Russell Smith

Microsoft today announced Patch Tuesday 2.0, a new servicing cadence designed to “deliver updates faster” by doubling Patch Tuesday into Patch Tuesday and ‘Patch Again Thursday’. Starting April 1, admins can look forward to two scheduled opportunities monthly to refresh change-management plans and rediscover the joys of emergency CAB meetings. “Customers told us once a…

In this episode of Petri Dish, we’re looking at one of the most important shifts happening in enterprise work right now: the rise of AI-powered document creation. Joining me is Jean-Marc Chanoine, Chief Sales Officer at Templafy, a company that’s been at the forefront of integrating AI and automation into the everyday tools knowledge workers…

This Week in IT, Omnissa says enterprise PCs are “unreliable, unpatched, and unloved” with Windows machines crashing 3-times more and updating far slower than Macs. At the same time, Washington is ripping foreign-made routers off the market over spying fears, effectively banning new Wi-Fi equipment from abroad to safeguard networks. And just as hackers weaponize…

Microsoft just officially announced a significant Windows 11 quality manifesto, including taskbar upgrades, smarter Copilot integration, and a promise to fix the update chaos. At the same time, a hacking group hijacked Microsoft Intune and wiped tens of thousands of a company’s devices overnight. Craig Birch, Principal Technologist at Cayosoft joins me to discuss the…

Identity governance has rapidly evolved from a compliance checkbox into a cornerstone of modern Zero Trust security, especially as organizations adopt cloud-first architectures and AI-driven workflows. I recently sat down with Ramiro Calderon, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft; Jef Kazimer, Principal Product Manager on the Microsoft Security Entra Identity Platform; and Tee Earls, Product Area…

In hybrid enterprises, identity changes happen constantly: new accounts, role assignments, Conditional Access updates, and permission shifts across Active Directory, Entra ID, and other Microsoft platforms. Many changes are routine, automated, or distributed across teams, which means they can occur without clear visibility or timely review, especially when organizations rely on free Microsoft identity tools…

What if your Outlook inbox could clean itself up while you focus on bigger projects? Microsoft’s new AI can not only write your emails, it might even reschedule your meetings and finish your slide decks for you. There’s good news for IT admins: recovering from user mistakes just got easier. Microsoft 365 Backup is getting…

Attackers aren’t breaking in—they’re logging in. In this episode, we unpack the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2025 and what it reveals about today’s identity-first threat landscape: infostealers, hybrid ransomware operations, and social engineering that blends into “normal” activity. Joining the conversation are Chloé Messdaghi (strategic advisor on AI governance and cybersecurity at Microsoft) and Etan…

Everyone is talking about AI agents but very few organizations are actually running them in production. Teams are experimenting, launching pilots, and building demos… and then getting stuck. In this episode of Petri Dish, I’m joined by Giovanni Carraro, SVP of Global Strategic Alliances at Kyndryl, to unpack why that gap exists and what it…

Learning how to triage emails in Outlook effectively is becoming a core productivity skill. Inbox volume continues to rise, and traditional tools such as folders, rules, and flags only go so far. Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook introduces AI‑assisted triage that helps you quickly understand what matters, decide what action to take, and move on….

Imagine running Microsoft’s cloud entirely on your own terms. This week, Microsoft’s Azure Local and Microsoft 365 Local go live, letting governments and regulated industries run mission-critical workloads and AI models completely offline. Meanwhile, Excel’s Agent Mode expands to Europe and even works with files stored on your own PC, and Windows 11’s latest preview…

In this episode of Petri Dish, Russell Smith sits down with Wendy Stusrud, Vice President of Worldwide Channel Sales at ‪DDN‬ to talk about what it really takes to make enterprise copilots and chatbots succeed at scale. Wendy shares why she joined DDN as the company doubles down on AI, and how DDN positions itself…