Category: Microsoft

This category is for anything Microsoft related-so you’ll probably find that msot posts end up in here!

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Microsoft Viva Goals


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The Microsoft Viva family has been around for a little while now and I really think it will become a big product for Microsoft – eventually. There doesn’t seem to be much focus on it at the moment but I’m sure that will change…and Viva Goals will help that. It is built on Ally.io which Microsoft acquired back in October 2021 and really aligns to the need for businesses to be more streamlined and focused than ever.

What is it?

Microsoft Viva Goals is all about OKRs – Objectives & Key Results – and helping organisations keep them visible in order to achieve what the business aims to do. An OKR is defined as:

“a proven goal-setting framework for creating alignment, focus and building a highly productive and engaged work culture to drive your business outcomes.“

Enabling everyone in a business to see what they, and everyone else, are working towards helps create more efficient, united organisations.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/goals

Microsoft have some great resources on OKRs as a concept here.

Features

Although currently only available in Private Preview (and only in English), the product features within Viva Goals include:

Which gives a good overview of what can be done with the product. Of course, Viva Goals will have strong integration with Teams to help make OKR usage an integral part of internal communication.

I think understanding and successfully using OKRs will be a key skill sought after by many organisations – I’ll be completing the OKR Champion program on Microsoft Learn to get up to speed!

Further Reading

Intro to Viva Goals

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Microsoft Product Terms: May 2022


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It’s almost the end of Microsoft’s financial year and typically things quieten down, but there is one interesting change this month:

SQL Server Standard can now use Distributed Availability Groups (AG*), a feature which has been an Enterprise only feature up until now. However, it is limited by the fact that the DAG may only synchronise with Azure.

The Microsoft Docs page (like this one https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/availability-groups/windows/distributed-availability-groups?view=sql-server-ver15#version-and-edition-requirements) haven’t yet been updated…

*Microsoft say that “DAG” is used for Exchange’s Database Availability Group feature and this SQL feature is to be shortened to “AG” instead.

The couple of other Product Terms changes are:

  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium added as a base license for the Remote Help SKU
  • Terms added to detail the guidance around CSP renewals, cancellations, and co-terms
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Microsoft retire another Software Assurance benefit


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Microsoft have announced that 24×7 Problem Resolution Support is being retired as of February 1, 2023.

Historically, access to 24×7 support has been determined based on how much organisations spend on certain products. As part of the SA changes introduced in 2019/20, there was a plan to change this to being simply as-needed 24×7 support for organisations with a spend of $250,000+.

Now however, Microsoft have decided to ditch it completely in favour of Unified Support. Current support incidents can either be used or transferred to a Microsoft Support contract before Feb 23. Any unused/non-transferred incidents will be lost.

Microsoft say their goal is to give every customer “comparable support…at a comparable price” but, given the large price increases most people saw when Unified Support was introduced, I can sense a large amount of scepticism about this! Those of you with existing Premier/Unified Support contracts will start to hear from Microsoft in August 2022.

If you don’t have a Support contract from Feb 23, you can buy support on a per-incident basis from Microsoft.

Microsoft announcement is here.

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Microsoft Financial Results: Q3 FY22


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Microsoft’s financial results for Q3 FY22 (Jan – Mar 22) are in and, once again, they’re showing strong growth in all their key focus areas. They also listed several big name customers that they’re working with including:

  • Bridgestone
  • Lufthansa
  • Fujitsu
  • Woolworths
  • Cracker Barrel
  • Heineken

and called out Boeing, Heinz, and Westpac among customers making “strategic” Azure commitments.

Satya Nadella always hits us with a good quote during the earnings call and this quarter’s was:

“The last two years have proven that every organization needs a digital fabric that connects the entire organization”

Let’s take a look at some of the numbers:

Overall

Revenue = $49.4 billion – up 18%

Operating income = $20.4 billion – up 19%

Really strong top line numbers as always – remember, this is for just 3 months!

Productivity & Business Processes

Revenue = $15.8 billion – up 17%

  • Office 365 Commercial up 17%
  • Dynamics 365 up 35%
  • LinkedIn up 35%

Microsoft saw growth in SMB and frontline SKUs as well as increase in Revenue Per User – a key SaaS metric.

Office on-prem revenue was down 28%, continuing the downwards trend that we’ve been seeing for a couple of years now. It was noted as well that the end of Open Licensing has caused a drop in transactional license sales during the last quarter.

Intelligent Cloud

Revenue = $19.1 billion – up 26%

  • Azure (and other cloud services) up 46%
  • Server products up 5%

Another strong showing from Azure…with the number of $100 million Azure deals more than doubling over the previous year.

The server products increase includes Window Server & SQL Server in hybrid use cases (as well as Nuance) and again Microsoft mentioned the impact of Open Licensing’s end.

What else did we learn?

  • Satya Nadella once again called out the performance of Cosmos DB, with 100%+ YoY growth for 3 quarters in a row.
  • Power Platform, as a family, was up 72% year on year.
  • Microsoft Viva has over 10 million monthly active users.

Overall this is another great performance from Microsoft, giving them good momentum as they move into their Q4 (April – June) which is always a busy time of year. It will be interesting to see the full FY results in July for sure!

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Microsoft Purview


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Microsoft have once again combined and rebranded some of their products – Azure Purview + the Microsoft 365 compliance products = Microsoft Purview. This new product family combines 17 different products across data governance and risk management – the (relatively straightforward) name changes are:

Current NameNew Name
Microsoft 365 Advanced AuditMicrosoft Purview Audit (Premium)
Microsoft 365 Communication ComplianceMicrosoft Purview Communication Compliance
Microsoft Compliance ManagerMicrosoft Purview Compliance Manager
Office 365 Customer LockboxMicrosoft Purview Customer Lockbox
Azure Purview Data CatalogMicrosoft Purview Data Catalog
Microsoft 365 Data ConnectorsMicrosoft Purview Data Connectors
Microsoft Information GovernanceMicrosoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Office 365 Data Loss PreventionMicrosoft Purview Data Loss Prevention
Azure Purview Data MapMicrosoft Purview Data Map
Double Key Encryption for Microsoft 365Microsoft Purview Double Key Encryption
Records Management in Microsoft 365Microsoft Purview Records Management
Office 365 Advanced eDiscoveryMicrosoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium)
Microsoft 365 Information BarriersMicrosoft Purview Information Barriers
Microsoft Information ProtectionMicrosoft Purview Information Protection
Microsoft 365 Insider Risk ManagementMicrosoft Purview Insider Risk Management
Azure Purview portalMicrosoft Purview governance portal
Microsoft 365 compliance centerMicrosoft Purview compliance portal

The new offering now includes data protection for the macOS platform as well as 50+ new sensitive info classifiers, co-authoring of encrypted documents on mobile devices (in preview), and multi-stage retention labels. It’s another step along the way in Microsoft’s journey to make their security portfolio stronger, less fragmented and – perhaps – less confusing.

If you have (what was) Azure Purview – head over to the Microsoft Purview governance portal here.

If you have Microsoft 365 E5 and/or Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance – head over to the Microsoft Purview Compliance portal here.

You can see some of the Purview pricing here.

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Windows 365 new features


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Microsoft have announced a range of new features for Windows 365 that all serve to make it a more interesting and robust offering. The 2 that most interest me are:

Windows 365 Boot

Enabled by a local install of Windows 11, this features enables users to boot straight into their cloud pc instance from login. Microsoft use the example of a shared device where each user’s login takes them to their personalised Windows 365 device.

Windows 365 Offline

Pretty much the biggest issue with any cloud based service is “what about when I haven’t got internet?” such as when working on a train or simply a dodgy internet connection. With this upcoming feature, users can work offline and then changes will sync with the cloud once connectivity is regained.

I’m still not totally convinced by Windows 365 – particularly due to its cost – but these additions definitely help its case.

Resources

Microsoft announcement

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Microsoft non-profit price increases – 2022


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Microsoft have announced a set of price increases for the non-profit sector from September 1, 2022. The pricing is as follows:

ProductCurrent priceNew price (Sept 22)
Office 365 E1$2.00$2.50
Office 365 E3$4.50$5.75
Office 365 E5$14.00$15.20
Microsoft 365 E3$8.00$9.00
Microsoft 365 Business Premium$5.00$5.50

Microsoft call out that these price increases can be used to drive adoption of Microsoft 365 E5 – which, just as with the commercial SKUs, doesn’t have a price increase planned.

Other changes

April 2022 also saw the end of Microsoft’s free grants for on-premises software – although non-profits in areas where Azure isn’t available can still get grants for Windows Server & SQL Server.

Microsoft are now making grants of 50 Windows Pro licenses available to non-profits, with additional discounted licenses being available

Resources

Microsoft page re: price increase

Microsoft page re: other changes

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Microsoft Defender for Servers


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Microsoft Defender for Servers is available as one of the workload components of Microsoft Defender for Cloud and is now split into Plan 1 and Plan 2.

Microsoft Defender for Servers Plan 1

The features contained in Plan 1 are:

  • Auto onboarding for resources in Azure, AWS, and GCP
  • Microsoft Threat & Vulnerability management
  • Use of Defender for Cloud or M365 Defender portal
  • Integration of Defender for Cloud and Defender for Endpoint

Microsoft Defender for Servers Plan 2

Additional capabilities in Plan 2 include:

  • Log Analytics – with 500MB free
  • Security policy & regulatory compliance
  • Vulnerability assessment
  • Threat detection
  • Just in Time VM access
  • File integrity monitoring
  • Adaptive network hardening
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/defender-for-cloud/defender-for-servers-introduction

Pricing

Under the Azure meter, the prices are listed here as:

  • Plan 1 = £0.006 per server per hour
  • Plan 2 = £0.016 per app service per hour

Volume Licensing

If you have 50 or more combined licenses of:

  • Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
  • Windows E5/A5
  • M365 E5/A5
  • M365 Security USLs

you can acquire Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (Server) under EA/EAS/MCA/EES agreements.

If you have these licenses and then choose to cover the same servers with Microsoft Defender for Cloud (the new name for Azure Security Center + Azure Defender), you will be eligible for a credit towards the cost of the latter.

Resources

Microsoft Docs page

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Microsoft Product Terms: April 2022


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A few areas of activity this month:

Apparently, they’ve changed the Cloud for Healthcare licensing model from per-user to per-tenant. The “User Subscription License” option has been replaced but none of the other terms have been changed, so it still refers to add-on SLs etc. and doesn’t mention that it’s per-tenant anywhere other than the change summary. It makes sense as the other clouds are per-tenant…but we need all the info!

Microsoft Endpoint Manager Remote Help add-on has been added. Eligible pre-requisites are Microsoft 365 E3/E5/F1/F3, Enterprise Mobility + Security E3/E5, and Microsoft Intune.

System Center 2022 has been added.

“Dynamics 365 Customer Voice and Digital Messaging” added.

Windows 11 Pro (per Device) is now available via CSP.

Microsoft Bookings added to Student Use Benefit for O365 A3 & A5.

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Microsoft SQL Server 2012 end of support


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SQL Server 2012 goes end of support on July 12, 2022 – that’s about 10 weeks from the time of writing! This means even security updates from Microsoft will no longer be provided to customers running this software – a situation organisations really don’t want to find themselves in.

It only seems like 5 minutes since this was the situation with SQL Server 2008 (it was actually almost 4 years ago!) which causes headaches for a lot of organisations. I’d say that, based on conversations at conferences and training sessions etc., SQL Server 2012 is going to be at least equally painful as many businesses seem to have got to 2012 and then no further, considering it to be much more modern than 2008.

If your business is still running SQL Server 2012 – what are your options?

Remain on-premises

Assuming you want to remain up to date on security patches (which I’d say you do!), you’ll need to acquire Extended Security Updates (ESU) from Microsoft which will give you 3 more years of security updates. That however, comes at a price:

  • Year 1 = 75% of SQL Server license price
  • Year 2 = 100% of SQL Server license price
  • Year 3 = 125% of SQL Server license price

Let’s say you have a 4-core SQL Server 2012 Std box – approx. license cost of £5,000. That will mean:

  • Year 1 = £3,750
  • Year 2 = £5,000
  • Year 3 = £6,250

3 year total = £15,000

Migrate to Azure

ESUs are included free of charge for workloads running in Microsoft Azure VMs – including “regular” Azure VMs as well as:

  • Azure Dedicated Host
  • VMware on Azure
  • Nutanix Clusters on Azure
  • Azure Stack HCI/Hub/Edge

You can save a big amount of money through not having to pay for the ESUs…but cloud migrations come with their own set of costs…as well as benefits.

If you’ve not already made a decision on this, please gather the relevant people together and discuss the option. While both the above options can seem expensive, I’d suggest they’re nothing when compared to the cost of a security breach/ransomware attack.

You can see more info in the Microsoft blog post here.

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