RunAs Radio

Does DevOps make sense for DBAs? Richard chats with Kendra Little about how DevOps practices have spread throughout the development process - and yet somehow, in some organizations, the database folks aren't all that involved. Kendra talks about what practices work for those responsible for the care of feeding of data, including things like source control and automating deployments. Can it be done? Yes! Is it worth it? Also yes!

How do you keep your groups and teams in Office 365 under control? Richard chats with Tony Redmond about Office 365 and how individual users can create their own groups, essentially on demand. In large organizations, this can lead to a huge proliferation of so-called dead groups - how do you manage them? Tony digs into the policy tools, and what really constitutes a dead group. The conversation also dives into how this keeps happening - making it easy for users to use a feature means it gets used, but when do you need governance to make sure it isn't over-used?

Your organization is using Azure - but is it under control? Richard chats with Phoummala Schmitt about policy, compliance, and governance in Azure. Often moving to the cloud starts as an experiment - and then suddenly it's live! While it's great to work through governance in advance, it's not always possible. So how do you get things right? Phoummala talks about account management, monitoring utilization, security and cost controls, all key parts of good governance. Azure gives you lots of tools to get things right!

Can deploying software and updates enable a hack? Richard chats with Mikael Nyström about doing secure deployments - and this leads to a conversation about how modern hackers are exploiting systems today. Modern hackers can break into machines, but security restrictions limit their ability to exploit - until an administrator logs into the machine. Mikael talks about limiting your use of super-user accounts, including for deployment - and keeping your systems difficult for hackers to exploit!

Are you compliant? What does that even mean? Richard chats with Erica Toelle about the various security and compliance features in Office 365. Erica talks about regulated industries such as oil and gas that have very specific rules around reporting and regulations - but every organization can benefit from the security and compliance tooling! Document retention, inappropriate communications across email, chat and other tools are all part of compliance, and Office 365 can help!

Are you using SysInternals? Richard chats with Sami Laiho about Mark Russinovich's masterwork. Sami talks a bit about the history of SysInternals and how Microsoft came to acquire them and Mark - and the tool development continues! Process Explorer and Monitor are the best known of the suite of over a hundred tools - and they focus on diagnostics. But once you know what an issue is, there are more tools to help you resolve them. Check out Sami's Pluralsight series on SysInternals - he considers it some of his best work!

Is your cloud secure? Richard chats with Paula Januszkiewicz about what it takes to secure your cloud - that is, the cloud services that you're paying for. Paula talks about how cloud services are not automatically secure, that many security features are off by default and it takes time to figure out how to configure them to help protect your accounts and services. And since cloud products are relatively new, there aren't many experts around - you have to figure out what is right for you and your organization!

How are you managing mobile device? Richard chats with Jeremy Moskowitz about the world of mobile device management and how it continues to evolve. Jeremy talks about the balancing act between supporting Windows-centric concepts that group policy did extremely well alongside what it takes to manage the broader diversity of devices today - and in the future! If you want to dig deep on MDM, check out Jeremy's new book!

It's 2019 - has DevOps 'crossed the chasm'? Richard chats with Nicole Forsgren and Dustin Smith about the latest DevOps report, showing that in all aspects of software development and operations, things are getting better - but not evenly! The conversation digs into the latest research showing that it is large enterprises today struggling the most to improve development and delivery of software, while retail operations seem to be leading the pack! There's a lot to explore in the DevOps report, take a look!

What is it to teach, and what is it to learn when you're in IT? Richard chats with Don Jones about his on-going work on his book Be The Master and how it has evolved since its first publication in 2018. Don talks about how readers connected with him around the book and discussed their own efforts in mastery and teaching - which encouraged Don to revise the book! Remembering how we learn helps inform how to teach, and teaching strengthens knowledge, so everyone benefits - and there's a lot to know!