🔹 Feature: Autogen / Autogen Studio
🔹 What It Does: Provides a high-level API for building and prototyping multi-agent applications, while AutoGen Studio offers an intuitive low-code interface to quickly experiment and create multi-agent scenarios.

What is it giving you:

✅ Rapid Multi-Agent Prototyping: Build and test AI agent workflows without writing complex code.
✅ Low-Code AutoGen Studio: Drag-and-drop components to design, connect, and orchestrate agents easily.
✅ Flexible Agent Orchestration: Coordinate multiple AI agents with conversation control, memory, and tool usage.
✅ Seamless Integration: Connect agents to external tools, APIs, and data sources for real-world tasks.
✅ AgentChat Framework: Leverage built-in chat and messaging infrastructure to observe, debug, and refine your multi-agent flows.
✅ Open-Source Foundation: Extend and customize with Python SDKs and Microsoft’s AutoGen libraries.

⚠️ Challenges and Considerations: For new project consider using Microsoft Agent Framework as the successor to Symantec Kernel. But these has no GUI.

Now check the

🌐 https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable//user-guide/autogenstudio-user-guide/index.html
🌐 https://youtu.be/oum6EI7wohM?si=KamC_k7RzwibFQPv

🔹 Feature: Windows Admin Center: Virtualization Mode (vMode)  

🔹 What It Does: Like a System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Windows Admin Center now transforms into a central console for managing your Hyper-V hosts, clusters, VMs, storage, and virtual networks — all in one place and for free.

What It’s Giving You:

✅ Single Pane of Glass Management: Manage multiple Hyper-V servers, clusters, and virtual networks without switching tools.  

✅ Cost Efficiency: No extra licensing required—full virtualization management for free.  

✅ Simplified Operations: Streamlined VM deployment, storage setup, and virtual network configuration.  

✅ Enhanced Visibility: Monitor performance, resource usage, and health of your virtual infrastructure in real-time.  

✅ Hybrid-Ready: Easily connect to Azure services for backup, monitoring, and disaster recovery.

🌐 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windowsservernewsandbestpractices/introducing-windows-admin-center-virtualization-mode-vmode/4471024

🔹 Feature: Azure App Configuration  

🔹 What It Does: Centralized store for application configuration settings, similar to Key Vault, and can even cooperate with it for enhanced security.

What is it giving you:

✅ Centralized Management: Easily manage all your application settings in one location.  

✅ Dynamic Configuration Changes: Update app behavior without redeployment or restarts.  

✅ Integration with Azure Key Vault: Securely store secrets and link configurations seamlessly.  

✅ Versioning and Labeling: Maintain multiple versions of configuration for safer rollouts and rollbacks.  

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-app-configuration/

🔹 Feature: Azure Network Security Perimeter  

🔹 What It Does: Isolates selected PaaS services from inbound and outbound access—similar to GCP but easier to manage in Azure.

What is it giving you:

✅ Granular Isolation: Control which PaaS services can communicate in or out of your environment.  

✅ Enhanced Security: Reduce the risk of unwanted public exposure for sensitive services.  

✅ Simplified Network Management: Built-in integration with Azure, minimizing complex configurations.  

✅ Seamless Compliance: Supports scenarios requiring strict network segmentation for regulated industries.

✅ Inbound Exceptions: Permit only specific trusted sources to communicate with your isolated services.  

✅ Outbound Exceptions: Define which external endpoints your PaaS services can reach.  

✅ Learning Mode: Observe traffic patterns and suggested policies before enforcing full isolation.  

🌐 Learn more: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/private-link/network-security-perimeter-concepts

🔹 Feature: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Automatic  

🔹 What It Does: If Container Apps don’t fit your scenario and AKS feels like too much operational effort, try AKS Automatic — the almost hands-free Kubernetes experience where everything is preconfigured according to Microsoft’s best practices.

✅ What is it giving you:

✅ Azure handles cluster setup.

✅ Azure handles node management.

✅ Azure handles scaling.

✅ Azure handles security defaults.

✅ Settings follow AKS well-architected recommendations.

✅ Compute is allocated dynamically for your workloads.

✅ Clusters come preconfigured for production.

✅ Node pools are fully managed.

✅ Resources auto-allocate and auto-scale per workload needs.

✅ Pods are bin-packed to improve utilization.

✅ Built-in best practices and operations

✅ Clusters have hardened default security settings.

✅ Nodes and cluster components are patched automatically.

✅ You can use planned maintenance schedules.

✅ Node pools are managed with Node Autoprovisioning.

✅ Nodes are created based on workload requests.

✅ HPA, KEDA, and VPA are enabled.

✅ Worker nodes auto-repair when unhealthy.

✅ Clusters are automatically upgraded.

✅ Upgrades stop if deprecated Kubernetes APIs are detected.

✅ You can go from image to deployed app in minutes.

✅ Automated deployments can generate manifests and CI/CD workflows.

✅ Managed Prometheus metrics are configured by default.

✅ Container Insights logs are configured by default.

✅ Azure Monitor Dashboards with Grafana are built in.

✅ Container network observability can be enabled via Advanced Container Networking

✅ Standard tier cluster is preconfigured.

✅ Up to 5,000 nodes are supported.

✅ Cluster uptime SLA is included.

✅ Pod readiness SLA is included (99.9% within 5 minutes).

✅ Azure RBAC for Kubernetes authorization is preconfigured.

✅ API server VNet integration is enabled by default.

✅ Workload identity with Microsoft Entra Workload ID is enabled.

✅ OIDC cluster issuer is enabled.

✅ Image cleaner removes unused images with vulnerabilities.

✅ Deployment safeguards enforce best practices via Azure Policy.

✅ Managed namespaces are available for preconfigured quotas and policies.

✅ Managed VNet uses Azure CNI Overlay powered by Cilium by default.

✅ Managed NGINX ingress is preconfigured via app routing.

✅ Ingress integrates with Azure DNS and Azure Key Vault.

✅ Managed NAT gateway egress is preconfigured for scalable outbound flows.

✅ Istio-based service mesh add-on is available.

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/intro-aks-automatic

🔹 Feature: Managed Namespace

🔹 What It Does: Easily create and delegate access to an isolated namespace within your Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster.

What is it giving you:

✅ Simplified Management: Quickly provision and manage isolated namespaces without complex configurations.

✅ Enhanced Security: Delegate access securely, ensuring teams or workloads remain isolated and governed.

✅Improved Multi-Tenancy: Ideal for organizations running multiple projects or teams in a single AKS cluster.

✅ Operational Efficiency: Reduce admin overhead while providing controlled access to cluster resources.

✅ Integration with Azure RBAC: Leverage Azure-native role-based access control for namespace-level permissions.

🌐 More info: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/concepts-managed-namespaces

#mvpbuzz #azurenews #Microsoft365 #mctbuzz #msignite

🔹 Feature: WinGet Studio  

🔹 What It Does: Edit your software installation and Windows configuration scripts easily with a built-in, intuitive editor.

What is it giving you:

✅ Simplified Script Management: Effortlessly edit installation and configuration scripts without manually handling complex YAML files.  

✅ Centralized Configuration: Keep all your Windows setup scripts organized in one interface for easier maintenance.  

✅ Error Reduction: Built-in validation helps you avoid common mistakes in package or configuration syntax.  

✅ Rapid Deployment: Quickly create and adjust provisioning scripts for new machines or environments.  

✅ Seamless Integration: Works with WinGet to manage installation and configuration processes end-to-end.

🌐 https://www.idontlikeai.dev/getting-started-with-winget-studio-stop-fighting-yaml-start-building/

🌐 https://github.com/microsoft/winget-studio

🌐 More about WinGet: https://rzetelnekursy.pl/winget-no-more-sysprep/

🔹 Feature: Microsoft Foundry Demo  

🔹 What It Does: This sample demonstrates how Windows Server can be used to run AI workloads on-premises with Foundry Local.

What is it giving you:

✅ Data Privacy & Security: Foundry runs fully on-premises—your sensitive data never leaves your environment.  

✅ Offline AI Capabilities: Execute AI workloads without internet access, ideal for air-gapped or remote environments.  

✅ From Zero to Hero: Step-by-step from installing Microsoft Foundry to delivering a working AI application on your laptop or server.  

✅ Cost-Efficient: Foundry Local is free—no cloud subscription required.  

✅ Flexible Deployment: Works on both laptops and Windows Servers for scalable AI solutions.  

✅ Ideal for Regulated Environments: Perfect for industries where data cannot leave the premises.

🌐 Check the official samples here: https://github.com/microsoft/foundry-local-on-windowsserver-samples

🔹 Feature: Building Agents for Microsoft 365 LABS

🔹 What It Does: Provides step-by-step labs that guide you in creating intelligent Microsoft 365 Agents, from concept to deployment.

What is it giving you:

✅ Hands-On Learning: Gain practical experience building agents for Microsoft 365 applications.

✅ End-to-End Guidance: Step-by-step labs walk you through agent creation, orchestration, and deployment.

✅ MCP Server Integration: Learn how to consume MCP servers in Copilot, enabling AI-driven workflows and advanced capabilities.

✅ Copilot Extension Skills: Understand how to extend Copilot with custom agents that interact with your data and Microsoft 365 services.

✅ Multi-Agent Scenarios: Explore orchestration patterns for collaborative agents in enterprise environments.

✅ Developer to Power User Path: Suitable for both developers and IT pros—no prior AI experience required.

🌐 https://microsoft.github.io/copilot-camp/

MCP servers are the best things can happen to the AI. So the next one.

🔹 Feature: Nugget MCP Server

🔹 What It Does: Provides intelligent management for NuGet packages in your projects by identifying vulnerabilities and simplifying updates.

What is it giving you:

✅ Automatic Vulnerability Detection: Quickly scans and identifies security vulnerabilities in your NuGet packages.

✅ Seamless Package Updates: Updates packages to the latest compatible versions, reducing manual effort and improving project stability.

✅ Improved Security Posture: Helps keep your applications secure by ensuring dependencies are up-to-date with the latest patches.

✅ Integration with MCP Workflows: Works with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) ecosystem for AI-driven automation and actionable insights.

✅ Developer Productivity Boost: Minimize time spent on dependency management and focus on core development tasks.

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/concepts/nuget-mcp-server

🔹 Feature: Brand Kits in Microsoft 365 Copilot App  

🔹 What It Does: Provides one centralized place to manage all your brand assets—logos, color palettes, custom fonts, templates, styles, brand guidelines, and voice—ensuring consistency across your organization.

What Is It Giving You:

✅ Consistent Branding: Keep every document, slide deck, and communication aligned with your organization’s branding effortlessly.  

✅ Centralized Asset Management: Manage logos, templates, and other brand components in one secure location.  

✅ Faster Content Creation: Copilot automatically applies your brand kits when creating materials in Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more.  

✅ Controlled Access: Define exactly who can view, edit, or manage brand kits to maintain quality and compliance.  

✅ Scalable for Any Team: Designed for enterprises, internal teams, and personal use to maintain stylistic alignment.

Types of Brand Kits

• Official: Managed by brand managers; accessible to everyone in the tenant.  
• Sharede: Available to a select group of people; access controlled at the time of sharing.  
• Personal: Available only to the creator of the brand kit.

🌐 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/create-and-manage-official-brand-kits-in-microsoft-365-copilot-app-6bc8a5a7-5697-466b-9e1f-302a38d44afc

🔹 Feature: Security Copilot is Now Auto-Provisioned for Microsoft 365 E5

🔹 What It Does: Ignite news was that copilot will be included in E5 license, but the Security Copilot not productivity like Word, Excel, Studio

What It Gives You:

✅ Security operations in Microsoft Defender: Simplify phishing triage and incident response with agents that classify alerts, summarize threats, and guide remediation.

✅ Data security in Microsoft Purview: Strengthen data protection and compliance with agents that assist in triaging alerts and discovering sensitive data.

✅ Identity and access in Microsoft Entra: Enhance access controls and reduce risk using agents that optimize Conditional Access policies and automate access reviews.

✅ Endpoint management in Microsoft Intune: Maintain secure, compliant endpoints more efficiently with agents that help assess changes before they impact productivity.

✅ Custom Use Cases: Build custom Security Copilot agents tailored to your organization’s unique workflows for maximum flexibility and efficiency.

More info:

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/security/security-copilot-inclusion

🔹 Feature: Azure Managed Lustre

🔹 What It Does: A high-performance distributed parallel file system designed for large-scale computing environments, capable of handling petabytes with high throughput.

What Is It Giving You:

✅ Managed PaaS Experience: Enjoy a fully managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution for hassle-free deployment and management of Lustre.

✅ Scalable Throughput Options: Choose from various throughput levels at different price points to match diverse workloads while maintaining top performance.

✅ Region Flexibility: Deploy across multiple Azure regions with compliance and data residency options tailored to your needs.

✅ Scalability: Scale effortlessly to hundreds of petabytes (PB), leveraging durability, availability, and cost benefits with Azure Blob storage integration.

✅ Integration with Azure Services: Seamlessly connects with Azure HPC services, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure Kubernetes Service for a unified HPC and AI ecosystem.

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-managed-lustre/amlfs-overview

🔹 Feature: Sensitivity Labels in OneNote

🔹 What It Does: OneNote files are now protected and governed just like in other Office apps, including encryption, ensuring your notes stay secure.

What is it giving you:

✅ Enhanced Security: Apply sensitivity labels directly in OneNote to control access and protect data.

✅ Consistent Governance: Enjoy the same compliance and governance tools available in other Office apps.

✅ Data Encryption: Keep your notes encrypted for added security, both at rest and in transit.

✅ Ease of Use: Seamless integration with existing Microsoft 365 security policies.

🌐 https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/confidential-by-design-how-were-securing-onenote-for-the-age-of-ai-at-microsoft/

🔹 Feature: The Latest News in Azure Compute

Now fresh updates from #MSIgnite conferences or just before! 🚀

✅ Azure Boost – Up to 20 GB/s Remote Storage Throughput & 1M IOPS

Azure Boost enhances performance by offloading virtualization tasks like networking, storage, and host management to specialized hardware/software. This boosts CPU efficiency for workloads, delivering up to 20 GB/s remote storage throughput and 1M IOPS for remote storage scenarios.

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-boost/overview

✅ Das / Eas / Fasv7 VMs – 5th Gen AMD EPYC™ (Turin / EPYC 9005)

Targeting varied needs: Dasv7 (general purpose), Easv7 (memory-heavy workloads), and Fasv7 (CPU-heavy workloads). Built on AMD EPYC 9005 (“Turin”), these VMs are ideal for diverse enterprise demands.

✅ Ds / Esv7 VMs – Intel® Xeon® 6 (Granite Rapids)

Introducing Dsv7 (general purpose) and Esv7 (memory-optimized) VMs in preview, powered by Intel Xeon 6. Configurations include options with/without local NVMe temp disks and diverse memory-to-vCPU ratios.

✅ Dnsv6 / Ensv6 VMs – Network Optimized

Engineered for network-heavy workloads, these VMs utilize hardware acceleration for enhanced networking performance and faster connection setups, ideal for appliances and high connection-rate services.

✅ Ebsv6 VMs – Remote Storage Optimized

Designed for memory-intensive workloads with demanding remote disk performance. Features include up to 800,000 IOPS and 14,000 MBps remote disk throughput—perfect for databases and analytics.

✅ Confidential VMs – 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® with Intel® TDX

Focused on securing data in use through hardware-enforced isolation. Explore next-gen Intel TDX confidential VMs and DCesv6 specs for heightened security.

✅ New Ultra Disk Capabilities

Azure Ultra Disk advances with features like Instant Access Snapshot, enhancing the snapshot/restore experience for mission-critical, latency-sensitive I/O operations.

🌐 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/the-new-era-of-azure-ultra-disk-experience-the-next-generation-of-mission-critical-block-storage/

#mvpbuzz #azurenews #Microsoft365 #mctbuzz #msignite

🔹 Feature: Azure Front Door CAPTCHA

🔹 What It Does: Azure Front Door CAPTCHA adds an extra layer of security to your web applications by validating users through interactive challenges, helping prevent automated attacks and bots.

What is it giving you:

✅ Enhances security with CAPTCHA challenges to block malicious bots

✅ Reduces risks of automated attacks like credential stuffing and DDoS

✅ Seamless integration with Azure Front Door’s Web Application Firewall (WAF)

✅ Customizable challenge settings to fit specific security needs

✅ Improved user experience with minimal disruption for legitimate users

More info:

🌐 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azurenetworksecurityblog/securing-web-applications-with-azure-front-door-waf-captcha/4416502

When you enable Application Insights on your Azure App Service, you gain powerful monitoring capabilities. However, two additional diagnostic tools—Snapshot Debugger and Profiler—can silently impact your application’s performance if left enabled without careful consideration.

• Both Snapshot Debugger and Profiler attach extra processes/components (e.g., Snapshot Uploader, profiler agent) to your App Service worker process to monitor exceptions and collect traces.

• When exceptions occur, Snapshot Debugger must analyze them, decide whether to capture, create a minidump, compress it, and upload it, which consumes CPU, memory, and disk I/O for tens to hundreds of seconds per snapshot.

• Continuous or sampling-based profiling of live requests always adds some overhead; independent testing shows increased CPU usage and response times (for example, roughly 5–20% relative increase in CPU and latency when profiler sampling is active).

• Based on the number of errors or slowness these can be also more aggressive – also depending on the SKU, if the machine might be already at let’s say 40% CPU –> you can see sometimes 40% additional CPU from SD while collecting traces.

I heard that the best method is to disable the Debugger and Profiler using Azure Portal. Using CLI you can invoke:

# Disable Profiler and Code Optimizations
az webapp config appsettings set –resource-group $(ResourceGroupName) –name $(AppService2Name) –settings APPINSIGHTS_PROFILERFEATURE_VERSION=disabled
# Disable Snapshot Debugger
az webapp config appsettings set –resource-group $(ResourceGroupName) –name $(AppService2Name) –settings APPINSIGHTS_SNAPSHOTFEATURE_VERSION=disabled
# Disable Diagnostic Extension
az webapp config appsettings set –resource-group $(ResourceGroupName) –name $(AppService2Name) –settings DiagnosticServices_EXTENSION_VERSION=disabled

🔹 Feature: Frontier Program

🔹 What It Does: The Frontier Program bridges the gap between customers and Microsoft’s latest AI innovations. It’s designed to offer direct engagement with cutting-edge technology, empowering users to collaborate in shaping the future of AI.

✅ Hands-On Experience: Customers with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, enabled by their IT Admins, can dive into breakthrough features.

✅ Direct Feedback Loop: Share valuable insights directly with Microsoft’s product teams.

✅ Co-Creation Opportunity: Be a part of developing and refining AI technologies, not just adopting them.

✅ Early Access: Get ahead with firsthand experience of emerging AI capabilities.

More info:

🌐 https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/frontier-program/

🔹 Feature: Dev Tunnels

🔹 What It Does: Dev Tunnels make it simple to securely expose your local services like http RDP and others to the internet for testing and development, without needing to deploy to a remote server.

What is it giving you:

✅ Secure Connections: Authorization during Dev Tunnel user login ensures you can connect only to your tunnel.

✅ Flexible Access: Use –allow-anonymous to permit public access when needed.

✅ Policy Control: Group policies help prevent unauthorized tunnel creation within your organization.

✅ Versatile Protocol Support: Expose not just HTTP, but also local SSH, RDP, or any other local port. A client is required on the client side.

✅ Cross-Platform Compatibility: Available on Linux, Windows, and MacOS for broad development support.

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/dev-tunnels/overview

🔹 Feature: Azure VMware Solution Interactive Demos

🔹 What It Does: Azure VMware Solution Interactive Demos provide hands-on experiences that showcase how to efficiently run VMware workloads natively on Azure.

What It Gives You:

✅Deployment and Day-2 Operations

✅HCX Migration

✅Modernize workloads with Azure services

✅Capabilities of Arc-enabled AVS

✅Secure outbound internet connectivity

✅Expand storage with external storage (Azure NetApp Files)

✅AVS + Azure OpenAl Service

✅VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

✅Expand storage with Elastic SAN

More info:

🌐 https://aka.ms/AVSDemos

🔹 Feature: Microsoft 365 Backup

🔹 What It Does: Safeguards your Office 365 data including Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint.

What It Gives You:

✅ Comprehensive Protection: Ensures all your critical data is securely backed up.

✅ Granular Restore Options: Restore specific files or entire datasets with precision.

✅ Policy-Based Management: Simplify backup configurations

✅ Seamless Integration: Works smoothly within your Microsoft 365 environment no third party solutions.

✅ DORA/NIST: Comply with regulatory requirements

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/backup/?view=o365-worldwide

🔹 Feature: SQL Managed Instance Next-Gen

🔹 What It Does: Enhances performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency for your SQL workloads in Azure.

What is it giving you:

✅ Improved compute and storage scalability for demanding workloads.

✅ Enhanced security with built-in advanced features.

✅ Better cost management with optimized resource utilization.

✅ Seamless integration with Azure ecosystem for smoother operations.

🌐 More info: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azuresqlblog/introducing-azure-sql-managed-instance-next-gen-gp/4092647

🔹 Feature: VM Applications
🔹 What It Does: Simplifies the deployment, management, and updating of applications across your virtual machines not only in Azure.

What is it giving you:

✅ Effortless Software Distribution – Seamlessly deploy apps at scale across multiple VMs.
✅ Supports Azure Arc – Manage applications on both Azure and on-premises environments with Azure Arc integration.
✅ Streamlined Application Management – Simplify version control and application lifecycle management.
✅ Consistent Deployment – Ensure uniform application deployment across your infrastructure.

🌐 More info: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/vm-applications

🔹 Feature: Microsoft Learn AI Skills Navigator – A New Way to Learn

Now, exciting news from #MSIgnite conferences or just before! 🚀

What is it giving you:

✅ AI-generated podcasts – just ask for a 5-minute podcast to learn while driving to work.

✅ Choose from diverse formats that fit your learning style—videos, labs, guides, and more.

✅ Instantly turn training into podcasts or summaries for faster, more flexible, and inclusive learning.

✅ Learn your way, on your time, with expert-led training combined with real-time AI support.

✅ Personalized AI-generated multimodal learning plans crafted to meet your unique needs.

✅ Skilling sessions designed to deepen your understanding and practical application.

✅ Live-like training available anytime with agentic support for a real-time learning experience.

✅ Instantly convert complex material into flexible learning modules, summaries, or podcasts for quick absorption.

More info:

🌐 https://aiskillsnavigator.microsoft.com

🔹 Feature: Python in Excel

🌐 Video: https://youtu.be/Egos00xPEF4

🔹 What It Does: Seamlessly integrates Python capabilities directly into Excel, allowing advanced data analysis, visualization, and automation within familiar Excel workflows.

What is it giving you:

✅ Works in Cloud: No need instal Python locally

✅ Basic licenses enough: Office E3 or Buissness Office licenses are OK

✅ Safe: Python in Excel comes with a standard set of Python libraries provided by Anaconda through a secure distribution.

✅ Advanced Data Analysis: Run complex calculations and statistical models using Python libraries like pandas and NumPy directly in Excel.

✅ Powerful Visualizations: Create dynamic charts and graphs with libraries like Matplotlib and Seaborn for enhanced data storytelling.

✅ Automation Efficiency: Automate repetitive tasks, data manipulation, and reporting effortlessly within your spreadsheets.

✅ Seamless Integration: No need for external tools—work with Python and Excel side by side in the same environment.

✅ Enhanced Productivity: Boost your data handling capabilities without leaving the Excel interface you already know.

🌐 For more info: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-started-with-python-in-excel-a33fbcbe-065b-41d3-82cf-23d05397f53d

🔹 Feature: Query Hint Recommendation Tool

🔹 What It Does: An extension to SQL Server Management Studio to optimize your queries efficiently.

What is it giving you:

✅ Establishes Baseline Performance

Ensure your queries are measured against consistent performance metrics.

✅ Identifies Helpful Hints Based on Actual Elapsed Time

Focus on real execution time metrics, not just optimizer estimated costs.

✅ Reports the Status of All Hints Explored

Keep track of which hints were tested and their impact on performance.

✅ Efficiency Boost

Skip irrelevant hints effortlessly.

Time-out suboptimal plans to avoid resource drain.

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ssms/query-hint-tool/hint-tool-overview

🔹 Feature: The SharePoint + Copilot Advantage – Metadata Understanding

🔹 What It Does: Metadata is the descriptive information attached to files (think tags, categories, dates, and custom labels). It transforms a basic document library into a dynamic, searchable knowledge base.

What It’s Giving You:

✅ Enhanced Search Precision: By enriching SharePoint content with metadata, organizations create clear boundaries, making information retrieval faster and more accurate.

✅ Reliable AI Outputs: Metadata acts as an anchor, helping Copilot and agents deliver consistent, business-ready answers while maintaining creative flexibility.

✅ Improved Business Decisions: Structured, metadata-rich environments enable AI to provide precise insights, crucial when business accuracy matters.

✅ Optimized Knowledge Management: Metadata transforms scattered information into organized, easily accessible business knowledge.

While Large Language Models (LLMs) remain probabilistic at their core, metadata helps refine AI’s precision, especially in business-critical scenarios.

🌐 Learn more: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/sharepoint-showcase-how-metadata-and-the-knowledge-agent-elevate-microsoft-365-c/4464079

Open KUDU with powershell.

List all processes

Get-Process | Sort-Object {$_.Threads.Count} -Descending | Select-Object ProcessName, Id, @{n=’Threads’;e={$_.Threads.Count}}, @{n=’Memory_MB’;e={[math]::Round($_.WorkingSet64/1MB,2)}} | Format-Table -AutoSize

Select the ID with more threads – not SCM one – you can confirm it in KUDU console

go to c:\devtools\sysinternals

cd c:\devtools\sysinternals

check current logs:

dir c:\home\logfiles

Create memory dump:

./procdump.exe -accepteula -ma 9888 c:\home\logfiles

it should end with:
[12:16:21] Dump 1 initiated: c:\home\logfiles\w3wp.exe_260115_121621.dmp
[12:16:34] Dump 1 writing: Estimated dump file size is 391 MB.
[12:17:02] Dump 1 complete: 391 MB written in 41.3 seconds
[12:17:03] Dump count reached.

Confirm that file is here:

dir c:\home\logfiles

🔹 Feature: Copilot Formula in Excel

🔹 What It Does: Supercharges your Excel experience with AI-driven capabilities, making data tasks smarter and faster!

✅ Condense Information: Summarize long strings or cell ranges into concise insights.

✅ Generate Sample Data: Quickly create placeholder or demo data for prototypes.

✅ Classify Content: Assign categories or sentiment tags to text entries effortlessly.

✅ Generate Text: Craft simple text content based on your data.

✨ Great for: Enhancing productivity, streamlining data analysis, and boosting content creation without extra hassle.

🌐 Discover more: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/copilot-function-5849821b-755d-4030-a38b-9e20be0cbf62

🔹 Highlight: SQL Migration Options

✅ SQL Server version upgrades including migrations to Azure → Use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

What it gives you:

• Familiar, built-in tooling for DBAs

• Guided upgrade and compatibility checks

• Minimal disruption for in-place or side-by-side upgrades

✅ Migrations to Azure SQL Database → Use Data Migration Service (DMS)

What it gives you:

• Simplified cloud migration with guided workflows

• Online and offline migration support

• Reduced downtime and built-in validation

✅ Heterogeneous migrations to SQL Server → Use SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA)

What it gives you:

• Migration from Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and more

• Schema conversion and data migration in one tool

• Assessment reports to identify potential issues early

Nice page for browsing type of migration:

🌐 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/data-migration/