Proof we're not bluffing

Orin Thomas breaks down what happened after the MCSE and what Microsoft’s Windows Server certification story looks like now—especially for Windows Server 2025-era realities. He explains the difference between certifications and newer “credentials,” walks through the Windows Server Hybrid Admin Associate path (two exams: AZ-800 and AZ-801), and calls out a key modern twist: the exams are “open book” to Microsoft Learn in a split view—helpful, but not “ask an LLM to do your homework” helpful. He also highlights practical options like the Active Directory Applied Skills Credential, then maps what gets measured across real admin work: deploying and managing Active Directory in hybrid scenarios, managing Windows Server and workloads with tools like Windows Admin Center and Azure Arc, securing servers, handling virtualization with Hyper-V, working with containers, planning failover and recovery, migrating servers and workloads, and monitoring/troubleshooting the stuff that actually breaks on Tuesdays.

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed event that feels confident and live—without forcing your speakers to learn interpretive dance with a countdown timer. We handled show development, built a cohesive graphics package, prepared the guest so the delivery stayed crisp and human, produced the footage, edited it into a clean, watchable session, and streamed it to multiple social channels. The result is a polished digital event that protects your team’s time, keeps presenters relaxed, and delivers a professional on-air experience that’s ready for both the live moment and on-demand life afterward.

Thomas Maurer and Aurnov Chattopadhyay (PM, Azure Arc) walk through how Azure Arc modernizes server management across hybrid, multicloud, and edge—by bringing your servers into Azure as first-class resources. They cover onboarding options (single-server scripts, at-scale onboarding, Windows Admin Center, multicloud connector, and Arc setup in Windows Server 2025), then dig into connectivity choices like public endpoints, transparent proxy, Private Link over VPN/ExpressRoute, the Arc gateway (preview), and the Arc proxy extension. From there, they demo what you can actually do once servers are Arc-enabled: Windows Server management in Azure, patch orchestration with Azure Update Manager, governance with Azure Policy and Machine Configuration/Guest Configuration, operational visibility with Change Tracking and Inventory via Log Analytics, and secure automation with Azure Run Command (preview)—plus a quick look at where things are headed, including software distribution using VM apps/Compute Gallery and more Copilot-connected experiences.

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed session that feels calm, crisp, and confidently “live,” even though the complicated parts were quietly handled off-camera (where they can’t frighten the presenters). We shaped the run-of-show, designed a clean graphics package, prepped the speakers, captured the session, and tightened the edit so the demos land clearly and the pacing stays smooth. Then we delivered a reliable multi-channel stream using our remote studio and streaming platform—giving the audience a polished viewing experience now, and leaving you with an on-demand asset that keeps working long after the broadcast.

This animation explains zero trust with a VIP club metaphor: everyone shows ID, every time—no exceptions. Instead of assuming users or devices are safe, they’re always verified before access is granted. It drives home the punchline (“not even the boss”) and points viewers to Microsoft Intune at aka.ms/MicrosoftIntuneProtection.

We produced it with the kind of clarity you want from security guidance—and the kind of charm you don’t usually get. The metaphor does the heavy lifting, so the visuals stay focused and the timing stays tight. We paired professional voiceover with supportive music, animated the beats so the joke lands without derailing the point, and polished the audio so it feels premium and memorable. Delivered with captions, audio description, and thumbnails.

This animation compares endpoint management to running a daycare—except the “kids” are laptops, phones, and tablets that need updates, security, and rules they’ll actually follow. It explains that endpoint management keeps devices secure, updated, and compliant so work runs smoothly, pointing to Microsoft Intune at aka.ms/MicrosoftIntuneProtection.

We produced it to be playful without losing credibility—because the metaphor is funny, but the payoff is real. We built a tight script, designed visuals that reinforce the daycare-to-devices connection, and kept the motion clean so the message stays legible at a glance. Pro voiceover, supportive music, and crisp audio polish round it out, with captions, audio description, and thumbnails included.

This animation uses a highway metaphor to explain endpoint security: your network is the road, your data is the traffic, and endpoints are the destinations—laptops, phones, and tablets. Protecting those endpoints keeps data safe from cyber roadblocks, wrapping with “stay secure, drive smart” and a CTA to aka.ms/MicrosoftIntuneProtection.

We produced it like a well-planned commute—smooth pacing, no unnecessary detours. The visuals are designed to make the metaphor instantly readable, while the motion emphasizes the key idea (protect endpoints, protect data). We recorded professional voiceover, added music that supports the rhythm, and finished with sound design that makes every beat feel intentional. Delivered with captions, audio description, and thumbnails.

Uli Homann, Microsoft corporate vice president of Cloud and AI, delivers a quick invite to the Tech Accelerator “Azure security and AI adoption,” airing April 22. He tees up what attendees can expect: security guidance, products, and best practices to help developers and cloud architects build security directly into Azure and AI projects.

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed segment designed to feel crisp, confident, and wonderfully free of on-air awkwardness. We handled show development, designed the graphics package, prepared the speaker, produced the footage, edited it into a tight social cut, and streamed it to multiple social channels using our remote studio and streaming platform—so your message lands cleanly, looks sharp, and stays blissfully drama-free.

Uli Homann, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Cloud and AI, welcomes viewers to the Tech Accelerator event “Azure Security and AI Adoption,” teeing up six sessions that span security capabilities in Azure datacenters and hardware, built-in Azure platform protections, and strategies for staying secure during an Azure migration. He’s joined by David Blank-Edelman, SRE Academy project lead, for an “armchair architect” conversation on applying a zero-trust approach to Azure and AI projects—treating every component (including the model) as potentially untrusted, leaning hard on identity, least-privileged access, encryption, and continuous monitoring, and designing guardrails that reduce risk from AI-specific threats. Along the way, they call out responsible AI principles and the Azure Well-Architected Framework, where Azure AI Content Safety fits in, and how Microsoft Defender for Cloud can help protect AI applications. Later, Eric Charran joins to unpack zero-trust architecture in more practical terms—continuous verification, device posture, policy, and the “trust comes through validation” mindset that keeps hybrid systems honest.

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed event that feels confidently live—without the usual backstage scramble and emergency snack negotiations. We handled show development, designed the graphics package, prepared the guests, produced the footage, edited it into a smooth, watchable program, and streamed it to multiple social channels using our remote studio and streaming platform. The benefit is simple: your experts stay relaxed, your message lands clearly, and you walk away with a polished on-demand asset that keeps working long after the event wraps.

Joey Snow walks through how to design secure AI workloads by starting where the trouble lives: the threat model. He breaks down what’s familiar (DDoS, classic app threats) and what’s uniquely spicy in generative AI—direct and indirect prompt injection, jailbreak attempts, data leakage, and the risks that show up when you add system messages, grounding, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) into the mix. From there, he maps practical guardrails across the stack: tight authentication and access control with Microsoft Entra ID and managed identities instead of long-lived keys and secrets, network segmentation with virtual networks (with a memorable London Underground analogy), and edge protection using a web application firewall deployed with Azure Front Door or Azure Application Gateway. He also spotlights Azure AI Content Safety capabilities, including detecting jailbreak patterns, blocking prompt injection attempts, and watching for protected material and intellectual property issues—because “security” is not a vibe, it’s a plan.

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed event that feels clean, confident, and suspiciously calm—because we did the chaos in advance and locked it in the edit bay. We handled show development, designed the graphics package, prepared the speaker, produced the footage, edited it into a crisp, coherent session, and streamed it to multiple social media channels using our remote studio and streaming platform. The payoff is simple: your experts look natural, your message lands clearly, and your audience gets a polished on-demand asset that keeps working long after the stream ends.

In this Tech Accelerator session, The Essentials to Build and Modernize AI Applications on Azure, Ben Brauer guides a conversation with Rory Woods (cloud solution architect, Microsoft United States) and Joakim Åström (cloud solution architect, Microsoft Sweden) on how to design GenAI solutions that don’t go feral the moment someone asks a “creative” question. They ground the discussion in the Azure Well-Architected Framework and the AI workload guidance, with references to the Azure Architecture Center, the OpenAI chatbot reference architecture, and the Azure OpenAI Landing Zone. From there, they translate the classic WAF pillars into AI reality: reliability when inference is a bit of a black box, security that treats both inputs and model outputs as potentially unsafe (including content safety, prompt injection, and jailbreak attempts), and operational excellence through observability and disciplined testing. They also dig into the modern build pattern—fine-tuning when it fits, but often RAG instead—covering vector databases, embeddings, index design trade-offs, and the practical machinery of MLOps/GenAIOps: red-teaming, automated evaluation, and CI/CD with GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps pipelines, plus how to watch for model decay, data drift, and concept drift as your system meets the real world.

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed event built to feel confidently live—without the backstage scramble, awkward silences, or pixels quietly panicking in the lower third. We handled show development, designed the graphics package, prepped the guests, produced the footage, shaped the story in the edit, and streamed it to multiple social channels using our remote studio and streaming platform. The result: a polished on-air experience that keeps speakers relaxed, makes complex technical content land clearly, and leaves you with an on-demand asset that keeps working long after the stream wraps.

Joey Snow takes a practical lap around Azure’s security stack, starting with the real-world mess: nation-state activity like Storm-0940’s SOHO router compromise, botnets, DDoS, and the lingering lessons of ransomware incidents like WannaCry. From there he connects the dots to how Azure is built to stay stubbornly upright—Root-of-Trust hardware like TPM, Azure Security and Resiliency Architecture, and confidential computing—then pivots into what you can do today to harden workloads. He covers Azure’s DDoS protection services, shows how network security perimeter helps lock down internet-exposed PaaS resources (think storage accounts, Azure SQL databases, Cosmos DB, and Key Vault), and demonstrates perimeter protections with Azure Front Door and web application firewall controls that can stop attacks like SQL injection before they get anywhere near your data. Along the way, he calls out newer capabilities like Azure Bastion Developer, Azure Copilot, Azure Confidential Clean Rooms, Azure Integrated HSM, and Azure Advisor—and wraps with Azure Essentials as the one-stop shop for guidance, reference architectures, and best practices (including the Well-Architected Framework).

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed session designed to feel crisp and confidently live—without forcing anyone to troubleshoot a firewall while also pretending to be calm on camera. We handled show development, designed the graphics package, prepared the speaker, produced the footage, edited it into a clean, coherent story, and streamed it to multiple social channels using our remote studio and streaming platform. The result is simple: your message lands clearly, your experts look effortless, and you get an on-demand asset that keeps earning attention long after the stream ends.

Uli Homann, corporate vice president of Microsoft Cloud and AI, opens the Tech Accelerator “Mastering Azure and AI Adoption” with a practical roadmap for getting to Azure without tripping over your own ambition. He frames the event around Azure Essentials—rooted in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework and the Azure Well-Architected Framework—then brings in Ram Peddibhotla from AMD to connect infrastructure choices to real outcomes, from AMD EPYC-powered Azure VM families (including general-purpose V6 VMs on 4th gen EPYC) to Instinct MI300X for AI workloads and confidential computing collaboration. They ground it all with customer stories: Swiss Re using the Cloud Adoption Framework and a cloud center of excellence to standardize reliability and improve IT productivity by 40% in three years; Howdens building a gen AI support tool with Azure OpenAI service, Azure Cosmos DB as a vector store, and applied search—supported by an Azure OpenAI Landing Zone; AMD scaling EDA workloads on HB-series VMs with Azure CycleCloud; a Fortune 500 bank migrating nearly 1.5 million vCPUs to AMD V5/V6; and the University of Miami strengthening disaster recovery in “Hurricane Alley” with multi-zone redundancy and redundant Azure ExpressRoute connectivity.

We produced this as a pre-recorded, streamed event that feels confidently live—minus the frantic backstage energy and the “can you see my screen?” ritual. We handled show development, built a cohesive graphics package, prepped the guests, produced the footage, edited it into a crisp opener, and streamed it to multiple social channels using our remote studio and streaming platform. The benefit is simple: your experts look effortless, the message lands cleanly, and you walk away with an on-demand asset that keeps working long after the stream ends.

This demo walks through adding a floor plan to a building in Microsoft Places to improve the Places experience for users—making it easier to understand floor layouts and find points of interest like restrooms, stairs, rooms, and desks. It calls out prerequisites (aka.ms/PlacesRequirements), including having desks, desk pools, and conference rooms already configured and waiting 24 hours before building the floor plan. The video explains that Places uses the IMDF (Indoor Mapping Data Format) standard for interactive maps, then shows the PowerShell workflow: connect with Connect-MicrosoftPlaces, grab the building Place ID with Get-PlaceV3, export spatial data and a mapfeatures.csv via Import-MapCorrelations (alongside an export .csv like Contosohqexport.csv), copy the Place ID/Name/Type columns into the right IMDF elements, create a correlated IMDF file, and upload the floor plan using New-Map. Once uploaded, users can toggle maps on in Places Finder to locate nearby features and resources.

We produced this as a streamlined, low-noise demo built for clarity and retention—starting with preproduction to understand the feature, lock messaging, and script the exact click-and-command path. In production we captured clean screens and recorded professional voiceover with music that keeps the pace moving, then in post we tightened the flow and emphasized the steps that matter most. The result: a demo that makes a technical workflow feel simple, confident, and production-ready—so your audience leaves remembering the process, not the clutter.