The Microsoft 365 ecosystem is a big place and it's hard to keep on top of everything. But to start 2022 off with a bang, here are five areas for tenant administrators to consider when they plan how they'll spend their time in the new year. As always, feel free to disagree and add comments describing what you plan to do in 2022.
Microsoft launched the preview of Azure AD custom security attributes on December 1. Custom attributes are well known to Exchange administrators. In this article, we look at how to create and add Azure AD custom security attributes, how to transfer data from Exchange to Azure AD, and how to retrieve information from the attributes. Azure AD custom security attributes have some advantages, but they also have some downsides.
A version checking problem for malware engine signature files caused on-premises Exchange servers to fail to process inbound email. The issue appears to be due to a date validation problem caused when the checking routine couldn't deal with 2022 when the new year rolled around. Microsoft fixed the problem, but the issue poses questions about Microsoft's commitment to on-premises Exchange Server.
Lots happened in 2021. Looking back on events, Tony Redmond has figured out five themes that will influence Microsoft 365 tenants in 2022. You might disagree with the list Tony created (and let us know why). At least it's a prompt to be proactive and think about how developments will affect your tenant operations in 2022.
Microsoft has updated the Teams PowerShell module to allow it to run in a Cloud Shell session. This is good news if you need to run one or two Teams cmdlets without access to your normal workstation, but it's not so good if you expect to run code which runs well in normal PowerShell sessions. The limitations which exist get in the way of getting work done, which is a pity.
Office 365 tenants are now getting to use Loop components in Teams chat. Some are very excited at the new technology; others are less so. It all depends on how you use current composition tools and how easily work habits can embrace ever-changing Loops. In this article, we look at some of the challenges facing user acceptance of dynamic composition as seen in Loops.
On December 1, Microsoft launched Teams Essentials, a new product that isn't connected to Microsoft 365 or Office 365. Teams Essentials looks a lot like Teams Free (launched in 2018). We checked out the functionality available in Teams Free and compared what you can get for nothing against what Microsoft says is available in Teams Essentials for $48/user/year. Small organizations certainly have a choice, and for an extra $12/year, they can get Teams and Microsoft 365.
Like all the other Microsoft 365 administrative consoles, the Teams admin center doesn't have any print options. If you want to print off any kind of information about Teams settings, you need to write your own code. PowerShell makes it easy to create a report about the Microsoft Teams policy assignments for user accounts. In this article, we explain how to extract policy information and generate a HTML report.
Microsoft has released two new features to help Multi-factor authentication for Azure AD accounts work smarter and better. It's possible to implement number matching and additional context for MFA challenges in 30 minutes, and the two increase the security of MFA. It's something that every Microsoft 365 tenant administrator should consider, as we explain here.
Adaptive scopes are a new way to target locations for Microsoft 365 retention policies. Previously, we covered how to use scopes to find users and groups. Now, we move to describe how to use adaptive scopes to find SharePoint Online sites and OneDrive for Business accounts. The process is not quite as easy as it is to create scopes for users and groups, but once you understand how to add custom properties to sites, you're home free and easy. That is, if you have the necessary Office 365 E5 licenses to use adaptive scopes...
Adaptive scopes are a new way to dynamically target sets of locations (sites, users, and groups) for Microsoft 365 retention policies. In this article, we discuss the basics of adaptive scopes and how to build the filters used in the scopes, and then how to use adaptive scopes in retention policies. Adaptive scopes are well suited to the kind of processing needed by large enterprises, which is good because they required Office 365 E5 licenses.
Microsoft has issued security updates for Exchange 2013, 2016, and 2019. The updates can only be applied to servers running up-to-date cumulative updates. Organizations running Exchange 2016 or 2019 should apply the updates as a matter of urgency because of a known vulnerability circulating in the wild.
