TOP STORIES #49

For all the new members this week, welcome!

Below are some previous emails that might make interesting reading.

#44 - check out "Signs and Portents" - this is about AI

#46 - How do you end up buying a car with no seats?

#48 - The previous email - many Microsoft announcements, including CoPilot Sales and Service

If you would like to invite colleagues to join this newsletter, they can click here.

This week's news is Microsoft-related - note the new PC Manager App below from Microsoft.

Hardware

Transparent notebook display.

Of course, the next big IT Show of the year is the MWC in Barcelona at the end of Feb, and already, vendors are starting to tease with what they could be announcing at the show. Lenovo's notebook with a transparent display looks very cool, but maybe not very practical.

Microsoft

Confirmed - it's NOT Windows 12

Microsoft has confirmed that the next big update that will include a major AI update will be Windows 11 24H2 - WIndows 12 (and they are not committing anything) can be expected H2 2025 - probably to sync with Intel's release of Panther Lake. You can read more here.

CoPilot is getting confusing - take your time!

Experts agree that Microsoft is releasing too much too quickly, causing great confusion where you are no longer sure about which Copilot is which and what functionality you can expect. I recommend you read this article from Directions on Microsoft to help you take a deep breath before taking the leap into spending large sums of money. At First Tech we do offer Workshops to help prepare and demystify how you can approach CoPilot - see "Whats up at FTG" below.

Change to "from SA" Licensing Rules

As of 1st Feb 2024 you will no longer be able to purchase new "from SA" licenses to allow for a price benefit from having spent on SA for current on-premise Office licenses. Most companies have migrated already so this is not really a major issue anymore. The Microsoft announcement can be found here. The Microsoft product Terms have also been updated to reflect this change here. (Search for "From SA" and scroll to the very bottom of the page for the specific term - 7th instance).

Yay! Something for free - Azure SQL Database failover rights

As of December 2023, Microsoft introduced updated failover privileges for Azure SQL Database within their Product Terms. These adjustments permit savings on licensing when a secondary database replica is allocated solely for disaster recovery purposes without supporting active workloads or application connections.

This classification as a standby replica allows for the allocation of vCores equivalent to those licensed for the primary database at no additional cost. However, charges will still apply for the compute and storage resources utilised by the secondary database.

The announcement from Microsoft can be found here and instructions on how to configure it are here.

Dynamics Licensing Guide updated January 2024

You can find the latest guide here. The most recent update is the Power Virtual Agents are replaced with CoPilot Studio. As of November 2023 Microsoft launched Copilot Studio, a conversational AI platform enabling users to build bots using either natural language or a graphical interface, replacing the Power Virtual Agents brand.

This service is available under a tenant capacity license for $200/month, supporting 25,000 messages, alongside a mandatory no-cost Per User license for each bot creator.

Power Platform Licensing Guide - February 2024

Microsoft has updated the document, which you can download here. The big change of course is also addressed on the Dynamics guide which is that Power Virtual Agents are no called CoPilot Studio.

This is a handy document, and if you are working with the aspect of Microsoft products, I really recommend you download it.

OneDrive is getting smarter

As soon as May this year you will be able to ask CoPilot to sift through your OneDrive files - including PDF's to answer specific questions for things that you are looking for. Unfortunately you will have to pay for it. You can read more about it here.

Intune Suite Piles on the Add-ons

Microsoft has announced that there are now three Intune Suite Additions bringing three choices when it comes to buying Intune, in addition to buying some of the add-ons individually. You can see more about how the pricing works here.

Here is some more detail on these new features and what is already available in the Suite.

Where Microsoft Software Goes to Die

The Microsoft Graveyard is an open source project which you can contribute to, but is also a great place to go down memory lane - and of course to see what has recently passed.....

Microsoft PC Manager aka PC Cleaner App now in the Microsoft Store

This is a free tool from Microsoft that has been in testing since 2022 and can replace tools like CCleaner that can be full of nagware. You can read more here. I have checked, and I was able to install it. Microsoft has an official web site for PC Manager here.

Windows 11 February Moment 5 Update due soon

It is mainly an EU compliance update, but it does bring some new features and tweaks. You can read more here about what to expect.

Cloud & AI

Google Bard is now Gemini

Gemini is set to become the primary assistant for Google, with a paid-for tier called Gemini Ultra. You can read more about this change and more here.

Security

If it Walk's like a Duck and Quacks like Duck, maybe it is still not a Duck!

This story has been quite prominent in all the news feeds, and it serves as a reminder that you have to be vigilant and very much aware of how your colleagues look, sound and behave. If there is something "off " about their behaviour, especially when it comes to giving instructions to transfer funds, you should triple-check that what you are being instructed to do is legit. Companies who's key people that have no in-person contact with each other are especially vulnerable.

If meeting occasionally physically is not possible it is important to always have your camera on with a good quality image so your colleagues can both see and hear how you interact with them.

It is still difficult for an AI to imitate you 100%, and alert staff may pick up that they are looking at a fake before it is too late.

What's up at FTG

With the ability to now buy one CoPilot license at a time, getting ready for CoPilot is very important, as utilising AI in your business will become increasingly relevant - especially when the AI can use your own data to support you.

FTG is offering an M365 CoPilot Readiness Workshop to help you get ready. You can register here.

Movies

Now Playing: Land of Bad

Now Playing: Holdovers

Now Playing: Dune Part 1 - Re-release as a reminder for Dune Part 2 on 1 March

Now Playing: Teri Baatoon Mein Asia Ujiha Jiya

16 February: Madame Web

16 February: Bob Marley One Love