Blog

Microsoft recently announced further expansion of the number of Azure regions (datacenter locations) and ExpressRoute (WAN) points of presence around the world. New Regions In the parlance of Microsoft Azure, a region is a geographic location with one or more data centers that Microsoft uses to run the Azure public cloud. When you deploy something…

In today’s Ask the Admin, I’ll show you how to deploy a Windows Server 2012 R2 Read Only Domain Controller (RODC).

Aidan shows how you can speed up and automate the deployment of Azure RemoteApp, Microsoft’s managed Remote Desktop Services farm in the cloud, using PowerShell. He also shares how you can use PowerShell to publish applications in the app collection and assign users access to those applications.

On this episode, I cover all of the Microsoft news this week including hitting RTM, OneWeek, Billions, Office upgrades and a bit of travel next week.

Because in Paris *personne ne peut vous entendre crier*, this edition of Short Takes focuses on some important questions about Microsoft’s earnings and lack of transparency, the relative success of Surface Hub, Intel vs. Qualcomm, Eric Snowden’s new product offering, and more.

Russell provides a closer look at the recently released Azure Usage and Billing Portal.

Microsoft’s Surface Hub, the device designed for the conference room and can cost as much as $21,999, is a hit and the company is ramping up production to meet demand.

Microsoft recently announced improvements to the storage options in the Azure Site Recovery (ASR) disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) solution in Azure. This post describes support for premium storage, encrypted storage, and support for locally redundant storage (LRS) accounts.

France’s CNIL, which is tasked with protecting personal data and preserving individual liberties, this week accused Microsoft of violating the French Data Protection Act by using Windows 10 to “collect excessive user data without their consent.” Quelle horreur!

Russell demonstrates how to create and attach a new disk to an existing virtual machine in Azure.

Microsoft has announced new service for Office 365 called Bookings that will make it easier for SMB clients to manage the appointment process.

Aidan provides an overview of Microsoft’s cloud-based security solutions: Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA), Microsoft Cloud App Security, Azure Rights Management Services (RMS), Azure Information Protection, Microsoft Online Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), and Azure Security Center (ASC).