RunAs Radio

As Artificial Intelligence enters our organizations, how do we secure them? While at NDC in Sydney, Richard sat down with Sarah Young to discuss the challenges of securing these new technologies. Sarah talks a bit about the fundamentals - in the end, AI technology is just more software and needs all the same authentication and authorization that other apps need. However, there are some unique aspects and potential exploits that you can address through tooling and education. We're all learning these new AI technologies and how to apply them in our organizations - training is essential! Links Azure OpenAI ServiceSystem Message Framework and Template Recommendations for Large Language ModelsMicrosoft PurviewMicrosoft EntraNot with a Bug, But with a StickerRecorded February 14, 2024

How can Microsoft Copilot for Security help you? While at NDC in Sydney, Richard chatted with George Coldham about Microsoft Copilot for Security - combining GPT-4 with information about Microsoft security products and your organization's resources in Azure to provide guidance and insight into making your company more secure. George talks about how it's early days for this copilot - and it's only in preview so far. Bringing together the vast array of security products that Microsoft makes, Microsoft Copilot for Security brings the ability of Large Language Models to summarize data to help you understand where the organization's security vulnerabilities exist and how to address them. You want to get in on this preview! Links Microsoft Copilot for SecurityUnified Security Operations PlatformMicrosoft SentinelMicrosoft Security Portals and Admin CentersMicrosoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft Defender for CloudMicrosoft EntraMicrosoft PurviewMicrosoft PrivaKusto Query LanguageMicrosoft Defender Threat IntelligenceRecorded February 13, 2024

What can GitHub do for you? While at NDC London, Richard chatted with April Edwards about how GitHub can help sysadmins - and everyone in your organization! In the end, GitHub is an engine for managing work, with GitHub Actions kicking off workflows that can send messages, run all sorts of code, activate scripts, and more. Ultimately, you get a good report of what happened - or didn't happen. And over time, those scripts can mature to be more reliable and detailed - and keep a record of every change. Links GitHub ActionsPesterDev ContainersPowerShell 5.1GitHub Advanced SecurityGitHub Code ScanningDependabotGitHub CopilotRecorded February 2, 2024

Aren't we all platform engineers? Steve Buchanan says yes! But there's more to it - and Steve talks about the mindset of looking beyond individual products that we might have skills with and owning the entire problem of providing platforms for your organization to get work done. The conversation dives into the many products that can help our applications function better and the challenge of making them secure and fast. Are containers the solution? Possibly! It's your platform; focus on the fundamentals and go further! Links VS CodeFile Server Resource ManagerAzure Kubernetes ServiceKubernetes NamespacesOpen Service Mesh in AKSMicrosoft Defender for ContainersAzure Chaos StudioAzure Virtual DesktopGitHub CodespacesAKS with Azure PipelinesAzure DraftSecurity CopilotRecorded February 5, 2024

What do you know about large language models? While at NDC in London, Richard sat down with Dr. Jodie Burchell to discuss how machine learning has reached this new technological milestone. Jodie talks about different types of machine learning and how large language models fit into the landscape. The conversation explores where LLMs come from, what they are good at, and what they should not be used for. They are not intelligent and certainly not a panacea for work - but they can be valuable when used correctly! Links GPT-2Microsoft AI SupercomputerGPT-NeoX-20BJodie Burchell on .NET RocksAnthropicGitHub CopilotRetrieval Augmented GenerationThe Busy Persons' Into to LLMs by Anderj KarpathyRecorded February 1, 2024

Have you upgraded to TLS 1.3? While at NDC in London, Richard chatted with Scott Helme about his work moving companies onto the latest version of TLS. But do you need to? Scott talks about how SSL 2 and 3 were used until they were broken by the black hats, leading to a panic to update quickly. While there is no evidence that TLS 1 and 1.1 are breached, they are already deprecated - and are slower than the later versions. Want a performance boost? Move to TLS 1.3! Links KeybaseAPI Root Certificate ExpiryLet's EncryptBrownout Notice at GitHubWhen Logging Causes Security IncidentsDeprecation SHA-1Google Post Quantum EncryptionRecorded February 1, 2024

How are we going to manage the use of M365 Copilot? Richard chats with Martina Grom about her experiences helping organizations prepare for M365 Copilot. Martina talks about getting your data estate in shape - and the challenge that represents in terms of identifying what data should be available within an organization. The conversation also digs into the larger picture of the Microsoft Graph - all the information about how people interact on M365, the resources they create and use, and the potential the Graph offers to help with productivity. It's still early days, but it's never too early to work hard on ensuring we have the right governance in place to allow Copilot to help the company succeed! Links SLRProjectMicrosoft DelveMicrosoft PurviewGitHub Copilot PoliciesData, Privacy, and Security for M365 CopilotExtend Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365Manage Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 with the Copilot pageManage access to public web content in Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 responsesMicrosoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 RequirementsProtect your sensitive data with Microsoft PurviewMicrosoft 365 Copilot Readiness AssessmentRecorded January 5, 2024

What's coming next for Windows Server? Richard chats with Jeff Woolsey about the latest information around Windows Server vNext! Jeff discusses how customer feedback influences Windows Server and the challenges of moving folks to the latest versions. Server vNext is designed to live in a cloud hybrid world and includes improvements for interacting with Azure, but it also has plenty of on-premises features. The conversation turns to Active Directory and its ongoing modernization to make it more secure, robust, and scalable. The same goes for the rest of the Windows Server - coming soon! Links Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure EditionAzure ArcStorage Spaces DirectWindows Server vNext Talk from IgniteRecorded December 14, 2023

How does your company organize information? Richard chats with Emily Mancini about the metadata in SharePoint. Emily points out that if you're using Teams, you're using SharePoint - it's all under the hood. And that means any files are being tagged with metadata whether you do it intentionally or not. Taking control of your metadata can mean more effective searches and managing surprises with tools like M365 Copilot. Metadata can help you protect sensitive data and make existing data visible to the people needing it. Spending a few hours with it can make a huge difference! Links Microsoft 365 & Power Platform CommunityLeft UnchartedSharePointMicrosoft 365 CopilotMicrosoft 365 Governance QuestionsSharePoint Term SetsSharePoint Content TypesEmily's Blog Post of Building Metadata in SharePoint OnlineRecorded January 4, 2024

How do you manage cloud-native applications? While at Ignite in Seattle, Richard chatted with Brendan Burns about ongoing efforts to develop tools to make building and operating cloud-native applications more manageable. Brendan discusses the challenges around building apps with Kubernetes and how next-generation tools like Radius and Dapr try to address those problems to make it easier to make the right choices. There's a powerful intersection between sysadmins and developers when making manageable applications in the cloud! Links: RadiusKubernetesAzure Kubernetes ServiceAzure Resource ManagerAzure BicepOpen Application Modeldapr.NET AspireRecorded November 16, 2023

Is there a strategy for buying software licenses? Richard talks with Mary Jo Foley about her new role at Directions on Microsoft, including her experiences around the multi-day workshops on effectively buying software licenses today. Mary Jo talks about understanding the entire landscape of software licenses your organization needs, how they are used, and how you can build a strategy to negotiate a better licensing cost for your organization. You already do much of the work for this, but bringing everything together is a challenge - but worth it! Links: Directions on MicrosoftDynamics 365Copilot for Microsoft 365Microsoft PurviewMicrosoft PrivaMicrosoft Security CopilotLicensing Boot CampRecorded December 14, 2023

How can artificial intelligence help sysadmins? While at Ignite in Seattle, Richard talked with Gil Pekelman of Atera about their AI for IT product. Gil talks about developing smart instrumentation for IT and extensively monitoring machines and networks to give you a broad overview of your infrastructure. Then OpenAI expanded its capabilities - allowing users to submit report requests to a large language model that can act as a copilot or an autopilot, able to resolve tickets or prepare them for a sysadmin to act quickly. Links: AteraOpenAIAzure OpenAI ServiceRecorded November 16, 2023

How is the Power Platform evolving? Richard chats with April Dunnam about the latest on the Power Platform - especially the emergence of Large Language Models like Copilot. April talks about how it's possible to use Copilots in Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Automate to help you build your automation - and how writing prompts can help you think through what you're trying to make. The conversation also digs into providing Copilots to users so that you spend less time creating UX and more time building features that the users can request. It's a Copilot world - we're just living in it! Links: Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence Starter KitAI Copilot OverviewCopilot in PowerBIPower Automate CopilotResponsive Layouts in Canvas AppsBuilding a Multi-Language Power AppMicrosoft Copilot StudioPower Apps ConnectorsMicrosoft CopilotsPower Apps PromptsRecorded December 11, 2023

Active Directory is still part of our lives - but can we make it more robust? Richard talks to Jerry Devore about his ongoing blog series on hardening Active Directory. Jerry talks about credential drift - decisions made in the past to turn down (or off!) security features in AD that made sense at the time but are no longer relevant. Most of these efforts only consume time - no products are involved, or the products are free. Check out the links in the show notes for Compliance tools that can help you find vulnerabilities in your infrastructure, including AD. Links: Pass-the-Hash White PaperMITRE ATT&CKWindows LAPSEnable NTLM 2 AuthenticationLDAP SigningForest and Domain Functional LevelsCredential GuardMicrosoft IntuneSecurity Compliance Toolkit and BaselinesRecorded November 20, 2023

Another year of doing more with less? While at Ignite in Seattle, Richard sat down with Erin Chapple to talk about her work on Azure Infrastructure and the challenges around the cloud - more instances of everything, more to manage, more to pay attention to. And yet, budgets are not increasing! Erin talks about improving utilization within the cloud and broadening monitoring to cover everything you care about on-premises or on any cloud. And then there are the new copilots. Work to set up? Perhaps. But Azure Copilot can help you understand what's happening in your Azure tenant and how to utilize it more effectively. You can do more with less! Links: Azure CopilotRecorded November 16, 2023

For the last show of 2023, let’s look back at the year and speculate about 2024. Richard flies solo to talk about what he’s learned the past year and some thoughts about going forward into the next year. Economic concerns continue to play a significant role in sysadmin life – companies are holding back on spending but still expecting all the services. And new technologies like large language models look to play a significant role in our lives – if we choose to take advantage of them! Links: Large Language Models in Business with Ulrika HedlundGetting Ready for M365 Copilot with Karoliina KettukariPatching in 2023 with Sami LaihoResponding to a Ransomware Attack with Dana EppPlan for Windows 10 EOS with Windows 11, Windows 3655, and ESURecorded December 22, 2023

What's an Azure Arc Guest Configuration? Richard talks to Jodi Boone about the freshly renamed Machine Configuration for Azure Arc. It turns out "guest" is a problematic word - but being able to set policy around machine configurations can make your life much easier. Jodi talks about using existing policy templates, along with Desired State Configuration, to customize configurations so that they can be applied to multiple virtual machines on Azure, on-premises, and in other cloud environments. Links: Configuration for Azure Arc-enabled ServersDesired State ConfigurationAzure Automation State ConfigurationMicrosoft Defender for CloudAzure Arc-enabled KubernetesAzure Management ServicesDSC Extension for LinuxSetting up a Machine Configuration Authoring EnviromentRecorded November 3, 2023

The holiday season is upon us! What do you get your favorite sysadmin? Richard brings back his friends Joey Snow & Rick Claus to discuss some of their favorite sysadmin gifts this year. From simple gadgets that flashback to the early days of tech to the newest and latest versions of favorite products, there's an incredible array of goodies here. Please share it with the folks who struggle to find the perfect present for the sysadmins in their lives! Links: Meater 2Floppy Disk CoastersAnker 747 USB ChargerDig2GoSurface Pro 9Slim Run EthernetObsbot Tiny 2Alpaca HoodieAnker Portable ChargerAnker GaNPrime Power BankEmber Temperature Control Smart Mug 2Rocketbook Core Reusable Smart NotebookTetris LED LightsMandalorian Stand for Echo DotNES Entertainment FlaskRecorded November 17, 2023

Can M365 help modernize your workplace? Richard chats with Sharon Weaver about her work helping companies migrate into M365 and how it helps provide more options to workers. Sharon talks about how the pandemic accelerated the process and the challenge of finding a new normal today. The conversation also dives into good information architecture for helping with productivity and using tools like Viva Insights to understand more about how you work - and your coworkers! Links: SharePoint OnlineMicrosoft TeamsThe Power of Full EngagementMicrosoft Viva InsightsCommunity DaysRecorded November 1, 2023

We're all using zero trust - but are we using it well? Richard talks to Nicolas Blank about his work helping to develop the Zero Trust Adoption Framework. Nicolas talks about resisting the buzzword effect and avoiding looking at zero trust as a set of products because it isn't - it's really about the people and processes in your organization that keep things secure. The conversation also digs into the tabletop exercises needed to create priorities for security - not everything in your organization needs the same level of protection or effort. It pays to work through scenarios! Links: Zero Trust Adoption FrameworkMicrosoft Entra IDRansomware Recovery ReadinessMimiKatzRecorded October 12, 2023