Author: Tony Redmond

Latest Articles

Slow Start for the New Planner

In April, Microsoft launched the new Planner, complete with a new Planner app for Teams. The makeover is nice and the ability to create personal plans is appreciated. However, Planner Premium licenses are needed to access any of the Project on the web features that the new Planner is absorbing.

June 13, 2024

Experimenting with PowerShell Batching and Parallel Execution

PowerShell Parallel Processing is a mechanism to speed the processing of large quantities of data. In this example, we discuss how to use parallel batches to fetch Entra ID account information using mailbox data to drive information retrieval. Although this is only a demonstration of a technique, it might help those who must process thousands of mailboxes or accounts and would like to do so more quickly.

June 12, 2024

Microsoft 365 Archive Could Help SharePoint Online Cope with Digital Debris

Microsoft 365 Archive is a solution to move SharePoint Online sites from hot to cold (less expensive) storage. It works well, and it comes with an added benefit in that archived sites are inaccessible to Copilot. In other words, you can make sure that Copilot doesn't process old and obsolete material by archiving sites that contain this type of content. Seems like a no-brainer.

May 20, 2024

Exchange Server Subscription Edition Arrives in Summer 2025

Microsoft has announced that Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) will appear in summer 2025. You'll be able to do an inplace upgrade from Exchange Server 2019 CU15 or a "legacy upgrade" (hardware switchover) for other versions. The initial version of Exchange Server SE is unexciting, perhaps deliberately so. It's all about getting customers to transition to the subscription model.

May 7, 2024

Restricted SharePoint Search is The Legacy of Previous Microsoft Collaboration Strategies

Microsoft has been forced to introduce restricted SharePoint search to allow customers to deploy Copilot for Microsoft 365 projects without worrying that Copilot will find and reuse information from across the entire tenant. It's a sad legacy of previous Microsoft collaboration strategies, notably the decision to allow users to create groups without hindrance.

April 30, 2024

Using Entra ID Support for Passkey Authentication with Microsoft 365

Entra ID supports passkeys as an authentication method. In fact, support is a variation of the existing FIDO2 authentication method using device-bound passkeys managed by the Microsoft Authenticator app. Passkeys are a strong phishing-proof authentication method. The question is whether the current implementation will be considered too complicated by regular users.

April 23, 2024

Translating SharePoint Online Documents

SharePoint Translation is a SharePoint Premium service that can translate the content of Office documents and PDF files to the languages supported by the Microsoft Translator service. Be careful about the costs, which can be heavy if you process large documents.

April 9, 2024