Uses for Azure B-Series - the cost efficient burstable VM size

Microsoft are coming around to copying all VM's and services available on Amazon's AWS e.g. Snowball ( Azure Databox ) and Glacier - ( Azure Archive ) 

One of these is the B Series ( Amazon's T2 released in 2014 ) , which are Microsofts Burstable VM range,  that can burst when needed to 100% CPU. You have a specific amount of CPU credits which you can use for these bursts during the day to make sure you are not overusing the VM. Once you run out of credits your CPU is capped ( like your home broadband if when you go over the limit ) until you build these credits up.

To get a better understanding how much credits are banked per hour per different VM size, have a look at the following table.        

VM size Credits banked / hour Max banked credits
Standard_B1s 6 144
Standard_B1ms 12 288
Standard_B2s 24 576
Standard_B2ms 36 864
Standard_B4ms 54 1296
Standard_B8ms 81 1944

How do you know when you have used all your Credits up?

The Azure service you are looking for is Azure Monitor with its metrics. The metrics are directly included in the VM blade of an Azure VM.

Here you get two different monitoring options for the credits.

  1. [Host] CPU Credits Consumed
  2. [Host] CPU Credits Remaining

Uses

Email Parser

You do not know when these will be coming in however you may need to do specific work on the email when it does throughout the working day. The same can be said for any parsing work.

A GIT Code repository

You only need high CPU for PUT and PULLs requests to a code repository.

Transcription Services

Same as your email parser you have no idea when these transcriptions will be coming in, however when they do , they need to be actioned straight away.

Relational database

such as MySQL or SQL Server – on a virtual machine. Normally, you’re performing run-of-the-mill read queries that aren’t particularly expensive, but at the end of the week, you need to run a series of huge, complex reports that really eat up processing time.

Low priority Internal tools which have relatively low traffic

To participate in this preview, request quota in the supported region that you would like. After your quota has been approved, you can use the portal or the API’s to do your deployment as you normally would.

Launching the preview with the following regions, but expect more later this year:

  • US – West 2
  • US – East
  • Europe – West
  • Asia Pacific – Southeast

These are offered in Preview Currently which means they shouldn't be used in a production environment due to lack of warranty ( https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/legal/preview-supplemental-terms/ ) 

Sim Card Hi-jacking

What is it?

With the extra method of securit of enabling a second factor for authentication other than a password, attackers are looking at seeing how easy it is to social engineer this. Sometimes the factor is recieving a text message or call to a mobile phone. If the attacker can call up your cell provider and pretend to be you , they can move your number to their simcard and get your password reset!

Look at the video below to show you how easy this is when the attacker has no or the incorrect imformation!

How can I protect from it?

1) If  you can try and use an App insteaf of a text message for your second factor. As long as your phone is properly secured and encrypted and also the backup is , it will be near impossible for an attacker to exploit this.

2) If you have to enable a txt message or a phonecall as your second factor , make sure your provider has undergone strict processes nessesary before moving the number to a new sim card.

Office 365 Roadmap

One of the benefits of an Office 365 Subscription is your monthly costs going towards free monthly improvements

These can all be found here : https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-roadmap#abc

Some ones we are excited about : 

Exchange Online Protection phishing protection

Admins will be able to add phishing levels similar to how they set up their spam levels

Outlook for iOS: Draft sync

Sync drafts between different versions of Outlook, so you can start a message in one place and finish and send in another.

Office 365 Secure Score - Active Seat Average Score

Secure Score will add the ability for you to see the average score of organizations that have a similar number of Office 365 active seats.

And easily 50+ Team Updates

 

What’s new in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

3D, 3D ... 3D!

With Mixed Reality Viewer, you can see 3D objects – either from the Remix3D.com community or your own creation from Paint 3D – mixed into your actual surroundings through your PC’s camera for powerful ways to bring your story to life. 

With Windows Mixed Reality, you can escape to the most immersive experiences – touring top travel destinations, getting inside the most exciting games, attending the most popular events, even travelling across time and space – right in your own home, with you at the center of everything.

Windows and Office together are the best duo for doing. 3D, now in Office, helps you increase visual and creative impact with 3D objects in your PowerPoint presentations, Word, and Excel documents. View, resize, and rotate a 3D object with the 360-rotation handle, pull content from the Remix 3D community or locally from your PC, plus even use a brand-new transition type, Morph, with 3D models in PowerPoint to create cinematic transitions between slides.

The reimagined Photos app now gives you the ability to add filters, text, 3D effects – and soon full 3D objects – and even digital ink to your photos and video clips for great storytelling complete with soundtracks, themes, and transitions.

Ransomware protections. 

To better protect against ransomware attacks, we’re introducing Windows Defender Exploit Guard that helps protect files from unauthorized changes by nefarious applications and your applications from unknown exploits. Additionally, Windows Defender Antivirus now has specific safeguards in place, along with default enhanced coverage that is delivered instantly via the cloud protection service. These and other security technologies protect against persistent ransomware campaigns like Cerber, Locky, and Spora, as well as global outbreaks like WannaCry, and Petya.

OneDrive Files On-Demand

When you save your files in OneDrive, now you can access them just like any other file on your PC without filling up your disk space. Easily tell which files are available online only or offline. Online-only files download on demand with a double-click, and you can make them online only again to free up space. Or you can select files to always be available offline. Click here to learn more about OneDrive Files On-Demand and how to enable it.

 

How to prevent your business from getting hacked ..

1) Use two-factor Authentication for Authentication to all your web and application services

Your password now is a single point of failure for your email or service getting hacked by unauthorized users. The chances are the account would be exploited in the first day against some social engineering trying to get money from your finance department. Your bank and financial institutions have been using 2fa for years now and it's the recommended solution now to add to the rest of your cloud and local services. 

2) Use SSL Certificates whether possible

This is usually added to company's Web Application such as a Document Management Solution or Content Management Solution which use certificates to encrypt traffic between your web browser and the app to make sure no prying eyes will see any confidential data.

SMTP emails should be set to use TLS for mail flow by default over normal port 25.

3) Have a fully up-to-date antivirus program that also Alerts

Windows 7 and Windows 10 now-a-days come with Free Antivirus checkers ( Windows Defencer and Security Essentials)  however these are only licensed for Home use. It's best to get a fully managed AV like Webroot where Virus detections are alerted on straight away.

4) Use a third party for Spam Filtering

Even with cloud providers such as Google's Google Apps for Email or Microsoft's Email Hosting 365 , they need that added layer of protection against Spoofing, Phishing and Virus.

Services such as Mimecast and Postini can help protect all the above and provide real time protection to new threats

5) Regularly change your password

Per Bullet point 1) the first form of defense if your password! Make sure this is changed once a month and sign up to https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to make sure this hasn't been compromised elsewhere

6) Keep your Equipment Up-To-Date

Make sure all the firmware on your Wireless Devices , Servers and Routers are kept up-to-date to make sure you install security updates as well as feature updates

7 ) User training

Make sure users are told regularly about current well-known attacks such as phishing , Spear Phishing or Cryptolocker so they can understand what to look out for and ask before clicking!

 

KRACK - What is it and what does it mean for your Business?

https://www.krackattacks.com

We discovered serious weaknesses in WPA2, a protocol that secures all modern protected Wi-Fi networks. An attacker within range of a victim can exploit these weaknesses using key reinstallation attacks (KRACKs). Concretely, attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted. This can be abused to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos, and so on. The attack works against all modern protected Wi-Fi networks. Depending on the network configuration, it is also possible to inject and manipulate data. For example, an attacker might be able to inject ransomware or other malware into websites.

 

What does it mean for your Business

If you use wireless in your organisation you are probably using WPA2 , which means this exploit effects you. Intruders can use this attack to listen to passwords and sensitive company information. Your Wireless Manufacturer being Draytek, Netgear, Meraki or Ubiqiuiti are currently realizing updates which will need to be applied to your device to protect against this.

Microsoft will release a fix for Windows 10 on October 17th, along with several extra features.

iOS devices are already patched for this problem. Android phone manufactures will be releasing updates as well as Linux Distro's.

Windows 10 Mobile - Is no more

Per this recent BBC article ,it looks like Microsoft has put the nail in the coffin of it's mobile Operating Windows 10

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41551546

The company's Windows 10 chief has tweeted that developing new features and hardware for the Mobile version of the OS was no longer a "focus".

With it's main competition being Android run by Google who gives it away for free and makes money using advertisting , and the iPhone the flagship product from Apple , it's hard for another company to come along and take some market share to make any money out of it! 

Windows Server Datacenter\Standard with Software Assurance? Save 40%!

Use your on-premises Windows Standard and Datacenter Server licenses with Software Assurance to save big on Azure. With this benefit, we will cover the cost of the OS (on up to two virtual machines) for each license, while you only pay for base compute costs.

Enable your hybrid cloud model, or modernize in the cloud

  • Maximize value from your current investments
  • Save up to 82 percent when combined with Reserved VM Instances
  • More savings coming soon for SQL Server and Reserved Instances

 

For every 2-processor Windows Server license or Windows Server license with 16-cores covered with Software Assurance, you can run either of the following at the base compute rate:

  • Up to two machines with up to 8 cores or
  • One virtual machine with up to 16 cores.

Savings Calculator

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/hybrid-benefit/#ahub-calculator

How does your business continue without Email?

Most of our customers have been migrated to Office 365 , however, we still have some customers who want on-premise Exchange due to a few reasons such as below

1) Bad Internet Availability - Due to location their internet speed would not cope with cloud hosting

2) Regulatory compliance and obligation - Government agencies proving their data is on UK Soil and equipment ) 

3) Their CMS app can only use Exchange Online mode - Mainly Law companies

As their email is host locally the issue is what happens when a server or internet connection goes down? Unlike a cloud service such as 365 , your email is only hosted in a single location. Email is usually is stored with your Spam filter provider until the server or internet comes back , but how can your organization still work in the event of this ? 

Introducing the Mimecast Personal Portal

https://community.mimecast.com/community/knowledge-base/mimecast-personal-portal-v3

Users not in the event of a internet or server failure can now get to another internet connection E.g. Phone Hot Spot or home internet and send and recieve email from a Webmail type interface until the problem is resolved.

  • Instant failover and failback  reduces RPO & RTO for email to near zero.
  • Uninterrupted access to all live and historic email and calendarinformation from everyday applications and devices to keep business moving
  • 100% service availability SLA delivered from the highly secure Mimecast cloud
  • Access to email through Outlook for Windows, a native app for Mac users and a full suite of mobile apps means employees can carry on receiving and sending email as if the primary email system was performing normally.

What is Minecraft: Education Edition and how could it benefit your School?

N.B. : Rember Windows 10 is a requirement, with the new Microsoft Education Licenses schools will get this now with their 365 Plan , however, will need to plan the Upgrade path !

How is it different from normal Minecraft?

Classroom Mode is a companion app for Minecraft: Education Edition that enables educators to manage world settings, communicate with students, give items and teleport students in the Minecraft world. For videos and extensive documentation on Classroom Mode, head to our full set of training materials.

Education?

Code Connection is an extension (released on May 22, 2017) that allows educators and students to explore, create, and play in an immersive Minecraft world – all by writing code. Head here to a training that answers all your questions, and get in touch with support if you need further assistance.

Begin your Minecraft journey with these easy steps.

https://education.minecraft.net/

New Microsoft 365 Plans ( Education, Not for Profits and Firstline Workers )

Education

https://educationblog.microsoft.com/2017/09/microsoft-365-education-affordable-solution/

Available from 1st October 2017

Office 365 Education will be renamed to A1 Plan is still Free! 

2 New Plans : A3 and A5

Discover the Microsoft 365 Education that’s right for you

Office 365 A1Microsoft 365 A3Microsoft 365 A5
Collaboration & LearningOffice Online: web-based document editing✔✔✔
Office client applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook✔✔
Email and calendar, instant messenger (IM), persistent chat, Yammer✔✔✔
Files and content management: file storage, sharing, information discovery, Groups, Planner✔✔✔
Minecraft: Education Edition with Code Builder✔✔
Classroom ToolsMicrosoft Teams with classroom experiences, professional learning communities (PLC), and staff teams✔✔✔
OneNote Class Notebook, Sway✔✔✔
More inclusive classroomsLearning Tools, Accessibility Checker, Office Lens✔✔✔
Voice, video & meetingsSkype for Business✔✔✔
PSTN (public switched telephone network) Conferencing, Cloud PBX (private branch exchange)✔
ComplianceLegal Hold, eDiscovery search and export✔✔
Advanced eDiscovery, Customer Lockbox, Advanced Data Governance✔✔
AnalyticsDelve✔✔✔
Power BI Pro, MyAnalytics✔✔
Management & SecuritySchool Data Sync, Data Loss Prevention, Office 365 Rights Management✔✔✔
Office 365 A3: Advanced Security Management, Skype Meeting Broadcast✔✔
Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) A3: Intune for Education, Azure Active Directory P1, Azure Information Protection P1, Advanced Threat Analytics✔✔
Windows 10 Education A3: Windows Defender Antivirus, Device Guard✔✔
Advanced SecurityOffice 365 A5: Advanced Threat Prevention, Threat Intelligence✔
Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) A5: Azure Active Directory P2, Azure Information Protection P2, Cloud App Security✔
Windows 10 Education A5: Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection✔
Server & CAL BenefitsProductivity Server Licenses and Client Access Licenses (CALs) for Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, etc.✔✔✔
Windows Server Client Access Licenses (CALs✔✔✔
System Center Configuration Manager CML✔✔✔
System Center Endpoint Protection✔✔✔

Not for Profits

Not much to say here per the link : 

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2017/09/25/learn-nonprofit-can-leverage-technology-greater-impact/

First Line Workers

First Line workers in the eyes of Microsoft are Employees that "serve as the first point of contact between an organization and its customers or products".

Mainly the industries are Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Government, however, are not enforced to just these

Features are Below and Cost is around 3 GBP per Month 

https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-f1

Why all companies should use Signature deployment software

Whether you're using a cloud-based email solution such as 365 or On-Premise exchange you should utilise an email deployment tool for Signatures.

 

Job Titles can be and should be set by HR
A signature is a sign-off from an employee of your company to and internal or external party. This job title of a signature If needed or not is like a business card where the receiving party can see the seniority and Role of the sender. Sometimes employees have changed their own job titles for various reasons and this is not picked up until it is too late. Signature software can integrate into Active Directory and grab this each time to standardise the signature per user. You can also create templates so specific users display or don't display their mobile phone numbers for privacy reasons.

Consistent Branding for Logo's and marketing updates
Whether you have changed your logo, or have some new exciting news to share with your new and existing customers a Signature is a great place to show this. Centralising your signature store means you can change the Signature in real time with business updates getting you new leads.

Consistent legal notes and disclaimers
Laws change all the time, and disclaimers are there to protect the company and person sending each email. The company should deploy these when necessary and keep them up to date with the click of a button to protect itself.

Make your signatures Mobile and Device Friendly
If you have created your signature in Word with your company logos sometimes the width of this will make the email UNREADABLE on mobile devices. With 20% of the internet traffic being mobile nowadays you want to make sure you have this covered

Make sure your emails do not get marked as Spam
We recently had a customer whos employee has created a LinkedIn Logo pointing to the companies linkedIn site to be more socially aware. Unfortunately the colleague sourced the image from an unreliable spam site and the companies email was being blocked at receiving mailservers due to this. 

 

Intergrate your Xero Accounts straight into Power BI

We work with our Local Gold Xero Consultants in Surrey : http://www.dna-accountants.co.uk/ , in helping move our existings customers accounting Systems to Xero to offload more of their resources to the cloud for better management and mobility.

Most of our customers will now be utilising Office 365 which comes with Power BI so in 5 minutes we can integrate their accounts package into a very powerful reporting tools giving the below

What's included

The content pack dashboard includes tiles and metrics that cover a variety of areas, with corresponding reports to learn more:

Cash
Cash in
Cash out
Closing balance by account
Closing balance today

Bank Accounts

Customer

Invoiced sales
Invoiced sales by customer
Invoiced sales growth trend
Invoices due
Outstanding receivables
Overdue receivablesCustomer
Inventory

Supplier

Billed purchases
Billed purchases by supplier
Billed purchases growth trend
Bills due
Outstanding payables
Overdue payables

Suppliers
Inventory

Inventory

Monthly sales amount by product
Inventory

Profit and loss

Monthly profit and loss
Net profit this fiscal year
Net profit this month
Top expense accountsProfit and Loss

Balance sheet

Total assets
Total liabilities
EquityBalance Sheet

Health

Current ratio
Gross profit percentage
Return on total assets
Total liabilities to equity ratioHealth
Glossary and Technical Notes

SMBv1 now disabled by default in Azure VMs

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/azuresecurity/2017/08/18/disabling-server-message-block-version-1-smb-v1-in-azure/?

Flow on effect from the recent WannaCry and Petya epidemics. Applies to only new Azure VMs that are created through the Azure Marketplace, does not impact existing VMs. Funnily enough Server 2016 Core is the only VM image that still has SMBv1 enabled by default.

If SMBv1 is required, it can be re-enabled using the steps in this article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2696547/how-to-enable-and-disable-smbv1-smbv2-and-smbv3-in-windows-and-windows

Logitech Smart Dock - the perfect SMB Conference Phone

Walk into a conference room and instantly launch your meeting using the high performance, easy-to-use Logitech SmartDock. Transform your meeting with a rich, collaborative Skype for Business experience. Meeting organizers enjoy the familiar Skype for Business interface, and IT admins appreciate the easily deployed and managed Windows® 10 Skype meeting app.

 

SmartDock includes three USB 3.0, Dual HDMI Out, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI In. You can use the USB ports to integrate with existing audio-video solutions in the meeting room. Certified for Skype for Business audio and video solutions are recommended.

The real experience comes from the Skype for Business Room software, which is designed for easy meeting joins as part of a resource-based video conference room model. When a room receives an invite to a Skype for Business meeting, the meeting will appear on the Surface Pro screen. An attendee merely touches the meeting to join. During my visit we unfortunately did not have time to explore other options, such as using the room with a user login, but I assume that works also.

RPC over HTTP deprecated in Office 365 on October 31, 2017

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3201590/rpc-over-http-deprecated-in-office-365-on-october-31--2017

The following are the minimum required Office updates to install to avoid connectivity disruption on October 31, 2017.
 

Office 2016The December 8, 2015 update Subscription: 16.0.6568.20xx - MSI: 16.0.4312.1001

Office 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and the December 8, 2015 update - 15.0.4779.1002

Office 2010 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and the December 8, 2015 update - 14.0.7164.5002

 

I'm using Office 365 with Outlook 2007 or earlier. What actions do I have to take?

MAPI over HTTP was not backported to Outlook 2007 or earlier versions. Therefore, Outlook 2007 and earlier versions will be unable to connect 

 

Thinking about deploying Skype for Business for your Small to Medium Business?

If you have Office 365 for your Email , you might be making the next step and deploying the Office 365 suite's replacement Phone System ( PBX )

https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/Article/Video/695/Skype-for-Business-at-Microsoft-SME-roundtable-March-2017

Skype for business gives your orgainisation

  • Instant Messaging Interally and Externally
  • VoiceCalls
  • Video Calls
  • Online Meeting Collaboration Internally and Externally

Available on

  • Desktop Phones
  • Tablets
  • PC's and Macs
  • Smart Phonnes

    If you are thinking about Deploying Skype for Business you can use the self assesment tool to check your internet is capable :

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=53885

 

Microsoft to Bundle Office and Windows into a Single Package!

At the Microsoft Inspire conference going on in America at the moment, we have been closely following, Microsoft has just announced it will be offering a package bundling its Office and Windows package into one

https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/07/10/introducing-microsoft-365/

They are calling it : Microsoft 365 Enterprise and comes with Office 365, Windows 10 Enterprise, Enterprise Mobility + Security.

It's going to be available in 2 flavours E3 and E5 depending if you would like PBX Functionality or extra security.

Microsoft 365 Business will be available in public preview on August 2, 2017.

Priced at US $20 per user, per month which comes to around 16 GBP

This will greatly simplify Licensing for Users and Business

Potential service disruption for Outlook 2007 for Windows users - October 31, 2017

How does this affect me?: Beginning October 31, 2017, Outlook for Windows clients using RPC over HTTP will be unable to access their Exchange Online mailbox.

What do I need to do to prepare for this change?: The necessary action depends on the version of Outlook in use in your organization.

 
If you are using Outlook 2007 or earlier, you need to upgrade. Outlook 2007 does not contain support for the MAPI/HTTP protocol. We encourage you to update to the Office 365 ProPlus subscription, or access Outlook via the web browser (which is included in your current subscription plan).

 
Outlook 2010-2016 customers will need to ensure their version of Outlook for Windows is set up to support MAPI/HTTP. At a minimum, you should ensure you have installed the December 2015 update. 

 
Lastly,  ensure your Outlook clients are not using a registry key to block MAPI/HTTP.