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Let's Talk Azure!
By Alan Armstrong & Sam FootTechnology
Let's Talk Azure! episodes
- S6E19 - Microsoft updates July - new products and features released
This week, Alan and Sam talk about new features and services that have gone into Public Preview or General Available status in the last month. We dive into a couple of these updates that peaked our interest.
Some of the Microsoft product features and update we covered:
- Key Microsoft Entra, Intune and Defender features and updates
- Lots of Azure changes and new features
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
38 min - S6E18 - Securing Access to Your Virtual Machines with Azure Bastion
In this episode, we explore Azure Bastion, Microsoft’s fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution designed to provide secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) access to Azure virtual machines (VMs). This Q&A-style episode dives deep into how Azure Bastion strengthens cloud security by eliminating the need for public IP addresses on VMs, reducing exposure to external threats like port scanning or protocol exploits. Alan poses critical questions about Azure Bastion’s functionality, architecture, deployment options, and integration with Azure’s security ecosystem, while our consultant delivers actionable insights tailored for IT administrators, security professionals, and cloud architects.
We cover:
- Core Functionality: How Azure Bastion enables secure, clientless RDP/SSH access via the Azure portal or native clients, protecting VMs by removing public IP dependencies.
- Architecture Breakdown: The role of the dedicated AzureBastionSubnet, private IP connectivity, and TLS-based sessions, including support for zonal deployments for high availability.
- SKU Options: A detailed look at Developer, Basic, Standard, and Premium SKUs, highlighting features like session recording, Private Link integration, and host scaling for different organizational needs.
- Security Integrations: How Azure Bastion works with Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Entra ID (with MFA and conditional access), Azure Private Link, and Azure Monitor to enforce Zero Trust principles and ensure compliance.
- Real-World Use Cases: Practical scenarios, such as secure admin access for global teams, compliance for regulated industries (e.g., healthcare, finance), and streamlined dev/test environments, with examples like Metinvest’s global VM management.
- Best Practices: Tips for deployment (e.g., subnet sizing, VNet peering), security (e.g., MFA, NSG configuration), monitoring (e.g., Azure Monitor logs), and cost management (e.g., SKU selection, scaling strategies).
- Limitations and Considerations: Key factors like SKU constraints, regional availability for zonal deployments, performance considerations, and cost implications, with guidance on mitigating challenges.
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
56 min - S6E17 - Microsoft updates June - new products and features released
This week, Alan and Sam talk about new features and services that have gone into Public Preview or General Available status in the last month. We dive into a couple of these updates that peaked our interest.
Some of the Microsoft product features and update we covered:
- Key Microsoft Entra, Intune and Defender features and updates
- Lots of Azure changes and new features
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
45 min - S6E16 - Monitor and Protect Generative AI services using Microsoft Tooling
Alan and Sam discuss the topic of Generative AI usage and it should be monitored by organisations. Alan talks about some of the Microsoft tooling that can help monitor these services and protect data being consumed.
- The importance of monitoring Generative AI usage.
- How Microsoft tooling can help monitor and protect Gen AI usage
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
56 min - S6E15 - Microsoft updates May - new products and features released
This week, Alan and Sam talk about new features and services that have gone into Public Preview or General Available status in the last month. We dive into a couple of these updates that peaked our interest.
Some of the Microsoft product features and update we covered:
- Key Microsoft Entra, Intune and Defender features and updates
- Lots of Azure changes and new features
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
1 hr 9 min - S6E14 - Securing M365 with ScubaGear: A Deep Dive into CISA’s Assessment Tool
In this episode, we dive deep into ScubaGear, an open-source tool developed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as part of the Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) project. Designed to assess Microsoft 365 (M365) tenant configurations, ScubaGear helps organizations align with CISA’s Secure Configuration Baselines (SCBs) to prevent costly misconfigurations. From setup to real-world applications, we unpack how ScubaGear strengthens M365 security and share practical tips for IT admins and security teams.
What You’ll Learn:- Why ScubaGear Matters: Learn how ScubaGear addresses the growing threat of cloud misconfigurations, which accounted for 30% of cloud attacks in early 2024. We discuss its origins in CISA’s SCuBA project, and its value for US federal agencies, private organizations, and critical infrastructure.
- How ScubaGear Works: A technical breakdown of ScubaGear’s PowerShell-based workflow, using Microsoft Graph APIs and Open Policy Agent (OPA) to compare tenant settings against SCBs. We cover setup requirements.
- Common Misconfigurations: Examples like disabled MFA or weak DLP policies, and how ScubaGear’s HTML, JSON, and CSV reports provide actionable remediation steps.
- Best Practices: Tips for integrating ScubaGear into security workflows, including regular scans, policy customization, and combining with tools like Microsoft Secure Score.
- Real-World Insights: Sam shares experiences from consulting.
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
46 min - S6E13 - Security Copilot - Your Security Analyst's Assistant
Alan and Sam discuss the benefits and use cases of Security Copilot. Alan Dives into how Security Pilot works and what some of the capabilities are. Here are a few things we covered:
- What is Generative AI
- What is Security Copilot
- What are Agents
- How much does it cost?
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
1 hr 9 min - S6E12 - Microsoft updates April - new products and features released
This week, Alan and Sam talk about new features and services that have gone into Public Preview or General Available status in the last month. We dive into a couple of these updates that peaked our interest.
Some of the Microsoft product features and update we covered:
- Key Microsoft Entra, Intune and Defender features and updates
- Lots of Azure changes and new features
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
54 min - S6E11 - Insights into Microsoft Secure 2025
This week, Alan and Sam talk about new features and services that have been announced at Microsoft Secure 2025
Some of the Microsoft product features and update we covered:
- Security Copilot Agents
- Data Security Investigations
- Innovations in Microsoft Entra
- Detection and protection for emerging AI threats
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
55 min - S6E10 - Microsoft updates March - new products and features released
This week, Alan and Sam talk about new features and services that have gone into Public Preview or General Available status in the last month. We dive into a couple of these updates that peaked our interest.
Some of the Microsoft product features and update we covered:
- Key Microsoft Entra, Intune and Defender features and updates
- Lots of Azure changes and new features
What did you think of this episode? Give us some feedback via our contact form, Or leave us a voice message in the bottom right corner of our site.
Read transcript
42 min
About Let's Talk Azure!
From the publisher's feed
Listen with Alan Armstrong and Sam Foot as we talk about all things Microsoft Azure! We are both technical consultants working with Azure day in, day out. Alan focuses on Identity and Security…
automation while Sam is a .NET developer deploying PaaS and SaaS solutions on Azure. Each episode we have a topic we cover and we highlight some key news that we are interested in. No fluff, sales or products here, just two technical people having a light hearted chat.
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