A few resources to ramp up on the recently announced service
Category: Microsoft
Microsoft and Red Hat Alliance Resources
Strategic Alliance
- Red Hat landing page for Microsoft Strategic Alliance
- Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider – CCSP Program
- Microsoft Red Hat solutions on Azure campaign
- Microsoft Azure website, Red Hat search
- Microsoft and Red Hat November 2015 Announcement
SQL on RHEL
- Microsoft: SQL Server 2017 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux offer
- Red Hat: Microsoft SQL Server 2017 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux: Data peas and Linux carrots
OpenShift with Microsoft Azure Announcements
- Red Hat and Microsoft Simplify Containers Press Release
- Chris Morgan’s blog on Windows Containers in OpenShift
- Schiphol – Azure Case Study
OpenShift Technical Resources
- Azure Test Drive Hands-on-labs (link)
- Azure Reference architecture (link)
- Microsoft Quick Start template
- OpenShift developer free training
SAP HANA
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 for SAP HANA on Azure Marketplace
.NET
Red Hat and Microsoft: Partnering to bring Enterprise Customers to the Cloud
For years Windows and Linux have been rival development and runtime environments used by two distinct development communities – .Net vs. J2EE. At least that’s what we thought. In fact, they are not rivals at all, really. Rather, they are both commonly used by nearly all enterprises to develop and execute the applications they need to run their businesses.
Today, those applications are being modernized, containerized and redeployed across multiple clouds. Business and IT planners alike are rethinking how to develop new cloud-native applications and the infrastructure needed to deploy them to their best execution venue whether on-premises, in or across private, public or hybrid clouds. They expect the IT vendors and service providers they use to do more than just coexist. They expect partnerships dedicated to customer success – and none more so than among the two leading vendors in each community, Microsoft and Red Hat.
In this webinar 451 Research Principal Analyst Carl Lehmann, Nicholas Gerasimatos of Red Hat and Jose Miguel Parrella, Sr Product Marketing Manager for Open Source at Microsoft will address:
– How to overcome common challenges of application modernization, infrastructure management, and cloud deployment.
– The partnership, and capabilities enabled therein, between Microsoft and Red Hat.
– How Microsoft Azure and Red Hat ecosystems support and complement each other.
Participants will learn how Microsoft and Red Hat build upon each other’s strengths in container-based, cloud-native application development, infrastructure deployment and operations to better serve their mutual customers through joint business practices, technology support, and ecosystem.
Carl Lehmann – 451 Research Principal Analyst, Nicholas Gerasimatos – Red Hat, Jose Miguel Parrella – Microsoft Jun 29 2017 | 58 mins
Is Microsoft is becoming a Linux vendor?
On Microsoft’s own Azure cloud, 75% of machines run Linux. These are Microsoft customers who are running Linux. Microsoft needs to support the platform they use, or they will go somewhere else.
To that end, Microsoft has written a Linux subsystem in Windows, that allows users/admins to run bash commands.
Is Microsoft’s victory a loss for traditional Linux vendors? To some degree, yes. Microsoft has become a direct competitor. But the clear winner here is Linux.
Microsoft doesn’t own any Linux technologies. They are totally dependent on an external vendor, in this case Canonical, for their entire Linux layer. Too risky a proposition, if Canonical gets acquired by a fierce competitor.
Read the full story from CIO magazine here
Linux Foundation and Microsoft: A Great Start to a Great Partnership
The lines between open source and proprietary software are blurring. Increasingly organizations are building even in-house technologies with open source methods. This includes Microsoft.
From participating in Node.js, the Core Infrastructure Initiative and other Collaborative Projects at Linux Foundation to its recent partnerships with Red Hat and SUSE, Microsoft is demonstrating a sincere, smart and practical approach to how it builds new technologies and supports its vast customer base
PowerShell is open sourced and is available on Linux
Today’s customers live in a multi-platform, multi-cloud, multi-OS world – that’s just reality. This world brings new challenges and customers need tools to make everything work together.
Microsoft announced today that PowerShell is open sourced and available on Linux. (For those of you who need a refresher, PowerShell is a task-based command-line shell and scripting language built on the .NET Framework to help IT professionals control and automate the administration of the Windows, and now Linux, operating systems and the applications that run on them.)
Source: PowerShell is open sourced and is available on Linux | Blog | Microsoft Azure
Red Hat, Microsoft and Codenvy Push DevOps with New Language Protocol
While it’s no longer news that Microsoft wants to cooperate with the open source community, it’s remarkable that Redmond is now going so far as to help found an open source project whose goal is to erase platform lock-in for programming. In the past, platform lock-in constituted the crux of Microsoft’s business strategy, but those days are long past.
Source: Red Hat, Microsoft and Codenvy Push DevOps with New Language Protocol | Data Center Knowledge
Excel 2016 for Mac, still lacking features in Windows version

Problems Locating Name Manager in Excel 2016
Dear community members, Does anybody know where the name manager is located in Excel 2016? I don’t see any option in the Formulas Ribbon:
Reply to Jim Gordon Mac MVP’s post on August 2, 2015
Thank for letting me know. Hopefully, the name management functionality will be incorporated in the near future.
Need a Simple Form in Excel? SOL!
If you’re an Excel 2016 for Mac user, and you want to create a simple form, you’re out of luck. Microsoft’s official response: there is none.
If fact, if you read through the myriad of Microsoft Office articles on the subject, you’ll find no differentiation about Mac’s inability to use the customize the Quick Access Toolbar feature. I guess the workaround is is to buy a Windows computer.
Unfortunately this is yet another example of how Office for Mac 2016 is still the red-headed stepchild to the Windows version.
“Relevant” Microsoft Articles:
- Customize the Quick Access Toolbar – Note how there’s no distinction about lack of this ability in the Mac 2016 version.
- Add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar – ditto, see above.
The answer:
- From a non-Microsoft blog – it can’t be done.
Agonizing death of the Windows Phone
Interesting summary of the slow agonizing death of the Windows Phone from Forbes. Ruthless Microsoft’s Smart Decision To Kill Windows Phone.
A better read from WSJ in July 2015 predicted the demise. In the WSJ report, Apple profit per phone was more than double every other manufacturer combined.
With only 4.5 million Lumia devices sold in Q4 2015, Microsoft’ mobile hardware reached the heady heights of a 1.1 percent market share.