Coming to the end of another year means reflecting on what has been achieved, and what could be improved or changed. Our newsletter has now been running for just over six months – that’s 26 newsletters in total!

Our most popular topics this year included security, employee training and learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). Unsurprisingly, this has reflected the industry news, with issues surrounding protecting sensitive data, improving processes, and engaging with faster ways of creating and sharing information at the forefront of many people’s minds.

Thanks to all of you who have engaged with our content this year. We hope it’s been enjoyable and useful to you and your organisation. As always, feel free to submit feedback or suggestions to olivia@charlie-mac.com.

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

My
first brush with AI was in my final year at Uni. The cool kids had
snatched all of the interesting thesis topics. My friend Paul was
capturing 3D data from a 2D image, similar to this
- very cool. I approached one of my computer science lecturers and he
said, “read this, and base your thesis on it”. The book was Vehicles by Valenteno Braitenberg - an exploration into a form of AI called synthetic psychology that started my fascination in AI and, in particular, neural networks.

Fast forward to just over a week ago (November 30 to be exact). ChatGPT was
released by OpenAI for public research, and uses neural networks and
language models to give a deeply engaging experience. It can create
content - like “write a biblical verse in the style of the King James Bible explaining how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR.”
It can answer follow up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge
incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. But most
importantly for us IT geniuses, ChatGPT can create executable code from a
simple natural language command.

We are using it now to write PowerShell
configuration scripts to push out to Surface Pros via Endpoint Manager.
It provides a good starting point for the script, inserts intelligible
comments, and explains the code for you. I can see many other uses.

Can’t
remember how to write an SQL query to unload the first 1000 rows from a
table? Ask ChatGPT and you’ll have syntactically correct code that’s
ready to execute in seconds. Have code that is throwing an error? Give
it to ChatGPT and it will give possible ways to fix it. Can’t remember
how to write a particular function expression in Power Automate?
Again, ChatGPT is surprisingly good in giving a ready to run answer. It
can even pretend to be a Linux box.

The gap between people and machines is closing.

If you remember seeing Dark Star in
the 70s or 80s, you’ll remember the conversations between crew and
computers - coaxing bombs back into the ship after the bombs decided
they needed to deploy. I guess you had to be there. Anyhow, the point
I am trying to make is that AI is useful and fallible all at the same
time. Use it wisely!

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

When I was learning to fly, monitoring was a big deal. Looking out for traffic, making sure engine temperature and pressure remained in the green zone, adjusting angle of attack, tweaking airspeed, checking radio frequencies, watching the little ball on the yaw indicator. These constant checks ensured safe, smooth and efficient flight. The same goes for IT systems monitoring (including APM and SIEM). With out them, you are in for a vomit inducing ride.

It is important for you to have full insight and control into all aspects of IT operations, and to leverage your current Microsoft licencing. That’s what I believe. There are plenty of 3rd party products out there that you can install OOTB (eg Solar Winds Orion, Atera, Connectwise to name a few), but in my opinion they are bloated and expensive. My preference is to focus on the Microsoft stack - being Azure Monitor (coupled with Azure Arc for on-prem infrastructure), Azure Sentinel, Application Insights and Log Analytics Workspaces. All work together to provide incredibly detailed insight and use AI to determine patterns that require attention.

A good place to start is in monitoring system health in Azure Monitor. By dialling down the refresh rate you can monitor a few servers for a few dollars a month. Add servers on-premises or in a private cloud to Azure Monitor by enrolling them in Azure Arc (free unless you use extended features). With a few clicks and running a simple script, you’ll then have the details of all of your servers in Azure. In addition, Azure Arc will make these servers visible to Windows Defender in the Cloud, with security scores and recommendations provided for all.

Then use some of the OOTB queries to create alert rules and set severities and automated actions. Email, SMS and other notification methods are supported. Once you know where to go, the process of setup is easy. Go beyond your datacentres and try Application Insights to monitor websites and web apps. In addition, sophisticated network monitoring is available through Azure Sentinel. We use an OOTB connector with the Ubiquiti network equipment we deploy and manage for our clients.

Don’t be like Mav’s Dad. As Viper said, “We were in the worst dogfight I ever dreamed of. There were bogeys like fireflies all over the sky. His F-4 was hit, and he was wounded, but he could've made it back”. Be like Slider - “Contact, multiple bogey’s 165, 2 miles”. Identify and engage threats to your IT infrastructure and be situationally aware.

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

Strong
and enduring relationships are important but often get overlooked in
IT. Strong relationships are built upon shared commitment and trust.
Without these, awesome ideas die on the vine. I am sure you’ve seen
this before. Forming long term relationships with IT providers can be
difficult too, particularly in our world of probity and procurement
standards.

In the realm of the Microsoft 365 universe, strong relationships start with your Cloud Services Provider (CSP). Not sure if you have a CSP? Login to the Office 365 Admin Center, and click on Settings | Partner Relationships
in the left-hand blade. You should see a list of direct and indirect
resellers/providers - these are your CSPs. You can leverage these
relationships to:

  • Spin up demos of any Microsoft cloud product of your choosing (including anything in the Dynamics 365 suite),

  • Get access to Microsoft planning, training and adoption guides,

  • Automate the rollout of new devices (through Autopilot),

  • Get access to new Microsoft 365 features,

  • Receive special offers - like Microsoft training and certification exams at no cost.

  • Get special pricing,

  • Access deep experts in Microsoft cloud technologies within your CSP’s ranks, their wholesalers or Microsoft themselves,

  • Get direct support from Microsoft on cloud adoption through the Fast Track program

Note that conditions apply to some of the above.

Strong
relationships in IT must go beyond your CSP. If only there was a
framework and a set of tools for building strong relationships? Well, I am glad you asked. Sometimes, something from left-field can give us the insight we need. The Gottman Method (focused
on building strong couples relationships through research) can give a
guide to building strong IT relationships. Shared commitment and trust
are cornerstones of the Method. Shared stories and meaning deepen
relationships. I could go on, but I am sure you get the idea.

Great relationships help everyone grow. What would have Charlie Babbitt have become without Ray, or Jerry McGuire without Rod Tidwell?

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

Following on from my email last week, I wanted to describe how you can build a complete Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution completely with Microsoft offerings. My philosophy is two-fold: 1) make the most of the Microsoft 365 licencing you already have and, 2) remove much of the third-party security infrastructure you have that subsequently becomes redundant. The result is a simpler security management environment that is more effective [I believe] at preventing, detecting and handling security incidents.

A good place to start are the security setup items in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Here, you can enable Microsoft’s recommended security defaults and conditional access policies (inc MFA). Before you get started though, it’s a good idea to setup at least 1 or 2 break-glass accounts and monitor access of these accounts through Azure Monitor. These will ensure that you don’t ever get locked out through misconfiguration.

Then, check out the Microsoft 365 Defender Center, and in particular, the recommendations under your Microsoft Security Score. If you are like most organisations, you’ll be presented with a long list of recommended remediation tasks. Click on any one of these to get handy implementation instructions.

To go further, look at Microsoft Defender for Endpoint - comprehensive device security pushed out through Endpoint Manager, and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (the welcome [and far cheaper] replacement for products like Mailguard). If you have workloads in Azure, also check out the Azure Security Center. In addition, Microsoft Purview (was known as Security and Compliance Center) provides content classification, audit and deep data investigation functions. With Purview, you can also apply policies for automating the detection of potential compliance breaches (eg credit card numbers in the clear).

And as with everything Microsoft, all roads lead to Rome. Go ahead and choose a path to a better security posture that best suits you and your organisation.

And remember, security is, as one of my favourite 80s movies suggested, one [persons] struggle to take it easy.

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

Security has always been a big deal, and recent events have brought it into sharp focus for many of us. I remember in the early 90s, implementing a secure system for Defence. We were so worried about data interception that we built the entire network using fibre - right up to the desktop. Sadly, in the race to pile on security controls, sometimes the basics are overlooked. Take the recent Optus and Medibank breaches for example. Reports suggest that the former accidentally opened their test environment to the internet and used un-scrubbed customer data for testing. In the later, user credentials were harvested to create two back doors through which data was obtained. Not knowing the full details of these incidents, it is difficult to draw conclusions. But from what we know, there are some take-aways.

Although VPDSS and AS/ISO 27001 compliance is important, in my experience it can give a false sense that all is ok. In my world, the Essential 8 is a great reference for reviewing what you have. ASD and the ACSC provide really clear and specific guidance on the basic security controls you must have in place. Also take a look at this to verify the level of controls you’ll need given the information you hold. You’ll notice that this Fed Govt advice is similar to that in the VPDSS, just with more detail.

Need security policy based on ACSC and ASD advice? Check out the Fed’s Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF).

Reach out if you want to know more about applying the Essential 8, the PSPF, or the treasure trove of security controls described in detail in the ISM.

And remember, just like in the 80s classic War Games, sometimes the most sophisticated attacks can be thwarted by the simplest of measures.

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

We get so caught up sometimes delivering new features that quality starts to slip. I’ve been there - in the race to deliver, ripping up the back yard, testing feels like your Mum yelling ‘slow down’ out the kitchen window. Test automation provides a middle path, automating much of the quality checking bit, and freeing you up to deliver faster. Test automation is the gateway to performance and load testing. Even things built on the Power Platform need some performance testing love.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance says ‘…a person who sees Quality and feels it as he [or she] works is a person who cares’. I’d like to think that us test automation people really do care deeply about what we deliver.

The holy grail is to automate real user experience and to replicate this at scale - with hundreds or thousands of automatons running at once. Enter the marriage made in heaven partnership of JMeter and Blazemeter - lean, cost effective and scalable. You can record user actions in JMeter and then play back as many times as you like. Blazemeter then runs virtual instances of JMeter scripts, running as may in parallel as you want, and recording the results. JMeter is free (open source) and Blazemeter is not expensive. Contrary to the advice of the Motels, don’t need to ‘…sell your soul for total control’.

Reach out if you need further info or help in scripting and running automated tests.

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

When I was a radar engineer with the RAAF in the early 90’s, I marvelled at a thing they called PAR
(or Precision Approach Radar). It was unique because it allowed an air
traffic controller to get an aircraft down in really bad weather,
within a few inches of the runway centreline. The only visuals the
controller had were 2 cathode ray scopes, one for elevation and the
other for direction. The former had a glide path line etched on it and
the later a heading line. All the controller had to do was to issue
instructions to the pilot to keep the aircraft blip on each line. “Up”,
“down”, “left” or “right” was enough, and an aircraft could be brought
down safely in zero visibility. By the mid 90’s, PAR was replaced by ILS/TLS
(or Instrument/Transponder Landing System) and the onus switched from
controller to the pilot for getting aircraft position right when landing
in bad weather.

We
are in the middle of a shift of responsibility too in IT, from
centralised to decentralised control - where centralised systems are
giving way to the microservices approach. If you are keen on IT
architectures then take a look at this explanation from doyen Martin Fowler.
Moving from centralised to decentralised means that control becomes
more difficult and needs careful consideration in architecture design,
as explained in this talk by Bernd Rucker.

Don’t
worry though - we are not losing ‘…that lovin feeling’ for centralised
systems. They will always be in the mix. But, as Maverick and Goose
said in the original movie, we have ‘…a need, a need for speed’ [cheesy
high five goes here] - in delivering systems changes. And microservices
are one way to achieve this.

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

Have you ever had to roll out a new system and not had the training material ready? Good training material takes time, particularly if you need to cut it from scratch. Well life on the e-learning plains is getting easier. The new kids on the block in the e-learning space are Learning Pathways and Viva Learning - both from Microsoft. The former is free, whilst the later costs next to nix.

Learning Pathways provides pre-cut Microsoft training material delivered as a SharePoint app. The beauty of this approach is that you can create learning pathways and material of your own and combine it with the Microsoft base. For example, you can take a standard Microsoft guide on using Teams, add your own corporate terminology and references, and bundle it back into the app. The Microsoft content is updated regularly and deployed though a github repo. Want to check it out now? Go ahead and deploy it straight from the SharePoint Look Book into your own tenant!

Viva Learning can be configured to target specific items in Learning Pathways to specific employees. It can also consume material from other e-learning content providers and track employee progress. It’s not an LMS, but sometimes an LMS is just overbaking e-learning. Take a look at this guided simulation - it’s pretty cool - but, remember, I don’t get out much…

And if all of this way too overwhelming, just remember those wise words from those other New Kids on the Block - ‘step by step’.

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

Whilst working at a Water Corporation a while back, I had to migrate 250k records from Records Manager to Content Manager 9. The documents themselves were straightforward, but the transformations of the related metadata were extreme (including nested lists). I used Power Query for this and although good for understanding data quality, it was very manual and would hang on large datasets.

Finding a good and cost effective ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) platform is difficult, particularly something that is corporate grade. You maybe familiar with FME Workbench - particularly those of you that look after GIS. It’s a great tool but expensive. You’ll be pleased to know that there is a cloud based Microsoft equivalent - Azure Data Factory.

We are using Data Factory to pull data from a data warehouse (containing legacy ERP data), perform some minor transformations, and then push it into the Dataverse. The data is then made available to staff using a model driven PowerApp. It gives staff ready access to the data in a secure way. In addition, they get the power of AI assisted searching (like recognizing common abbreviations and acronyms), and this old data can be combined with new data in the Dataverse.

Old and new worlds collide with Data Factory and the Dataverse to create the one thing we all are searching for - one complete view of corporate data.

Across the Industry

Recent Government Tenders

Microsoft News

"A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ Points" 
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