Azure Architecture Center

Azure Architecture Center is your one stop resource providing guidance for architecting solutions on Azure using established patterns and practices. You have architectures and guides available for various Technology areas like AI & Machine learning, DevOps, IoT, Microservices etc.

Access here: Azure Architecture Center

Microsoft Virtual Training Days

Another great Learning initiative from Microsoft, Microsoft Virtual Training Days are an online, free, in-depth, and efficient training events that guide you toward the many possibilities for career and organizational impact today and tomorrow. Discover your potential and maximize your time with accelerated event offerings covering a range of technical topics for Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform.

Register today: Microsoft Virtual Training Days

Microsoft 365 Solution and Architecture Center

If your Organization is planning to adopt Microsoft 365, you have various essential guidance available from Microsoft to assist you in this Journey, and this blog post introduces you to the Microsoft 365 Solution and Architecture center which brings together the technical guidance you need to understand, plan, and implement integrated Microsoft 365 solutions for secure and compliant modern collaboration.

Access the guidance here: Microsoft 365 solution and architecture center

Understanding Microsoft 365 Licensing at Ease

Microsoft 365 adoption is now on the rise, having strong understanding of Licensing Microsoft 365 is essential and you have official Microsoft documentation and licensing Guidance already made available, and to add to this Aaron Dinnage MSFT has created Licensing diagrams that easily explains Microsoft 365 Licensing visually.

Access the  Microsoft 365 Licensing diagrams here: Microsoft 365 licensing diagrams

Official Licensing guidance: Microsoft 365 Licensing

Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architecture

Cybersecurity plays a vital role in today's IT world, and during this current Pandemic Covid-19 situation, where people are working remotely having a strong security Infrastructure is essential. This post is written to guide you to the Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architecture which explains how different Microsoft Security product line and their essential features effectively creates a strong Security Framework.

Access the Reference Architecture here: Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architecture

Read related blog post here: Cybersecurity Reference Architecture: Security for a Hybrid Enterprise

Also watch the below Microsoft Ignite session on this topic below to know more with live demos.

Access here: Microsoft Cybersecurity reference architecture: A-Z explained with live demos

Microsoft Ignite 2019: Exchange hybrid Session

Exchange Hybrid deployment is the most preferred deployment model for most of the Enterprise Organizations to migrate to Exchange Online. Exchange Hybrid deployment has gone through various updates in the last few years and I was reviewing the Microsoft Ignite 2019 session on Exchange Hybrid and thought of penning this whereto post to point you to this session if you have not viewed already to understand the best practices for using the hybrid configuration, roadmap for continued guidance and support from Microsoft for hybrid configurations and more.

Access here: Exchange hybrid: Advanced scenarios, roadmap, and real-world stories!

Access the below blog post from Michel de Rooij MVP to get the comprehensive list of Exchange & Related sessions from Microsoft Ignite 2019 that you can view to understand more on the latest enhancements.

View here: Ignite 2019: Exchange & Related Sessions

Office 365 becomes Microsoft 365

Microsoft is all set to rename the Office 365 Product line to Microsoft 365 effective tomorrow April 21, 2020. 

Microsoft Quotes this is a change to the product name only, and there are no pricing or feature changes at this time.

Recently new Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions were announced and along with this Microsoft team announced this name change and written the below blog post with complete details on what products the name change is effective and which products will continue with the Office 365 branding.

New Microsoft 365 offerings for small and medium-sized businesses

You can follow @Microsoft365 for latest updates.

PowerShell 7.0 GA

PowerShell 7.0 went for General Availability last Month.

Access here to know more: Announcing PowerShell 7.0

Also read the below blog post from Thomas Maurer MSFT to know what's new in PowerShell 7.0 

WHAT’S NEW IN POWERSHELL 7 – CHECK IT OUT!

Stay tuned for more updates...

Enabling Remote Work with Microsoft

Due to the current "Covid - 19" Crisis, Organizations has put forth plans to secure employees and providing them required support. As technology plays a vital role in today's world, Organizations are also required to continue to provide required services to their Customers and Clients and for which they are working towards building a strong remote working strategy and getting it implemented.

This blog post is a whereto post to provide you with some latest resources provided by Microsoft to support this Remote working strategy for Organizations.

Below is the new e-Book published by Microsoft on Enabling Remote work, This document provides initial guidance for enabling a remote workforce to have secure access to the organizational information, tools, and resources they need. 

Download the e-book here: Enabling Remote Work

Next is the new Webcast Series presented by Microsoft on Enabling remote work with Microsoft 365

Access here for the Webcast series: Enabling remote work with Microsoft 365

Join the "Enabling Remote Work" Space on Microsoft Tech  Community to access the latest content, discussions and share your experience.

Microsoft Ignite 2019 - Book of News

Microsoft Ignite 2019 is on, This year we have lot of exciting announcements from Microsoft on their wide range of technologies, to get to know all these announcements Microsoft team has published the Book of News.

Download the Book of News here: Microsoft Ignite - Book of News

You can access the Live Streaming and On demand sessions here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ignite

If you are unable to attend this event in person, you have another opportunity to attend the Ignite Tour starting early 2020.

Access here to know more and Register to the event in a city near you: Microsoft Ignite the Tour 

Microsoft 365 Adoption Planning Workbook and Adoption Guide

If your Organization is in the progress of adopting Microsoft 365, download the Adoption planning workbook and Adoption guide with best practices for essential planning and successful adoption of Microsoft 365 services.

Download the Planning work book here: Microsoft 365 Adoption Planning Workbook

Download the Adoption guide here: Microsoft 365 Adoption Guide

Practical Microsoft Azure IaaS E-book

Microsoft team announced a new hands-on guide that has a focused and practical approach to IaaS Migration and helps you in migrating your On-premises legacy systems to Azure IaaS.

Access here to download the E-book: Practical Microsoft Azure IaaS

Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist Certification

Microsoft team recently announced a new Online course and certification "Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist" in partnership with EdX.org. This course is focuses on six knowledge areas required to successfully drive the adoption of Microsoft services in your company.

Mainly this course uses Microsoft Teams as an example throughout the material and provides you the required knowledge to drive a successful adoption of Microsoft Teams in your Organization.

What you'll learn

• Drive adoption of Office 365 and Microsoft Teams for your organization as example workloads in a cloud service adoption strategy.
• Write a collaboration and communications service strategy.
• Utilize the Outcomes Matrix to quantify and select success measures.
• Structure early adopter and champion programs.
• Work with technical talent to ensure service readiness and quality.
• Configure scalable user feedback methods.

Access the Course here: Microsoft Service Adoption Specialist

Official Announcement post: Microsoft Releases the Service Adoption Specialist Course

Join the Office 365 Champions Program today and be part of the community and share your  knowledge and stay updated.

Microsoft Learning: Microsoft Teams Training modules for IT Pros

Microsoft Teams product group recently released additional readiness material for IT Pros to learn Microsoft teams, Conduct training and deliver workshops.

Access the training content here: Admin training for Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Tech Community blog reference here: Microsoft Teams Training modules for IT Pros

Additionally you have a EdX.org course that helps you to enable Microsoft Teams on your Office 365 environment.

Access here: Enabling Teamwork with Microsoft Teams

Next Steps:

Get yourself prepared for the new Microsoft Certification "Microsoft 365 Certified: Teamwork Administrator Associate" announced covering Microsoft Teams aligning with their new role based Certification path.

Access here to know more: Microsoft 365 Certified: Teamwork Administrator Associate

Update:

Microsoft 365 Certified: Teamwork Administrator Associate is being retired by August 31, 2020. and you have a new MS-700: Managing Microsoft Teams Administrator Associate Certification 

Know more here: Microsoft 365 certification and exam updates

SPS : Understanding Microsoft Teams Security & Compliance features and plan for Governance

As more Organizations are transforming towards Modern Workplace, Enabling users for Modern collaboration becomes essential and Microsoft Teams plays a key role in providing this platform with rich experience across the Organization.

Once an Organization is ready to adopt Microsoft Teams it needs focus on some key elements that make the adoption successful.

I recently delivered a session on SharePoint Saturday event in Chennai, India.  This session provides an Overview of Microsoft Teams and Primarily focus on the Security and Compliance features available with Microsoft Teams, and also show how you can plan for Governance in Teams.

Access the Session slides here: Understanding Microsoft Teams Security & Compliance features and plan for Governance