Category Archives: Allgemein

Allgemein, Azure, Azure Arc, Azure Automanage, Azure Network, Azure Security, Azure VM, Cloud, Microsoft

My favorite Microsoft Ignite 2022 Fall Highlights

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After the pandemic beguns Microsoft switched the both big conference Microsoft Build and Microsoft Ignite to virtual only events. The Ignite was two times a year in 2020 and 2021. For 2022 it was long time not clear will it go back to an in-person event or still stay as a virtual event.

The Microsoft Ignite 2022 has start 2 hours ago as an hybrid event delivered from Seattle with 6 Spotlight events around the globe and delivered as before virtually. I’m a little disappointed because a lot of the content is pre-recorded and even great speakers like Donovan Brown don’t hold their sessions live in Seattle but are only shown there virtually as well.

In this article I will share the important announcements from my perspective from the Microsoft Ignite 2022. Most of you know me as an Azure Governance, (Hybrid) Infrastructure and Security guy, so please forgive me for focusing on these things.

Continue reading My favorite Microsoft Ignite 2022 Fall Highlights →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Security, Cloud, Microsoft

Azure Firewall Basic is available as Public preview

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Microsoft announces with the Azure Firewall Standard and Premium two new Firewall Services available as PaaS solution what are a great benefit to classic Firewall deployments, because of native Autoscaling Features, no need for VM Management and more. Unfortunately the price was to high for SMBs, with 900€ for the Standard and over 1200€ for the Premium Edition. A frequently requested Features, was a cheaper variant aimed at small and medium businesses.

This wish has been answered and is now available in the form of the Azure Firewall Basic edition. The Azure Firewall Basic (AzFw Basic) is available as public preview and the planned subscription must first be prepared before the deployment can begin with some Powershell commands. This article will guide you through the setup process for a Hub and Spoke Network and the main difference between the three Azure Firewall editions.

Azure Firewall edition comparison

Microsoft already introduced the Azure Firewall as Standard Edition in 2018 and expanded it with numerous updates in 2019. The Firewall Manager followed at the end of 2019 to manage various Azure firewalls under one roof. Mid of 2021 Microsoft announced the Azure Firewall Premium edition and extend the capabilities compared to the standard edition by the following features: TLS Inspetion, IDPS, Web categories and URL Filerting.

The acceptance of the firewall has been high so far due to the numerous features and the fact that the firewall is provided as a PaaS solution. As an SMB solution, the prices called are too high and that is where the Basic Edition is now trying to attract attention.

The following table list the difference between the edition. Please note the Maximum throughput between the different edition. Azure Basic Firewall is limited at time of article of 2 VMs under the hood and a maximum troughput of 250 (maybe increase to GA).

Continue reading Azure Firewall Basic is available as Public preview →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Azure Security, Cloud, Microsoft

Microsoft will disable Legacy Authentication 1st of October 2022 – What this means and what you have to do

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Many of my customers move to the cloud in the last recent years. This means for existing environments a start of a journey away from on-prem system going forward to cloud environments. We all know a journey starts with preperation and needs different steps and is always not a good idea to work on all systems together. But on the other hand, same system still exists in there old way and use sometimes old, unsecure protocols for communication and authentication.

To adress this issues Microsoft announce Septemper 2019 in a blog article “Improving security” the disabling of support for Basic authentication for the protocols like EWS, POP, IMAP and Remote Powershell. After the plan the corona crisis came up and Microsote decided to postpone the disabling of the noted protocols.

In September 2021 Microsoft released new information about this in the article “Basic authentication and Exchange Online” including some updated information. Microsoft will disable basic authentication beginning 1st of October 2022 for all protocols except SMTP auth. This means the following protocols will be disabled:

  • Exchange Web Services (EWS)
  • Exchange ActiveSync (EAS)
  • POP
  • IMAP,
  • Remote PowerShell
  • MAPI
  • RPC
  • OAB
Continue reading Microsoft will disable Legacy Authentication 1st of October 2022 – What this means and what you have to do →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Azure Arc, Azure Governance, Azure Security, Azure Sentinel, Azure Virtual Desktop, Cloud, Community, Events, Microsoft

Speaking at Experts Live Netherlands 2022

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The full event month of September is slowly coming to an end and what better way to end it than with a great Azure conference? I´m really happy to announce that I will speak at the Experts Live Netherlands. The Experts Live Netherlands is one of the biggest Experts Live conferences next to Experts Live Europe and celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Continue reading Speaking at Experts Live Netherlands 2022 →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Azure Security, Cloud, Community, Events, Microsoft

Cloud Identity Summit 2022 Recap

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After 8 Months of planning the Cloud Identity Summit 2022 is over and I can say it was really a pleasure to help to organize this great Community event from my perspective. Four years ago Thomas Naunheim come up with the Idea to create a event focus on Identity for the Community. We discuss this in our Azure Bonn Orga Team and finally the Cloud Identity Summit was born. At the end of 2019 we plan the first edition for 2020 as a in-person event, but things changed and we changed the format to an virtual event and this also for 2021.

Back in february we start planning for the 3rd edition 2022 and we decided to go back to our original idea to hold it as a in-person event, but with the experience of two virtual events we move it to an hybrid event. Yesterday was our 1st Cloud Identity Summit 2022 as hybrid edition and I can say, I was really exited about it. Why?

CIS 2022 – Conference view
Continue reading Cloud Identity Summit 2022 Recap →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure VM, Cloud, Microsoft, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022

Microsoft announced Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage in preview – for me a big announcement this year

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In the past, it was quite quiet about new features and announcements in the Azure IaaS space. Yes, sometimes there were new VM sizes with more cores or more RAM, but in general there were no surprising announcements last year. From my point of view, this has changed with MS Inspire, which is currently underway.

Microsoft announced, surprising from my point of view, a new Disk SKU for Azure VMs called Premium SSD v2 Disk. The last announcement in this area was 2019 with the introduction of Ultra Disks.

Continue reading Microsoft announced Azure Premium SSD v2 Disk Storage in preview – for me a big announcement this year →
Allgemein, Azure, Azure Network, Azure Security, Azure Sentinel, Certifications, Cloud, Microsoft

How I passed the Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect exam SC-100 and why I am now a Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert

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Three months ago on 7th of April Microsoft announce a new exam for security architects and introduce again the existing exams SC-200, SC-300, AZ-500 and MS-500. The article contains the new announcement of the new exam SC-100 to become Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect.

I took the Microsoft Cybersecurity Beta exam #SC100 and got yesterday the confirmation that I passed the exam. This is great news for me as it confirms that I am gaining a better and better knowledge in Azure Security topics.

In this article I will introduce the exam, how to get the Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert award and which materials I used to prepare for the exam.

Continue reading How I passed the Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect exam SC-100 and why I am now a Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert →
Allgemein, Community, Microsoft, MVP

Microsoft MVP for Azure 2022-2023

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Every year on July 1, the MVP renewal process takes place and Microsoft notifies us on that day if we will be awarded another year as an MVP based on our contributions. So most of the MVPs look into their inboxes and wait for the mail notification. Some colleagues call the day the F5 day, because second by second the inbox is updated 🙂

This year there were some technical difficulties and so late on July 1 there was an announcement that the MVP announcement would be delayed until July 5. A murmur went through the internet. 🙂

But late Tuesday I got to rejoice again, because that’s when the mail came and I was once again recognized as a Microsoft MPV in the Azure category for 2022-2023. It’s a great award, and I’m very pleased to have received this special award for the fourth year in a row.

Continue reading Microsoft MVP for Azure 2022-2023 →
Allgemein

MY UPCOMING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS IN 2022

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It’s been pretty quiet here on the blog the last few months and I’m sorry for that. I am in some big customer projects and am in full planning of some community events, like Global Azure at Azure Bonn and the Cloud Identity Summit, this was the reason of the silence in this blog. But I vow to mend my ways and will soon publish some blog articles again, which I am already working on. Today we start first with light fare and my upcoming community events. I hope to see you at one of the many events and get in touch with you.

Before I list the events where I will deliver a session I will shortly inform you, that I created a page where all upcoming Azure and Microsoft 365 community conferences are listed. Take a look there to find all events, that I’m aware of and please feel free to give me a hint, when I forget one.

Global Azure Cologne – 07/05/2022

VCNRW – Enforce Security & Compliance with Azure Policy – 25/05/2022

I’m really looking forward to the first meeting of the Virtualization Community NRW (VCNRW). The VCNRW team took a break for a few months and decided to return in May with face-to-face meetings. They approached me and asked for an Azure session and I gladly agreed. I’ve have the pleasure to hold a session about Enforce Cloud Security and Compliance with Azure Policy.

Experts Live Austria – Azure Automanage – 29/06/2022

The Experts Live is a great community that grows over the last couple of years. Is founded by a team as System Center Universe and changed the name to Experts Live some years ago. There are several Experts Live events in Europe and the Austria team is one of the first with a a in-person conference. I am pleased to announce to get an invite and will held a sesseion about Azure Automanage – Your VM service provider live at the conference in Austria.

Cloud Land – Azure Policy – 29/06/ – 01/07/22

The next before we going into the Summertime is the Cloud Land Conference Germany that will be placed in the Phantasia Land Brühl near Cologne. This is a larger event that goes over several days. I’m really happy to get a slot on this conference on Saturday with a session about Azure Policy.

AVD Tech Fest 2022 – 01/09/2022

The AVD TechFest was originally planned for March 2022 and was postponed to Septemper. I really looking forward to this Conference with a strong focus on Azure Virtual Desktop and other sessions related to Virtual Desktops. For this conference I created a special session about “Mastering AVD profiles with Azure (NetApp) Files” where I go into the different store services to store Windows User profiles in a efficient and secure way.

Experts Live Germany – 08/09/2022

The Experts Live is a conference format which was organized by different people from different country. Eric Berg and Carsten Rachpfahl organize the Experts Live Germany in Septemper and I’m really proud to be one of the speaker on this great Azure and Hybrid focused conference in the heart of Germany.

Workplace Ninja Summit – 12/09/ – 14/09/2022

I got my first invitation to the Workplace Ninja Summit, scheduled for mid-September in beautiful Lucerne. The Workplace Ninja Summit focuses on everything related to Workplace and Microsoft 365 technologies and brings together a lot of community greats and offers a lot of know-how and experience exchange for the participants during 3 days. I am very excited to be delivering a session on Azure Security Best Practices at the Workplace Summit.

Cloud IdentitySummit – 22/09/2022

And last but not least the next Cloud Identity Summit will take place on 22/09/2022 directly in Bonn at the DigitalHub near the Central Station Bonn. We are really happy to organize the 3rd edition of the Cloud Identity Summit and in this year first time as Hybrid edition. This means we will go to a full day event and the morning will have two different workshops as in-person only event and on the afternoon we will go into the hybrid format, where the session will be live at our location and will be delivered online.

CloudSummit 2022 – 26/09/-28/09/2022

Last December, the European Collaboration and Cloud Summit took place together in Duesseldorf. It was the only in-person conference in 2021 that I attend and it was a pleasure and great experience. Networking is an important part of a community conference and we all look forward to this nice part of every conference. This year only the Cloud Summit will be held in Mainz and I am very exited to speak about Azure Security.

Allgemein, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Cloud, Community, Meetup, Microsoft, Windows Virtual Desktop

Azure AMA – Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices #AVD with Marcel Meurer and Patrick Koehler – English Edition

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I’m excited to announce that we’re kicking off another Azure AMA on Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices session – English Edition. The last session was delivered in German and we get a lots of Feedback to repat this in English. I’m really happy to announce that your wish comes true and Marcel and Patrick was also available for a 2nd session 🙂

Marcel and Patrick are two Azure MVPs and do a lot of work in the AVD community. Marcel is known as the brains behind the WVDAdmin and Project Hydra products, which are services to automate all things Azure Virtual Desktop. Patrick has also been active in the AVD community for many years with great sessions and insights about AVD and is the organizer of AVD TechFest together with Simon Binder.

Azure AMA – Azure Virtual Desktop Best Practices will take place live on Youtube on March 18, 2022 between 1:30 – 2:30 PM CET. You can register for this event via our Azure Bonn page. Please note that this is a live AMA session and we would love for you to join us live and bring your questions to the session. If you don’t have time this time, please use our Microsoft forms to submit your questions before the session starts. This session will be held English.