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Why Microsoft’s Workload-Agnostic Retention Strategy Sometimes Comes Up Short for Email 7 Comments

Why Microsoft’s Workload-Agnostic Retention Strategy Sometimes Comes Up Short for Email

Microsoft would like Office 365 tenants to use Microsoft 365 retention policies instead of Exchange Online mailbox retention policies. Their stance is reasonable because Microsoft's engineering effort is focused on workload-agnostic retention across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. However, mailbox retention policies continue to offer some advantages that aren't available in the Microsoft 365 equivalent. And they're cheaper too because they don't need Office 365 E3 or E5 licenses.

September 7, 2021
Cybersecurity Paradigms – Is Remote Work a Hacker’s Paradise?

Cybersecurity Paradigms – Is Remote Work a Hacker’s Paradise?

The cybersecurity paradigm is built on being prepared for the unexpected. Organizations have long relied on strategies like employee training, security procedures and IT solutions help defend against cyber threats. Therefore, it’s imperative for organizations to rethink their security strategies with remote work and the current threat landscape firmly in mind. Paula's talk at TEC, Hacker’s Paradise: Top 10 Biggest Threats when Working from Home, will provide a deep analysis of the top threats to pay attention to, along with practical recommendations for both technical teams and decision makers.

August 31, 2021
Why can’t you remove the last Exchange Server? 12 Comments

Why can’t you remove the last Exchange Server?

So, you've completed your migration to Exchange Online. Email flows smoothly into and out of the cloud, and all your mailboxes are now online. What's next for your Exchange Servers, now that you've made the transition? After completion you will have several tasks to perform to remove Exchange Servers from your environment, but there is one important caveat you need to know about; if you run Azure AD Connect then you can't remove every Exchange Server from your environment. You will need to keep at least one around for management purposes. In this article, I'll walk through what you can do to minimise what you keep and need to maintain, and what you can consider planning for in the future. You can also join me at TEC this week, on September 2nd.

August 30, 2021
Teams Advanced Communications Add-on (Version 2) Ready to Go 4 Comments

Teams Advanced Communications Add-on (Version 2) Ready to Go

After a false start in 2020, Microsoft is coming back with version 2 of the Teams Advanced Communications add-on. The documentation lists four new capabilities. You'll have to make your mind up whether these features are worth whatever Microsoft asks for in terms of add-on pricing. We probably won't have that information until the preview phase of the features terminates at the end of 2021. I can't wait!

August 26, 2021
Manage Exchange Online at Scale

Manage Exchange Online at Scale

Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) and Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) Ingo Gegenwarth provides a glimpse into his speaking session at TEC and how to manage ExO at scale with PowerShell.

August 23, 2021
Unpatched Exchange Servers Remain at Risk
Exchange hybrid migrations

Unpatched Exchange Servers Remain at Risk

It's incredible, but reports still come in to prove that thousands of unpatched Exchange on-premises servers remain connected to the internet. New reports indicate that servers continue to be attacked and that thousands of vulnerable servers remain available as hacking targets. It's time to either get patched or move to the cloud.

August 21, 2021
Microsoft to Increase Prices for Office 365 and Microsoft 365 in March 2022 7 Comments

Microsoft to Increase Prices for Office 365 and Microsoft 365 in March 2022

After a decade of no price increases for Office 365 licenses, Microsoft plans to introduce new pricing effective March 1, 2022. The uplifts range from $3 to $4 extra per user per month. This doesn't sound much, but an extra $36 per user per year for Office 365 E3 quickly mounts up. And when you look at the overall installed base, some eyewatering numbers are involved. While we might complain about increases, I still think Office 365 and Microsoft 365 are reasonable value.

August 19, 2021
Teams Consumer Gets a New Boss Just in Time to Deliver Windows 11 Client

Teams Consumer Gets a New Boss Just in Time to Deliver Windows 11 Client

Microsoft has hired a new boss to lead development of Teams consumer. This is the version bundled in Windows 11 based on a new client architecture. But as we explain here, while Microsoft will ship a nice new consumer Teams client in Windows 11, there's a bunch of work to be done to ship an enterprise Teams client built on the new architecture. Don't expect this client to appear when Windows 11 ships.

August 19, 2021
How to Control Sending Email to Teams Channels 46 Comments

How to Control Sending Email to Teams Channels

If allowed by your organization, you can send email to a Teams channel. Teams uses the email to start a new conversation and this is a great way to get a debate going about something which first appears in email. Managing the Teams email integration features isn't hard. You can define domains to accept email from and enable or disable the feature. After that, it's up to team members to use the capability. Hopefully, they'll resist the temptation to remove email addresses from channels, which is something which should be limited to team owners.

August 18, 2021
Microsoft 365 Support for IE11 Stops Today 2 Comments

Microsoft 365 Support for IE11 Stops Today

From August 17, 2021, Microsoft 365 apps no longer support IE11 (the Teams browser client dropped support last year). IE11 fans need to move to a new browser. Microsoft would prefer if you choose the Edge browser, but anything but IE11 should do a better job in the future.

August 17, 2021