Month: January 2025

My Business Apps 2025

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I remain a low volume mobile app user. I much prefer to access corporate data on a large screen with a full size keyboard I very selectively install apps on my device to try and keep them to a minimum. My limited use of apps on mobile devices is largely explained by ergonomic. Less is definitely more for me.

To see what I was using at the beginning of last year check out the article:

My Apps – 2024

My daily driver when it comes to a phone is an iPhone 12 Pro Max currently but I also have a Surface Duo 2 as a backup. The other device that I use apps on is my iPad mini.

My most used business apps on mobile devices over the last year were:

Outlook – for email access across multiple Microsoft 365 accounts secured via Intune.

Spotify on iOS to listen to all my podcasts.

Lastpass password manager and authenticator for general password management.

Microsoft Authenticator – I use this for a number of select web sites as well as Microsoft 365.

I have Microsoft Defender protecting all my devices including those running iOS and Android.

Car Play – Connects to my daily drive to provide the ability to listen to podcasts as well as use Waze for navigation.

OneNote – is a must on every device I own. Syncs all my notes to every device. Allows me to not only truly have my information everywhere I am but also capture information quickly and easily.

OneDrive – This mobile app now not only allows me to manage my Microsoft 365 files but it also incorporates the more advanced Office Lens technology that scans and uploads, documents, whiteboards, etc.

Tripview – One of the few apps that I have happily paid for. I use this to let me know the Sydney train schedule to help me get around when I need to negotiate the ‘real world’. Although not much travel is happening at the moment, this app is super handy for negotiating local public transport.

Qantas – Given the amount of interstate travel I generally do having all my business flight information is handy. It also has my boarding pass so I can remove the need for paper.

Audible – This app allows me to listen to my audio books where ever I am.

Amazon Kindle – If I don’t have access to my Kindle then I can still read my books. In my case that will most likely be on my iPad. I also use the Kindle app on the iPad when the ebook has a lot of images that sometime don’t display well or are too small for the Kindle device.

Of course I have all the social media apps, such as X, and Linkedin on my devices, although I will say that I’m not a big users of these apps at all. They are used occasionally but I really limit my usage of these apps which I find very distracting.

I also have all the Microsoft/Office 365 apps. The ones I use the most are probably To-Do, Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, although Word and Excel also get used regularly. Just about every Microsoft Office 365 service has an app that you should have on your mobile device. On my Duo 2 I am also using Edge as the primary browser along with the new Edge Insider. I also have the Brave browser on my devices as I no longer use Chrome at all.

I’ve also added the Intune app to all my devices so they can be better managed.

I use the Signal messaging app for private conversations and groups that I am part of.

Some occasional ones I use include:

– Get Pocket

– Duolingo

– Uber

– Amazon music

I use the normal personal apps for things like Internet banking and so on.

One my iPad, which also serves as a personal entertainment device, I have the streaming services Youtube, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. I also try apps regularly just to see what they do and whether they can benefit me. However, most don’t and summarily removed.

I will generally also update the apps on my mobile devices manually, so if there issues for some reason I know what has happened recently.

The above are my used apps across my various mobile devices. My aim to try and keep the apps standard across all the devices and as few as possible. I try and standardise on the Microsoft apps on all platforms and use these as much as possible. I certainly use a wide variety of apps on my devices by prefer the desktop versions if available.

CIA Brief 20250104

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Passkeys Authentication Across Platforms and Devices using Entra ID –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/coreinfrastructureandsecurityblog/passkeys-authentication-across-platforms-and-devices-using-entra-id/4361075

Understanding the Evolving Threat of DDoS Attacks in 2024 –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azurenetworksecurityblog/understanding-the-evolving-threat-of-ddos-attacks-in-2024/4362031

The Golden Opportunity for American AI –

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/01/03/the-golden-opportunity-for-american-ai/

Share files and folders in Microsoft 365 –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbOkcOqlavw

Get ready for the new year with Microsoft 365 –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365insiderblog/get-ready-for-the-new-year-with-microsoft-365/4358415

Hyperscale ML threat intelligence for early detection & disruption –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoftthreatprotectionblog/hyperscale-ml-threat-intelligence-for-early-detection–disruption/4359763

After hours

Hunted From Above | Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ug0YGouHmY

Editorial

If you found this valuable, the I’d appreciate a ‘like’ or perhaps a donation at https://ko-fi.com/ciaops. This helps me know that people enjoy what I have created and provides resources to allow me to create more content. If you have any feedback or suggestions around this, I’m all ears. You can also find me via email director@ciaops.com and on X (Twitter) at https://www.twitter.com/directorcia.

If you want to be part of a dedicated Microsoft Cloud community with information and interactions daily, then consider becoming a CIAOPS Patron – www.ciaopspatron.com.

Watch out for the next CIA Brief next week

CIAOPS Need to Know Microsoft 365 Webinar – January

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Join me for the free monthly CIAOPS Need to Know webinar. Along with all the Microsoft Cloud news we’ll be taking a look at Data Protection in Microsoft 365 once again.

Shortly after registering you should receive an automated email from Microsoft Teams confirming your registration, including all the event details as well as a calendar invite.

You can register for the regular monthly webinar here:

January Webinar Registrations

(If you are having issues with the above link copy and paste – https://bit.ly/n2k2501)

The details are:

CIAOPS Need to Know Webinar – January 2025
Thursday 30th of January 2025
11.00am – 12.00am Sydney Time

All sessions are recorded and posted to the CIAOPS Academy.

The CIAOPS Need to Know Webinars are free to attend but if you want to receive the recording of the session you need to sign up as a CIAOPS patron which you can do here:

http://www.ciaopspatron.com

or purchase them individually at:

http://www.ciaopsacademy.com/

Also feel free at any stage to email me directly via director@ciaops.com with your webinar topic suggestions.

I’d also appreciate you sharing information about this webinar with anyone you feel may benefit from the session and I look forward to seeing you there.

My software and services 2025

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Here’s last year’s post for comparison:

My software and services – 2024

My PC’s are either running the latest version of Windows 10 (24H2) or Windows 11 (24H2) without any issues. Some machines cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 and some I have left at Windows 10 for the time being to verify their operation. I no longer run any Windows 10 Insider builds as I had trouble backing out of these when I needed to. I still have Office Insider builds happening in my environment.

Given that Windows 10 goes out of support in October 2025 I will upgrade what I can to Windows 11 and probably just leave the rest as is. All my production machines can go to Windows 11, it will just a test machines that can’t.

All Windows machines are directly joined to Entra ID and managed via Intune and Microsoft Endpoint Manager, except for one that remains stand alone for use with my IoT projects.  The Entra ID connected configurations are based on the Windows MDM security baseline settings. All machines only use  Windows Defender for local security monitoring and management. Thanks to Microsoft E5 on my production tenant, I am also using Microsoft Defender For Endpoint at the back end for monitoring and investigation of endpoint threats.

My two main tenants are Microsoft 365 E5 demo and Microsoft 365 E5 production environments. A mix of Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise machines are all Entra ID joined to the Microsoft 365 production domain. The production Microsoft 365 tenant has Microsoft 365 Business for all users except myself. I have a Microsoft 365 E5 license on which I have configured all the services including integrated PSTN calling via Switch Connect.

I use Microsoft Sentinel to monitor threats across my environments via a single pane of glass. I have also now added Defender EASM for monitoring security threats.

I use the following major browsers:

– Edge – my primary browser across all my devices including iOS and Android. I have it locked down with baseline policies via Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

– Brave – I have become increasingly concerned about the surreptitious tracking that many sites perform, especially when it comes to social media sites. I therefore now do all my ‘random browsing’, searching and viewing of social media sites using Brave. I also like that Brave allow me easy access to Tor browsing for anonymous security work.

I have now cranked Edge up to the maximum security level but wanted to isolate the most likely tracking culprits into another browser that was security focused. After some evaluation, I have chosen Brave to be this browser. This is now where I do all the stuff that is more likely to be tracked and now hopefully blocked or at least minimised. I have also set this browser up to use Duck Duck Go for search, otherwise I use Bing for my production Edge browser. I have completely eliminated Google Chrome from all my machines without any issues and recommend those who are becoming more concerned about their privacy, like me, do the same.

Services like SharePoint Online and OneDrive I use regularly both in the demo and production tenant. I have the OneDrive sync client installed, running and connected to various locations on my production and demo tenants. I can now sync across all my different tenants as well as my consumer OneDrive storage. I have common places pinned to my Windows Explorer Quick access, which I find to be a real time saver.

I regularly use Microsoft Teams which is now my main messaging application and I’m using the new Teams client. All the CIAOPS Patron resources like the intranet, teams, etc all reside in the Microsoft 365 E5 demo tenant but I connect to it on my desktop normally via an Azure B2B guest account from my production tenant. Thus, I can admin the Patron resources in a browser if need be but I get the same experience on my desktop as any Patron would. Handy to know what works and doesn’t work with Microsoft Teams guest access. Thanks to Microsoft E5 and Switch Connect, I also have Teams connected as a phone.

I use Lastpass to keep my passwords and private information secure. It allows me to do things like generate and store unique passwords for each website that I sign up for. It is also available across all browsers on my machine (including Microsoft Edge). I also now also use Lastpass to store secure notes. I accept recent security breaches with Lastpass generate concerns but after some investigations I believe the risk for myself is minimal and as yet don’t feel a need to switch. If I am going to change at any point I think I’d be going with Bitwarden but that hasn’t been necessary as yet.

The extensions I run in all my browsers are:

– LastPass

– GetPocket

– Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials

I use Microsoft Power Automate for automation as well as Azure Functions.

For my email newsletters I use Mailchimp.

My preferred public social networks for business, in order are:

1. X

2. Linkedin

I would suggest that no matter what social media service you elect to use that you should spend time customising what you see. Unfiltered content is distracting but you can get good results if you spend just a little time telling the service what you do want to see I have found. Thus, don’t accept the defaults. You CAN customise what is presented to you.

I consume a lot of content from YouTube both for business and personal interest. I also also use YouTube extensively for my publicly available training video training.

Microsoft Office desktop software is still part of my everyday workday via applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. I use the desktop version of Outlook on my Surface Pro 7 which lives on my desk but I only use Outlook Web App on my travelling Surface Pro 9 device. I could happily not use Outlook on the desktop any more I believe but I still use so I understand the experience for most users. However, I do see the day when Outlook on the desktop begins to lose its appeal.

Currently, I use both classic Outlook and New Outlook on various desktops without too much issues. I prefer classic Outlook but New Outlook has come a long way and added many of the capabilities I use in Classic Outlook. The missing piece for me still is the way to customised New Outlook to see emails, calendar and tasks all on a single page, which I don;t believe New Outlook supports just yet. I appreciate that Microsoft will soon be forcing everyone to New Outlook and I believe my soul is prepared for this transition when it comes.

The key application from the suite for me is OneNote. OneNote is my go to Swiss Army knife for just about everything digital. I use it to capture all sort of data. I even use it as a diary as I have detailed previous here:

One of the ways I use OneNote

The reason OneNote is key is because:

1. Just about everything I put in there us searchable

2. It is freely available across all platforms.

3. All my information is synced and accessible on all devices.

4. It is available on the web or offline if needed.

I am a big user of OneNote on my mobile devices. This combination has allowed me to totally eliminate my paper notebooks for things such as journaling.

I am now a big Microsoft To-Do user. I use it to keep many tasks and items that I need to follow up including when bills are due. I love how it is available on all my devices and syncs across them all as well.

I use Windows terminal now for things like PowerShell execution and Microsoft Whiteboard for demonstrations and training.

Another key service I use everyday along with Microsoft 365 and OneNote is Azure. Typically, I use it for running up virtual machines that I test various things with but I also use it with my IoT projects.

I use Microsoft Sentinel to monitor all my services and machines in one single console and tell me about any incidents now along with Defender EASM to search out vulnerabilities.

There is just so much that can be done with Azure and I pretty much use it everyday.

All of my data now lives in Microsoft 365 protected with things like Windows Information Protection and other Microsoft information protection options. All my Windows machines run with full disk encryption thanks to Bitlocker.

I have implemented Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) to provide application control to improve security in my environment.

To capture my desktop for my online training academy or my YouTube channel I use Camtasia. I use SnagIt to capture screen shots and add highlights and emphasis to these. Snagit allows me to capture complete screens or specific areas quickly and easily.

I use Microsoft Teams to record my podcasts, which I then produce with Camtasia. These are uploaded to Podbean where they syndicated across various network.

To compose and publish blog articles I use Open Live Writer. My blog lives on WordPress.com.

My web site and Battlefields site live on Squarespace.

The majority of images I get, like the one at the top of this article, I get from Pexels. Pickit is also another great option. I have also been using Microsoft Designer a lot lately.

I use Visual Studio Code in which I do most of my PowerShell editing and publishing. I also use it now for my IoT projects. The end result typically is my GitHub repository where you will find a range of scripts and other resources that I maintain regularly. With Visual Studio Code I can edit publish and sync all my machines and my GitHub repository no matter where I am. Very handy.

Here are also a few of the other items I use regularly that are not for business:

Amazon Prime Video – only place to the latest The Grand Tour action. I also liked the Jack Ryan series and well as the Gymkana Files but most of this viewing is now on my iPad mini.

NetFlix – Seen a lot of great stuff this give all the time in lock down but most of this viewing is now on my iPad mini.

XBox Live Gold – access to all the online Xbox goodness.

Duolingo – language, maths and music learning, Japanese and Italian at the moment but most of this access is now on my iPad mini.

Kindle app – for typically reading books on my iPad

I try and keep my production machines as ‘clean’ and free of unused software as possible. I ensure that they are updated regularly. Any software testing that I need to do is typically done on a virtual machine in Azure.

A new section I thought I’d add is the AI that I use. The common Ai I use by far is GitHub Copilot. i use this daily to assist with coding tasks like creating PowerShell scripts and writing KQL queries amongst other things. Even though I have a paid version of GitHub Copilot I am happy to say there is also a free version that yo can take advantage of and the details are here.

I have a subscription to Microsoft 365 Copilot which I have had now for about a year. I use this regularly, but especially with Teams and Stream to summarise videos and other content. I also use Copilot Studio to create custom agents which I and others use inside the Microsoft Teams I manage. Even though Microsoft 365 Copilot is a significant cost investment it has more than proven its value to me over the past twelve months.

The main non-Microsoft AI that I use is Perplexity even though there are some ‘ethical’ challenges around this service. ChatGPT is also something that I use now ana again.

So there you have it, the major software and services that I use regularly. I continue to search out additional software that will improve my productivity. If you use something that you’ve found really handy, please let me know and I always keen to explore what works for others.

Talent versus Skill

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Chances are that you are average. Simply put, the majority of any audience is going to be average. Being well above average is statistically unlikely, yet if you ask most people whether they an above average driver most will agree that indeed they believe they are. Thus, there is a gap between perception and reality for most. It wasn’t until I attended an advanced driver training course many years ago that I realise how average a I driver I was.

Of course, there are people born with exceptional skills, but these tend to be in a single area and may lay dormant unless recognised and developed. In short, talent is random and based on the law of averages, is unlikely to be in an arena that you use everyday. This is especially true in the technology arena, which changes so rapidly.

Conversely, skill is something that anyone can develop in any field they choose. All it takes is effort. Many people mistake skill for talent because they only consider the endpoint not the journey the practitioner has been on. In fact, you do the practitioner a disservice by mistaking skill for talent but it is an easy thing to do when all you see is the result.

Where skill also trumps talent is its limit. As i have spoken about before:

Talent has its limits, skill doesn’t

Skill doesn’t have limits, however it does require effort which many are not prepared to invest in. This again, is simply the law of averages in that most people are average to start with and will stay average, especially if an investment of energy is required to shift that.

This however presents an opportunity. If you wish to be more than average all you need to do is invest some energy. The more you invest, the less average you will be. You can optimise the energy you invest with systems and processes so in fact, the energy invested is much lower than you may believe.

Of course, moving away from the safety of the average is daunting and typically held back by inertia. Both of these can be overcome with nothing more than desire and effort. But, these do not magically manifest themselves. They require conscious commitment and execution. You give yourself a much greater chance of achieving this by developing a system that you can adhere to. A system helps minimise or eliminate blockers like procrastination but again is not something that will manifest itself magically. It requires the investment of time and effort.

As I was lamenting recently, I see a congregation of IT Professionals and MSPs around the mean. I see an inertia to do what everyone else is doing which is simply driving things to a commodity market were only the cheapest wins because there is no differentiation.

A classic example to my mind is marketing. There is a belief that market involves doing what everyone else in the field is doing aka search engine optimisation, email marketing, etc, etc. Yet, if you ask these same people where they obtain the vast majority of their existing good customers most will say from a referral. Ok, if most of your business has come from referrals and not ‘marketing’ what systems do you have to drive more referrals? The answer is typically none. Why? Because, it is easier and more comfortable to be average and follow the pack.

I have always loved this quote attributed to Mark Twain:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”

The good news is that it simple to move away from the average, invest some effort. The better news is that if you do, most will not, making your escape from the gravity of the mean more profitable as you move to greener and greener pastures.

The even better news is that the resources required to move away from the average are already available to you today for little or no cost. Largely, the only cost is the investment of your own effort. In short, real success is just on the other side of a little bit of hard work and indeed that hard work typically turns out to be far less that you initially believe. However, you won’t know until your try and break the shackles of inertia.

Most people judge skill by its endpoint, as I said, rather than appreciating it as a journey. Once you appreciation that skills are built not manifested then you can build systems to craft the required skills. Most people who are seen as ‘successful’ (whatever that may mean) will say that they did not achieve this overnight, that is was invest of effort over time. This is not rocket science. It is pretty simple yet it eludes most. Why? The inertia of the mean. It is less effort to be like everyone else.

Of course, the choice individuals make about ‘success’ is totally up to them yet there is a common limitation that we all face. That limitation is time. No one knows how long they have left. The one certainty we all share is that our life will end and we don’t know when that will be. It would be hard to find anyone without regrets, and these you can’t change, but you can learn from them. Most regrets come from a failure to act, from a failure to invest effort towards an outcome. You don’t want to come to the end of your time will an accumulation of regrets. A fulfilled life is one where regrets are kept to the barest minimum.

There is nothing wrong with being average, statistically most people are. The question is, are you happy being average? Can you achieve more than being average? Because the worst thing would be to look back on your life and regret that you could have been more than average and you let something as simple as inertia prevent that. Being above average is simple, all it requires is effort. Skill is the demonstration and manifestation of that effort. Skill is the antidote to regret. 

My Gear 2025

You can take a look back at last year’s gear here:

My Gear 2024

there were/are some major changes happening with my assortment.

Surface Duo 2 – My ‘Google’ phone. This as a ‘secondary’ or backup phone. It has all the Microsoft apps installed on it and is connected to my Microsoft 365 production account. Most importantly, it has the Microsoft Authenticator app for MFA access for certain apps.  I also have the latest Microsoft Surface pen which I really like. It is probably the best ‘electronic scribing’ device I have used.

Unfortunately Microsoft has decided to no longer support this device and effectively end support for it as detailed here:

The Surface Duo is dead

The Surface Duo has lamentably always been a bit of second class citizen in the Microsoft ecosystem and was never widely supported by consumers. Personally, I always liked the device but as a phone it wasn’t ever really going to work in that form factor and that severely restricted its penetration.

I will give credit to Microsoft for trying something different and trying a different approach from the standard form factor but who the Duo was aimed at was never really clear which did make it much harder to penetrate a very competitive market. I am sad to see it discontinued, but I understand why it has been.

Given that it is now unsupported means I need to start considering a supported Android device to replace this. I’m not going to throw away my Surface Duo 2 but I need to consider something that can maintain the latest version of Android so I can test with Intune policies. I am in no rush to do this but I will need to start thinking about a replacement.

iPhone 12 Pro Max – This remains my main mobile device still. It still has a number of cracks on the screen but it still does what it needs to do. The device lives in a Quad Lock case and I have Quad Lock mounts for both desktop and car, which I highly recommend and make life easy.

With Apple’s announcement of Apple Intelligence and its need for more powerful devices I was tempted to upgrade the phone but as I understand it the bulk of Apple’s new features are not yet available and when they fully launch they will require an even newer (as yet unreleased product). So, I’m still holding off upgrading this phone as it really does all I need to do currently and the investment in a new Apple device is not cheap. A basic iPhone 16 pro Max would be around AU$2,150 which I honestly feel I wouldn’t get full value from.

One thing that remains configured my iPhone for is default grey scale display. I do this for two major reasons, firstly to prevent the phone from grabbing and holding my attention and secondly to save power. With the colours disabled on your phone it is amazing at how les tempting it is to play with it and use it as a crux when you are bored.

The great thing I will say about about Apple devices is their battery life. My experience is that this allows them to work for years and years, providing great value.

So for now, unless this device breaks, I’m in no rush to replace it.

Surface Pro 9 – This is my travelling and demo machine and replaces the Surface Pro 6. Having a dedicated travel machine makes it easy to grab and also to only have the software on it that I need. By that I mean I’m not installing random stuff on it to test.

I like the size and also the fact that it comes with with a Surface pen, which is handy as I discovered that the Surface Pen also works on Surface Hubs! (Great when the Surface Hub pens don’t work).

I do most of my demos on this machine as well as Teams webinar work as it is nice and quick. This machine runs Windows 11 Enterprise.

I did consider replacing this machine with a Copilot+ PC but again can’t see the real benefits unless one of my other production Surface devices dies. Yes,Copilot+ PC is a better device. Yes, it has longer battery life, etc etc but am I really going to notice that day to day? Probably not. Starting at around AU$2,000, like a new phone, that is lot to pay for something for which I already have hardware that effectively does the same job and from what I understand there isn’t much software that takes advantage of the NPU. Of course, if one of my production machines were ti fail then I would certainly consider Copilot+ PC but for now, like the phone, I prepared to wait for later generations of devices to appear.

Surface Pro 7 – This is my main desktop machine. Being the same form factor as the Surface Pro 6, it just slotted directly into my Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro Docking Station I already have in place. This machine runs Windows 11 Enterprise.

A problem has developed with this device where the screen goes blank below where the mouse cursor is. That makes using the device really, really annoying. I have multiple monitors connected to this device but being unable to use one screen intermittently is a productivity killer. It doesn’t happen all the time but it happens often enough that I think I really should replace it.

The downside of going to another Surface device is that it won’t fit in my Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro Docking Station which I really love. So if I upgrade this machine, I need to do away with the docking station as well.

Apart from the screen occasional screen issue this machine does the job it needs to. Sure a newer machine might run a bit faster but is the extra purchase price justify what would probably be only a small incremental gain? Currently, I don’t think so. Thus, until this device gives up the ghost it will probably remain as my main machine.

Surface Pro 6 – My backup machine. I use it pretty much every day as an adjunct to my main machine. It lives on my secondary Kensington SD3500v docking station connected to a full screen and acts as my backup in case my main machine fails or is unavailable for some reason. This machine run Windows 10 but could run Windows 11. I haven’t upgraded as yet because I want to maintain at least one production machine on Windows 10. With the end of life of Windows 10 coming in October 2025, I will probably have to upgrade this machine.

This machine is becoming noticeably slower to work with and takes much longer to boot up and run applications. Once these are all ‘fired up’ it is fine, but it is noticeably slower than the more modern Surface machines I have.

I did have an Benq PD3200Q-T monitor on this device but the power supply failed and to replace it would cost more than a new monitor so it went to recycling. The replacement monitor, a Samsung 32 Inch S39C FHD Curved Monitor (1920×1080) bought from Amazon unfortunately being bought in a rush, doesn’t have the same screen resolution as the original Benq, which is annoying at time when I have to full screen the application window when I never used to. I bought a curved screen to see if they really made any difference to my viewing experience but feel it hasn’t really.

I would like a higher resolution monitor as I had before with the Benq (a lesson for next time), but for now the Samsung does the job and if I did buy a new monitor where would I use the Samsung? For the price, I’m happy enough with the Samsung but for the next monitor purchase I will be more careful about getting a monitor with a higher resolution.

Surface Pro X – I use this machine as a ‘lite’ travelling desktop as well as a whiteboarding machine for demos and training. Give that it comes with the Surface Pen and has a nice large screen and will lie flat it makes the prefect device for scribing. I also use this device for writing note into places like OneNote. Perhaps not the most effective use of the device but it beats the iPad when it comes to scribing hands down in my books. This machine runs Windows 11.

This is another machine that I haven’t used as much as I want to, however it is fit for purpose in the role that it plays for me now. Also, given it is an ARM processor I’m interested to see whether maybe I can get Copilot+ PC features on that down the track when Microsoft opens these up. I doubt it as the process isn’t probably capable enough but let’s wait and see.

Surface Pro 3 – Continues to work fine and function as a test machine in my production environment. This machine has now been removed from my production network and operates stand alone. It does this so it can run my IoT project work. I found that with the security I have on my production network that I could not easily operate the IoT software I needed so the simple solution was to remove it from the production network and use it stand alone. This machine is slow and clunky, but for now it is doing the job it needs to. This machine is not suitable for Windows 11 and thus still happily runs Windows 10.

This device is now around 10 years old! and has been great value over that time and continues to do so for me. It goes to show how long modern devices live for.

Surface – I have had an original Surface version 1 for many years now. The keyboard has long since broken by the system still works fine, although somewhat under powered with only 4GB of RAM. This machine is now a dedicated device on a separate test tenant. This allows me to test Autopilot and other settings on it regularly. This machine is not suitable for Windows 11.

iPad mini 5th Gen – I decided I wanted a smaller ‘notebook’ size table to use like a paper diary, amongst other things, so I went out and bought an iPad mini.

I also now use this iPad mini with the Apple pencil, which generally works well, although the Apple pencil battery is pretty much knackered. The secret is to get a good case for both the iPad mini and the pencil. My choice was:

Finite Case with Pencil holder

which I’d certainly recommend as it is flexible, tough and cheap.

The only major downside of the iPad mini is that battery life is a lot less than the full size iPad, which is understandable. I have however never run out of juice but you do notice the power levels fall away quickly when compared to the full size version. I like that the iPad mini comfortable fits on my desk, works will with the Apple pencil and is much more transportable than the larger version. I was a little concerned that the screen size would be too small to enjoy movies and read web pages, etc but that hasn’t proved to be the case. I happy use it lying back on the couch to watch a variety of programs and read web sites.

After a number of years the Apple Pencil doesn’t really hold a charge any more. That is disappointing, although I appreciate it doesn’t have a huge battery. This has again increased the friction with me finding a suitable replacement for a paper notebook because every time I want to write something down, I need to charge the pencil up which takes ages.

Here is another device that works well and really has no need of a replacement but I have considered upgrading to a current iPad mini but again, I’m struggling to justify the AU$800 cost when the existing device is more than fit for purpose. Even if I did buy a new iPad mini what would I do with the current device?

D-Link Wireless N300 Model Router DSLG225 – to allow connect to the NBN broadband network.

Ubiquiti – I have a variety of Ubiquiti equipment in place including a  Security Gateway. All these have worked flawlessly and I can’t recommend this gear highly enough.

Docking station – I still love my Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro Docking Station. It is a really neat device, that suits most modern Surface Pro devices. It is slim, compact and now allows me to have 3 external monitors off the one Surface devices (as you can never have enough screen now can you eh?). I can plug in all my devices, microphones, phones, etc to it and all the cables are hidden at the back. I also like that you can adjust the screen up and down, a bit like a Surface Studio.

If I did upgrade my Surface pro 7 device it could not be used with this dockign station which would be sad. Seems to me all the docking station form factors have moved to just being external bricks rather than the elegance this solution provides. being unable to use this docking device upon a device upgrade is a major reason preventing me from upgrading if I’m honest.

The original Kensington SD3500v has now moved to work with the Surface Pro 6 and that is also working well

Xbox One S – Still use it to watch YouTube, Netflix and Amazon video and playing some games, but not many.

Apart from a new monitor for the Surface Pro 6 my gear remain pretty much the same and functioning reliably. Some items, such as the iPhone and iPad Mini, I am considering upgrading but struggle to justify that given the existing equipment is working fine. It is too easy to buy new hardware because it is new. I’ve tried to discipline myself to ask whether it will in fact make me more productive and what will I do with the old device, which more often than not is still working.

I do see the need to replace the Duo with a supported Android phone in 2025, but again I don’t see a burning need to do that. In short, unless something breaks I can’t see me buying any major new pieces of hardware in 2025.

Understanding AI

I am not a big fan of the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ because I really don’t believe what we see today can be truly be classified a ‘intelligence’ but for the sake of consistency I will run with the pack and use the terminology that is out there already.

Clearly, there is a lot of hype in and around AI. It permeates businesses from the smallest to the largest. The thing that we do know for sure is that no one can predict with certainly where the future lies. Honestly, this AI wave seems to be a lot like the cloud computing wave back in the early 2000’s. If this AI stuff follows the predictable historical pattern then my guess is that 2025 will see the peak of inflated expectations as most providers of AI try and generate real ROI for their AI investment dollars.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that AI is going away. However, I do feel that we will see greater ‘real world’ incorporation of AI into everyday business. I came across an idea that I believe will hold true in 2025 that every entity will soon have it’s own AI agent that will act of its behalf. This means individuals, businesses, brands, etc will have their own autonomous AI agents that will conduct business and manage things automatically and intelligently.

This shift to a world full of AI, to me, is a very similar to what I saw with the move to the cloud as I said. That means that in the long term AI is simply going to be a part of the technology landscape and we’ll take it for granted now as we do with using apps on our phone connected just about anywhere to our data. However, while we are still in the growth phase this represents a business opportunity I would suggest.

I was lucky enough to understand the change that cloud computing would bring to the landscape almost 20 years ago now and I see much the same opportunity today. You have to parse you way through the hype and drill down into the business benefits, but I do see them in the not to distant future for just about every business. The starting point I would suggest is to deepen your understanding about not only the technology but also its impact, especially what problems it will solve.

As always, education is the key and I have been doing my best to educate myself. So far I would suggest the following book as the best I have come across so far:

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma – Mustafa Suleyman,
Michael Bhaskar

and this interview with Mustafa as well, who in fact is now the AI CEO for Microsoft!

Mustafa Suleyman on the coming wave of AI

Unfortunately, as with the move to the cloud back all those years ago, I’m again seeing a hesitancy by SMB IT professionals, MSPs and technology providers from adding AI to their portfolio of skills and services. This, I feel will place them at a great disadvantage as the wave gathers momentum. It is much easier to ride in front of the wave than trying to paddle and catch it. Independent of any bet on the technology, looking at it in pure business terms, I would suggest it is largely green fields and if few are taking advantage then it is generally a risk that is well worthwhile. It is rare that you make good money doing what everyone does. Thus, doing what few are doing is probably the path to greater profitability I would suggest.

It seems to me that most SMB technology providers are most comfortable when they are doing what all their peers are doing. This leads to a commoditisation of these services are there is little differentiation between what different providers offer. I would suggest that you don’t need to throw away everything that you are doing today, however you should take a pragmatic approach and determine what is the least profitable part of your MSP business and stop doing that and replace with something few due, such as AI. We all know that to maximise returns, you should review your portfolio regularly and sell the loss makers. There is also room in most portfolios for an amount of risk. Not 100%, but a certain amount to potentially reap larger rewards. Was Bitcoin a risk back 10 – 15 years ago? Sure, but good judgement would have told you not to bet your house on it. However, a small amount of capital invested in this risk asset would have paid extremely handsome dividends today. As the old adage says ‘you need to speculate to accumulate’.

As I said, education is key and in many cases for traditional MSPs this will also mean a pivot from purely hardware, infrastructure and licenses to using code to solve problems. Luckily, there is an abundance of training and tools to be taken advantage of, with many being free. It is never too late to learn if you have the desire. However, desire without discipline is dreaming. Discipline is planning. Discipline is consistency. Discipline is the differentiator that will separate those who benefit from the AI and those that will again fall behind and struggle to keep up with change as it accelerates even faster than it did with the shift to the cloud.

Success is a journey. It is hard work but importantly it is achievable with nothing more than discipline. You have can give yourself more chance of success by supporting disciple with process, planning and review. If it is challenging for your business to adopt AI and pivot, then it will be the same for every other business. That should inspire you because it means if you can make it happen, then most will not because they fear that same challenge and will not take action. The funny thing is that the action required is generally far less onerous that you think once you actually get started. Overcoming the initial inertia is what keep most people rooted in place. Overcome that initial inertia and you are well on the way, and in fact I would suggest it will be mostly downhill from there. The trick is, just get started.

Fate provides us all with opportunities to succeed. Most procrastinate and say they will be ‘ready’ to begin tomorrow and thus it passed them by because fate waits for no one. You need to make yourself ready for the opportunity that something like AI provides. That comes with commitment and discipline as well as risk of course, but in my books it is a risk well worth taking because standing still is falling behind when it comes to technology. I have seen it before and the chances are that it will play out in a similar way. No one knows for certain but what you do for sure is give yourself the best chance of taking advantage of that opportunity through something as simple as education.

It seems clear that, like the cloud, AI will make the technology landscape a very different place in a few years. However, the question is, will you and your business still be the same as it is now? The answer to that, I would suggest, will determine your success.

My Stuff 2025

This post is my annual post aimed at bringing the links to everything I have out there on the Internet together into a single place. Here we go.

About me

Social Media

Free Stuff

Regular technical and business information, tutorials, walk throughs, learnings, upcoming courses and more.

Here you’ll find currently almost 200 videos full of tutorials on SharePoint, Office 365, Azure and technology.

Presentations and whitepapers for free download.

Documentation for older versions of SharePoint on premises, especially the free versions and those that came with SBS.

Cloud lecture series is a set of free tutorials, training session and so on that I have provided over the years:

I have number of free GitHub repositories that include things like PowerShell scripts, pricing calculators, reference documents, helpful links and more. You will find all these at:

I maintain a GitHub repository that contains not only links to articles on best practices for services like Exchange Online but also contains configuration files and settings typically in JSON format that can be imported and used to configure your Microsoft 365 environment. You will find all that here:

https://github.com/directorcia/bp

With over 330 episodes and now in it’s 15th year, my podcast focuses on providing you news and updates from the Microsoft Cloud around Microsoft 365 and Azure.

You can subscribe using iTunes or Spotify. If you’d like to be a guest or know someone who would, please let me know.

Need to Know webinars are held monthly and announced on my blog. These are conducted using Microsoft Teams on a topic around the Microsoft Cloud.

and subscribe to previous and upcoming webinar recordings and resources here:

You can join my free Teams shared channel. To do so follow the instruction here:

here you’ll find a forum on the Microsoft Cloud along with up to date news and information.

I publish a weekly round up of Microsoft Cloud news in my CIA Brief here on my blog:

Commercial stuff

This stuff helps pay for free stuff above, so I appreciate your support for my paid work.

Access to the CIAOPS community for technical support, product discounts and access to the best Office 365 and Azure information

You can also just buy me a coffee and support what I do – https://ko-fi.com/ciaops, which I would very much appreciate.

General Interest

I’m a big believer in supporting those who want to build their own business but just need a leg up to get started. Kiva is simply and easy way to provide this and I recommend this to everyone.

Being an Electrical Engineer by trade I enjoy building and solving problems with a variety of projects. This involves digging to electronics, IoT and 3D Printing amongst other things. I try and document all of those learnings over at CIAOPS Labs when I can.

In 2024 I read over 30 books. That means I do a lot of reading on a variety of topics and with Goodreads you can follow along with the books I’m reading as well as those that I add to my bookshelf. I’ll have an upcoming post on my recommended reads, so watch out for that post coming soon.

  • Xbox gamer tag = director cia

I don’t play a whole lot these days, but when I do I typically play:

– Call of Duty

– Minecraft

If you ever need to send me stuff you can do so via the following address:

PO Box 5
Beecroft NSW 2119
Australia

My Bitcoin address is – bitcoin:bc1qwgcr296c7rtjvlpkv9yy5033qjgwwrvttxhtm7

My Ethereum address is – ethereum:0xD7cc991E1f84B625C3723D2965C9948238F5DFe8