Episode 381 – Microsoft Graph Data Connect

August 01, 2024

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Episode 381 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In this episode we discuss Microsoft Graph Data Connect, a service that allows organizations to access and manage data from Microsoft 365 in a secure, scalable, and efficient manner.

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1 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:04,660 Welcome to episode 2 00:00:05,279 --> 00:00:08,500 381 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast, 3 00:00:08,639 --> 00:00:10,734 recorded live on July 26, 4 00:00:11,035 --> 00:00:11,535 2024. 5 00:00:12,314 --> 00:00:14,494 This is a show about Microsoft 365 6 00:00:14,794 --> 00:00:17,035 and Azure from the perspective of IT pros 7 00:00:17,035 --> 00:00:19,370 and end users, where we discuss a topic 8 00:00:19,370 --> 00:00:21,289 or recent news and how it relates to 9 00:00:21,289 --> 00:00:23,929 you. Today, we have some updates to an 10 00:00:23,929 --> 00:00:26,934 older, but not often shared feature of Microsoft 11 00:00:27,234 --> 00:00:27,734 365. 12 00:00:28,675 --> 00:00:31,554 So without further ado, we bring you an 13 00:00:31,554 --> 00:00:35,489 introduction to Microsoft Graph Data Connect as well 14 00:00:35,489 --> 00:00:37,969 as some recent announcements about data that is 15 00:00:37,969 --> 00:00:39,590 accessible via the service. 16 00:00:41,649 --> 00:00:43,564 We are live with another episode of the 17 00:00:43,564 --> 00:00:46,765 Microsoft Cloud IT Pro podcast recorded live on 18 00:00:46,765 --> 00:00:49,004 Friday, July 26th in the middle of a 19 00:00:49,004 --> 00:00:49,504 thunderstorm 20 00:00:49,804 --> 00:00:50,864 in Florida because 21 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:53,659 it's Florida, and it's afternoon. It is 22 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:54,460 starting 23 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:57,899 to sound eerily ominous out there, 24 00:00:58,414 --> 00:00:59,234 and we are into 25 00:01:00,174 --> 00:01:00,674 thunderstorms 26 00:01:00,975 --> 00:01:02,594 in the afternoon season. 27 00:01:03,054 --> 00:01:05,314 So if I drop out, it's probably 28 00:01:06,299 --> 00:01:08,480 not you. The thunderstorm? It's me. 29 00:01:09,099 --> 00:01:10,560 And my awesome 30 00:01:11,420 --> 00:01:14,245 my awesome access to electricity over here on 31 00:01:14,245 --> 00:01:15,605 the beach side of town. I just want 32 00:01:15,605 --> 00:01:17,204 the thunderstorms to pass so I can go 33 00:01:17,204 --> 00:01:19,765 play pickleball tonight. Oh, you're really dating yourself 34 00:01:19,765 --> 00:01:21,525 if you're if you're if you've already started 35 00:01:21,525 --> 00:01:22,344 playing pickleball. 36 00:01:22,725 --> 00:01:23,950 My my parents play pickleball, 37 00:01:24,569 --> 00:01:27,290 Ben. Pickleball pickleball is not for the youth 38 00:01:27,290 --> 00:01:27,950 like us. 39 00:01:29,049 --> 00:01:31,325 You know what? You say that, but it's 40 00:01:31,325 --> 00:01:33,405 better than not doing anything, I figure, and 41 00:01:33,405 --> 00:01:35,084 I actually do kind of enjoy it. Alright. 42 00:01:35,084 --> 00:01:37,484 It's kinda fun. I can't play tennis. It's 43 00:01:37,644 --> 00:01:39,540 so for me, I can't play tennis. I 44 00:01:39,540 --> 00:01:41,460 love ping pong, but, look, I mean, I 45 00:01:41,460 --> 00:01:43,060 don't get to work out playing ping pong, 46 00:01:43,060 --> 00:01:45,540 and ping pong takes room indoors. So pickleball 47 00:01:45,540 --> 00:01:47,700 is, like, a happy medium between for me, 48 00:01:47,700 --> 00:01:50,185 where I can still carry over some of 49 00:01:50,185 --> 00:01:51,724 my ping pong abilities 50 00:01:52,265 --> 00:01:54,344 and get some exercise at the same time. 51 00:01:54,344 --> 00:01:55,719 If you find that it's that much fun 52 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:57,439 call me old. You might have to invite 53 00:01:57,439 --> 00:01:58,479 me. I mean, I have I have all 54 00:01:58,479 --> 00:02:00,079 the gray hair, so, you know, if it 55 00:02:00,079 --> 00:02:01,760 does end up being, like, an old person 56 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:04,079 contingent thing, you just pull me along, and 57 00:02:04,079 --> 00:02:06,064 I'll I'll come play pickleball with you. I 58 00:02:06,064 --> 00:02:07,265 think we have all the stuff in the 59 00:02:07,265 --> 00:02:09,185 garage. My my my kids have a pickleball 60 00:02:09,185 --> 00:02:10,705 set that they bought to play pickleball with 61 00:02:10,705 --> 00:02:12,465 their grandparents. See, and you were just telling 62 00:02:12,465 --> 00:02:14,120 me I was dating myself by playing pickleball, 63 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:15,959 but, yeah, your kids play pickleball. No. I 64 00:02:15,959 --> 00:02:18,199 said, we have a pickleball set in the 65 00:02:18,199 --> 00:02:18,699 garage 66 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:21,080 that was bought so my kids could play 67 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,625 pickleball with their grandparents. I didn't say that 68 00:02:23,625 --> 00:02:25,944 my kids actually were playing pickleball with their 69 00:02:25,944 --> 00:02:26,444 grandparents 70 00:02:26,824 --> 00:02:28,824 or that that set was being used at 71 00:02:28,824 --> 00:02:29,324 all. 72 00:02:29,784 --> 00:02:33,169 Oh, okay. I stand corrected then. So speaking 73 00:02:33,169 --> 00:02:34,930 of buying other things, I spent more money 74 00:02:34,930 --> 00:02:36,769 today. Did you see did you get a 75 00:02:36,769 --> 00:02:38,289 chance to watch the YouTube video I sent 76 00:02:38,289 --> 00:02:40,735 you? Yeah. Elgato's got some new stuff out. 77 00:02:40,974 --> 00:02:42,194 So they have 78 00:02:42,974 --> 00:02:44,754 a new XLR interface 79 00:02:45,294 --> 00:02:47,694 and a new USB hub, so I'm interested. 80 00:02:47,694 --> 00:02:49,229 What did you pick up? We have all 81 00:02:49,229 --> 00:02:50,590 our podcasts set up, so I was like, 82 00:02:50,590 --> 00:02:52,370 I do not need an XLR 83 00:02:52,750 --> 00:02:54,370 audio interface. However, 84 00:02:54,750 --> 00:02:57,284 if you do podcasts or have an XLR 85 00:02:57,284 --> 00:02:59,465 mic and you just need like a single 86 00:02:59,604 --> 00:03:00,584 XLR port, 87 00:03:01,364 --> 00:03:02,504 that is super 88 00:03:02,805 --> 00:03:04,104 intriguing and interesting 89 00:03:04,819 --> 00:03:07,300 to be able to incorporate an XLR audio 90 00:03:07,300 --> 00:03:07,800 interface 91 00:03:08,659 --> 00:03:10,900 straight into the Stream Deck. I picked up 92 00:03:10,900 --> 00:03:13,365 the USB 1. So for me, it was, 93 00:03:13,365 --> 00:03:14,745 what, I think it's like $59 94 00:03:15,205 --> 00:03:16,105 for the USB 95 00:03:16,645 --> 00:03:19,044 add on, and you essentially, like, unscrew the 96 00:03:19,044 --> 00:03:20,905 base of the Stream Deck Plus 97 00:03:21,284 --> 00:03:23,189 and then pop this attachment on the back 98 00:03:23,189 --> 00:03:25,370 and screw it back in, and it has 99 00:03:25,830 --> 00:03:28,870 2 USB C ports, 2 USB 3 ports, 100 00:03:28,870 --> 00:03:30,550 and it actually has, like, an SD card 101 00:03:30,550 --> 00:03:31,974 reader and all of that. 102 00:03:32,615 --> 00:03:34,135 And here's my use case. I have 2 103 00:03:34,135 --> 00:03:35,915 Stream Decks. I have, like, a USB 104 00:03:37,415 --> 00:03:40,395 speakerphone on my desk. I charge my keyboard 105 00:03:40,700 --> 00:03:43,099 sometimes off of USB, and I have all 106 00:03:43,099 --> 00:03:45,280 these cables, like, running back and around 107 00:03:45,580 --> 00:03:46,080 up 108 00:03:46,540 --> 00:03:49,099 to docks hidden under my desk, behind my 109 00:03:49,099 --> 00:03:50,319 monitor, all of that. 110 00:03:50,974 --> 00:03:52,735 But there are times I, like, just want 111 00:03:52,735 --> 00:03:55,134 to plug a USB device in that's right 112 00:03:55,134 --> 00:03:57,715 here on my desk, so I can minimize 113 00:03:57,935 --> 00:04:01,069 my USB cables running and snaking all around 114 00:04:01,069 --> 00:04:03,790 the desk and get myself a couple USB 115 00:04:03,790 --> 00:04:05,729 ports easily accessible, 116 00:04:06,189 --> 00:04:08,189 like right in front of me on the 117 00:04:08,189 --> 00:04:08,689 desk 118 00:04:09,594 --> 00:04:12,155 without adding something extra to the desk because 119 00:04:12,155 --> 00:04:13,915 they just kinda hide right in the back 120 00:04:13,915 --> 00:04:15,194 of the Stream Deck there. You'll have to 121 00:04:15,194 --> 00:04:16,475 tell me how this one works out for 122 00:04:16,475 --> 00:04:18,314 you. Like, one of my frustrations with the 123 00:04:18,314 --> 00:04:18,899 Stream Decks 124 00:04:20,100 --> 00:04:20,600 is, 125 00:04:21,459 --> 00:04:23,379 you know, they're they're bound to the software 126 00:04:23,379 --> 00:04:24,120 on your desktop. 127 00:04:24,740 --> 00:04:26,199 So you end up, 128 00:04:26,955 --> 00:04:30,475 you know, in these kinda mismatched state areas 129 00:04:30,475 --> 00:04:32,154 where sometimes, like, the button on your Stream 130 00:04:32,154 --> 00:04:34,074 Deck thinks it's on when the device really 131 00:04:34,074 --> 00:04:35,939 isn't on over here, like, the software is 132 00:04:35,939 --> 00:04:37,939 not reporting things correctly. So one of the 133 00:04:37,939 --> 00:04:39,620 things that I do with my Stream Deck 134 00:04:39,620 --> 00:04:41,860 at least once a day is I unplug 135 00:04:41,860 --> 00:04:43,220 it, and I plug it back in. And 136 00:04:43,220 --> 00:04:44,925 I just do that by taking the USB 137 00:04:44,925 --> 00:04:45,904 cable. So 138 00:04:46,685 --> 00:04:47,964 out the back. So one of the things 139 00:04:48,125 --> 00:04:50,204 so these new devices, I think they were 140 00:04:50,204 --> 00:04:52,204 only applicable to the Stream Deck Plus, which 141 00:04:52,204 --> 00:04:53,745 is fine. Like, that's what I have. 142 00:04:54,189 --> 00:04:56,430 But the way they also plugged in was 143 00:04:56,430 --> 00:04:56,930 basically 144 00:04:57,310 --> 00:04:59,250 having, like, a permanent USB, 145 00:04:59,629 --> 00:05:02,270 not cable, but just a plug sticking out 146 00:05:02,270 --> 00:05:04,324 on the mount device, And then you're basically 147 00:05:04,384 --> 00:05:05,824 mounting straight on top of that. So I 148 00:05:05,824 --> 00:05:07,024 don't know if I wanna go from just 149 00:05:07,024 --> 00:05:09,105 pulling a cable out once a day to 150 00:05:09,105 --> 00:05:10,944 pulling the whole thing off the mount or 151 00:05:10,944 --> 00:05:12,779 potentially figuring out how to, like, pull the 152 00:05:12,779 --> 00:05:13,680 cable from the 153 00:05:13,980 --> 00:05:15,500 cable kind of thing depending on where it 154 00:05:15,500 --> 00:05:17,819 is. So I'd be interested in feedback once 155 00:05:17,819 --> 00:05:19,579 you've had a chance to play with it 156 00:05:19,579 --> 00:05:21,264 a little bit. And even on, like, the 157 00:05:21,264 --> 00:05:23,345 XLR interface, like, I look around a lot, 158 00:05:23,345 --> 00:05:24,544 and I'm like, you know, I drive 2 159 00:05:24,544 --> 00:05:26,464 mics most of the day. So for my 160 00:05:26,464 --> 00:05:28,625 meetings, when I'm at work, I typically drive 161 00:05:28,625 --> 00:05:30,164 a shotgun mic. 162 00:05:31,189 --> 00:05:33,509 So to give folks a sense, so if 163 00:05:33,509 --> 00:05:35,750 I come over here, this is normally the 164 00:05:35,750 --> 00:05:38,389 microphone that I use on Teams calls and 165 00:05:38,389 --> 00:05:39,884 things like that just so I can be 166 00:05:39,884 --> 00:05:41,884 hands free and not have this big honking 167 00:05:41,884 --> 00:05:43,904 mic sitting in front of my face. 168 00:05:44,524 --> 00:05:45,725 But then when you and I do these 169 00:05:45,725 --> 00:05:47,665 things, you know, I I I bring the 170 00:05:47,725 --> 00:05:49,919 the the nice ESOS out and and pull 171 00:05:49,919 --> 00:05:51,759 that over for some of that, like, rich 172 00:05:51,759 --> 00:05:52,259 deep, 173 00:05:52,879 --> 00:05:54,419 you know, broadcasty goodness. 174 00:05:54,959 --> 00:05:55,459 And 175 00:05:55,764 --> 00:05:57,285 so I I really like, I I only 176 00:05:57,285 --> 00:05:59,285 need 2 XLR interfaces, and I could probably 177 00:05:59,285 --> 00:06:00,644 get by with 1. Like, there's really no 178 00:06:00,644 --> 00:06:02,324 reason that I couldn't just use 1 and 179 00:06:02,324 --> 00:06:03,764 and be done with it. And it would 180 00:06:03,764 --> 00:06:05,125 buy back a bunch of space on my 181 00:06:05,125 --> 00:06:07,050 desk. So the cool thing about these, by 182 00:06:07,050 --> 00:06:09,209 kind of combining the functionality of a USB 183 00:06:09,209 --> 00:06:11,790 hub or the XLR thing, it's so stupid. 184 00:06:12,169 --> 00:06:14,089 It's completely low hanging fruit, but it makes 185 00:06:14,089 --> 00:06:16,235 a 100% of sense. Like, in your use 186 00:06:16,235 --> 00:06:18,154 case and in mine, it'd be buying back 187 00:06:18,154 --> 00:06:20,154 desk space. Right? Like, if I could get 188 00:06:20,154 --> 00:06:21,214 rid of this honking 189 00:06:21,514 --> 00:06:23,675 device next to me that's driving, like, 4 190 00:06:23,675 --> 00:06:25,310 XLR interfaces when I only need 191 00:06:26,269 --> 00:06:28,769 to, that actually wouldn't be too bad. 192 00:06:29,470 --> 00:06:31,149 So so that's the nice part. The bad 193 00:06:31,149 --> 00:06:32,829 part is you're doing everything in software, and 194 00:06:32,829 --> 00:06:35,045 then you have to contend with Elgato software, 195 00:06:35,185 --> 00:06:36,324 which isn't the 196 00:06:36,785 --> 00:06:38,805 most robust stuff from what I've seen. So 197 00:06:38,944 --> 00:06:41,904 trade offs continue to abound in technology land. 198 00:06:41,904 --> 00:06:43,660 Yeah. I'll have to let you know. So 199 00:06:43,740 --> 00:06:46,139 I'm curious, like, for your use case of 200 00:06:46,139 --> 00:06:48,459 unplugging USB and plugging it back in, I 201 00:06:48,459 --> 00:06:49,819 think you would still do that. You would 202 00:06:49,819 --> 00:06:51,625 just unplug it from 203 00:06:52,645 --> 00:06:54,824 the USB hub instead of 204 00:06:55,764 --> 00:06:57,205 the back of the device because it looks 205 00:06:57,205 --> 00:06:59,229 like the cable just plugs into the USB 206 00:06:59,229 --> 00:07:01,229 hub, and then there's, like, a pass through 207 00:07:01,229 --> 00:07:04,750 into the stream deck for Yep. Connecting that. 208 00:07:04,750 --> 00:07:06,349 So I think it's still but then you 209 00:07:06,349 --> 00:07:06,849 disconnect 210 00:07:07,404 --> 00:07:09,964 every USB device. That's the rub. Right? Like, 211 00:07:09,964 --> 00:07:10,705 so today, 212 00:07:11,085 --> 00:07:13,085 I'm only unplugging the Stream Deck, but if 213 00:07:13,085 --> 00:07:14,365 I have a bunch of other stuff plugged 214 00:07:14,365 --> 00:07:15,564 in there, like, let me see. What else 215 00:07:15,564 --> 00:07:17,699 do I have USB? Oh, my my mouse, 216 00:07:17,699 --> 00:07:20,439 my keyboard, like the little, you know, 217 00:07:21,379 --> 00:07:24,259 the 2.4 gigahertz dongles for those hang off 218 00:07:24,259 --> 00:07:25,399 a USB hub. 219 00:07:26,764 --> 00:07:28,365 Yeah. So I I wouldn't wanna lose, like, 220 00:07:28,365 --> 00:07:29,925 my mouse and my keyboard and everything while 221 00:07:29,925 --> 00:07:31,404 I'm waiting for the whole hub to go 222 00:07:31,404 --> 00:07:32,384 through its machinations 223 00:07:32,764 --> 00:07:33,264 and 224 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,160 rebooting and all that stuff. So we'll see. 225 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:37,759 I'd be I'd be interested in the feedback 226 00:07:37,759 --> 00:07:40,580 on stability specifically. I will let you know. 227 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:42,980 I might not be a good test because, 228 00:07:43,555 --> 00:07:44,055 ironically, 229 00:07:44,675 --> 00:07:47,394 I do not have the same issue you 230 00:07:47,394 --> 00:07:48,694 do around 231 00:07:49,474 --> 00:07:51,555 stuff getting out of sync. So this is 232 00:07:51,634 --> 00:07:53,939 would be another curious thing as to why 233 00:07:53,939 --> 00:07:56,339 that is. It's either sync or it just 234 00:07:56,339 --> 00:07:57,240 straight up freezes. 235 00:07:57,540 --> 00:07:59,800 Like, my stream deck my stream deck freezes 236 00:08:00,259 --> 00:08:01,105 all the time. 237 00:08:01,824 --> 00:08:03,045 I cannot remember 238 00:08:03,585 --> 00:08:06,865 the last time I have unplugged and replugged 239 00:08:06,865 --> 00:08:09,170 in my stream deck. It just keeps working 240 00:08:09,170 --> 00:08:09,910 for me. 241 00:08:10,529 --> 00:08:12,689 You're living a magical world, my friend, every 242 00:08:12,689 --> 00:08:13,990 single day. Apparently. 243 00:08:14,689 --> 00:08:16,069 But that being 244 00:08:16,370 --> 00:08:16,870 said, 245 00:08:17,764 --> 00:08:20,004 I will and I'm curious if this works 246 00:08:20,004 --> 00:08:22,645 for you if if you've tried it. What 247 00:08:22,645 --> 00:08:24,485 I do have to do every once in 248 00:08:24,485 --> 00:08:26,740 a while because this to your point, it 249 00:08:26,899 --> 00:08:28,360 kinda streams through the software, 250 00:08:28,660 --> 00:08:29,800 is my software 251 00:08:30,419 --> 00:08:30,919 loses 252 00:08:31,620 --> 00:08:32,519 its connection 253 00:08:32,980 --> 00:08:35,214 back to, like, my Philips Hue or it 254 00:08:35,214 --> 00:08:37,315 loses my connection to my 255 00:08:37,774 --> 00:08:38,914 companion app 256 00:08:39,375 --> 00:08:42,070 or my Govee app, and I don't unplug 257 00:08:42,070 --> 00:08:43,750 and replay in the device. I just kill 258 00:08:43,750 --> 00:08:46,070 the Stream Deck software and reopen it, and 259 00:08:46,070 --> 00:08:48,629 it reconnects everything back up and starts working. 260 00:08:48,629 --> 00:08:50,470 I've become a ninja killing the back end 261 00:08:50,470 --> 00:08:52,764 daemons for Stream Deck, particularly on, like, Mac 262 00:08:52,764 --> 00:08:53,264 OS. 263 00:08:54,045 --> 00:08:55,965 So, like, I drive a lot of my 264 00:08:55,965 --> 00:08:59,085 automations either through HomeKit or through Home Assistant, 265 00:08:59,085 --> 00:09:00,605 like, we've talked about both of those in 266 00:09:00,605 --> 00:09:01,039 the past. 267 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:03,919 So there's a specific daemon that runs for 268 00:09:03,919 --> 00:09:05,519 the Home Assistant plug ins, so you don't 269 00:09:05,519 --> 00:09:07,120 actually have to kill your whole Stream Deck. 270 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:08,639 You just have to kill the Home Assistant 271 00:09:08,639 --> 00:09:10,024 1, and then it magically 272 00:09:10,565 --> 00:09:13,125 kinda comes back. But, yeah, I I have 273 00:09:13,125 --> 00:09:15,324 a whole, like, I have a whole script 274 00:09:15,324 --> 00:09:17,365 I run on the side. Like, just go 275 00:09:17,365 --> 00:09:18,504 run this bash file, 276 00:09:19,139 --> 00:09:21,299 and that that kills everything and then brings 277 00:09:21,299 --> 00:09:22,500 it back to where it needs to be. 278 00:09:22,500 --> 00:09:24,980 Nice. Unless it was CrowdStrike, in which case 279 00:09:24,980 --> 00:09:27,220 there is no coming back. Another topic, another 280 00:09:27,220 --> 00:09:29,445 day. There's coming back from CrowdStrike. It just 281 00:09:29,445 --> 00:09:33,384 involves 20 reboots and a USB key and, 282 00:09:34,404 --> 00:09:36,644 a whole bunch of extra steps Manually touching 283 00:09:36,644 --> 00:09:39,090 every device and if you are a cloud 284 00:09:39,230 --> 00:09:39,730 hosted 285 00:09:40,269 --> 00:09:43,309 virtual machine. Yes. We could talk about that, 286 00:09:43,309 --> 00:09:45,309 but it truth be told, it I mean, 287 00:09:45,309 --> 00:09:47,325 it a pet impacted Azure. It didn't really 288 00:09:47,325 --> 00:09:50,125 impact Microsoft 365. It was more Windows. We 289 00:09:50,125 --> 00:09:52,524 have other topics, Scott. Maybe we should Mabel 290 00:09:52,524 --> 00:09:54,480 would come back and talk about Crowd Strike. 291 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:56,420 Did the Crowd Strike impact Azure? 292 00:09:57,279 --> 00:09:59,440 So there was an Azure outage, which doesn't 293 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,779 tie to the CrowdStrike outage. They were 294 00:10:02,215 --> 00:10:04,615 unfortunately, like, within, like, minutes of each other, 295 00:10:04,615 --> 00:10:06,855 like, 20 minutes or something like that. Yes. 296 00:10:06,855 --> 00:10:09,809 But completely unrelated. And I did like, I 297 00:10:09,809 --> 00:10:12,450 legitimately felt bad for Microsoft because I was 298 00:10:12,450 --> 00:10:14,690 reading some of these news articles, and you 299 00:10:14,690 --> 00:10:17,110 were getting these companies like, 300 00:10:17,764 --> 00:10:19,464 this is my pet peeve with the media. 301 00:10:19,524 --> 00:10:21,284 I get why people do it, but they're 302 00:10:21,284 --> 00:10:23,204 always want to be first, and they always 303 00:10:23,204 --> 00:10:24,804 wanna have the breaking news, they always wanna 304 00:10:24,804 --> 00:10:25,865 have the most information. 305 00:10:26,259 --> 00:10:28,100 But that inherently, I feel like leads to 306 00:10:28,100 --> 00:10:30,600 them getting stuff really wrong sometimes. 307 00:10:31,539 --> 00:10:33,220 And in this case, I read so many 308 00:10:33,220 --> 00:10:36,214 articles where it was like, CrowdStrike outage takes 309 00:10:36,214 --> 00:10:39,274 down Azure and Microsoft 365, and I'm like, 310 00:10:40,054 --> 00:10:42,750 no. Microsoft 360 5 and Azure went down, 311 00:10:42,750 --> 00:10:44,690 like, the day before due to another issue. 312 00:10:44,830 --> 00:10:47,389 And from what I read, those 2 were 313 00:10:47,389 --> 00:10:50,274 somewhat related. But then the whole CrowdStrike thing, 314 00:10:50,274 --> 00:10:52,534 like you said, very unfortunate timing 315 00:10:52,835 --> 00:10:56,355 happened right after Azure and Microsoft 365 got 316 00:10:56,434 --> 00:10:59,529 came back up. And so many news companies 317 00:10:59,909 --> 00:11:01,450 munged the 2 together 318 00:11:02,389 --> 00:11:05,704 when the CrowdStrike thing really was not Microsoft's 319 00:11:05,704 --> 00:11:08,125 fault at all. So the PIR 320 00:11:09,225 --> 00:11:11,084 post incident review 321 00:11:11,544 --> 00:11:12,044 for 322 00:11:12,424 --> 00:11:12,924 the 323 00:11:13,304 --> 00:11:14,764 US central outage 324 00:11:16,169 --> 00:11:18,490 is up and out there. I'll I'll I'll 325 00:11:18,490 --> 00:11:19,850 see if I can pull it up for 326 00:11:19,850 --> 00:11:22,029 folks and at least include it in the 327 00:11:22,335 --> 00:11:24,414 show notes or I will post it over 328 00:11:24,414 --> 00:11:26,654 to Discord where if folks want to become 329 00:11:26,654 --> 00:11:28,335 members of the show because Ben told me 330 00:11:28,335 --> 00:11:29,794 I should talk about membership or, 331 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:32,040 Hey. Become a member. You'd ask us access 332 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:33,720 to Discord. Come and join us while we 333 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:36,440 record these shows live, and follow along and 334 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:38,379 chat with us and generally have fun. 335 00:11:38,915 --> 00:11:40,595 How was that? Was was my spiel good 336 00:11:40,595 --> 00:11:42,754 there? You did good. Good job, Scott. So 337 00:11:42,754 --> 00:11:44,514 that being said, should we talk about our 338 00:11:44,514 --> 00:11:46,629 topic today? This is like an old one 339 00:11:46,629 --> 00:11:49,029 that has some new updates. I mean, that's 340 00:11:49,029 --> 00:11:50,470 pretty much what we're good at, right, is 341 00:11:50,470 --> 00:11:52,730 talking about old ones. That's Right. 342 00:11:56,134 --> 00:11:58,295 Do you feel overwhelmed by trying to manage 343 00:11:58,295 --> 00:12:01,595 your Office 365 environment? Are you facing unexpected 344 00:12:01,735 --> 00:12:03,915 issues that disrupt your company's productivity? 345 00:12:04,279 --> 00:12:06,120 Intelligink is here to help. Much like you 346 00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:08,040 take your car to the mechanic that has 347 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:10,120 specialized knowledge on how to best keep your 348 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:13,154 car running, Intelligent helps you with your Microsoft 349 00:12:13,214 --> 00:12:15,475 cloud environment because that's their expertise. 350 00:12:15,855 --> 00:12:18,095 Intelligent keeps up with the latest updates in 351 00:12:18,095 --> 00:12:20,320 the Microsoft cloud to help keep your business 352 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:22,559 running smoothly and ahead of the curve. Whether 353 00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:24,559 you are a small organization with just a 354 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:26,960 few users, up to an organization of several 355 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:28,019 1000 employees, 356 00:12:28,464 --> 00:12:30,384 They want to partner with you to implement 357 00:12:30,384 --> 00:12:33,125 and administer your Microsoft Cloud technology. 358 00:12:33,904 --> 00:12:35,125 Visit them atintellijinc.com 359 00:12:36,509 --> 00:12:37,009 /podcast. 360 00:12:37,629 --> 00:12:38,129 That's 361 00:12:38,990 --> 00:12:39,490 intelligink.com/podcast 362 00:12:44,785 --> 00:12:46,865 for more information or to schedule a 30 363 00:12:46,865 --> 00:12:48,965 minute call to get started with them today. 364 00:12:49,264 --> 00:12:52,545 Remember, IntelliJint focuses on the Microsoft cloud, so 365 00:12:52,545 --> 00:12:54,059 you can focus on your business. 366 00:12:56,620 --> 00:12:58,320 Talking about old stuff that resurfaced, 367 00:12:58,700 --> 00:13:00,720 so this is an article 368 00:13:01,019 --> 00:13:02,000 that I saw 369 00:13:02,460 --> 00:13:05,955 published on July 11, and it brought back 370 00:13:06,095 --> 00:13:08,335 memories and we started digging into it, was 371 00:13:08,335 --> 00:13:09,875 there was a post from 372 00:13:10,254 --> 00:13:10,754 Jose 373 00:13:11,134 --> 00:13:11,634 Barreto, 374 00:13:11,970 --> 00:13:13,669 that's probably how you pronounce his name, 375 00:13:14,049 --> 00:13:14,549 in 376 00:13:15,490 --> 00:13:18,289 tech community about updates on the SharePoint files 377 00:13:18,289 --> 00:13:20,894 dataset. And I was like, the SharePoint files 378 00:13:21,134 --> 00:13:23,455 dataset from the headline, I couldn't remember what 379 00:13:23,455 --> 00:13:25,295 it was. And then I started reading it, 380 00:13:25,295 --> 00:13:26,915 and it's under the subcategory 381 00:13:27,295 --> 00:13:29,634 of Microsoft Graph Data Connect 382 00:13:30,079 --> 00:13:32,480 for SharePoint. And if you go start looking 383 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:33,299 into this, 384 00:13:33,759 --> 00:13:35,459 this ties back to 385 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,235 a feature that came out. I think it 386 00:13:38,235 --> 00:13:40,154 was originally announced. I had the YouTube video 387 00:13:40,154 --> 00:13:41,455 here, and then I lost it. 388 00:13:41,995 --> 00:13:42,495 2021, 389 00:13:44,315 --> 00:13:46,335 I believe, like, 3 years ago, 390 00:13:46,649 --> 00:13:47,870 around this Microsoft 391 00:13:48,409 --> 00:13:49,949 Graph Data Connect 392 00:13:50,649 --> 00:13:51,149 and 393 00:13:51,610 --> 00:13:52,829 allowing you to 394 00:13:53,449 --> 00:13:53,949 essentially 395 00:13:55,725 --> 00:13:58,384 go in and grab a bunch of analytics 396 00:13:58,445 --> 00:14:00,144 data out of your tenant 397 00:14:00,445 --> 00:14:00,945 around 398 00:14:01,644 --> 00:14:02,625 various metrics. 399 00:14:03,470 --> 00:14:06,209 And some of the metrics from back in 400 00:14:06,509 --> 00:14:09,169 2021 when this was originally announced 401 00:14:09,629 --> 00:14:10,990 was being able to go in and pull 402 00:14:10,990 --> 00:14:12,049 datasets around 403 00:14:12,509 --> 00:14:13,009 users, 404 00:14:13,535 --> 00:14:15,774 direct reports, and managers from like an Office 405 00:14:15,774 --> 00:14:16,274 365 406 00:14:16,735 --> 00:14:19,555 people perspective, and then they had it for 407 00:14:20,740 --> 00:14:23,540 Exchange Online being able to pull in datasets 408 00:14:23,540 --> 00:14:24,040 around 409 00:14:24,419 --> 00:14:26,040 calendars, events, messages, 410 00:14:26,660 --> 00:14:29,639 contacts, mail folders, mailbox settings, sent items, 411 00:14:30,014 --> 00:14:31,855 and then they announced that Teams chats would 412 00:14:31,855 --> 00:14:32,434 be coming. 413 00:14:33,054 --> 00:14:35,475 And I feel like when they originally announced 414 00:14:35,615 --> 00:14:37,154 this back in 2021, 415 00:14:38,389 --> 00:14:38,889 they, 416 00:14:39,350 --> 00:14:41,990 like, it just I I don't re remember 417 00:14:41,990 --> 00:14:43,830 hearing much about it over the last 3 418 00:14:43,830 --> 00:14:47,210 years. And then this article popped up with 419 00:14:47,804 --> 00:14:49,664 3 updates to it 420 00:14:50,684 --> 00:14:54,065 with some public availability for these updates coming 421 00:14:54,940 --> 00:14:57,500 here in the coming months up here in 422 00:14:57,500 --> 00:14:58,000 August. 423 00:14:58,539 --> 00:15:01,120 So this is kinda it's an interesting feature, 424 00:15:01,794 --> 00:15:03,394 and I don't I'll be honest, I don't 425 00:15:03,394 --> 00:15:04,674 know where to start. Do we wanna start 426 00:15:04,674 --> 00:15:06,274 with the updates, or do we wanna kinda 427 00:15:06,274 --> 00:15:09,154 start with, like, what is the Microsoft Graph 428 00:15:09,154 --> 00:15:11,209 Data Connect? Like, what you would use this 429 00:15:11,209 --> 00:15:13,529 for? We should go back, and we should 430 00:15:13,529 --> 00:15:15,629 definitely start this one with, 431 00:15:16,009 --> 00:15:16,990 what is this? 432 00:15:18,294 --> 00:15:19,595 And it took me 433 00:15:20,134 --> 00:15:22,774 more than a hot minute to wrap my 434 00:15:22,774 --> 00:15:23,514 head around 435 00:15:24,294 --> 00:15:25,355 what this is 436 00:15:26,799 --> 00:15:29,519 and the value of this and and kind 437 00:15:29,519 --> 00:15:30,019 of 438 00:15:30,559 --> 00:15:33,299 I I think where it can inflict value 439 00:15:33,544 --> 00:15:35,785 on customer workloads, and I I I I 440 00:15:35,785 --> 00:15:38,845 kind of love features that inflict value. 441 00:15:39,544 --> 00:15:41,225 And this was definitely one of those that 442 00:15:41,225 --> 00:15:43,730 does this, but it's kinda so confusing with 443 00:15:43,730 --> 00:15:45,809 the way it's marketed and it's put together. 444 00:15:45,809 --> 00:15:46,309 So 445 00:15:46,690 --> 00:15:48,210 give me your pitch for it and your 446 00:15:48,210 --> 00:15:50,695 understanding. And then if that matches with mine, 447 00:15:50,695 --> 00:15:52,215 we're good. But if not, I'll I'll give 448 00:15:52,215 --> 00:15:53,595 you a kind of some of my take 449 00:15:54,134 --> 00:15:56,375 and where I think this actually sits and 450 00:15:56,375 --> 00:15:57,434 why I think it's 451 00:15:57,740 --> 00:16:00,220 kinda cool and maybe underappreciated. Like, I'm surprised 452 00:16:00,220 --> 00:16:02,320 I don't hear about it more based on 453 00:16:02,379 --> 00:16:04,059 what I learned about it after you pointed 454 00:16:04,059 --> 00:16:05,495 it out to me, and then spent a 455 00:16:05,495 --> 00:16:08,134 week researching it and clicking buttons and playing 456 00:16:08,134 --> 00:16:10,535 around. Okay. So here's my take on it. 457 00:16:10,535 --> 00:16:14,019 Microsoft Graph has I mean, Microsoft Graph is 458 00:16:14,019 --> 00:16:15,000 the underlying 459 00:16:16,740 --> 00:16:18,419 it's not really the underlying data. It's the 460 00:16:18,419 --> 00:16:18,919 underlying 461 00:16:19,379 --> 00:16:20,440 API, essentially, 462 00:16:20,899 --> 00:16:22,039 for all things 463 00:16:22,475 --> 00:16:23,455 Microsoft 365. 464 00:16:23,915 --> 00:16:25,054 Like, when you go 465 00:16:25,595 --> 00:16:28,715 write different connectors, when you're going and writing 466 00:16:28,715 --> 00:16:31,299 custom code, when you're doing stuff in Power 467 00:16:31,299 --> 00:16:33,299 Apps, when you're doing stuff in PowerShell, ultimately 468 00:16:33,299 --> 00:16:36,740 you're connecting to Microsoft Graph for performing certain 469 00:16:36,740 --> 00:16:38,839 actions. The way I understand Microsoft 470 00:16:39,294 --> 00:16:42,915 Graph Data Connect is all these APIs also 471 00:16:43,215 --> 00:16:47,235 surface different things, and they have a whole 472 00:16:47,774 --> 00:16:49,090 list of different 473 00:16:51,789 --> 00:16:55,230 activities that are in micros in the Microsoft 474 00:16:55,230 --> 00:16:58,254 Graph data. And my understanding is is that 475 00:16:58,254 --> 00:16:59,855 this is probably where a lot of the 476 00:16:59,855 --> 00:17:00,355 reports 477 00:17:00,894 --> 00:17:03,855 come from when you are looking at reports 478 00:17:03,855 --> 00:17:06,319 on Microsoft 365 or storage trends, 479 00:17:07,099 --> 00:17:08,319 around mailbox reports, 480 00:17:09,259 --> 00:17:12,220 emails sent, emails received, all of that. It's 481 00:17:12,220 --> 00:17:15,464 coming from Microsoft Graph. What Microsoft Graph Data 482 00:17:15,464 --> 00:17:15,964 Connect 483 00:17:16,345 --> 00:17:17,244 does is, 484 00:17:18,024 --> 00:17:20,744 by nature, all of that data has a 485 00:17:20,744 --> 00:17:22,505 time frame. Microsoft does not let you keep 486 00:17:22,505 --> 00:17:24,649 that data forever. They have to store it 487 00:17:24,649 --> 00:17:25,789 somewhere. Understandably, 488 00:17:26,089 --> 00:17:28,169 it's going to have a lifespan. Usually, it's 489 00:17:28,169 --> 00:17:30,190 somewhere between 30 90 days. 490 00:17:30,934 --> 00:17:33,174 What Microsoft Graph Data Connect does is allow 491 00:17:33,174 --> 00:17:34,075 you to go 492 00:17:34,775 --> 00:17:36,234 set up a connector 493 00:17:36,855 --> 00:17:40,569 to these datasets in the Microsoft Graph and 494 00:17:40,569 --> 00:17:43,710 essentially extract that data to whatever 495 00:17:44,569 --> 00:17:45,789 storage location 496 00:17:46,409 --> 00:17:49,369 you want to, and it's coming through something 497 00:17:49,369 --> 00:17:52,315 like Azure Synapse or Azure Data Factory where 498 00:17:52,315 --> 00:17:54,315 you go connect to Graph, pull this data 499 00:17:54,315 --> 00:17:56,654 through one of those, shove it off into 500 00:17:57,514 --> 00:17:58,734 some location 501 00:18:00,059 --> 00:18:02,619 where now you control the location so you 502 00:18:02,619 --> 00:18:04,140 can keep this data as long as you 503 00:18:04,140 --> 00:18:06,220 want to, but you also have all these 504 00:18:06,220 --> 00:18:07,839 different data sets and activities 505 00:18:08,365 --> 00:18:09,585 that you can now 506 00:18:09,964 --> 00:18:12,545 build your own reporting, your own dashboards, 507 00:18:13,565 --> 00:18:16,309 view trends, all of that off of all 508 00:18:16,309 --> 00:18:19,029 these different activities and data that is surfaced 509 00:18:19,029 --> 00:18:23,210 through Microsoft Graph via this Microsoft Data Connect 510 00:18:24,455 --> 00:18:24,955 functionality 511 00:18:25,494 --> 00:18:28,295 feature, whatever you wanna call it. So that 512 00:18:28,295 --> 00:18:31,734 is my not necessarily a 32nd synopsis, but 513 00:18:31,734 --> 00:18:32,234 my 514 00:18:32,660 --> 00:18:33,160 understanding 515 00:18:33,940 --> 00:18:35,859 and rough how I would kind of describe 516 00:18:35,859 --> 00:18:37,480 what it is. I think you 517 00:18:37,779 --> 00:18:38,279 mostly 518 00:18:38,820 --> 00:18:40,646 nailed it as far as my understanding. I 519 00:18:40,646 --> 00:18:43,614 I I would extend on a couple things. 520 00:18:43,614 --> 00:18:44,965 So this is called 521 00:18:45,744 --> 00:18:48,210 Microsoft Graph Data Connect, and then it has 522 00:18:48,210 --> 00:18:50,309 all these datasets that come from 523 00:18:50,690 --> 00:18:53,730 services that support the Graph, Exchange, SharePoint, all 524 00:18:53,730 --> 00:18:54,470 this stuff. 525 00:18:55,664 --> 00:18:57,605 Well, it has Graph in the name. 526 00:18:58,065 --> 00:19:00,065 The nice thing about it, and I'm gonna 527 00:19:00,065 --> 00:19:01,605 say this is a nice thing, 528 00:19:01,904 --> 00:19:04,460 is it allows you to not have to 529 00:19:04,460 --> 00:19:07,019 work with the graph APIs directly. Right? There 530 00:19:07,019 --> 00:19:07,759 is no 531 00:19:08,140 --> 00:19:10,755 invoke web request. There is no going out 532 00:19:10,755 --> 00:19:12,674 and figuring out, am I using the beta 533 00:19:12,674 --> 00:19:15,894 endpoint versus the current GA endpoint? 534 00:19:16,809 --> 00:19:19,130 Which version of which PowerShell module do I 535 00:19:19,130 --> 00:19:21,690 use, and how much jankiness is there, like, 536 00:19:21,690 --> 00:19:23,769 any of that stuff. Like, the these are 537 00:19:23,769 --> 00:19:24,269 effectively 538 00:19:25,275 --> 00:19:25,775 snapshots 539 00:19:26,234 --> 00:19:28,095 of telemetry from the system 540 00:19:28,555 --> 00:19:31,355 that are pre aggregated and then pushed out 541 00:19:31,355 --> 00:19:32,095 on a schedule. 542 00:19:32,634 --> 00:19:33,134 And 543 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,200 the the the cool thing here is they're 544 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,039 not only aggregated and pushed out on a 545 00:19:39,039 --> 00:19:40,659 schedule, they're pushed out 546 00:19:41,174 --> 00:19:43,515 in a format that's consumable 547 00:19:44,134 --> 00:19:46,154 and with a defined schema 548 00:19:46,775 --> 00:19:49,970 that has a hard contract against it. So 549 00:19:49,970 --> 00:19:51,349 each one of these datasets, 550 00:19:51,650 --> 00:19:54,869 like the Outlook dataset versus the SharePoint dataset 551 00:19:55,170 --> 00:19:55,670 versus, 552 00:19:56,289 --> 00:19:58,450 you know, some of the identity ones, they 553 00:19:58,450 --> 00:20:01,434 have hard schemas that are associated with them 554 00:20:01,495 --> 00:20:03,815 where you can choose as a customer to 555 00:20:03,815 --> 00:20:05,355 consume the entire schema 556 00:20:05,815 --> 00:20:07,275 or to only consume 557 00:20:07,690 --> 00:20:09,450 portions of that schema. Right. So let's say 558 00:20:09,450 --> 00:20:10,829 you had a table with, 559 00:20:11,450 --> 00:20:13,069 you know, 50 columns in it 560 00:20:13,369 --> 00:20:14,889 based on the schema. And it turns out 561 00:20:14,889 --> 00:20:16,589 you only really need 10 of those. 562 00:20:16,924 --> 00:20:18,605 Great. You only take 10 of those, and 563 00:20:18,605 --> 00:20:20,205 that's what you get in your snapshot. And 564 00:20:20,205 --> 00:20:23,265 that's the data that's kinda dumped out continuously 565 00:20:23,884 --> 00:20:25,105 to get things going. 566 00:20:26,710 --> 00:20:28,470 So I I actually, like, I I looked 567 00:20:28,470 --> 00:20:30,150 at this, and I was like, why don't 568 00:20:30,150 --> 00:20:31,289 more services 569 00:20:31,750 --> 00:20:33,190 do this? It kinda makes sense if you 570 00:20:33,190 --> 00:20:35,184 think about it because Oh, 100%. 571 00:20:35,565 --> 00:20:38,305 You don't always need near real time 572 00:20:39,244 --> 00:20:42,259 extracts or data flows. And in a world 573 00:20:42,259 --> 00:20:43,799 where you don't require 574 00:20:44,100 --> 00:20:45,320 near real time things, 575 00:20:46,420 --> 00:20:47,240 near real time 576 00:20:50,615 --> 00:20:53,994 aggregation, transformation, all those things, like, it's expensive. 577 00:20:54,215 --> 00:20:56,295 It's it's a ton of telemetry to store. 578 00:20:56,295 --> 00:20:58,555 It's a ton of telemetry to aggregate together. 579 00:20:58,775 --> 00:21:00,680 Quite often, it's on, like, you as the 580 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:02,519 customer to put it together. Alright? So if 581 00:21:02,519 --> 00:21:04,680 I was gonna take, like, Azure Resources as 582 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:06,700 an example let's say we took virtual machines, 583 00:21:07,455 --> 00:21:09,615 and and we imagine something like that. Right? 584 00:21:09,615 --> 00:21:11,134 Like, so I have VM 1 and VM 585 00:21:11,134 --> 00:21:12,975 2. VM 1 and VM 2 can both 586 00:21:12,975 --> 00:21:15,055 emit their telemetry, but I still need to 587 00:21:15,055 --> 00:21:17,150 rationalize which telemetry is from which one. How 588 00:21:17,150 --> 00:21:18,430 do I put it together? What are the 589 00:21:18,430 --> 00:21:20,289 right aggregates that I need to get to? 590 00:21:20,349 --> 00:21:22,750 Versus having something like this, say virtual machines 591 00:21:22,750 --> 00:21:24,845 was part of this data connect mechanism. You 592 00:21:24,845 --> 00:21:26,865 would just get one big dump daily 593 00:21:27,325 --> 00:21:29,965 or on your schedule of, hey, here's all 594 00:21:29,965 --> 00:21:31,965 your VM information as you wanted it. And 595 00:21:31,965 --> 00:21:33,585 that's basically what this is doing 596 00:21:34,269 --> 00:21:36,909 for these various datasets that sit out there. 597 00:21:36,909 --> 00:21:39,329 So if you're looking at more, like, 598 00:21:39,869 --> 00:21:41,490 long term reporting scenarios, 599 00:21:41,904 --> 00:21:44,865 and long term is really, like, honestly, anything 600 00:21:44,865 --> 00:21:47,424 past, like, a couple minutes, because, you know, 601 00:21:47,424 --> 00:21:49,184 at that point, like, once you're outside of 602 00:21:49,184 --> 00:21:51,279 a a couple minutes to a handful of 603 00:21:51,279 --> 00:21:53,599 hours, like, you're not doing real time data 604 00:21:53,599 --> 00:21:55,759 anyway. Like, figure out a way to snap 605 00:21:55,759 --> 00:21:57,679 to, like, a daily process or a weekly 606 00:21:57,679 --> 00:21:59,359 process or something like that, and then just 607 00:21:59,359 --> 00:21:59,859 track 608 00:22:00,264 --> 00:22:02,264 general trends and how those things go over 609 00:22:02,264 --> 00:22:03,704 time. And then maybe fill the gap with, 610 00:22:03,704 --> 00:22:05,625 like, some NRT stuff where you actually need 611 00:22:05,625 --> 00:22:07,804 it, maybe with, like, searching audit logs or 612 00:22:08,420 --> 00:22:09,559 real time metrics 613 00:22:09,859 --> 00:22:12,119 or or things like that along the way. 614 00:22:12,660 --> 00:22:15,539 So so it it's really cool because, like 615 00:22:15,539 --> 00:22:17,565 you said, for me, 1, you don't have 616 00:22:17,565 --> 00:22:19,125 to deal with the jank that is the 617 00:22:19,125 --> 00:22:21,365 Graph API. And let's be honest, the Graph 618 00:22:21,365 --> 00:22:23,525 API is pretty darn janky and continues to 619 00:22:23,525 --> 00:22:24,025 be. 620 00:22:24,450 --> 00:22:27,730 And it gives you this fixed, durable contract 621 00:22:27,730 --> 00:22:29,570 that then you can go ahead and proceed 622 00:22:29,570 --> 00:22:30,390 forward with. 623 00:22:31,250 --> 00:22:32,630 You don't need to be a 624 00:22:33,325 --> 00:22:33,825 developer, 625 00:22:34,445 --> 00:22:36,765 you know, like, hands on, slinging code against 626 00:22:36,765 --> 00:22:38,445 things. Like, it all comes out in common 627 00:22:38,445 --> 00:22:38,945 formats, 628 00:22:39,325 --> 00:22:41,505 and you can just wire that up immediately 629 00:22:41,725 --> 00:22:42,225 to 630 00:22:43,309 --> 00:22:44,990 a Synapse solution if you wanted to do 631 00:22:44,990 --> 00:22:46,750 some further aggregates on top of it with, 632 00:22:46,750 --> 00:22:48,349 like, Spark or something like that, stand up 633 00:22:48,349 --> 00:22:49,730 a Databricks cluster. Great. 634 00:22:50,434 --> 00:22:53,255 Or just pound point Power BI at that 635 00:22:53,394 --> 00:22:55,474 folder in a storage account and let it 636 00:22:55,474 --> 00:22:57,634 go. It's fascinating, and I don't know if 637 00:22:57,634 --> 00:22:58,375 you watched, 638 00:22:59,009 --> 00:23:01,089 I'm assuming in your studying too, you watched 639 00:23:01,089 --> 00:23:03,490 this video, and even back then they talked 640 00:23:03,490 --> 00:23:03,990 about, 641 00:23:04,690 --> 00:23:06,789 1, not needing all the tables because 642 00:23:07,170 --> 00:23:07,670 columns 643 00:23:08,085 --> 00:23:10,244 in the table, all of the fields in 644 00:23:10,244 --> 00:23:10,904 the datasets, 645 00:23:11,924 --> 00:23:13,924 but also from a privacy perspective. They were 646 00:23:13,924 --> 00:23:15,444 like, if you want to run analytics on 647 00:23:15,444 --> 00:23:16,265 certain things, 648 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:20,240 email, for example, it contained the email body 649 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,000 in the dataset. But if you wanna filter 650 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:23,680 out the email body, you can filter out 651 00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,194 the email body or filter out email subjects 652 00:23:27,294 --> 00:23:30,034 and just see, like, who's sending an email 653 00:23:30,255 --> 00:23:32,335 to who or whom is sending it to 654 00:23:32,335 --> 00:23:34,000 whom. When are when are we supposed to 655 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,340 use who and whom? Neither here nor there. 656 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:40,000 And filtering out users and groups. So maybe 657 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:41,940 you're only pulling in telemetry 658 00:23:42,355 --> 00:23:45,174 from certain groups of users or you're excluding 659 00:23:45,394 --> 00:23:48,134 certain users from your telemetry, but 660 00:23:48,434 --> 00:23:50,759 a lot of flexibility there. And this was 661 00:23:50,759 --> 00:23:52,519 one. I'll pop this on the screen. We 662 00:23:52,519 --> 00:23:54,119 can throw an image in the show notes 663 00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:57,080 or something. But, like, this Power BI report, 664 00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:58,600 I've never seen this before, and I'm like, 665 00:23:58,600 --> 00:23:59,500 this is fascinating, 666 00:24:00,025 --> 00:24:02,684 where it's a super zoomed out, 667 00:24:03,465 --> 00:24:04,205 it's a 668 00:24:04,744 --> 00:24:06,825 it's showing like a graph of all the 669 00:24:06,825 --> 00:24:08,445 different users in a company 670 00:24:08,759 --> 00:24:11,400 with different bubbles in terms of emails that 671 00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:14,119 they've sent, but then connections of, like, who 672 00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,539 is emailing who within your organization. 673 00:24:16,904 --> 00:24:18,585 And they use this example as they could 674 00:24:18,585 --> 00:24:21,545 see like the HR department was emailing everybody 675 00:24:21,545 --> 00:24:24,025 else but wasn't ever emailing anybody else in 676 00:24:24,025 --> 00:24:25,965 the company and developing 677 00:24:27,289 --> 00:24:29,849 graphs of how different people were connecting, when 678 00:24:29,849 --> 00:24:32,430 they were emailing people, who they were emailing, 679 00:24:32,570 --> 00:24:35,470 how different departments were collaborating or not collaborating 680 00:24:35,529 --> 00:24:36,029 together, 681 00:24:36,945 --> 00:24:38,005 just fascinating 682 00:24:38,545 --> 00:24:40,965 analytics that you can pull out of this 683 00:24:41,184 --> 00:24:41,684 without 684 00:24:42,144 --> 00:24:42,644 necessarily, 685 00:24:44,330 --> 00:24:46,089 I mean, again, you wouldn't have to know 686 00:24:46,089 --> 00:24:48,170 what they're emailing. It's just the fact that 687 00:24:48,170 --> 00:24:50,650 emails are going from one person to other 688 00:24:50,650 --> 00:24:51,150 people. 689 00:24:51,825 --> 00:24:52,964 So, yeah, it's 690 00:24:53,505 --> 00:24:55,265 again, I remember this coming out. I started 691 00:24:55,265 --> 00:24:56,785 playing with it. This makes me wanna go 692 00:24:56,785 --> 00:24:58,164 play with it a whole lot more. 693 00:25:00,980 --> 00:25:02,119 Yeah. I it's 694 00:25:02,980 --> 00:25:05,079 it's it's an interesting one. 695 00:25:05,619 --> 00:25:08,095 I I also like that, like, the so 696 00:25:08,095 --> 00:25:09,934 so beyond, like, just, like, the generic, like, 697 00:25:09,934 --> 00:25:12,014 hey, it's a fixed contract and allows you 698 00:25:12,014 --> 00:25:14,494 to do reporting kind of your way with 699 00:25:14,494 --> 00:25:15,954 your tooling, things like that. 700 00:25:16,750 --> 00:25:17,250 It's 701 00:25:17,710 --> 00:25:19,009 also pretty agnostic. 702 00:25:19,309 --> 00:25:21,789 Like, the datasets, they just publish out to 703 00:25:21,789 --> 00:25:24,904 storage accounts, like you said, so super easy 704 00:25:24,904 --> 00:25:27,865 to kinda pick them up and play with 705 00:25:27,865 --> 00:25:28,365 them 706 00:25:29,065 --> 00:25:30,445 once they're in there. 707 00:25:31,710 --> 00:25:33,869 Open format, queryable, you can get out of 708 00:25:33,869 --> 00:25:34,450 them with 709 00:25:35,150 --> 00:25:36,589 ADF, you can get them out at them 710 00:25:36,589 --> 00:25:37,869 with Synapse, you can get out of them 711 00:25:37,869 --> 00:25:39,250 with Databricks, like, 712 00:25:39,565 --> 00:25:42,625 tons and tons of options just to 713 00:25:43,005 --> 00:25:43,964 make your life, 714 00:25:44,444 --> 00:25:46,464 a little bit a little little bit easier. 715 00:25:47,005 --> 00:25:48,500 So, yeah, it's the 716 00:25:49,059 --> 00:25:52,200 the the pricing actually is isn't too bad 717 00:25:52,259 --> 00:25:52,759 either. 718 00:25:53,140 --> 00:25:54,420 Like, I I guess we should call out, 719 00:25:54,420 --> 00:25:56,259 like, hey, like many things, this is an 720 00:25:56,259 --> 00:25:57,160 additive service. 721 00:25:57,715 --> 00:26:00,755 There is pricing. Yeah. Yeah. There there there 722 00:26:00,755 --> 00:26:02,055 are some considerations 723 00:26:03,154 --> 00:26:04,375 there for you 724 00:26:05,410 --> 00:26:06,150 just as, 725 00:26:06,930 --> 00:26:09,670 you know, how things marry up and ultimately 726 00:26:09,890 --> 00:26:11,029 come together. So, 727 00:26:11,490 --> 00:26:13,009 you know, you could be charged, and this 728 00:26:13,009 --> 00:26:14,605 could be a little hard to rationalize, Like, 729 00:26:14,605 --> 00:26:16,705 you'd be charged for storage consumption. 730 00:26:17,565 --> 00:26:18,785 You're gonna be charged 731 00:26:19,085 --> 00:26:21,345 for your usage based on the 732 00:26:21,869 --> 00:26:23,650 the the Graph Data Connect stuff. 733 00:26:24,190 --> 00:26:26,750 And then some of these, like, they have 734 00:26:26,750 --> 00:26:27,650 one off pricing. 735 00:26:28,029 --> 00:26:30,190 So, like, you opened with the update on, 736 00:26:30,190 --> 00:26:32,974 like, the SharePoint stuff. So the SharePoint files 737 00:26:32,974 --> 00:26:36,275 dataset has a different pricing construct 738 00:26:36,974 --> 00:26:37,474 than 739 00:26:38,174 --> 00:26:39,154 other parts 740 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,899 of Graph Data Connect, which can be 741 00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:44,259 a little bit 742 00:26:45,039 --> 00:26:45,539 confusing 743 00:26:46,639 --> 00:26:49,174 as well. So, you know, you're you're looking 744 00:26:49,174 --> 00:26:52,055 at things like everything is based on number 745 00:26:52,055 --> 00:26:55,015 of objects copied and number of objects copy 746 00:26:55,734 --> 00:26:58,559 number of objects enumerated on one side and 747 00:26:58,559 --> 00:27:01,039 sent into, ultimately, like, the dataset before it's 748 00:27:01,039 --> 00:27:03,119 pumped out, blah blah blah. So you're talking 749 00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,095 about things like 0.35¢ 750 00:27:05,794 --> 00:27:06,294 to, 751 00:27:07,394 --> 00:27:07,894 0.75¢, 752 00:27:08,674 --> 00:27:12,375 like, per n object, like, n 1,000 objects 753 00:27:12,434 --> 00:27:12,934 loaded 754 00:27:14,130 --> 00:27:15,990 into things along the way. 755 00:27:16,690 --> 00:27:18,309 So I I I think, like, 756 00:27:19,170 --> 00:27:20,529 you know, I was, like, seeing things like 757 00:27:20,529 --> 00:27:21,964 this too. Like, you're also seeing a little 758 00:27:21,964 --> 00:27:24,444 bit of, like, the bifurcation and potentially, like, 759 00:27:24,444 --> 00:27:26,524 the associated cost on the service side to 760 00:27:26,524 --> 00:27:28,204 pull this stuff out. Like, you mentioned logging 761 00:27:28,204 --> 00:27:30,605 is expensive. It's not just expensive for customers. 762 00:27:30,605 --> 00:27:33,130 It's it's expensive for service providers as well, 763 00:27:33,130 --> 00:27:35,289 right, to generate and store and and put 764 00:27:35,289 --> 00:27:36,109 it all together. 765 00:27:36,650 --> 00:27:38,329 So so you do see some of that 766 00:27:38,329 --> 00:27:39,710 reflected kind of 767 00:27:40,414 --> 00:27:41,075 in the 768 00:27:41,694 --> 00:27:44,095 in in the pricing components as well. There 769 00:27:44,095 --> 00:27:45,794 is some chat going on in Discord 770 00:27:46,335 --> 00:27:48,899 asking about, like, is some of this pulling 771 00:27:48,899 --> 00:27:51,140 into Veeva? Yeah. This is probably also where 772 00:27:51,140 --> 00:27:52,980 they're getting some of the Veeva Insights stuff, 773 00:27:52,980 --> 00:27:55,880 but they were also asking about in-depth analysis 774 00:27:56,179 --> 00:27:56,679 of 775 00:27:56,980 --> 00:28:00,055 SharePoint online environments, and I think that gets 776 00:28:00,055 --> 00:28:02,634 into a little bit of what this 777 00:28:03,095 --> 00:28:06,535 announcement was was kind of three announcements that 778 00:28:06,535 --> 00:28:08,869 came out here a couple weeks ago 779 00:28:09,250 --> 00:28:09,750 is 780 00:28:10,609 --> 00:28:11,109 datasets 781 00:28:11,410 --> 00:28:13,970 for SharePoint, and the SharePoint file datasets are 782 00:28:13,970 --> 00:28:15,509 gonna be publicly available 783 00:28:15,809 --> 00:28:17,465 on August 20, 784 00:28:17,924 --> 00:28:18,424 2024, 785 00:28:18,805 --> 00:28:21,785 so another month or so from now. 786 00:28:22,164 --> 00:28:24,505 They released the SharePoint files dataset 787 00:28:24,965 --> 00:28:25,465 pricing, 788 00:28:26,500 --> 00:28:29,000 And like you said, Scott, it's slightly different. 789 00:28:29,059 --> 00:28:32,200 And then the SharePoint files private preview extended 790 00:28:32,339 --> 00:28:35,934 to August 19, 2024, which makes sense. I 791 00:28:35,934 --> 00:28:38,095 essentially said private preview is gonna go right 792 00:28:38,095 --> 00:28:40,494 up until the GA date. So I don't 793 00:28:40,494 --> 00:28:42,630 know if private preview was before that. But 794 00:28:42,630 --> 00:28:44,150 kind of what you're getting now in this 795 00:28:44,150 --> 00:28:46,710 dataset, and this is where you get some 796 00:28:46,710 --> 00:28:48,170 of this updated 797 00:28:49,509 --> 00:28:50,009 information, 798 00:28:50,309 --> 00:28:50,809 and 799 00:28:51,315 --> 00:28:52,914 I think this is some of the stuff 800 00:28:52,914 --> 00:28:55,234 you're also seeing if you've looked at SharePoint 801 00:28:55,234 --> 00:28:57,474 Premium and some of the oversharing analytics and 802 00:28:57,474 --> 00:28:58,775 some of that is 803 00:28:59,190 --> 00:29:01,450 these updated datasets now for SharePoint 804 00:29:01,909 --> 00:29:02,409 files 805 00:29:03,750 --> 00:29:06,775 allow you to pull in, like, archive state 806 00:29:06,775 --> 00:29:09,015 of the site, you can pull in things 807 00:29:09,015 --> 00:29:11,494 like Recyco bin item counts, you can pull 808 00:29:11,494 --> 00:29:11,994 in 809 00:29:12,295 --> 00:29:15,015 communication sites, you can pull in if the 810 00:29:15,015 --> 00:29:16,634 site is a OneDrive site, 811 00:29:17,210 --> 00:29:19,609 if external sharing is enabled or not on 812 00:29:19,609 --> 00:29:20,269 the site, 813 00:29:20,890 --> 00:29:23,230 if the site is connected to a private 814 00:29:24,424 --> 00:29:26,285 Microsoft 365 group, 815 00:29:26,664 --> 00:29:28,845 privacy of the site, owners, 816 00:29:29,304 --> 00:29:30,924 last access data, 817 00:29:32,140 --> 00:29:34,220 and then you can pull in SharePoint permission 818 00:29:34,220 --> 00:29:36,320 datasets where it's total users, 819 00:29:37,019 --> 00:29:39,039 who something's created by, 820 00:29:39,644 --> 00:29:41,484 who an object is shared with based on 821 00:29:41,484 --> 00:29:43,105 the Azure AD object ID, 822 00:29:44,125 --> 00:29:46,204 how many users that's shared with, so a 823 00:29:46,204 --> 00:29:47,904 user count of how many 824 00:29:49,089 --> 00:29:51,649 files a or how many users a SharePoint 825 00:29:51,649 --> 00:29:52,869 file is shared with. 826 00:29:53,329 --> 00:29:54,950 So a bunch of additional 827 00:29:55,914 --> 00:29:58,414 data was added to the SharePoint datasets, 828 00:29:59,195 --> 00:30:01,434 that you can now start going in and 829 00:30:01,434 --> 00:30:04,394 pulling in once it becomes generally available here 830 00:30:04,394 --> 00:30:05,375 in another month. 831 00:30:06,039 --> 00:30:07,900 And, again, some of these are 832 00:30:08,359 --> 00:30:11,579 especially around the shared with type of analytics 833 00:30:11,799 --> 00:30:12,859 can help you 834 00:30:13,174 --> 00:30:15,255 with some of that oversharing that has become 835 00:30:15,255 --> 00:30:17,815 ever so popular to talk about with the, 836 00:30:18,454 --> 00:30:20,634 increasing demand for Copilot 837 00:30:21,339 --> 00:30:24,400 or even just general security. It's more like 838 00:30:24,539 --> 00:30:26,299 back to kind of what I was thinking 839 00:30:26,299 --> 00:30:28,220 earlier with just call it out again. So 840 00:30:28,220 --> 00:30:30,518 you have the kind of the the long 841 00:30:30,518 --> 00:30:33,122 term trending things that you wanna do. Like, 842 00:30:33,122 --> 00:30:35,726 this this all lends itself to trend analysis 843 00:30:35,726 --> 00:30:38,559 at scale within your environment. Like, it's definitely 844 00:30:38,559 --> 00:30:41,519 for the more, like, reactive stuff or maybe, 845 00:30:41,519 --> 00:30:43,380 like, more long term proactive. 846 00:30:43,759 --> 00:30:46,019 Like, I wanna track consumption 847 00:30:46,799 --> 00:30:47,299 of 848 00:30:48,785 --> 00:30:50,565 I I wanna track consumed 849 00:30:51,505 --> 00:30:54,325 size in my SharePoint sites versus, like, provision 850 00:30:54,384 --> 00:30:56,305 size and then, you know, track that. I 851 00:30:56,305 --> 00:30:58,470 wanna track number of users, number of share 852 00:30:58,470 --> 00:30:59,769 requests, blah blah blah, 853 00:31:00,950 --> 00:31:03,109 different user types. Like, maybe you're trying to 854 00:31:03,109 --> 00:31:04,730 make a transition from, 855 00:31:05,775 --> 00:31:06,994 like, old school 856 00:31:07,295 --> 00:31:10,095 SPNs over to, like, MSIs. Right? And and 857 00:31:10,095 --> 00:31:11,455 and do that kind of burn down and 858 00:31:11,455 --> 00:31:13,830 track that. So it's all, like, very well 859 00:31:13,830 --> 00:31:16,470 suited for that. It's also well suited for 860 00:31:16,470 --> 00:31:19,110 working around any of the limitations in the 861 00:31:19,110 --> 00:31:19,850 Graph API, 862 00:31:20,184 --> 00:31:21,785 where it just can't keep up with the 863 00:31:21,785 --> 00:31:24,184 polling rate, or you're just in such, like, 864 00:31:24,184 --> 00:31:25,325 a high churn environment 865 00:31:25,625 --> 00:31:26,125 that, 866 00:31:26,585 --> 00:31:28,829 you're gonna be subject to, like, API throttles 867 00:31:28,829 --> 00:31:30,269 or a bunch of other things that you 868 00:31:30,269 --> 00:31:31,329 don't want. So 869 00:31:31,869 --> 00:31:33,150 I I don't know that it's, like, the 870 00:31:33,150 --> 00:31:34,849 end all be all, but it's definitely 871 00:31:35,549 --> 00:31:36,049 complementary. 872 00:31:36,349 --> 00:31:38,484 Like, I could totally see having like, like, 873 00:31:38,484 --> 00:31:39,525 when I was looking at this, I could 874 00:31:39,525 --> 00:31:41,845 totally see having a dashboard that does something 875 00:31:41,845 --> 00:31:44,724 like tracking my identity consumption longer term and 876 00:31:44,724 --> 00:31:46,700 some of the dimensions around that and then 877 00:31:46,700 --> 00:31:49,200 having, like, a view in there that also 878 00:31:49,259 --> 00:31:50,319 ties into, 879 00:31:51,659 --> 00:31:54,154 you know, some of my more, like, proactive, 880 00:31:54,535 --> 00:31:57,174 real timey reports, like risky sign ins and 881 00:31:57,174 --> 00:31:58,154 things like that. 882 00:31:58,535 --> 00:32:00,055 And then you can merge all that together 883 00:32:00,055 --> 00:32:01,734 in a single view, a single report, a 884 00:32:01,734 --> 00:32:02,715 single world. Like, 885 00:32:03,429 --> 00:32:05,509 really cool stuff for being able to report 886 00:32:05,509 --> 00:32:08,549 just kinda, like, line of business or rhythm 887 00:32:08,549 --> 00:32:09,690 of business metrics 888 00:32:10,234 --> 00:32:11,454 around your consumption 889 00:32:11,835 --> 00:32:12,335 of 890 00:32:13,275 --> 00:32:16,075 these services that ultimately, like, have some hook 891 00:32:16,075 --> 00:32:16,974 or some data's 892 00:32:17,275 --> 00:32:20,779 data point into graph land. Yeah. And that 893 00:32:20,779 --> 00:32:22,960 was my thought with this because I've had 894 00:32:23,099 --> 00:32:25,660 clients come to me and say, okay. We 895 00:32:25,660 --> 00:32:27,500 have all these SharePoint sites. We have a 896 00:32:27,500 --> 00:32:31,164 1000 SharePoint sites, 2,000 SharePoint sites, 3,000, whatever 897 00:32:31,164 --> 00:32:31,904 it may be, 898 00:32:32,684 --> 00:32:34,765 especially around sharing. Who is this shared with? 899 00:32:34,765 --> 00:32:36,684 How many sites do I have that have 900 00:32:36,684 --> 00:32:38,065 external sharing links? 901 00:32:38,970 --> 00:32:41,130 How many are shared with guest users? Like, 902 00:32:41,130 --> 00:32:43,470 to write a PowerShell script to do that, 903 00:32:43,529 --> 00:32:45,710 1, like you said, you're gonna hit throttles, 904 00:32:45,769 --> 00:32:48,424 but, 2, it just it's not fast 905 00:32:48,804 --> 00:32:51,605 to loop through 3,000 SharePoint sites and pull 906 00:32:51,605 --> 00:32:53,204 that data. So to be able to dump 907 00:32:53,204 --> 00:32:55,625 this out and even provide regular reports 908 00:32:56,470 --> 00:32:59,029 every week, every month or so of how 909 00:32:59,029 --> 00:33:00,869 has that changed, what do we have out 910 00:33:00,869 --> 00:33:01,369 there, 911 00:33:02,069 --> 00:33:04,704 I see a lot of potential for this, 912 00:33:04,765 --> 00:33:05,984 especially around 913 00:33:06,444 --> 00:33:07,904 some of the SharePoint security. 914 00:33:08,365 --> 00:33:10,545 And I really do wanna go jump into 915 00:33:10,684 --> 00:33:11,744 some of the other datasets 916 00:33:12,125 --> 00:33:12,625 because 917 00:33:13,279 --> 00:33:15,039 there's a lot more datasets out there than 918 00:33:15,039 --> 00:33:16,480 I remember the last time I looked at 919 00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:18,720 this. Again, given that this has been around 920 00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:20,000 for a few years now. There's a whole 921 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,325 bunch. There's a whole git repo that's full 922 00:33:22,325 --> 00:33:22,904 of thumbs. 923 00:33:23,205 --> 00:33:24,965 So I I think the other thing, like, 924 00:33:24,965 --> 00:33:26,725 really, like, you should be screaming in the 925 00:33:26,725 --> 00:33:28,325 back of your head when you're sitting down 926 00:33:28,325 --> 00:33:30,250 and and you have to, like, rationalize, like, 927 00:33:30,250 --> 00:33:31,769 hey, do I use something like this or 928 00:33:31,769 --> 00:33:33,769 do I just use, like, in your case, 929 00:33:33,769 --> 00:33:35,710 like, PowerShell and things like that? 930 00:33:36,570 --> 00:33:38,670 It's also just durability. 931 00:33:39,625 --> 00:33:40,125 Like, 932 00:33:40,464 --> 00:33:40,964 you 933 00:33:41,304 --> 00:33:42,744 know, I know, like, we like to talk 934 00:33:42,744 --> 00:33:45,784 a lot about, like, API surfaces being contracts 935 00:33:45,784 --> 00:33:47,799 and things like that. But the reality is, 936 00:33:47,799 --> 00:33:49,640 like, if you wrote a PowerShell script today 937 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:51,099 that worked with the graph 938 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:52,619 in its current instantiation, 939 00:33:53,799 --> 00:33:55,799 that that stuff could break, like, 5 minutes 940 00:33:55,799 --> 00:33:57,775 from now. Right? And then you're just left 941 00:33:57,775 --> 00:33:59,714 with the churn of having to 942 00:34:01,134 --> 00:34:02,575 figure that out and build it back to 943 00:34:02,575 --> 00:34:04,529 where it needs to be versus something like 944 00:34:04,529 --> 00:34:06,710 this where you can truly take a 945 00:34:07,250 --> 00:34:10,050 durable contract, like, hey. You're you're you're not 946 00:34:10,050 --> 00:34:11,269 only paying for the data, 947 00:34:11,824 --> 00:34:14,005 but, you know, it it's a fixed schema. 948 00:34:14,065 --> 00:34:16,144 It's a known thing. So you can take 949 00:34:16,144 --> 00:34:18,465 a little bit of a firmer dependency on 950 00:34:18,465 --> 00:34:20,785 it, like, on the order of, like, months 951 00:34:20,785 --> 00:34:21,445 to years 952 00:34:21,969 --> 00:34:24,529 versus what sometimes, like, really like, I I 953 00:34:24,529 --> 00:34:25,969 know it comes across as me being flippant, 954 00:34:25,969 --> 00:34:27,670 but it does feel like minutes sometimes 955 00:34:28,049 --> 00:34:30,074 in graph land, which is the way stuff 956 00:34:30,074 --> 00:34:32,494 changes or moves from underneath you. Absolutely. 957 00:34:32,875 --> 00:34:35,114 And I guess kinda to wrap it up, 958 00:34:35,114 --> 00:34:36,954 unless you need anything else, if you are 959 00:34:36,954 --> 00:34:38,949 looking to get started with this, we will 960 00:34:38,949 --> 00:34:40,949 throw this link in the share notes. And, 961 00:34:40,949 --> 00:34:42,630 again, I don't know how I missed this. 962 00:34:42,630 --> 00:34:44,949 This is a step by step, gather a 963 00:34:44,949 --> 00:34:47,349 detailed dataset on SharePoint sites using the Microsoft 964 00:34:47,349 --> 00:34:49,735 Graph Data Connector back from February of this 965 00:34:49,735 --> 00:34:50,215 year, 966 00:34:50,855 --> 00:34:53,494 where it does walk you step by step 967 00:34:53,494 --> 00:34:56,155 through setting up Microsoft Graph Data Connect, 968 00:34:57,175 --> 00:34:58,394 enabling the right 969 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:01,819 features, services in Microsoft 365, 970 00:35:03,159 --> 00:35:05,819 setting up Azure. I know some Microsoft 365 971 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:07,099 people, me included, 972 00:35:07,954 --> 00:35:11,155 maybe aren't super familiar with, I think, setting 973 00:35:11,155 --> 00:35:11,894 up like 974 00:35:13,074 --> 00:35:14,054 Synapse workspaces 975 00:35:14,355 --> 00:35:16,139 and how you would connect the data to 976 00:35:16,139 --> 00:35:17,519 Synapse and pull the data 977 00:35:18,860 --> 00:35:22,059 through, going through and building reports. Like, this 978 00:35:22,059 --> 00:35:24,139 is an end to end step by step 979 00:35:24,139 --> 00:35:25,199 walk through from 980 00:35:25,554 --> 00:35:27,715 turning the feature on to connecting it to 981 00:35:27,715 --> 00:35:28,215 Synapse 982 00:35:29,155 --> 00:35:31,875 to walking you through building a Power BI 983 00:35:31,875 --> 00:35:32,375 report. 984 00:35:32,839 --> 00:35:35,019 It is a fairly lengthy web page, 985 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:37,319 but I would say a very good place 986 00:35:37,319 --> 00:35:39,639 to get started if you're not familiar with 987 00:35:39,639 --> 00:35:40,619 some of this stuff, 988 00:35:41,315 --> 00:35:43,315 just to see a sample of how you 989 00:35:43,315 --> 00:35:45,175 can start building this stuff out. 990 00:35:46,755 --> 00:35:47,255 Yeah. 991 00:35:47,554 --> 00:35:49,530 I saw this one. So so it exists 992 00:35:49,530 --> 00:35:51,530 in docs as well, in like the public 993 00:35:51,530 --> 00:35:53,690 docs, just not with the verbosity. Uh-huh. And 994 00:35:53,690 --> 00:35:56,010 I really wondered like, why doesn't this sit 995 00:35:56,010 --> 00:35:57,070 in docs? Because 996 00:35:57,704 --> 00:35:59,304 and it was the piece that I was 997 00:35:59,304 --> 00:36:00,824 missing when I first started going through it 998 00:36:00,824 --> 00:36:02,585 until you pointed out the article. It was 999 00:36:02,585 --> 00:36:04,184 like, hey, you you get to the end 1000 00:36:04,184 --> 00:36:05,965 and, like, there's no good, like, 1001 00:36:06,469 --> 00:36:08,230 how do you visualize all this stuff? Because 1002 00:36:08,230 --> 00:36:09,909 ultimately, that's the point. Right? Like, we get 1003 00:36:09,909 --> 00:36:11,530 to really decide, like, what's what's the 1004 00:36:11,829 --> 00:36:14,389 consumption and distribution model look like, and is 1005 00:36:14,389 --> 00:36:16,885 that Power BI? Is that Tableau? Is that 1006 00:36:16,885 --> 00:36:19,605 Grafana? Like, who you know, whatever it happens 1007 00:36:19,605 --> 00:36:20,264 to be. 1008 00:36:20,804 --> 00:36:22,484 And then I was going through this article. 1009 00:36:22,484 --> 00:36:24,739 I was like, oh, it's just because they 1010 00:36:24,739 --> 00:36:26,739 went down the happy path of, like, everything 1011 00:36:26,739 --> 00:36:29,320 the most expensive way they could. Right? Like, 1012 00:36:29,700 --> 00:36:33,315 synapse here, ADF here, this this this, all 1013 00:36:33,315 --> 00:36:34,594 these things, and all these things, like 1014 00:36:35,555 --> 00:36:38,035 so so it's a happy path. Like, I 1015 00:36:38,035 --> 00:36:40,355 will give them that 100%. Like, it it's 1016 00:36:40,355 --> 00:36:42,150 it's a happy path. It works. Like, 1017 00:36:42,710 --> 00:36:43,909 I can tell you, like, if you go 1018 00:36:43,909 --> 00:36:46,150 through that article, like, it'll lead you into 1019 00:36:46,150 --> 00:36:47,049 some bad practices, 1020 00:36:48,230 --> 00:36:50,244 you know, around the way, like app registrations 1021 00:36:50,465 --> 00:36:52,385 and things are configured. But whatever. Like, it 1022 00:36:52,385 --> 00:36:53,824 works on the other side. Right? Like, it 1023 00:36:53,824 --> 00:36:55,184 it does give you kinda, like, a point 1024 00:36:55,184 --> 00:36:55,844 in time 1025 00:36:56,385 --> 00:36:57,664 and get you where you need to be. 1026 00:36:57,664 --> 00:36:59,559 But be mindful, like, as you're standing this 1027 00:36:59,559 --> 00:37:01,159 stuff up, like, there might be other ways 1028 00:37:01,159 --> 00:37:01,739 to do 1029 00:37:02,119 --> 00:37:04,519 it. There could be less costly ways to 1030 00:37:04,519 --> 00:37:06,460 do it. Right? Like, you might wanna consider, 1031 00:37:06,519 --> 00:37:07,019 like, 1032 00:37:07,655 --> 00:37:09,275 you know, do you really need Synapse? 1033 00:37:10,135 --> 00:37:12,054 If you do need Synapse, like, what's the 1034 00:37:12,054 --> 00:37:15,094 size of your Synapse compute that you're gonna 1035 00:37:15,094 --> 00:37:17,539 pull in versus what's the size that's maybe 1036 00:37:17,539 --> 00:37:20,420 in, like, the random article on TechCommunity or 1037 00:37:20,420 --> 00:37:22,900 things like that. So just just keep that 1038 00:37:22,900 --> 00:37:24,119 stuff in mind too. 1039 00:37:25,005 --> 00:37:26,445 But I'll I'll tell you, like, I I 1040 00:37:26,445 --> 00:37:27,505 was actually 1041 00:37:27,804 --> 00:37:29,905 quite impressed. Like, this is, like, 1042 00:37:30,844 --> 00:37:33,164 kudos because it it was very turnkey and 1043 00:37:33,164 --> 00:37:35,670 and very easy to get going with. Absolutely. 1044 00:37:36,050 --> 00:37:38,210 So I already see Pirate in the chat. 1045 00:37:38,210 --> 00:37:40,050 He's like, you guys just filled up my 1046 00:37:40,050 --> 00:37:41,190 weekend for me now. 1047 00:37:41,625 --> 00:37:43,864 He's gonna be busy this this weekend playing 1048 00:37:43,864 --> 00:37:46,125 with it as well. So very 1049 00:37:46,585 --> 00:37:47,085 cool 1050 00:37:47,464 --> 00:37:48,605 tool features 1051 00:37:49,224 --> 00:37:50,730 that, like you said, I'm surprised 1052 00:37:51,030 --> 00:37:53,690 it doesn't have it hasn't gotten more attention, 1053 00:37:53,750 --> 00:37:54,250 visibility. 1054 00:37:55,429 --> 00:37:56,869 So if you haven't seen it, played with 1055 00:37:56,869 --> 00:37:58,744 it. It's probably worth a check checking it 1056 00:37:58,744 --> 00:38:01,385 out and seeing what you can do, especially 1057 00:38:01,385 --> 00:38:03,864 if you like numbers and reporting and analytics 1058 00:38:04,184 --> 00:38:06,505 Absolutely. Or on Microsoft 365. It is for 1059 00:38:06,505 --> 00:38:08,809 the data geeks. Get it get it going. 1060 00:38:08,809 --> 00:38:11,769 Alright. Well, thanks, Scott. Appreciate it. Glad we 1061 00:38:11,769 --> 00:38:13,609 were able to nail it and be on 1062 00:38:13,609 --> 00:38:15,545 the same page with what this actually is, 1063 00:38:15,625 --> 00:38:18,204 and hopefully bring some clarity and some visibility 1064 00:38:18,344 --> 00:38:20,105 to it for those of you that have 1065 00:38:20,105 --> 00:38:21,724 not played with it. Yeah. But with that, 1066 00:38:22,105 --> 00:38:24,019 go play with data this weekend. 1067 00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:25,599 Pull in a bunch of data, create a 1068 00:38:25,599 --> 00:38:27,360 bunch of reports, and show me what you 1069 00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:29,519 created next week. Homework. There we go. I'm 1070 00:38:29,599 --> 00:38:31,760 yeah. I wanna see screenshots in Discord next 1071 00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:32,260 week. 1072 00:38:33,264 --> 00:38:35,264 Blur them all out. They'll just be blurry 1073 00:38:35,264 --> 00:38:37,744 blobs of default Power BI colors. What we 1074 00:38:37,744 --> 00:38:40,489 talked about, just abstract the data. Just mask 1075 00:38:40,730 --> 00:38:43,369 usernames and all that and create some fun 1076 00:38:43,369 --> 00:38:45,710 charts. Mhmm. We'll see what see what we 1077 00:38:45,769 --> 00:38:47,949 can see in Discord beginning of next week. 1078 00:38:48,434 --> 00:38:51,394 So hope everyone enjoys their weekend, and we 1079 00:38:51,394 --> 00:38:54,035 will talk to you again soon, Scott. Great. 1080 00:38:54,035 --> 00:38:54,855 Thanks, Ben. 1081 00:38:56,809 --> 00:38:59,050 If you enjoyed the podcast, go leave us 1082 00:38:59,050 --> 00:39:01,289 a 5 star rating in iTunes. It helps 1083 00:39:01,289 --> 00:39:03,025 to get the word out so more IT 1084 00:39:03,025 --> 00:39:05,765 pros can learn about Office 365 and Azure. 1085 00:39:06,385 --> 00:39:07,985 If you have any questions you want us 1086 00:39:07,985 --> 00:39:10,144 to address on the show, or feedback about 1087 00:39:10,144 --> 00:39:12,480 the show, feel free to reach out via 1088 00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:14,739 our website, Twitter, or Facebook. 1089 00:39:15,039 --> 00:39:16,880 Thanks again for listening, and have a great 1090 00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:17,380 day.

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Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast

Ben Stegink, Scott Hoag

On the MS Cloud IT Pro Podcast, Scott and Ben discuss the Microsoft Cloud with a focus on IT Pros. They'll discuss the latest in Microsoft 365 and Office 365 News, Azure news and talk about their experiences with managing the Microsoft Cloud as well as interview industry experts on various cloud technology. They'll cover things such as SharePoint, Exchange, Microsoft Teams, PowerShell, Azure, Azure AD, Security, Networking, Storage, and the many other technologies and products that have made their way into the Microsoft 365 suite and Azure. To stay up-to-date on the latest in Microsoft Cloud news and gain some valuable knowledge as you deploy it within your own organization, make sure to tune in every week! Find out more at msclouditpropodcast.com.

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