In this episode we geek out about home automation, Azure and training cognitive services to recognize llamas. Wait.. sound weird? Maybe, but we had a blast talking to MVP Lars Klint about life on his farm in the high country of Victoria in Australia and how he uses technology to automate (and amuse) Be sure to check out the following links: * Follow the Llama Drama here (https://llamacam.com.au) * LarsKlintTech YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@LarsKlintTech) * Microsoft Azure in Action (https://www.manning.com/books/microsoft-azure-in-action) Lars Klint is a Senior Developer Advocate at Pluralsight and an Azure instructor with A Cloud Guru. In addition to being a Microsoft MVP and community leader, Lars is a published author, aspiring Microsoft Azure expert and part time classic car collector. You can connect with Lars on Twitter (https://twitter.com/larsklint) Click the icon below to listen.        

Exchange Server 2013 officially reached its end of support on April 11, 2023. What exactly does end of support mean? What should you do if your organization still relies on Exchange 2013 for email? In this episode I'm joined by Microsoft MVP Jeff Guillet, and we attempt to answer these questions and more. We also discuss the recent Microsoft announcement to throttle and block email from persistently vulnerable Exchange servers to Exchange Online (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/throttling-and-blocking-email-from-persistently-vulnerable/ba-p/3762078?WT.mc_id=M365-MVP-9501) Be sure to check out the following resources: Exchange 2013 end of support roadmap (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/exchange-2013-end-of-support?view=o365-worldwide) How to Setup Exchange Management Tools in Environments without Exchange Server (https://blog.expta.com/2022/10/how-to-setup-exchange-management-tools.html) A New Tool to Manage Exchange-related Attributes Without Exchange Server (https://practical365.com/a-new-tool-to-manage-exchange-related-attributes-without-exchange-server/) Jeff Guillet is a Microsoft Exchange Certified Solutions Master (MCSM), Office Apps & Services MVP and the founder and CEO of EXPTA Consulting. He works primarily with Microsoft products (Exchange, Office 365, Lync Server, Windows Server, Active Directory, Hyper-V, etc.) for mid-large customers (5,000+ users) and is a published author, speaker and technical editor. You can connect with Jeff on Twitter (https://twitter.com/expta) and check out his blog (https://blog.expta.com) Click the icon below to listen.        

We're Back! Happy 2023 to all - and yes, I realize that it's February. We often talk on this podcast about cyber readiness and the important of having a plan but, felt it would be important to unpack that a talk about what is means in practical terms. In this episode we welcome back our friend Fran Donoso to explain what cyber readiness entails and provide some great advice to help you and your organization get ready for when you have to deal with an incident. Francisco Donoso is the Vice President of Global Security Strategy at Kudelski Security, a global pure-play security services provider. His passion and hobby is researching and understanding Nation-State hacking or “APT” capabilities and tools. He has been on the forefront of research into the Equation Group’s post-exploitation tools and capabilities since their release by the Shadow Brokers and has spoken about this research at Derbycon, Thotcon, Microsoft Bluehat, and other conferences. You can connect with Fran on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Francisckrs) Be sure to check out our blog: https://thearchitects.cloud/2023/02/01/episode-72-cyber-readiness/ Click the icon below to listen.        

A CISO, or chief information security officer, is a senior-level executive who oversees an organization's information, cyber, and technology security. We recently had a fun conversation with our friend and CISO Sachin Surajbali about what is means to be a CISO. Sachin gave us a glimpse into a day in the life of a CISO, how to delicately balance all the technical and non-technical aspects of the role and why it is important to not be a hindrance to the business. Sachin also offers some great advice for any aspiring CISOs. Sachin Surajbali is an experienced Chief Information Security Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the financial industry. Certified Information Security Manager, Certified Information Security System Professional & Certified Cloud Security Professional. Strong information technology professional with a Management Advancement Programme accreditation from Witwatersrand Graduate School of Business. You can find Sachin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachin-surajbali-54108023/) Click the icon below to listen.        

We recently had a great time talking to fellow Microsoft MVP Tom Arbuthnot about all things Microsoft Teams - covered some of the great community work Tom is involved with and discussed Teams call quality, meeting etiquette and how work from home has brought about a massive increase in meetings for many of us. Warren also gives some interesting financial advice *(Not intended to be taken as real financial advice..). Tom Arbuthnot is the Co-Founder of Empowering.Cloud and Solutions Director at Pure IP. A Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Master, Tom stays up to date with industry news and developments and has the opportunity to share information and opinions on TomTalks.blog, the UCToday.com Microsoft Podcast and his TomTalks.email list. He regularly speaks at events around the world. He is highly engaged with the Microsoft community in person and online. You can find Tom on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tomarbuthnot Be sure to check out: * Tom Talks - https://tomtalks.blog * empowering.cloud - https://empowering.cloud Click the icon below to listen.        

We love Exchange Server! No, really - I've personally been working with Exchange Server in some form or fashion since Exchange Server 5.5 in the late '90s and in some circles that makes me a late bloomer. It is difficult to ignore what seems like an endless list of day-zero vulnerabilities that have plagued our old friend over the last 12 - 18 months. These vulnerabilities have seen security researchers pointing the finger and the tech press calling Exchange Server a security liability. It's 2022, should you really still be hosting your own email? In this episode, Nic and I discuss the relevance of Exchange Server and attempt to answer this question. During this episode we refer to a couple of recent articles, here are the links: Your Microsoft Exchange Server Is a Security Liability - https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-exchange-server-vulnerabilities/It Really is Time to Say Goodbye to On-Premises Exchange - https://practical365.com/time-to-dump-exchange-server/ Click the icon below to listen.        

We apologize for the poor audio at the beginning of this episode - we're not sure what happened, but it does improve as the episode progresses. What is DevOps? The answer will often differ depending on who you ask. In this episode we asked Prashanth from Chef that question. He shares some great insights with us, including how DevOps practices can be used in an infrastructure and IT operations context. We also delve into Infrastructure as code (IaC) and its usefulness for provisioning and configuration management. Prashanth Nanjundappa is the VP, Product Management at chef.io. He is a Product Leader with 20 years of global experience in building & launching Enterprise and Consumer products with a proven expertise in building B2B SaaS and PaaS products at scale across Healthcare, Cloud Telephony, CRM, Analytics, Video/Metadata domain. You can find Prashanth on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/prashanthhn/) Click the icon below to listen.        

Microsoft first announced the deprecation of Basic Authentication in September 2019 with the intention of starting the retirement process in October 2020. Those plans were subsequently postponed and needless to say it's been a long journey for many organizations to prepare for the inevitable. Sadly though, it seems not everyone received the memo and there are many organizations that still use basic auth extensively. Our old friend, Greg Taylor has been examining the telemetry and shared some interesting insights with us. We talk more about this change, what it means for you and how you can prepare for it (if you haven't already!) The clock is ticking.. Greg Taylor is a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft and is focused on Exchange Online protocols and security in Microsoft 365. Greg spent many years as part of the Exchange Engineering and Customer Experience teams, designing and building Exchange features, working with large enterprise customers, presenting at public events and working with technology communities. Greg also ran the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) and Architect (MCA) and Exchange Ranger Programs for Microsoft, an elite 3-6 week in-person Redmond based program, training Microsoft and partner consultants and engineers how to design and troubleshoot the world’s largest and most complex Exchange deployments. You can find Greg on Twitter (https://twitter.com/gregtaylor_msft) Not sure if and how this affects you and your organization or interested to know more? Check out: Deprecation of Basic authentication in Exchange Online(https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients-and-mobile-in-exchange-online/deprecation-of-basic-authentication-exchange-online) Click the icon below to listen.        

In this episode we chat to James "UCMadScientist" Arber. Some of you may know him as the guy who ran Doom on a Sonus/Ribbon SBC 1000 or set fire to a Polycom CX series phone, but James is also extremely knowledgable when it comes to all things Microsoft Teams. We had a lot of fun talking about the current state of Teams, room systems, devices, and the importance of using your dongle. James Arber, a.k.a "UCMadScientist" is an experienced UC Consultant and one of only 4 Microsoft Unified Communications MVP's in Australia. Skilled in Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Lync, VoIP deployment and troubleshooting. Microsoft Community Contributor and regular presenter at the Melbourne UC UserGroup. Father of 4 with a hint of "Mad Scientist" and a dash of car nut.. You can connect with James on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesarber/) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/UCMadScientist) and be sure to check out his blog (https://www.ucmadscientist.com) Don't forget to check out our blog: https://thearchitects.cloud/2022/08/17/episode-66-use-your-dongle/ Click the icon below to listen.        

As an IT professional, governance and compliance have never been the sexiest of concepts. For many of us, these are things that distract us once a year when they require the yearly tick-in-the-box. It is important that we face the reality of the world we live in though and understand that we do have a responsibility of bridging two worlds. In this episode we had the opportunity to sit down with Rufaro Warinda to talk all about compliance, ISO 27001, CIS and a whole bunch of other acronyms. Rufaro does a fantastic job of explaining various concepts like the difference between legislative and regulatory compliance and we also take a look at how Microsoft technologies map to the new ISO controls. Rufaro Warinda is a Modern Work Cloud Analyst. He has a qualification in Industrial Engineering with an emphasis on process optimization, business analysis, security, compliance and identity management in the modern workplace (M365 & Azure). He has experience in the implementation of Information Security Management Systems (ISO/IEC 27001:2013), in order to assist organizations with maintaining governance and industry best practices as they expand into the digital workspace. You can connect with Rufaro on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rufaro-warinda-975b26187/) Here's a link to Rufaro's really handy reference New ISO 27001:2022 controls & How Microsoft Saves the Day.(https://thearchitects.cloud/downloads/ISO_27001_and_Microsoft_365.pdf) Click the icon below to listen.