It’s been a while since I last wrote an article… Although there’s no excuses, I have been pretty busy lately…
First of all, I’ve been ‘heads down’ preparing version 2 of the “Office 365 for Exchange Professionals” ebook.
As Microsoft recently announced, there have been a LOT of updates and those need to be reflected in the book too!
New items include information on the new hybrid configuration wizard, modern authentication, Azure AD Connect and so much more… As Tony mentioned on his blog, we plan on releasing “v2” at IT/DEV Connections in September. If you are attending IT/DEV Connection, Tony, Paul and I will be there too. Make sure to come and talk to us. We’d love to hear your feedback on the book.
This brings me to the conference itself. This year, I am lucky enough to be speaking there again. IT/DEV Connections is without a doubt one of my favorite tech conferences. It runs at a smaller scale than e.g. Ignite, but there’s a TON of great sessions, all led by even greater speakers! The fact that you aren’t overrun by ten thousands of other attendees allows you to interact with all the speakers. If not during the sessions, there are plenty of opportunities at the evening events or in hallway! You still have time to register, so if you are looking to attend a conference this ‘season’, IT/DEV Connections is what I would recommend. As usual, the conference is held in Las Vegas from September 14 – 17, in the beautiful Aria hotel.
I have two sessions this year. One about Identity Management and Authentication in the online Microsoft world. Although I still have a lot of work to do for my sessions (making sure I provide you with the latest information!), I can share with you that I will also be talking about Windows Hello and Microsoft Passport. This session is on Thursday at 8:30 AM.
The second session is somewhat different from what you’ve usually see me present about. On Wednesday at 11AM, I will be speaking about automation. The idea is not to be giving a theoretical session about how e.g. PowerShell DSC is supposed to work or what PowerShell is; other people are probably better suited for that! It won’t be a level 400 coding session either. I’m no developer and I’m also not a PowerShell guru! It’s rather a hands-on, real-world approach about how you can use all sorts of tools (mainly PowerShell though, but also e.g. Orchestrator) to automate simple and more complex tasks. The idea for this session grew from visiting customers all over the world and seeing how they automated service tasks, onboarding etc… By the end of the session you should have picked up some ideas about what can be useful to you and how to best approach and build it!
Later in September, I will be joining another fantastic line-up of speakers at the UK UC Day in Birmingham. This is the first time this one-day conference is held, but the organisation did not spare any efforts. A lot of speakers from IT/DEV Connections will be there and it’s good to see some speakers join us from the US too! This time, I will be speaking about hybrid deployments in all its glory. Single-forest, Multi-Forest, AAD Connect and many other things will be discussed. A high-paced session, but definitely for you if you are in a hybrid deployment, you are looking to configure a hybrid connection or you’re a consultant that deals a lot with hybrid!
ENow will be represented at both conferences as well! In the UK we are joined by the team of Essentials. Make sure to stop at our booth and have a conversation! We look forward to another great conference and an even greater Scheduled Maintenance party!
Looking forward to seeing you there!
-Michael
