Robert Borges

About Robert... I have been in the IT industry since 1993 focusing mainly in networking. Though I got an early start as an amateur computer enthusiast, and wrote my first database app at age 12, I started my professional career working in the MIS department of one of the largest liquor distributors in the northeast. I started out there as a systems operator on the company’s two mainframe systems. From there I moved into PC support, and help design and implement the company’s first client-server network… This was back in the days of Win NT 3.51. I also worked on my first migration to NT 4.0 back then. From there I went on to work with Novell 3.x and 4.x along with Windows domains and active directory environments. Working my way up from technician, to specialist, to administrator, and eventually all the way up to Sr. Engineer. I spent many years working for consulting firms, 9 of which I owned and operated my own firm. Over the years, I have worked with (at an expert level) various versions of: Windows client and server operating systems (including Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016); various virtualization technologies (Hyper-V, VMware, etc.); MS-SQL server 6.5- 2014 R2; Exchange 4-2016, and much more. I am now vCIO at Spade Technology, Inc. focusing on Information Technology strategy including: cloud computing, IT Infrastructure & Architecture, IT Security, and Cloud Computing platforms & technologies (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS). Outside of my day job, I serve as president of the board of Boston User Groups, Inc., as well as IT-Pro User Group. In 2017/2018 Microsoft awarded me the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Award, with a focus of Microsoft Azure cloud, for my efforts in the IT community. I am in a constant state of learning about new products, and new versions of products. Many of which we end up implementing in lab environments and sometimes for our clients. I have a very broad range of expertise and experience. It is my goal to share some of this experience on this blog to help enrich the IT community.

Most commented posts

  1. Importing & Exporting Hyper-V VMs in Windows Server 2012 R2 — 11 comments
  2. Windows Server 2012 Feature: Share Nothing Live Migration in Hyper-V — 6 comments
  3. A Real IP Phone System "On The Cheap" — 5 comments
  4. Using SYSPREP Before Creating a System Image — 4 comments
  5. What printers work best with a Windows Remote Desktop Server? — 4 comments

Author's posts

Bring Your Own Device: Making BYOD Work in Your Company

Back in 2012, I wrote a post Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Is BYOD Bad for Your Company? based on the commonly available technology at the time.  Now that nearly 6 years have passed, I’d say it is time for an update. 

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is the allowance of employee-owned equipment onto company systems.  Typically, this involves employees using consumer computing devices (such as iPads or Surface tablets) to get work done, either in the office, at home, or on the road. Many of these devices are not designed to “get work done,” but instead to consume content (e.g., checking email, reading news, social media, etc.). These devices are not managed and may lack even the most basic security features enabled. Here is the problem: If your BYOD strategy is not planned correctly, this can spell disaster for any corporate network.  How is your company protecting its data on devices out of its control?  What happens when an employee leaves the company or a device is accidentally left behind at a coffee shop?

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2019/01/it-security/bring-your-own-device-making-byod-work-in-your-company/

Save Money with Azure VMs by Using Azure Hybrid Use Benefit

Traditionally Windows VMs (virtual machines) in Azure would include a Windows Server Datacenter license.  The cost of this license was built into the hourly/monthly fee for that VM.  This made systems easy to roll out using the GUI wizards and made licensing a cinch.  If you are moving existing virtual machine workloads to the cloud, this can be expensive since you paying again for licenses you’ve already purchased.

According to their new announcement, Microsoft says “now you can move your existing Windows Server licenses to Azure when you extend your datacenter to the cloud. With the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit, you can use on-premises Windows Server licenses that include Software Assurance to run Windows Server virtual machines in Azure at the base compute rate.” Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2017/06/windows/save-money-with-azure-vms-by-using-azure-hybrid-use-benefit/

PowerShell in Action – June 2nd @ Microsoft Burlington, MA

PowerShell in Action

PowerShell in Action – June 2, 2017 – Microsoft Burlington

Join us for a day of PowerShell.  Just as it is a tool for you to do amazing things, we are going to use it as a tool to explore amazing technologies.  If you are looking to learn PowerShell, we have an entire track dedicated for you.  If you already know the basics, go deep and learn more in our full professional track.  There will be sessions on Azure, Containers, Nano Server, and hands-on lab sessions where you will be able to put the practices you learn to use on your own equipment.  Don’t forget to Bring a laptop and power supply.  Also, for security to get in the building, you will need to present an official ID.

Whether you are on the Dev or the Ops side, there is plenty here to learn.

Purpose: Introduce and Dive Deep into PowerShell leveraging the latest and greatest technologies such as Windows Server 2016, Office 365, Nano Server, Containers, DevOps, Azure Cloud

Target Audience: Those that work in the IT sector.

  1. Professional System Administrators, security professionals, virtualization professionals, or others that are part of the “Operations” side of the business.
  2. Developers (generally enterprise, but all are welcome) who want to learn how they can make their life better by learning PowerShell, Containers, DevOps and other technologies
  3. Those that what to learn introduction or deep dive on the technologies covered in this event.
  4. Early career IT or Dev

Audience Expectations: Learn about PowerShell and how to leverage PowerShell for managing,  automating other technologies that are growing rapidly.  Most of the content presented will have some element or lessons in PowerShell. Take home the lab guide, a USB drive with all content and scripts.

 

Platinum Sponsor: Microsoft 

Microsoft

 

Keynote Presentation by: Tim Mangan

A Walk-through of a real-world example of PowerShell to automate VM Management and application packaging

Tim ManganThe Windows ADK for the 1703 release includes PowerShell based scripts for automation in a Hyper-V environment. Although intended for App-V packaging, these scripts make a great example for general automation of VMs including the following:

  • OS Image creation
  • Unattended VM creation and OS installation
  • Creating a local account in the VM and enabling remote management
  • Setting VM Parameters (ex: memory, CPU, NIC, AutoStart)
  • Creating a checkpoint
  • Reverting and starting the VM
  • Copying files into the VM and injecting commands

Event Information

We will focus on Automating via PowerShell but also cover DevOps practices, Containers, Windows Server 2016 Nano and how Azure helps deliver and leverage all of these technologies. There will be a fee to cover expenses (USB drives, Drawing prizes, Snacks, Drinks, Lab Guides, etc.) (equivalent to other all day classes for $1200).  Wow, we landed a great partner and sponsor, Microsoft!  As a result, we are now able to offer a new reduced Price,  $25.00!!!! (was $50).  Still looking for other sponsors too 🙂

All Attendees Will Get

  • A full day of training on PowerShell and many other great and new technologies
  • USB Thumbdrive with all content scripts, slides, additional resources, etc.
  • Printed and bound Lab Guide so you can do more labs on your own
  • Door prizes and the opportunity to win great drawing prizes

Overall breakdown of the day…

  • Introductions
  • Keynote: Tim Mangan
  • Breakouts (two tracks): Professional | Getting Started
  • Lunch & Hands-On Labs (Thanks to Microsoft)
  • Hands-On Labs
  • Raffle Drawing Prizes

All-Star Speaker Lineup …

  • Tim Mangan
  • Gene Laisne
  • Robert Borges
  • Dan Stolts
  • Lee Benjamin
  • Warren Frame
  • Bill Wilder
  • Jason Haley
  • Jeffery Hicks
  • More…

Topics and Technologies…

  • PowerShell
  • Containers
  • Hyper-V
  • Nano Server
  • PowerShell on Linux
  • Azure
  • Docker
  • DevOps
  • Office365

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2017/05/learning-resources/powershell-in-action-june-2nd-microsoft-burlington-ma/

Windows 10 Features: Wi-Fi Sense

One of the more controversial features of Windows 10 is Wi-Fi Sense. Though it has been on Windows Phone for some time, this is a new feature of Windows 10. Wi-Fi Sense allows you to share access to a wireless network with your friends on social media sites like Facebook. Wi-Fi Sense also allows you to connect to wireless networks shared by your social media friends. Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2017/04/windows/windows-10-wifi-sense/

Thank you Microsoft for the MVP Award!

mvp_logo_preferred_cyan300_rgb_72ppiI am extremely excited to announce this week I got the word that I have been awarded this year’s Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award for Microsoft Azure.

I am very thankful to Microsoft and to everyone who helped make this possible.  I feel so very lucky to be amongst the very few selected for this award each year.   Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2017/01/events/thank-you-microsoft-for-the-mvp-award/

Public Preview: Azure Active Directory Connect pass-through authentication

Imagine if you could set up single sign-on for your online services with just the check of a box, and allow all of your users to authenticate to services such as Office 365 automatically.  Imagine you could do this without the complexity of ADFS and the many hours of planning and implementation that go along with it.

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced the public preview of Azure Active Directory Connect pass-through authentication.  This new method of authentication allows for a single sign-on (SSO) experience without the need for Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS). Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/12/cloud-computing/public-preview-azure-active-directory-connect-pass-through-authentication/

Backing Up Azure ARM VMs with Backup and Site Recovery

Cloud-AzureIn my previous post titled Backing Up Azure ARM VMs with new Azure Recovery Services, I discussed a new feature set which was in Preview (A.K.A. beta). Before the Preview of Azure Recovery Service, we could backup “Classic” Azure VMs (virtual machines) by using Azure Backup, but not VMs created with the newer Azure Resource Monitor (ARM). Azure Recovery Service was not feature-complete, but it was the first time we could backup Azure VMs built using the new Azure Resource Monitor (ARM).

The public preview of Azure Recovery Service was a success, and now we have a final version with a new name: Backup and Site Recovery Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/12/cloud-computing/backing-up-azure-arm-vms-with-backup-and-site-recovery/

Improved SLA for Azure Virtual Machines

Up until now, Microsoft has guaranteed a 99.5% uptime SLA for IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) virtual machines. While this level of uptime is very good, it is not enough for critical applications which require 24×7 access. Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/11/cloud-computing/improved-sla-for-azure-virtual-machines/

Microsoft Retires Azure RemoteApp

Today, in an announcement by Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Team, Azure RemoteApp is being retired.  Microsoft Azure RemoteApp is an application virtualization platform in the cloud.  Using Remote Desktop technology, applications can be presented to users without the need of installing anything on the user’s computer.  In addition to ease of management, it allows users to access applications securely on just about any device with internet access.  Azure RemoteApp was launched less than two years ago. Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/08/cloud-computing/microsoft-retires-azure-remoteapp/

Backing Up Azure ARM VMs with new Azure Recovery Services

With classic VMs (virtual machines) hosted in Azure’s IaaS, backup can easily be done with Azure Backup. With the new generation of Azure VMs using ARM (Azure Resource Manager), there was a problem. Azure Backup could only see classic VMs and not the new generation. Well, this was a problem until this week when Microsoft announced a new service in preview to solve this problem.

Azure Recovery Service allows backing up VMs from both Azure or your on-premise environment. It also has replication functionality for high availability.

How to Create an Azure Recovery Services Vault:

  1. Logged into the Azure Preview Portal, select New and search for Recovery Service. Click on Recovery Services, then click on the Create button.
  2. Enter a unique name, then choose a desired subscription, resource group, and location, then click on the Create button. Checking the box to pin to dashboard makes it simple to find your newly created Recovery Services Vault. The vault should be created quickly (usually within a minute).
  3. Now you can add VMs to a backup job by clicking on the Backup icon on the detail page of the newly created Recovery Service vault.
  4. Select Azure virtual machine backup for the scenario. Select an existing Backup Policy or create a new one. Then select which VMs you’d like backed up. When done, click on the OK button.

What doesn’t it cover?

Well like most of Azure, this new service will evolve over time. As of writing this post, Azure Recovery Services is unable to backup VMs using premium storage. So if you’re using SSD drives in your Azure hosted VM, then you’re out of luck… for now.

For more details see Mark Galioto’s post titled Back up ARM VMs to a Recovery Services vault.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/04/uncategorized/backing-up-azure-arm-vms-with-new-azure-recovery-services/

Azure Site-to-Site VPN

Microsoft Azure gateway objects give the ability to configure site-to-site or device-to-site VPN (virtual private network) connections. With a site-to-site VPN, your physical network will be connected to your Azure hosted virtual network. This is an easy way to create a hybrid cloud environment, where some of your servers are on your local network, and some hosted as Azure Virtual Machines. Setting up a site-to-site network will allow these servers to communicate with each other, and allow client workstations to communicate with the Azure hosted Virtual Machines as if they were locally on your LAN. Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/03/cloud-computing/azure-site-to-site-vpn/

Running WordPress with Azure SQL using Project Nami

Typically WordPress uses MySQL as the database back-end.  The guys over at Project Nami found a way to easily utilize Azure SQL instead.  This video will walk you through the deployment process.  The wizard creates the Azure SQL database, installs the WordPress website, and configures the firewall security rules for you.  Take a look and see how easy it is.

http://projectnami.org/
https://github.com/ProjectNami/projectnami

Azure Blog: Project Nami: WordPress for Azure SQL Database/SQL Server

[01:14] – What Project Nami is about
[11:43] – Deploying Project Nami
[18:41] – Migrating to Project Nami
[23:43] – Deeper into Project Nami
[29:50] – Updating Project Nami
[32:36] – Where is Project Nami in the wild

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/03/cloud-computing/running-wordpress-with-azure-sql-using-project-nami/

Introducing the Microsoft Azure Preview Portal

Microsoft has introduced the new Azure Preview Portal to create and manage your Microsoft Azure environment. This new portal is not only easier to use, but provides more detailed information and lots of new functionality.

While there are still a few items which cannot yet be managed using the new portal (such as Azure Backup), most can. There is even a new generation of many object types giving additional levels of security and usability. Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/03/cloud-computing/introducing-the-microsoft-azure-preview-portal/

SQL Database Geo Replication in Azure Portal

Designing your application for business continuity requires you to answer the following questions:

  1. Which business continuity feature is appropriate for protecting my application from outages?
  2. What level of redundancy and replication topology do I use?

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/02/cloud-computing/sql-database-geo-replication-in-azure-portal/

OneDrive for Business is now 5 TB

If you’re an Office 365 Enterprise customer, there is news from Microsoft.  OneDrive for Business storage will be increased from 1 TB to 5 TB allocated storage per user.  This is some good news in the wake of Microsoft announcing it was not going to honor its claim of unlimited storage for OneDrive (personal not business).  Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.robertborges.us/2016/01/cloud-computing/onedrive-for-business-is-now-5-tb/