pugin to talk through some of our predictions for 2022. Will 2022 be the year of spend? We talk about hybrid cloud, organizational maturity, in-person conferences and Exchange "bugs". I tried to find a link to the Microsoft product rename site referenced in episode, but I can't figure out where I saved it - if this is your project or you know about it, please let us know on twitter. Alistair has worked in various capacities in multiple verticals from retail – manufacturing to government, spanning 50 to 50000 users utilizing all aspects of pure Enterprise Information Management. His current role as a Microsoft Azure and Office Apps and Services MVP in South Africa, provides him with a mechanism to assist companies with designing their Cloud collaboration environment using “best of breed”, proven methodologies to foster innovation and growth through an Content Services framework while incorporating a Knowledge Management strategy. You can connect with Alistair on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AlistairPugin)Click the icon below to listen.
I really miss in-person conferences and I'm sure I'm not the only one. We've always enjoyed being able to connect with new and old friends and peers, not to mention how incredibly enjoyable it is for us to record our episodes in person. In this episode we talk to Microsoft's Laurent Bugnion about conferences and events - we cover everything from imposter syndrome, why in-person events may never be the same again and how they have worked tirelessly to scale and make virtual events more engaging for everyone. During the episode, Laurent talks about the following resources: * Laurent's Website - https://galasoft.ch * Learn Live - http://aka.ms/learnlive Laurent Bugnion works as Senior Cloud Developer Advocate for Microsoft after almost 10 years spent working for IdentityMine and Valorem, two leading firms in Microsoft technologies. He is one of the foremost experts for XAML and C# based development. He codes in Windows, WPF, Xamarin (iOS and Android), Unity, ASP.NET. During his free time, Laurent writes for technical publications such as MSDN Magazine, and his blog is on blog.galasoft.ch. He is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Microsoft MIX, Build, TechEd, VSLive, TechDays and many other international events. You can connect with Laurent on Twitter - https://twitter.com/LBugnionClick the icon below to listen.
Data Security is top of mind for many organizations at the moment with so many of them transitioning to a permanent work from home or hybrid working model. There is however so much more to protecting your data than encrypting it or implementing a DLP tool. In this episode we have a great conversation with Ernie Anderson about Data Security - what it is, where to start, what to consider and why you shouldn't just run out and buy a tool right away. Ernie Anderson has over 20 years of professional experience in Information Technology, of which 19 have been focused on cybersecurity consulting. He has a proven track record of working with cross-industry Chief Information Security Officers (“CISOs”) and Chief Information Officers (“CIOs”) to define cybersecurity strategies and establish risk-driven cybersecurity programs that are both enablers of the business and a value proposition to customers. Ernie’s technical foundation enables him to translate strategic vision into tactical solutions and implementation projects. He currently leads Kudelski Security's Services practice, which includes strategic leadership and the development of capabilities, staff planning, opportunity identification and capture, and the delivery of projects. You can connect with Ernie on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernieanderson/Click the icon below to listen.
Ever wondered what a SIEM is? How about SOAR? In this episode we have a fantastic conversation with ML who helps us understand what these are, how they are different and even how they can work together. We also cover a few other security-related topics and ML shares some great insights and recommendations. Mari-Louise (ML) is the co-founder and director of Port443 (Pty) Ltd. Focusing on platform based cyber security automation and orchestrations, Port443 democratizes security across all industries across MEA. Prior to starting Port443, she performed multiple functions for over 6 years at Internet Solutions (a Division of Dimension Data), most notably responsible for technical product development across multiple solutions. In 2019 ML took on the role of Head of Product & Technical development for Dimension Data Security (the MEA regions for NTT Security). Responsible for the deployment and development of Managed Security Services across Middle East and Africa. She has keen eye for identifying breakthrough technologies and a mantra that “everything is figoureoutable”, enjoys innovation and the pursuit of efficiency via software based platforms. You can connect with ML on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mari-loui...)Click the icon below to listen.
If you follow the Microsoft productivity space, you have no doubt seen or heard about the "Autodiscovering the Great Leak" research paper recently published by Amit Serper, a security researcher at Guardicore. The paper details more than five months' research into the Autodiscover service used by Microsoft Exchange. Amit's research was picked up and in many instances misreported by the tech press, which in turn caused a certain degree of panic. We're deeply passionate about Exchange and have been for a very long time, so we thought it would be a good idea to sit down with Amit to talk through his research and better understand his findings. During the episode, Amit talks about the following resources: * https://detectionlab.network * https://autodiscover-vulnerable-tlds.com Amit Serper is a security researcher that spent almost a decade in the Israeli intelligence community where he worked in vulnerability research, exploit development and designed the architectures of uniquely complicated, highly reliable, one-of-a-kind communication systems. During his 9 year tenure in the IDF and Israeli government, he received 4 certificates of excellence and two commendations. During his career he has been on both the red and blue sides, joined an early stage start-up to build EDR products from scratch on various operating systems, conducted low level operating system research, reverse engineered malware, performed countless IR engagements, helped build a global research team and brand, and stopped a few global attacks (NotPetya, BadRabbit, Operation softcell to name a few). Amit is a frequent public speaker at security conferences all over the world and shares his research and knowledge in various blog posts, conferences, and podcasts. You can find Amit on Twitter - https://twitter.com/0xAmitClick the icon below to listen.
We've often joked on the show that Microsoft is the world's largest security vendor and when you consider their massive investment in security-related R&D and innovation it really isn't far from the truth. We had a great time sitting down with Microsoft's Stephen Revel recently to talk about the security features and functionality available to customers in Microsoft 365 and hopefully debunk the myth that you can't be secure without having an M365 E5 license or additional investments in third-party solutions. Stephen Revel is a Modern Workplace Senior Technical Specialist for security at Microsoft with almost 18 years’ experience designing, implementing and migrating Microsoft based infrastructures. You can find Stephen on Twitter (https://twitter.com/technical_drunk) or connect with him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenrevel/)Click the icon below to listen.
We've all heard the statement "Fast, Cheap or Good? Pick two" and it seems this continues to ring true. Does the current rate of innovation and change in technology come at the expense of quality? We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with our friends Martina Grom and Tony Redmond to discuss this and hear about what has been keeping them busy lately. Martina Grom is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and Microsoft Regional Director. Martina loves Cloud technologies, social media & security and running. Martina is the co-founder & CEO of https://atwork.at You can connect with Martina on Twitter - https://twitter.com/magrom Tony Redmond has been writing about electronic mail since 1992 and is widely regarded as one of the foremost commentators on Microsoft collaboration technology. Tony has written 15 books and is the lead author of Office 365 for IT Pros which is the most practical and up-to-date guide to everything Office 365 related. I encourage you to follow Tony on Twitter - https://twitter.com/12KnocksinnaClick the icon below to listen.
We recently had a lot of fun catching up with our old friend and possibly our biggest fan - Stephen L Rose. We talked a little about his passion for really listening to customers and some of the new innovations in Microsoft Teams. Stephen also as passionate about community and sharing knowledge through various platforms, including his own podcast "Inside Microsoft Teams" Stephen Rose works in IT Pro and Security marketing for Teams at Microsoft where he leads their efforts for IT pros worldwide around Microsoft Teams security, privacy, and management. Stephen is also the host of the popular Inside Microsoft Teams podcast - aka.ms/InsideMSTeams. You can connect with Stephen on Twitter - https://twitter.com/stephenlroseClick the icon below to listen.
Episode 52: Knowledge has a Price Tag by The Cloud ArchitectsClick the icon below to listen.
After our recent 'reflections' episode, we felt it would be a great idea to catch up with our long-time sponsor KEMP to talk about how the load balancing world has changed in recent years. As we find ourselves moving away from the traditional fixed perimeter and rethinking 'castle and moat' principles an inevitable question arises, where does the humble load balancer fit into today's Zero Trust world? In this episode, Nic and Warren connect with KEMP's Jason Dover to talk about their recent Flowmon aquisition and discuss the concept of Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA). Jason shares some great tip for organizations who are looking to embark on their journey to Zero Trust and as always, Warren also talks about Kubernetes. Did you know that KEMP provides free virtual LoadMaster VLM-5000 load balancers to Microsoft certified professionals? Visit https://kemptechnologies.com/microsoft-pros-loadmaster-license-request/ to find out more. Jason Dover is the Vice President of Product Strategy at KEMP Technologies. Jason is responsible for leading the direction of product portfolio, product marketing, user experience and defining KEMP's overarching market strateg. You can connect with Jason on Twitter @jaysdover(https://twitter.com/jaysdover)Click the icon below to listen.
Episode 50! In this episode we reflect on our journey to 50 episodes - thinking about the fun we've had, everything we've learned and the guests we've had the privilege to speak to along the way. This is definitely a more personal episode, but don't worry - we also discuss the much talked about Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities and the recent Azure AD outage.Click the icon below to listen.
It's 2021! Well, technically it's been 2021 for three months and it looks like many of the trends established in 2020 are continuing - not only in our daily lives but also from a cyber threat perspective. In this episode we sit down with Donovan Stevens to talk about account takeovers (ATO) - what it is, why it is something you may want to pay attention to and what you can do to help safeguard against it. Donovan Stevens is a Sales Engineer at SpyCloud where he spends his time performing breach data investigations and helping his customers prevent account takeovers. You can connect with Donovan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donovan-stevens-4374472/Click the icon below to listen.
2020 has been an interesting and very different year for most of us. We're doing more things online than ever before - Microsoft recently announced that Teams reached 115 million daily active users, but this new normal extends well beyond the business world. There are countless positive stories of how technology has helped teachers connect with students or doctors connect with patients, but there are some not-so-positive consequences too. In this episode, Anna, Nic and Warren talk about Microsoft Ignite that took place recently and explore the concept of digital fatigue and how to set some boundaries (or lay your pipes) to help protect your mental health. Anna Chu is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft responsible for working across the Microsoft Tech Community and MVP communities to engage with the IT Pro audience. This involves driving partnerships between engineering and marketing that influence product roadmaps and leading community strategy to enable best practice sharing between customers - in turn facilitating a natural feedback loop between the people who build Microsoft Office products and services and the people who implement them. You can follow Anna on Twitter - https://twitter.com/_achu A transcript of this episode can be viewed here: https://gist.github.com/TheCloudArch/0e61751742e71609222e7d10dda7eb5cClick the icon below to listen.
Zero Trust is a term that is thrown around a lot these days and seems to mean many different things to different folks. At its core, Zero Trust is a philosophy or security concept whereby no one is trusted by default on the network, and verification is always required from everyone attempting to access any resources. In this episode we sit down with Ashwin Pal to better understand Zero Trust, why it can be complex to adopt and how to get started on your journey. Ashwin Pal is the Director of Cyber Security for APAC at Unisys and has over 20 years' experience in the cyber security industry. Ashwin is currently responsible for running the security business within the APAC region for Unisys. The focus of his role is the management of the service line and delivery capabilities across all lines of Cyber Security Services. This role is the CISO level representative and has responsibility for CISO advisory for key clients, leading sales engagements to C level executives within the region, providing project based quality assurance, providing input into new product development, client, P&L and staff management. Feel free to connect with Ashwin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwin-pal-a1769a5/ You can download Ashwin's Zero Trust - Demystified white paper here: https://thearchitects.cloud/downloads/BR_200380_ZeroTrustDemystified_V1.pdf A transcript of this episode can be viewed here: https://gist.github.com/TheCloudArch/c8bec6db1d47fc5ea45b725e818f5372Click the icon below to listen.
Microsoft Teams has seen some incredible growth in recent months as many organizations worldwide adjust to a new normal that involves a remote, work from home workforce. In late April, Microsoft announced that it had seen a 70% increase in Teams usage, increasing to more than 75 million daily active users and seeing 200 million meeting participants in a single day for the first time. In this episode, we talk to MVP Lee Ford about his experience working with Teams, adoption of Teams features such as direct routing and some really handy PowerShell scripts he's written. Lee Ford is a Microsoft MVP (Office Development) and Solution Architect for Symity and is based in Birmingham, UK. Lee works predominantly with Microsoft Teams but also dabbles in other technologies such as Azure, PowerShell, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365. Follow Lee on Twitter (https://twitter.com/lee_ford) and be sure to check out his blog at www.lee-ford.co.uk A transcript of this episode can be viewed here https://gist.github.com/TheCloudArch/44e51ecc190a8569e0c95e7406d4d316Click the icon below to listen.
It's almost time for Microsoft Ignite 2020, but this year things are going to be a little different. In this special episode, Anna Chu (a.k.a The Community Khaleesi) gives us some inside info about what to expect this year and how you can get involved! If you're interested in being part of Ignite this year, the Microsoft Ignite Call for Moderators. (https://t.co/AQQQuTAOKl) is now open and closes on August, 24. Anna Chu is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft responsible for working across the Microsoft Tech Community and MVP communities to engage with the IT Pro audience. This involves driving partnerships between engineering and marketing that influence product roadmaps and leading community strategy to enable best practice sharing between customers - in turn facilitating a natural feedback loop between the people who build Microsoft Office products and services and the people who implement them. You can follow Anna on Twitter (https://twitter.com/_achu)Click the icon below to listen.
There is no denying that the rate of change in the Microsoft Cloud in astounding. Microsoft continues to innovate and improve very rapidly with new features often being deployed weekly. Security and Compliance is understandably a huge area of focus and it can be a challenge to stay up to date with all the continuous change - this challenge requires an innovative solution. We're excited to talk to our old friend and fellow MVP Michael Van Horenbeeck about his new book project 'Microsoft 365 Security for IT Pros' - a book all about Microsoft 365 Security with a monthly update cadence. Michael Van Horenbeeck specializes in a variety of products and services from the Microsoft 365 product stack, more specifically within Enterprise Mobility + Security, Azure Active Directory, Office 365, etc. He is one of the handful experts in the world to hold both the Microsoft Certified Solutions Masters for Messaging certification and the Office Apps & Services MVP award at the same time. Over the last 18 years, he has worked with various technologies and solutions from different vendors, mainly focusing in the area of Security, Messaging, Collaboration and Intelligent Communications. He works with customers around the globe, helping them to design, implement, migrate, consolidate and secure various solutions and services based on Microsoft's M365 offerings. You can also find him speaking at several international conferences such as Microsoft Ignite, TechSummits, Mobile Workplace Conference. Follow Michael on Twitter https://twitter.com/vanhybrid Check out Microsoft 365 Security For IT Pros at https://m365securitybook.com A transcript of [this episode can be viewed here: https://gist.github.com/TheCloudArch/8c0ab26b4ab7dc9ce192987744193758Click the icon below to listen.
We're Back! Yes! it's been a little while since we last recorded an episode. Needless to say, the COVID-19 situation globally upset our planned travel and recording schedule just a little. We hope you and yours are keeping safe and well during these crazy times. In this episode we delve into Cybersecurity, something that has been very topical for many organizations as they have been forced to operate remotely during COVID-19. Our guest, Francisco Donoso helps unpack and explain some common security concepts and shares the top three things you can do to help your organization be safer in today's cyber world. Francisco Donoso is the Director of Global Security Strategy at Kudelski Security, a global pure-play security services provider. His passion and hobby is researching and understanding Nation-State hacking or “APT” capabilities and tools. He has been on the forefront of research into the Equation Group’s post-exploitation tools and capabilities since their release by the Shadow Brokers and has spoken about this research at Derbycon, Thotcon, Microsoft Bluehat, and other conferences. You can connect with Fran on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Francisckrs) A transcript of this episode can be viewed here: https://gist.github.com/TheCloudArch/d88bff2c63e0547c7a23f49d7d7c5402Click the icon below to listen.
There is no denying the ever-increasing popularity of Microsoft Teams. Microsoft recently reported an unprecedented spike in Teams usage due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, with usage rising to more than 44 million daily users - showing an increase of 12 million users over the course of just seven days. When I sat down with fellow MVPs Paul Bloem and Andrew Morpeth in Auckland, New Zealand last month, we would never have predicted the current work from home situation that most of us find ourselves in at the moment. We did however talk about their favorite new Teams features, social contracts, Teams modes and of course the adoption of various features and functionality in Teams. Paul Bloem is a Collaboration Principal Consultant, Microsoft MVP, Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams enthusiast with almost 30 years experience in numerous disciplines of Enterprise voice solutions. You can connect with Paul on Twitter (https://twitter.com/PaulB_NZ) or at ucsorted.com Andrew Morpeth is passionately devoted to providing customers the best advice on Microsoft centric modern communication & collaboration solutions, and to help drive productivity through user adoption and process automation. With 10+ years as a Unified Communications Consultant specializing in Lync, Skype for Business and now Microsoft Teams, Andrew provides deep insight into what solutions are best for any given customer. You can connect with Andrew on Twitter(https://twitter.com/AndrewMorpeth) or at ucgeek.coClick the icon below to listen.
Multi-cloud is a hot topic at the moment and in this episode we talk to Rick Claus and Joey Snow - a.k.a Patch And Switch from Microsoft about this new trend. Is Azure the cloud to rule them all or is a sound multi-cloud strategy essential in today cloud world? Rick Claus engages in person and online with the worldwide Ops community on behalf of Microsoft. As a Cloud Advocate on the Azure engineering team, his role is to connect with technical communities in order to share knowledge about the ecosystem and capture feedback on how to make things better. You can connect with Rick on Twitter (https://twitter.com/RicksterCDN). Joey Snow is a Senior Program Manager in the Customer and Partner Success Team for the Microsoft Identity Division. Previously Joey worked as an IT Pro Evangelist working with Windows Server, Windows Client and Windows Azure. You can connect with Joey on Twitter(https://twitter.com/joeysnow). Be sure to check out their podcast - Patch And Switch (https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Patch-And-Switch) A transcript of this episode can be viewed here:(https://gist.github.com/TheCloudArch/7dfc6ddb3c596713583beecab06fe56b) and can also be downloaded in the following formats: * .pdf(https://thearchitects.cloud/transcript/episode42.pdf) * .srt(https://thearchitects.cloud/transcript/episode42.srt)Click the icon below to listen.
Azure AD business-to-business (B2B) collaboration allows organizations to securely share applications and services with guest users from any other organization, while maintaining control over their data. In this episode we chat to returning guest Elisabeth Olson about some of the improvements in the B2B experience, the new bring your own identity functionality and she even helps Warren solve his viral account problem. Elisabeth Olson is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft with over a decade of varied experiences, including contributing directly to SharePoint, Windows, and Microsoft Identity. Elisabeth is passionate about creating great features that remove obstacles and empower users, and she believes that considering the end-to-end experience for all users is critical to a successful product. You can connect with Elisabeth on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ElisOl) Here are some links to the admin take over process discussed during the episode: * Take over an unmanaged directory as administrator in Azure Active Directory (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/users-groups-roles/domains-admin-takeover) * Perform an internal admin takeover in Office 365 (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/misc/become-the-admin?view=o365-worldwide)Click the icon below to listen.
docs.microsoft.com is the new home for all Microsoft documentation and Microsoft Learn is a free, online training platform that provides interactive learning for Microsoft products - There has been significant investment in these platforms in recent years. We caught up with Erin Rifkin to talk about these platforms, the success of Microsoft Learn and how they've grown from 80 to over 700 modules in one year. Erin Rifkin is a General Manager at Microsoft where she leads a team responsible for the architectural guidance, documentation and training for several Microsoft products and platforms. Erin has over 15 years of demonstrated experience in program and product management, leadership in technical and non-technical environments, enablement, documentation, and training. You can connect with Erin on Twitter (https://twitter.com/erinrifkin) Here are some links discussed during the episode: * Microsoft Learn - (https://microsoft.com/learn) * docs.microsoft.com - (https://docs.microsoft.com/)Click the icon below to listen.
A move to the cloud is almost always accompanied by change. Sometimes these changes are pretty obvious and easy to grasp while other times they are more of paradigm shift - one such shift is in the way we monitor out deployments. Monitoring your tenant and supporting services won't prevent a service problem, but it will help you to respond proactively when one occurs and let your users know about the problem before they start alerting you. In this episode we'll talk to Justin Harris, CTO of ENow Software about how monitoring cloud services is radically different from monitoring traditional on-premises infrastructure and why it is important to get it right. We'll also delve into the built-in tools you can use in your own Office 365 tenant and why you may way to consider augmenting those with some third-party monitoring tools. Justin Harris is a 20+ year technology veteran with a wide range of vertical industry exposure that has a knack for understanding how market trends introduce market needs. Justin directs functional and technical teams in working towards a common goal as Chief Technology Officer for Enow Software. Duties include working with a global partner and customer base, identifying relevant industry trends, identifying gaps in the market, pinpointing urgent problems that need to be solved, designing targeted solutions, crafting go to market messaging, educating internal and external customers and providing support for the sales and marketing teams. You can connect with Justin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-harris-40b11/) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/ntexcellence) and be sure to check out ENow Software (https://www.enowsoftware.com/)Click the icon below to listen.
Outlook for Mac has come a long way since it's humble beginnings as Microsoft Entourage. As avid Outlook for Mac users ourselves, Nic and I were excited to sit down with Alessio and Jessica to talk about the history, the much anticipated new version of the product and how important your feedback is to the team building it! Alessio Roic is a Group Program Manager and 23-year veteran at Microsoft where he leads the product management team for Outlook for Mac. Alessio is passionate about driving the adoption of agile methodologies, data driven design, growth strategies and customer focus. You can connect with Alessio on LinkedIn or via email (listen to show for email address). Jessica Wilczek is a Outlook + Exchange Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft focusing on Outlook Mobile, Outlook for Mac, and Bookings. Jessica is driven by challenges, loves to think outside the box, and has a passion for analytical problem solving with creative solutions. You can connect with Jessica on LinkedIn or via email. Here's a link to Outlook for Mac on UserVoice: * Outlook for Mac - Business (https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/335538-outlook-for-mac-business)Click the icon below to listen.
Message transport in Office 365 "Just works" and is often considered to be the plumbing of the service. Despite the rise in popularity of social messaging apps, 62% of business professionals prefer email for business communications and the number of emails delivered daily worldwide is forecast to grow 18% by 2023. In this episode we chat to Kevin Shaughnessy about some of the message transport enhancements and innovation announced at Microsoft Ignite recently. Kevin Shaughnessy is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft and leads the M365 Exchange Transport team's efforts to address customer mail flow challenges and requests. A 23-year Microsoft veteran, Kevin's breadth and depth of experience across multiple disciplines (Technical Support, Technical Marketing, Analyst Relations, and Engineering) makes him uniquely qualified to transform existing customer experiences into new email innovations and solutions that target the needs of the modern mail flow admin. You can connect with Kevin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-shaughnessy-a9b0a31/) or via email. Here are some additional links discussed in the episode: * Me Too! - The story of “Bedlam DL3” on Tech Community (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/me-too/ba-p/610643) * Exchange Team Blog You Had Me at EHLO.. (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/bg-p/Exchange) * Ignite Session: BRK3312 (https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/79364?source=speakerdetail)Click the icon below to listen.
Ever heard of Microsoft FastTrack? FastTrack helps customers deploy Microsoft cloud solutions - customers with eligible subscriptions can use FastTrack at no additional cost for the life of their subscription. We sat down with Jennifer Burdett from the FastTrack Team to talk about what FastTrack is, how you can make the most of this benefit and how partners can compliment this offering. Jennifer Burdett is a Senior Program Manager on the FastTrack Team at Microsoft, her area of focus is on email and endpoint security. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering her time to many causes such as hosting a Microsoft DigiGirlz event each year, being part of the Women@Microsoft group, and improving diversity in the industry. Feel free to connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferb...) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/jburdett7) Check out Jennifer's community work here: * DigiGirlz Winnipeg on Twitter (https://twitter.com/digigirlzwpg) * Women in Communications & Technology Manitoba on Twitter (https://twitter.com/wctmanitoba)Click the icon below to listen.
If you're like me, your Outlook Calendar is the first thing you look at every morning and the last thing you look at before heading off to bed - days seem to get more and more busy and we need some way to organize and schedule our daily lives. For many of us though, the calendar functionality built into Outlook is something we all take for granted. In this episode, we'll talk to Julia Foran who is a Program Manager on Outlook Calendar and works on the server-side features that are consumed by the Outlook clients. We talk about Ignite announcements and some of the improvements coming to Outlook Calendar. Julia Foran is a Principal Program Manager on the Office 365 calendar platform and is responsible for maintaining service quality and innovating new calendar scenarios. A core objective of her team is to identify existing features that can be improved, and do the necessary backend work to improve the experience. Feel free to connect with Julia on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaforan/Click the icon below to listen.
With the explosive growth of cloud services, many organizations suddenly find themselves having to manage multiple cloud environments, either intentionally or by coincidence due to mergers, acquisitions or other such events. With Azure and AWS being two of the most popular choices, we talk to Azure MVP Mike Pfeiffer who is also AWS certified about the parallels between the two services, things to consider when running two clouds and discuss if multi-cloud makes more sense as a transitional state or long-term mode of operation. Mike is a twenty-year tech industry veteran and entrepreneur. He's worked for some of the largest software companies in the world, including Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and has launched two successful consulting businesses since 2003. Today, Mike is founder and Chief Technologist at CloudSkills.io, a cloud training and consulting firm. Feel free to connect with Mike on LinkedIn(https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpfeiffer/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/mike_pfeiffer) or at https://cloudskills.ioClick the icon below to listen.
Data warehousing is a massive topic! We've all heard of data lakes, data swamps and big data in general, but what does it all mean? We sat down with Melissa Coates (a.k.a SQLChick) in an attempt to gain an understanding of this complex topic and definitely learned a thing or two in the process. Melissa Coates is a data architect with a focus on data warehousing, data lake, and business intelligence solutions in the cloud. Melissa is the owner of Coates Data Strategies, she produces training courses to help data professionals be successful deploying technologies with the Microsoft data platform. She also provides technical writing and consulting projects related to Azure and Power BI. You can follow Melissa on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SQLChick)Click the icon below to listen.
Adoption is top of mind for many organizations at the moment - be it adoption of a particular workload (like Microsoft Teams) or cloud services in general. Warren and Nic sat down with the always entertaining Tracy van der Schyff to talk about the difference between adoption and consumption and the concept of user empowerment. Facilitating the evolution of human capabilities – Tracy's passion is to empower people and therefore training and change management lie close to her heart. Her Mission is to positively impact WHAT and HOW people create, she believes that what we design or create, designs / creates us back (Ontological Design). It is about enabling others to serve themselves better, expand their possibilities, increase their capacity to learn, act more effectively and better design their future.. You can follow Tracy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tracyvdsClick the icon below to listen.
Nic and Chris catch up with Philip Griffiths about next-generation WAN being delivered over the internet, how perimeter security is not everything and the challenge of working in a global networking company.Click the icon below to listen.
Nic catches up with Darrell Webster (aka Darrell as a Service) to talk about cloud adoption messes, infrastructure challenges, people challenges, how to change rollout practices towards cloud adoption and so much more. Darrell is an Office 365 productivity and collaboration specialist for Adopt and Embrace. He relishes the opportunity to help individuals, teams and organisations to unlock the value in Office 365. He is active in the Microsoft Technical Community and firmly believes that the Community IS the expert. Darrell also helps to co-ordinate an online publication and Live show called RE:Office 365, where thought leaders share their stories, opinions and guidance regarding Office 365. His community efforts have been recognised with the Microsoft MVP award since 2013. Follow Darrell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellwebster/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DarrellaaS Blog: webster.net.nz and contributing to regarding365.comClick the icon below to listen.
Microsoft Inspire recently wrapped up in Las Vegas and in this episode, Nic catches up with Michael Van Horenbeeck to talk about his experience at Microsoft Inspire. Michael talks about his role as a Microsoft Partner and the value of attending Inspire. Michael Van Horenbeeck specializes in a variety of products and services from the Microsoft 365 product stack, more specifically within Enterprise Mobility + Security, Azure Active Directory, Office 365, etc. He is one of the handful experts in the world to hold both the Microsoft Certified Solutions Masters for Messaging certification and the Office Apps & Services MVP award at the same time. Over the last 18 years, he has worked with various technologies and solutions from different vendors, mainly focusing in the area of Security, Messaging, Collaboration and Intelligent Communications. He works with customers around the globe, helping them to design, implement, migrate, consolidate and secure various solutions and services based on Microsoft's M365 offerings. You can also find him speaking at several international conferences such as Microsoft Ignite, TechSummits, Mobile Workplace Conference. Follow Michael on Twitter at https://twitter.com/vanhybrid This episode is also available as a video recording: https://youtu.be/XjoMUXaJtXIClick the icon below to listen.
With Microsoft Ignite 2019 fast approaching, the Community Call for Content is now open and closes on August, 4. In this special episode, Anna Chu (a.k.a The Community Khaleesi) takes us through the types of submissions being accepted and walks us through the process. Are you interested in presenting at Ignite 2019? If so, Anna's tips will help you put together the best possible submission, increasing your chances of success! Anna Chu is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft responsible for working across the Microsoft Tech Community and MVP communities to engage with the IT Pro audience. This involves driving partnerships between engineering and marketing that influence product roadmaps and leading community strategy to enable best practice sharing between customers - in turn facilitating a natural feedback loop between the people who build Microsoft Office products and services and the people who implement them.Click the icon below to listen.
Ever wondered about the scale of Exchange Online or what it takes to manage a service at that scale while constantly deploying new features? Microsoft's Brent Alinger gave us a tour of Building 31 (a.k.a Exchange Central) on the Microsoft campus and sat down with us to talk about the humble beginnings of the service and how it has grown and matured since then. Brent Alinger is a member of the Microsoft Exchange product group. He is responsible for product servicing and updates to in-market releases. Brent has more than 20 years' experience working with Exchange, Messaging Platforms and Directory Services. If you have questions about how features are delivered across O365 or Enterprise releases, Brent is the person to talk to.. This episode is also available as a video recording on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VZ_h5LQfltwClick the icon below to listen.
July 1 every year is a big day for the MVP community - Its renewal day for MVPs and we also get to welcome new MVPs into the community. Nicolas, Warren and I are humbled to have been renewed and to be part of this amazing community for another year. In this episode, we had a lot of fun catching up with Anna Chu (a.k.a The Community Khaleesi) to talk about being an MVP, the MVP summit and got a sneak peak into Ignite and Ignite The Tour coming up later this year. Anna Chu is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft responsible for working across the Microsoft Tech Community and MVP communities to engage with the IT Pro audience. This involves driving partnerships between engineering and marketing that influence product roadmaps and leading community strategy to enable best practice sharing between customers - in turn facilitating a natural feedback loop between the people who build Microsoft Office products and services and the people who implement them. You can follow Anna on Twitter https://twitter.com/_achuClick the icon below to listen.
The Microsoft Office 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) has come a long way since it was first introduced in Exchange 2010 SP2, prior to that configuring a hybrid deployment required ~50 manual steps. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Greg Taylor and Georgia Huggins while in Redmond recently to talk about the evolution of the HCW and what challenges the newly released Hybrid Agent solves for customers. Georgia Huggins is a Program Manager for Exchange Online and currently owns the experience to establish hybrid from Exchange Server on premises to EXO. She has experience working with both small and large enterprise customers and designing, building and delivering features based on their needs. Georgia also spent many years managing, testing and supporting Exchange Server in pre-production and production environments for Microsoft Information Technology groups. Greg Taylor is the Director of Product Marketing for Exchange Server and Exchange Online. Prior to that he spent many years as part of the Exchange Engineering and Customer Experience teams, designing and building Exchange features, working with large enterprise customers, presenting at public events and working with technology communities. Greg also ran the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) and Architect (MCA) and Exchange Ranger Programs for Microsoft, an elite 3-6 week in-person Redmond based program, training Microsoft and partner consultants and engineers how to design and troubleshoot the world’s largest and most complex Exchange deployments. You can find Greg on Twitter https://twitter.com/gregtaylor_msftClick the icon below to listen.
We often talk about "The long tail of previous best practices" and how in today's ever-evolving cloud landscape it is very important to follow updated guidance, this includes keeping our security policies up to date. Nic sat down with Tarek and Mark from Microsoft to talk about Azure AD security, the evolution of identity management and the need to modernize legacy applications. Here are links to the sessions mentioned in the episode: BRK3408 - Azure Active Directory best practices from around the world - https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/67647 BRK3243 - Hybrid identity and access management best practices - https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/64566 BRK325 - Shut the door to cybercrime with identity-driven security - https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/64568Click the icon below to listen.
If you've ever used the Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator or consulted The Exchange Preferred Architecture you'll be very familiar with the work of our guest, Ross Smith IV. Nic and Warren caught up Ross to talk about his 19-year tenure at Microsoft and his new role in Intune Engineering, giving us a sneak peak into some of the innovation we can look forward to in Outlook for iOS and Android. Ross Smith IV is a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft. In his current role, he is responsible for driving the adoption of Outlook for iOS and Android with Intune App Protection Policies and Azure Active Directory Conditional Access. He also defines and manages the creation of technical content related to Outlook for iOS and Android. You can find Ross on Twitter - https://twitter.com/RossSmithIVClick the icon below to listen.
There is no denying that the only constant with cloud services is change, the nature and rate of this change often brings about some interesting challenges for organizations. We sat down with Anna Donnelly to talk about organizational change management, driving user adoption and how a sound change management strategy is essential to the success of your cloud adoption project. Anna Donnelly is a Services Product Manager at Insight and a Certified Change Practitioner helping organizations manage change and drive user adoption.Click the icon below to listen.
When sitting having our morning breakfast at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong, we started a conversation with the incredible Phoummala Schmitt about Azure Governance, Nic thought it was great and pulled out the recording devices. So here we are, a super informal interview about Azure Governance. Enjoy!Click the icon below to listen.
Governance is a big word and is a concept that is often thrown around. It seems to confuse a lot of organizations, even those who have successfully navigated the cultural and technology changes often brought on by cloud adoption. The 'on by default' nature of many cloud services has made it even more important for organizations to plan their governance strategy before adopting these services, so we sat down with Antonio Maio to talk about the need for governance and why it isn't something that should be overlooked. Antonio Maio is an information security architect with over 25 years of experience in cyber security practices and systems, product management, software development and leadership. Antonio is currently an Associate Director & Senior Enterprise Architect at Protiviti and is a 7-time Microsoft MVP. Antonio also maintains trustsharepoint.com and antonio365.com where he shares his knowledge, information and experiences around Office 365 services, including SharePoint, Exchange, CRM, Azure and Microsoft Flow. You can follow Antonio on Twitter twitter.com/AntonioMaio2Click the icon below to listen.
The Internet of things (IoT) seems to be everywhere these days. Anything from connected light bulbs and door bells to sensors that monitor and report the drying and curing of concrete in real time, there seems to be an IoT solution for every problem but IoT is so much more than just a sensor connected to a Raspberry PI. Microsoft's Anthony Bartolo sat down with us at Ignite to explain what IoT is, why IT Pros should pay attention and how to get started. Here are some of the links mentioned in the episode: http://aka.ms/mousetrap https://microsoft.com/learn https://aka.ms/iotschool Anthony Bartolo is a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft helping the IT Professional community harness the Azure platform and sharing feedback with the engineering teams within Microsoft surrounding current challenges and requested service enhancements. You can follow Anthony on Twitter https://twitter.com/WirelessLife or see what his team is up to by following the hashtag #AZOps. You can also find them on TechCommunity at http://itopstalk.comClick the icon below to listen.
We take for granted everyday that we can login securely to our Office 365 or Azure accounts, but do we ever wonder how that works or why it works the way it does? Identity is a very large part of every organisation and this is the team that makes Identity possible. From Business 2 Business, Azure AD Connect, Guest access and all the pieces that fit together to make Identity in the Cloud work. In this episode we talk with Program Manager Elisabeth Olson and Principle Program Manager Robert Lowe. They both work with the Azure Active Directory teams at Microsoft in Redmond. They give us some amazing answers to some burning questions as well as some insight into how the beast that is Azure AD works.Click the icon below to listen.
Documentation is something we all rely on, especially in today's rapidly changing cloud world where the only constant seems to be change. Perhaps I'm a little obsessive, but I constantly use Microsoft's documentation to confirm things, even when I already know the answer. Like many people though, I never really considered what goes into making sure I have something to refer to and keeping it up to date with all the change going on. Nicolas and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brenda Carter and Joe Davies from the Microsoft Documentation Team at Ignite recently to talk about how they do what they do, how you can help and what it takes to be a technical writer. Brenda Carter is a Principal Technical Writer at Microsoft. Brenda works on enterprise and solution architecture across Microsoft's cloud platforms and services, from Office 365 to Azure. Recent focus areas include security and access management for Office 365 and other SaaS services, including protection for identities, devices, and files. Joe Davies is a Senior Technical Writer at Microsoft. Throughout his career as an instructor, course developer, and technical writer, his driving concern has been presenting technical information in a way that enables someone to go from total ignorance to comfortable understanding as efficiently as possible. If you have an feedback, questions or comments for the documentation team, you can reach them at cloudadopt@microsoft.comClick the icon below to listen.
Diversity and inclusion in tech was one of the powerful themes at Microsoft Ignite this year and I'm excited to see if get bigger every year. Nicolas had the distinct privilege of being able to sit down with Phoummala Schmitt, a.k.a Exchange Goddess to talk about diversity in tech, community and her new role at Microsoft. Phoummala Schmitt is a Sr Cloud Advocate at Microsoft and has a broad range of experiences including Microsoft Technologies, Virtualization and Storage. She has held various engineering roles, from working for a VAR, through several healthcare companies having been a Technical Team Lead for Messaging and Groupware at Independence Blue Cross and Senior Systems Engineer for Harsco Corporation. You can follow Exchange Goddess on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ExchangeGoddessClick the icon below to listen.
The Microsoft Tech Community was launched in 2016 and is an evolution of the Office 365 Network, extended to support the Azure; Windows Server, and SQL Server communities. Microsoft Tech Community brings together multiple communities in one central location to support discussions and best practice sharing across a variety of Microsoft products and services. We had a lot of fun catching up with Anna Chu at Microsoft Ignite last week to talk about her role at Microsoft, the value of community and what it takes to put on an event like Ignite. Anna Chu is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft responsible for working across the Microsoft Tech Community and MVP communities to engage with the IT Pro audience. This involves driving partnerships between engineering and marketing that influence product roadmaps and leading community strategy to enable best practice sharing between customers- in turn facilitating a natural feedback loop between the people who build Microsoft Office products and services and the people who implement them. You can follow Anna on Twitter https://twitter.com/_achuClick the icon below to listen.
In this episode, Nic and Warren have a chat to the Perf Guy himself, Principal Lead Program Manager at Microsoft, Jeff Mealiffe We talk the evolution of Exchange and get Jeff to spill on which version he liked best! We also talk about Office 365 connectivity and the great things Microsoft is pushing internally to make your Office 365 experience better. Jeff Mealiffe is in the Microsoft Exchange Customer Experience group, part of the Microsoft Exchange engineering team based in Redmond, Washington. Jeff is responsible for multiple areas related to Exchange deployment experience for customers and partners. He manages partner programs related to Exchange solutions, helping to build Exchange knowledge with Microsoft’s partners and increase ease of product deployment and customer satisfaction. He also engages directly with customers as a result of executive-level escalations to ensure that issues are resolved efficiently by Microsoft services and the product group and that the knowledge gained from these escalations affects future product development. Jeff uses his deep technical background to manage engineering projects either within the Exchange product or in a segment of the Exchange product ecosystem, including end-to-end management of Exchange virtualization supportability and deployment scenarios. He has held various roles in the Exchange engineering team during his 11 years at Microsoft, and his project experience and knowledge of the product have gained him recognition as an Exchange expert. You can find Jeff on Twitter @mealiffe Enjoy!!Click the icon below to listen.
The word DevOps seems to be everywhere at the moment, I can't open LinkedIn without coming across a bunch of posts and articles talking about DevOps. What does it all mean, and more specifically why should IT Pros care about something that seems at first glance to be very much related to software development? I recently caught up with fellow MVPs Simon Waight and Michel de Rooij in an attempt to understand what it is and why it is something worth paying attention to. Simon Waight is an Azure MVP from Australia who's career focus has been on the building of online software solutions resulting in a deep understanding of the technologies used and challenges faced when working in this space. He has a wide-ranging set of experiences having worked as both a consultant and an FTE and filled varied roles from development, to architecture, to release and team management. You can follow Simon on Twitter https://twitter.com/simonwaight and visit his blog at blog.siliconvalve.com Michel de Rooij is a Dutch Office Servers and Services MVP and Consultant who spends his time helping customers navigate the challenges associated with migrating to Office 365 for Exchange and related technologies. Michel's background as a developer helps him automate processes and develop supporting tools. Michel blogs at eightwone.com and you can follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/mderooijClick the icon below to listen.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been on everyone's mind recently. GDPR became enforceable today, 25 May 2018 and is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union. It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU and aims primarily to give control to citizens and residents over their personal data and how that data is used. It seems a lot a organizations left their GDPR strategies to the very last minute - I received a lot of GDPR related email this week! What does it all mean and why should we care? We had the pleasure of talking to Tony Redmond about it recently. Tony Redmond has been writing about electronic mail since 1992 and is widely regarded as one of the foremost commentators on Microsoft collaboration technology. Tony has written 15 books and is the lead author of Office 365 for IT Pros which is the most practical and up-to-date guide to everything Office 365 related I've come across - and it is updated weekly. I encourage you to follow Tony on Twitter (https://twitter.com/12Knocksinna) and to check out his weekly posts on petri.com.Click the icon below to listen.
In this episode, live from Tech Summit 2018 In Cape Town South Africa, Warren catches up with Bernd Verst, Bernd is an awesome and passionate Microsoft Developer Advocate that works directly out of Seattle, coming from companies like Google and Twitter, Bernd hails from the same team as Donovan Brown and Jessica Deen at Microsoft and makes sure Microsoft Technology always keeps the developer in mind when it comes to products. Warren and Bernd discuss the various Cloud offerings from different Vendors, awesome new technology and early adoption with a couple of Life hacks and believe it or not, they walk about the weather! You can find Bernd on Twitter https://twitter.com/BerndVerst Blog https://readon.ly/ Github https://github.com/berndverst Bernd is also active on the Microsoft Developer Advocates Website and Community here. https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/advocates/index.html https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/advocates/bernd-verst Bernd is also active on the Microsoft Developer Advocates Website and Community here. https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/advocates/index.html https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/advocates/bernd-verst This Episode is brought to you by Plantronics ! See the Amazing 8200UC in action. https://youtu.be/mQF8WsNN3jE https://youtu.be/yJ68MMciTYE https://youtu.be/I3wjofTXZoQ https://www.plantronics.com/hk/en/product/voyager-8200-ucClick the icon below to listen.
In this Episode, Nic and Warren had the privilege of interviewing the legendary Mary-Jo Foley, Mary-Jo has been covering the tech industry and Microsoft for almost 3 decades. Starting off with Berillum Copper Wire, advancing to Unix, then landing in the Microsoft ecosystem. In this episode, we see the human side of Mary-Jo Foley. Mary-Jo’s career has spanned many highlights, including interviewing all three leaders of Microsoft, being banned by Microsoft as well as shunning for being a journalist. Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 30 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). She also is the cohost of the "Windows Weekly" podcast on the TWiT network.Click the icon below to listen.
The telecommunications industry has come a long way since the days of manual service telephone exchanges. We caught up with fellow MVP Greig Sheridan late last year to talk about Skype for Business, Teams and the evolution in technology he has experienced in his 30+ years in the industry. Greig has worked in the telecommunications industry in Sydney, Australia, since finishing high school in the 1980s. Having entered the industry as an Apprentice Technician with Telecom Australia, he’s today the “Practice Lead - UC” for Generation-e, a leading Microsoft partner with a focus on the modern workplace, UC and Audio-Visual solutions. You can check out Greig's blog at greiginsydney.com or connect with him on Twitter - twitter.com/greiginsydneyClick the icon below to listen.
In this incredibly interesting episode, Warren and Nic catch up with Joe Baguley from VMware to talk what it's like speaking live in front of 90 million people and geek out about virtualization, edge computing and the endless possibilities enabled by AI.
Joe Baguley is VMware's Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for EMEA, He helps develop and communicate VMware's strategy and vision with customers and partners, using his wealth of experience to help organizations reduce costs and better support users and business needs. As part of VMware's Office of the CTO and its representative in EMEA, Joe assists VMware's customers in understanding how to use today's advances in technology to deliver real business impact as well as working with them to inform VMware's R&D processes. You can find Joe on Twitter @JoeBaguleyClick the icon below to listen.
Mobility has been a hot topic for some time - in fact, IDC forecasts that the U.S. mobile worker population will surpass 105 million by 2020. Organizations often struggle when trying to provide flexibility and a choice of devices on the one hand and retain control of sensitive data and security on the other. We sat down with fellow MVP Steve Goodman at Microsoft Ignite late last year to discuss a simplistic approach to implementing Device Management and why it needn't be so complex. Steve Goodman is a Principal Tech Strategist at Content and Code, a top Microsoft partner. He works with Office 365, Exchange and Skype for Business and you’ll find him either deep into a complex Exchange Hybrid implementation or in front of a crowd extolling the virtues of Office 365 Groups & Microsoft Teams. If you’d like to get in touch with Steve, you can visit his blog at https://www.allabout365.com or find him on Twitter as @stevegoodmanClick the icon below to listen.
SharePoint can be intimidating, especially for those of use who don't work with it everyday. In this episode, WonderLaura tells us why SharePoint isn't so scary and we discuss some of the SharePoint announcements at Ignite. Laura Rogers is a SharePoint expert, speaker, author and educator. She is well-versed in helping organizations make the most of their SharePoint environments using out-of-box functionalities such as workflows, forms and Web parts. She is the owner of IW Mentor, a SharePoint training company. Laura’s technical expertise also includes over 13 years of experience working with Microsoft’s messaging and collaboration systems. She has been named a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for the past 7 years. Laura runs the Birmingham (AL) SharePoint User Group. She has contributed to several books on SharePoint over the past eight years. You can find Laura on her blog (wonderlaura.com) or on Twitter (twitter.com/wonderlaura). Be sure to check out IW Mentor if you are looking for SharePoint training (www.iwmentor.com).Click the icon below to listen.
Change can be difficult for any organization. Changing the working culture of your user population and driving product adoption can seem overwhelming, especially when applying traditional principles and adoption practices to today's cloud world. We sat down with Patience Wootton at Ignite recently to understand what it means to be an Office 365 Product Owner and talk about change, driving user adoption and being an early Microsoft Teams adopter. Patience is the Office 365 Product Owner within Dentsu Aegis Network, the global media group that specializes in Media, Digital and creative Communications services. In this role she is responsible for driving the change, release and adoption of Office 365 applications into the business. The most recent to launch was Microsoft Teams, which saw a surge in productivity through global cross-brand collaboration. Patience is passionate about creating a modern workplace and a culture of empowerment and teamwork across our 50+ brands within the network. Check out Patience's "Collaborate in a chat-based workspace with Microsoft Teams" session from Ignite here: https://myignite.microsoft.com/sessions/53211Click the icon below to listen.
OneDrive for Business has come a long way since it was initially launched and has earned it's place as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Content Collaboration Platforms. We sat down with Stephen Rose at Ignite recently to talk about some of the exciting new things that will be coming to OneDrive soon. Stephen Rose leads product marketing for OneDrive for Business on the SharePoint/OneDrive team. In addition to speaking at conferences around the globe, he is a regular contributor to the Office and OneDrive blogs. In his previous roles, Stephen spent 8 years on the worldwide and US Windows teams launching Windows 7, 8, and 10, owning IT pro readiness and deployment. Stephen holds over 15 technical certifications and has been a MCT and MCSE since Windows NT. In 2015, he was awarded the Microsoft 2015 Circle of Excellence Platinum Club award. Stephen Rose can be found on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephenlroseClick the icon below to listen.
If there is anything we’ve learned about Office 365 in the last few years, it’s that change is inevitable. Not only are the core workloads and services changing constantly, but there are also new features and services added to Office 365 on a regular basis and as a result of this the service as a whole continues to evolve. At Ignite recently, we caught up with Paul Andrew and Paul Collinge from the Office 365 product group to talk about Microsoft’s impressive and ever-evolving network and how connectivity and network guidance has changed over time. Paul Andrew is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft working on Office 365 cloud networking, network connectivity and performance. He works on the Office 365 IP’s and URLs surface area, ExpressRoute for Office 365, and Office 365 connectivity with network device partners. Paul has worked as a program manager and product manager at Microsoft for over 12 years and as a developer prior to that. Paul holds an MBA from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Technology from Massey University in New Zealand. Paul Collinge is a Senior Program Manager in the Office 365 Product Team, specializing in network connectivity and performance.Click the icon below to listen.
In this Episode, Warren goes solo again and shares some Microsoft Azure announcements from this year’s Ignite conference in Orlando and why they are relevant: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-networking-announcements-for-ignite-2017/ The following links are more detailed pages on the technologies that were released. Jump in and start playing with them NOW! VNet Service Endpoints: https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-service-endpoints-overview DDoS Protection webpage: http://aka.ms/azureddos Global VNet Peering: http://aka.ms/globalvnetpeeringClick the icon below to listen.
In this episode, we introduce our listeners to our new co-host Chris Goosen and talk about massive migrations to Exchange Online… What is massive? More than 400,000 users! We speak to Chris about things like networking, adoption and not defeating the rules of physics when migrating from on-premises or even tenant to tenant, as well as what to do with multiple workloads like One Drive for Business and Skype for Business. Chris is an IT professional with a passion for technology and almost two decades’ experience working with Microsoft technologies. As a solutions architect and consultant, Chris has many years’ experience helping organizations around the world design and implement Microsoft Exchange Server. The explosive growth of cloud technologies in recent years has given Chris the opportunity to be on the forefront of Microsoft Office 365 adoption in Australia and the United States. Chris holds the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) certification and has been an Office Servers and Services MVP since 2014, making him one of a small number of individuals worldwide to have earned both. Chris has been a speaker at conferences such as Microsoft TechEd and Ignite and blogs regularly on Microsoft Exchange and Office 365-related topics at cgoosen.com.Click the icon below to listen.
In this Episode, Warren goes solo and shares some important Microsoft Azure announcements and discusses why they are relevant.Click the icon below to listen.
In this episode we chat to renowned evangelist and fellow South African MVP Alistair Pugin. Alistair has worked in various capacities in multiple verticals from retail – manufacturing to government, spanning 50 to 50000 users utilizing all aspects of pure Enterprise Information Management. His current position as an Office Servers MVP in Johannesburg, South Africa, provides him with a mechanism to assist companies with designing their SharePoint environment using “best of breed”, proven methodologies to foster innovation and growth through an ECM framework while incorporating a Knowledge Management strategy. It is with this vision that he strives to provide customers with a platform for Business Productivity Enrichment, establishing communities of practice through proper analysis and building a knowledge economy that is both quantifiable and achievable. Grab his stories at http://alistairpugin.net You can find Alistair at all the below links: Cloudgeek: https://thecloudgeek.co.za/ ECM Ninja: http://www.ecmninja.co.za/ WhoisAl.com: http://whoisal.com/ Informationworker.org: http://iwsa.co.za/shortcode-team.html LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairpugin/ Here are the show notes. Christian Buckley – The Oprah of personal branding: https://twitter.com/buckleyplanet Agnes Molnar – The Search Lady: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molnaragnes Neil Hodgekinson – Built hybrid engine for Sharepoint: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilhodgkinsonClick the icon below to listen.
In this episode we chat to our good friend Bhargav Shukla about the highly anticipated release of Microsoft Azure Stack. http://www.linkedin.com/learning/microsoft-azure-stack-first-look We touch on the who, what, why, when, and where for Azure Stack. You can find Bhargav online at the following links. Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bhargavs Web: http://www.hybridrealityroundup.com and http://www.bhargavs.com Bhargav also runs a users group: https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Lync-Users-Group/Click the icon below to listen.
Our first Episode !! Welcome to the Cloud Architects Podcast. In this Episode we discuss what is in the news with regard to Cloud as well as some Tips and Tricks in the Software Defined Networking space. We also introduce who we are and why we decided to start this new series. Here are the show note links: Nic’s Blog: http://blankmanblog.com/ Warren’s Blog: http://www.waza.co.za/ Zerotier: http://www.zerotier.com/ Warren’s post on using Zerotier to break out in another country and a cost effective VPN solution: http://www.waza.co.za/2017/06/19/zerotier-and-azure-sdn-at-its-best-with-quick-and-easy-point-to-site-vpn/Click the icon below to listen.