Workshop: Microsoft Azure Expert Training (March 14-15, Stockholm, Sweden)

 Another session on Microsoft Azure, this time for our Swedish partners. It was a 2 day training at Ingram Micro Sweden offices, with nice cozy weather conditions (it was -10, but feels like was close to -15:). The group was compiled of experienced IT Pros. Primary focus of the training is on Infrastructure-as-a-Service model, with demos and hands on labs focusing on predefined scenarios in operating, planning, creating and configuring the IaaS environment.

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 CheckPoint Blueprints. We spiced up things with short presentation on what's new in Microsoft azure or what's coming in near future, as well as Azure Calculator session.


Had quite a few discussion on solution designs, real world problems, and did quite a brainstorming with the group. Looking forward on seeing them progress further in the Azure model and mapping their clients needs to specific workloads and solutions.

Webinars: EasyAzure Blueprints - EasyData

On February 19th, starting at 10:00 (GMT+1), I will be running the 4th in series webinars on Microsoft Azure.

This week, we are going to talk and see demo of Azure Files, a part of the Expansion set of Solution Blueprints. The session is based on EasyData Cloud Folder scenario.

Please use the following link to register for the session:EasyAzure Expansion - Cloud Folder. Session connection link will be set to you afterwards. The link to the presentation and recording will be posted after the event.

More details on the program can be obtained @ http://www.ingrammicrocloud.eu, choose your country location and browse the local content.

For countries not in the list (like Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo use the following link). An simple registration form is being filled prior to download of the files.

Webinars: EasyAzure Blueprints - EasyDR

On February 14th, starting at 10:00 (GMT+1), I will be running the 3rd in series webinars on Microsoft Azure.

This week, we are going to talk and see demo of Azure Site Recovery, a part of the Protection set of Solution Blueprints. The session is based on EasyDR Blueprints (Physical, Hyper-V and VMware).

Please use the following link to connect to the session: EasyAzure Disaster Recovery - Site Recovery

The recording from the session will be posted afterwards.

More details on the program can be obtained @ http://www.ingrammicrocloud.eu, choose your country location and browse the local content.

For countries not in the list (like Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo use the following link). An simple registration form is being filled prior to download of the files.

Event: Macedonian IT Pro User Group Meet up - February 2018

Its time for our monthly IT Pro User Group meeting. Its scheduled for February 8th @ Ingram Micro Macedonia Office (starting from 17:30 till 19:30).

Our guest star is  George Dobrea, eminent Cyber Security Expert and Microsoft MVP -  Cloud Security. We are going to do an overview of Cyber Security related trends, backed up by an AMA session (Ask-me-Anything).


The event is co-organized with my colleague MVP's, Vladimir and Gorana.
See you there!

Webinars: EasyAzure Blueprints

Starting this month, I will be doing series of webinars for CEE, aimed at Ingram Micro partners/re-sellers. The topics covered witl be EasyAzure, which is a set of Blueprints aimed at easy  deployment of Azure IaaS solutions.

They represent a set of easy-to-use, easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions in 3 solution areas:

1. Protection
2. Management
3. Expansion

More details on the program can be obtained @ http://www.ingrammicrocloud.eu, choose your country location and browse the local content. For countries not in the list (especially those in the Balkan area), choose Croatia (in English), and than browse and download the content. A simple registration form is being filled prior to download.


The timeline is, every Monday, from 10:00 - 11:00 (GMT+1), covering following topics:

- January 29th: EasyAzure Protection - Backup;
- February 5th: EasyAzure Management  - Audit
- February 14th: EasyAzure Disaster Recovery -Site Recovery Options
- February 19th: EasyAzure Expansion - Cloud Folder

Links to recordings and presentations will be posted  as well.

Event: Macedonian IT Pro User Group Meet up - January 2018

Its time for our monthly IT Pro User Group meeting.Its scheduled for January 24th @ Microsoft Macedonia Office (starting from 15:00 till 16:30).

The topic covered will be Mobile Device Management (MDM) и Microsoft Intune, covered by Biljana Janeva.

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/1964401453574309.

Bulletin: CPU vulnerability

An industry-wide, hardware-based security vulnerability was disclosed yesterday.The problem affect many processor types, covering Xeon, AMD and ARM variants.

So far, there are three known variants of the issue:

• Variant 1: bounds check bypass (CVE-2017-5753)
• Variant 2: branch target injection (CVE-2017-5715)
• Variant 3: rogue data cache load (CVE-2017-5754)

Besides physical/private cloud systems, this issue affects public cloud providers, and as such they have taken appropriate steps for risk mitigation.Refer to the enclosed links for additional information.


Project Zero: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.mk/2018/01/reading-privileged-memory-with-side.html

Microsoft Security Tech Center: https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/ADV180002

Microsoft Azure: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/securing-azure-customers-from-cpu-vulnerability/
 

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.