Yesterday Thomas and I was really honored to be invited to the Azure APE XXL event in Appeldorn, Netherlands.
Speaking at Azure APE XXL about Azure Governance Best Practices and Enterprise Scale together with Thomas Naunheim
Tag Archives: Cloud
MS Ignite 2024 Recap
On my way home from a very inspiring Microsoft Ignite, which I was able to attend in person for the first time. Microsoft Ignite 2024 took place in Chicago at McCormick Place, a very large convention center near Lake Michigan.
The conference started on Monday with a Preday, where Microsoft Ignite attendees had the opportunity to attend various workshops after registering. I took the opportunity to get to the venue, get my badge and meet some people from the community. In the evening, Microsoft had organized an MVP Meet and Greet where MVPs had the opportunity to meet other MVPs who were also attending Ignite. It was a great evening and I saw many people from all over the world again.
Continue reading MS Ignite 2024 Recap
Speaking at NICConf 2024 in Oslo about Microsoft Defender for CSPM and Hybrid Cloud with WS2025, Azure Arc and WAC
I´m thrilled to announce that I have been invited to the Nordic Infrastructure Conference in Oslo, the NICconf, for the second time.
NICconf is a two-day event in the heart of Oslo with around 3000 particioants, focusing on Microsoft technologies such as Azure, Hybrid Cloud, Identity and Security. There will also be a pre-day organized where attendees can participate in different masterclasses (full day workshops). There will be a masterclass by Paula Januszkiewics or Mikael Nyström and Viktor Hedberg,
Continue reading Speaking at NICConf 2024 in Oslo about Microsoft Defender for CSPM and Hybrid Cloud with WS2025, Azure Arc and WAC
Microsoft enforces MFA requirements for user login to Azure portal for all tenants
Password spray attacks on accounts have increased rapidly in recent months. As a result, the security risks for accounts that do not use MFA for authentication have increased significantly. Microsoft works in the past on different ways to enable MFA for all users they work with Azure and Microsoft 365. One first try was the activation of security defaults, but this can be deactivated by user.
Based on this development and for other reason Microsoft announced the enforcement for Mutlifactor authentication for all sign-in/access to the Azure Portal. This announcement was a little suprise and bringe some challenges to organization espesically when we take a look at service principals and break glass accounts. Don´t get me wrong, it is mandatory to enable MFA for all users they access your tenant and have a valid and regulary reviewed Conditional Access policy in place. But for some special accounts this was not the focus or recommended. In this article I will explain how Microsoft rollouts this enforcement which steps you have to proof and how you can ensure that you are not affected or prepared for the upcoming changes.
Continue reading Microsoft enforces MFA requirements for user login to Azure portal for all tenants
Awarded as Microsoft MVP for Azure and Microsoft Security 2024-2025
I am pleased to announce that I have once again been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for Azure and Security in 2024-2025. This year there were some internal changes and the announcement was therefore postponed to July 10. So late Wednesday the mail came and I saw, just before my birthday, that I was again awarded in the following categories:
- MVP for Microsoft Azure Compute Infrastructure
- MVP for Cloud Security
What a great surprise
It is still an honor to be part of this family. There are many people who have supported me along the way, without whom this award would not have been possible. A big thank you goes to my wife Jessica, without her support this would not have been possible. There are many people who have become true friends during this time and to whom I am very grateful for their support, like Eric Berg, Thomas Naunheim, Marcel Meurer and Tom Janetscheck and many others. Also a big thank you to my Azure Bonn Orga Team, René de la Motte and Thomas Naunheim without whom the many Meetups and the Cloud Identity Summit would only be half as nice.
But this award is not possible without the community and the recognition from Microsoft, so a big thank you for that.
If you’re interested in what conferences you can find me at in 2024, feel free to check out my upcoming community events page.
Guest on Geeksprech Podcast about FinOps and/or Azure Cost Management (Governance)
In 2023 I was at some conferences where I held a session about Azure Cost Management and I´ve discussed this topic also a couple of times with my best buddy Eric Berg.
He invited me to his podcast Geeksprech where we talked and discuss what FinOps is and why in some cases it`s the same as cloud governance and cost management without the melodious and modern name 🙂
Continue reading Guest on Geeksprech Podcast about FinOps and/or Azure Cost Management (Governance)
Speaking at Windows Server Engineering Summit 2024
With the announcement of the next Windows Server release, called Windows Server 2025, Microsoft decided to organize the next Windows Server Engineering Summit. The Windows Server Summit 2024 will take place March 26-28, 2024, 8 AM – 4 PM Pacific Time with many sessions around Windows Server solutions.
I´m happy to be invited to hold two sessions, which I think are really important and value from Management and Migration purposes.
Continue reading Speaking at Windows Server Engineering Summit 2024
The new Azure Update Manager is GA – Part 2 – How it works and the valuable new features
In the first part of this article (Three-big-reasons-to-migrate-to-update-manager-and-forget-the-classic-update-management-center) I dived into the improvements and reasons why Micrsoft introduce Azure Update Manager as a successor of the classic Update Management Center solution based on Azure Automation. In this part, I will explain how it works and what major improvements and new functions the Azure Update Manager offers
Please note: Azure Update Center is based on Azure Automation and needs the Microsoft Monitoring Agent. The MMA has been discontinued and will no longer be supported after August 2024. Support for Update Center has therefore also been discontinued.
Continue reading The new Azure Update Manager is GA – Part 2 – How it works and the valuable new features2nd note: Microsoft will charged at a daily prorated value of 0.16/server/day which equates to approximately $5 USD/server/month beginning 1 February 2024 for customers using Azure Update Manager on Arc-enabled servers.
Enable granular pricing for Defender for Servers P1 or P2 on specific resources within your subscription via API/Powershell
Microsoft model for a scalable Cloud Adtoption is based on the Enterprise Scale Architecture and I think this is a scalable and useful modell for every customer that uses Azure ressources. It´s based on the definition to granulary devide the workloads in different subscriptions and gives via Management Groups the possibility to group this differnent subscription into workload groups like Development, Core, etc. I know many customers struggle with this model and mistakenly think that Enterprise Scale is a reference to Enterprise customers, but this is not the case.
Based on the Enterprise Scale Architecture some services and security features can only be activated on subscription level to guarante that each resource inside the subscription is secured. This basis makes it even more important for customers to consider the Enterprise Scale Architecture or to orient themselves towards it.
The Microsoft Defender for Cloud and especially the Defender for Server P1 and P2 plans can only be activated on subscription level in the past. Microsoft has decided to change this and now allow plans to be activated at resource level (per server). It is important to understand that the principled approach activating on Subscription Level and the Enterprise Scale architecture are still valid and needed and this possibility is only a concession to cover certain requirements:
- manage security configurations at a lower hierarchy level
- flexibility for excluding specific resources (VMs) inside the subscription
- enable different plans on subscription because for implementation of Enterprise Scale approach
Cloud Identity Summit 2023 Recap
Our 4th edition of the Cloud Identity Summit 2023 is over and it was a blast to meet all this great speaker and the Identity Community this year virtual and in-person in Koblenz.
This year we were kindly provided with the location by the Debeka Innovation Center (DICE) which is located near the University of Koblenz and close to the Moselle. The location is a designed as a open space to enable new thinking and new technologies which is a perfect match for our Cloud Identity Summit.
The 4th edition offered 10 sessions in two parall tracks, divided into Identity Security and Identity Management and it was really a pleasure to see this big identity experience in the different Identity topics on this day live at our conference. The speakers who made the extra journey to the event can certainly be called who as who of the identity scene. Therefore, at this point I would like to thank you explicitly, because without you this event would not have been possible:
- Sefallah Tagrerout and Jean-Francois (Jeff) Aprea – Securing your Azure Ad with our Zero Trust Approach!
- Jan Vidar Elven – Monitoring and Reporting on Activities and Security in Microsoft Entra Azure AD
- Fabian Bader – From (tier) zero to cloud hero: How to pwn Azure AD from on-prem
- Kenneth van Sarksum – Implementing and building advanced Microsoft Entra Id Conditional Access scenarios
- Christopher Brumm – Walk the walk – explore ways to ensure strong authentication in real life scenarios
- Sfefan van der Wiele – Walk the walk – explore ways to ensure strong authentication in real life scenarios
- Daniel Krzyczkowski – The future of customer identity with Microsoft Entra
- Nicki Borell – Azure AD Identity Governance – What do your users do with their access
- Sander Berkouwer and Raymond Comvalius – Just apply the basics in your Azure AD tenant!
- Anton Staykov – Seamless cross-tenant application access with Entra Azure AD Cross-Tenant sync
Koblenz is the hometown of Thomas Naunheim therefore we had also recommendations for sightseeing tips, city walks and Restaurants and start to meet the speaker on Wednesday in a Restaurant close to the Rhine and the Deutsche Eck (German Corner). After our great dinner, we made a short city walk to the Deutsche Eck and after this to a final beer for a good preperation for our conference on Thursday.
We started our hybrid conference a little late with a strong focus on the in-person experience and also broadcast the Sessions live to the world via teams.
In my estimation it was a complete success due to four factors:
- Which is thanks to the great speakers who share their knowledge with great pleasure
- The on-site participants who brought a lot of fun and made the sessions interactive, through their numerous questions
- The great help of our team which made sure that the speakers and participants felt comfortable
- Our great sponsors (adesso SE and glückkanja-gab AG) without whom this event would not have been possible for many reasons
We hope that the conference meet the expectations from our attendees and will plan for 2024 and we really want your Feedback for good and not so good thinks. The really goal of this conference it´s a conference from the community for the community. So gave us your feedback for a better Cloud Identity Summit in 2024!
