MICROSOFT AZURE

 

 

MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES THE PREVIEW OF DIRECT-UPLOAD TO AZURE MANAGED DISKS

Up until now there’s never been a way to bring an on-premises virtual hard disk (VHD) to Azure as a managed disk without coming across issues such as the need for extra storage accounts, or additional costs of running VMs. But last month that all changed with the preview of direct-upload to Azure managed disks which addresses the above issues and provides a simplified workflow by allowing copy of an on-premises VHD directly as a managed disk.

 

NEW CAPABILITY SIMPLIFIES BULK MANAGEMENT FOR USERS AND GROUPS

Last month Microsoft announced the public preview of a capability to help you easily perform bulk management activities on users and groups in the Azure AD administration portal by uploading a CSV file. In addition, you can download a CSV file that lists the users, groups, or members of a group in Azure AD. With this new capability, you can complete ad-hoc tasks without having to write a PowerShell script or use repetitive manual steps.

To try out these preview experiences navigate to a Users, Groups, or Members page in the Azure AD administration portal. Or, for more information on the new capability click here.

 

MICROSOFT AZURE IS HELPING ORGANISATIONS MANAGE REGULATORY CHALLENGES MORE EFFECTIVELY

In October Microsoft released an International Data Corporation (IDC) white paper which studies Azure customers who are using Azure as a platform to meet regulatory compliance needs, with a special focus on government, healthcare, and financial customers. IDC found that these customers are realising significant benefits by leveraging Azure capabilities to make their regulatory and compliance efforts more effective.

Have a read of the IDC white paper for all the key findings.

IDC Business Value Snapshot sponsored by Microsoft. Source: Microsoft

 

AZURE SPHERE TO BE GENERALLY AVAILABLE IN FEBRUARY 2020

Azure Sphere was first introduced to us back in 2018 and promises to be a comprehensive Internet of Things (IoT) security solution including hardware, OS and cloud components. In October we were told the solution will be generally available early next year.

Microsoft’s ‘mission’ with Sphere is to ‘empower every organisation… to connect and create secured and trustworthy IoT devices’. But the question is, how exactly do they plan on doing that? According to their latest announcement their plans are to:

• Streamline prototyping and production with a diverse hardware ecosystem
• Add secured connectivity to existing mission-critical equipment
• Empower developers with the right tools
• Create a secure environment for running an RTOS or bare-metal code
• Deliver customer success

Find out more about how Azure Sphere is giving Azure customers greater opportunities to securely shape the future here.

 

MICROSOFT INTRODUCES 16 NEW BUILT-IN ROLES FOR AZURE AD

That’s right – 16 new built-in roles for Azure AD are now in public preview! The new roles are available globally for all subscriptions and allow you to delegate administration tasks and reduce the number of Global administrators in your directory.

The new roles include:

• Authentication administrator: view, set and reset authentication method information and passwords for any non-admin user
• Azure DevOps administrator: manage Azure DevOps organisation policy and settings
• B2C user flow administrator: create and manage all aspects of user flows
• B2C user flow attribute administrator: create and manage the attribute scheme available to all user flows
• B2C IEF Keyset administrator: manage secrets for federation and encryption in the Identity Experience Framework
• B2C IEF Policy administrator: create and manage trust framework policies in the Identity Experience Framework
• Compliance data administrator: create and manage compliance data and alerts
• External Identity Provider administrator: configure identity providers for use in direct federation
• Global reader: view everything a Global administrator can view without the ability to edit or change
• Kaizala administrator: manage settings for Microsoft Kaizala
• Message centre privacy reader: read message centre posts, data privacy messages, groups, domains and subscriptions
• Password administrator: reset passwords for non-administrators and password administrators
• Privileged authentication administrator: view, set, and reset authentication method information for any user (admin or non-admin)
• Security operator: creates and manages security events
• Search administrator: create and manage all aspects of Microsoft Search settings
• Search editor: create and manage editorial content such as bookmarks, Q&As, locations, floorplan

Get more information on built-in roles in Azure AD or check out the newly added roles in the Azure portal by looking for the roles highlighted with a green flag next to them.

 

VIDEO: THE FUTURE OF DATABASES IN AZURE

Listen to Microsoft’s CTO of Azure, Mark Russinovich, on the history and future of databases in Azure, touching on Azure SQL Databases, Cosmos DB, and even blockchain databases. Have a watch of the video here!

The Future of Databases in Azure. Source: Microsoft

 

 

IN OTHER NEWS:

Leverage Azure premium file shares for high availability of data

Azure API for FHIR moves to general availability

Announcing the general availability of larger, more powerful standard file shares for Azure Files

Azure Data Factory Mapping Data Flows now generally available

Meet Microsoft’s rugged, portable Data Box Edge

Azure Cosmos DB gets built-in Jupyter notebooks support

Microsoft makes Python available on Azure in South Africa

Microsoft Azure AI hackathon’s winning projects

 

 

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