I recently had the pleasure of delivering part of a Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Workshop to a customer. This was a new task for me, having never delivered one of these workshops before. I thought I knew the subject matter well enough but, of course, there is difference between knowing a subject area and explaining it to other people. It is probably not appropriate to compare delivering a Microsoft workshop with the surgical “see one, do one, teach one” approach but delivering a new thing to a customer brings a certain rush of adrenaline.
What is a Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Workshop?
The workshops are an opportunity for organisations to accelerate their journey to the cloud by learning from Microsoft partners. These workshop sessions cover various aspects of digital transformation: Modern work such as endpoint management, hybrid meetings, modernising communications, transitioning to the cloud; and Security, such as discovering sensitive data, securing identities, Azure Sentinel, or hybrid cloud security.
They are an opportunity for you, as a Microsoft customer, to learn about the various products, services and solutions offered by Microsoft in a structured, targeted way which is directly relevant to you and your organisation.
For me it was an opportunity to brush up on my existing knowledge and #LearnItAll.
Learning resources
To support us consultants in delivering these workshops Microsoft provide excellent resources. Firstly, Microsoft provide specific documentation for the workshop, directing and estimating the time it will take to deliver each aspect of the engagement, as well as template presentations and sample Azure environments.
Secondly, there is the excellent Microsoft Learn, which features well-structured modules targeting each learning area, breaking them into their component parts, with plenty of sample diagrams, reference architectures, hands-on sandbox environments and knowledge checks. If, like me, you learn best by doing, then the sandbox environments are an effective tool to help the information sink in.
It is that hands-on aspect to several of the workshops which I think is their real advantage (and they won’t cost you anything).
Example workshop
Let us take the example of a Hybrid Security Workshop.
During the workshop we will setup Azure Security Center and Microsoft Defender in your tenant, to your specification by taking advantage of the free 30-day trial. We can even include on-premises resources as well as resources in other cloud environments. Then we will leave the software to work its magic science for two or three weeks.
During this period we will run a session on the various network security products, including Azure Firewall and Firewall Manager, Web Application Firewall and DDoS protection.
Once sufficient information has accumulated and been assessed, we will look at the findings with you. The starting point is the Secure Score (higher is better) which is a single number reflective of the current overall security posture.
Digging into the details shows the recommendations grouped by category.
Since we are trying to improve the score as much as possible, with the least effort, we can sort by “potential score increase” and then drill into that category to have a look at specific recommendations.
Selecting the recommendation to install Log analytics agent shows a severity and description of the issue.
The recommendation provides instructions to resolve the issue manually, or we can resolve the issue right there and then by selecting the Fix button. Brilliant!
Let us help you These workshops provide valuable opportunities for learning which can directly benefit organisations. Let us help you, reach out to your risual Account Manager or contact through our website to see if you are eligible.
