TOP STORIES #74

With the August summer holidays in full swing, news can slow down just a little, but in the world of IT, there is never a dull moment!

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Hardware

Intel Confirms Lunar Lake Release Date

Intel will now officially launch on 3rd September and is the company's first shot at competing head-on with the Snapdragon and AMD Ryzen AI CPUs.

You can read more about the Launch here.

Microsoft

Microsoft releases M365 Backup and Storage

These tools permit businesses to store critical active data which, in the event of a cyber-attack or other disruption, can be used to ensure business continuity at much faster rates than migration-based backup. You can read more about the new tools here.

First Technology has many different backup offerings and solutions in addition to the vanilla Microsoft offerings, one of which is where the company has partnered with Skykick to offer unlimited storage and retention for a fixed monthly bill. You can read more about the service here.

Please contact your account manager to arrange a meeting with our specialists to ensure that the backup solution being offered is the correct one for YOU!

The Add-On Gravy Train & the Mythical "E7" Bundle.

Now that Microsoft has published its Q4 results, it is possible to use what Microsoft has published to look forward to the new FY and try to guess what lies ahead.

You can read the transcript of the presentation of the results from Microsoft here.

According to the latest opinion from Directions on Microsoft, the guessing game continues as to whether we will see a higher "top-level" Suite that eclipses the current E5 bundle.

However, it is starting to look like Microsoft is favouring selling more and more Add-Ons and is happy with this strategy.

Of course, all this needs to be carefully considered when planning to negotiate a renewal and to avoid overspending on immature offerings, which is good advice from Directions on Microsoft.

Preparing for a renewal involves a lot more, and it is very important that you give our licensing specialists the opportunity to discuss the details, including assessing the ACTUAL consumption of the components you are already paying, for which we have custom analytics tools that complement what you have.

Teams channels and text chat to be combined

The separation of these two channels of communication has been a problem and a complaint compared with Slack. Microsoft seems to be making some moves to address this in a new release, which you can read more about here.

Teams is full of tricks, many of them hidden away. It could be a really good idea to talk to your First Technology account manager, who can put you in touch with one of our many Teams specialists to refresh you on all the features in Teams and see if you are missing an opportunity to get more value from what you already own.

New Outlook now Available for Business

Microsoft has announced that Business users can now start Migrating to the "New Outlook", but it is not getting a great reception. Redmond Magazine has published a story about the New Outlook, but you will see they have reservations about some of the features and the absence of others. Windows Central is even less complimentary about the New Outlook, saying "It Sucks", and proceeds to explain why it thinks so!

Microsoft is still insisting that your Old Outlook will be retired completely in a few years, so it is still important to consider what that may mean and prepare for it. There are MAJOR changes (losses), where for example, COM add-ins will no longer be supported.

You can read about that problem and more in TOP STORIES #52. Most importantly, contact your account manager to connect you with our experts so they can start helping you understand what work is needed to migrate.

Security

Never click on Ads to download software

It looks right, the identity is verified, but it is sponsored. Should I download it?

Answer: NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Any link that is listed as sponsored or is an Ad should not be trusted. You can read more about how these nasties can catch you here,

OneDrive security warning that is a scam

Here is a story of how you can get tricked into installing Malware while thinking you are repairing your computer from a OneDrive error. It all starts with an email bearing an HTML attachment.

It is super important to keep educating users to be on the lookout for anything suspicious, and companies like KnowB4 make it their business to teach users how to always be alert. Please contact your FirstTech account manager to see what courses might be suitable to help you improve your security posture.

Cloud & AI

Fall detection using WiFi Signals

Here is a very interesting application of AI where it is used to detect if somebody has fallen just from detecting changes in a WiFi signal. You can read more about this invention here,

What's up at FTG

What does a World Class SoC look like and how does it work?

You are invited to book a tour of one of our SoC (Security operations Center) nodes (and there are still parts we can't show you). You can book for the tour here.

BUI blog

FTG's Azure and security division has launched a blog focused on Security - what's new, what changed and what you need to do to maintain a good security posture.

All BUI videos have been moved to one YouTube channel which you can find here.

New Recommendations in Entra ID
Entra Admin Center Updates
Conditional Access Policies Renaming
Phasing Out Legacy Identity Protection Policies

Movies

We are having a lot of luck with movies right now. DeadPool has exceeded everybody's expectations. and now we have BORDERLAND's this week and Alien: Romulus coming the week after.

Take some tranquilisers and get ready for Alien!!!

Now Playing: Harold and the Purple Crayon (I could use one of these)

Now Playing: The Bikeriders

Now Playing: The Trap (This one is going to be SCARY)

Now Playing: Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha

Now Playing: The Exorcism

9 August: Big Trip 3: Race Around the World

9 August: Borderlands

9 August: The Widow Clicquot

9 August: My Neighbor Totoro