Microsoft Ignite 2019 in Retrospect


So it’s Thursday, November 7. I’ve spent the week in Orlando, Florida, at Microsoft Ignite

 Microsoft runs many large events annually that draw a lot of attention from business partners and end clients, but Ignite and Inspire seem to be the two my contemporaries attend most often. Although both are good, Ignite seems to be the more technical of the two. This was the fourth year for Ignite, and attendance exceeded 28,000 people. (Amazing; that’s double my hometown population . . . wow.)

 I’ve included a few pictures of the “Nerd Herd,” all of whom are worn as the fourth day of learning sessions continues. We’re all looking a little pale, which I would attribute to three days of overcast skies, but in full disclosure, it’s an occupational hazard. It seems there are never enough hours in a day, especially for folks in IT. So many found themselves working to support their organizations or their clients throughout this week. Dedication.

 At a high-level of interest to me were the sessions on Azure Active Directory, moving toward “Zero Trust” (relevant to O365, MFA, and IoT), Microsoft Teams, migration, professional development, Ethics and AI, Machine Learning, and getting an introduction to the qubits of Quantum Computing. So many sessions, so little time! (Literally)

 That would be my one complaint. There were learning tracks available with logistics factored in for moving between locations, but if you approach this event as a buffet, you could be really challenged—diving out of classes early or arriving late. That was kind of rough, but by Day 2, I was over stressing about it.

 The food . . . was horrible—okay, maybe I had two complaints.

In terms of professional connections and quality of information presented, however, it was worth every penny to attend—and, of course, as your roots deepen in the community, you make friends, sometimes over dinner, maybe drinks and cigars—hell, maybe even beer and vintage arcade games. There are always projects, but shared experiences and relationships make it all worthwhile. If you’re not in it for the long game with your clients, you’re doing nobody justice.

 One last thing: HumansofIT is a group that was started with a charter for Empowering IT pros to achieve more by humanizing tech. I heard the call and sipped the Kool-Aid (actually, it was espresso). Apologies for mixing metaphors, but I expect it tracks. What caught my eye was the call for mentors and mentees to self-identify. Like many, I can be both, depending on the subject. I still need to complete my profile, but I think it’s a worthy call.

We here at Convergent Technologies would love to be your partner in change. We’ve assisted many organizations with Microsoft Active Directory projects including assessments, segmentation, consolidation, as well as other forms of migration. How may we help you?

 

 

Leadership, Ownership, and the Technical SME Role

So what’s an SME? An SME is a Subject Matter Expert. This label applies to a person with a very narrow focus of expertise, a niche. Some folks at Microsoft used to describe this as “inch-wide, mile-deep.” The opposite would be more of a generalist, i.e. “mile-wide, inch-deep.”

For years, I’ve been identified as an SME with a focus in Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services as well as the Quest Migration Manager Toolset. I’ve got the certs, and, more importantly, the experience to back that claim.

When working with an organization in transition (divestiture, merger or acquisition) or an Active Directory migration for whatever other purpose, we sell and implement a common toolset – the Quest Migration Manager. Most commonly configured, this toolset is used to read objects from a source environment and synchronize them into a target environment. Depending upon configuration and necessity, this product can synchronize both forward (source-to-target) and backward (target-to-source). It usually has elevated privileges in both the environments to manage objects. There are also safety features which can be overridden, such as synchronization of built-in objects (Think Administrator, Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins, Schema Admins). For most organizations, this would present serious security concerns.

The Quest Migration Manager is a very powerful toolset, which is why Quest Software requires certified (or highly experienced) people to implement it. Typically, this requirement must be met before they allow an organization to purchase licenses.

As a consultant, I understand and respect the capabilities of the toolset. It’s my responsibility to architect and deliver an implementation strategy (and sometimes an entire migration methodology) capable of producing the desired outcome while minimizing risk. In this day of hearing “we have no lab environment to test,” the “measure twice, cut once” credo carries even more weight. Everything is about due diligence.

At Convergent Technologies, it is our responsibility to provide leadership in the form of guidance, recommendations, and management of client expectations to the best of our abilities. The Project Managers I’ve worked with often understand this, but they aren’t usually able to articulate the technical concerns or formulate effective options for the client. They also don’t tend to know when an innocuous activity presents risk.

For example, in one of our current deliveries, we’ve had a few things happen – 1) A Re-IP of the domain controllers in the source and target environments 2) A change of desired Source SMTP proxy address—and, most recently, 3) An undiscussed logon and reboot of the Quest Project Server by one of their systems engineers.

These sorts of changes impact the fundamental operations of the toolset. You could say they put the “FUN” in fundamental. (Sorry, had to…)

Again, as consultants, our job is to guide the client, and sometimes that means calling out bad behaviors because they introduce risk. Most clients, regardless of corporate culture, want the migration to proceed with as little disruption to the business as possible. Even in a relaxed setting, if we identify the behavior(s), a requirement for advanced communication/socialization of upcoming activities, we’ll get the client’s attention and usually gain credibility. They understand we want the best possible outcome as well. We’re not being territorial; we’re being responsible. Our protocol is: Keep communications brief; tell what happened; identify possible risks; describe what the actions should look like moving forward; stick to the point; limit the audience to the offender and the customary technical and project management folks; and if someone has questions or issues with our communication, set a meeting.

This is how I tend to manage situations (and sometimes people) when clients surprise me.

Hope this helps you too!

We here at Convergent Technologies would love to be your partner in change. We’ve assisted many organizations with Microsoft Active Directory projects including assessments, segmentation, consolidation, as well as other forms of migration. How may we help you?