This post isn’t going to set the world on fire because of it’s revelations and new features; instead, I am going to talk about a feature that has been around since Windows Server 2008 called Fine Grained Password Policies. Active Directory Password Policies are, even in 2018, still misunderstood. For all the consulting engagements I […]
Over the course of the last few days, there has been much said online about a security flaw which is affecting the X86 CPU architecture and more specifically Intel CPUs*. This is an issue which has been known since earlier in 2017 but has only recently started doing the rounds. The issue was uncovered by […]
In my post from earlier today, I talked about the benefits of using Azure Instance Reservations to save money on the compute of IaaS virtual machines. When we think about the components that make up an IaaS VM, we have a few: the VM instance and configuration, the storage, and the software that runs on it. […]
The cloud is everywhere we look in IT now: more, and more organisations are adopting cloud services of one flavour or another. One of the benefits of cloud is that the costs can come out of operational expenditure in nice little monthly packages instead of giant wedges of capital expenditure. While cloud also offers us the […]
For years and years, as @LupoLoopy could probably attest to, I have been a fan of dumping user photos into Active Directory. Even as far back as Exchange 2010 we have been able to light up Outlook with user photos downloaded as part of the Global Address List and today; with the likes of Azure […]
I haven’t posted here for a while and I have a bit of a success story that I thought I would share and hopefully help somebody else encountering the same issues. Over the last few weeks, I have been working with a customer: the customer has a Cisco ASA 5505 firewall in a co-lo datacentre […]
This weekend just past, the UK observed the end of daylight savings time for another year, bitterly welcoming in the cold weather and the start of the dark months. With that comes the day that many administrators dread in fear that their devices and equipment will fail to update with the proper time. Suffice to […]
Group membership control and management is one of the cornerstones of Active Directory Domain Services. In Windows Server 2016, Microsoft introduced a new feature to Active Directory that forms part of the Microsoft Privileged Access Management (PAM) strategy. When used in conjunction with automation, this can be used to provide Just-In-Time (JIT) access to protected […]
For any regular readers here, this is a pretty off-topic post, however, I decided it was worthy of submission. As some may know, I volunteer with a local Scout group, the 1st Chineham to be specific. As a group, we are exploring getting a website up and running; I will have more to post on […]
In the ever expanding world of Office 365, Microsoft has introduced another, new, compelling product to the lineup. As with a number of the recent releases, Microsoft Forms is a free product, available to customers with a compatible license for existing services. Microsoft Forms is still in preview and is not production yet; this does […]