Sunday, September 29, 2024

Book review: beyond diversification - what every investor needs to know about asset allocation

I recently finished reading Beyond diversification from Sebastien Page.  Sebastien Page (Chief Investment Officer at T. Rowe Price) explains in Beyond diversification the different approaches to forecasting returns, risks and correlations across asset classes by combining academic research and practical hands-on examples. 

This book is most likely targeted at the sophisticated investor  and should not be the first book to pick up if you want to understand diversification but it provides great insights on how asset managers think about their portfolios. 

The book also extensively refers to a number of academic papers that Sebastien Page has written on asset allocation, risk measurement and return forecasting. It explores a number of dynamic asset allocation strategies, acknowledging that risk is time-varying and requires adaptive approaches. Sebastien Page also explains why the typical fixed weight asset allocation (60-40 portfolio) does not deliver a constant risk exposure.





Saturday, September 28, 2024

Dynamics 365 and Power Platform monthly reading list September 2024

 2024 Release Wave 2

Release plans for 2024 release wave 2 are now publicly available - Release plans for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Cloud for Industry - Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn - from July 29th, early access will be available for activation - other key dates for 2024 release wave 2 are also available . Also check out the videos like Dynamics 365 Service 2024 Release Wave 2 or Dynamics 365 and Power Platform 2024 Release Wave 2 - these might also contain features/functionality which are not listed in the release plans.

Copilots, AI and machine learning

Technical topics (Configuration, customization and extensibility)
Topics for Dynamics 365 Business Applications Platform consultants, project managers and power users

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Quick tip: Get-AzSubscription and Azure Cloud Shell

The Get-AzSubscription PowerShell cmdlet gets the subscription ID, subscription name and home tenant for subscriptions that the current account can access. You can also pass this values in as a parameter e.g. "Get-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId" to find the name of a subscription. 

The easiest way to execute this cmdlet (without having to install anything on your machine) is by using Azure Cloud Shell.  A handy feature of Azure Cloud Shell is predictive intellisense - use the RightArrow key to accept an inline suggestion.



Book tips: Gently easing into Agile and DevOps with the Phoenix project and the Unicorn project

If you are not familiar with Agile or DevOps, I highly recommend the books below:

If you have worked in consultancy or software development, you will have surely have a number of "aha moments" which will bring a smile to your face ...

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Power Platform Managed Identity support for Dataverse Plugins (preview)

This is a long overdue feature which allows Dataverse plug-ins to connect to Azure resources (e.g. Azure Key Vault) using managed identities, eliminating the need for credential management and enhancing security.   It currently is available in public preview but GA is expected for November 2024

You will need to create a managed identity record in Dataverse and link it ot your specific plugin assembly - for more details take a look at Set up managed identity for Power Platform (Preview) and Power Platform managed identity overview (Preview) for more details.

In your plugin, you will need to the implement the IManagedIdentityService interface which allows your plugins to interact with managed identities. Using this interface, your plugin can request an access token for a specific Azure resource. I asked Copilot to generate the code for this below but did not check it yet ...



References: