How can the new AI tools help DBAs? Richard chats with Grant Fritchey about his experiences using various types of LLMs to help with his work as a DBA. Grant discusses having an LLM open as a side window to pass questions by, such as ideas for tuning, query optimization, scripts, and so on. Not all LLMs are the same - it's worth experimenting with different tools! The conversation delves into the long-term picture of AI supporting the DBA role, enabling more work to be accomplished in less time. Some of the work that used to be complex or tedious has become easier, but the need for people to assess outcomes remains essential.

Links

• PostgreSQL
• Perplexity
• Copilot for SQL Server Management Studio
• dbverse
• GitHub Copilot in VS Code

Recorded September 29, 2025

How do you become a cybersecurity expert? While at Cybersecurity Intersection in Orlando, Richard chatted with Paula Januszkiewicz about her career in cybersecurity. Paula talks about insatiable curiosity to understand how things work the way they do - why an exploit happens and following the twists and turns that lead to root cause and permanent solutions. The conversation delves into the balance between education and experience, the types of work available in cybersecurity, and pursuing your passion!

Links

• Cybersecurity Architect Expert
• Microsoft Entra
• Microsoft Sentinel
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• Kusto Query Language

Recorded October 5, 2025

It's time to retire NTLM - but how? Richard chats with Steve Syfuhs about the need and challenge of retiring an ubiquitous authentication protocol first used in the 1990s. While guidance to move away from NTLM has been available since 2010, it has only become feasible in the past couple of years, and Microsoft is now providing tooling to make the transition easier. Steve discusses enabling auditing of NTLM usage - recent improvements will allow you to view which services rely on NTLM. Sometimes, a configuration change can resolve the problem, and now there is Microsoft Negotiate to help as an intermediary in determining which protocol to use. Retiring NTLM won't happen overnight, but it will happen, and you can start preparing for it today. And if you need help or advice, email [email protected]!

Links

• NTLM Blocking and You
• Deprecating NTLM is Easy and Other Lies
• Microsoft Negotiate
• Remote Desktop Gateway Role
• Kerberos on Windows Server
• The Evolution of Windows Authentication

Recorded September 25, 2025

How do you manage for failure? While at KCDC, Richard chatted with Amy Norris about building a culture that supports dealing with failure in a healthy way. Amy focuses on clear communication - about expectations, positive feedback, negative feedback, and more! The challenge is creating a safe place for people to ask questions and talk clearly about what they see happening in the environment. We can only get better when we can see the problems folks are having - it takes time, patience, and lots of communication to make that happen!

Links

• Atlas 9

Recorded August 14, 2025

How do you know if one of your accounts has been part of a security breach? Richard chats with Troy Hunt about HaveIBeenPwned, a free service that allows individuals to receive notifications when their accounts appear in a security breach. Troy discusses other services available alongside HaveIBeenPwned for sysadmins, including password checking, identifying accounts associated with a specific domain, and more. When considering the cost of managing a customer with an exploited account, being able to prevent or mitigate potential risk is highly valuable.

Links

• HaveIBeenPwned
• Park Mobile Settlement
• Snowflake Data Breach

Recorded September 25, 2025

You're down - is it your servers, or someone else's? While at the Kansas City Developers Conference, Richard sits down with Mandi Walls from Pager Duty about her experiences dealing with incidents involving vendor services. It might be your cloud provider, or some other SaaS element of a pipeline, or even an open-source library dependency in an important internal application that can cause a problem. What are the next steps? Mandi talks about having a software and services bill of materials so that you know what dependencies you have, where to check their status, and how to get help when you need it. Our systems are more complicated than ever - you need a plan to deal with the incidents!

Links

• Azure Status
• SBOM Tool
• Vendor Incidents with Jeff Martins

Recorded August 14, 2025

The days of the one-year SSL certificate are coming to an end - are you ready? Richard chats with Todd Gardner about the upcoming requirement from the Certification Authority Browser Forum to limit SSL certs to 200 days starting March 2026 - and they keep getting shorter until by 2029, certificates will last no longer than 47 days! If you haven't already automated certificate renewal, it's time to start moving in that direction. Todd talks about CertKit as a new approach to automating certificate renewal across various services, making it much easier. Still in the experimental phase, you can be part of the process and make your certificate life easier now!

Links

• Let's Encrypt
• ACME Client Implementations
• The Great SSL Certificate Panic
• Certification Authority Browser Forum
• ZeroSSL
• trackjs
• CertKit

Recorded August 19, 2025

How do you get your organization trained up to use AI tools? Richard talks to Stephanie Donahue about her work implementing AI tools at Avanade and with Avanade's customers. Stephanie discusses how many workers are bringing their own AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to work and the risks that represent to the organization. Having an approved set of tools helps people work in the right direction, but they will still need some education. The challenge lies in the rapidly shifting landscape and the lack of certifications. However, you'll have some individuals eager to utilize these tools, often on the younger side, and they can help build your practice. The opportunities are tremendous!

Links

• ChatGPT Enterprise
• Learning M365 Copilot
• Secure and Govern Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Microsoft Purview
• Responsible AI at Microsoft
• Microsoft Viva Engage

Recorded July 18, 2025

Episode 1000! Richard Campbell invites Paul Thurrott to join him to celebrate the milestone episode and answer questions from listeners. From the creation of the podcast to the role of Windows in the modern world, the impact of ARM, Cloud, and many other technologies - all addressed in this super-sized episode. And yes, artificial intelligence is part of the conversation—and will be part of the workflows that sysadmins utilize on a day-to-day basis. Thanks to all the folks who sent in questions for this special show - and thanks for listening!

Links

• Does Windows Still Matter
• Windows Server 2025
• ARM in Azure
• Azure FastTrack
• Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
• Microsoft Viva

Recorded August 31, 2025

What are common mistakes folks are making with their Azure tenant(s)? While at the Kansas City Developers Conference, Richard chatted with Scott Sauber to run down his top ten list of issues he checks on for all his customers using Azure. From tenant ownership to naming conventions, policies, identities, and cost controls - there are a lot of things you can do to make your Azure experience more reliable, cost-effective, and efficient. Check out the links for more details on each of the potential issues!

Links

• Azure Service Groups
• Azure Naming Conventions
• Azure Naming Tool
• Azure Tagging Strategy
• Azure Policy
• Managed Identities
• DefaultAzureCredential
• TLS in Azure App Service
• SSL Labs
• Federated Identity Credentials
• Budgets and Cost Alerts
• Azure Reservations
• Azure Savings Plan

Recorded August 14, 2025