Azure Event Grid – An Event Service for Modern Applications

Whether in reaction to changes coming from IoT devices, in response to user clicks on mobile apps, or for the initiation of business processes from customer requests, most modern applications are built through the use of events. With the growth of event-based programming, there is a larger focus on server-less platforms, such as Azure Functions (a server-less compute engine) or Azure Logic Apps (a server-less workflow orchestration engine), which enable you to spend less time worrying about any infrastructure, provisioning, and scaling, and spend more time focusing on your application.

In an attempt to make building event-based and server-less applications even easier to build on Azure, Microsoft has released Azure Event Grid, a first-of-its-kind fully managed event routing service. Azure Event Grid manages all routing of events from any source, to any destination, for any application, greatly simplifying the development of event-based applications as well as the creation of server-less workflows.

Azure Event Grid makes an event a first-class object in Azure, you can subscribe to any event that is happening across your Azure resources and react using server-less platforms like Functions or Logic Apps. In addition to the built-in publishing support for events, through services such as Blob Storage and Resource Groups, Event Grid gives users flexibility and the ability to create your own custom events to publish directly to the service. On top of having a broad array of Azure services and built-in handlers for events, like Functions, Logic Apps, and Azure Automation, Event Grid allows flexibility in handling events, supporting custom web hooks to publish events to any service, even 3rd-party services outside of Azure. The flexibility that Azure Event Grid offers allows for endless application options and makes this a truly unique service in the public cloud.

Here is how it works:

Here are some additional details of this new Azure service:

Today, Azure Event Grid has built-in integration with the following services:

Event Publishers and HandlersWe are aiming to deliver more event sources and destinations later on this year, including Azure Active Directory, API Management, IoT Hub, Service Bus, Azure Data Lake Store, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Data Factory, and Storage Queues.

Azure Event Grid completes the missing half of server-less applications. It simplifies event routing and event handling with unparalleled flexibility.

Go ahead and give it a try. I can’t wait to see what you build. To learn more try the quick start.

Finance to Fashion - Industry Leaders Look to Microsoft

In every industry, companies are looking to create more engaging customer experiences, empower employees, reinvent operations and transform products and services. To accomplish this, they look to technology. More and more, when companies work with us to envision their digital strategy across cloud, apps and devices, they do not just become part of a new wave of innovation — they help create it.

Building on recent announcements with organizations like NASCARBMWT-MobileKPMGBaidu and Dun & Bradstreet, Satya yesterday noted customers who are choosing Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365 and other solutions to propel their businesses. Here are a few examples from finance, fashion, logistics, retail and media companies.

HSBC, one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organizations, has selected Dynamics 365 as its cloud platform to digitally transform its customer engagement model. With 37 million customers and operations in 70 countries, HSBC needed a secure cloud solution and scalable infrastructure to support its client engagement and power a 360-degree relationship management program. This capability will help HSBC deliver high data integrity, reduce manual and time-consuming processes and innovate for future growth — all while ensuring data security and satisfying the unique regulations it faces as a global bank.

Moving from finance to fashion, Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana chose Dynamics 365 for its scalability, flexibility and reliability. Dolce & Gabbana is involved in every step of the fashion industry, from the purchase of raw materials to the sale on the market, and the company needed a solution to offer both a comprehensive view of its customers and the availability of finished products in each geographical area and for every sales channel. Dynamics allows the company to streamline processes and better plan production and distribution to ensure excellent service to customers globally.

When it comes to employee collaboration and the secure, modern workplace, industry leaders are choosing Microsoft 365, which combines Office 365, Windows 10 and security management in a complete solution to help simplify IT management. For example, FedEx, the global logistics and delivery services company serving 220 countries, pioneered industry standards for tracking and real-time monitoring for packages. Committed to a collaborative, modern workplace that supports its culture of innovation, FedEx is using Microsoft 365 to empower its workforce. FedEx also leverages the Azure cloud platform to build and power new services, such as its SameDay delivery service, securely and at scale.

 In addition, Staples, the North American business solutions provider, brings technology and people together in innovative ways to consistently deliver products, services and expertise that delights customers. Staples is in business with businesses. The company is passionate about empowering people to become true professionals at work. As part of its public cloud strategy, Staples has chosen Microsoft 365 to simplify its IT infrastructure and create a secure, seamless productive experience for its 24,000 corporate workers and 38,000 retail workers.

Finally, Hearst — one of the U.S.’s largest diversified media, information and services companies, with more than 360 businesses — has partnered with Microsoft to implement a public cloud strategy. Recently, the company chose Azure to power its storage and compute needs as well as improve disaster recovery. With Azure, Hearst is also exploring new opportunities in AI with cognitive services and machine learning to power more advanced digital customer experiences. Hearst also uses Office 365 for collaboration and productivity for its global workforce, and Enterprise Mobility + Security and Intune to secure employee devices.

My best days at work are when I talk to leaders of companies like these. It energizes me to see how Microsoft can help them bring to life their digital vision by addressing their needs today and laying the foundation for business success tomorrow.

How to Connect Dynamics 365 to Power BI

How to Connect Dynamics 365 to Power BI

By Ben Ward
With the release of the latest Dynamics 365 API, analysts can now connect Dynamics 365 to Power BI and download data up-to five times faster compared to the previous version of the API. This is great news to any analyst who is looking to mine, analyze and visualize large data sets hosted in Dynamics 365. This is especially helpful to those who are trying to analyze email sends for an organization as these data sets can exponentially grow.
To connect Dynamics 365 to Power BI, log in to Dynamics 365 and go to Settings > Customizations > Developer Resources and copy the Service Root URL.
It will look like this:
https://yourdomainname.api.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v8.2/
Next, open Power BI and click on Get Data > Online Services and select Dynamics 365 (online) then click Connect. Paste the URL copied above into the Web API URL field and click on OK.
Power BI will then connect to the Dynamics 365 environment specified and return a list of available tables.

A commitment to security and transparency at Microsoft Inspire 2017

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A commitment to security and transparency at Microsoft Inspire 2017

As written on blogs.microsoft.com
Microsoft Inspire (formerly Worldwide Partner Conference) gathered 16,000 attendees from around the world last week in Washington DC. At the event, Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to its partners and its mission to “empower people to be more productive”. To kick off an exciting week, CEO Satya Nadella made five major announcements during the first vision keynote, including the introduction of Microsoft 365.

Commitment to security and transparency

During the vision keynote on day two, President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith provided updates and affirmation of Microsoft’s commitment to security and privacy. Smith promised dedication to security, saying, “Technology for technology’s sake isn’t particularly valuable. Applying technology towards solving human problems is where you unlock the value”. Smith presented a four-part integrated approach to confront ever-evolving cybersecurity threats: Platform, Intelligence, Partners, and Policies. With the cloud being bigger than ever before, Smith says every business has a digital opportunity. Microsoft has committed “new energy, new focus, new resources” to responding to security threats faster and better than ever before. These cloud principles and improved security features in Microsoft 365 will give partners better end to end security management. Better security and transparency help Microsoft and its partners build trust, and “move technology forward without leaving people behind”.

Security focused product announcements

Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a new solution that combines software, management, and security options into a single subscription. Partners can choose from two solutions, Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business. Both options provide productivity and security capabilities and a cohesive experience across applications and devices, while simplifying delivery and management for IT.
GDPR
Partners can play a vital role in General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, by assessing customers’ readiness and helping them adapt to it.
Security Partner Playbook
Help your customers protect against breaches, detect breaches, and respond to breaches with a comprehensive security solution. This playbook focuses coverage on Microsoft products and services that play a critical role in securing this environment. Download the playbook here.
Microsoft Introduces the New Secure Productive Enterprise Offer
Microsoft recently announced its new hero offer called Secure Productive Enterprise (SPE). SPE provides the latest technology across Windows, Office 365, and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS). Frankly, it couldn’t come at a better time as businesses and consumers are increasingly aware of cybersecurity concerns. Here’s what partners can expect in terms of security capabilities from the innovative Microsoft stack and how they can leverage those capabilities to serve customers.

Conclusion

Inspire was surely an inspiring week for the partners who attended. With continued advances in the cloud and a better way for partners to build a modern, cohesive, and secure work environment with Microsoft 365, it should also be an exciting year.

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Introducing Microsoft 365

Introducing Microsoft 365

By Kirk Koenigsbauer as written on blogs.office.com
Today at Inspire, Satya Nadella unveiled Microsoft 365, which brings together Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security, delivering a complete, intelligent and secure solution to empower employees. It represents a fundamental shift in how we will design, build and go to market to address our customers’ needs for a modern workplace.
The workplace is transforming—from changing employee expectations, to more diverse and globally distributed teams, to an increasingly complex threat landscape. From these trends, we are seeing a new culture of work emerging. Our customers are telling us they are looking to empower their people with innovative technology to embrace this modern culture of work.
With more than 100 million commercial monthly active users of Office 365, and more than 500 million Windows 10 devices in use, Microsoft is in a unique position to help companies empower their employees, unlocking business growth and innovation.
To address the commercial needs from the largest enterprise to the smallest business, we are introducing Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise is designed for large organizations and integrates Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security to empower employees to be creative and work together, securely.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise:
Microsoft 365 Enterprise is offered in two plans—Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5. Both are available for purchase on August 1, 2017.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise is built on the foundation of the highly successful Secure Productive Enterprise, which grew seats by triple digits in the last year. Going forward, Microsoft 365 Enterprise replaces Secure Productive Enterprise to double-down on the new customer promise of empowering employees to be creative and work together, securely.
Microsoft 365 Business is designed for small- to medium-sized businesses with up to 300 users and integrates Office 365 Business Premium with tailored security and management features from Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security. It offers services to empower employees, safeguard the business and simplify IT management.
Microsoft 365 Business:
Microsoft 365 Business will be available in public preview on August 2, 2017. It will become generally available on a worldwide basis in the fall of 2017, priced at US $20 per user, per month.
As a part of our commitment to small-to-medium sized customers, we’re also announcing the preview of three tailored applications that are coming to Office 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 365 Business:
Today, we are also announcing that Microsoft’s mileage tracking app, MileIQ, is now included with Office 365 Business Premium.
Satya also discussed how Microsoft 365 represents a significant opportunity for partners to grow their businesses. Microsoft 365 will drive growth by enabling our more than 64,000 cloud partners to differentiate their offerings, simplify their sales processes and increase their revenue.
According to two Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Studies (commissioned studies conducted by Forrester Consulting), Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business increase average partner margins by an estimated 35 percent and 20 percent, respectively, over three years. Partners can learn more and explore training, sales and deployment resources on the Microsoft 365 partner site.
We are incredibly enthusiastic about Microsoft 365 and how it will help customers and partners drive growth and innovation. To learn more about Microsoft 365, please visit Microsoft.com/Microsoft-365.

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Cloud Wars: Microsoft vs Amazon Web Services Infographic

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Cloud Wars: Microsoft vs. Amazon Web Services

Why Microsoft Azure is the #1 Cloud Vendor

While Amazon Web Services has typically been a strong contender for cloud solutions, Microsoft is walking away with the title of number one cloud vendor (Source: Bob Evans on forbes.com). With highlighted features of scalability, innovation, and complete cloud capabilities, Microsoft is a clear winner in the battle between AWS and Microsoft Azure.
Download the infographic below to see how we break down how Microsoft Azure shines against AWS in all things cloud.


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Microsoft Azure Stack is ready to order now

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By Mike Neil as written on azure.microsoft.com
Throughout the Technical Previews, we’ve seen tremendous customer and partner excitement around Microsoft Azure Stack. In fact, we’re speaking with thousands of partners this week at our Microsoft Inspire event. Our partners are excited about the new business opportunities opened up by our ‘One Azure Ecosystem’ approach, which helps them extend their Azure investments to Azure Stack, to unlock new possibilities for hybrid cloud environments. In that vein, today we are announcing:

Azure Stack promise

Azure Stack is an extension of Azure, thereby enabling a truly consistent hybrid cloud platform. Consistency removes hybrid cloud complexity, which helps you maximize your investments across cloud and on-premises environments. Consistency enables you to build and deploy applications using the exact same approach – same APIs, same DevOps tools, same portal – leading to increased developer productivity. Consistency enables you to develop cloud applications faster by building on Azure Marketplace application components. Consistency enables you to confidently invest in people and processes knowing that those are fully transferable. The ability to run consistent Azure services on-premises gets you full flexibility to decide where applications and workloads should reside. An integrated systems-based delivery model ensures that you can focus on what matters to your business (i.e., your applications), while also enabling us to deliver Azure innovation to you faster.
In its initial release, Azure Stack includes a core set of Azure services, DevOps tooling, and Azure Marketplace content, all of which are delivered through an integrated systems approach. Check out this whitepaper for more information about what capabilities are available in Azure Stack at the initial release and what is planned for future versions.

Hybrid use cases unlock application innovation

Azure and Azure Stack unlock new use cases for customer facing and internal line of business applications:

Ecosystem solutions across Azure and Azure Stack

You can speed up your Azure Stack initiatives by leveraging the rich Azure ecosystem:

Orderable integrated systems, free single-server kit for trial

Azure Stack has two deployment options:

Closing thoughts

As an extension of Azure, Azure Stack will deliver continuous innovation with frequent updates following the initial release. These updates will help us deliver enriched hybrid application use cases, as well as grow the infrastructure footprint of Azure Stack. We will also continue to broaden the Azure ecosystem to enable additional choice and flexibility for you.
I look forward to hearing what everyone does with Azure Stack!

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Achieve IT infrastructure cost savings of at least 50%

Call Southern California’s most trusted name in cloud at 800-208-3617 for real time pricing and a cost benefit analysis for Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s AWS.

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An inspired partnership: WE and Microsoft join forces to bring WE Day to more students and schools

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By Anthony Salcito as written on educationblog.microsoft.com
Microsoft is proud to partner with WE, an organization that brings people together and gives them the tools to change the world. Microsoft shares that vision and, through its technology, is helping WE accelerate their impact.
I had the privilege of attending WE Day recently in Vancouver, Canada and meeting with co-founder of WE, Craig Kielburger.
As I met with Craig, I learned a great deal more about WE and we discussed some of the ways Microsoft is working with them to expand the WE mission to reach more students and empower youth as a force for inclusion.

Q&A with Craig Kielburger, co-founder of WE

Anthony: I attended WE Day in Vancouver, BC recently, and I was overwhelmed by the energy and commitment of these students. What inspired you to build this amazing organization?
Craig: At the age of 12, I was inspired to help improve human rights for children around the world after I heard a story about Iqbal Masih, a young activist in Pakistan, who stood up against child labor. I knew I couldn’t make significant change alone, so I convinced a handful of my grade 7 classmates to join me in making a life-changing impact. That was how WE was born and, 20 years later, we are still passionate about empowering young people to be leaders of today through WE programming, such as WE Schools and WE Day.
We celebrate the incredible commitment of these students to service through WE Day, an inspiring, stadium-sized, life-changing event that takes place around the world. It unites world-renowned speakers, presenters and award-winning performers with thousands of young people and families to celebrate and inspire another year of incredible change. These are hosted in cities across North America and the UK. What’s unique about these stadium-sized events is that you can’t buy a ticket to WE Day – students earn their ticket by taking one local and one global action on causes they are most passionate about.
Anthony: Tell me about your vision for WE Schools.
Craig: WE Schools is a free, year-long service learning program that focuses on empowering students with the tools to make an impact in their local communities and beyond.
The WE Schools program has grown to include more than 12,000 schools and engages nearly a million students. WE Schools provide educators and students with the necessary tools, including curriculum and resources, to identify issues they care about and to take action. Educators can sign up at https://www.we.org/we-schools/.
This year, we are partnering with Microsoft to make the WE Schools curriculum digitally accessible through Microsoft OneNote, widening our reach and granting more students and educators around the world with access to our service curriculum. Our goal is to bring a passion for service to as many students as possible and, by 2019, we hope to triple the number of schools participating.
Anthony: How do you see the partnership with Microsoft helping advance your vision and mission?
Craig: Microsoft and WE share a common vision to help students be a force for good, locally and globally. That’s why we recently launched WE are One, a campaign that educates young people about issues of accessibility and encourages them to use technology to make their communities more inclusive.
Using Microsoft products and programs, classrooms will be able to organize, collaborate and share ideas on important issues. With technology – especially tools like OneNote, and Skype – we can go from reaching a million students to millions of students around the world.
The WE are One campaign also comes with accompanying WE Schools curriculum, outlining ways to integrate OneNote, Sway, Skype and Minecraft: Education Edition into lesson plans, to help students create and share their projects. This campaign is a great example of how we are digitizing WE Schools curriculum and, as a result, reaching students all over the world.
image: https://educationblog.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/media/MoeYang_WDVAN_CRG-25.jpg
Craig Kielburger addresses attendees at WE Day on stage.
Anthony: Of course, Microsoft is thrilled to be part of WE are One because it speaks so clearly to our mission to empower students and educators to do more. Can you share an example where technology has made a difference for a student looking to make a change to help others?
Craig: At this week’s WE Day Seattle, taking place on Friday, April 21, we will be joined by Maia Dua, a 16 year-old from River City High School in Sacramento, CA. He developed a robot as a cost-effective and durable alternative to a seeing-eye dog. The self-propelled, echo-locating Seeing Eye-Bot is made of readily accessible materials, making it more available to individuals of limited financial resources. The best part is that Maia developed this bot in just four days.
Anthony: As powerful is WE Day is, not every student can attend. How can those students (and their teachers) share this powerful experience?
Craig: Following WE Day Seattle, educators and students will be able to access the WE Day recap, which includes a virtual WE Day experience with motivational speeches and performances available at their fingertips, as well as educator resources.
In 60 minutes or less, students will be able to relive the celebration of young change-makers and experience exclusive, behind-the-scenes content. The WE Day recap pairs content from the event with WE Schools action planning to bring the spirit of the WE movement to the classroom. Now, thanks to Microsoft, WE Day lives beyond a one-day event, making it easier for students, friends and family to change the world together, regardless of their location.

How you can be part of WE

Learn more about WE Schools – and sign up – at WE.org, where you can download a free kit with everything you need for a year of changing the world.

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