Blockchain, Once Seen as a Corporate Cure-All, Suffers Slowdown

Corporate America’s love affair with all things blockchain may be cooling. A number of software projects based on the distributed ledger technology will be wound down this year.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Calls for Regulation to Address Facial Recognition Issues--Will Others Follow?

Microsoft says the emerging technology must be legislated, but that may be a hard sell even as facial recognition issues increase.
by Terri Coles via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

DFFS Package updated to v4.4.3.48

I have released a new version of the DFFS package (v4.4.3.48) with a few bugfixes.

You find the change log here and the files in the download section of the user manual.

Please post any comments in the forum.

Best regards,
Alexander

by Alexander Bautz via SharePoint JavaScripts

Windows 10 (19H1) Build Tracker for PCs

We track the history of the development builds released for the 19H1 Feature Update for Windows 10 which will be the seventh overall for Microsoft's client operating system.
by Richard Hay via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Windows 10 Redstone 5 (RS5) Software Development Kit (SDK) Build Tracker

As Microsoft develops the next feature update for Windows 10, they also work on the next release of the Windows 10 Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers. This SDK, the current version is focused on the Redstone 5 update, helps developers gain early access to new features and capabilities for their apps in the next upgrade to Windows 10.
by Richard Hay via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

ExCM Extranet Online Beta Available Now!

Our customers have been asking for quite a while when would have a SaaS version of Extranet Collaboration Manager (ExCM) available.  Good news for those that have been waiting – we’ve just launched the beta and are hoping to go into production by early Fall!

The on-premises version of ExCM has been in use around the world since 2007 and has been our most popular product here at PremierPoint Solutions.  Organizations have loved its combination of features that provide for a highly-secure, highly-private, and easy-to-use B2B extranet platform.  We’ve worked hard to bring all of these same features into a Software as a Service version that offers all of the benefits of the cloud.

Here are some of the unique benefits of ExCM Extranet Online:

• Runs in Azure and integrated with Azure AD.
• Comprehensive corporate branding and identity gives you the ability to assure and impress your external users such as customers, vendors and other business partners.
• Dedicated, single-tenant databases ensures you get maximum security and privacy for your extranet content.
• Full control and ownership of your external user accounts and permissions so you can add/change/delete access at any time.
• Self-service Request Portal that empowers end users to request new extranet sites and request automated administrative actions – and provides you the oversight and governance you need.
• Stops confusion and privacy problems that occur due to the difficult to control nature of SharePoint’s “Share”, “Shared With”, and “People Picker” features.
• The possibility to migrate your content from your on-premises SharePoint-based extranet – including your FBA (forms-based authentication) external user accounts.
• Support and customization services provide by out U.S.-based engineers who have years of experience with B2B extranets.

If you would like to join the beta, hop over to our ExCM Extranet Online page and click on the “Try Now” link to sign up:



Or, to read more about the unique ExCM Extranet Online features, go here.

by noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cate) via SharePoint Solutions Blog

Geopolitics of Russia, China, U.S. Increasingly Affect IT Security

Kaspersky Lab’s move to Switzerland illustrates how the geopolitics of Russia et al. are influencing western countries wary of spying.
by Jeffrey Burt via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How to convert string to URL friendly string with Microsoft Flow

I was working on a project to automate Office 365 Group creation using Microsoft Flow and a custom system. When trying to convert the title from another system , which could include !@#$%^? and a bunch of other characters, I had to find a way to convert that string, into an URL friendly string with Microsoft Flow,  At the time of writing this blog, there was no regex support in Microsoft Flow, so we need to get a bit more creative!

One function that we have access to in Microsoft Flow, is the replace function. The Replace function allows you to replace a character by another one, in our case, we need to replace for example a hashtag (#) by nothing! While this is done one character at a time, you can also nest them, so while not pretty, you would have all the info in a single function. In the example below, I strip the Title dynamic property of the Trigger of the following characters: : % # * < > ? / ” @ & = / ; |) \ [ ] ~ { } ^ ! , .   

PS: The widget below has a “copy” button in the toolbar to make sure you copy it all!

replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(triggerBody()?['Title'],':',''),'%',''),'#',''),'*',''),'<',''),'>',''),'?',''),'/',''),'"',''),'"',''),'@',''),'&',''),'=',''),'/',''),';',''),'|',''),'\',''),'[',''),']',''),'~',''),'{',''),'}',''),'^',''),'!',''),',',''),'.',''

I have created a quick Flow over here in a completely different system, just to show you the results! First, let’s create the simple Flow, three easy steps – Trigger – Create a Variable with the Friendly URL (Optional) – Update the Item

The value of the Variable is the formula we have above and remember to update it with the actual string that you want fixed! If you copy paste it from the blog, it will fix the Title property of the Trigger.

And here is the result:

As you see, my previous example did not take out the spaces, if you want a formula that takes out the spaces, you can use the following one!

replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(replace(triggerBody()?['Title'],':',''),'%',''),'#',''),'*',''),'<',''),'>',''),'?',''),'/',''),'"',''),'"',''),'@',''),'&',''),'=',''),'/',''),';',''),'|',''),'\',''),'[',''),']',''),'~',''),'{',''),'}',''),'^',''),'!',''),',',''),'.',''),' ','')

Here is the result on the second item:

Leave a comment and don’t forget to like the Absolute SharePoint Blog Page   on Facebook and to follow me on Twitter here  for the latest news and technical articles on SharePoint.  I am also a Pluralsight author, and you can view all the courses I created on my author page.

The post How to convert string to URL friendly string with Microsoft Flow appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu

China, Russia, Iran Top Cyber Threats, U.S. Intelligence Finds

China, Russia and Iran pose the biggest threats of computer attacks to spy on U.S. companies and steal their trade secrets, according to a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The three countries have conducted sophisticated, large-scale hacking attacks across multiple U.S. industries, targeting the networks of technology and manufacturing contractors, defense contractors and utilities, according to the 20-page report compiled by office’s National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

5G Laptops Are Coming for 2019, But Supply May Outstrip Demand

Widespread 5G mobile isn't expected until 2021 at the earliest, limiting the usefulness of new Intel-based 5G laptops.
by Paul Heltzel via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Accenture-Google Partnership Offers End-to-End Capability

The first focus of the newly formed Accenture-Google Cloud Business Group will be retail, consumer packaged goods and health sectors.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Accenture Extends Google Cloud Partnership with New Business Group

The launch of a new business group at Accenture this week is a strong indication that the demand for Google Cloud from enterprise customers is growing, particularly outside of the IT department.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Facebook, Twitter Say Europe's Privacy Law Causing User Drop

Amid a plummeting share price, Facebook Inc. wants panicked investors to believe Europe’s strict General Data Protection Regulation is to blame for fewer people using the social network in the region. EU lawmakers disagree.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Collaboration Tools for Businesses Fight Heats Up

The portfolio of collaboration tools for businesses has shrunk this week with Slack's acquisition of the technology behind Hipchat and its successor Stride from their parent company Atlassian. Also this week: Google brings voice to its Hangouts and Microsoft reminds its customers that support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 is ending soon.
by Richard Hay, Lisa Schmeiser via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

VMware IoT lead: AI and IoT to drive business process, IT value

The combination of AI and IoT technologies will drive value across business processes as well as in the management of the infrastructure itself, says Mimi Spier.
by Courtney Bjorlin via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

DevOps Booster: Google Cloud Build Streamlines CI/CD Pipeline

Google adds new DevOps tooling to its Cloud, helping companies implement and expand their CI/CD pipelines.
by Simon Bisson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Amazon’s New Businesses Push Profit to a Record

Revenue from Amazon Web Services, its profitable cloud-computing division, jumped 49 percent to $6.1 billion.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Facebook Takes Historic Plunge as Scandals Finally Take a Toll

The company’s shares fell the most in its history as a public company, wiping out more than $120 billion in market value.
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Group By Content Type in Modern Lists and Libraries

IMO, this should be an easier thing to do. It’s a VERY common request from my clients, and for years we’ve had to hack this together. There are currently two UserVoice items about it that I can find – here and here – but not nearly enough votes to get on the radar of the product team. You can help me fix that, right? Vote early, and vote often!

Ideally, in the modern view, we should be able to simply click on Group by Content Type in the UI. No joy there. We get that option for virtually every other column type – including the dread Managed Metadata column!

No big deal, right? We’ll just go into the view settings and add the grouping. Nope. Never was going to happen. Content Type is missing from the list of columns in the dropdown.

 

Luckily, in the second of those UserVoice items, a wonderful person named Eric Ivarsson gives us the trick we need to make this work. I worry about tricks like this because they could always stop working, but this one seems to have worked for a while now (at least a year), so I’m willing to use it and recommend it.

If you simply add this query string to the end of your view:

?groupBy=ContentType

you will get a view which groups by Content Type. You don’t even have to be displaying the Content Type column for this to work. If you have other groupings in place YMMV, but it accomplishes the main requirement here.

Make sure the “B” in groupBy is capitalized, or it won’t work.

You can then save the view from the UI, and even use the same view name. The setting will become embedded in the view (somehow) and you’ll be all set.

Again, if you use this trick, please vote up the two UserVoice items so that we can stop using it.

by Marc D Anderson via Marc D Anderson's Blog

Pentagon’s Winner-Take-All Move on Cloud Contract Expected to Favor Amazon

The U.S. Defense Department issued a final request for proposals for a cloud services contract valued at as much as $10 billion.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Move Over, ID Theft: Account Takeover Fraud Is Rising

Bad actors using account takeover fraud, or ATO fraud, are moving beyond the point of checkout.
by Jeffrey Burt via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Harnessing the Power of Cloud

Deploying Azure, Linux Workloads, and Powerful User Experiences
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Win a free Pass to SPTechCon Boston 2018

I have been blogging about learning resources for a while and one of the best ways to learn from the experts is to attend in person conferences! Since Valo Intranet is sponsoring , we have a few passes to give away! There are two contests going on,  the first one is to simply retweet this tweet by Valo Intranet!  The Second one is trough this blog post and gives you the chance to win three Full Access Conference Passes to SPTechCon Boston 2018! To enter you simply have to put your name and email (They will not be shared with any 3rd parties unless you’re the winner of the pass), and you can get bonus entries if you follow @vladcatrinescu on Twitter and like the Absolute SharePoint page on Facebook! Furthermore you can tweet about the giveaway every day and get 9 bonus entries for every time you tweet!

The prize only includes the conference pass and not any travel costs or anything else. Just the conference pass! Here is a small paragraph about the conference

SPTechCon: The SharePoint & Office 365 Conference is returning to Boston, MA, August 26 – 29, 2018! SPTechCon is a training, problem solving, and networking event for those who are working with SharePoint, OneDrive, and Office 365.  This includes the varied uses and approaches to managing SharePoint; On-Premises (2013 thru 2019), Hybrid Variations, and SharePoint Online.  Sessions at SPTechCon are presented by today’s most approachable and knowledgeable instructors.   Find solutions to your current environment and seek ways to continue to Work Smarter, Collaborate, and Increase Productivity!

Good Luck, and if you are at SPTechCon, make sure to visit me at the Valo Booth to say hello :)!

Click here to view this promotion.

The post Win a free Pass to SPTechCon Boston 2018 appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu

With an Eye toward AWS, Druva Acquires Cloud Storage Management Company

Druva is acquiring cloud storage management company CloudRanger, which focuses on backup and disaster recovery for AWS.
by Derek Walter via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google Cloud Security Updates Aim to Protect High-Value Users

Google made several cloud security related announcements on Wednesday at Google Cloud Next, including context-aware access for Cloud Identity and Access Management, Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy, and Cloud Identity, and Titan Security Key, a new FIDO security key with tamper-proof firmware.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

CorpFlex lowers their TCO

With SQL, Oracle and SAP all running on Cisco HyperFlex
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Powering Oracle Databases

How hyperconverged infrastructure makes it easy
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Right Platform for Database and App Deployments

Cisco HyperFlex and SQL brings needed performance to app deployment
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Police Are Seeking More Digital Evidence From Tech Companies

U.S. law enforcement agencies are increasingly asking technology companies for access to digital evidence on mobile phones and apps, with about 80 percent of the requests granted, a new study found.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Inside Google's Shadow Workforce of Contract Laborers

Tech companies hire contractors to keep the official headcount low -- a move that pleases investors and frees up millions of dollars to retain superstars in fields like artificial intelligence. But what does that mean for everyday IT workers?
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Startup Argo Offers Cryptomining Service

While the cryptocurrency mining service is aimed at making the process simple and affordable for consumers, cryptomining has become a key target for cybercriminals.
by Jeffrey Burt via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google Cloud Next Highlights Enterprise Readiness, AI in Equal Measure

Google Cloud Next draws 25,000 attendees as the cloud giant covers topics from enterprise-ready cloud business capabilities to AI, making the case for why it is the best option for enterprises.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google is Building a Version of Kubernetes Engine for On-Prem Data Centers

Google Cloud is building a version of its Kubernetes Engine service users can run in their own data centers • Currently in alpha, GKE On-Prem is meant to give enterprises a consistent way to manage their application infrastructure in-house and in the public cloud • The company announced the feature at its annual Next conference in San Francisco Tuesday
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Evolution of Docker Container Security: Part 2

Maintaining image/configuration integrity is key to Docker container security.
by Tom Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Big Tech is Throwing Money and Talent at Robots for the Home

Behind the scenes, big tech companies are funding secret projects to develop robots.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Windows vs. Linux vs. Mac vs. Whatever: Does It Matter?

While organizations used to have to make a Windows vs. Linux vs. Mac vs. whatever choice, the OS doesn't matter (as much) anymore.
by Christopher Tozzi via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Alphabet Soars to Record After Earnings Wallop Expectations

Parent company Alphabet Inc. posted second-quarter results that walloped Wall Street expectations, while Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai hinted at new untapped advertising opportunities and highlighted growth at video service YouTube and the cloud arm.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

AWS Turns Snowball Appliance into Shippable Edge Compute Device

Amazon has launched new cloud VM instances for Snowball Edge • Originally designed for efficient transfer of lots of data to AWS, the appliance now supports EC2 • The product is aimed at customers that need temporary edge computing capacity • They can use the same AWS tools to manage their instances on Snowball Edge
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

DevOptics Enables Companies to Track Progress Toward DevOps Model

Building a successful DevOps model is part technology, part culture, and tools are needed to measure performance of both.
by Simon Bisson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Active Defense and the Quest to Outsmart Hackers

Fighting cybercrime is growing more expensive. Perpetrating it has never been so easy. How active defense could restore a modicum of symmetry to the cybersecurity field.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Hyperconvergence for Databases

Sponsored by Cisco
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Apple's iPhones Trail Samsung, Google Devices in Internet Speeds

Apple’s iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and $1,000 iPhone X trail the latest smartphones from Samsung Electronics Co. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in download speeds, according to data from Ookla LLC.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Industrial Internet: GE and Microsoft Expand Alliance

The bolstered collaboration was a request from shared customers.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Story Behind Google's Secret Offer to Settle EU’s Android Probe

European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager coolly hit Google with a 4.3 billion-euro ($5 billion) fine last week, the biggest penalty in the history of antitrust enforcement. It didn’t have to be that way.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Open Source Licensing: Why the GPL's Heyday Is Over

With "open source" now the rule rather than the exception, open source licensing has taken a turn away from GNU GPL.
by Christopher Tozzi via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How Azure Data Sync Helps Businesses Develop Cloud Migration Strategy

Microsoft's new Azure cloud platform tool brings on premises even closer to the cloud, helping companies develop their cloud migration strategy.
by Tim Ford via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Search Engine Hacks: What You Need to Know (Now) about Google Hacking

Google hacking often yields sensitive info. Turn the tables and use search engine hacks to test your own data's vulnerability.
by Tom Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Unified Security Management vs. SIEM: a Technical Comparison

Get a full overview of the changing security landscape, and more importantly insight into the rapidly changing SIEM category, and the reasons that have led to those changes. To offer a complete picture of the changes to SIEM technology, it is valuabl
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Frost & Sullivan: Practitioner’s Guide to Building a Security Operations Center

The purpose of a Security Operations Center (SOC) is to identify, investigate, prioritize, and resolve issues that could affect the security of an organization’s critical infrastructure and data. A well-developed and well-run SOC can perform real-tim
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

6 Steps to SIEM Success

Whether you are looking at SIEM for threat management or compliance, we’ve put together the following evaluation guide to help you find the best SIEM solution for your organization.  Whether your goals are to: Detect Threats Achieve Compliance Fuel I
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How to Simplify PCI DSS Compliance with a Unified Approach to Security

Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2018Time: 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Demonstrating compliance with PCI DSS is far from a trivial exercise. The 12 requirements of PCI DSS often translate into a lot of time and effort to access the nec
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How to Outsource Your Security Monitoring 101

Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2018Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Today’s rapidly evolving world means that traditional security measures like firewalls and antivirus are not sufficient to protect a company from a devastating breach.
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

‘Grab and Go’ Simplifies Google Device Management for Businesses

Google wants to offer IT Pros an option for quickly getting users back online and working in the event of a hardware device failure: ‘Grab and Go” might sound like a fast food bar but it is a way to implement a device loaner library. Also this week: Azure File Sync and Remote Desktop Web Client from Microsoft both reach general availability. Google opens a beta program for Course Kit to help educators manage their classroom curriculum and associated activity.
by Richard Hay, Lisa Schmeiser via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

What to Watch for at Google Cloud Next 2018

Google Cloud Next kicks off in San Francisco next week, and whether you are interested in learning more about Google Cloud Platform (GCP), machine learning and AI or collaboration, there is something for everyone on the schedule.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Intuit Sells Quincy Data Center to H5 at a Loss as It Moves to AWS

Intuit has sold its Quincy, Washington, data center to H5 Data Centers • The software maker behind TurboTax and QuickBooks has moved most of its core applications to Amazon Web Services • Intuit, which will keep a lot of computing infrastructure in the facility, expects to lose up to $80 million as a result of the sale • H5 is already marketing the massive data center campus to other wholesale tenants
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Practitioner’s Guide to Security Monitoring in the Cloud

Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2018Time: 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Cloud computing continues to transform the way organizations use, store, and share data, applications, and workloads, but has also introduced a host of new security
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

PTC Customers Share IoT Strategy Tips, Demo IIoT Maturity

The maturity of IIoT implementations was on display when leaders spanning IT and OT roles discussed their tips for successful IIoT projects.
by Courtney Bjorlin via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Cyberattacks on Health-Care Providers Are Up in Recent Months

Health-care providers and government agencies across the U.S. have seen an increase in cybersecurity breaches in recent months, exposing sensitive data from hundreds of thousands of people as the sector scrambles to find adequate defense mechanisms.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Says It Stopped Cyberattacks on Three 2018 Candidates

The targets, who it didn’t identify, were “all people who because of their positions might have been interesting from an espionage standpoint, as well as an election disruption standpoint,” Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Thursday.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Sales Top Estimates With More Clients Signing Up for Cloud

Microsoft Corp.’s cloud-fueled turnaround persisted in the fiscal fourth quarter, when sales and profit got a boost from customers signing up for more internet-based storage, processing and Office productivity software.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The World's Largest Port Automates

The world's biggest and busiest port automates with the help of Cisco’s hyperconverged infrastructure solution, Cisco HyperFlex.
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google Cloud Next Highlights Enterprise Readiness, AI in Equal Measure

Google Cloud Next draws 25,000 attendees as the cloud giant covers topics from enterprise-ready cloud business capabilities to AI, making the case for why it is the best option for enterprises.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google is Building a Version of Kubernetes Engine for On-Prem Data Centers

Google Cloud is building a version of its Kubernetes Engine service users can run in their own data centers • Currently in alpha, GKE On-Prem is meant to give enterprises a consistent way to manage their application infrastructure in-house and in the public cloud • The company announced the feature at its annual Next conference in San Francisco Tuesday
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Evolution of Docker Container Security: Part 2

Maintaining image/configuration integrity is key to Docker container security.
by Tom Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Hyperconvergence for Databases

Sponsored by Cisco
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Big Tech is Throwing Money and Talent at Robots for the Home

Behind the scenes, big tech companies are funding secret projects to develop robots.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Windows vs. Linux vs. Mac vs. Whatever: Does It Matter?

While organizations used to have to make a Windows vs. Linux vs. Mac vs. whatever choice, the OS doesn't matter (as much) anymore.
by Christopher Tozzi via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Alphabet Soars to Record After Earnings Wallop Expectations

Parent company Alphabet Inc. posted second-quarter results that walloped Wall Street expectations, while Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai hinted at new untapped advertising opportunities and highlighted growth at video service YouTube and the cloud arm.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

AWS Turns Snowball Appliance into Shippable Edge Compute Device

Amazon has launched new cloud VM instances for Snowball Edge • Originally designed for efficient transfer of lots of data to AWS, the appliance now supports EC2 • The product is aimed at customers that need temporary edge computing capacity • They can use the same AWS tools to manage their instances on Snowball Edge
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

DevOptics Enables Companies to Track Progress Toward DevOps Model

Building a successful DevOps model is part technology, part culture, and tools are needed to measure performance of both.
by Simon Bisson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Active Defense and the Quest to Outsmart Hackers

Fighting cybercrime is growing more expensive. Perpetrating it has never been so easy. How active defense could restore a modicum of symmetry to the cybersecurity field.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Hyperconvergence for Databases

Designed for Microsoft SQL databases
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Whither a New Intranet on Modern Office 365?

I was thinking about this a while back, and I started a conversation with a few of my go to smart people, Sue Hanley (@susanhanley) and Julie Turner (@jfj1997).  If you were starting today with someone on a new Intranet on Office 365 – someone who has never used SharePoint at all – where would you put the Intranet “home page”?

However you build it, most people will think of your Intranet something like this.

The question seems simple, but the root site of a tenant is a “classic” site, and most people would want their new Intranet to be “modern” all the way. So a shallow page in the root which just contains links to some other Hub Sites (maybe Departments, Projects, etc.) or an Intranet at /sites/Intranet? This isn’t just an academic discussion – I did a half day workshop with a new client a while ago, and it was hard to answer this without equivocating.

Every organization I’ve ever worked with wants that one landing page that meets virtually every need. We end up parsing that down into realistic implementations, but there has to be a single launchpad. The Intranet home page is almost always that, and it has to be somewhere sensical. It’s hard enough convincing people that http://tenant.sharepoint.com makes sense.  Office.com or portal.office.com, etc. are non-starters in those discussions in my experience.

Most user bases are made up of people who rarely remember the URL to the Intranet or Office 365 unless they use it every day, and in many organizations, that’s just not the case. (The ones that end up using SharePoint for document storage only – a large proportion – fall into this category.) Anything we can do to make that one landing page both compelling to visit (always a content generation challenge, rarely a technical one) and easy to find contributes to success.

Sue’s take on it was this set of three options, which seem to cover the current realm of possibilities.

• Option 1 (Microsoft’s “official” answer, perhaps): Make a modern page on that classic site and make it the home page. My take is that this “page” would feel weird and be marginally useful. It would also have the Quick Launch, which wouldn’t feel right. Since it’s classic, the root site can’t be a Hub Site, so the only way to get useful content onto it would be via development or roll up Web Parts. I am a strong believe in very little manual management of content on an Intranet home page; most should bubble up from other sites.
• Option 2: Dave Feldman’s (@bostonmusicdave) recommendation: Create a Communication Site that will be the new “home” (odds are it would live at /sites/Intranet or /sites/WhateverYouCallYourIntranet) and add a redirect from the classic home. I think that the user experience will be weird for this, but you could test it. Option 3 is a variation on this.
• Option 3: Make a modern site (/sites/Intranet or whatever the name is) and ask users to go to that site. If you don’t advertise contoso.sharepoint.com as the home of the intranet, users won’t go there. If you give them the URL (and make a shortcut for it), that will become the home – because it’s where people expect to find it. You can also make that site a Featured site on SharePoint home. Then, you can design your “home home” to have whatever user experiences you want – directory to the hubs, of course, plus enterprise news that will show up on the mobile app, plus all the other great things that home pages should have to engage the users.

None of these feel “right” to me. I know we’re in a transition phase, but we’re always in one these days. In my experience, most people want the home page of their Intranet to be a no-brainer URL. The most logical place for that on Office 365 is the root of the tenant. Sue raised the question of whether it really matters: using DNS you could come up with a short link that points to /sites/Internet, but I feel strongly that to most people this would just feel wrong – the URL in the browser would look too “messy” to them. (IT people probably wouldn’t care, Corporate Communications or the like would probably freak out.)

The other angle here is how we can future proof that landing page. If we decide to use https://ift.tt/2JPd5XT and we can eventually move it to https://ift.tt/2Lyn2xC, then we have what amounts to a non-durable link.

What do you think about all this? I’d like an Option 4 – make the product do what we really want. This would mean that the root site of a tenant could be a Communication Site or a modern Team Site, and we’re off to the races. I’m sure we’ll get there soon enough.

What are you doing out there, whether you’re a consultant or work within an organization?

 

by Marc D Anderson via Marc D Anderson's Blog

Apple's iPhones Trail Samsung, Google Devices in Internet Speeds

Apple’s iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and $1,000 iPhone X trail the latest smartphones from Samsung Electronics Co. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in download speeds, according to data from Ookla LLC.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Industrial Internet: GE and Microsoft Expand Alliance

The bolstered collaboration was a request from shared customers.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Story Behind Google's Secret Offer to Settle EU’s Android Probe

European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager coolly hit Google with a 4.3 billion-euro ($5 billion) fine last week, the biggest penalty in the history of antitrust enforcement. It didn’t have to be that way.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Open Source Licensing: Why the GPL's Heyday Is Over

With "open source" now the rule rather than the exception, open source licensing has taken a turn away from GNU GPL.
by Christopher Tozzi via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How Azure Data Sync Helps Businesses Develop Cloud Migration Strategy

Microsoft's new Azure cloud platform tool brings on premises even closer to the cloud, helping companies develop their cloud migration strategy.
by Tim Ford via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Search Engine Hacks: What You Need to Know (Now) about Google Hacking

Google hacking often yields sensitive info. Turn the tables and use search engine hacks to test your own data's vulnerability.
by Tom Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Unified Security Management vs. SIEM: a Technical Comparison

Get a full overview of the changing security landscape, and more importantly insight into the rapidly changing SIEM category, and the reasons that have led to those changes. To offer a complete picture of the changes to SIEM technology, it is valuabl
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Frost & Sullivan: Practitioner’s Guide to Building a Security Operations Center

The purpose of a Security Operations Center (SOC) is to identify, investigate, prioritize, and resolve issues that could affect the security of an organization’s critical infrastructure and data. A well-developed and well-run SOC can perform real-tim
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

6 Steps to SIEM Success

Whether you are looking at SIEM for threat management or compliance, we’ve put together the following evaluation guide to help you find the best SIEM solution for your organization.  Whether your goals are to: Detect Threats Achieve Compliance Fuel I
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How to Simplify PCI DSS Compliance with a Unified Approach to Security

Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2018Time: 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Demonstrating compliance with PCI DSS is far from a trivial exercise. The 12 requirements of PCI DSS often translate into a lot of time and effort to access the nec
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How to Outsource Your Security Monitoring 101

Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2018Time: 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Today’s rapidly evolving world means that traditional security measures like firewalls and antivirus are not sufficient to protect a company from a devastating breach.
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

‘Grab and Go’ Simplifies Google Device Management for Businesses

Google wants to offer IT Pros an option for quickly getting users back online and working in the event of a hardware device failure: ‘Grab and Go” might sound like a fast food bar but it is a way to implement a device loaner library. Also this week: Azure File Sync and Remote Desktop Web Client from Microsoft both reach general availability. Google opens a beta program for Course Kit to help educators manage their classroom curriculum and associated activity.
by Richard Hay, Lisa Schmeiser via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

What to Watch for at Google Cloud Next 2018

Google Cloud Next kicks off in San Francisco next week, and whether you are interested in learning more about Google Cloud Platform (GCP), machine learning and AI or collaboration, there is something for everyone on the schedule.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Intuit Sells Quincy Data Center to H5 at a Loss as It Moves to AWS

Intuit has sold its Quincy, Washington, data center to H5 Data Centers • The software maker behind TurboTax and QuickBooks has moved most of its core applications to Amazon Web Services • Intuit, which will keep a lot of computing infrastructure in the facility, expects to lose up to $80 million as a result of the sale • H5 is already marketing the massive data center campus to other wholesale tenants
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The Practitioner’s Guide to Security Monitoring in the Cloud

Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2018Time: 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Cloud computing continues to transform the way organizations use, store, and share data, applications, and workloads, but has also introduced a host of new security
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

PTC Customers Share IoT Strategy Tips, Demo IIoT Maturity

The maturity of IIoT implementations was on display when leaders spanning IT and OT roles discussed their tips for successful IIoT projects.
by Courtney Bjorlin via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Cyberattacks on Health-Care Providers Are Up in Recent Months

Health-care providers and government agencies across the U.S. have seen an increase in cybersecurity breaches in recent months, exposing sensitive data from hundreds of thousands of people as the sector scrambles to find adequate defense mechanisms.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Says It Stopped Cyberattacks on Three 2018 Candidates

The targets, who it didn’t identify, were “all people who because of their positions might have been interesting from an espionage standpoint, as well as an election disruption standpoint,” Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Thursday.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Sales Top Estimates With More Clients Signing Up for Cloud

Microsoft Corp.’s cloud-fueled turnaround persisted in the fiscal fourth quarter, when sales and profit got a boost from customers signing up for more internet-based storage, processing and Office productivity software.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

The World's Largest Port Automates

The world's biggest and busiest port automates with the help of Cisco’s hyperconverged infrastructure solution, Cisco HyperFlex.
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft KB4340558 (July 10, 2018) Breaks ExCM’s SharePoint 2013 FBA SignIn.aspx page

Customers of Extranet Collaboration Manager for SharePoint 2013 need to be aware that the July 10, 2018 patches discussed in Microsoft KB4340588 will cause ExCM’s forms-based authentication SignIn.aspx page to break.  The result will be that users experience a 403 Forbidden error message when attempting to sign in to an extranet site:


The only solution to the problem as of this initial writing (July 19, 2018) is to uninstall the associated Windows Server patches.

For Windows Server 2012 R2, these two patches are the ones that need to be uninstalled:


KB4338424

KB4338419

Note:  KB4340558 is a rollup patch that contains KB4338424 and KB4338419.  It will be labeled in Windows Update like this:



So, while KB4340558 is the patch that gets INSTALLED initially, to remove it you actually UNINSTALL KB4338424 and KB4338419.

Also, be aware that on other versions of Windows Server, the patches may have different KB numbers.

At this time, it is unclear what changes to the .NET Framework were made by Microsoft in these patches that cause the ExCM FBA Sign In page to not work properly.  The description that Microsoft provides of the patches does not give any information that would lead us to believe that the ExCM page would no longer work after applying the Windows Server patches.

Our team is investigating the problem further to try to narrow down what may have changed to the .NET Framework in KB4340558 that has impacted ExCM.  We will update this post when we know more details.

Finally, our testing of Extranet Collaboration Manager for SharePoint 2016 indicates that this Microsoft patch DOES NOT cause the same problem.  ExCM 2016 customers should not be affected, therefore.  Also, this fact leads us to believe that it is possible that the root cause of the problem is that the patch actually breaks SharePoint 2013’s built-in feature that supports custom FBA Sign In pages in general, regardless of whether it is ExCM’s custom FBA Sign In pages or someone else’s.  From SharePoint 2013 Central Administration, this is the particular feature we are referring to:

by noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cate) via SharePoint Solutions Blog

Project ‘Fuchsia’: Google is Quietly Working on a Successor to Android

For more than two years, a small and stealthy group of engineers within Google has been working on software that they hope will eventually replace Android, the world’s dominant mobile operating system.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

IBM Shows Renewed Sales Growth, But It's From the Wrong Place

IBM may have won back some investors’ trust after posting renewed sales growth, but it’s been driven mostly by older business units instead of the newer technology the company touts as key to its future.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Foreign Tech Workers Face Higher Hurdles in Visa Applications

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is taking a much stricter approach to approving applications that are largely filed by those seeking work in the tech industry. Agents will be able to deny applications deemed incomplete or containing errors, without first asking applicants to address the flaw or warning them of an intent to refuse their submission.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

IBM Answers Some Doubters With Revenue Growth, Cloud Sales

IBM has been asking investors to focus on what it calls strategic imperatives -- a collection of newer businesses like cloud computing, AI and security software. The cloud business grew 18 percent, adjusting for currency changes, to $4.7 billion in the quarter.
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Azure Administrator Certification Path Simplified

Microsoft has simplified the path to Azure Administrator certification. Read up on the two exams that are required to pass the certification and find out about free training to help prepare.
by Rod Trent via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google’s Cloud Data Centers for Hollywood Come Online in Los Angeles

Google has launched a cloud availability region in Los Angeles • It is marketed primarily to the area’s media and entertainment industry • The company says the vertical’s bursty workloads are uniquely suited for cloud • Users in California can now enjoy lower latency if they choose L.A. over the previous closest region in Oregon
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Google Fined Record $5 Billion by EU, Given 90 Days to Stop ‘Illegal Practices’

The penalty -- the same amount the Netherlands contributes to the EU budget every year -- is far higher than any other dished out by the U.S., Chinese or other antitrust authorities. More significantly, Google was given 90 days to stop what the EU said were "illegal practices" on contracts with handset manufacturers that push Google services in front of users.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

IoT Managed Services Provider Integron Finds Niche in Clinical Trials

The IoT managed services provider has built up a connected health specialty.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

IoT System Integrator Integron Finds Niche in Clinical Trials

The IoT System Integrator Integron has built up a connected health specialty.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Simplify OS Migration & Device Refresh with Druva inSync

Date: Thursday, August 02, 2018Time: 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight TimeDuration: 1 hour Migrating to a new OS, like Windows 10 or macOS, or performing hardware upgrades can be time-consuming and complicated. Whether it’s replacing a device or refreshing
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Amazon Suffers Tech Crash and Strikes During Prime Day

Megan Quinn, general partner at Spark Capital, tweeted that Amazon’s cloud competitors at Google should be delighted: “Diane Greene is the only person celebrating Amazon Prime Day so far,” referring to Google’s cloud chief.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Trustonic Embeds IoT Security Technology in Microchip MCU

The IoT security technology will be embedded at the chip level using Trustonic’s Kinibi-M software.
by Courtney Bjorlin via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Debuts $399 Surface Go Tablet, Taking on Cheaper iPads

Microsoft Corp. is going for the low end of the personal computing market with a smaller, cheaper Surface Go tablet that takes on Apple Inc.’s cheapest iPads.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Facial Recognition Systems Are in Ethical Crosshairs

As the development of facial recognition systems progress, so do controversial uses by law enforcement agencies.
by Terri Coles via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Salesforce Buys Datorama as Marketing Battle With Adobe Heats Up

As Salesforce’s core sales cloud has saturated the customer-relationship management tool market, which it dominates, the San Francisco-based company has sought to drive growth in other areas, including marketing.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

‘This Is Not a Passing Fad’: CFA Exam Adds Crypto, Blockchain Topics

CFA Institute, whose grueling three-level program has helped train more than 150,000 financial professionals, is adding topics on cryptocurrencies and blockchain to its Level I and II curriculums for the first time next year.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How Amy Hood Won Back Wall Street and Helped Reboot Microsoft

The Microsoft CFO has partnered with CEO Satya Nadella to turn the company around, becoming more influential than previous Microsoft CFOs and translating her boss’s strategy and product priorities into precise spending plans and forecasts. She has refocused Wall Street on cloud computing metrics and handily beat them.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Future of Smartphones: 5 Predictions for the Next 5 Years

Smartphone innovation lately has been mostly incremental rather than innovative. Here's what the future of smartphones may hold.
by Craig Mathias via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Smartphone Innovation: 5 Predictions for the Next 5 Years

Smartphone innovation lately has been mostly incremental rather than innovative, especially when it comes to the handset itself.
by Craig Mathias via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Launches Set of Free Collaborating Tools for All

Microsoft unveiled a free version of Microsoft Teams and a new Whiteboard app. This pair of apps creates a set of collaboration tools that will push productivity forward for many users. Also this week: news about updates to Microsoft 365 that will enable live events across an organization and new analytics to help workers improve their productivity by learning more about how they use their time.
by Richard Hay, Lisa Schmeiser via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Cisco, Juniper Fall on Report Amazon May Sell Data Switches

Amazon Web Service’s plan to enter the $14 billion global market for the equipment that helps shepherd traffic around networks, signals the company may become more entrenched in the enterprise computing marketplace.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Virtustream: Enterprises Embrace Multi-Cloud Strategy

The Dell-owned enterprise-class cloud software and services provider says a majority of enterprises employ a multi-cloud strategy. Enterprises in the survey said that they prioritize performance over cost, and compliance and security when matching workloads to cloud environments.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Microsoft Urges Lawmakers to Regulate Face-Recognition Tech

Microsoft Corp., which has come under fire for a U.S. government contract that was said to involve facial recognition software, said it will more carefully consider contracts in this area and urged lawmakers to regulate the use of such artificial intelligence to prevent abuse.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Virtual Reality Requirements Are a Driver for New Lenovo Workstations

With 128 GB of RAM, the new Lenovo ThinkPad P52s have more system memory than businesses--and even virtual reality requirements--could likely consume.
by Paul Heltzel via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

5 Questions to Help You Cut Through Blockchain Hype

Blockchain hype may have arguably peaked, but it is still tangible. Here are five questions to help you separate blockchain fact from fiction.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Best Practices for Deploying a Remote Workforce

Key Steps to Transforming the Modern Office
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

VMware Cloud CTO: Launching VMware on AWS Has Been a Heavy Lift

Integrating VMware with Amazon’s cloud infrastructure has been a big job for engineering teams on both sides of the partnership • Both have had to make major changes to their architectures and create new operational processes, VMware’s cloud CTO Kit Colbert told Data Center Knowledge • For that reason, the full impact of the partnership between the world’s biggest cloud provider and the biggest data center software company will take some time to unfold • For the same reason, it will be a while before VMware strikes similar deals with other cloud providers, such as Microsoft, Google, and IBM
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How to Future-Proof a Career in IT

Those that have spent their lifetime in IT are faced with either moving on or even finding a different career altogether. Here are some recommendations that can extend the life of the IT pro indefinitely.
by Rod Trent via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

MBA Students Seek ‘Sexy’ Tech Jobs, and Silicon Valley Is Hiring

“The tech industry has a ton of really creative, young individuals who think about the world in different ways and those are the type of people I want to be surrounded by every day,” MBA student Conor Farese said. “People want to work with other young people. People want to work in places where they can grow -- MBAs especially want that.”
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Apple Debuts Upgraded Pro Laptops Ahead of Fall Product Blitz

Apple released an upgraded MacBook Pro line Thursday that’s faster and has more features, targeting its loyal base of professional users like app developers and movie editors.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Startup Oasis Labs Raises $45M for Cloud Platform on Blockchain Architecture

Oasis Labs says its cloud platform on blockchain architecture will help developers build privacy into their apps, while giving users more control over their personal data.
by Nicole Henderson via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Keeping Cybersecurity Spending on Track as IoT Adoption Swells

It can be difficult to keep cybersecurity spending on track. While underinvesting is common, so is waste.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Debugging Issues with Content Type Hub Syndication

As we’re moving into the “modern” era in SharePoint Online, we will need to use the Content Type Hub more and more frequently. This is due to the fact that we are moving from a subsite-laden pyramid of sites to a flat topology of sites. Where we used to build our information architecture – Site Columns and Content Types – in the root site of the pyramid and utilize it in all the subsites, we now need to elevate our information architecture to the Content Type Hub if we want to ensure reuse and clean management.

The publishing process from the Content Type Hub is sort of crappy, to be honest. The capabilities there were really cool when they first came out in SharePoint 2010, but it truly needs some love from the SharePoint folks in Redmond. I know it’s on their list, but in the meantime, we need to struggle with it as is.

To help with this, we can turn to some tooling in in each site that I’m not sure a lot of people know about. In every Site Collection – therefore every modern site – there’s a Content type publishing settings page that can help at

/_layouts/15/contenttypesyndicationhubs.aspx

. This page allows you to “pull” on the next publishing round, and also lets you drill into any issues occurring in the process.

If we look at the Content Type Publishing Log, we can see if there are any conflicts blocking the publishing process.

 

There are a number of reasons why you may not see your Content Type available in a particular Site Collection. Here are two examples.

• The error in the green box tells us that there is a conflict with the Content Type name CDM Document already being in use.
• The error in the red box tells us the Site Column Indication is already in use in the current Site Collection.

Either of these situations can occur when you prototype something in a particular site and then build the Content Type in the Content Type Hub for wider usage. As we move to modern sites, I expect this will happen to us more and more often.

In either case, this points out the importance of having a holistic view of your information architecture. The flat nature of modern sites is making all of this far more difficult, as we must use the Content Type Hub to get any common structures in place.

Note: Sharegate is EXCELLENT for copying Site Columns and Content Types from one site to another. It doesn’t eliminate any of these problems, but it makes moving your information architecture around much easier.

So the next time you think the syndication (publishing) process just isn’t working because you don’t see the Content Types where you expect them, don’t blame the timer jobs – be sure to look at the Content Type Publishing Log. You’re likely to be able to track down the issue.

 

by Marc D Anderson via Marc D Anderson's Blog

Keep Cybersecurity Spending on Track as IoT Adoption Swells

It can be difficult to keep cybersecurity spending on track. While underinvesting is common, so is waste.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Latest Xen Hypervisor Arrives Late, but Greatly Improved

The latest and greatest version of the open source Xen hypervisor includes leaner code, better performance, and security enhancements under the hood.
by Christine Hall via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Tech Lobby Head Urges Privacy Standards to Avert Divergent Rules

The president of a trade group that represents Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and other tech companies urged faster development of national privacy norms to avoid divergent state rules.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Survey: Companies Expect to Buy More On-Prem Data Center Gear

Cloud giants may be growing nicely, but there’s still a lot of money to be made in enterprise hardware • Top IT folks at most of the 151 North American organizations with their own data centers surveyed recently by IHS Markit expect to at least double the amount of physical servers in their data centers by 2019 • Many expect to also stock up on everything from storage, switches, and routers to security appliances, load balancers, and WAN optimization appliances • The uptick in on-premises data center spend is driven by companies’ need to modernize infrastructure to support increasingly digital business
by Yevgeniy Sverdlik via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

China Can Hit U.S. Tech Where It Hurts in Tariff Response

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by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Tech Companies Jockey as Pentagon Says Cloud Contract Coming

Dana Deasy, the Pentagon’s new chief information officer, said Wednesday that publication of a final request for proposals isn’t far off.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Enterprise Backup and Recovery Made Easy

Protecting enterprise data in a complex IT environment is challenging, time-consuming, cumbersome and often incomplete. Installation of backup and recovery technologies can be complicated and learning to manage and maintain them takes a lot of time,
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Best Ways to Extend Endpoint Management and Security to Mobile Devices

Does your endpoint management extend all the way to management of your mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets? This paper explores the best ways to enroll, inventory, configure and secure mobile devices as you do your traditional devices. Downl
by via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Alexa for Business? 'Ubiquitous' Computing Comes to the Workplace

With a new chatbot-style digital assistant, companies may gain functionality akin to Alexa for business.
by Terri Coles via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

How to Reach a New Generation of Customers? 2 Words: Mobile Text

Businesses must integrate mobile text into business software and practices to meet--if not exceed--customer expectations.
by Paul Heltzel via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Apple’s New AI Chief Takes on Oversight of Siri

Apple Inc.’s new head of artificial intelligence will also oversee the Siri digital assistant, taking on that responsibility from software executive Craig Federighi, according to the company’s website.
by Bloomberg via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Q&A: Cisco Exec Dishes on Industrial IoT Security and DeOS

A Cisco exec shares his thoughts on industrial IoT security and cyberattacks designed to destroy rather than extort.
by Brian Buntz via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Surface Go is Microsoft's Latest Effort to Grow Surface Brand

After rumors and leaks over the last several weeks, last night Microsoft unveiled their latest edition to the Surface family. The new device, Surface Go, introduces the Surface brand to a new market of buyers with an entry level price tag of $399 which is much less expensive then other devices in the Surface family.
by Richard Hay, Lisa Schmeiser via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

2018 5G Wireless Debut! Don't Get Too Excited--Yet

5G wireless availability has been announced for a number of cities, and the list will continue to grow. But the true impact of 5G wireless will take some time to be felt.
by Paul Heltzel via IT Pro - Microsoft Windows Information, Solutions, Tools

Renewed as Office Apps and Services MVP and awarded Cloud and Datacenter Management

A bit late on the blog post compared to the other MVPs, but I am honored, humbled and excited to announce I have been renewed as an Office Apps and Services (previously known as Office Servers and Services) MVP for a fifth year in a row! This year is even a bit more special as I have also been awarded the Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP for the first time, for my contributions in the PowerShell community!

Thanks to Microsoft community for giving me the opportunity to share my knowledge, I will continue to share my passion for Office 365, SharePoint, Flow and of course PowerShell! Special mention to the whole team at Valo Intranet who keeps encouraging me to do more and enables me to give back to community as much as I do! All of the five MVPs on the team got renewed and I am looking forward to creating awesome content with all of them this upcoming year!

The post Renewed as Office Apps and Services MVP and awarded Cloud and Datacenter Management appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu

Overview of harmon.ie 10: Bringing Office 365 in your Outlook

Product overview by Vlad Catrinescu – requested by harmon.ie, but thoughts are my own.
All proceeds from this review will be used to fund my 100-mile Pelotonia bike ride to end cancer.

Information Overload is an increasing problem both in the workplace, and in life in general. Information Overload is when you are trying to deal with more information than you can process to make sensible decisions. The result is that you either delay making decisions, or that you make the wrong decisions. And let’s be honest, we all feel a kind of information overload because of all the sources of information we have today. Even if we talk only Office 365, we need to look for information in SharePoint, Outlook, Groups, Planner, Teams, etc! With it’s latest release called harmon.ie attempts to solve this problem and allow users to focus on work rather than tools. harmon.ie 10 delivers your SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams documents, Outlook emails and calendar invites, plus Office 365 app notifications directly to your Outlook window… organized by topics, the way you think. The harmon.ie team gave me an early version of their newest release to test, so let’s see what the features are!

Having reviewed harmon.ie in the past, I will focus only on the newest features in harmon.ie 10! If you want a tour of the functionality that was already there in the past, check out this review: Review of harmon.ie One: Improve SharePoint Collaboration.

Harmon.ie 10 Overview

Similar to previous harmon.ie Outlook clients, harmon.ie 10 is a sidebar on the right side of your Outlook window. What is new in this version, is that the harmon.ie team now uses the power of the Microsoft Graph to analyze all of the data in Office 365 that you have access to, and group those by different topics. Right now, in this preview version of harmon.ie 10 , the sidebar is not yet responsive, so as you can see , some of the topics are cut off, but the team told me it will be fixed before this becomes final.

Once you clock on a certain topic, you get an overview of the number of items of each type, that are related to that certain topic. In the US Staffing example below, harmon.ie found one e-mail, one document and one calendar event!

Clicking on it again, you can see the different documents, events and e-mails relating to this topic, and clicking on them will automatically open them using the native Microsoft application assigned to it, or for documents, using Office Online and opening them directly from SharePoint, or OneDrive for Business.

Harmon.ie 10 also allows you to search for different topics to quickly access the different items associated with the topics that you’re interested in!

As mentioned previously, those features are added on top of the other great features included in the harmon.ie Outlook sidebar such as SharePoint integration ,easy drag and drop of documents and e-mails, and quick collaboration directly from Outlook.

Conclusion

You depend on Office 365 apps to get work done, but with the number of different apps, and different way of collaborating today, it’s tough to keep up with everything that is happening in your organization. The latest release of the harmon.ie sidebar for Outlook called harmon.ie 10 uses the Microsoft Graph, and machine learning to group information the way you think, by using topics, customers, project names, so you can work the way you think, and not by focusing on the different apps in Office 365.

I loved the idea of grouping information by topics, instead of apps and it made it a lot easier to find information proactively, rather than search for it in the different applications part of my tenant. The harmon.ie version I had is an early release beta, and while the “logic” functionality worked well, and it was able to find/group different items, the fact that the pane was not fully responsive made it hard sometimes so have full control over the topics window. This should not be too much of a big issue for customers as this should be fixed before it gets full released.

If you want to try this in your own tenant to see how it can help your users increase productivity and adoption of office 365, register for an early preview over here: https://pages.harmon.ie/harmonie10-early-access-registration.html or click the banner below!

The post Overview of harmon.ie 10: Bringing Office 365 in your Outlook appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu