Partager via

Luper's Learnings - Azure Technical Community for Partners (July / August 2016)

  • Article

Luper's Learnings - Azure Technical Community for Partners (July / August 2016)

 

Welcome to the combined July / August 2016 monthly edition of Luper’s Learnings.

 

Happy August and thank you for your patience waiting for this edition! So much has been happening at Microsoft over the past couple of months that I’ve not been as close to Azure as I usually am. We’re starting to get reconnected now J. This is very first Luper’s Learnings for Microsoft’s Fiscal Year 2017 after conferences, vacations, new fiscal year etc. I can’t wait to spend time (virtually and in person) with many of you in the coming year. Keep your content suggestions coming via Twitter and email.

 

WPC in Toronto last month was terrific and it was great to see some of you at the conference including breakfasts, lunches, parties and drinks with fabulous Azure partners! Take a look at the blog post from TJ at AvePoint. He lists his Three Major Takeaways from Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2016. You have three minutes? Watch the highlights reel. Want to dive a bit deeper? Dozens of recorded WPC 2016 sessions are available via the WPC Gallery.

 

I’m going to combine learnings from June and July with recent announcements to bring you the Luper’s Learnings edition below. Look for monthly editions to resume around 7 September then around 5 October just after Ignite.

 

If you received this directly from me then you are on my list and you will continue receiving my Learnings the first week of each month. If you would prefer to stop receiving it, please reply to me and I’ll remove you promptly. If somebody forwarded this email to you and you would like to begin receiving it from me directly each month, just email me at luperslearnings (at) microsoft.com.

Here we go with my Learnings from the last month…

  • As is usually the case, at the beginning of Microsoft’s fiscal year, we see lots of new readiness offerings start to roll out and continue for the next 6 – 10 months. You’ll see a heavy dose of readiness opportunities in my content below.

I mentioned Ignite above. Take advantage of your last chance to register as it is only six weeks away and is filling up quickly. It’s the premier conference for partners to go for in person, deep dive technical training on all topics Azure. My plans are coming together for an Azure Partner Networking Happy Hour during Ignite. If you’ll be at Ignite, let me know so that I can be sure to get an invite to you. Keep watching this space for additional details.

Data Platform Online is a series of online, live, and interactive training in which participants learn about Data Platform solutions and sales scenarios, as well as receive guidance on how to effectively orchestrate sales across each stage of the Data Platform sales cycle.

 

This particular series is targeted at Sales professionals within Microsoft and partner organizations. There are sessions on six distinct topics for targeted roles to attend, each lasting one hour. Each topic will be offered on one day in September, with two delivery times to accommodate global time zones. Sessions are led by Microsoft experts, and participants learn through a combination of lecture, presentation and interactive discussions. Course topics, dates, and times (all times Pacific) below. Registration

 

Topic Date / Start Times
Data Platform Online: Data Platform Modernization September 6 - 8am & 5pm
Data Platform Online: Mission Critical Application Platform September 7 - 8am & 5pm
Data Platform Online: Application Platform Migration September 8 - 8am & 5pm
Data Platform Online: The new sales tools for Data Warehouse and Big Data September 13 - 8am, 5pm
Data Platform Online: Modern Business Intelligence September 14 - 8am, 5pm
Data Platform Online: Accelerating digital transformation through Advanced Analytics solutions September 15 – 8am, 5pm

In addition to the Data Platform sessions, there are a series of Datacenter training sessions being delivered in the coming weeks. These sessions are online, live, and interactive sales training in which participants learn about key Microsoft Datacenter solutions and sales scenarios. The seven live sessions each last one hour and are offered on one day with two delivery times to accommodate global time zones. Full details below.

 

August 16, 2016 – 9 a.m., 6 p.m. PacificHybrid Management & Security OverviewOnce data is in a hybrid environment, learn how Microsoft technology helps customers manage that information while keeping it secure.Link to 9 a.m. Registration Link to 6 p.m. Registration August 17, 2016 – 9 a.m., 6 p.m. PacificRunning Linux workloads in Microsoft AzureThe latest information and updates on running Linux workloads on Microsoft Azure.Link to 9 a.m. Registration Link to 6 p.m. Registration
August 18, 2016 – 9 a.m., 6 p.m. PacificOMS Licensing Model ChangesA review of current and upcoming changes to how OMS is licensed.Link to 9 a.m. Registration Link to 6 p.m. Registration August 22, 2016 – 9 a.m., 6 p.m. PacificUpgrading to WS 2016 with Security and Software Defined Datacenter CapabilitiesA review of strategies for selling new capabilities of Windows Server 2016 in an environment in which server OS upgrades remain low on the priority list for IT Pros.Link to 9 a.m. Registration Link to 6 p.m. Registration
August 23, 2016 – 9 a.m., 6 p.m. PacificWinning Disaster Recovery and Migration Scenarios with Azure Site RecoveryLearn the unique capabilities of Azure Site Recovery that will help you win disaster recovery and secure migration business.Link to 9 a.m. Registration Link to 6 p.m. Registration August 24, 2106 – 9 a.m., 6 p.m. Securing Customers’ Hybrid Infrastructure with OMSA review of how Microsoft Operations Management Solutions can help you secure customers' hybrid infrastructureLink to 9 a.m. Registration Link to 6 p.m. Registration
August 30, 2016 – 9 a.m., 6 p.m. PacificHybrid & Public Cloud Infrastructure OverviewA review of updates and new information for Microsoft infrastructure supporting hybrid and public cloud scenarios.Link to 9 a.m. Registration Link to 6 p.m. Registration

 

 

  • Read Andrew Conway’s post discussing Enterprise Mobility Suite becomes Enterprise Mobility + Security and other details on AAD Premium and Azure Information Protection.
  • You know that a virtual machine can encounter issues caused by user configurations or host infrastructure. If you have exhausted all other options under the troubleshooting menu, we suggest redeploying your virtual machine to a new host. The original virtual machine, including the local disk, is deleted, and the configurations and associated resources are transferred to a new virtual machine of the same size on a new Azure host. As part of our commitment to provide better customer service, when a virtual machine is redeployed, we pull the logs from the original host to see if we can prevent a similar issue in the future. Full instructions are available for either Linux or Windows virtual machines.
  • Microsoft historically offered two synchronization tools with Azure AD: "DIRSYNC" for single forest customers and "Azure AD Sync" for multi-forest and other advanced capabilities. These older tools have been replaced with the single solution, Azure AD Connect, for all scenarios. Dirsync and Azure AD Sync are no longer being updated and have now been deprecated. These two synchronization clients will no longer be supported after April 13, 2017. Andreas Kjellman shared details, schedule and transition guidance. The clock is ticking.
  • Speaking of identity, recently Gartner recognized Microsoft as a Leader, positioned furthest to the right for completeness of vision, in the 2016 Magic Quadrant for Identity and Access Management as a Service, Worldwide. You can access the report here. Alex Simons commented on the results and report in his blog post.
  • Since I connected the dots from Identity to Identity, now I’ll connect the dots from Gartner to Gartner. Brad Anderson announced “…that Gartner has recognized Microsoft with a visionary placement for Microsoft Intune and the Enterprise Mobility Suite in the Enterprise Mobility Management Magic Quadrant.” You also have access to that report here. In only its second year on the Gartner Identity and Access Management as a Service, Worldwide Magic Quadrant Microsoft was placed in the "Leader" quadrant, far to the right for our completeness of vision. Nice.
  • Just a couple of weeks ago, the IoT team posted Azure Logic Apps facilitates rapid integration for IoT solutions talking a bit about Logic Apps, Connectors and IoT in light of the announcement from Frank Weigel of  Azure Logic Apps general availability.
  • If you use Azure App Service Web App, it’s possible that your web app might go down once in a while. Of course, you want to be able to answer the question, why was it down? Introducing appLens for Azure App Service Web App. It’s a self service tool to help you figure out the answer to that question.
  • The latest batch of updates to Azure Batch service capabilities was announced in mid June.
  • At Build 2016, we announced a limited preview of Azure Service Fabric on Linux, which you can use to build, deploy, and manage cloud applications by using the same core technology that Microsoft has used to build massively scalable solutions on Windows. Read Mani Ramaswamy’s blog post for details and you can now sign up for the preview to check it out.
  • Also in preview, New version of Azure Active Directory PowerShell cmdlets. Download AzureADPreview and read complete documentation here.
  • Check out the free preview of Microsoft Stream, a new business video service that democratizes access to and discovery of video at work. Anyone with a business email address can sign up for the preview in seconds and begin uploading, sharing and tagging videos in their organization. Preview announcement. Stream blog. Get started.
  • I’m torn between “it’s cool” and “it’s informative.” Watch this long (46 minute) episode of Cloud Cover. Haishi Bai is joined by Any Glover of Netflix to talk about Spinnaker, Netflix's open source, multi-cloud, global Continuous Delivery platform. Spinnaker is designed to be pluggable, allowing different tasks, models and targets to be incorporated into the deployment pipeline. It supports various deployment targets such as Amazon Web Services, Google Compute Platform, Kubernetes, and Cloud Foundry. Now with Microsoft's contribution, Spinnaker also deploys to Microsoft Azure! Check it out.
  • Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer was updated last week. It allows you to easily work with Azure Storage from any platform, anywhere. It’s free and downloadable for Windows, Mac and Linux.
  • You want your share (or more) of the “greater cloud spending” that IDC predicts will exceed $500 billion by 2020? Definitely take advantage of the Cloud profitability resources and scenarios.
  • Lastly, from time to time I really enjoy being able to call out some Azure momentum. Here are a few highlights of services that became Generally Available in the past 60 days (I only highlighted 16 below but there were more!)

Thanks for sticking with me and making it to the bottom of the July / August Luper’s Learnings. And, again, apologies for it getting to you a few days later than usual. I’d love your input for topics for the September edition let me know what they are!