Ready to get the Azure training you need to help your organization achieve its goals? The Experts Conference (TEC) 2023 is THE Microsoft training event of the year. Join us September 19–20 at the Loews Hotel in midtown Atlanta, Georgia, for an event filled to the brim with practical Active Directory and Microsoft 365 education, delivered by renowned Microsoft MVPs, industry experts and your peers. You can even earn up to 10 CPE credits per day.
The sessions at The Experts Conference are always organized into several learning tracks. That’s just to help you find the topics you’re most interested in — you can attend whichever sessions you like from any of the tracks! This year, the learning tracks are Microsoft 365, Identities and Azure. This blog post explores the Azure training track at TEC 2023.
Azure training at TEC 2023
The Azure training track at TEC 2023 will deliver in-depth training around Microsoft Azure, the fastest-growing cloud computing platform. You’ll get expert insight into Azure services, Azure Automation, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft 365 Defender, Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Power BI and more.
Naturally, many of the sessions will address the key area of cybersecurity. Today, adversaries often lurk for months in the IT environment, stealthily elevating their privileges and moving laterally to additional systems. At TEC 2023, you will learn effective security strategies for Azure, including how to implement hypothesis-based threat hunting and how to block ads carry destructive malware. Equally important, you can get real-world advice for getting executives to support and fund your initiatives.
Other TEC 2023 sessions will focus on Azure migrations. You can get a 10-point plan for your Microsoft Teams migration, as well as expert advice for ensuring security during Active Directory migrations and consolidations. You can even learn about how you can reduce or even eliminate your on-premises footprint, directly from members of the Microsoft Identity Engineering team.
But the Azure training track at TEC 2023 is not limited to the present — you can also get expert insight into the future. In particular, you can discover how artificial intelligence (AI) will be used to deliver insights, alerting and monitoring of data stored in the cloud, and be prepared to take your organization to the next level by using Azure services to integrate AI into Microsoft 365.
A sneak peek at the experts and their session topics
Want details on the specific sessions waiting for you in the Azure training track at The Experts Conference 2023? Here are just a few of the experts who will be sharing their knowledge and experience:
Mike Jankowski-Lorek: “Advanced hypothesis-based threat hunting with Microsoft Azure solutions”
As director of consulting at CQURE, Mike knows that both successful exploitations and unsuccessful attempts can stay undetected for months, putting cybersecurity at risk. At TEC 2023, he’ll arm you with an effective approach: hypothesis-based threat hunting. You will learn how to come up with good hypotheses tailored for your own environment, create effective KQL queries to uncover indicators of attack (IoAs) and indicators of compromise (IoCs), and analyze the results to uncover threats. Solutions used during this session will include Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft 365 Defender and Azure AD.
Randy Rempel and Sofya Serna Perez: “Top ten actions to take in your Teams migration”
In this Azure training session, Randy, a project manager at Quest, and Sofya, a presales solutions architect at Quest, will provide practical guidance for your Teams migration. You’ll learn which Teams settings can and cannot be migrated with migration tools, and leave TEC 2023 with a concrete strategy that covers 10 key actions, including:
- Creating a comprehensive inventory of your source Teams environment
- Preparing the source environment for migration
- Setting expectations
- Preparing a communication plan
- Creating a detailed migration plan
- Validating your migration
Paul Robichaux: “Not today, Satan: Securing your network by blocking ad-borne malware”
A Microsoft MVP in M365 Apps and Services, Paul is senior director of product management at Keepit. He will address a common source of malware: the ads in internet content that we tend to simply accept as a necessary inconvenience. You’ll learn exactly why ads can be actively harmful and learn about practical tools you can use today to reduce your risk by blocking ads at the network, application and device level.
Mark Rackley: “How AI is transforming Microsoft 365”
Now that most organizations have migrated to the cloud, what’s next? At this TEC 2023 Azure training session, you can get insight directly from an M365 Apps and Services MPV with more than 25 years of experience designing and developing software solutions. Group manager of technology leadership at Avanade, Mark is a seasoned solutions architect who will explore how AI will be used to deliver insights, alerting and monitoring of the data you store in the cloud. Discover how Azure services make it easy to integrate AI into Microsoft 365 and leave the conference prepared to get to the next level.
Greg Biegen, Cameron Dench and Matthew Deres: “Understanding risk and how you can use it to deliver better business outcomes”
It’s one thing to develop a solid strategy for strengthening cybersecurity and cyber resilience — and quite another to get the C-suite behind your plan. If you want to learn how to use the language of executives so that you have the best chance of getting your project across the line, join this TEC Azure training session featuring three colleagues from Quest: Greg (CISM CPSE and director of global cybersecurity, Cameron (IT consultant) and Matthew (chief information officer). They will walk you through real-world examples of how IT leaders ensured that key IT projects were seen as valuable by executives and boards, enabling those projects to be delivered.
Ramiro Calderon and Jorge Lopez: “Transform your identity: The epic journey from on-premises to the cloud”
Trying to reduce or even eliminate your on-premises footprint? You won’t want to miss this Azure training session with two members of the Microsoft Identity Engineering team. Ramiro (principal program manager) and Jorge (senior product manager) will discuss strategies for an effective approach to this transition and provide insight into how other organizations are managing their transformation. You’ll leave TEC 2023 with a clear understanding of how to break down your transformational journey into manageable pieces, including what you can do today and what things to consider for the future.
Bryan Patton and Joe Sharmer: “Security deep dive into AD migrations”
Active Directory migrations and consolidations are complex projects, but that’s no reason to compromise on security. In this Azure training session, Bryan (CISSP and principal solutions consultant at Quest) and Joe (principal strategic systems architect at Quest) will detail some of the most important considerations to take into account during your AD migration or consolidation. They will provide specific examples of what to look out for so that you can maintain the security of both your source and target environments during your migration.
Ingo Gegenwarth: “Notes from the field: Migration to Microsoft Defender for Office & secure your tenant using PIM”
While Microsoft Defender for Office (MDO) can definitely help you secure your tenant, it has limitation that require in-depth planning. At TEC 2023, you can get expert guidance from an M365 Apps & Services MVP. In his Azure training session, Ingo (principal IT consultant at SAP) will walk you through how one large company migrated to MDO and implemented Privileged Identity Management (PIM) to enforce the least privilege principle. You’ll learn why PIM is not just for administrative accounts, as well as exactly how to create a custom role that allows specific Exchange administrators to grant admin consent for only a subset of OAuth 2.0 permission scopes.
Gary Hughes and Sean Visser: “Tenant-to-tenant Power BI migrations: the next frontier”
Are you responsible for migrating workspaces and reports in Power BI? This Azure training session is made for you! Gary and Sean, both technical product managers at Quest, will reveal the key steps and considerations for your migration — including the limitations of the Power BI Service Administration Portal and how to overcome them. A live demo will illustrate the types of data that you need to collect and how you should use that data in your migration planning.
Chris Thorpe: “Microsoft Purview — a breakdown of how it can help you manage your information”
If you’re thinking about implementing Microsoft Purview or want to use it more effectively, be sure to include this Azure training session in your TEC 2023 schedule. Chris, a cloud solutions architect at Quest, will explore how Microsoft Purview can help your organization categorize, manage and share content securely, both internally and externally. He will outline the different processes within Purview, walk you through the considerations to include when planning to deploy it and explain best practices around managing content.
Learn more
This is just a sampling of the expert sessions waiting for you at TEC 2023. Visit the TEC 2023 website to discover what The Experts Conference is all about and get registered (fair warning: it sold out last year!). Be sure to also check out our blogs on the keynote speakers and the other two learning tracks: Microsoft 365 and Identities.
