Microsoft Azure 2021 Year in Review: Top articles from experts

MSCloudNews counts on the insights of Microsoft Azure experts, who are developing new offerings and bringing projects to fruition in the cloud. In 2021, we heard from contributors about everything from cloud security to exam prep, in-home cloud services, digital transformation, regulations, and more.

Navigating the Hybrid Work Model with Digital Learning (Christopher Rousset, Mar. 17, 2021)

Christopher Rousset explored how the rise of the hybrid work model is changing the need for training. For many organizations and employees, the transition to remote work brought with it a significant learning curve.  It brought new tools, new technologies and even new methods. Some companies held training sessions to help employees along the way. According to Microsoft’s report, more than 75% of employees feel they are prepared to use remote working tools, yet managers estimated that only 41% of their team is trained to use them.

Cloud migration in a hybrid world: How enterprises are mapping post-pandemic Azure investments (Apr. 20)

Milan Bhatt, the Hexaware's executive vice president and head of healthcare and insurance, explained how his company is changing its approach to cloud migrations and optimizations as hybrid cloud becomes more prominent after the pandemic.

Why Microsoft SMB customers should bolster security with Azure Sentinel and security tools (May 5)

Dr. Oren Eytan, former head of cybersecurity for the Israel Defense Force and leader of Israeli-cybersecurity firm, odix, explained that an astonishing 94 percent of SMB attacks start with a malicious email. And the Microsoft ecosystem isn't immune—with over one million Microsoft 365 accounts compromised every month, which the company is trying to remedy.

Why organizations investing in Microsoft Azure need a Cloud Center of Excellence (May 14)

Victor Mushkatin, CEO of Microsoft partner VIAcode, makes the case for a Cloud Center of Excellence. Attention is increasingly shifting from IaaS to PaaS. Many companies were forced to migrate to the cloud hastily for regulatory compliance as a result of outside factors like Brexit. At first, this is often an IaaS migration. But unexpectedly high costs with this approach spur many companies to refactor soon thereafter.

Looking into what Microsoft Viva can mean for learning and development (Travis Damgaard Campbell, May 26)

Microsoft launched Microsoft Viva – an “employee experience” platform aimed at providing a one-stop shop for communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights.  Microsoft Viva Learning, a module within the larger platform, serves as a content aggregator that uses AI to recommend when employees might want to take training courses and other microlearning content.

The Manufacturing Cloud: The last mile to true cloud infrastructure with Microsoft (Robert Jolliffe, Jun. 2)

Microsoft is expanding its offering for manufacturing from cloud-based CAD to Windows Virtual Desktop updates, and better integrated ERP.

Why Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse improved the Dynamics 365 data analysis story (Jun. 6)

Kirk Donahoe explored the public preview launch of Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse. This service allows a simple configuration to continuously export your Dataverse data and metadata to your own data lake, building on the automatic linking of the configured storage account with Azure Synapse Analytics and the creation of T-SQL views in the Serverless endpoint last year.

Exam prep: Getting started with Azure certifications and beyond (Jeff Christman, Jul. 8)

Azure Senior Consultant and SCCP Jeff Christman explains the ins and outs of Azure exams, from less complicated 900-series exams to much more involved 300-series exams and how to succeed at both. Users who want to get up to speed can rely on Microsoft documentation, but need to be choosy when it comes to YouTube videos, not all of which are up to date or correct. Christman also contributed on a number of other topics:

• Planning an Azure VM migration process: The fundamentals (Apr. 29)
• Moving on-prem apps to Microsoft Azure: The promise and the pitfalls (May 3)
• Making sense of the Microsoft Azure container ecosystem: Services and opportunities (Jun. 23)
• Azure in the oil and gas industry: Technology and career options (Jun. 28)
• Making sense of ARM templates: What they can do for you (Jul. 8)
• Making the most of Azure Sentinel (Dec. 3)
• When to use Azure Firewall vs. Network Security Groups and App Security Groups (Dec. 3)

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