Normally I kick off the year on January first with this blog, but due to a fever where I have ended 2017 and started 2018 with, I had to wait. 🙁 Like every year I would like to wish you and your family a healthy and successful 2018! I hope that all your and your family’s whishes may come true. Also, this year I would like to start this brand New Year with looking back at the year we lived in a couple of days ago. 😉 What a year it was!
The year 2017 was again a very good year for me full of community, good friends and a lots of fun in the Enterprise Mobility / Enterprise Client Management world. It was the year of:
In January the Kindle version of my latest book Mastering System Center Configuration Manager (Current Branch) was finally available via Amazon. This book is covering the completely new Current Branch version of System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to help Admins to be a master when administering or setting up SCCM. I wrote the book together with two Microsoft employees, Brett Bennet and Santos Martinez.
February was personally a hectic month, I was finishing up a job at a customer but also finishing up my job which I had for almost 9 year. The first of March I was going to join CTGlobal (formally known as Coretech Global) as a Global Senior Consultant and Enterprise Mobility lead to serve the Enterprise Mobility world. 😉 A super great team of world-class consultants that are expert in Enterprise Mobility, Azure, Enterprise Client Management and Cloud & datacenter.
February was also the month that enrollment restrictions in Microsoft Intune became available, a great feature to control what devices are able to be enrolled in Microsoft Intune to access Office 365. To support Modern Management of Windows 10, Microsoft added in February also the ability to configure Windows Update for Business in Microsoft Intune.
Just freshly part of a new organization I needed to go to Seattle for an Enterprise Moblity + Security Airlift. A great week at the mothership of Microsoft to learn about Enterprise Moblity + Security and share feedback directly with the Product Groups of the different products within EM+S. Very valuable!
At the end of March Packt Publishing released my first video course called Advanced Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager Current Branch scenarios. This video is all about advanced SCCM CB scenarios covering Advanced Application Deployment, Third-party Patch Management, Securing System Center Configuration Manager and Mac OS X Management in Configuration Manager.
In March I was able to finish up my series of blogs about Lookout for Work and the integration with Microsoft Intune and System Center Configuration Manager hybrid, with indeed the blog about the integration with SCCM Hybrid. BTW did you also upgrade the Azure AD Application Proxy? ????
In the beginning of April, I updated this blog with a new look and feel. Also the blog is now also available via https://ems.world and https://peterdaalmans.com next to the Configuration Manager URLs. Still like the new look and feel? I do..
In April we organized as the Windows Management User Group Netherlands together with the System Center User Group Belgium the Dutch edition of Lowlands Unite. Lowlands Unite is a one day community conference with two tracks and over 130 people attending.
Also this year we will be organizing two editions of Lowlands Unite, so stay tuned!
The year 2017 (and 2016) were for Microsoft almost fully committed to migrate the Intune service to the new Intune on Azure infrastructure. New mobile application management, app protection policies became available in the new Intune on Azure portal to test, read here the first experiences.
April was also the month that I was proud to announce that I was invited to speak at Techorama 2017 in Antwerp and the Midwest Management Summit in Minneapolis, both in May.
May:
May is community time to the max(!), with awesome events like MMS and Techorama. At MMS I presented two 1,5 lasting sessions together with fellow colleagues Kent Agerlund and Marius Skovli and Microsoft TSP Nick Johnson called “The Complete Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security Suite End to End”. Also, I presented a session called “Conditional Access from A to Z” together with fellow Enterprise Mobility MVP Jörgen Nilsson.
Also MMS 2017 was again a great experience, meeting old friends and making new friends in a superb community friendly environment.
BTW Watch this video from three very great performing artists:
At Techorama I was asked to present two sessions called “Conditional Access from A to Z” and “Use EMS to protect your mobile data and mobile app”.
Hopefully I will be back this year also! Be sure to attend these two great conferences, get your tickets here (MMS) and here (Techorama)
June:
Just before the holiday season Microsoft released the ability to switch from MDM authority between SCCM Hybrid to Microsoft Intune standalone and Microsoft Intune standalone and SCCM Hybrid. Read about switching the MDM authority yourself here and here.
July:
On the first of July I was re-awarded for the 6th time as a Microsoft MVP, as always a very big honor to be awarded for something I really like to do. Sharing with and caring about the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility community.
Some nice blogs of July where, How to enroll the NDES Connector for Intune on Windows Server 2016, Block apps to use cellular data via Microsoft Intune and Improved way of deploying Office 365 to Windows 10 via Microsoft Intune.
Deploying MSI’s with multiple files or executables are still a challenge with Microsoft Intune, in August I was at a customer up north in Denmark and I was able to rewrap an EXE based install to one single MSI. I wrote a blog about it; How to deploy the Citrix Receiver for Windows 10 via Microsoft Intune?
In August I was also able to share that I was invited to speak at Microsoft Ignite in September. Together with fellow MVP Niall Brady I will be covering a session for the Intune Product Group.
Just before Ignite I was asked to deliver a session at the Microsoft Cloud Evolution Day in Zurich, during my session I talked about the State of the Union of EMS.
September 2017 was fully dedicated to Microsoft Ignite, preparing for the session together with Niall Brady. I can say for sure this was the highlight of 2017 for me. Speaking at a premier event of Microsoft where 20.000 people were attending.
It was a superb experience, with a little less than 600 (scanned) people attending our session in one of the bigger rooms with a nice stage on Friday morning.
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In September I opened also my digital space at our new CTGlobal blog, blogged about how to Manage your Windows 10 devices via PowerShell and Microsoft Intune. Another awesome feature that allows us to manage Windows 10 devices, the modern way.
Packt also released my second video course called “Managing Mobile Devices with Configuration Manager System Center Current Branch”.
During my session at Microsoft Ignite I have shown a demo about the Apple Lost mode, a new feature. A really cool feature covered in a short video. When talking at Microsoft Ignite you know that all 75-minute breakout sessions are recorded, watch the recording here.
October is since years also the month of IT/Dev Connections, another really great community conference! This year down town San Francisco was the place to be, what an awesome city! This conference I was allowed to deliver the following three sessions.
- 10 Tips to Control Access to Corporate Resources with Enterprise Mobility +Security
- Use EMS to Protect your Mobile Data and Mobile App
- How to Get Started with Microsoft EMS Right Now
As always IT/Dev Connections was great, hope to see you again in Dallas this year!
After attending a Microsoft Intune partner and customer event I started my blog series about the Microsoft Graph API and what you can do with it when managing Microsoft Intune.
- Automation of Microsoft Intune via Microsoft Graph API – an introduction
- So, what can we do with Microsoft Intune via Microsoft Graph API?
- How to use PowerShell to access Microsoft Intune via Microsoft Graph API?
The Azure Graph API is a very powerful way to automate your processes around Microsoft Intune.
As part of the CTGLobal X-mas gift blog series I wrote three blogs about how to cope with the Android devices in your Enterprise, read all about it here and there is more to come;
- Androids in the Enterprise, a blessing or nightmare? – part 1
- Androids in the Enterprise, a blessing or nightmare? – part 2
- Managing and deploying Web links in Android the modern way, a quick tip
Looking back at my year professionally, I spend a lot of time at customers in Denmark talking about and working together with them to implement Microsoft Intune and the rest of the Enterprise Mobility +Security products, spend also a lot of time in the US basically doing the same. 🙂 Looking forward to more!
We organized 6 on premise and two online Windows Management User Group Meetings with great speakers from around the world. Looking ahead to 2018 and the WMUG, it will again be a nice year with lots of nice laidback community events. Be sure to join us via our Meetup Page!
Looking forward to 2018 broader, also this year will be full of community! So stay tuned! ???? If you ask me, also 2018 will be great! Are you organizing your own community event? Feel free to reach out if you want me to share some Enterprise Mobility Love! 🙂
So again, I want to which you all the best for 2018! Stay healthy and hopefully all of your wishes may come true!
Thanks for following me and see you in 2018 online or one of the events around the world!
Peter