Sending SMS Through PowerShell with Telstra’s New New API

8th of April, 2019 / / No Comments

Introduction

Back in the before time, I wrote a blog post entitled “Sending SMS Through PowerShell with Telstra’s New API”. Using some PowerShell scripts I provided back then, you could have a little play with using Telstra’s SMS gateways to amuse and annoy your pals (and I imagine apply some valid business use cases in there somewhere too). Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and I received an email from somebody who had read that blog post and reached out to me to say “Hey Dan, your scripts don’t work.”… [Keep reading] “Sending SMS Through PowerShell with Telstra’s New New API”

Plugging the Gaps in Azure Policy – Part Two

18th of March, 2019 / / No Comments

Introduction

Welcome to the second and final part of my blogs on how to plug some gaps in Azure Policy. If you missed part one, this second part isn’t going to be a lot of use without the context from that, so maybe head on back and read part one before you continue.

In part one, I gave an overview of Azure Policy, a basic idea of how it works, what the gap in the product is in terms of resource evaluation, and a high-level view of how we plug that gap.… [Keep reading] “Plugging the Gaps in Azure Policy – Part Two”

Plugging the Gaps in Azure Policy – Part One

14th of March, 2019 / / 2 Comments

Introduction

Welcome to the first part of a two part blog on Azure Policy. Multi-part blogs are not my usual style, but the nature of blogging whilst also being a full time Consultant is that you slip some words in when you find time, and I was starting to feel if I wrote this in a single part, it would just never see the light of day. Part one of this blog deals with the high-level overview of what the problem is, and how we solved it at a high level, part two will include the icky sticky granular detail, including some scripts which you can shamelessly plagiarise.… [Keep reading] “Plugging the Gaps in Azure Policy – Part One”

Understanding Password Sync and Write-back

15th of May, 2017 / / 5 Comments

For anyone who has worked with Office 365/Azure AD and AADConnect, you will of course be aware that we can now sync passwords two ways from Azure AD to our on-premises AD. This is obviously a very handy thing to do for myriad reasons, and an obvious suggestion for a business intending to utilise Office 365. The conversation with the security bod however, might be a different kettle of fish. In this post, I aim to explain how the password sync and write-back features work, and hopefully arm you with enough information to have that chat with the security guys.… [Keep reading] “Understanding Password Sync and Write-back”

Applying Business Rules to Profile Photos Using Microsoft Cognitive Services

7th of September, 2016 / / No Comments

A customer I am working with at the moment is in the (very) early stages of discussion around the gathering and application of profile photos across their internal systems. In this particular case, we are considering that the photos themselves do not exist. Sure, there are ID card photos of startled staff taken on day one of their employment, but people being people, they would rather not be forever digitally represented by their former selves – particularly not the version of themselves which had an ID photo taken in a poorly lit un-used meeting room 7 years ago before they got that gym membership.… [Keep reading] “Applying Business Rules to Profile Photos Using Microsoft Cognitive Services”

Managing SPO User Profiles with FIM/MIM and the Microsoft PowerShell Connector

23rd of June, 2016 / / 5 Comments

Back in March, my colleague Darren Robinson published this post which nicely explains how to use Søren Granfeldt’s FIM/MIM PowerShell MA to manage SharePoint Online profiles. While Darren’s post covers everything you need to connect to SPO and manage user profiles via FIM/MIM, some of your clients may prefer to use the Microsoft equivalent for reasons of perceived support and product quality. This post will cover off what is required to get the Connector up and running.… [Keep reading] “Managing SPO User Profiles with FIM/MIM and the Microsoft PowerShell Connector”

Sending SMS Through PowerShell with Telstra’s New API

12th of February, 2015 / / 5 Comments

The code detailed in this post won’t work anymore. If you’re looking for updated PowerShell to use with Telstra’s APIs, please check out this updated post. 

Recently, Telstra released their first public API, which in true telco fashion leverages an existing product in their stable; SMS. The service allows anyone with a Telstra t.dev account (get one here) to get an API key which will allow you to send up to 100 messages per day, 1000 per month to Australian mobiles.… [Keep reading] “Sending SMS Through PowerShell with Telstra’s New API”

The FIM User Experience

27th of March, 2014 / / No Comments

A recent post by my colleague Jamie Skella “What UX Isn’t” started me thinking about how UX applies to FIM. Throughout my career as an Identity Management Consultant, I’ve seen projects reach a point in maturity where stakeholders are walked through the tasks an admin or user will perform in the portal, and the average eyebrow height in the room rises exponentially.

Those of us working with Microsoft’s identity products for a while, are used to seeing the glitz and glamour of the Sync Engine console, previously the only interface available with the product, so when the FIM Portal was introduced with FIM 2010, it gave a “user friendly” interface to work with.… [Keep reading] “The FIM User Experience”

Controlling UI Elements with Sets in FIM 2010

12th of October, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Out of the box, FIM 2010’s methodology for handling which UI elements are visible on the FIM homepage are limited to “are you an administrator” or “are you not”. This is governed by the Usage Keyword “BasicUI”. This guide will demonstrate how you can create additional Usage Keywords tied to sets which will allow for granular control over which navigation bar and homepage elements are visible to a user.

Before we get in to how to create a Usage Keyword, let’s understand what it actually is.… [Keep reading] “Controlling UI Elements with Sets in FIM 2010”