Richard is the Principal Consultant and Founder of Arcible. A specialist in cloud solutions using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Enterprise Mobility, and more. Richard holds numerous Microsoft certifications for both cloud and on-premises technologies.

Away from Arcible, Richard loves being involved in Scouting and getting outdoors with nature. You can find Richard online on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The New Microsoft Edge Stable Release

Earlier this month, Microsoft made the new Microsoft Edge Stable release of its new, Chromium engine based, Microsoft Edge browser available. We’ve been using this new browser, at Arcible, in its early forms for quite a while now and with the stable release now available, that means it’s ready for adoption by end-users.

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Azure Cost Management for CSP

One of the primary routes for Azure consumption has been the Cloud Seller Programme (CSP) model, however, a problem has been that there has been no visible Cost Management for CSP. As of October 2019 though, this is now available giving you access to the same cost management for CSP as Enterprise Agreement and Pay-as-you-Go customers have had.

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Managing Costs in Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure makes building and consuming resources almost too easy so understanding and managing costs in Microsoft Azure is critical.

We aren’t trying to scare you and say that you shouldn’t be deploying resources into the cloud: quite the opposite in-fact. What we are saying though is that you should keep stock of what you are spending and where so that you are managing costs in Microsoft Azure and not the costs managing you.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the ways that you can manage your costs in Microsoft Azure to make sure that you are getting bang for your buck.

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End of Support for Windows 7 and Server 2008

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2) has had a great run of it. After Vista that came before it and Windows 8 that came after it, Windows 7 was a shining light for enterprises: it offered the right user experience and the right performance. Windows Server 2008 R2 has been the mainstay of enterprises the world over, far exceeding what was possible in Windows Server 2003 and not feeling quite as bloated as Windows Server 2012 did. Sadly, all good things come to an end at some point and January 14th 2020 marks the end of support for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2.

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Securing Your Cloud Resources for Free

Azure Active Directory Conditional Access is a feature that you get with Azure Active Directory Premium so you can manage who, where, when, and how users can sign-in to access your cloud-based services such as Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. Although it’s great and we’d recommend everyone look at it, for some, the cost it too much. In this post, we’ll explore what you can do when it comes to securing your cloud resources for free.

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Spreading the Cost of Azure Reservations

When Azure Reservations first become available via the Cloud Seller Programme (CSP), enabling you to buy Azure Reservations through your preferred partner, there was a catch. You could commit to a 1-year or a 3-year reservation but that required you to pay for the whole thing upfront and doesn’t having to pay for it all upfront negate some of the fun in saving money?

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Public Team Search Fix in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is designed to enable and promote collaboration in an organisation, however, we’ve encountered a few organisations having issues with public team search in Microsoft Teams not working.

After experiencing the issue ourselves at Arcible, we thought we would share the solution, a Public Team Search fix in Microsoft Teams. We can’t take credit for this one ourselves and we actually came across the answer while exploring a thread on one of the Microsoft Tech Communities for Microsoft Teams at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams/We-don-t-see-any-Public-Teams-on-the-Add-Teams-page/m-p/116080/page/2 .

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Empower Users with Self-Service Password Reset

Across the globe, first line support teams spend swathes of their time dealing with users needing a password reset or an account unlock but wouldn’t it be great to save time for the end-user, improve their experience for this day-to-day, repeatable task, and free up time on your Service Desk to deal with the bigger fish you have to fry? You could even make the process more secure too!

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