Utilize Microsoft Defender for Cloud – To protect your cloud security workloads

Microsoft Defender for cloud is a comprehensive cloud security solution offer from Microsoft. Cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection platform (CNAPP). It provides security management and threat protection for resources deployed in Microsoft Entra as well as resources in other clouds such as AWS and Google Cloud Platform.

Take a look at this video to explore this feature

Hope you enjoyed this video !

Regards
Sathish

Overview – Blucalm UCH30 Headset

This blog we will take a look at one of the recent purchases of headset Blucalm UCH30

Our primary objective this time around was to invest in a wired headset, recognizing its comfort advantages during lengthy Microsoft Teams calls. Additionally, having a wired option serves as a reliable backup, especially when faced with the inconvenience of a drained Bluetooth headset battery.

Our specific focus was on noise cancellation capabilities, essential for maintaining productivity amidst the chaotic background sounds often encountered when working from home, particularly the disruptive clamor of children.

Noise cancellation is always a challenge to eliminate.

Difficult to eliminate human voices:

Human voices are particularly challenging to cancel out because they cover a wide range of frequencies and vary greatly in tone, pitch, and intensity. Unlike constant background noises like the hum of an air conditioner, human speech is dynamic and complex, making it harder for noise cancellation algorithms to accurately identify and counteract. Additionally, since most noise cancellation technology relies on analyzing incoming sound waves and generating anti-noise signals to counteract them, the unpredictable nature of human speech presents a significant challenge.

And for instance, a hard hammering on the wall by your neighbor:

Sudden, sharp noises like hammering on a wall pose a challenge for noise cancellation because they are transient and can occur at irregular intervals. Unlike continuous noises that can be more easily predicted and canceled out, sudden noises require rapid detection and response from noise cancellation systems. Additionally, the frequency spectrum of such sounds can vary widely, making it difficult to generate an effective anti-noise signal to counteract them in real-time.

Continue reading

Migrate from Entra Connect to Microsoft Cloud Sync for better resiliency – Part 1

Microsoft Cloud Sync  is a new solution for achieving your hybrid identity synchronizing contacts, groups, and users with Microsoft Entra ID—is Microsoft Entra Cloud Sync.

Rather than using the Microsoft Entra Connect it makes use of the Microsoft Entra cloud provisioning agent. In this article series we will take a look at the steps to migrate from Entra ID connect to Microsoft cloud sync (After detailed analysis)

We will choose only a Pilot OU on this part to see if the synchronization is getting successful for these Pilot OU.

Below are the benefits of migrating to Cloud Sync:

  1. Config is easily managed from Azure AD portal
  2. Cloud Sync does not require SQL server licensing (Azure AD Connect requires a SQL Server database to store identity data)
  3. It’s a light weight agent no heavy dependencies of need to setup a local DB SQL backend
  4. Deployment complexity & maintenance is fair less

Moving on to resiliency:

  1. Multiple agents can be installed for parallel sync.
  2. Whereas Azure AD connect uses Active & Staging mode to achieve some resiliency.

Regarding performance :

  1. Its capable of performing Sequential Sync
  2. Supports Sync to a single tenant from a multi-forest disconnected AD environments

So the question comes here first like ok this seems to be nice but I already have my environment setup and running in Azure AD connect.

What is the steps to migrate to Microsoft Cloud Sync ?

Below are the steps to do that.

First things first (Lets be very honest here )

Not all environments are capable of moving to Cloud Sync .

So we need to first evaluate any environment before choosing this option.

How do I validate ?

You can use the Microsoft setup tool by navigating to the below url

https://setup.cloud.microsoft/entra/add-or-sync-users-to-microsoft-entra-id

Continue reading

Make use of the Azure Recovery Services Vault Backup to restore your Domain Controller

It’s been quite a while since I blogged, and since I started doing podcasts, this has been reduced a lot.This time I thought to blog something about the cool stuff in the Entra ID feature I explored in the demo and wanted to share about the same.

Today in this blog, let’s take a look at restoring a domain controller running on the Azure virtual machine from the Recovery Services vault.
Recovery Services Vault is a feature provided by Microsoft Entra that offers centralized management and protection of data, applications, and workloads.
One of the services offered by Recovery Services Vault is it’s backup.

We also talked about the site recovery in the previous video, and if you want to have more information on it, I highly recommend taking a look at it.
In the backup part, it allows us to securely backup and recovery our applications in the event of accidental deletion , data corruption, or site failures.

Continue reading

Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access Preview – Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

An identity-aware, cloud-based security infrastructure is becoming increasingly necessary for today’s workforce as more and more data and apps move to the cloud. Security Service Edge (SSE) is a new class of network security solutions that is a stand-alone subset of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).

SASE architecture’s main goal is to provide a seamless and secure user experience while maintaining optimal connectivity.

Take a look at this video to learn more about it.

I hope you enjoyed this video!

Regards

Sathish Veerapandian

Deploy your Conditional Access Policies via Terraform

With Terraform, you can define your Conditional Access policies and configurations as code. This means you describe the desired state of your Azure AD Conditional Access environment in Terraform configuration files, making it version-controlled, repeatable, and easily auditable.

Take a look at this video to see more about this information

Hope you enjoyed this video !

Sathish Veerapandian

Make use of Content Hub for enhanced utility in Microsoft Sentinel

The Microsoft Sentinel Content Hub serves as a centralized hub for discovering and managing pre-built, domain-specific content, making it the ideal resource for finding new solutions or exploring data within Sentinel workspaces.

Take a look at this video to get started with Microsoft Sentinel Content Hub

Regards

Sathish

Deep dive into Azure site Recovery showing the step-by-step how to set it up for Azure VMs

Here is the 2nd series on the Azure Site Recovery ! Deep dive into Azure site Recovery showing the step-by-step how to set it up for Azure VMs. This can provide some ideas for your disaster recovery setup in your Environment !

Regards

Sathish Veerapandian

Getting Started with Log Analytics Workspace

This video gives you an overview of the log analytics workspace and how to get started with it.

Hope you enjoyed the video !

Regards

Sathish

Discover Azure Site Recovery for Seamless Disaster Recovery Part 1

Azure Site Recovery is a powerful service provided by Microsoft Azure, designed to protect your critical workloads and ensure business continuity in the face of unexpected disruptions or disasters. This video gives more information on the subject.

Regards

Sathish Veerapandian