We are pleased to announce that Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). We believe our position in the Leaders quadrant validates our vision and continued investments in Microsoft Sentinel making it a best-in-class, cloud-native SIEM solution.

In addition, we are honored to be recognized for our Completeness of Vision. We feel this reflects our deep commitment to listening and delivering on our customer’s security priorities, like the need to simplify operations, rapidly disrupt cyberthreats, and supercharge the security operations center (SOC). In a significant step, we have launched the unified security operations platform, a single experience across security information and event management (SIEM), extended detection and response (XDR), and Microsoft Copilot for Security.

Microsoft Sentinel is enriched by AI, automation, and Microsoft’s deep understanding of the threat landscape, empowering defenders to hunt and resolve critical threats at machine speed. Our comprehensive solution works seamlessly across multiple clouds, platforms, and security stacks offering many out-of-the-box connectors and customizable content to effectively protect the entire digital estate at scale. Leveraging our capabilities, customers have seen up to 234% return on investment (ROI) over a three-year period and have reduced costs as much as 44%by discontinuing legacy SIEM solutions.

Read about how Microsoft is on a mission to modernize security operations, enabling analysts to act swiftly and more efficiently with a robust, cost-optimized, and intuitive solution.

Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder’s October 2023 report, “Build Your Business Case For Microsoft 365 Copilot” helps digital workplace leaders build the business case for adopting M365 Copilot to their CFOs and procurement leaders.

  1. “We predict that Microsoft 365 Copilot will reach 6.9 million US knowledge workers in 2024.
  2. “The break-even point for recuperating your investment is likely low.”
  3. There are risks both to adopting and not adopting Microsoft 365 Copilot.

In addition, he developed a calculator for clients to model their own business case. J.P. forecasted that by the end of 2024, about 6.9 million U.S. knowledge workers will be using M365 Copilot. That equates to roughly 8% of U.S. knowledge workers.

J.P. summarizes his findings in a public blog here:
https://www.forrester.com/blogs/how-to-build-your-business-case-for-microsoft-365-copilot/

His report is available for Forrester clients & subscribers from:
https://www.forrester.com/report/build-your-business-case-for-microsoft-365-copilot/RES180016
(Note: If you are a direct client of mine, contact me & I can get the report to you as a Microsoft-licensed reprint for our managed customers)

Did you know if you have a “Teams Premium” add-on license, there is a new feature that enables you to apply AI-generated backgrounds depending on your preferences?

It’s a new button that should show up under “Video effects” if your account has a Teams Premium license. Simply select “Decorate” and apply any number of AI-generated effects:

  • Clean up: Tidies up your surroundings, removing clutter and creating a more streamlined and minimalistic aesthetic.
  • Fancy: Incorporates lavish and elegant decorative elements, like wallpaper, candles, and chandeliers.
  • Greenhouse: Adds plants and greenery into your space.
  • Celebration: Includes festive decorations like balloons, streamers, and lighting.
  • Surprise me: Cycles through a variety of styles and themes to transform your space, including 2D animation, underwater, a block-style design reminiscent of Minecraft, and a space shuttle theme.

For more information, read the announcement blog:

Microsoft’s “insiders” chat app, GroupMe, now comes with Copilot AI! All you university kids know what I’m talking about: The #1 free chat app on college campuses worldwide is back with a vengeance in a brand new, groundbreaking release. (6.101.3)

Got a question in GroupMe? Need to look something up? Wondering about an event date or time? Use the artificial intelligence of Microsoft Copilot directly from the GroupMe chat interface to pull in timely, up-to-date information.

Microsoft Copilot is your AI assistant, here to help you and your crew achieve anything you can imagine. Studying for finals? Ask Copilot to create a study guide for any subject. Planning your spring break trip to Cabo? Ask Copilot to make it epic. Hosting your annual 90s party? Ask Copilot to create a totally awesome Instagram flyer from right inside GroupMe. 

GroupMe is available for iOS, Android and now, a brand new Windows 11 app!
Download here:

Read more about the new release here:

We recently published a FREE special 10-module on-demand video training course, “DP-203 Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure”, where instructors were video-recorded for all modules.

In this course, the student will learn how to implement and manage data engineering workloads on Microsoft Azure, using Azure services such as Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Databricks, and others. The course focuses on common data engineering tasks such as orchestrating data transfer and transformation pipelines, working with data files in a data lake, creating and loading relational data warehouses, capturing and aggregating streams of real-time data, and tracking data assets and lineage.

All video recorded modules for “DP-203 Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure” are available below:

Additionally, you may find written versions of this course located at: Course DP-203T00-A: Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure – Training | Microsoft Learn

We recently published a FREE special 9-module on-demand video training course, “DP-500 Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI”, where instructors were video-recorded for all modules.

This course covers methods and practices for performing advanced data analytics at scale. Students will build on existing analytics experience and will learn to implement and manage a data analytics environment, query and transform data, implement and manage data models, and explore and visualize data. In this course, students will use Microsoft Purview, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI to build analytics solutions.

All video recorded modules for “DP-500 Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI” are available below:

Note: DP-500 is being posted for those that have implemented Power BI however the curriculum has been updated recently to reflect the recent change in Power BI’s delivery to customers as part of Microsoft Fabric and as such has been replaced by DP-600 Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/courses/dp-600t00.

(The original description of DP-500 has been taken down however can still be viewed at https://web.archive.org/web/20230528232349/https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/courses/dp-500t00)

Cloud-native technologies like containers and Kubernetes are the future of application development. That’s why we’re honored to announce that Microsoft has been named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Container Management*. We believe that this recognition validates our end-to-end approach for developing and deploying enterprise-grade, cloud-native apps that run on Azure, in datacenters, or at the edge.

Read the full report to learn more about why Microsoft was named a Leader for container management. 

*Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

We’ve recently published for FREE our “Microsoft Fundamentals courses (900-level)” training courses which are typically 1 day of training, providing the basics or “101” of the topic they are covering. Usually about $300/student, the classes available include:

  • AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
  • DP-900 Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals
  • AI-900 Generative AI Fundamentals
  • MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals
  • SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance & Identity Fundamentals
  • MB-910 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundamentals (CRM)

AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
This course will provide foundational level knowledge on cloud concepts; core Azure services; and Azure management and governance features and tools.

Additionally, you may find written versions of this course located at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/courses/az-900t00#course-syllabus

DP-900 Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals
In this course, students will gain foundational knowledge of core data concepts and related Microsoft Azure data services. Students will learn about core data concepts such as relational, non-relational, big data, and analytics, and build their foundational knowledge of cloud data services within Microsoft Azure. Students will explore fundamental relational data concepts and relational database services in Azure. They will explore Azure storage for non-relational data and the fundamentals of Azure Cosmos DB. Students will learn about large-scale data warehousing, real-time analytics, and data visualization.

Additionally, you may find written versions of this course located at: Course DP-900T00-A: Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals – Training | Microsoft Learn

Generative AI Fundamentals
Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence in which models are trained to generate new original content based on natural language input. In other words, you can describe a desired output in normal everyday language, and the model can respond by creating appropriate text, image, or even code output.

Additionally, you may find written versions of this course located at: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals: Generative AI – Training | Microsoft Learn

MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals
This course introduces Microsoft 365, an integrated cloud platform that delivers industry-leading productivity apps along with intelligent cloud services, and world-class security. You’ll learn foundational knowledge on the considerations and benefits of adopting cloud services and the Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud model, with a specific focus on Microsoft 365 cloud service offerings. You will begin by learning about cloud fundamentals, including an overview of cloud computing. You will be introduced to Microsoft 365 and learn how Microsoft 365 solutions improve productivity, facilitate collaboration, and optimize communications. The course then analyzes how security, compliance, privacy, and trust are handled in Microsoft 365, and it concludes with a review of Microsoft 365 subscriptions, licenses, billing, and support. 

Additionally, you may find written versions of this course located at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/courses/ms-900t01

SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance & Identity Fundamentals
This course provides foundational level knowledge on security, compliance, and identity concepts and related cloud-based Microsoft solutions.

Additionally, you may find written versions of this course located at: Course SC-900T00-A: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals – Training | Microsoft Learn

MB-910 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundamentals (CRM)
Do you want to learn more about Dynamics 365? This course will provide you with a broad introduction to the customer engagement capabilities of Dynamics 365. You will become familiar with the concept of customer engagement, the core capabilities of customer engagement apps as well as with each of the customer engagement apps, including Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Field Service. You will also learn how Copilot can assist you in executing customer engagement tasks in Dynamics 365. This course includes lectures and hands-on-labs.

Additionally, you may find written versions of this course located at: Course MB-910T00-A: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundamentals (CRM) – Training | Microsoft Learn

Microsoft’s own IT department (known as “Microsoft Digital”) documented their deployment of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to us 200,000+ Microsoft employees in a detailed guide/eBook.

This is a 44pg .PDF file in which our Microsoft Digital covers how we prepared our environment for AI data governance, deployment, adoption, training, etc. Leveraging Microsoft’s internal framework for deployment & adotion, the document includes:

  • Revelations of Copilot for Microsoft 365’s Impact on Microsoft’s own 220,000 employees including improvements in speed, efficiency & labor
  • Establishing Governance & a special deployment checklist based on what we learned while tackling governance, security, and compliance
  • Implementation guidance both pre & post deployment & an implementation checklist that reflects Microsoft Digital’s learnings as we worked through Microsoft’s internal implementation and admin process
  • Building an Adoption plan & a checklist that reflects Microsoft Digital’s learnings while deploying Copilot at Microsoft and can act as a guide while you build out and implement your adoption plan
  • Creating a Support plan with a checklist that shares Microsoft Digital’s internal learnings and processes during our internal rollout. Consider incorporating these steps into your own support team preparations

And as a bonus, we’ve released a special, abridged version for CIOs/Executives. Download both books below:

The “shortened” version for CIOs & Executives:

We recently published a FREE special 20-module on-demand video training course, “DP-420 Designing and Implementing Cloud-Native Applications Using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB”, where instructors were video-recorded for all modules.

This course teaches developers how to create application using the NoSQL API and SDK for Azure Cosmos DB. Students will learn how to write efficient queries, create indexing policies, manage and provisioned resources, and perform common operations with the SDK.

All video recorded modules for “DP-420 Designing and Implementing Cloud-Native Applications Using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB” are available below:

Additionally, you may find written versions of this course located at: Course DP-420T00-A: Designing and Implementing Cloud-Native Applications Using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB – Training | Microsoft Learn

Older Posts »

Categories