Workshop: Microsoft Azure Expert Technical Training (20-21 December, Brussels, Belgium)

Wrapped up the last (this year:), 2 days technical training on Azure (Dec 20th - 21st), organized by Ingram Micro Belgium. I got excellent group of experienced IT Pros attending this course. Primary focus is on Infrastructure-as-a-Service model, with demos and hands on labs focusing on predefined scenarios in operating, planning, creating and configuring the infrastructure and services.

Day 1 was focused on Azure Fundamentals: Welcome and introduction, Azure Portal, Resource Groups, Storage Accounts, Virtual networks and Network Interfaces (incl PIP, VPN, Gateways and Peering), Network Security Groups, Virtual Machines, VM Extensions, Scale and Availability Sets, Load Balancer, Traffic Manager.

We finished strong with deploying WordPress Multi-tier app and Acronis Backup Blueprints.

Day 2, after the wrap up of Day 1 and discussion, was reserved for more Blueprints - Remote Desktop Services (Small Business Server Replacement) and Barracuda Blueprints.
 
Had quite a few discussion on solution designs, real world problems, and did quite a brainstorming with the group. From technical perspective, they were a great bunch of people. Looking forward on seeing them progress further in the Azure model and mapping their clients needs to specific workloads and solutions.

Well, that was it for this year.

Can't wait what will 2018 bring. I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST!!! :)

Released: December 2017 Quarterly Exchange Updates

Hot "off the press", Exchange (onPrem) Quarterly Updates, December 2017. The release covers Exchange 2016, 2013 and 2010, as currently supported versions of the products.

Feature wise, they introduce Hybrid Model Authentication (HMA) for Exchange 2013/2016, support for .NET 4.7.1 as well as few fixes/updates.

KB articles that describe the fixes in each release are available as follows:

• Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 8 (KB4035145), Download, UM Lang Packs
• Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 19 (KB4037224), Download, UM Lang Packs
• Exchange Server 2010 Update Roll-up 19 (KB4035162), Download

Event: "The future of business is digital" (December 13th, Tirana, Albania)

In the course of continuous technological developments and the so-called industrial revolution, business faces every day more with the demand to optimize operational costs as well as the immediate need for the use of new technology solutions in business service.

Technology is a disruptive force – enabling new business models, opening new sources of revenue and shaping entire industry landscapes. Ensuring security, privacy, and compliance is key to enabling digital transformation. As people bring in devices, apps, and data into organizations today, protecting company data requires a new approach.

As part of this future vision of Ingram Micro and Microsoft, I will be conducting an cloud session, covering Microsoft Azure and Office 365 portfolio with specific business scenarios.

Agenda:
09:00 – 09:30   Registration

09:30 – 09:40   Welcome and introduction
Sokol Vladi, General Manager, Microsoft Albania

09:40 – 10:15   Culture eats digitization for breakfast
Oskar Goschl, Managing Director CEE HQ Digital Advisory Services, Microsoft

10:15 – 10:45   Break

10:45 – 11:45   Microsoft Cloud 101
Dimitar Grozdanov, Sales Engineer/Trainer, Datacenter and Cloud Services (CEE), Ingram Micro
    
11:45 – 12:45   Cyber security in cloud
Marko Kavcic, SAM and Compliance Lead, Microsoft

12:45 – 13:00   Questions and Answers (Q&A session)

Webinar: EasyAzure - Protection & Monitoring

As part of "web based activities" with colleagues from Ingram Micro Croatia, we have scheduled two Microsoft Azure Webinars, focused on EasyAzure Blueprints.

EasyAzure offers free downloadable instructions on how to build single solutions within Azure. The instructions are formatted in Blueprints: Ready-to-use and easy-to-understand product offerings, fine-tuned to be cost effective. they can be combined, as per usage scenario to achieve enterprise grade solution. EasyAzure covers three solution areas - Protection, Management and Expansion, and includes over 25 free downloadable Blueprints. New material is constantly developed, and its available as soon as it gets verified.

The specific webinars are based on Protection and Monitoring Blueprints, both in Croatian language:

- Protection (Backup): December 6th, 10:30-11:30

- Monitoring (OMS): December 11th, 14:00 -15:00

The webinars are invitation based, aimed towards local partners. 

Workshop: Microsoft Azure Expert Technical Training (13-16 November, Warsaw, Poland)

Wrapped up the 3 days training on Azure (Nov 13th - 16th), in organized by Ingram Micro Poland. I got excellent mix of IT Pros and Sales people attending this course, including couple of Ingram Micro colleagues. Primary focus is on Infrastructure-as-a-Service model, with demos and hands on labs focusing on predefined scenarios in operating, planning, creating and configuring the infrastructure and services.

Day 1 was focused on Azure Fundamentals: Welcome and introduction, Azure Portal, Resource Groups, Storage Accounts, Virtual networks and Network Interfaces (incl PIP, VPN, Gateways and Peering), Network Security Groups, Virtual Machines, VM Extensions, Scale and Availability Sets, Load Balancer, Traffic Manager.

We finished strong with deploying WordPress Multi-tier app and Acronis Backup Blueprints.

Day 2 was reserved for more Blueprints - Remote Desktop Services (Small Business Server Replacement) and CheckPoint Blueprints.

Day 3 was focused more on Business Development Managers Track, focused on the business side of partner transformation, driving business transformation and its impact on the partners, pricing model and how to calculate the cost (Azure Pricing Calculator), as well as comparison with other licensing programs.

Event: Thrive conference (November 8th - 9th), Rimske Terme, Slovenia

We just wrapped up Day 1 of the event. It was a busy day, packed with activities and sessions. It all started this morning with the keynote, hosted by Branka Slinkar, backed up with Eoin Bailey, Paolo Pialorsi, and Spencer Harbar. 

It is an combined CxO, IT Pro, Dev and End User event, happening in Rimske Terme (Slovenia). The event gathered pretty large group of speakers (33), from different locations around the world, in front of the local attendees. The tracks are divided by interest, and they vary between: SharePoint PRO and DEV, CxO, BI, Exchange, End User, Cloud, and Development. It is a great place to learn about technologies; connect with people and build your network; share the knowledge and ideas; get answers to your questions; and just enjoy being here.

The first day I did a session titled "Migration to Office 365 - Step by Step", and enjoyed the Q&A and discussion during it.

During the second day, we had a full day ahead. Lots of sessions, from old friends (Adis Jugo, Dubravko Marak), but also from new friends (Aleksandar Draskovic, Brett Londsdale, Pennelope Coventry, Todd Klindt and few more).

I did a follow up session on "Exchange 2016 and Office 365 in a Hybrid World" with a Q&A session on specific business scenarios and samples from the audience.

It was a privilege to be a part of this event. Lots of great speakers, topics, meetups and discussion with the attendees.

 
More info can be obtained at:


https://www.facebook.com/ThriveITConf/
http://www.thriveconf.com/en-us/Pages/thrive.aspx

Event: Macedonian IT Pro User Group Meet up - November 2017

Together with my fellow IT Pro's - Vladimir Meloski, and Gorana Koevska-Jankoska, we held another monthly user group meetup, on November 1st @Microsoft Macedonia offices.

We did an overview of past and upcoming conferences, followed by my session on "Microsoft Azure Updates & Road-map", based on analysis and review of sessions from this years Microsoft Ignite. You can download the PDF from here.

We wrapped up with Vladimir's session on Microsoft 365.

Event: Ingram Micro Days (26-27 October, Cluj-Napoca, Romania)

Just wrapped up my session at Ingram Micro Days, in Cluj-Napoca (Romania). It  was 2 days event, supported from different vendors and our local Ingram Micro teams. First day was focused on sales aspect, where Microsoft Cloud was covered on a high level, by a joint session done by Marius Danescu (Microsoft Romania) and Mihalea Babeanu (Ingram Micro Romania).

The second day was all about technical stuff and demos. I did one hour technical session titled "Azure Fundamentals and implementation scenarios", with demos and interactive chalk talk segment.

Event: Macedonian IT Pro User Group Meet up - November 2017

Its time for our monthly IT Pro User Group meeting.Its scheduled for November 1st @ Microsoft Macedonia Office (starting from 15:00 till 16:00).

You will have a chance to get first hand infro from Microsoft Ignite 2017, what was announced and what we should expect in near future. As well as info on regional events that occur.

The event is co-organized with my colleagues Vladimir and Gorana.

Please refer to the following link for additional information and register for seat allocation: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/517399318618127

Workshop: Microsoft Azure IaaS

It was inspiring and intense 3 days (Oct 16th - 18th) in our Utrecht Office, during our Microsoft Azure European Team meeting and workshop. Both of our sales and technical team members, in one room, discussing, brainstorming, and sharing experience and knowledge on Microsoft Azure IaaS.

I did a Microsoft Azure Security session, covering the Security, Trust, Privacy and Data Protection models within Azure, with discussion on customer/partner concerns that they might face.

Looking forward for our next workshop ....

Event: Ingram Micro Days (28-29 September, Iassi, Romania)

Just wrapped up my session at Ingram Micro Days, in Iasi (Romania). It  was 2 days event, supported from different vendors and our local teams. First day was focused on sales aspect, where Microsoft Cloud was covered on a high level, by a joint session done by Marius Danescu (Microsoft Romania) and Mihalea Babeanu (Ingram Micro Romania).

The second day was all about technical stuff and demos. I did an hour technical session titled "Azure Fundamentals and implementation scenarios", with demos and interactive chalk talk segment.

Looking forward for the next event, in Cluz (Romania).

Event: Microsoft Ignite 2017

Today is the official start of the annual Microsoft Ignite conference, held this week in Orlando, Florida.

Tune in to https://ignite.microsoft.com, to get info on the sessions, access to online events and of course, Satya Nadella's Keynote session (Starting @ 15:00 CET).

Event: Macedonian IT Pro User Group Meet up - September 2017

On 13.09.2017, we held the September Macedonian IT Pro User Group meeting where our colleagues and enthusiast from IT world got together, shared thoughts and ideas on Microsoft technologies. The turnout was 20+ people, which means we have chosen the right topics for the event.

The first half of the meeting was dedicated to some of the past and future conferences in the region and world-wide, wich was presented by Gorana Konevska, and Vladimir Meloski.

In the second part of the event, I did an overview of Microsoft Azure core services, such as

Resource Groups, Storage and Network, Virtual Machines, connectivity and security aspect, while providing real life examples and tips&trick while implementing cloud technologies within the organization.

We had a great discussion and chalk talk session fora little bit more than 2 hours. Looking forward for our next meeting in October. :)

Event: Macedonian IT Pro User Group Meet up (Announcement)

As part of our monthly Community Events, on September 13th, I will conduct an Azure session titled "Scenarios for implementation of Microsoft azure within Your organization". The session will cover the fundamentals of Azure, steering towards few scenarios of how you can integrate your infrastructure with the cloud, or even completely migrate to it.

Event info: Macedonian IT Pro Meet up
Date: September 13th, 2017
Location: Microsoft Macedonia office

Workshop: Microsoft Azure Expert Technical Training (3 days)

Wrapped up the 3 days training on Azure (Sept 5th - Sept 7th), in Microsoft Croatia office, organised by Ingram Micro Croatia. I got excellent mix of IT Pros and Sales people attending this course. Primary focus is on Infrastructure-as-a-Service model, with demos and hands on labs focusing on predefined scenarios in operating, planning, creating and configuring the infrastructure and services.

 Day 1 was focused on Azure Fundamentals: Welcome and introduction, Azure Portal, Resource Groups, Storage Accounts, Virtual networks and Network Interfaces (incl PIP, VPN, Gateways and Peering)), Network Security Groups, Virtual Machines, VM Extensions, Scale and Availability Sets, Load Balancer, Traffic Manager.

We finished strong with deploying WordPress Multi-tier app and Acronis Backup Blueprints.

Day 2 was reserved for more Blueprints - Remote Desktop Services(Small Business Server Replacement) and CheckPoint Blueprints.

Day 3 was focused more on Business Development Managers Track, focused on the business side of partner transformation, driving business transformation and its impact on the partners, pricing model and how to calculate the cost (Azure Pricing Calculator), as well as comparison with other licensing programs.

Workshop: Microsoft Azure Expert Technical Training (Day 1)

Wrapped up Day 1 of the three days training on Azure, in Microsoft Croatia Office, organised by Ingram Micro Croatia. I got excellent mix of IT pros and Sales people attending this course. Primary focus is on IaaS model, with demos and hands on labs focusing on predefined scenarios in operating, planning, creating and configuring the infrastructure and services.

Today's Agenda was focused on Azure Fundamentals: Welcome and introduction, Azure Portal, Resource Groups, Storage Accounts, Virtual networks and Network Interfaces (incl PIP, VPN, Gateways and Peering)), Network Security Groups, Virtual Machines, VM Extensions, Scale and Availability Sets, Load Balancer, Traffic Manager.

We finished strong with deploying WordPress Multi-tier app and Acronis Backup Blueprints.

Day 2 is reserved for more Blueprints - RDS (SBS Replacement) and CheckPoint Blueprints.

Workshop: Overview of Microsoft Azure

On Monday, August 28th, in cooperation with Microsoft Albania, I had a chance to do an Microsoft Azure Workshop for IT Pros (SI, VAR, local resellers) - overview of the platform and services with demos of major IaaS components.

Slide deck can be viewed on the following link

Olddie, but still valid - Microsoft FREE book giveaway

Once again, its that time of the year.  Microsoft isgiving away a bunch of free eBooks, reference guides, Step-By-Step Guides, and other informational resources to our customers and partners around the world.

Complete list can be found here.

Webinar: Office 365, 365 days of sucess

If you missed the webinar "Office 365 - 365 days of success", the on-demand recording is available now.

On-Demand URL: Office 365 - 365 days of success

Thank's to the people that attended, as well as the people that will watv the recording.

Awaiting comments, and/or suggestions.

Office 365 webinar

In cooperation with Microsoft Albania, on June 28th (Wednesday), starting from 10 o'clock, I will be conducting an webinar on Office 365 titled: "Office 365 - 365 days of success".

This webinar is about what Office 365 is, how it is structured and how it provides a highly scalable, highly available, cloud platform and how it supports daily business and technology operations. You will also learn about different scenarios of migration and/or coexistence with your customers infrastructure.

It's aimed towards BDM's, TDM's, system integrator's and implementators.

Title: Office 365 - 365 days of success

Date/Time: Wednesday, June 28th, 10:00-11:00

Presentation language: English

Registration URL: https://info.microsoft.com/CE-NoGEP-WBNR-FY17-05May-31-Office365325643_02OnDemandRegistration.html

Build the business of the future event

On May 30th, in cooperation with Microsoft Albania, BNT Electronics, Fujitsu and Ingram Micro, we held and event titled Build the business of the future. During the day, our 70+ attendees had a chance to hear and discuss on ways how to implement cloud technologies in a hybrid scenario thus enabling new ways of conducting business and optimizing business and technology processes. 

I had two sessions on the event, Microsoft Azure – secure, extend and scale your business and Office 365 – new way to do business and collaborate (focused on Microsoft Teams).

Cloud Marketplace launch event

On May 24th, we did a Cloud Marketplace launch event, aimed towards potential cloud resellers. On the half-day event, more than 20 people attended, where they had chance to hear about the capabilities of Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace portal with specific focus on Microsoft Azure and Office 365. The event was done in Microsoft Croatia offices, as part of their continuous support to CSP Partners.

I had a session on partner business transformation, aiming their way on how to restructure, expand their services portfolio, and revise their cost/profitability model. An specific emphasis was done on Microsoft Azure and potential ways on how to develop their business and target SMB and mid-size companies with different packaged services.

The session material can be found on the following link.

Microsoft on Trust, Privacy and the GDPR

As we see increased focus in every indistry on data privacy and data protection, and in light of the recent talks and commitment from all major cloud vendors on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Microsoft (as usual) si stteping up and this webcast will provide additional information on this topic.

the focus will be on Microsoft's commitment and approach to privacy in the digital world, as well as whta will GDPR mean for its cloud services.

Event date/time: May 24th, 15:00 (GMT+1)

Speakers:
Brad Smith

Microsoft President & Chief Legal Officer

Brendon Lynch

Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer

Registration link: https://info.microsoft.com/TrustPrivacyandGDPR-Registration.html

Guidance for WannaCrypt attacks

Users who are running supported versions of the operating system (Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016) will have received the security update MS17-010 in March. If customers have automatic updates enabled or have installed the update, then you are safe. 

If you have an out-of-date system, please follow the guidance on the follwing link to harden your system - How to enable and disable SMBv1, SMBv2, and SMBv3 in Windows and Windows Server.

Introducing the Azure app public preview

Well, if you ask me it was about time for this app. For all those Azure admins out there, there is a new app (currently in Preview) for managing you Azure resources and subscriptions.

The Azure App will enable you to check status and critical metrics of your Azure resources, get notifications and alerts about important health issues, perform simple operations to resolve common issues and run Azure Cloud Shell scripts in the app (coming soon).

Multiple subscriptions

The app will enable you to consolidate and aggregate all Azure subscriptions you currently manage.  Each resource includes the following information (if applicable):

• Status
• Number of errors in the past week with a link to the full activity log
• Important properties (Essentials)
• Key usage metrics
• Related resources
• All resource properties

In case you manage more than one subscription, and it gets cluttered, there is also an option to put them in Favorites

Personalized notifications and alerts

By opening the Notification hub, you will be always up to date with the current status of the resources within your subscription. The health alerts include:

• Status
• Link to the impacted subscription
• Latest communication details
• Tracking ID unique to the event
• List of impacted locations
• List of impacted services
• Brief history of the status over the past week

In addition to this, you will always have available the custom resource alert rules in the list. Each metric alert includes:

• Status (activated or resolved)
• Link to the related resource
• Description of the alert rule, if specified
• Brief history of the status over the last week
  

Quickly resolve common issues

You will be able to get help in resolving common issues, directly from the Azure app itself:

• Suspend and resume Analysis Services servers
• Open the API Management portal in the browser
• Start, stop, and restart App Service web apps and deployment slots
• Start and stop App Service environments
• Restart all App Service web apps in a plan or environment
• Open App Service web apps and deployment slots in the browser
• Start and stop Content Delivery Network endpoints
• Start, stop, and swap cloud service slots
• Open the HDInsight portal in the browser
• Open Log Analytics workspaces in the Operations Management Suite app
• Enable and disable Logic App workflows
• Enable and disable Scheduler job collections
• Start and stop Stream Analytics jobs
• Start, stop, and restart virtual machines
• Connect to Windows virtual machines using the RDP app
• Start, stop, and restart virtual machine scale set instances
• Open Visual Studio Team Services accounts in the browser

Last, but not least of the functionalities which will come soon will be the ability to run Azure CLI or PowerShell commands trough the Azure Cloud Shell workspace. By starting a session from the portal it enables you to continue your work later. The Cloud Shell will preserve your code, configuration, and activity in your $Home directory across sessions and across devices.

Currently, the app is available for Apple and Android devices, with Windows Store app coming soon.

Manage Office 365 Videos

The more advanced features of Office 365 admin center is used to send/recieve mail, use calendar and manage contacts, manage documents (intranet portal and/or personal storage), as well as maintain your subscription (billing, services etc). Trough the videos, you will learn how to get to the Office 365 admin center and learn about available features and settings.

1. Get email, calendar, contacts (5 videos)

2. Manage documents (3 videos)

3. Chats and meetings (3 videos)

4. Billing and subscriptions (3 videos)

Office 365 Admin Videos

The Office 365 admin center is used to set up your organization in the cloud, manage users, manage subscriptions, and much more. Trough the videos, you will learn how to get to the Office 365 admin center and learn about available features and settings.

For all you othere, trying to get arrount Office 365 Administrative taks, here is a  set of usefull videos to give you basic heading:

1. Admin Center Overview (5 videos)
2. Setup an Domain (3 videos)
3. Manage people (3 videos)
4. Get Software (3 videos)

WannaCrypt ransomware worm

Yesterday (May 11th), it has been a serious number of countries with clients affected by the WannaCrypt ransomware.

Few months ago Microsoft issues a Security Bullentin on how to disable SMB1 - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms17-010.aspx, and this attack is speciffically aimed towards old and unpatches systems like Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (or earlier OS) systems, so Windows 10 PCs are not affected by this attack. It goes wven further and majority of affected systems are Windows XP and.or Windows 2003.

There for, Microsoft issued guiadence as wel las  set of patches for all affected systems.

More information regarding the WannaCrypt, can be found on the follwing page - https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mmpc/2017/05/12/wannacrypt-ransomware-worm-targets-out-of-date-systems/.

Download English language security updates: Windows Server 2003 SP2 x64, Windows Server 2003 SP2 x86, Windows XP SP2 x64, Windows XP SP3 x86, Windows XP Embedded SP3 x86, Windows 8 x86, Windows 8 x64

Microsoft BUILD 2017

In Seattle, from May 10th - 12th, Microsoft is hostin the annual BUILD conference. The conference is primarily aimed towards developers, covering various aspect of Microsoft cloud platform (Office 365, Azure) and tools for it.

You can wath the live streams and/or recordings on Channel 9 following link: http://soc.fm/RiXn1gik as well as follw what's going on on Twitter via hastag #MSBuild.

The wrap up of Day 1 can be seen on the following link.

Windows Defender keeps turining on/off (Windows 10)

After removal of a 3rd party antivirus, the built-in Windows Defender anti-virus program just kept turning on and off. After trying several registry cleaners and reboots (to remove leftovers of the previous anti-virus program), the situation still was the same.

The proper way to fix this is:

1. Press Windows key + R. This will open Run.
2. In Run dialog box, type 'regedit' and hit enter. This will open Registry Editor.
3. In Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender.
4. If you see a registry entry named DisableAntiSpyware, then change its value to 0. If you don't find this registry key then add this it. To do that, right click on Windows Defender key and go to New > DWORD. Give this DWORD name 'DisableAntiSpyware' and value 0. Registry will then look like this:
   

After few seconds, the Windows Defender service will start and remain active.

C+E University: Azure Sales Webinars

If you are interested, there is undergoing series of sales webinars on Azure, organized
by Cloud and Enterprise Partner University.

They cover different topics, from Hybrid cloud management, Open Source on Azure, Business continuity, SAP Deployment, Client discussions, Datacenter modernization, Enhanced development and testing, Sales scenarios, Value propositions and success stories.

You can either watch the sessions that were already held, or you can register to the upcoming ones.

Bulk registration address: https://infopedia.eventbuilder.com/index?landingpageid=7M76lV