Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Harness the power of affordable, clean, and sustainable energy. Learn more about Microsoft Azure.

Digital hasn't only made things more comfortable for us, it's also made them better for those without access to basic health or basic services around the world. One example of this is, by creating an interconnected world, we gain a better understanding of how technology can be used to control our natural resources more efficiently and accessibly. While these use cases may be employed in the First World to make existing services self-sustainable and cleaner, in more remote parts of the globe they can be used to create new services that make life better for everyone. Subscribe now to learn more about how you can utilize Microsoft Azure to make your clean energy solutions a reality.

View: Harness the power of affordable, clean, and sustainable energy. Learn more about Microsoft Azure.

Social Asset 1: Subscribe

Learn more about Microsoft Teams for remote work. Subscribe now!

View: Social Asset 1: Subscribe

Teams large gallery view and together mode

One of the aspects students and teachers miss about remote learning is being together in the same space. With Microsoft Teams Large Gallery and Together Mode, everyone appears together—virtual high fives are encouraged! Watch this short video for a quick tip on how to use these new features—and get your students together again.

Teams large gallery view and together mode

One of the aspects students and teachers miss about remote learning is being together in the same space. With Microsoft Teams Large Gallery and Together Mode, everyone appears together—virtual high fives are encouraged! Watch this short video for a quick tip on how to use these new features—and get your students together again.

Prepare for hybrid learning environment with free Teams tutorials

Whether in the classroom, remote, or hybrid, Microsoft Teams is a teaching and learning platform designed for today's education. Microsoft has created interactive demonstrations of Teams to help you get started quickly, with one customized for teachers and another for parents and students. These tutorials highlight useful features of Teams for everyone—have a look.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Thought Leadership: Teams Future Features

This article describes various new features in Microsoft Teams, including enabling calls in separate windows and pinning meeting controls to the top of your screen.

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Just move it to the cloud

This blog outlines the different methods of data migration and use cases. Your method of migrating data to the cloud will depend on many factors. Migrating large amounts of data can be done with any of the methods explained in the blog, including Azure Data Box, File Shares, Site Recovery service, and more.

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Modern teaching and learning

The reality is every education system will have a mix of readiness for all three stages of remote learning. Whether schools are at full connectivity, no connectivity, or emerging connectivity, as the majority are, having one process supports transformation across a whole system or country. This document outlines Microsoft's strategy for providing one process for supporting all three stages of readiness for remote learning. Interested in getting started? We can help.

View: Modern teaching and learning

SunCulture success story: Remove labor to let water flow

"Work smarter, not harder" has become the motto of the digital age. Yet in some parts of the world where modern technology is not accessible, hard, manual labor is the only choice people have to get things done. For example, in parts of Africa where running water is not available, farmers like Monica must manually extract water from a well and distribute it amongst her family, crops, and animals. This isn't just exhausting but also extremely inefficient, and can lead to small yields for such an extensive level of effort. To make matters worse, seasonal changes greatly impact the amount of water available, making life for people like Monica that much harder. So, how can you leverage the power of modern technology to help these farmers produce more food and secure a better future? Watch this video to learn how SunCulture is using solar energy to bring hope and prosperity to Monica and more farmers like her in Kenya.

A company crazy about chocolate, serious about people, uses Microsoft Teams to build personal relationships

Dutch startup Tony's Chocolonely grew out of a journalist's exposé of child slave labor in the cocoa industry and his dream of making the chocolate trade slavery-free. The Amsterdam-based company grew quickly, but its original collaboration apps didn't support its international expansion or its work-life balance ideals. Teams enables Tony's Chocolonely workers to communicate on a personal level with their colleagues in Europe, America, and Africa. Adding telephony capabilities makes it even more powerful, with everything available in one single interface.

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Up-to-Date infographic

Azure SQL databases are always up-to-date. When you migrate SQL Server databases to the Azure cloud, you can adopt Azure SQL Database managed instance for evergreen SQL that never needs to be patched or upgraded along. At the same time, you gain end-to-end SQL Server Engine compatibility for migration without code changes.

View: Up-to-Date infographic

Social Asset B: Reduce up to 80% in administration costs by offloading server/storage infrastructures

When you offload server/storage infrastructures to Azure, you can reduce up to 80% in administration costs.

View: Social Asset B: Reduce up to 80% in administration costs by offloading server/storage infrastructures

Back to school update with Puyallup SD

The traditional educational environment was forced to change this past year, but some school districts already saw the need for transformation, even before COVID required it. The Puyallup School District in Washington state successfully shifted to remote learning last spring through widespread access to devices, integrated technologies, virtual trainings, and open collaboration for more than 23,000 students with Microsoft Education. Read this blog to learn how they did it.

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Tuesday, September 22, 2020

SunCulture success story

If you're reading this, then chances are that getting easy access to clean, running water isn't an issue for you. But for around 43 percent of the world's total population, this simply is not the case. For them, obtaining the drinkable water they need to sustain their families requires hard work and commitment. To make matters even more critical, most of them live in rural areas in which farming is their main source of income. This means that any available water must be carefully distributed between their crops and family, an exhausting situation that can take all day just to keep a small patch of land in farmable condition. Such is the case for Monica, a Kenyan farmer who every day must assume the roles of mother of four, farmer, merchant, and housekeeper just to make ends meet. In this video, you'll learn how she managed her dwindling water supply to keep her farm yielding, family fed, and trade at the local market—a situation that was soon to improve dramatically thanks to modern technology.

SunCulture success story

If you're reading this, then chances are that getting easy access to clean, running water isn't an issue for you. But for around 43 percent of the world's total population, this simply is not the case. For them, obtaining the drinkable water they need to sustain their families requires hard work and commitment. To make matters even more critical, most of them live in rural areas in which farming is their main source of income. This means that any available water must be carefully distributed between their crops and family, an exhausting situation that can take all day just to keep a small patch of land in farmable condition. Such is the case for Monica, a Kenyan farmer who every day must assume the roles of mother of four, farmer, merchant, and housekeeper just to make ends meet. In this video, you'll learn how she managed her dwindling water supply to keep her farm yielding, family fed, and trade at the local market—a situation that was soon to improve dramatically thanks to modern technology.

SunCulture success story

If you're reading this, then chances are that getting easy access to clean, running water isn't an issue for you. But for around 43 percent of the world's total population, this simply is not the case. For them, obtaining the drinkable water they need to sustain their families requires hard work and commitment. To make matters even more critical, most of them live in rural areas in which farming is their main source of income. This means that any available water must be carefully distributed between their crops and family, an exhausting situation that can take all day just to keep a small patch of land in farmable condition. Such is the case for Monica, a Kenyan farmer who every day must assume the roles of mother of four, farmer, merchant, and housekeeper just to make ends meet. In this video, you'll learn how she managed her dwindling water supply to keep her farm yielding, family fed, and trade at the local market—a situation that was soon to improve dramatically thanks to modern technology.

Solution overview video

This video highlights the many ways Microsoft Teams can help your business inspire collaboration, reduce costs and risks, and deepen engagement.

Financial tech company gains SQL Server performance and scalability on Linux

The dv01 financial reporting and analytics platform offers institutional investors transparency and insight into consumer lending markets. Based initially on PostgreSQL and Redshift data warehouse, the dv01 applications began to run slower as complexity increased. After exploring multiple solutions, dv01 eventually moved to Microsoft SQL Server 2016 running on Azure Virtual Machines. This move provided the scalability it needed to handle rapid growth, reduce query response time from 30 seconds to 1-2 seconds, and cut management time by 90 percent.

Technology blueprint for implementing remote learning

Use this detailed guidance document in coordination with the Implementation Guide PPT shared yesterday. This guide offers deeper insight how to implement remote learning as is organized by each specific "Layer" of the Technology Blueprint Implementation—such as Connectivity, Devices, Learning Platform, Learning Resources, and Analytics.

View: Technology blueprint for implementing remote learning

Technology blueprint for implementing remote learning

Use this detailed guidance document in coordination with the Implementation Guide PPT shared yesterday. This guide offers deeper insight how to implement remote learning as is organized by each specific "Layer" of the Technology Blueprint Implementation—such as Connectivity, Devices, Learning Platform, Learning Resources, and Analytics.

View: Technology blueprint for implementing remote learning

Remote learning technology blueprint

This deck provides specifics of the technology blueprint implementation of remote learning, accompanied by a more detailed guidance document to implementing remote learning across large education systems. Sectioned by connectivity, devices, learning platform, learning resources, and analytics—it's designed for an implementation team to engage with specific materials as needed.

View: Remote learning technology blueprint

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Expand your service portfolio by leveraging real-time customer data. Learn more about Azure IoT.

How do you create brand loyalty? In other words, how do you make customers trust your business based on objective reasons that go beyond just brand recognition? To be fair, there is no single answer to this question, but if we've learned anything from the digital age, it's that giving your customers unwavering support and optimizing your products based on their feedback can go a long way to ensuring a business' survival. So how are today's leading enterprises gathering data to obtain accurate insights into their customers to create new products and services? And, more importantly, how can your organization learn from their success to disrupt the market and become a top player in the industry? Subscribe now to stay updated on the latest digital trends and how you can create a more connected business with Microsoft Azure IoT.

View: Expand your service portfolio by leveraging real-time customer data. Learn more about Azure IoT.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Social Asset 7: Subscribe

Stay connected with Microsoft Teams. Subscribe now!

View: Social Asset 7: Subscribe

Secure Infographic

Companies choose Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server because of its unmatched security. Azure delivers multiple layers of security, including the secure foundation of physical datacenters, operational best practices, and engineering processes that follow industry-standard guidelines.

View: Secure Infographic

Collaborate with Microsoft Teams

This infographic lists the many ways you can use Microsoft Teams to drive workplace collaboration. It also provides statistics on the success and popularity of Microsoft Teams.

View: Collaborate with Microsoft Teams

Windows and SQL Server: The Best of Azure

Windows Server and SQL Server are best on Azure. This flyer highlights Azure's unmatched intelligent security, seamless hybrid capabilities, unparalleled innovation capabilities, and unique cost savings options.

View: Windows and SQL Server: The Best of Azure

Distance learning strategic plan

The Microsoft Education Transformation Framework is an evidence-based model for designing system changes and leveraging technology to support that change. UNESCO's Global Education Coalition aims to help countries mobilize resources and implement solutions to provide education remotely, as well as seek equitable solutions and universal access. It also aims to avoid overlapping efforts and facilitate the return of student to school when appropriate. Have a look at this strategic plan and use it as the framework for your organization's distance learning outline.

View: Distance learning strategic plan

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

CWPS uses Microsoft Teams to reimagine sales project workflows

How can your organization benefit from Microsoft Teams? Learn from Frank Lusko, the EVP of Sales and Marketing at CWPS, to hear how his sales team has benefited from this collaboration tool through features such as notification alerts and planner scheduling.

CWPS uses Microsoft Teams to reimagine sales project workflows

How can your organization benefit from Microsoft Teams? Learn from Frank Lusko, the EVP of Sales and Marketing at CWPS, to hear how his sales team has benefited from this collaboration tool through features such as notification alerts and planner scheduling.

Rolls-Royce and Microsoft collaborate to create new digital capabilities

If you've ever experienced a flight delay, you know how frustrating it can be to sit in an airplane for what seems like an eternity, especially if you have other flights to catch or someone is waiting for you at your destination. But you're not the only one negatively affected by these extended pit stops. Like any other transportation business, airlines make a profit the more their planes are in transit, and they lose millions of dollars per year to unexpected maintenance delays. Within this context, Rolls-Royce—one of the leading suppliers of aircraft engines across the world—saw an opportunity to disrupt the traditional sales model and leverage digital transformation to make flights safer while decreasing delays. Watch this video to learn how Rolls-Royce is using Microsoft Azure and IoT to obtain, analyze, and filter critical component data to ensure their engines always fly in the best condition possible and that thousands of passengers reach their destinations safe and sound every day.

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Rolls-Royce and Microsoft collaborate to create new digital capabilities

If you've ever experienced a flight delay, you know how frustrating it can be to sit in an airplane for what seems like an eternity, especially if you have other flights to catch or someone is waiting for you at your destination. But you're not the only one negatively affected by these extended pit stops. Like any other transportation business, airlines make a profit the more their planes are in transit, and they lose millions of dollars per year to unexpected maintenance delays. Within this context, Rolls-Royce—one of the leading suppliers of aircraft engines across the world—saw an opportunity to disrupt the traditional sales model and leverage digital transformation to make flights safer while decreasing delays. Watch this video to learn how Rolls-Royce is using Microsoft Azure and IoT to obtain, analyze, and filter critical component data to ensure their engines always fly in the best condition possible and that thousands of passengers reach their destinations safe and sound every day.

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Security with Azure SQL Database in Azure Government

This video highlights the types of security features customers have been asking for and how Azure SQL Database wraps these features into a unified package of intelligent security capabilities. You'll also learn about the three major pillars of this advanced data security: data classification, vulnerability assessments, and threat detection.

Security with Azure SQL Database in Azure Government

This video highlights the types of security features customers have been asking for and how Azure SQL Database wraps these features into a unified package of intelligent security capabilities. You'll also learn about the three major pillars of this advanced data security: data classification, vulnerability assessments, and threat detection.

Security with Azure SQL Database in Azure Government

This video highlights the types of security features customers have been asking for and how Azure SQL Database wraps these features into a unified package of intelligent security capabilities. You'll also learn about the three major pillars of this advanced data security: data classification, vulnerability assessments, and threat detection.

Security with Azure SQL Database in Azure Government

This video highlights the types of security features customers have been asking for and how Azure SQL Database wraps these features into a unified package of intelligent security capabilities. You'll also learn about the three major pillars of this advanced data security: data classification, vulnerability assessments, and threat detection.

Hong Kong Teaches Students with Remote Learning

Last spring, the global pandemic forced schools around the world to experiment with online learning. Schools that leverage technology to elevate education are finding the most success with this transition. Microsoft Hong Kong's #FutureReady Limitless Learning Program supported over 50,000 teachers and 800,000 students from all 1,000 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Read this blog to see how they did it.

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Wednesday, September 09, 2020

Protect the Privacy of Your Microsoft Teams Meetings

With the increased usage of Microsoft Teams to conduct virtual meetings, the need for tactical best practices to protect your privacy from intruders is also on the rise. This thought leadership article explores how to protect the privacy of your Microsoft Teams Meetings with easy ways to mitigate the risk of such problems by updating your settings.

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Cloud lessons learned: four companies that migrated their Windows Server and SQL Server workloads to Azure

Read the success stories of companies that increased workload performance and cut costs by moving Windows Server and SQL Server to Azure. Download this eBook to learn about the different cloud migration paths that Allscripts, Carlsberg Group, Epos Now, and TraXall France used. See how Azure helps to smoothly migrate legacy data and keep pace with innovation, among other features.

View: Cloud lessons learned: four companies that migrated their Windows Server and SQL Server workloads to Azure

Fresno & EdWeek on hybrid learning

"If we had known the pandemic was coming, we probably wouldn't have done it much differently than we did," shares Kurt Madden of the Fresno Unified School District, the fourth-largest in California. In this webinar, Madden and his colleague Philip Neufeld share how their school district was already implementing elements from the Microsoft Class of 2030 Report and the Microsoft Education Transformation Framework to address future readiness. They were in the midst of transitioning their teaching and learning when the pandemic hit. Even with 90% of their students at poverty level, the district managed to minimize disruption and positioned themselves to successfully navigate with a focus on overall well-being, quality teaching, and health and safety. Listen to this webinar for inspirational insight. You also have the option of reading the transcript of the webinar.

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The 'Internet of Things' Is Changing the Way We Look at the Global Product Value Chain

IoT is no longer a novelty, and still it surprises us each day with new, innovative solutions to everyday tasks. When was the last time you checked the TV for the weather, or had to download your photos to a computer so you could share them with friends or relatives? Unless you're a meteorologist or professional photographer, chances are it's been a long time since you did either of those things. Today, our devices do almost everything for us. From scheduling our appointments to letting us know when our heart rate is above or below safe levels, to everything in between. Our IoT devices truly get to know us better than we thought we knew ourselves. So why not utilize this data to create amazing experiences with the products and services we use every day? In this article, you'll learn how the IoT is helping businesses reevaluate the way they interact with their customers to create new, non-intrusive, and relevant business opportunities that are changing the way we look at the Global Product Supply Chain.

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Tuesday, September 08, 2020

Create and use private channels in Microsoft Teams

With Microsoft Teams private channels, you can have focused, private conversations with specific people on your team. This Microsoft Teams tutorial video will show you how to create private channels as you're working remotely.

Carlsberg Group follows a recipe for success with Microsoft Azure, SAP, and a cloud-first strategy

Discover how the Carlsberg Group has successfully migrated SAP to Microsoft Azure. Migrating their environment to the cloud has helped them drive business performance and achieve digital transformation by streamlining their IT infrastructure.

Education reimagined

We are experiencing a paradigm shift in education. Fueled by a continually-increasing demand for student centered learning and continuing advances in digital technology—and now healthy and safety concerns by the fallout of COVID-19—stakeholders are transforming education across entire systems. This paper explores the changing landscape of education. It navigates the disruption, transition, and reimagining phases of teaching and learning, with data, examples, and recommendations for each step.

View: Education reimagined

The 4 main types of secure hardware

IoT is everywhere: industries, smart cities, homes, and wearables are just a few examples. It's an everyday reality and the number of connected devices is rising rapidly. But with connectivity comes vulnerability. IoT devices present always-on targets for hackers looking to access your business' network and device cloud, gain malicious control of the device, or steal critical data. Since there are so many potential ways in which cybercriminals can hack into online devices, it's no secret that their connections to each other and the cloud need scalable and easily deployable security solutions. Read this infographic to learn about the 4 most commonly used standards for secure hardware used to protect today's devices.

View: The 4 main types of secure hardware

Remote learning tips playlist

This series includes just over 50 short "how to" video tutorials that tackle specific remote learning tasks and tips, such as how to create a class Team, how to create an attendance report in Teams, how to add a quiz or poll and more. Great reference videos—you'll want to bookmark these!

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Wednesday, September 02, 2020

Social Asset A: Expand Collaboration

Customize and expand your remote collaboration with @Microsoft Teams, keeping your team engaged, connected, and secure. Subscribe now!

View: Social Asset A: Expand Collaboration

Tuesday, September 01, 2020

Reduce Costs Infographic

While innovation has supplanted cost savings as the primary driver of cloud migration for many businesses, moving to the cloud needs to make sense for your bottom line. Learn about the unbeatable costs offers and benefits of migration to Azure cloud.

View: Reduce Costs Infographic

Start your IoT journey with industry-leading SaaS and PaaS offerings. Learn more about Microsoft Azure IoT.

Regardless of your business or industry, it's most likely that your digital transformation initiatives require a stable, secure, and flexible platform that can scale and adapt to your projected growth. You also want a flexible business partner, one that can adapt to your established methodologies and effectively complement your teams' unique strengths. Subscribe now to learn how you can leverage Microsoft Azure IoT and the Microsoft Partner Program to create growth-enabling digital transformation and long-term partnerships that drive success for your business.

View: Start your IoT journey with industry-leading SaaS and PaaS offerings. Learn more about Microsoft Azure IoT.

Microsoft Teams at 3: Everything you need to connect with your teammates and be more productive

Microsoft Teams continues to invest in experiences that will make it easier for teams to communicate and collaborate. This article by Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, informs how new capabilities reflect commitment to two things: building the very best online meeting experience for customers and bringing technological solutions to traditionally underserved professionals, including Firstline and healthcare workers. The latest features include new integration between Teams and RealWear head-mounted devices, real-time noise suppression during meetings, booking apps, pop out chats, the raise hand feature, and more

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10 reasons to use Azure SQL in your next project

There are many new features that developers don't know exist with Microsoft Azure SQL. Learn why Azure SQL is a post-relational, cloud-native database with these ten simple points, including complete storage control, complete monitorability, and full insights.

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FINNING | Value of Partners in Azure Cloud Application Building

Team synergy is critical to ensuring the success of a project. But this isn't just a matter of putting people together in a project and expecting results. An active effort must be made to ensure everybody is well aware of their role, scope, and how to collaborate so that all teams can create a methodology that pushes the project forward on time and within budget. In this video, you'll learn how Finning, the world's largest Caterpillar dealer, has created a culture of collaboration with their digital transformation partner to drive successful IoT initiatives, and how they made it all possible by using Azure IoT.

Cloud computing will be a gold mine in the post-COVID era

Companies needed to embrace change as the COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges and continues to have a multi-sector impact on nations, b...