1 00:00:03,359 --> 00:00:05,519 Welcome to episode 408 2 00:00:05,519 --> 00:00:08,639 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro podcast recorded 3 00:00:08,639 --> 00:00:11,380 live on 07/25/2025. 4 00:00:11,439 --> 00:00:13,759 This is a show about Microsoft three sixty 5 00:00:13,759 --> 00:00:16,005 five and Azure from the perspective of IT 6 00:00:16,005 --> 00:00:18,164 pros and end users, where we discuss a 7 00:00:18,164 --> 00:00:20,484 topic or recent news and how it relates 8 00:00:20,484 --> 00:00:22,885 to you. In this episode, we'll move on 9 00:00:22,885 --> 00:00:24,885 to topics around where you can go to 10 00:00:24,885 --> 00:00:26,185 find various MCPs, 11 00:00:26,644 --> 00:00:29,219 what some of our favorite MCPs are, and 12 00:00:29,219 --> 00:00:31,619 how we've used these MCPs and tied them 13 00:00:31,619 --> 00:00:34,259 into various LLMs to help us get our 14 00:00:34,259 --> 00:00:35,159 work done. 15 00:00:37,460 --> 00:00:39,159 We are back. Part two 16 00:00:39,699 --> 00:00:40,439 of MCPs 17 00:00:41,375 --> 00:00:42,755 and the glorious 18 00:00:43,454 --> 00:00:43,954 functionality. 19 00:00:44,575 --> 00:00:46,414 It's just beautiful. Can I turn this into 20 00:00:46,414 --> 00:00:48,094 an Apple event and talk about how beautiful 21 00:00:48,094 --> 00:00:50,414 it is and magical and either that or 22 00:00:50,414 --> 00:00:52,674 Disney? Beautiful, magical, glorious. 23 00:00:53,135 --> 00:00:54,435 One big beautiful MCP? 24 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:56,640 Sorry. I had to go there. Yes. You 25 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,120 just had to. Can I ask it? Scott, 26 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:01,940 no politics. We avoid politics on the podcast. 27 00:01:02,079 --> 00:01:04,400 Politics aside, if people are into comedy, the 28 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:07,299 latest episode of South Park is absolutely glorious. 29 00:01:07,834 --> 00:01:10,635 Absolutely, like, pure One big beautiful South Park 30 00:01:10,635 --> 00:01:11,694 episode? Absolutely. 31 00:01:11,995 --> 00:01:14,075 Plex friend that you are. You know where 32 00:01:14,075 --> 00:01:15,834 to find such things if you want them. 33 00:01:15,834 --> 00:01:18,155 Alright. We're not appropriate for kids, but if 34 00:01:18,155 --> 00:01:19,854 you're in a mood and a vibe, oh. 35 00:01:20,234 --> 00:01:22,150 Speaking of TV shows, have you ever gone 36 00:01:22,150 --> 00:01:24,150 back and watched some of the old Silicon 37 00:01:24,150 --> 00:01:26,950 Valley episodes now that AI is becoming more 38 00:01:26,950 --> 00:01:28,709 mainstream and how much funnier some of them 39 00:01:28,709 --> 00:01:30,870 are? I just started revisiting that a couple 40 00:01:30,870 --> 00:01:33,270 months ago, so it's been good to go 41 00:01:33,270 --> 00:01:33,770 through. 42 00:01:34,310 --> 00:01:36,870 Yes. The Guilfoyle bot, like, the Guilfoyle bot 43 00:01:36,870 --> 00:01:39,004 is, like, actually could be a real thing 44 00:01:39,004 --> 00:01:39,504 now. 45 00:01:41,645 --> 00:01:44,045 Absolutely, it could. Alright. Should we build an 46 00:01:44,045 --> 00:01:46,125 m c we should build an MCP server 47 00:01:46,125 --> 00:01:46,625 for 48 00:01:46,924 --> 00:01:49,245 TV shows. Old if you could do that, 49 00:01:49,245 --> 00:01:51,119 like, build an MCP server as that ties 50 00:01:51,119 --> 00:01:53,219 into IMDB or something or 51 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:55,939 speaking of use cases for MCP servers. 52 00:01:56,239 --> 00:01:57,539 Speaking of? 53 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,359 Movie quotes, an MCP server for, like, pulling 54 00:02:01,359 --> 00:02:04,000 out good movie quotes. Write an entire story 55 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,765 or an entire book pulling movie quotes from 56 00:02:06,984 --> 00:02:08,664 so many different movies. Yeah. You could probably 57 00:02:08,664 --> 00:02:10,264 do it. Should we talk about more practical 58 00:02:10,264 --> 00:02:12,344 use cases for MCP servers or how you 59 00:02:12,344 --> 00:02:14,584 get started? Like, our last episode, we kinda 60 00:02:14,584 --> 00:02:17,705 talked about what MCP servers are, touched on 61 00:02:17,705 --> 00:02:20,044 different ways you can integrate them, 62 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:22,520 touched on some security stuff a little bit. 63 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:24,439 We thought now it'd be fun. I know 64 00:02:24,439 --> 00:02:26,759 you use MCP servers. I've been using some 65 00:02:26,759 --> 00:02:28,620 MCP servers here in 66 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:29,500 regular 67 00:02:29,879 --> 00:02:33,180 day to day life business use cases, and 68 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:35,180 we're starting to see more and more MCP 69 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:37,925 servers pop up from different companies as well, 70 00:02:37,925 --> 00:02:40,405 different services that allow you to start bringing 71 00:02:40,405 --> 00:02:42,344 that data in and bringing it together is 72 00:02:42,405 --> 00:02:45,205 kinda talking about what MCP servers maybe we 73 00:02:45,205 --> 00:02:47,364 use, how we've played with them, maybe even 74 00:02:47,364 --> 00:02:49,944 a little bit how you get them installed 75 00:02:50,405 --> 00:02:53,500 because different ones vary there and diving into 76 00:02:53,500 --> 00:02:54,639 more of the practical 77 00:02:55,180 --> 00:02:57,980 use of these MCP servers. Absolutely. So I 78 00:02:57,980 --> 00:02:59,439 think this conversation 79 00:02:59,740 --> 00:03:02,319 probably centers on our experimentation 80 00:03:02,860 --> 00:03:05,735 and kinda our experiences here. Like we closed 81 00:03:05,735 --> 00:03:07,814 last episode, I'd be very interested in hearing 82 00:03:07,814 --> 00:03:09,655 what others are doing, what they're finding interesting, 83 00:03:09,655 --> 00:03:12,055 and what they're finding helps, like, augment their 84 00:03:12,055 --> 00:03:14,375 workflows and kinda get going with some of 85 00:03:14,375 --> 00:03:17,610 this stuff because everything's moving very fast. There's 86 00:03:17,610 --> 00:03:18,669 new implementations. 87 00:03:18,969 --> 00:03:21,310 There's new updates, functionality changes 88 00:03:21,689 --> 00:03:23,610 from day to day kinda thing. So I'd 89 00:03:23,610 --> 00:03:26,510 be very keen to hear kinda others' experiences 90 00:03:26,810 --> 00:03:28,909 here and just what they've run into 91 00:03:29,805 --> 00:03:32,044 along the way. So I think step one, 92 00:03:32,044 --> 00:03:33,245 and you've kinda got it up on the 93 00:03:33,245 --> 00:03:34,384 screen here, is 94 00:03:35,164 --> 00:03:37,164 you hear about MCP and you're like, oh, 95 00:03:37,164 --> 00:03:39,004 this all sounds great. Like, how do I 96 00:03:39,004 --> 00:03:41,485 go and find out what servers are out 97 00:03:41,485 --> 00:03:44,540 there? Well, there's no, like, one stop shopping, 98 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:47,479 like, definitive catalog for these things, but there 99 00:03:47,479 --> 00:03:49,879 are a couple catalogs out there that can 100 00:03:49,879 --> 00:03:52,040 help you get going. So the first one 101 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:53,479 that you've got up on your screen, so 102 00:03:53,479 --> 00:03:55,020 this is from Anthropic. 103 00:03:55,319 --> 00:03:57,819 They kinda maintain a GitHub repo 104 00:03:58,360 --> 00:03:58,860 of 105 00:03:59,415 --> 00:04:02,854 active MCP servers. Funny enough, over time, these 106 00:04:02,854 --> 00:04:04,455 things haven't been around that long, and they're 107 00:04:04,455 --> 00:04:06,135 already hitting the point where they have an 108 00:04:06,135 --> 00:04:08,775 archived directory in there because some have come 109 00:04:08,775 --> 00:04:10,935 and gone already. But if you're looking for 110 00:04:10,935 --> 00:04:13,629 a specific thing, often, like, one of these 111 00:04:13,629 --> 00:04:14,129 directories 112 00:04:14,669 --> 00:04:17,069 is a good place to start. I think 113 00:04:17,069 --> 00:04:19,870 Anthropic's got a good one for that. I 114 00:04:19,870 --> 00:04:21,470 think the other one that's out there that 115 00:04:21,470 --> 00:04:23,089 might be interesting to folks, 116 00:04:23,389 --> 00:04:27,225 especially the more kinda security focused isolated ones, 117 00:04:27,545 --> 00:04:28,365 is Docker's 118 00:04:28,985 --> 00:04:29,485 MCP 119 00:04:29,944 --> 00:04:30,444 catalog. 120 00:04:30,824 --> 00:04:32,745 So Docker has an MCP catalog and they 121 00:04:32,745 --> 00:04:34,745 have an MCP toolkit. We'll kind of ignore 122 00:04:34,745 --> 00:04:37,145 the toolkit for now. But their catalog is 123 00:04:37,145 --> 00:04:39,884 really cool because it's integrated into the Docker 124 00:04:39,944 --> 00:04:41,084 desktop client. 125 00:04:41,464 --> 00:04:44,089 So now you get this whole world of 126 00:04:44,389 --> 00:04:44,889 containerization, 127 00:04:45,430 --> 00:04:47,830 super easy, like, one click install, like, if 128 00:04:47,830 --> 00:04:49,509 you're just, like, a gooey person kind of 129 00:04:49,509 --> 00:04:52,170 thing, but you also get the added benefit 130 00:04:52,389 --> 00:04:55,545 of container isolation for these things. So like 131 00:04:55,545 --> 00:04:57,064 we talked about in the last episode, you 132 00:04:57,064 --> 00:04:59,545 know, the these need to run either on 133 00:04:59,545 --> 00:05:01,725 a service as an HTTP endpoint 134 00:05:02,105 --> 00:05:03,625 or they need to run locally with an 135 00:05:03,625 --> 00:05:05,625 HTTP endpoint. If they're running locally with an 136 00:05:05,625 --> 00:05:08,105 HTTP endpoint, well, that means they're often running 137 00:05:08,105 --> 00:05:10,650 through, like, an NPM server, so you'll see, 138 00:05:10,650 --> 00:05:12,350 like, a lot of, like, the server definitions 139 00:05:12,410 --> 00:05:14,650 or, like, MPX and this thing kind of 140 00:05:14,650 --> 00:05:16,490 thing. So you're running all those web servers 141 00:05:16,490 --> 00:05:17,850 locally, so you do have to kind of 142 00:05:17,850 --> 00:05:19,770 make this call about, like, do I wanna 143 00:05:19,770 --> 00:05:21,370 do that in isolation in something of the 144 00:05:21,370 --> 00:05:23,210 form of a container, or do I want 145 00:05:23,210 --> 00:05:23,710 to 146 00:05:24,084 --> 00:05:26,564 just, like, go and start spinning these things 147 00:05:26,564 --> 00:05:28,104 up all over the place and have 148 00:05:28,805 --> 00:05:32,404 multiple npm instances running with multiple servers, things 149 00:05:32,404 --> 00:05:34,564 like that? That's a, like, you do you 150 00:05:34,564 --> 00:05:36,404 kinda thing, but I think it is a 151 00:05:36,404 --> 00:05:36,904 consideration. 152 00:05:37,365 --> 00:05:37,865 And 153 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:40,660 the Docker folks here, like, to their credit, 154 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:43,040 they've done an amazing job with just, like, 155 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:45,279 integrating this into the Docker desktop client, making 156 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:46,419 it super turnkey, 157 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:49,060 and providing some more of that, like, abstraction 158 00:05:49,439 --> 00:05:50,979 isolation that containers 159 00:05:51,595 --> 00:05:53,514 give you in that world. So if you're 160 00:05:53,514 --> 00:05:57,194 running a local server, specifically a local MCP 161 00:05:57,194 --> 00:05:59,514 server, I really encourage folks to probably look 162 00:05:59,514 --> 00:06:01,995 at the Docker catalog first. And then if 163 00:06:01,995 --> 00:06:04,394 your thing isn't in the Docker catalog or 164 00:06:04,394 --> 00:06:05,675 even if you found it in some other 165 00:06:05,675 --> 00:06:07,230 catalog, go see if it's in Docker. And 166 00:06:07,389 --> 00:06:08,270 then if you really have to and you 167 00:06:08,270 --> 00:06:09,970 really wanna get hands on with it, then 168 00:06:10,270 --> 00:06:11,790 do that in a way that's safe for 169 00:06:11,790 --> 00:06:13,069 you to do. Yeah. And there's a lot 170 00:06:13,069 --> 00:06:14,350 of them here. I don't know how many 171 00:06:14,350 --> 00:06:16,430 there are in Docker. I should someone should 172 00:06:16,430 --> 00:06:18,509 ask AI how many there are here. One, 173 00:06:18,509 --> 00:06:20,204 two, three, four, six pages with, 174 00:06:20,824 --> 00:06:22,504 like, one, two I think there's a couple 175 00:06:22,504 --> 00:06:24,425 100 in there today already. Yeah. And that 176 00:06:24,425 --> 00:06:26,824 list grows over time. Maybe one of the 177 00:06:26,824 --> 00:06:29,324 nice things about the Docker one too is 178 00:06:29,704 --> 00:06:31,625 it's not just like GitHub and a pull 179 00:06:31,625 --> 00:06:33,384 request away. So there's a little bit of 180 00:06:33,384 --> 00:06:36,439 a, hey. I want to submit my MCP 181 00:06:36,660 --> 00:06:39,079 server to your catalog kind of thing. 182 00:06:39,459 --> 00:06:40,819 I don't know, like, on the back end 183 00:06:40,819 --> 00:06:42,599 if that comes with any kind of agreements 184 00:06:42,659 --> 00:06:44,500 or anything of saying, like, hey. You'll maintain 185 00:06:44,500 --> 00:06:45,939 it or you'll let Docker know when it 186 00:06:45,939 --> 00:06:48,099 goes away, blah blah blah. But I imagine 187 00:06:48,099 --> 00:06:50,415 because all these spin up in in containers 188 00:06:50,415 --> 00:06:52,975 and things like that and isolated that you're 189 00:06:52,975 --> 00:06:57,375 kinda also using Docker Hub, and folks can 190 00:06:57,375 --> 00:06:58,995 go out and look at the Docker files 191 00:06:59,134 --> 00:07:00,574 and see what all these are doing. Yeah. 192 00:07:00,574 --> 00:07:02,735 Look at here's a LinkedIn MCP server, Scott. 193 00:07:02,735 --> 00:07:03,935 I might have to go try a new 194 00:07:03,935 --> 00:07:05,610 one. I've not played with this one yet. 195 00:07:05,610 --> 00:07:08,009 But a couple episodes ago, I talked about 196 00:07:08,009 --> 00:07:10,810 how I had used Researcher to go look 197 00:07:10,810 --> 00:07:12,810 up people that I may be meeting with 198 00:07:12,810 --> 00:07:14,490 or connecting with and have it looked at 199 00:07:14,490 --> 00:07:16,569 LinkedIn. It would be interesting to try some 200 00:07:16,569 --> 00:07:18,889 of that with this LinkedIn MCP server, see 201 00:07:18,889 --> 00:07:21,305 what kind of fun details I can pull 202 00:07:21,305 --> 00:07:24,605 out. So, yeah, these are, again, great resources 203 00:07:24,665 --> 00:07:27,064 when you're looking for MCP servers. You can 204 00:07:27,064 --> 00:07:28,904 also just go out and search for them. 205 00:07:28,904 --> 00:07:30,504 Like, when I started playing with them, there 206 00:07:30,504 --> 00:07:32,425 were some certain MCP servers. I was like, 207 00:07:32,425 --> 00:07:34,264 oh, are there some MCP servers for this 208 00:07:34,264 --> 00:07:38,129 and for ClickUp, for Microsoft Sentinel for some 209 00:07:38,129 --> 00:07:39,810 of those? So some of those, I just 210 00:07:39,810 --> 00:07:41,589 did a search for and found GitHub repos. 211 00:07:41,729 --> 00:07:43,329 Obviously, word of caution, if you're just going 212 00:07:43,329 --> 00:07:45,169 out to some random GitHub repo to grab 213 00:07:45,169 --> 00:07:47,970 an MCP server, proceed with caution. Like we 214 00:07:47,970 --> 00:07:49,349 mentioned in the last episode, 215 00:07:49,705 --> 00:07:53,064 MCP servers being the USB ports of AI, 216 00:07:53,064 --> 00:07:55,465 you don't necessarily wanna just plug in a 217 00:07:55,465 --> 00:07:58,685 random GitHub MCP server to your environment. 218 00:07:59,064 --> 00:08:01,545 But there are lots and lots of options 219 00:08:01,545 --> 00:08:03,410 out here. I would say the other thing 220 00:08:03,410 --> 00:08:05,569 I found before we get into some of 221 00:08:05,569 --> 00:08:07,250 those use cases when I was looking for 222 00:08:07,250 --> 00:08:08,709 MCP servers is 223 00:08:09,009 --> 00:08:11,970 I struggled a little bit where and this 224 00:08:11,970 --> 00:08:13,430 was ClickUp in particular. 225 00:08:13,810 --> 00:08:17,105 ClickUp has AI built into ClickUp, and they 226 00:08:17,105 --> 00:08:19,925 are building in support for MCP servers 227 00:08:20,305 --> 00:08:21,285 to be able to 228 00:08:21,745 --> 00:08:22,644 have ClickUp 229 00:08:23,024 --> 00:08:26,625 AI go connect to whatever MCP server. And 230 00:08:26,625 --> 00:08:28,144 I was like, no. I don't want ClickUp 231 00:08:28,144 --> 00:08:29,824 to connect to an MCP server. I want 232 00:08:29,824 --> 00:08:31,659 an MCP server to connect to ClickUp. 233 00:08:32,839 --> 00:08:35,659 And some of the search engine right. Like, 234 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:37,559 some of the search engines were having problems, 235 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:39,639 and I kept running into, here's how you 236 00:08:39,639 --> 00:08:42,039 add an MCP server into monday.com. Here's how 237 00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:43,879 you add an MCP server into ClickUp. Here's 238 00:08:43,879 --> 00:08:46,485 how you add an MCP server into Notion. 239 00:08:46,485 --> 00:08:48,485 Here's how you it's like, no. I want 240 00:08:48,485 --> 00:08:51,125 an MCP server for them to pull that 241 00:08:51,125 --> 00:08:53,065 data somewhere else. So, 242 00:08:53,445 --> 00:08:55,924 yeah, that's it's new. Everybody is trying to 243 00:08:55,924 --> 00:08:57,605 figure it out, and everybody wants you in 244 00:08:57,605 --> 00:08:58,585 their AI platform. 245 00:08:59,090 --> 00:09:00,290 So they're trying to get you to go 246 00:09:00,290 --> 00:09:01,889 use theirs. I had the same struggle with 247 00:09:01,889 --> 00:09:03,889 Notion going down that path the first time. 248 00:09:03,889 --> 00:09:05,649 So I was very interested in 249 00:09:06,370 --> 00:09:07,570 I I think I talked about the use 250 00:09:07,570 --> 00:09:09,570 case before. Like, I use, like, chat GPT 251 00:09:09,570 --> 00:09:11,330 and things like that or, like, Claude to 252 00:09:11,330 --> 00:09:12,149 create a recipe. 253 00:09:12,475 --> 00:09:13,995 And I was very interested in this, like, 254 00:09:13,995 --> 00:09:16,495 hey. Just pump it into my recipes database 255 00:09:16,794 --> 00:09:18,955 because I knew they had an MCP server 256 00:09:18,955 --> 00:09:20,955 that allowed for the ability to, like, create 257 00:09:20,955 --> 00:09:21,455 databases, 258 00:09:21,835 --> 00:09:24,235 update databases, all these things. And it took 259 00:09:24,235 --> 00:09:25,995 me a while to find the right path 260 00:09:25,995 --> 00:09:27,269 to get there. And then once you find 261 00:09:27,269 --> 00:09:28,709 the right path to get there, you also 262 00:09:28,709 --> 00:09:30,970 sometimes have to find, like, the right incantation 263 00:09:31,750 --> 00:09:33,829 of, hey, this is how I'm going to 264 00:09:33,829 --> 00:09:35,529 make it work kind of thing. 265 00:09:35,909 --> 00:09:38,309 So, like, for Notion, like, it's got an 266 00:09:38,309 --> 00:09:41,075 update database thing. Well, databases have columns, they 267 00:09:41,075 --> 00:09:43,075 have fields, they might have fixed data types, 268 00:09:43,075 --> 00:09:44,995 things like that. So just figuring out even, 269 00:09:44,995 --> 00:09:46,514 like, what's the raw input you need from 270 00:09:46,514 --> 00:09:48,195 the LLM to push the LLM to the 271 00:09:48,195 --> 00:09:50,695 next step of insert into my Notion database 272 00:09:50,915 --> 00:09:52,115 can be a little bit weird. But if 273 00:09:52,115 --> 00:09:53,809 you're a tinkerer, I think these things are, 274 00:09:53,809 --> 00:09:55,169 like, really fun. And then once you figure 275 00:09:55,169 --> 00:09:57,410 them out, like, boom, the light goes off, 276 00:09:57,410 --> 00:09:58,790 and you kinda get to 277 00:09:59,330 --> 00:10:01,250 the next step from there. I I think 278 00:10:01,250 --> 00:10:03,009 they are really fun kind of things. So 279 00:10:03,009 --> 00:10:04,950 there's tons of them on the consumer side. 280 00:10:05,105 --> 00:10:06,165 I've been using 281 00:10:06,865 --> 00:10:07,365 mostly 282 00:10:07,745 --> 00:10:09,665 Azure focused things in my day to day. 283 00:10:09,665 --> 00:10:11,524 Like, I spend a lot of time in 284 00:10:12,144 --> 00:10:15,445 Versus Code, either writing documentation for our platform, 285 00:10:15,745 --> 00:10:17,605 generating sample scripts, running 286 00:10:18,139 --> 00:10:20,460 running through and doing test cases and things 287 00:10:20,460 --> 00:10:23,259 for SDKs, clients, all that. So that's a 288 00:10:23,259 --> 00:10:25,419 place that I was already living. So having 289 00:10:25,419 --> 00:10:26,399 that as a client 290 00:10:26,860 --> 00:10:28,720 Versus code that is 291 00:10:29,340 --> 00:10:31,740 MCP capable and with the ability to integrate 292 00:10:31,740 --> 00:10:33,519 with MCP servers as client, 293 00:10:34,034 --> 00:10:36,434 access to all the chat models that are 294 00:10:36,434 --> 00:10:37,875 out there, things like that. And being that 295 00:10:37,875 --> 00:10:40,454 I work for Microsoft and, I mean, Azure, 296 00:10:40,674 --> 00:10:42,115 I found a couple that are helpful to 297 00:10:42,115 --> 00:10:43,475 me. So the two that I probably use 298 00:10:43,475 --> 00:10:47,714 the most are the Microsoft learn MCP server 299 00:10:47,714 --> 00:10:49,240 and then the Azure 300 00:10:49,779 --> 00:10:50,600 MCP server. And 301 00:10:52,179 --> 00:10:53,779 this is, I I think, two good ones 302 00:10:53,779 --> 00:10:55,860 to talk about because they also bring us 303 00:10:55,860 --> 00:10:57,000 back to that distinction 304 00:10:57,379 --> 00:10:57,879 of 305 00:10:58,419 --> 00:11:01,764 remote server versus local server and some of 306 00:11:01,764 --> 00:11:03,684 the things that go on with setting them 307 00:11:03,684 --> 00:11:05,205 up and kinda how they wire up and 308 00:11:05,205 --> 00:11:07,684 how they come together. So the Microsoft Learn 309 00:11:07,684 --> 00:11:09,464 MCP server is 310 00:11:09,845 --> 00:11:12,904 a remote server. So the folks at Microsoft 311 00:11:12,964 --> 00:11:16,004 Learn actually have an API endpoint that's available 312 00:11:16,004 --> 00:11:18,240 to you as a customer that you can 313 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:20,340 integrate with your MCP client, 314 00:11:20,879 --> 00:11:23,299 and you it's a very simple definition. 315 00:11:23,759 --> 00:11:25,600 They've made this super turnkey for, like, Versus 316 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:26,879 Code. Like, if you scroll down a little 317 00:11:26,879 --> 00:11:29,940 bit on this page, like, installing these things, 318 00:11:30,174 --> 00:11:31,535 or maybe it's on this page, maybe it's 319 00:11:31,535 --> 00:11:33,855 on another page for it. Yeah. Maybe get 320 00:11:33,855 --> 00:11:35,774 started or something like that. That's probably it. 321 00:11:35,774 --> 00:11:37,215 Yeah. So, like, right there, they've got configure 322 00:11:37,215 --> 00:11:39,134 Versus Code. It's literally like a button, and 323 00:11:39,134 --> 00:11:41,054 it just opens Versus Code for you automatically, 324 00:11:41,054 --> 00:11:42,539 and it wires it up along the way. 325 00:11:42,779 --> 00:11:43,519 Very similar 326 00:11:44,299 --> 00:11:47,019 to maybe installing extensions and things like that. 327 00:11:47,019 --> 00:11:48,379 Oh, I guess we should have mentioned that, 328 00:11:48,379 --> 00:11:51,259 like, Versus Code. Visual Studio Marketplace, they actually 329 00:11:51,259 --> 00:11:53,740 have an MCP catalog as well that's out 330 00:11:53,740 --> 00:11:56,240 there ready, raring to go, available, all that. 331 00:11:56,539 --> 00:11:59,154 Yeah. So so this is a remote one. 332 00:11:59,455 --> 00:12:01,934 You install it, and you're kinda ready to 333 00:12:01,934 --> 00:12:04,754 go. You do have to start MCP servers, 334 00:12:04,815 --> 00:12:06,735 particularly in Versus code. I found this to 335 00:12:06,735 --> 00:12:09,054 confuse me. Every time I close Versus code 336 00:12:09,054 --> 00:12:10,414 down and then reopen it, and I go 337 00:12:10,414 --> 00:12:11,554 back into my agent 338 00:12:11,899 --> 00:12:13,340 or my chat view, and I turn it 339 00:12:13,340 --> 00:12:15,259 to agent mode, and then it goes, oh, 340 00:12:15,259 --> 00:12:16,620 I don't know what to do because this 341 00:12:16,620 --> 00:12:18,700 thing isn't on. Darn it. I forgot. Maybe 342 00:12:18,700 --> 00:12:20,379 there's a button or something I just haven't 343 00:12:20,379 --> 00:12:22,940 found yet linked to Versus Code configuration to 344 00:12:22,940 --> 00:12:24,704 to do that. But, yeah, once once you 345 00:12:24,704 --> 00:12:25,825 got it up and running, then you just 346 00:12:25,825 --> 00:12:27,504 start chatting with it and ask it, like, 347 00:12:27,504 --> 00:12:29,105 hey. How do I create an Azure VM 348 00:12:29,105 --> 00:12:30,464 based on docs? And then just based on 349 00:12:30,464 --> 00:12:32,544 the context of having Azure and docs in 350 00:12:32,544 --> 00:12:35,024 the prompt, it knows to use that agent 351 00:12:35,024 --> 00:12:37,079 to reach out and do that. You can 352 00:12:37,079 --> 00:12:38,600 even ground it, like I talked a little 353 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:40,039 bit before, and I think we talked about 354 00:12:40,039 --> 00:12:42,039 this in the previous episode about grounding these 355 00:12:42,039 --> 00:12:43,019 things with instructions 356 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:45,559 and kind of base prompts to start. So 357 00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:47,159 in the case of Versus Code, you go 358 00:12:47,159 --> 00:12:49,419 in and basically you say, here's my instruction 359 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:51,975 file. And in your instruction file, you can 360 00:12:51,975 --> 00:12:53,815 tell your instruction file. And I think if 361 00:12:53,815 --> 00:12:55,174 you scroll down in here to the bottom 362 00:12:55,174 --> 00:12:56,695 of this page, it's actually got a section 363 00:12:56,695 --> 00:12:57,914 here for set instructions. 364 00:12:58,294 --> 00:12:59,034 Yeah. Perfect. 365 00:12:59,335 --> 00:13:00,695 So you can actually just tell it and 366 00:13:00,695 --> 00:13:02,774 ground it. Like, anytime I ask a question 367 00:13:02,774 --> 00:13:06,029 about a Microsoft product, use this MCP server. 368 00:13:06,110 --> 00:13:07,970 Like like, go out and use me to 369 00:13:08,190 --> 00:13:09,790 to get that information and pull it back. 370 00:13:09,790 --> 00:13:12,430 So that that's one that I use all 371 00:13:12,430 --> 00:13:14,350 the time. Like, it's just there, ready to 372 00:13:14,350 --> 00:13:16,029 go and available. And then the other one 373 00:13:16,029 --> 00:13:17,389 that I use a bunch, which is a 374 00:13:17,389 --> 00:13:18,290 local server, 375 00:13:18,670 --> 00:13:21,009 is the Azure MCP 376 00:13:21,389 --> 00:13:21,889 server. 377 00:13:22,404 --> 00:13:23,945 So this one is 378 00:13:24,565 --> 00:13:27,524 a single MCP server with a whole bunch 379 00:13:27,524 --> 00:13:29,684 of agents inside of it. So when you're 380 00:13:29,684 --> 00:13:32,485 chatting with the Microsoft Learn MCP server, it's 381 00:13:32,485 --> 00:13:34,565 really just one agent that's going across all 382 00:13:34,565 --> 00:13:36,730 the learn docs and figuring things out. The 383 00:13:36,730 --> 00:13:39,450 Azure MCP server has well, as of a 384 00:13:39,450 --> 00:13:41,370 couple days ago, it had, like, 72 or 385 00:13:41,370 --> 00:13:43,370 73 agents in it. They just collapsed it 386 00:13:43,370 --> 00:13:45,230 down to 28 because it was just, like, 387 00:13:45,370 --> 00:13:47,370 so a big list and gnarly to get 388 00:13:47,370 --> 00:13:49,904 a hold of. But this one offers you 389 00:13:49,904 --> 00:13:52,625 a bunch of domain specific functionality around Azure. 390 00:13:52,625 --> 00:13:55,264 So, like, list all my resource groups, list 391 00:13:55,264 --> 00:13:57,605 all my virtual machines, list my storage accounts. 392 00:13:57,825 --> 00:13:59,745 And then it has even more domain specific 393 00:13:59,745 --> 00:14:00,245 functionality 394 00:14:00,865 --> 00:14:03,605 given the resource that you are interacting with. 395 00:14:03,990 --> 00:14:06,389 So I work in Azure storage. That's the 396 00:14:06,389 --> 00:14:07,990 place I've been playing around the most. So 397 00:14:07,990 --> 00:14:10,309 that'll be, like, my example here. They have 398 00:14:10,309 --> 00:14:12,330 the ability to go in and say, like, 399 00:14:12,470 --> 00:14:14,309 list all the containers in my storage account. 400 00:14:14,309 --> 00:14:16,309 Give me the properties of my containers in 401 00:14:16,309 --> 00:14:18,455 my storage account. Things like that. And the 402 00:14:18,455 --> 00:14:19,975 docs for this one are pretty good. Like, 403 00:14:19,975 --> 00:14:21,415 if you click through like, you've got on 404 00:14:21,415 --> 00:14:22,774 the side there, like, if you go into, 405 00:14:22,774 --> 00:14:25,654 like, the Azure storage one or the resource 406 00:14:25,654 --> 00:14:27,894 group one, either one of those, it'll tell 407 00:14:27,894 --> 00:14:30,855 you, like, hey. Here's the types of domain 408 00:14:30,855 --> 00:14:32,235 specific knowledge that 409 00:14:32,639 --> 00:14:36,080 this MCP implementation and this particular agent can 410 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:37,300 offer back to you 411 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:38,740 as a customer. 412 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,840 There's a big distinction here between that whole 413 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:44,000 local and remote server thing and what it 414 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,304 goes to to get these things wired up 415 00:14:46,384 --> 00:14:48,384 and get them installed and get them all 416 00:14:48,384 --> 00:14:51,504 working. So, like, the learn one, super easy. 417 00:14:51,504 --> 00:14:53,585 Right? Because it's a remote MCP server. You're 418 00:14:53,585 --> 00:14:54,945 just pointing it at a resource and you 419 00:14:54,945 --> 00:14:57,504 go. This one's local. So you gotta run 420 00:14:57,504 --> 00:14:58,884 it. It requires 421 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:00,800 if you're running it locally on your desktop, 422 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:03,360 it requires Node. If you're, like, a Windows 423 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:04,879 customer and you're just doing Node for the 424 00:15:04,879 --> 00:15:06,160 first time and you just next, next, next 425 00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:07,379 to your way through the installation, 426 00:15:07,759 --> 00:15:09,860 Node does some weird stuff. Like, it'll install 427 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:12,420 Chocolatey and some other stuff along the way, 428 00:15:12,634 --> 00:15:14,875 but there's definitely like this dependency chain that 429 00:15:14,875 --> 00:15:16,894 isn't always clear until you start using it. 430 00:15:16,955 --> 00:15:19,115 Thankfully, like the agent walks you through it 431 00:15:19,115 --> 00:15:20,955 pretty clearly, so like once you get the 432 00:15:20,955 --> 00:15:22,955 server started and you go run your first 433 00:15:22,955 --> 00:15:25,059 thing, like, hey, list my resource groups, then 434 00:15:25,059 --> 00:15:27,299 it'll say, oh, I wanna list your resource 435 00:15:27,299 --> 00:15:29,059 groups with the Azure CLI. Do you have 436 00:15:29,059 --> 00:15:31,059 the Azure CLI installed? Is it in your 437 00:15:31,059 --> 00:15:32,980 path? Yes. I'll go run that. Oh, I 438 00:15:32,980 --> 00:15:35,059 see Azure CLI is not installed. Let's go 439 00:15:35,059 --> 00:15:36,659 install that kind of thing. So there can 440 00:15:36,659 --> 00:15:38,659 be a little bit more of, like, hurry 441 00:15:38,659 --> 00:15:39,480 up and wait, 442 00:15:39,794 --> 00:15:42,115 particularly when you're installing local servers that have 443 00:15:42,115 --> 00:15:42,615 dependencies 444 00:15:42,995 --> 00:15:45,335 on other tools or other tool chains 445 00:15:45,794 --> 00:15:47,235 that are out there along the way. But 446 00:15:47,235 --> 00:15:49,495 once you get it all going, super turnkey. 447 00:15:49,554 --> 00:15:51,554 Right? Super easy. You just kinda light it 448 00:15:51,554 --> 00:15:52,459 up and go. 449 00:15:56,120 --> 00:15:58,439 Yeah. Do you feel overwhelmed by trying to 450 00:15:58,439 --> 00:16:00,839 manage your Office three sixty five environment? Are 451 00:16:00,839 --> 00:16:03,799 you facing unexpected issues that disrupt your company's 452 00:16:03,799 --> 00:16:06,404 productivity? Intelligink is here to help. Much like 453 00:16:06,404 --> 00:16:08,085 you take your car to the mechanic that 454 00:16:08,085 --> 00:16:10,325 has specialized knowledge on how to best keep 455 00:16:10,325 --> 00:16:13,045 your car running, Intelligink helps you with your 456 00:16:13,045 --> 00:16:16,665 Microsoft cloud environment because that's their expertise. Intelligink 457 00:16:16,884 --> 00:16:18,644 keeps up with the latest updates in the 458 00:16:18,644 --> 00:16:21,019 Microsoft cloud to help keep your business running 459 00:16:21,019 --> 00:16:23,100 smoothly and ahead of the curve. Whether you 460 00:16:23,100 --> 00:16:25,259 are a small organization with just a few 461 00:16:25,259 --> 00:16:27,899 users up to an organization of several thousand 462 00:16:27,899 --> 00:16:28,399 employees, 463 00:16:28,779 --> 00:16:30,779 they want to partner with you to implement 464 00:16:30,779 --> 00:16:33,519 and administer your Microsoft cloud technology. 465 00:16:34,264 --> 00:16:37,804 Visit them at inteliginc.com/podcast. 466 00:16:38,024 --> 00:16:44,764 That's intelligink.com/podcast 467 00:16:45,144 --> 00:16:47,304 for more information or to schedule a thirty 468 00:16:47,304 --> 00:16:49,325 minute call to get started with them today. 469 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:53,200 Intelligent focuses on the Microsoft cloud so you 470 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:54,740 can focus on your business. 471 00:16:56,879 --> 00:16:58,320 And I've been playing with this one too. 472 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:00,399 The other thing I would say is, well, 473 00:17:00,399 --> 00:17:01,539 the difference between 474 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,559 Learn and Azure is, like, Learn is all 475 00:17:04,559 --> 00:17:06,964 just open to the public documentation. Right? Like, 476 00:17:06,964 --> 00:17:08,644 you don't need to authenticate to Learn to 477 00:17:08,644 --> 00:17:10,404 go pull stuff from it, so MCP server's 478 00:17:10,404 --> 00:17:12,644 there. With the Azure one, you are connecting 479 00:17:12,644 --> 00:17:14,664 to your subscription, so there are dependencies 480 00:17:15,044 --> 00:17:18,080 there on you actually have access to your 481 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:20,480 Azure subscription and your permissions to Azure and 482 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:22,019 setting up that authentication 483 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:23,299 piece between 484 00:17:23,759 --> 00:17:26,080 your local instance and Azure. I've started playing 485 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:27,600 with the learn one. I've not used the 486 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:30,015 learn one as much yet, but I do 487 00:17:30,075 --> 00:17:32,714 like it, and I have actually been using 488 00:17:32,714 --> 00:17:34,714 Claude for all my MCPs. I went out 489 00:17:34,714 --> 00:17:36,875 and set up Claude locally. I've been setting 490 00:17:36,875 --> 00:17:38,815 up a bunch of my MCPs in Claude. 491 00:17:39,275 --> 00:17:41,275 I do not have the problem of having 492 00:17:41,275 --> 00:17:42,474 to start it. I just go in and 493 00:17:42,474 --> 00:17:44,075 start chatting with Claude, and it pulls it 494 00:17:44,075 --> 00:17:45,809 all back. But I like Have you been 495 00:17:45,809 --> 00:17:47,809 able to get the Azure MCP server going 496 00:17:47,809 --> 00:17:49,089 in, Claude? I had a bunch of fits 497 00:17:49,089 --> 00:17:51,089 and starts there, particularly on my Mac. Like, 498 00:17:51,089 --> 00:17:53,250 there was something so the Azure MCP server 499 00:17:53,250 --> 00:17:56,049 relies heavily on default Azure credential, which is, 500 00:17:56,049 --> 00:17:58,734 like, this internal class within things, and I've 501 00:17:58,734 --> 00:17:59,934 just had, like, a bear of a time 502 00:17:59,934 --> 00:18:01,214 get it going. I could only get it 503 00:18:01,214 --> 00:18:03,134 going in Versus Code. I could never get 504 00:18:03,134 --> 00:18:04,815 it going in I think it is. Let 505 00:18:04,815 --> 00:18:07,054 me go ask in a minute. Let's see 506 00:18:07,054 --> 00:18:08,654 if it can fix my spell check. We'll 507 00:18:08,654 --> 00:18:11,454 let that go while we keep talking, but 508 00:18:11,454 --> 00:18:12,515 it wants a CLI. 509 00:18:12,829 --> 00:18:14,829 Always allow. But I like the fact, like, 510 00:18:14,829 --> 00:18:15,569 with learn, 511 00:18:15,950 --> 00:18:18,210 before if you would go out and 512 00:18:18,509 --> 00:18:20,509 do a if you're gonna go out and 513 00:18:20,509 --> 00:18:21,950 do a search, right, or if you're just 514 00:18:21,950 --> 00:18:24,750 using Claude or OpenAI or something to ask 515 00:18:24,750 --> 00:18:26,450 about certain Microsoft documentation, 516 00:18:27,150 --> 00:18:28,210 you do tend 517 00:18:29,335 --> 00:18:30,855 to I think I would say it can 518 00:18:31,095 --> 00:18:32,454 you don't always know that it's gonna pull 519 00:18:32,454 --> 00:18:34,134 it straight from learn. Right? It may pull 520 00:18:34,134 --> 00:18:35,974 up from some forums where people are giving 521 00:18:35,974 --> 00:18:37,034 incorrect answers. 522 00:18:37,494 --> 00:18:40,375 It may pull it from all kinds of 523 00:18:40,375 --> 00:18:43,390 different places, blogs, YouTube. You never really know 524 00:18:43,390 --> 00:18:45,549 where when you start doing the MCP, you're 525 00:18:45,549 --> 00:18:47,950 like, okay. It's probably gonna tend to pull 526 00:18:47,950 --> 00:18:50,349 at least a little bit more accurate information 527 00:18:50,349 --> 00:18:52,269 from learn. We could argue that learn always 528 00:18:52,269 --> 00:18:54,589 isn't accurate, but that's a whole another discussion. 529 00:18:54,589 --> 00:18:55,089 Absolutely. 530 00:18:56,455 --> 00:18:58,695 Discussion for another time. In regard to that, 531 00:18:58,695 --> 00:18:59,195 so 532 00:18:59,575 --> 00:19:01,174 Claude presents it a little bit differently in 533 00:19:01,174 --> 00:19:03,335 the UI. I think I'm, like, more immersed 534 00:19:03,335 --> 00:19:05,035 in that Versus Code world 535 00:19:05,335 --> 00:19:06,855 today for this stuff, at least for, like, 536 00:19:06,855 --> 00:19:08,875 my day to day job and role. 537 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:10,500 You can actually tell 538 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,960 when it's reaching out to an agent, at 539 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:14,980 least in, like, the internal, like, GitHub Copilot 540 00:19:15,039 --> 00:19:16,640 chat window. So you do have that, like, 541 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,519 that grounding that like, hey, this response is 542 00:19:19,519 --> 00:19:21,460 coming back from this MCP agent. 543 00:19:21,759 --> 00:19:24,319 It's not coming back from, like you said, 544 00:19:24,319 --> 00:19:26,534 just the base LLM and what that's been 545 00:19:26,534 --> 00:19:28,934 trained on or anything like that along the 546 00:19:28,934 --> 00:19:31,015 way. I'm gonna have to go revisit this. 547 00:19:31,015 --> 00:19:33,654 Maybe they updated something in Claude because I 548 00:19:33,654 --> 00:19:34,474 just had a 549 00:19:34,775 --> 00:19:36,634 weird time getting it going 550 00:19:37,015 --> 00:19:39,034 last time. But So this is fascinating 551 00:19:39,335 --> 00:19:40,875 too. I don't know. 552 00:19:41,309 --> 00:19:43,169 This is not pulling it 553 00:19:43,470 --> 00:19:43,970 from 554 00:19:44,589 --> 00:19:47,889 my subscription. This is using another client's 555 00:19:48,509 --> 00:19:50,990 Azure account that I'm signed into somewhere. So 556 00:19:50,990 --> 00:19:54,210 I don't know how it picked which credentials 557 00:19:54,509 --> 00:19:55,970 it was going to use 558 00:19:56,275 --> 00:19:58,115 when it went out and connected to Azure. 559 00:19:58,115 --> 00:19:59,875 If it's the latest one that I've connected 560 00:19:59,875 --> 00:20:01,174 to with Azure CLI 561 00:20:01,714 --> 00:20:02,214 or 562 00:20:02,755 --> 00:20:05,315 how it shows which credentials it was gonna 563 00:20:05,315 --> 00:20:07,654 authenticate, but it did not use my my 564 00:20:07,875 --> 00:20:10,194 internal company credentials. It used some credentials I'm 565 00:20:10,194 --> 00:20:12,169 signed into with the client subscription. But it 566 00:20:12,169 --> 00:20:14,410 was at least able to connect and go 567 00:20:14,410 --> 00:20:16,650 pull all the resource groups across all the 568 00:20:16,650 --> 00:20:17,150 subscriptions 569 00:20:17,690 --> 00:20:20,490 that I'm currently signed into somewhere. Oh, there 570 00:20:20,490 --> 00:20:22,349 you go. Yeah. That's 571 00:20:22,809 --> 00:20:25,984 another interesting thing too, like, Claude and Microsoft 572 00:20:25,984 --> 00:20:28,404 documentation for both Learn and the Azure MCP. 573 00:20:28,625 --> 00:20:31,105 PurePoint gets a global just a click to 574 00:20:31,105 --> 00:20:32,565 install from the Visual Studio 575 00:20:33,505 --> 00:20:36,065 directory. If you go use Claude, they do 576 00:20:36,065 --> 00:20:38,005 have guides for the directory install 577 00:20:38,460 --> 00:20:40,640 wherein opening a configuration policy, 578 00:20:41,099 --> 00:20:43,099 pasting in some JSON, you need to ensure 579 00:20:43,099 --> 00:20:46,059 you keep your JSON formatted because what I 580 00:20:46,059 --> 00:20:47,599 have found all this documentation 581 00:20:48,299 --> 00:20:50,700 assumes this is the only MCP you're installing 582 00:20:50,700 --> 00:20:53,154 in your configuration file. If you take the 583 00:20:53,154 --> 00:20:55,075 raw JSON from all of these, you end 584 00:20:55,075 --> 00:20:57,234 up with malformed JSONs. You have to figure 585 00:20:57,234 --> 00:20:59,555 out these all go inside of the servers 586 00:20:59,555 --> 00:21:01,974 with the commas in the right places and 587 00:21:02,195 --> 00:21:04,595 squiggly brackets and all of that. Claude for 588 00:21:04,595 --> 00:21:06,769 me was a little bit trickier, and every 589 00:21:06,769 --> 00:21:08,390 once in a while, I'll see weird 590 00:21:08,769 --> 00:21:11,089 errors pop up in Claude with formatting issues. 591 00:21:11,089 --> 00:21:12,309 It seems to work. 592 00:21:12,609 --> 00:21:14,769 We talked about it last episode. MCPs are 593 00:21:14,769 --> 00:21:16,529 new. There's still some WIMM every once in 594 00:21:16,529 --> 00:21:19,169 a while, but I've got both Learn and 595 00:21:19,169 --> 00:21:21,585 the Azure one working well in my instance 596 00:21:21,585 --> 00:21:24,144 of Claude locally. Claude's been a bit of 597 00:21:24,144 --> 00:21:25,765 a weird one. You kinda get into 598 00:21:26,384 --> 00:21:27,125 that world 599 00:21:28,144 --> 00:21:31,265 of editing JSON and all that stuff locally. 600 00:21:31,265 --> 00:21:31,765 So, 601 00:21:32,144 --> 00:21:34,464 yeah, it's kinda hit or miss. And it 602 00:21:34,464 --> 00:21:36,464 depends on your level of, I think, like, 603 00:21:36,464 --> 00:21:40,339 just not, like, technical acumen, like your ability 604 00:21:40,339 --> 00:21:41,539 to, I think, deal with some of the 605 00:21:41,539 --> 00:21:43,320 friction that Yes. 606 00:21:43,700 --> 00:21:45,000 That comes with these things. So 607 00:21:45,299 --> 00:21:47,299 Versus Code, I like I said, like, they've 608 00:21:47,299 --> 00:21:49,000 made it super turnkey. 609 00:21:50,065 --> 00:21:51,585 Like, I I would have to guess the 610 00:21:51,585 --> 00:21:54,465 folks at Anthropic aren't really happy. Like, Microsoft's 611 00:21:54,465 --> 00:21:56,545 out here with, like, this whole ecosystem as 612 00:21:56,545 --> 00:21:58,965 well that's disintegrating and doing these things, but 613 00:21:59,105 --> 00:22:01,184 I will say, like, the folks at GitHub 614 00:22:01,184 --> 00:22:03,230 have done a very good job with that. 615 00:22:03,230 --> 00:22:05,149 So for the learn one, does that still 616 00:22:05,149 --> 00:22:07,230 require you to have GitHub Copilot as well 617 00:22:07,230 --> 00:22:09,389 in Visual Studio Code or because it's using 618 00:22:09,389 --> 00:22:10,210 the web version? 619 00:22:10,589 --> 00:22:12,109 I didn't look at that. I don't believe 620 00:22:12,109 --> 00:22:13,950 so. I I haven't tried to integrate that 621 00:22:13,950 --> 00:22:15,549 one with Cloud yet, but it should have 622 00:22:15,549 --> 00:22:17,089 to stay a local 623 00:22:17,625 --> 00:22:19,384 definition as well. Do you wanna talk about 624 00:22:19,384 --> 00:22:21,565 learn or Azure anymore? Let's get into 625 00:22:21,945 --> 00:22:23,464 some of your list. This is the one 626 00:22:23,464 --> 00:22:25,644 I've been playing with a lot lately is 627 00:22:26,025 --> 00:22:29,644 Loca, and this is from our good friend, 628 00:22:29,785 --> 00:22:32,125 Merrill, who we've had on the podcast before. 629 00:22:32,419 --> 00:22:34,900 He went out and created a Loca agent 630 00:22:34,900 --> 00:22:36,980 tool. And did you read? He posted the 631 00:22:36,980 --> 00:22:38,980 story because everybody asked him why he named 632 00:22:38,980 --> 00:22:41,299 this MCP Loca. I did not. Yeah. I 633 00:22:41,299 --> 00:22:43,299 don't know the background there. It was because 634 00:22:43,299 --> 00:22:46,419 he was in front of a food truck 635 00:22:46,419 --> 00:22:48,775 or a coffee truck, and the name of 636 00:22:48,775 --> 00:22:50,775 the food truck was named Loca when he 637 00:22:50,775 --> 00:22:52,615 came up with the idea. So he named 638 00:22:52,615 --> 00:22:55,414 the MCP after that. He has a little 639 00:22:55,414 --> 00:22:57,674 bit of that backstory out on LinkedIn. But 640 00:22:57,734 --> 00:22:59,195 this is an MCP 641 00:22:59,575 --> 00:23:00,890 that runs locally 642 00:23:01,190 --> 00:23:02,410 using Node, so 643 00:23:02,789 --> 00:23:04,710 you need to have and he guides you 644 00:23:04,710 --> 00:23:07,190 through the Cloud desktop. He also has instructions 645 00:23:07,190 --> 00:23:08,950 on here for doing it with Visual Studio 646 00:23:08,950 --> 00:23:10,650 Code, but MCP 647 00:23:11,109 --> 00:23:13,109 that runs in Node, so Node is also 648 00:23:13,109 --> 00:23:14,835 a prerequisite there, to connect 649 00:23:15,394 --> 00:23:16,294 to the Microsoft 650 00:23:16,595 --> 00:23:17,974 three sixty five 651 00:23:18,434 --> 00:23:21,414 graph. So this will go in in query 652 00:23:22,034 --> 00:23:22,534 whatever 653 00:23:23,474 --> 00:23:24,694 graph access 654 00:23:25,315 --> 00:23:26,534 you care to 655 00:23:26,929 --> 00:23:28,789 give it. So part of the configuration 656 00:23:29,089 --> 00:23:31,250 here, going into a little bit more of 657 00:23:31,250 --> 00:23:32,789 the JSON and development 658 00:23:33,250 --> 00:23:35,250 aspect of it, is not only do you 659 00:23:35,250 --> 00:23:36,690 have to put the JSON in there to 660 00:23:36,690 --> 00:23:38,849 configure the MCP, but you need to make 661 00:23:38,849 --> 00:23:39,829 sure you authenticate 662 00:23:41,115 --> 00:23:44,335 to Microsoft three sixty five Graph with an 663 00:23:44,634 --> 00:23:45,134 originally, 664 00:23:45,595 --> 00:23:47,835 this again, these are all new. It was 665 00:23:47,835 --> 00:23:49,755 by putting your client ID and your app 666 00:23:49,755 --> 00:23:51,674 ID and your app secret in the JSON 667 00:23:51,674 --> 00:23:53,730 file, like, in plain text so anybody could 668 00:23:53,730 --> 00:23:55,970 have seen it. It has since been updated, 669 00:23:55,970 --> 00:23:57,970 so there's a few different methods now that 670 00:23:57,970 --> 00:23:59,970 you can use to connect to Microsoft three 671 00:23:59,970 --> 00:24:02,130 sixty five graph. But then with those app 672 00:24:02,130 --> 00:24:04,549 permissions, you do have to go in and, 673 00:24:05,329 --> 00:24:06,950 grant that app the 674 00:24:07,329 --> 00:24:07,829 appropriate 675 00:24:08,184 --> 00:24:10,265 access to the Microsoft three sixty five graph. 676 00:24:10,265 --> 00:24:11,224 If you want it to be able to 677 00:24:11,224 --> 00:24:13,724 go look at SharePoint sites, files, 678 00:24:14,585 --> 00:24:16,205 audit logs, Purview, 679 00:24:16,825 --> 00:24:19,065 there's not a specific Purview endpoint, but all 680 00:24:19,065 --> 00:24:20,125 those graph endpoints, 681 00:24:20,569 --> 00:24:23,049 you can kinda control the access. You give 682 00:24:23,049 --> 00:24:25,369 this MCP to the graph by going in 683 00:24:25,369 --> 00:24:26,829 and configuring those endpoints. 684 00:24:27,130 --> 00:24:29,529 This one for me, Scott, has been it's 685 00:24:29,529 --> 00:24:32,329 been really interesting, and I think one aspect 686 00:24:32,329 --> 00:24:34,650 of it that's been fascinating for me is 687 00:24:34,650 --> 00:24:37,414 comparing it with the the Security Copilot. 688 00:24:37,715 --> 00:24:40,595 So, like, Security Copilot, we've talked about before, 689 00:24:40,595 --> 00:24:42,755 Copilot for security. If you give it the 690 00:24:42,755 --> 00:24:45,154 wrong name, Microsoft gets mad at you. We've 691 00:24:45,154 --> 00:24:47,235 talked about it. The base entry point for 692 00:24:47,235 --> 00:24:48,535 that is, like, $3 693 00:24:48,595 --> 00:24:50,740 a month, $30 a year. I can go 694 00:24:50,740 --> 00:24:53,059 out and pay for Claude for, like, $20 695 00:24:53,059 --> 00:24:55,319 a month, connect this MCP server, 696 00:24:55,619 --> 00:24:57,380 and get to a lot of the same 697 00:24:57,380 --> 00:24:59,940 stuff. There's differences, and I'm actually working on 698 00:24:59,940 --> 00:25:02,505 some sessions for some conferences this fall where 699 00:25:02,585 --> 00:25:04,984 I might highlight some of those differences and 700 00:25:04,984 --> 00:25:05,484 where, 701 00:25:05,785 --> 00:25:09,164 Copilot for security excels or security Copilot excels 702 00:25:09,224 --> 00:25:09,724 versus 703 00:25:10,184 --> 00:25:10,924 this MCP. 704 00:25:11,305 --> 00:25:13,144 But once you connect it to the graph, 705 00:25:13,144 --> 00:25:16,505 I've done things like go pull I've gone 706 00:25:16,505 --> 00:25:19,029 in, asked it to go pull sign in 707 00:25:19,029 --> 00:25:21,669 logs, analyze the sign in logs for a 708 00:25:21,669 --> 00:25:24,389 particular user, or give me all the users 709 00:25:24,389 --> 00:25:26,569 and what licenses they have in my tenant 710 00:25:26,630 --> 00:25:28,490 and pull back reports on 711 00:25:28,869 --> 00:25:30,169 users and 712 00:25:30,470 --> 00:25:30,970 licenses 713 00:25:31,509 --> 00:25:32,009 or 714 00:25:32,355 --> 00:25:34,134 sign in logs. Are there any anomalies 715 00:25:34,755 --> 00:25:37,015 in the sign in logs? Go look at 716 00:25:37,154 --> 00:25:39,794 the this UPN and look at where they've 717 00:25:39,794 --> 00:25:41,954 signed in from and what IP addresses they've 718 00:25:41,954 --> 00:25:43,875 signed in from. As long as you open 719 00:25:43,875 --> 00:25:46,035 it up to that data for the Graph 720 00:25:46,035 --> 00:25:48,640 API, it's able to go pull all of 721 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:50,640 that. I was playing with one where I 722 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:52,079 asked it to, like, go look at my 723 00:25:52,079 --> 00:25:53,460 conditional access policies, 724 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:58,180 go analyze conditional access policies in Entra and 725 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,400 how those are configured or who those are 726 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,494 applied to. Another use case was the Defender. 727 00:26:03,554 --> 00:26:05,794 Like, you get your incidents in Defender. You 728 00:26:05,794 --> 00:26:08,115 get incidents and alerts. I actually went in 729 00:26:08,115 --> 00:26:10,855 and found looked at my security dashboard, 730 00:26:11,234 --> 00:26:13,974 grabbed the incident ID, and asked 731 00:26:14,674 --> 00:26:17,234 Claude to go in and look at that 732 00:26:17,234 --> 00:26:18,294 particular incident 733 00:26:18,630 --> 00:26:20,470 and analyze that incident and give me a 734 00:26:20,470 --> 00:26:21,450 full incident 735 00:26:21,990 --> 00:26:24,150 response. You were showing me this report earlier. 736 00:26:24,150 --> 00:26:25,670 Like, it was actually pretty cool. Like, you 737 00:26:25,670 --> 00:26:28,089 need some formatting help and, like, less 738 00:26:28,470 --> 00:26:30,490 AI driven emoji happiness 739 00:26:31,029 --> 00:26:32,674 BS that they tend to 740 00:26:32,974 --> 00:26:35,315 spin up. But outside of that, yeah, like, 741 00:26:35,534 --> 00:26:37,375 pretty cool. Yeah. It wrote, like, an entire 742 00:26:37,375 --> 00:26:39,615 document with the incident details. It gave me 743 00:26:39,615 --> 00:26:41,875 a a table with the attack timeline 744 00:26:42,335 --> 00:26:44,575 of in this particular one, it was an 745 00:26:44,575 --> 00:26:46,755 email delivered to two different email addresses. 746 00:26:47,299 --> 00:26:50,419 Then Defender created an incident. Then alerts were 747 00:26:50,419 --> 00:26:50,919 generated 748 00:26:51,299 --> 00:26:52,759 for unremoved messages. 749 00:26:53,140 --> 00:26:56,119 Then some emails were automatically removed to quarantine. 750 00:26:56,579 --> 00:26:59,059 Then it found alerts for malicious URL detection. 751 00:26:59,059 --> 00:27:01,035 And then there was the last incident update. 752 00:27:01,035 --> 00:27:02,734 And it gave me that whole timeline, 753 00:27:03,275 --> 00:27:05,595 gave me a technical analysis of it, what 754 00:27:05,595 --> 00:27:07,934 the URLs were that were in the email, 755 00:27:08,474 --> 00:27:09,775 different risk factors, 756 00:27:10,715 --> 00:27:13,615 gave me an highlight of investigation 757 00:27:13,994 --> 00:27:17,390 findings and what those containment and eradication steps 758 00:27:17,390 --> 00:27:19,630 should be. It, yeah, it wrote up the 759 00:27:19,630 --> 00:27:21,710 whole thing and then recommendations for the next 760 00:27:21,710 --> 00:27:23,710 twenty four hours, the next seven days, the 761 00:27:23,710 --> 00:27:25,789 next thirty days based on this incident. You 762 00:27:25,789 --> 00:27:27,390 should show it on your screen over here. 763 00:27:27,390 --> 00:27:28,830 Yeah. I can throw it up here. I 764 00:27:28,830 --> 00:27:30,384 was trying to avoid some of the user 765 00:27:30,384 --> 00:27:32,144 details in there. I saw you, like, eye 766 00:27:32,144 --> 00:27:32,644 scrolling. 767 00:27:33,345 --> 00:27:34,884 So, yeah, it has 768 00:27:35,265 --> 00:27:36,884 I can get up partway here, 769 00:27:37,184 --> 00:27:39,045 like, up in here, but it has, 770 00:27:39,664 --> 00:27:41,365 frankly, a lot more details 771 00:27:41,825 --> 00:27:44,599 than what Security Copilot gave me when I 772 00:27:44,599 --> 00:27:46,299 asked it about the same incident. 773 00:27:46,679 --> 00:27:48,759 Where I found some of the niceties with 774 00:27:48,759 --> 00:27:51,079 Security Copilot is some of the integrations. But, 775 00:27:51,079 --> 00:27:53,500 again, you're looking for, like, a poor man's, 776 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,275 not even a poor man's, a whole lot 777 00:27:55,434 --> 00:27:57,994 cheaper version of AI to be able to 778 00:27:57,994 --> 00:27:59,615 ask about some of these things 779 00:27:59,914 --> 00:28:02,154 as long as you're okay giving those graph 780 00:28:02,154 --> 00:28:02,654 permissions 781 00:28:03,115 --> 00:28:03,615 to 782 00:28:03,994 --> 00:28:05,455 Claude or to 783 00:28:05,835 --> 00:28:07,535 if you wanna use GitHub Copilot 784 00:28:07,950 --> 00:28:09,549 still using Claude or one of the other 785 00:28:09,549 --> 00:28:11,309 AI engines on the background or one of 786 00:28:11,309 --> 00:28:13,549 the other LLMs on the background, you can 787 00:28:13,549 --> 00:28:15,009 get a lot of information, 788 00:28:16,109 --> 00:28:17,470 and get really close to a lot of 789 00:28:17,470 --> 00:28:20,429 the Security Copilot stuff just using this particular 790 00:28:20,429 --> 00:28:21,970 MCP from Merrill. Super 791 00:28:22,269 --> 00:28:22,769 nifty. 792 00:28:23,085 --> 00:28:25,164 Like, I think this stuff is just, like, 793 00:28:25,164 --> 00:28:26,065 so turnkey. 794 00:28:26,924 --> 00:28:28,204 I don't know. I feel like it's gonna 795 00:28:28,204 --> 00:28:29,484 drive me down a path of trying to 796 00:28:29,484 --> 00:28:30,845 build one of these things on my own, 797 00:28:30,845 --> 00:28:32,444 and I'm just gonna turn into, like, one 798 00:28:32,444 --> 00:28:32,944 of 799 00:28:33,325 --> 00:28:35,484 the Vibe coders or something. We should create 800 00:28:35,484 --> 00:28:37,184 an MCP for the podcast. 801 00:28:37,639 --> 00:28:38,779 Should we, though? 802 00:28:40,359 --> 00:28:41,980 Ben and Scott's podcast 803 00:28:42,359 --> 00:28:44,700 brain MCP or something like that. 804 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:47,559 I did tie an agent to it. Not 805 00:28:47,559 --> 00:28:49,339 an MCP, but I did tie a Copilot 806 00:28:49,399 --> 00:28:51,000 agent in the tenant. If you wanna go 807 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:52,355 play with it in our tenant. I did 808 00:28:52,355 --> 00:28:53,795 create one that I pointed it at the 809 00:28:53,795 --> 00:28:56,595 podcast website for a podcast agent. Yeah. So 810 00:28:56,595 --> 00:28:58,115 I've been playing around with the Claude Azure 811 00:28:58,115 --> 00:28:59,474 thing because it was annoying me that it 812 00:28:59,474 --> 00:29:00,835 was working for you and not for me. 813 00:29:00,835 --> 00:29:03,015 Yep. Where I had given up is 814 00:29:03,474 --> 00:29:05,715 when you're in Versus Code, the first time 815 00:29:05,715 --> 00:29:07,409 you install this and you start it, it 816 00:29:07,409 --> 00:29:08,710 will authenticate you. 817 00:29:09,089 --> 00:29:11,009 So it'll actually drive you through, like, the 818 00:29:11,009 --> 00:29:13,569 device login flow, like pop up a web 819 00:29:13,569 --> 00:29:15,730 browser, things like that. Cloud doesn't do that 820 00:29:15,730 --> 00:29:18,049 by default, so you have to go and 821 00:29:18,049 --> 00:29:19,589 you have to actually 822 00:29:20,450 --> 00:29:22,445 log in to, to, like, Azure CLI, which 823 00:29:22,445 --> 00:29:24,125 is what it's using under the hood. And 824 00:29:24,125 --> 00:29:26,465 then once you've pre authenticated to Azure CLI, 825 00:29:26,605 --> 00:29:28,045 then you go back, run your prompt, and 826 00:29:28,045 --> 00:29:29,565 it works just perfectly. So that must be 827 00:29:29,565 --> 00:29:30,924 what it was picking up as I must 828 00:29:30,924 --> 00:29:32,684 have logged into a client's tenant with Azure 829 00:29:32,684 --> 00:29:34,365 CLI, or I wonder if it would even 830 00:29:34,365 --> 00:29:35,424 pick up Azure 831 00:29:35,725 --> 00:29:36,865 Graph or 832 00:29:37,380 --> 00:29:37,880 PowerShell 833 00:29:38,259 --> 00:29:38,759 connections. 834 00:29:39,220 --> 00:29:41,140 Yeah. Re reuse any of those things. That 835 00:29:41,140 --> 00:29:42,900 was my issue. So if anybody else using 836 00:29:42,900 --> 00:29:44,820 Claude on the desktop and you're like, oh, 837 00:29:44,820 --> 00:29:46,500 I can't use an Azure thing. Yeah. You 838 00:29:46,500 --> 00:29:49,460 can. Alright. Any other MCPs you wanna talk 839 00:29:49,460 --> 00:29:51,480 about? I know we kinda hinted at some. 840 00:29:51,539 --> 00:29:52,984 There's a bunch out there. 841 00:29:53,285 --> 00:29:55,285 There's a whole bunch out there. So, like, 842 00:29:55,285 --> 00:29:57,464 I would encourage folks, I think, to 843 00:29:57,924 --> 00:29:59,545 and I've been thinking about this more, 844 00:30:00,005 --> 00:30:00,984 how you combine 845 00:30:01,285 --> 00:30:03,605 the local tools you use day to day 846 00:30:03,605 --> 00:30:04,884 or the parts of the stack that you 847 00:30:04,884 --> 00:30:06,884 use day to day along with your other 848 00:30:06,884 --> 00:30:10,539 tasks. So these things, like, go and list 849 00:30:10,539 --> 00:30:13,819 my resource groups, list my configuration for these 850 00:30:13,819 --> 00:30:15,819 resources, things like that. Like, it doesn't have 851 00:30:15,819 --> 00:30:18,059 to be a stop there kinda thing. It 852 00:30:18,059 --> 00:30:20,059 could also be a, hey. Take that and 853 00:30:20,059 --> 00:30:21,660 then pump it out here over to this 854 00:30:21,660 --> 00:30:23,259 other thing or format it in this way. 855 00:30:23,259 --> 00:30:25,554 Right? Like, you have to create a report 856 00:30:25,554 --> 00:30:28,275 for your boss that says, here's the current 857 00:30:28,275 --> 00:30:28,775 configuration 858 00:30:29,714 --> 00:30:32,275 of all our VMs and which ones are 859 00:30:32,275 --> 00:30:32,775 using 860 00:30:33,234 --> 00:30:35,315 straight public IPs, which ones are behind bash 861 00:30:35,315 --> 00:30:37,519 and things like that. Like, you could totally 862 00:30:37,519 --> 00:30:40,319 output that report, have it formatted, and put 863 00:30:40,319 --> 00:30:42,400 into a great format for, like, an email 864 00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,039 for you. Right? Or go save it as 865 00:30:45,039 --> 00:30:47,220 a CSV because maybe you install 866 00:30:47,759 --> 00:30:49,599 an MCP agent that 867 00:30:50,095 --> 00:30:51,775 or an MCP server that allows you for, 868 00:30:51,775 --> 00:30:54,914 like, local file system access, things like that. 869 00:30:55,295 --> 00:30:57,715 There there's a whole ton, I think, of 870 00:30:58,414 --> 00:31:00,414 chained interactions that you can do. Like, if 871 00:31:00,414 --> 00:31:02,335 you start to think about having multiple of 872 00:31:02,335 --> 00:31:03,855 these things and being able to tie them 873 00:31:03,855 --> 00:31:06,210 together and then integrate them back because they're 874 00:31:06,210 --> 00:31:07,750 all integrated in that, like, overarching 875 00:31:08,450 --> 00:31:09,509 LLM ecosystem. 876 00:31:09,890 --> 00:31:12,849 So I think that's, like, the next step 877 00:31:12,849 --> 00:31:15,009 or next thing to think about or kinda 878 00:31:15,009 --> 00:31:16,769 where I'm going with it. Yeah. And this 879 00:31:16,769 --> 00:31:18,904 is where it would be interesting too. Like, 880 00:31:18,904 --> 00:31:21,305 I would love to see MCPs tied into 881 00:31:21,305 --> 00:31:22,744 Copilot. And I think I mentioned that on 882 00:31:22,744 --> 00:31:25,224 the last episode because when I'm maybe when 883 00:31:25,224 --> 00:31:27,464 I'm querying all my graph data, if I 884 00:31:27,464 --> 00:31:30,105 give this MCP access to a whole bunch 885 00:31:30,105 --> 00:31:32,505 of Microsoft three sixty five graph data where 886 00:31:32,505 --> 00:31:35,259 it's looking at users and conditional access policies 887 00:31:35,259 --> 00:31:36,400 and IP addresses 888 00:31:37,340 --> 00:31:40,059 and incident reports. If I'm being honest, I 889 00:31:40,059 --> 00:31:42,000 would prefer all of that to stay 890 00:31:42,299 --> 00:31:45,180 inside the Microsoft three sixty five tenant, not 891 00:31:45,180 --> 00:31:47,595 necessarily come all the way out into my 892 00:31:47,835 --> 00:31:48,575 local machine 893 00:31:49,034 --> 00:31:51,934 and come out to MCP servers that 894 00:31:52,394 --> 00:31:52,554 I'm 895 00:31:53,275 --> 00:31:56,075 again, we know Merrill. I trust Merrill, but 896 00:31:56,075 --> 00:31:58,394 it's his code that he wrote for this 897 00:31:58,394 --> 00:32:01,029 local MCP server. Having it live in my 898 00:32:01,029 --> 00:32:02,710 Microsoft three sixty five bubble would make me 899 00:32:02,710 --> 00:32:04,390 a little bit more comfortable with it. Then 900 00:32:04,390 --> 00:32:05,990 I could also do things like take this 901 00:32:05,990 --> 00:32:08,549 incident report and create a PowerPoint presentation from 902 00:32:08,549 --> 00:32:10,150 it a little bit easier or a Word 903 00:32:10,150 --> 00:32:13,445 document because of some of those other Microsoft 904 00:32:13,445 --> 00:32:15,924 three sixty five integrations with the Office tools 905 00:32:15,924 --> 00:32:17,525 and some of that. So I am. I'm 906 00:32:17,525 --> 00:32:20,404 really hoping that even if it's inside and 907 00:32:20,404 --> 00:32:22,164 I know you can do it in Visual 908 00:32:22,164 --> 00:32:24,805 Studio Code today or not Visual Studio Code. 909 00:32:24,805 --> 00:32:28,779 Sorry. Copilot Studio, it's not nearly as simple 910 00:32:28,779 --> 00:32:29,599 and straightforward 911 00:32:30,139 --> 00:32:32,539 as it is integrating it into Code or 912 00:32:32,539 --> 00:32:33,039 Visuals 913 00:32:33,339 --> 00:32:35,099 Claude or Visual Studio Code or some of 914 00:32:35,099 --> 00:32:36,779 those. I wanna see this a whole lot 915 00:32:36,779 --> 00:32:38,460 simpler in Copilot. I think that would be 916 00:32:38,460 --> 00:32:40,445 really cool from my perspective. Yeah. I think 917 00:32:40,445 --> 00:32:42,305 over time, it probably gets there. 918 00:32:43,565 --> 00:32:45,724 I can also see a world where you 919 00:32:45,724 --> 00:32:46,785 might end up with 920 00:32:47,325 --> 00:32:47,825 either 921 00:32:48,285 --> 00:32:50,144 specific forks of these tools, 922 00:32:50,845 --> 00:32:53,164 or things that bring those integrations together. So, 923 00:32:53,164 --> 00:32:55,299 like, if you think about like Cursor and 924 00:32:55,299 --> 00:32:57,619 all the popularity of Cursor and using it 925 00:32:57,619 --> 00:32:59,960 for like AI coding with LLMs 926 00:33:00,259 --> 00:33:03,139 and all that, Cursor's just a fork of 927 00:33:03,139 --> 00:33:05,539 Versus Code, right? And I mean, at the 928 00:33:05,539 --> 00:33:07,184 end of the day, like, it's got a 929 00:33:07,184 --> 00:33:09,125 bunch of, like, domain specific functionality, 930 00:33:09,505 --> 00:33:11,265 but ultimately, it's built on that base of 931 00:33:11,265 --> 00:33:13,345 Versus Code. So there's this world where somebody 932 00:33:13,345 --> 00:33:15,904 could just totally take, like, a prepackaged Versus 933 00:33:15,904 --> 00:33:18,784 Code with a bunch of MCPs already installed 934 00:33:18,784 --> 00:33:20,865 in it, already ready to go, think things 935 00:33:20,865 --> 00:33:23,079 like that. Over time, you might see people, 936 00:33:23,079 --> 00:33:24,839 like, spin up, like, super do do do. 937 00:33:24,839 --> 00:33:26,519 Like, we've got these one clicks for these 938 00:33:26,519 --> 00:33:27,019 installs. 939 00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,720 I over time, those probably turned into, like, 940 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:30,700 bundled installers 941 00:33:31,079 --> 00:33:32,940 and other kinds of things. So 942 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:35,955 it's all moving rapidly. Like I said, I 943 00:33:35,955 --> 00:33:38,394 I kinda like it because at least I 944 00:33:38,394 --> 00:33:40,075 don't know about you, but, like, for my 945 00:33:40,075 --> 00:33:41,674 day to day job, like, sometimes some of 946 00:33:41,674 --> 00:33:43,994 the things I work on take, like, years 947 00:33:43,994 --> 00:33:46,075 to manifest and come to fruition. And this 948 00:33:46,075 --> 00:33:47,355 is one of those places where I can 949 00:33:47,355 --> 00:33:49,500 just, like, oh, kid in a candy shop, 950 00:33:49,500 --> 00:33:51,599 go be super inquisitive, play around, 951 00:33:52,140 --> 00:33:53,980 stuff breaks all the time, and you're like, 952 00:33:53,980 --> 00:33:55,980 oh, yep. That that that broke. I'm okay 953 00:33:55,980 --> 00:33:57,500 with it. Move on to the next step 954 00:33:57,500 --> 00:33:59,740 kind of thing. Awesome. Well, thanks, Scott. Excited 955 00:33:59,740 --> 00:34:01,759 to see where these MCP servers go. 956 00:34:02,214 --> 00:34:04,054 Fun to talk about how you're using them. 957 00:34:04,054 --> 00:34:06,315 Would love to hear about other MCPs, 958 00:34:06,774 --> 00:34:08,934 again, that all the listeners have used, that 959 00:34:08,934 --> 00:34:11,755 you all have installed, how you're using MCPs, 960 00:34:12,534 --> 00:34:14,855 concerns you have about MCPs from some of 961 00:34:14,855 --> 00:34:17,400 that security standpoint. So feel free to reach 962 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,260 out. Let us know your thoughts on MCPs, 963 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:21,400 how you're using them. If you wanna come 964 00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:23,239 talk on the podcast about how you're using 965 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:25,400 MCPs. We'd love to have you. Yeah. Contact 966 00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:26,460 us through the website. 967 00:34:27,079 --> 00:34:28,460 Reach out via 968 00:34:29,355 --> 00:34:29,855 LinkedIn, 969 00:34:30,315 --> 00:34:31,755 come find me at a conference, Scott. I 970 00:34:31,755 --> 00:34:33,434 got a bunch of conferences. I was looking 971 00:34:33,434 --> 00:34:35,675 down. I'm, like, at a conference a month 972 00:34:35,675 --> 00:34:37,614 now through the end of the year. So 973 00:34:37,914 --> 00:34:40,155 if you're gonna be Atlanta, I'm gonna be 974 00:34:40,155 --> 00:34:42,715 at TechCon three sixty five in Atlanta here 975 00:34:42,715 --> 00:34:45,469 in a couple weeks. That'll actually probably be 976 00:34:45,469 --> 00:34:48,109 before this podcast episode even airs. Going out 977 00:34:48,109 --> 00:34:50,849 to Branson again to the North American collaboration 978 00:34:50,989 --> 00:34:52,130 summit out in Branson. 979 00:34:52,750 --> 00:34:53,250 That's 980 00:34:53,630 --> 00:34:54,130 September. 981 00:34:54,510 --> 00:34:55,010 October 982 00:34:55,309 --> 00:34:56,130 might be 983 00:34:56,510 --> 00:34:57,010 dev 984 00:34:58,175 --> 00:34:58,675 intersections, 985 00:34:59,135 --> 00:34:59,635 cybersecurity 986 00:34:59,934 --> 00:35:01,234 intersections in Orlando. 987 00:35:01,775 --> 00:35:02,275 November, 988 00:35:03,054 --> 00:35:03,554 hopefully, 989 00:35:03,855 --> 00:35:05,074 we'll both be out 990 00:35:05,695 --> 00:35:06,355 at Ignite. 991 00:35:06,894 --> 00:35:09,155 And then December, I'm doing Workplace 992 00:35:09,614 --> 00:35:11,715 Ninjas, which is a security conference 993 00:35:12,179 --> 00:35:14,659 in Dallas, Texas. You've got, like, quite the 994 00:35:14,659 --> 00:35:17,300 list. Yeah. I might be at storage developer 995 00:35:17,300 --> 00:35:19,699 conference in September. That's about it for me. 996 00:35:19,699 --> 00:35:21,539 And then like you said Hopefully, night. Hopefully, 997 00:35:21,539 --> 00:35:23,539 podcast stuff out at Ignite again this year 998 00:35:23,539 --> 00:35:24,359 in San Francisco. 999 00:35:24,900 --> 00:35:26,739 Could be fun. Could be fun. Will be 1000 00:35:26,739 --> 00:35:29,585 fun. Assuming we get to go. Yes. Absolutely. 1001 00:35:29,804 --> 00:35:31,485 Alright. So, yes, if you're gonna be at 1002 00:35:31,485 --> 00:35:33,324 a conference, reach out. Love to chat with 1003 00:35:33,324 --> 00:35:34,684 you. If you wanna be on the podcast, 1004 00:35:34,684 --> 00:35:36,765 talk about MCP servers, let us know. But 1005 00:35:36,765 --> 00:35:39,210 for now, enjoy your weekend, Scott. Enjoy the 1006 00:35:39,369 --> 00:35:41,849 100 and whatever degree weather we're gonna be 1007 00:35:41,849 --> 00:35:43,449 having these next few days. As I said, 1008 00:35:43,449 --> 00:35:45,289 it's only a 106 now. It it it 1009 00:35:45,289 --> 00:35:46,889 can only get hotter is what it feels 1010 00:35:46,889 --> 00:35:49,530 like. And it's 5PM. A 106 at 5PM 1011 00:35:49,530 --> 00:35:50,589 is just not right. 1012 00:35:52,554 --> 00:35:53,994 It's got me all ready to go back 1013 00:35:53,994 --> 00:35:55,215 to the Pacific Northwest. 1014 00:35:55,835 --> 00:35:57,755 70 degrees, like I said, it just it 1015 00:35:57,755 --> 00:35:59,355 it hit a little bit different without the 1016 00:35:59,355 --> 00:36:01,275 humidity too. That was the key part in 1017 00:36:01,275 --> 00:36:03,755 there. Alright. Well, as always, Ben, thanks for 1018 00:36:03,755 --> 00:36:06,000 the conversation. Much appreciated, it, and we'll see 1019 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:07,980 you for the next one. Alright. Thank you. 1020 00:36:10,039 --> 00:36:12,279 If you enjoyed the podcast, go leave us 1021 00:36:12,279 --> 00:36:14,519 a five star rating in iTunes. It helps 1022 00:36:14,519 --> 00:36:16,199 to get the word out so more IT 1023 00:36:16,199 --> 00:36:18,344 pros can learn about Office three sixty five 1024 00:36:18,344 --> 00:36:19,085 and Azure. 1025 00:36:19,545 --> 00:36:21,224 If you have any questions you want us 1026 00:36:21,224 --> 00:36:23,385 to address on the show, or feedback about 1027 00:36:23,385 --> 00:36:25,784 the show, feel free to reach out via 1028 00:36:25,784 --> 00:36:28,984 our website, Twitter, or Facebook. Thanks again for 1029 00:36:28,984 --> 00:36:30,605 listening, and have a great day.