AMA - Prepare your data for Copilot: Essential tools and techniques
Ask Microsoft anything about data preparation techniques for Microsoft 365 Copilot during this live AMA session. Learn how to address oversharing, integrate SharePoint Advanced Management, and utilize Microsoft Purview for secure and compliant data handling. We'll provide practical guidance to help you ensure your data is ready for Copilot deployment, including insights from our Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment blueprint. Come ready to learn more about prepping your data for Microsoft 365 Copilot! Add to calendar and click Attend to let us know you're coming. Post your questions early and often at the bottom of this page where you see "Leave a comment." We'll have experts on camera and in chat to help! This event is part of Tech Community Live: Microsoft 365 Copilot. Click here to view the full agenda. In the AMA studio will be: Omoefe_Abugo, JeremyChapmanMSFT, EricaToelle, and Sophie_Ke.AMA - Follow the prompt: How data flows through Microsoft 365 Copilot
Explore the intricacies of Microsoft 365 Copilot data processing and security in this live Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) session. We'll cover how Microsoft processes and protects your data, focusing on enterprise data protection, responsible AI services, and orchestration in managing prompts. Learn about tools to prevent data loss and oversharing. Discover how Microsoft Graph Connectors and agents integrate external data sources and enhance Copilot skills and knowledge. Get your questions answered and optimize your Copilot experience! Add to calendar and click Attend to let us know you're coming. Post your questions early and often at the bottom of this page where you see "Leave a comment." We'll have experts on camera and in chat to help! This event is part of Tech Community Live: Microsoft 365 Copilot. Click here to view the full agenda. In the AMA studio will be: Omoefe_Abugo, EricaToelle, and bensum.Mastering Power BI: My Journey to Becoming a Microsoft Certified Power BI Data Analyst
Hello Everyone, I’m Mohamed Faraazman bin Farooq S, a final-year Artificial Intelligence and Data Science student at BSA Crescent University, Chennai, India, and a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador (MLSA). Today, I want to share my journey of earning the Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate Certification —a challenging yet rewarding experience. Being part of the MLSA program provided me with access to valuable resources, tools, and a vibrant community that were instrumental in my preparation. Introduction to the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate Certification The Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification validates your expertise in analyzing and visualizing data using Power BI, one of the most widely used tools for business intelligence (BI) and data analytics. This certification equips professionals to harness Power BI’s advanced features for data-driven decision-making, making it an excellent career booster for aspiring data analysts and BI professionals. Why Power BI Skills Are in High Demand The increasing reliance on data for strategic decisions across industries has made tools like Power BI essential. Power BI enables organizations to transform raw data into actionable insights with its robust data modeling, visualization, and report development capabilities. The PL-300 certification validates these skills, enhancing your career prospects, job security, and overall efficiency in data analysis roles. Overview of the PL-300 Certification Exam The PL-300 exam is designed for individuals with a foundational understanding of Power BI who wish to deepen their expertise. By earning this certification, you will: Collaborate effectively with stakeholders to understand business requirements. Clean and transform data to support informed decision-making. Develop optimized data models using Power BI tools. Create impactful data visualizations to communicate insights. Key Areas of Focus: Data Preparation: Learn to connect to diverse data sources, clean data using Power Query, and integrate it into Power BI for analysis. Data Modeling: Master DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) for building calculated measures and columns, and optimize data relationships. Data Visualization: Develop clear, impactful reports and dashboards, emphasizing storytelling through data. Asset Deployment: Manage datasets, configure data refresh schedules, and maintain workspaces in the Power BI environment. Preparation Tips and Study Resources To excel in the PL-300 exam, it’s crucial to understand Power BI’s features, functions, and real-world applications. Below are key topics and preparation tips to guide you: 1. Mastering Microsoft’s Ecosystem Power BI Service: Understand its integration with Microsoft 365 and Azure for data storage and security. Microsoft 365: Learn about organizational-level security and how it affects Power BI’s data access. Azure Integration: Familiarize yourself with Azure data storage and security features relevant to Power BI Premium. 2. Becoming Proficient in DAX Filter Context: Understand how DAX manages filter contexts for dynamic data modeling. Time-Series Functions: Master calculations over time for trend analysis. AI/ML Features: Explore Power BI’s machine learning and AI capabilities, although they are a smaller part of the exam. 3. Optimizing Performance Query Optimization: Use Power Query Editor for merging tables, filtering data, and automating data refresh. Data Modeling: Practice creating relationships, primary keys, and calculated columns for efficient models. Performance Tools: Learn Power BI’s built-in tools to enhance report processing. 4. Visualization Best Practices Appropriate Visual Selection: Choose visuals based on data type (e.g., bar charts for comparisons, line charts for trends). Storytelling: Focus on clear report navigation, formatting, and layout for effective data storytelling. 5. Hands-On Practice Practice DAX and Power Query: These are critical for real-world scenarios and frequently tested in the exam. Microsoft Practice Exams: Familiarize yourself with the format and assess your readiness through official practice exams. Domains Covered in the PL-300 Exam The exam is divided into four main domains: 1. Prepare the Data (25-30%) Data Sources: Connect to various data sources, including cloud platforms and databases. Data Transformation: Use Power Query for data cleansing and transformation tasks. 2. Model the Data (25-30%) Data Relationships: Define relationships and optimize data models. DAX Calculations: Create calculated columns and measures using DAX. 3. Visualize and Analyze the Data (25-30%) Report Design: Develop insightful reports using Power BI’s tools. Dashboard Creation: Create user-friendly dashboards for actionable insights. Analytics Features: Leverage analytics tools to identify trends and patterns. 4. Deploy and Maintain Assets (15-20%) Dataset Management: Organize and configure datasets effectively. Workspace Maintenance: Manage and deploy workspaces for efficient data sharing. Recommended Study Materials Microsoft offers a wealth of resources to prepare for the PL-300 exam: Microsoft Learn Paths: Data Analytics in Microsoft Power BI: Comprehensive modules tailored to each exam domain. DAX Fundamentals and Power Query: Detailed resources on essential tools for data transformation and calculations. Instructor-Led Training: Course PL-300T00-A: A three-day training that provides hands-on experience and targeted exam preparation. Practice Exams: Official Microsoft Practice Exams: Simulate the exam environment to build confidence and identify areas for improvement. Benefits of the PL-300 Certification Earning the PL-300 certification offers numerous advantages: Enhanced Career Prospects: Certified professionals often command higher salaries and better job opportunities. Diverse Job Roles: Pursue positions such as Data Analyst, BI Developer, or BI Consultant. Increased Efficiency: Streamline data processes and drive actionable insights for better decision-making. Conclusion The Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification is a valuable milestone for data analysts aiming to excel in their careers. By mastering Power BI’s data wrangling, modeling, visualization, and optimization capabilities, you can position yourself as a key player in the data analytics field. With the right preparation, dedication, and access to Microsoft’s resources, success in the PL-300 exam is within reach. If you’re considering this certification, I encourage you to leverage the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador program, just as I did, to achieve your goals. Best of luck on your journey to becoming a Power BI-certified professional!How to Re-Register MFA
Working closely with nonprofits every day, I often come across a common challenge faced by MFA users. Recently, I worked with a nonprofit leader who faced an issue after getting a new phone. She was unable to authenticate into her Microsoft 365 environment because her MFA setup was tied to her old device. This experience highlighted how important it is to have a process in place for MFA re-registration. Without it, even routine changes like upgrading a phone can disrupt access to your everyday tools and technologies, delaying important work such as submitting a grant proposal. Why MFA is Essential for Nonprofits Before we discuss how to reset MFA, let’s take a step back and discuss why MFA is a necessity for nonprofits the way it is important for any organization. In the nonprofit world, protecting sensitive or confidential data—like donor information, financial records, and program details—is a top priority. One of the best ways to step up your security game is by using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). MFA adds an extra layer of protection on top of passwords by requiring something you have (like a mobile app or text message) or something you are (like a fingerprint). This makes it a lot harder for cybercriminals to get unauthorized access. If your nonprofit uses Azure Active Directory (AAD), or Microsoft Entra (as it is now called), with Microsoft 365, MFA can make a big difference in keeping your work safe. Since Microsoft Entra is built to work together with other Microsoft tools, it’s easy to set up and enforce secure sign-in methods across your whole organization. To make sure this added protection stays effective, it’s a good idea to occasionally ask users to update how they verify their identity. What Does MFA Re-Registration Mean for Nonprofits? MFA re-registration is just a fancy way of saying users need to update or reset how they authenticate, or verify, themselves. This might mean setting up MFA on a new phone (like the woman in the scenario above), adding an extra security option (like a hardware token), or simply confirming their existing setup. It’s all about making sure the methods and devices your users rely on for MFA are secure and under their control. When and Why Should Nonprofits Require MFA Re-Registration? Outside of getting a new phone, there may be other situations that raise cause for reason to re-register your MFA. A few scenarios include: Lost or Stolen Devices: Similar to the scenario above, if someone loses their phone or it gets stolen, you will have to re-register the new device. Role Changes: If someone’s responsibilities change, their MFA setup can be adjusted to match their new access needs. Security Enhancements: Organizations may require users to re-register for MFA to adopt more secure authentication methods, such as moving from SMS-based MFA to an app-based MFA like Microsoft Authenticator Policy Updates: When an organization updates its security policies, it might require all users to re-register for MFA to comply with new standards Account Compromise: If there is a suspicion that an account has been compromised, re-registering for MFA can help secure the account by ensuring that only the legitimate user has access With Microsoft Entra, managing MFA re-registration is straightforward and can be done with an administrator to the organization’s tenant. How to require re-registration of MFA To reset or require re-registration of MFA in Microsoft Entra, please follow the steps below. Navigate to portal.azure.com with your nonprofit admin account. Select Microsoft Entra ID Select the drop-down for Manage In the left-hand menu bar select Users > Select the user's name that you want to reregister to MFA (not shown). Once in their profile, select Manage MFA authentication methods Select Require re-register multifactor authentication Congratulations! The user will now be required to re-register the account in the Microsoft Authentication app.What's new in Azure Migrate?
Introduction The journey to the cloud is an essential step for modern enterprises looking to leverage the benefits of scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency. A crucial part of this transformation is understanding the current state of your IT infrastructure, including workloads, applications, and their interdependencies. Often, organizations aim to set their migration goals based on the applications they want to move to the cloud, rather than focusing on individual servers or databases in isolation. I am thrilled to share that Azure Migrate is evolving to both simplify and enrich your cloud adoption journey. We are introducing new capabilities in Azure Migrate to help you achieve your goals. Introducing Application awareness in Azure Migrate [limited preview] A key step in any cloud transformation plan is a current state analysis of the entire IT estate covering workloads and applications, and relationships/ dependencies among them. I am excited to announce the limited preview of application aware experiences in Azure Migrate – across every phase of the migration journey. This allows you to gain insights into the total cost of ownership, identify suitable IaaS and PaaS targets, and receive tailored migration and modernization guidance. To get started with Azure Migrate, simply create an Azure Migrate project on Azure portal, and leverage Azure Migrate’s wide-ranging discovery capabilities, including the Azure Migrate appliance or importing inventory via RVTools to discover your environment. This allows you to explore inventory across Infra-Data-Web tiers and use the updated dependency analysis to identify application boundaries. As part of the application aware experiences, we are introducing the concept of tags within Azure Migrate. So once dependencies are identified, you can group the dependent workloads comprising an application via tags. Then, Azure Migrate can be used to create application-specific business cases to identify savings and ROI, assess ideal migration strategies, and get recommendations for Azure services, SKUs, resource costs, and migration/modernization tools. Further, as part of executing the migration and onboarding to Azure, customers can use the recommended tools to modernize via re-platform and refactor (out of band) techniques or use the integrated rehost migration experience to rehost to Azure VM. Complemented with a refreshed user experience As part of delivering application awareness and sustainability insights, Azure Migrate will also feature a refreshed user interface. The new experience is designed to help customers across every step of the migration journey – across Decide, Plan and Execute phases. The experience provides you with a new intuitive table of contents and overview page to allow easy navigation. You can explore discovered workloads and their relationships through effective search, sort, and seamless transition from Azure Migrate to other specialized migration tools, depending on your specific goals and requirements. Finally, you can quickly create and visualize different migration and modernization strategies side-by-side. Expanded support for workloads and platforms In addition to the capabilities described above, Azure Migrate continues to evolve to support capabilities provided by Azure for customers to evaluate and execute as part of their cloud adoption journey. As part of this effort, I am pleased to announce public preview of the following capabilities. These capabilities are available for customers, partners and sellers to try today! ROI/TCO of Azure Arc in Azure Migrate Business Case [public preview] We understand that customers are looking to understand the best path as they evaluate the cloud. This includes continuing to stay on-premises in their current environment while benefiting from Azure services such as Azure Arc. Knowing the varying needs of every customer and with the goal to meet customers where they are, we are introducing the envisioning of ROI for Azure Arc in Azure Migrate Business Case. This includes - Azure Migrate business case to help you compare the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for on-premises estates versus Azure, including year-on-year cash flow analysis. With this new capability, the Azure Migrate Business Case now includes the added value of Azure Arc for resources remaining on-premises during the customer’s migration journey. You can now visualize cost savings and other benefits of using Azure security and management tools via Azure Arc for your on-premises servers and see licensing benefits such as Extended Security Updates and SQL Pay-As-You-Go. In addition to visualizing the business case for Arc, customers can identify and at-scale onboard machines that are not yet Arc-enabled directly from the Azure Migrate portal. Additional details and step by step instructions can be found here. Support for migrations to Azure Stack HCI [public preview] Azure Stack HCI enables customers to run workloads in the private cloud or edge and offers an ideal platform for modernizing workloads with enhanced performance, scalability, simplified management, and cost efficiency. To support this modernization, we have introduced the ability to migrate virtual machines from Hyper-V and VMware environments to Azure Stack HCI using Azure Migrate: Server Migrations. Like Azure migrations, you can leverage Azure Migrate to discover virtual machines from VMware and Hyper-V environments at scale, without needing prior agent installation. After discovery, you can migrate virtual machines to Azure Stack HCI through an easy-to-use Azure Migrate portal experience, ensuring zero data loss and minimal downtime. This migration keeps data flow locally from on-premises to Azure Stack HCI. Learn more about this capability here. Expanded OSS Support in Azure Migrate [public preview] Azure Migrate has been diligently expanding its capabilities to better support customers using Linux. We are thrilled to highlight three significant updates that enhance your migration experience: Support for newer Linux Distributions [public preview] Azure Migrate now supports a range of newer Linux distributions, including Rocky Linux, Alma Linux, SLES 15, RHEL 9, and Ubuntu 22.04. This enhancement ensures a broader compatibility for Linux workloads, allowing you to migrate seamlessly, whether using agentless or agent-based migrations. Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHB) for Enterprise Linux [public preview] We've integrated Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHB) for Enterprise Linux (RHEL and SLES) into the migration process. Customers can visualize the savings from AHB directly in Azure Migrate business case assessments, maximizing their return on investment. To leverage AHB, you can directly enable the appropriate licenses for migrating Enterprise Linux machines within Azure Migrate. This integration eliminates the need for manual installation of the AHB extension post migrations, streamlining the migration workflow and ensuring compliance. Discovery and Assessment of MySQL Databases [public preview] In our endeavor to increase coverage of OSS workloads in Azure Migrate, we are announcing discovery and modernization assessment of MySQL databases running on Linux servers. Customers previously had limited visibility in their MySQL workloads and often received generalized VM lift-and-shift recommendations. With this new capability, you can now accurately identify the MySQL workloads and assess them for right-sizing into Azure Database for MySQL: Flexible Server. CSV Import powered discovery for SQL Servers [limited preview] We understand that deploying an appliance may not be the quickest way to generate migration assessments to enable planning. Further, many times customers can’t provide credentials for SQL Server instances, to allow Azure Migrate to capture relevant details and provide accurate readiness and right-sized recommendations. Hence, we are now adding the ability to import SQL Server details which can then be used to discover SQL Server instances and databases and generate accurate assessment reports. Use existing repositories such as SQL Server Dynamic Management Views, SCOM etc. to populate the CSV schema required to discover SQL Server. Interested in trying the limited preview experience? The capabilities described above are currently in limited preview. To take advantage of these capabilities for your environment, please share your interest here. Conclusion The enhancements in Azure Migrate underscore our commitment to providing comprehensive, user-friendly, and efficient migration solutions. Stay tuned for more updates and join us at Ignite 2024 for a detailed demo of these exciting new features. Curious to learn more? Here is a sneak peek of what we plan to announce at Ignite - https://youtu.be/aquRVLvau7cCross Subscription Database Restore for SQL Managed Instance Database with TDE enabled using ADF
Our customers require daily refreshes of their production database to the non-production environment. The database, approximately 600GB in size, has Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) enabled in production. Disabling TDE before performing a copy-only backup is not an option, as it would take hours to disable and re-enable. To meet customer needs, we use a customer-managed key stored in Key Vault. Azure Data Factory is then utilized to schedule and execute the end-to-end database restore process.
