What's Trending

Subscribe

Latest Posts

Why Aren’t You Creating Bots for Microsoft Teams?

Why Aren’t You Creating Bots for Microsoft Teams?

Building a bot used to require developer skills - writing complicated code, deploying it to a resource like Azure, and then performing cumbersome configuration steps to ensure it functioned properly. Now, with the Power Virtual Agents (PVA) app for Microsoft Teams, you can create exceptionally powerful chatbots without having to write a single line of code. What’s more, you don’t need direct access to Azure resources to deploy these bots. There’s no reason to not create a bot for your organization today.

September 16, 2021
Microsoft to Retire Old Exchange Admin Center in Office 365 Next Year 3 Comments

Microsoft to Retire Old Exchange Admin Center in Office 365 Next Year

Microsoft plans to retire the now-decrepit and very old EAC on September 1, 2022. The old console has hung on too long, perhaps because Microsoft hasn't progressed the development of its replacement as quickly as they could have since its 2019 debut. Although Microsoft claims that the new EAC reached feature parity with the old some time ago, any examination of the two consoles proves that this is not the case. With that in mind, it seems like Microsoft has some work to do to make everything ready for the big retirement date in 2022.

September 14, 2021
P365 Goes to Commsverse!

P365 Goes to Commsverse!

Mike Weaver, Paul Robichaux and Steve Goodman head to Commsverse on Sept 15 & 16 at Mercedez-Benz World just outside of London, UK. Learn more about the hybrid conference as well as the session that Mike and Paul are hosting together - 'Teams Tenant-to-Tenant Challenges: It Just Keeps Getting Worse!'

September 13, 2021
How Many Channels Should a Team Have?

How Many Channels Should a Team Have?

There's no definitive 'right' or 'wrong' way to structure Teams and channels, however there are some limits and best practices that can be followed to ensure the structures created are easy to use and navigate. This article explores the decision process Team owners can use to assess if a new channel is needed, what type should be used and how to manage large numbers of channels in a team.

September 10, 2021
Microsoft Forces Move from Azure AD Cmdlets for License Management 9 Comments

Microsoft Forces Move from Azure AD Cmdlets for License Management

On June 30, 2022, Azure AD and Microsoft Online Services cmdlets will stop working for license management. The result is that you need to upgrade PowerShell scripts which use these cmdlets. The choice is to use Graph API calls or cmdlets from the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. In this article, we explore the steps necessary to upgrade a script to remove service plans from an Office 365 license (SKU).

September 9, 2021
How to Convert Azure B2B Guest Users to Members While Maintaining User Collaboration 19 Comments

How to Convert Azure B2B Guest Users to Members While Maintaining User Collaboration

Azure B2B guest accounts are often created during a Merger & Acquisition, so teams from both organizations can easily collaborate during the business and technology integration. However, these external users with B2B Guest accounts in their directory will eventually need to be migrated, which is problematic since B2B Guest accounts aren’t recognized as being licensed. The guest account can be removed and a new one created, but previous permissions would be lost. So how do we preserve permissions, keep collaborating without managing two sets of credentials while preparing the user account for data migrations? This article walks you through a solution that can be used in certain situations to help you easily manage the account to meet your needs.

September 8, 2021
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