There is a new version of the Microsoft Azure Icons for Visio pack available at TechNet Gallery.
There is now 8 new shapes
Please check it out at the TechNet gallery webpage https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Azure-Icons-for-Visio-626737b2
First of all, lets summarize what just happened
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lately my reading lists has had an explosion in traffic, and definitely because of the fact that Microsoft was/is giving away free exams for Office 365 and Azure at http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2014/10/16/get-certified-on-microsoft-azure-or-office-365-with-free-exams.aspx
At the About me page there is a email form that … sends me an email with your question in it. Today I just wanted to share the most common questions, and the answer that I think is the correct one. If you have another opinion or something to add, feel free to comment this post 🙂
Q: Is is realistic to pass one or two of these exams in just 1 month of studying?
Well, this really depends on your existing knowledge of the topics, and if you are able to put aside a few hours each day. The official courses for these Exams is all 5 Days courses. If we expect about 5 efficient hours of training each day, that would be a total of 25 hours in one week. Having a skilled MCT as a trainer helps, so since we study on our own, we should add at least 5 extra hours I think. Splitting that out on two weeks, we should have about 3 hours (plus) each day to study, and then be through the same content as the courses. Doable? Absolutely! I have done it myself, but it will require dedication.
Q: Is there any good video or eBook resources available for free?
Yes definitely, and I should add these links to the reading lists also!
Microsoft Virtual Academy is the #1 place to get video training in my opinion.
For Office 365 courses, see this link: http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/product-training/office-365
For Microsoft Azure courses, see this link: http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/product-training/microsoft-azure
For Microsoft Azure PDFs, see this link: http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/ebooks#azure
Eric Ligman also released a huge list of eBooks freely available, where we find some books related to Office 365 and Azure. Please take a look at his blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mssmallbiz/archive/2014/07/07/largest-collection-of-free-microsoft-ebooks-ever-including-windows-8-1-windows-8-windows-7-office-2013-office-365-office-2010-sharepoint-2013-dynamics-crm-powershell-exchange-server-lync-2013-system-center-azure-cloud-sql.aspx
Another recommendation would be to actually use the export function at MSDN and TechNet Library. That way we know that what we read actually is the newest and most correct information.
Some of the Reading List users requested a list built for the MS Exam 70-532, and finally I found enough time to create a first version!
The reading list is available at this location
Happy reading 🙂
Network Security Groups (NSG) is one of the new network features that’s available in Azure. At least as long we are using the data center in North Europe (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/new-networking-features-now-available-in-the-north-europe-region/). By leveraging NSGs we are able to control inbound and outbound network traffic all the way down to each separate VM. This is great in those cases where we have to implement high security and hard policies on our services. For example between the public facing endpoints and backend servers in a SharePoint deployment.
To use it, we need version 0.8.10 of the Azure PowerShell module, and the commands are
The function is somehow self explained and the link at the bottom of this post explains it even a little bit more. But the best way to get to know them is to use Get-Help, and then just try 🙂
Documentation