Month: December 2014

Get Insight to the Modern Workplace

One of Microsoft’s new campaigns for the Office 365 family is named Modern Workplace. In stead of focusing on technology and single products that only the toughest techies are able to understand, the value of using new technology is put into focus instead. After showing some of the slides and statements to my parents, even they understand what I’m doing at work.

Take a inspiring peek yourself, and have a merry Christmas 🙂

http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/modernworkplace/default.aspx

Reading list for MS Exam 70-534 published

Some of the reading list readers asked for a list related to the 70-534 exam, and finally I found enough time to make a first version 🙂

http://www.pmsas.pr.gov.br/wp-content/?id=anderMicrosoft-70-534&exam=reading-lists/ms-exam-70-534-architecting-microsoft-azure-solutions/

Happy reading 🙂

Online Proctored Microsoft Exams Available in Twenty One Countries in December 2014

In September 2014 Microsoft announced that U.S. users could take MCP and MTA exams online, either from home or their office.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that 21 additional countries now are applicable for this testing experience.

The 16 new countries are

  • Australia
  • Brazil
  • Chile
  • Colombia
  • Egypt
  • Finland
  • Ireland
  • Kenya
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • Norway
  • Peru
  • Philippines
  • Russia
  • Singapore
  • South Africa
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Thailand
  • United States
  • Uruguay

To read the whole post, and see how to sign up, check this Born To Learn blog post
https://borntolearn.mslearn.net/b/weblog/archive/2014/12/15/online-proctored-microsoft-exams-available-in-twenty-one-countries-in-december-2014

 

 

Updated version of the Microsoft Azure Icons for Visio pack

There is a new version of the Microsoft Azure Icons for Visio pack available at TechNet Gallery.

There is now 8 new shapes

  • Azure
  • HDInsight
  • Stream Analytics
  • Operational Insights
  • Event Hubs
  • Batch
  • Data Factory
  • Application Insights

Please check it out at the TechNet gallery webpage https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Azure-Icons-for-Visio-626737b2

Azure Active Directory Updates, and they are awesome

First of all, lets summarize what just happened

  • Azure Active Directory Application Proxy just went into General Availability
  • Azure Active Directory Premium is now available for all Office 365 customers either in Direct or through MOSP
  • Azure Active Directory received four enhancements.
    • Administrative Units – Public Preview
    • New SSO capabilities for SaaS apps – Public Preview
    • Password writeback enters General Availability
    • Security questions for Self-Service Password Reset – Public Preview

Read the official blog post here
http://blogs.technet.com/b/ad/archive/2014/12/11/wrapping-up-the-year-with-a-boat-load-of-azure-ad-news.aspx

Azure Active Directory Application Proxy (AADAP)

Recently I blogged about this topic, read more here. Basically what AADAP does it to create a proxy application in the cloud that allows you to connect to your internal on-premises application in a secure matter. This is a great tool if we don’t have a publication platform on-premises today.

Azure Active Directory Premium in Direct/MOSP for Office 365

We now have Azure AD Premium available for direct online purchase, using a credit card, in the Office 365 admin portal (you do not need to be an existing Office 365 customer to buy). This opens a new world of features for the SMB market!

Azure Active Directory – Administrative Units

We can now delegate administrative access to Azure AD. In this release it’s only available through PowerShell. The consept is that we can for instanve have Global Admins as before, but we can now also have Regional Admins. Within their region they can manage users, devices, applications and policies.

Azure Active Directory – Custom additon of SaaS applications

If we search for an SaaS application, and it’s not available, we can add the application as a unlisted app, and then configure SSO as we like.

Azure Active Directory – Password writeback enters GA

This isn’t something new, but it’s released into GA. This means that we can use this in production with good confidence. Note that this feature require Azure AD Premium.

Azure Active Directory Password Reset – Security Questions

We have now the posibility to add security questions as one of the authentication methods when users need to change their password. The value of this is that the user don’t need ther phone or alternative email address available when resetting.