MVPs around the World (2024)


Update: Added Sankey diagram to display award relationships between 2023 to 2024.

Another year, another Microsoft MVP award cycle. Happy to report that yours truly received his 11th MVP Award

As every year, this is also a moment to have a quick peek at the MVP population. The numbers below are taken from the public MVP portal on July 11th. Comparing them to July of recent years should give an idea of trends and what award categories (and thus products) seem to have focus.

A few notes:

  • 3.187 public MVP profiles were processed.
  • The award categories Enterprise Mobility and M365 Development have ceased to exist and are now expertise areas. Most MVPs who used to be in these categories have moved to the Security and Developer Technologies categories.
  • More countries are now represented in the program compared to last year.

MVP Awardees per Category

The following chart and table display the awardees per award category from July 2019 to 2024, plus change percentages compared to previous years. Former Enterprise Mobility and M365 Developer awardees have mostly moved to Security and Developer Technologies.

Award Category Jul2020Jul2021%Jul2022%Jul2023%Jul2024%
AI Platform12213813%128-7%105-18%269156%
Business Applications24032335%3519%44226%4747%
Cloud and Datacenter Management2092195%164-25%136-17%111-18%
Data Platform3583929%364-7%335-8%307-8%
Developer Technologies69777010%715-7%7474%7612%
Enterprise Mobility11313318%14912%100-33%0-100%
Internet of Things000%00%430%430%
M3655125569%492-12%54110%64319%
M365 Development64698%59-14%7019%0-100%
Microsoft Azure46353415%5462%526-4%5270%
Mixed Reality000%00%450%35-22%
Security000%00%1710%30578%
Windows and Devices4342-2%457%6136%10267%
Windows Development1101209%92-23%37-60%30-19%
Total2931329612%3105-6%33598%36077%
Count2849322313%3023-6%31755%31870%

Note: The difference between total awards and total MVPs is caused by MVPs that are awarded in more than one category.

MVP Awardees per Country

The following chart and table display the awardees per country, plus change percentages compared to July last year.

CountryNo.(change)CountryNo.(change)CountryNo.(change)CountryNo.(change)
ALB1 (0%)SLV2 (0%)MKD5 (0%)SVK4 (100%)
AGO1 (100%)EST4 (300%)MYS7 (16%)SVN7 (16%)
ARG17 (30%)FIN33 (6%)MLT1 (100%)ZAF11 (0%)
AUS106 (-3%)FRA117 (-2%)MUS1 (100%)ESP100 (12%)
AUT31 (-7%)GEO1 (100%)MEX18 (5%)LKA10 (11%)
AZE4 (100%)DEU138 (6%)MAR4 (100%)SWE77 (1%)
BHR1 (0%)GHA6 (-15%)MMR1 (-50%)CHE52 (4%)
BGD3 (-25%)GRC11 (120%)NPL3 (-25%)TWN44 (-5%)
BEL58 (-2%)GTM1 (0%)NLD174 (4%)TZA1 (100%)
BOL5 (66%)HND1 (0%)NZL32 (-20%)THA16 (45%)
BIH6 (-15%)HKG6 (0%)NIC3 (200%)TUN1 (0%)
BRA124 (0%)HUN8 (-12%)NGA25 (38%)TUR20 (-5%)
BGR7 (-30%)ISL4 (0%)NOR39 (-12%)TGO0 (-100%)
CMR1 (0%)IND114 (40%)PAK9 (80%)UKR13 (44%)
CAN113 (-7%)IDN7 (-13%)PAN3 (200%)ARE3 (50%)
CHL4 (0%)IRL31 (-9%)PRY1 (0%)GBR272 (5%)
CHN132 (0%)ISR12 (-15%)PER13 (0%)USA481 (1%)
COL16 (14%)ITA68 (3%)PHL6 (-15%)URY2 (100%)
COD4 (100%)JPN146 (-12%)POL65 (8%)UZB2 (0%)
CRI2 (0%)JOR1 (100%)PRT22 (4%)VEN1 (0%)
CIV1 (0%)KAZ0 (-100%)PRI0 (-100%)VNM5 (0%)
HRV13 (-14%)KEN7 (133%)REU1 (100%)UZB2 (0%)
CZE24 (-20%)KOR54 (-17%)ROU11 (-43%)VEN1 (0%)
DNK47 (4%)LVA1 (-67%)SAU4 (-20%)VNM5 (0%)
DOM3 (-50%)LBN1 (100%)SEN0 (-100%)YEM1 (100%)
ECU4 (0%)LTU6 (200%)SRB7 (40%)
EGY8 (100%)LUX1 (0%)SGP19 (35%)

MVP Awards from 2023 to 2024

The Sankey diagram below displays the number of awarded categories moving from 2023 to 2024 (click to zoom). New awardees are categorized as “New,” and those who are no longer present on the MVP portal (e.g., no longer MVP) are categorized as “Out.” Note that new awardees getting awarded in multiple categories are counted as new for each category; in other words, there are not 632 new MVPs awarded this cycle.

If you have questions or comments, please leave them in the comments below.

Practical PowerShell Series: Part 5


Writing PowerShell scripts can be a fulfilling task. After all, you write something to assist with a task or procedure so you can focus on the result, not the task itself. But what if your script tries to run an action and is unsuccessful, for example, when a user the script attempts to manipulate is invalid or the signed-in account has insufficient permissions to run a cmdlet? And do not forget the peculiarities of the online world, such as a network connection dropping or an authentication token expiring.

This is where one of the often-undervalued aspects of writing resilient and “a less optimistic version” of scripts comes into the picture: exception handling, the topic of the fifth part in the Practical PowerShell series.

Click here to read the full article on Practical 365.

Practical PowerShell Series: Part 4


In the previous article on changing the flow of PowerShell code, I wrote on looping in PowerShell, providing scenarios for when to use what. In the fourth article in the Practical PowerShell series, I talk about code branching.

Topics discussed are the If-Then-Else, Switch (albeit briefly as its use cases are extensive), and stop cmdlets such as break-continue-return-exit. On the side, I will also touch briefly on unary operators.

Click here to read the full article on Practical 365.

Practical PowerShell Series: Part 3


When working with PowerShell and objects such as User in Entra ID or mailboxes in Exchange Online, you might quickly run into scenarios where you might want to repeat a set of instructions for multiple objects. This can happen for example, when configuring mailbox properties for multiple mailboxes. This construct of flow control is called looping.

In the third installment of the Practical PowerShell series, I discuss which types of looping are available in PowerShell and what their typical application is. Topics discussed are For loops, ForEach-Object vs ForEach, and While/Do-While and Do-Until. On the side, I will also touch briefly on casting, the format operator, and running code in parallel using ForEach-Object.

Click here to read the full article on Practical 365.

Hotfix for Exchange 2016 and 2019 (Apr2024)


Today, Microsoft released a hotfix for Exchange Server 2016 and 2016 that will not only fix some issues but, importantly, also add a much-welcomed functionality change: Hybrid Modern Authentication support OWA and ECP. You can deploy the hotfix directly on the Cumulative Update, similar to Security Updates. There is no need to deploy the March 2024 Security Update first.

The Hotfix for each supported Exchange Server build is linked below:

ExchangeDownloadBuildKBSupersedes
Exchange 2019 CU14 HU2Download15.2.1258.34KB5037224KB5036402
Exchange 2019 CU13 HU6Download15.2.1544.11KB5037224KB5036402
Exchange 2016 CU23 HU13Download15.1.2507.39KB5037224KB5036386

HMA support for OWA/ECP

This hotfix adds support for OWA and ECP when used in Hybrid Modern Authentication (HMA). This removes the need to deploy Azure Web Application Proxy for OWA and ECP when you want to deploy HMA. If you already deployed an Azure WebApp Proxy configuration for this purpose, you can choose to remove it after deploying the hotfix and configuring HMA on OWA/ECP. More information on enabling OWA and ECP for HMA support is here.

Caution: if you do not synchronize the identities of (Exchange) administrators to Entra, they will be unable to authenticate against Entra Identity and thus unable to manage Exchange on-premises using ECP. In those cases, they have the option to use Exchange Management Shell or synchronize their identities. Since Entra will be performing the authentication, you can add additional controls, such as location conditions or MFA, for those accounts.

ECC Certificate Support

The hotfix adds support for ECC certificates to Exchange, except for scenarios where Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) is utilized. More information here.

Fixed Issues

The hotfix addresses the following issues, some of which were introduced after deploying the March 2024 SU:

IssueExchange 2016Exchange 2019
Download domains not working after installing the March 2024 SUYesYes
Search error in Outlook cached mode after installing March 2024 SUYesYes
OwaDeepTestProbe and EacBackEndLogonProbe fail after installing March 2024 SUYesYes
Edit permissions option in the ECP can’t be editedYesYes
Outlook doesn’t display unread message icon after installing Exchange Server March 2024 SUYesYes
My Templates add-in isn’t working after installing Microsoft Exchange Server March 2024 SUYesYes

Notes

  • The hotfix is Exchange build level specific. You cannot apply the hotfix for Exchange 2019 CU14 to Exchange 2019 CU13. When downloading, the security update will carry the same name, and I would suggest tagging the file name with the Exchange version and CU when archiving it, e.g., Exchange2019-CU13-KBXXXXXX-x64-en.msp.

On a final note, as with any patch or update, it is recommended to apply this update in a test environment first, prior to implementing it in production.