Wes Miller analyzes and writes about Microsoft’s security, identity management, and systems management technologies.
Before joining Directions on Microsoft, Wes was a product manager and development manager for several Austin, TX, start-ups, including Winternals Software, acquired by Microsoft in 2006. Prior to that, Wes spent seven years at Microsoft working as a program manager in the Windows Core Operating System and MSN divisions.
Wes received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Latest Content by Wes Miller
Analyst Report
October 5, 2025 · by Wes Miller
What Tools Can Help Me Deploy and Manage Conditional Access?
A range of free Microsoft tools can help customers tune, troubleshoot, or report on conditional access policies, but Microsoft offers...
Analyst Report
September 28, 2025 · by Wes Miller
Defender for Endpoint Helps Discover Unsecured AD Servers
Defender for Endpoint adds a feature to find unprotected AD servers, enabling customers to find and fix a category of...
Analyst Report
September 12, 2025 · by Wes Miller
Defender for Endpoint: Broad Support for Linux Servers
Defender for Endpoint offers a broad collection of antimalware and EDR features on x64 and Arm64 Linux servers, in Azure,...
Roadmap
Updated: September 3, 2025 · by Multiple Authors
Compute, Networking, and Infrastructure Roadmap
Describes the components and services of Azure and on-premises datacenter components, including virtual machines, networking, and storage. It discusses the...
Analyst Report
August 24, 2025 · by Wes Miller
Mixing License Tiers of Defender for Endpoint: Dos and Don’ts
Since Defender for Endpoint P1 arrived, Microsoft customers have faced potential license compliance problems if they don’t license Microsoft 365...
Roadmap
August 18, 2025 · by Wes Miller
System Center Roadmap
The System Center software suite supports numerous on-premises and cloud server management and monitoring tasks. Some roles can also be...
Analyst Report
August 18, 2025 · by Wes Miller
Sentinel Data Lake Eases Storage of Logs
Sentinel data lake (in preview) helps customers use Sentinel as their default long-term log storage solution without compromising analytics and...
Analyst Report
August 18, 2025 · by Wes Miller
Defender Threat Intelligence Coming to Sentinel and Defender XDR at No Additional Cost
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, previously constrained to an exceedingly expensive per-user license, will be retired as it was and integrated...
Analyst Report
August 2, 2025 · by Wes Miller
Understanding Microsoft’s Licensing for Entra ID Governance for External Users
Entra ID Governance is now available for external users, but under a new, confusing licensing model.
Analyst Report
July 27, 2025 · by Wes Miller
Sentinel Integrated into Defender XDR
Microsoft Sentinel is now integrated into the Defender XDR portal and tool set, allowing security analysts to investigate incidents from...