Azure Insights: AD Connect v2; Arc; Firewall IDPS

Microsoft Azure pros discuss AD Connect v2, Arc, and Firewall IDPS.

What to know about Azure AD Connect v2

Microsoft MVP Sander Berkouwer, writing on The Things That Are Better Left Unspoken, discussed the recent release of AD Connect v2.0.3.0. Customers running version 1.x won't be automatically upgraded to 2.x. For most organizations, this means they will stay on the older version unless they are actively managing upgrades.

Currently, it is available only for Windows Server 2016 and newer and is limited to Version 2 endpoints. He wrote:

I’ve met with organizations with Azure AD Connect installations in several localities. All but one of these Azure AD Connect installations would run in Staging Mode. But for all of these Azure AD Connect installations to be manually upgraded and manually adjusted (to have the same consistent settings across all Azure AD Connect installations), they needed a person with Global Administrator role in that locality, or have a person travel between the localities. The first scenario isn’t quite secure. The second scenario isn’t cost-effective.

Azure Arc capabilities

Microsoft senior cloud advocate Thomas Maurer shared thoughts on Azure Arc. Developers have an increasing slate of opportunities around Arc, working with WebApps or SQL and running apps outside of Azure. In fact, developers can run AKS on-prem, run Machine Learning anywhere, leverage Managed Identities, or setup CI/CD workflows. Similar capabilities support IT professionals and cloud solution architects.