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In this week's episode, we look at recent Microsoft Tech updates. By popular request, we're expanding our scope beyond Azure to include Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and related Microsoft platforms and capabilities. What's new? What's interesting? What's retiring? (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (01:55) - Show content starts. Show links - Retirement: Azure Blueprints - Public Preview: Document P...

In this week's episode, we go back to basics to discuss ways to access resources secured by an Entra tenant. This is the bread and butter of Azure, and it's a good time to revisit these basics to understand why they are more relevant than ever in 2026. Join us in refreshing your knowledge on App Registrations, Service Principals, and Managed Identities! (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:20) - S...

In this week's episode, we look into what's new with Azure Files in 2026. We touch on the usefulness of Azure Files, the past limitations and challenges in deploying it, and how things have evolved since the latest preview capabilities, all the way to the new general availability. Join us in modernizing your on-premises file shares for a cloud-first future! (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:58)...

In this week's episode, we dig into Microsoft's Security Adoption Model, the attempt to pull a decade of scattered security guidance under one roof. It's a role-aware way to plan security modernization across on-prem and multicloud, built on three layers: the business scenarios that explain why, the nine disciplines that define who's accountable, and the technology pillars that cover the how. We t...

In this week's episode, we look at recent Microsoft Tech updates. By popular request, we're expanding our scope beyond Azure to include Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and related Microsoft platforms and capabilities. What's new? What's interesting? What's retiring? (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:18) - Show content starts. Show links - Securing code, agents, and models across the development...

In this episode, we reflect on some of our favorite announcements from Microsoft Build 2026. We touch base on some Windows 11 updates, like Intelligent Terminal, the new Run dialog, and moving the Taskbar again (finally?). We also check out the GitHub Enterprise Local announcement, Azure Logic Apps Automation, Microsoft Scout, Project Solara, some new AI models, and Microsoft Execution Containers...

This week, we sit down with Rick Van Rousselt, Microsoft 365 MVP and managing partner at Advantive Belgium, for an honest look at what's actually working with applied AI in customer environments and what's quietly failing. We dig into the agentic shift across Agent 365, Entra Agent ID, Microsoft Agent Framework, and AI Foundry; the build-versus-buy line now that Microsoft is shipping agents into e...

In this episode, we explore MCP servers - the open Model Context Protocol that allows AI assistants like GitHub Copilot, Claude, and ChatGPT to connect to live tools and data instead of relying on outdated training data. We discuss what MCP servers are, why they are important, and review our favorite MCP servers for working with Azure. We'll also share some personal favorites! (00:00) - Intro and...

Microsoft Build 2026 marks the biggest format shift in nearly a decade - moving out of Seattle to a 2,500-seat Fort Mason venue in San Francisco with a deliberate "no fluff" pivot toward AI developers, technical leaders, and enterprise architects. In this episode, we unpack what to expect across the six confirmed tracks - plus where we think Microsoft will double down on Foundry, GitHub Copilot, a...

The Foundry Toolkit for Visual Studio Code - formerly the AI Toolkit - is Microsoft's answer to fragmented AI development workflows, bringing model selection, prompt iteration, agent building, evaluation, and production tracing into a single VS Code extension. In this episode, we walk through the full feature surface. Whether you're picking your first frontier model or shipping a hosted agent to M...

In this episode, we unpack nine months of lessons from Pons.io's full rebuild around agentic AI - cutting engineering outsourcing entirely, replacing HubSpot and Salesforce with an internal CRM built in seven days, and shipping dramatically more product on roughly half the staffing cost. We dig into what worked, what bit them along the way, and the practical mechanics of steering an agentic workfo...

In this week's episode, we look at recent Microsoft Tech updates. By popular request, we're expanding our scope beyond Azure to include Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and related Microsoft platforms and capabilities. What's new? What's interesting? What's retiring? (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (06:14) - Show content starts. Show links - ALZ for SMB - GA: Smart Tier for Azure Blob and Data Lake...

In this week's episode, we take a look at Microsoft Agent Framework 1.0, which has been generally available since early April. What is it, and why and how can you use it? We reflect on previous SDKs for building agents, how they relate to Copilot Studio-based and Foundry agents, and how to get started with them. Also, we share experiences using this for a real-agent solution. (00:00) - Intro and c...

In this episode, we reflect on Microsoft certifications and what value they provide. It's been a while since we last looked at these, and plenty has happened - what's new, what's retired, and what's useful in 2026? We also reflect on the usefulness of certifications for juniors and seniors. (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:10) - Show content starts. Show links - Certification Poster - New AI b...

In this episode, we look at Microsoft Agent 365 and Entra Agent ID. What are these new capabilities, and why should you care? We dissect them both, in contrast with agentic engineering, vibe coding, and the growing needs of governing agents. (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:52) - Show content starts. Show links - What is Entra Agent ID? - What is Agent 365? - Give us feedback!

In this episode, we take a deeper look at Defender for Cloud and Cloud Security Posture Management. We reflect on what this is all about, what you can do, and how you should approach the capabilities as part of CSPM. (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (02:42) - Show content starts. Show links - What is Defender CSPM - Give us feedback!

In this week's episode, we look at recent Microsoft Tech updates. By popular request, we're expanding our scope beyond Azure to include Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and related Microsoft platforms and capabilities. What's new? What's interesting? What's retiring? (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:43) - Show content starts. Show links - Entra ID-based identities for Azure Blob Storage SFTP - G...

In this episode, we look at the newly released Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark v2, which is now in preview. What is it, why should you care - and what changed since v1? We take it for a spin, discuss aspects of governance and regulatory compliance, and how to apply them in practice. (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:57) - Show content starts. Show links - MCSB v2 - Give us feedback!

In this episode, we take a focused look at Startup-Scale Landing Zones. We've previously discussed Enterprise-scale Landing Zones and how the default model from the Cloud Adoption Framework is the usual approach for new deployments. SSLZ is an opinionated approach that is better suited to smaller environments. We talk about the pros, cons, differences, and how to get started. (00:00) - Intro and c...

In this episode, we're not diving deep into a single feature of Azure - instead, we'll talk and share our insights on how to build a career working with Microsoft security. What should you know? What's relevant? What's less relevant? What are the core skills you should have?  (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (04:51) - Show content starts. Show links - No links this week :) - Give us feedback!

 In this episode, we take a look at the transition from "vibe-coding" to shipping verifiable, production-grade AI applications. This is the critical shift from relying on "gut feel" and prompt tinkering to implementing rigorous audit trails, versioning, and security controls. We discuss why many AI pilots fail due to a lack of explainability, the specific risks of privilege expansion and data leak...

In this week's episode, we look at recent Microsoft Tech updates. By popular request, we're expanding our scope beyond Azure to include Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and related Microsoft platforms and capabilities. What's new? What's interesting? What's retiring? (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:30) - Show content starts. Show links - Preview: Virtual Network Routing Appliance - Claude and C...

In this episode, we take a look at the Unified Tenant Configuration Management APIs, or UTCM. This is a set of capabilities that allow you to monitor and extract tenant configuration for automated and code-based monitoring and management. We discuss why you would use these, how they work, and also try them out by building tooling around the APIs. (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:13) - Show con...

In this episode, we take a look at Windows Backup for Organizations. What's the capability, and why should you use it? What's required, and anything that's missing from it? We discuss backups in general, also, and provide insights on what you should back up. (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (03:30) - Show content starts. Show links - Windows Backup for Organizations - LEGO Arcade Machine (40805) -...

In this episode, we dissect the newly refreshed Well-Architected Framework guidance on building AI workloads. What is AI, actually? The guidance is organized into sections, and we walk through each one, sharing our insights and thoughts. (00:00) - Intro and catching up. (04:26) - Show content starts. Show links - Google Gemini - AI Workload guidance in Well-Architected Framework - Reference archit...