In Season 4 Episode 14 of the Practical 365 podcast, Rich Dean joins me, Steve Goodman, to discuss the upcoming Experts Conference (TEC) European Roadshow, the retirement of EWS Application Impersonation in Exchange Online, and the release of Exchange On-Premises Cumulative Updates.
Plus, we welcome Becky Cross, a Technical Product Manager at Quest Software, to discuss the various paths organizations can take when moving from hybrid or traditional Active Directory setups to Entra ID.
EWS Application Impersonation Will Retire in Exchange Online
Microsoft announced that Exchange Web Services (EWS) Application Impersonation, a feature that allows applications to impersonate users and access their mailboxes, will be retired in Exchange Online. This change will affect applications that rely on EWS to perform tasks such as email archiving, journaling, or migration.
According to Microsoft, new assignments to the ApplicationImpersonation role will be blocked starting from May 2024, and the role and feature will be removed entirely in February 2025. Applications that use EWS Application Impersonation will need to register in Entra ID using a secure credential and consent model, and eventually use the Graph API instead of EWS to access mailboxes.
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Exchange On-Premises Cumulative Updates Released
Microsoft has announced the release of the Exchange Server 2019 H1 Cumulative Update (also known as CU14). This update includes security fixes, bug fixes, and improvements for Exchange Server 2019. One of the notable changes in this update is that Extended Protection for Authentication (EPA) is enabled by default for all Exchange Web Services (EWS) applications. This feature helps protect against man-in-the-middle attacks by requiring an additional layer of authentication.
Before you apply this update, you should check the prerequisites and potential issues that may affect your environment. For example, if you use SSL offloading for EWS, you need to configure your load balancer to support EPA. Otherwise, you may experience errors or failures when accessing EWS. Also, if you use Modern Hybrid Authentication (MHA) with Exchange Online, you need to make sure that your on-premises Exchange servers are compatible with MHA. You can find more information and guidance on how to prepare for this update on the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog.
Hybrid Identity Migration: Becky Cross Joins us on the Practical 365 Podcast
How do you make the switch from hybrid or traditional Active Directory setups to Entra ID without disrupting your operations or compromising your data? To answer this question, we invited a special guest on the show.
We welcome Becky Cross, a seasoned Technical Product Manager at Quest Software and Practical365 blogger, who brings her expertise in Exchange, Active Directory, and Tenant to Tenant migration solutions to the fore. In this episode, we delve into the various paths organizations can take when moving from hybrid or classic AD setups to Entra ID. Becky will shed light on the considerations for updating versus resetting devices to ensure a smooth transition, emphasizing minimal disruption and maximum efficiency.
Azure OpenAI features for Microsoft 365: “On Your Data” is Released & Preview Opens of In-app Connectors for Logic Apps
Microsoft has launched Azure OpenAI “on your data” features with links to Microsoft 365, making it easier to use Azure services to make Copilot plugins. You can connect Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search with data sources like Data Lake, SQL, and SharePoint, and use them to search, summarize, or extract information from documents.
In related news, OpenAI connectors arrive in Logic Apps, a service for automating workflows across applications and services, which has a lot in common with Power Automate and includes many of the same Microsoft 365 connectors. On the show, we discuss some use cases where you could apply this directly in your environment, such as using a trigger on document upload to SharePoint Document library to initiate a Logic App to summarise the contents.
Viva Insights is the Home for Copilot Adoption Metrics & Viva Pulse & Glint Get Capabilities for Impact Surveys
One of the challenges of deploying Copilot in enterprise settings is measuring its impact on productivity, collaboration, and employee satisfaction. To help organizations assess the value of Copilot, Microsoft has integrated survey tools into Viva Insights, the platform for workplace analytics and insights. Viva Insights includes Viva Pulse and Viva Glint, two services that allow managers and employees to create and respond to surveys about their work experience, well-being, and engagement.
Viva Pulse offers ready-made survey templates for Copilot adoption metrics, such as frequency of use, perceived benefits, and feedback. Viva Glint provides more comprehensive and customizable survey options, including recurring surveys that track Copilot sentiment over time.
By the end of July 2024, Copilot users will be able to see their survey results and recommendations in the Copilot Dashboard, which is part of Viva Insights and replaces the PowerBI version.
Join us in two weeks’ time for the next episode, and the last show before TEC Europe returns, where I’ll be joined by Paul Robichaux. Until then, don’t forget to subscribe either on iTunes or Spotify.
TEC Talk: Protecting Privileged User and Workload Identities in Entra ID
Join Thomas Naunheim’s Free Webinar on March 7th @ 11 AM EST.
