Sunday, December 31, 2017

Monday, December 25, 2017

Get to know Microsoft 365 Powered Device

Most Organizations today are transforming their Traditional workplace to Modern workplace and embracing Digital transformation. Microsoft 365 is a complete, integrated solution that can support you in this Journey and empower your workforce to be more agile, secure and productive.


This blog post is on the new “Microsoft 365 Powered device”, it’s a device running Windows 10, with Office 365 ProPlus deployed, and managed by Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS).


Microsoft introduced this new “Microsoft 365 Powered device” during Microsoft Ignite 2017 and published an official blog post with detailed information, and showcased the new experience in a Microsoft Mechanics theater session to customers.





Watch the Microsoft Mechanics video here: Deploying andmanaging Microsoft 365 powered devices

Also during the Microsoft Ignite 2017 event, Brad Anderson MSFT CVP  EM+S delivered a session showcasing the full potential of the aforesaid experience covering the new Modern Management experience.


Recently during Microsoft Tech Summit 2017Microsoft team published a deep dive guidance in to Microsoft 365 deployment to help customers to begin their deployment journey.




Watch this Microsoft Mechanics session presented by Jeremy Chapman MSFT, Director Microsoft 365 to begin, where he explains the new Microsoft 365 Powered devices deployment and management in a nut shell: Microsoft 365 Powered Devices –Everything you need to know in 6-minutes




Access the guidance Modules here: Deep Dive into Microsoft365 Deployment

If you have attended the Tech Summit 2017 event you can sign-in and utilize the Hands-on labs available on-demand.

Also you now have the new Microsoft 365 powered device lab kit, which is an updated version of the Windows 10 Deployment and Management lab kit. Use this kit for POC and plan your deployment.



Download the lab kit here: Microsoft 365 powered device lab kit

If you are part of the Microsoft Tech Community follow the Microsoft 365 and Windows 10 Community for latest updates.

Make use of the available resources and introduce the new Microsoft 365 Powered devices in to your Organization and enhance your end users productivity, and Simplify the Admin experience.

Be sure to share your valuable feedback to Microsoft.

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Understand the journey from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams Training

Microsoft team recently published a new training documentation to understand the journey from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams inline with their New Intelligent Communications Vision and explain the future of Skype for Business and Teams.


The key learnings of this tutorial are:
  • Understand the Intelligent communications vision
  • Understand the journey from Skype for Business Online to Teams
  • Understand what actions should be started today

Sunday, December 10, 2017

New Azure Free Account !

Microsoft team recenlty launched the New Azure free Account. This Azure free account includes $200 credit to spend for 30 days and free 25+ Azure products for 12 Months.



Below FAQ article clearly outlines the available free products with complete details on this topic.

Azure Free Account FAQ

Also view the Azure Friday session for more details: Azure Free Account

Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection for SharePoint Online, OneDrive For Business, and Teams reaches GA !

Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection is available for Exchange for quite some time now and recently Microsoft extended the ATP capabilities to files in SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft last week announced the General Availability of Office 365 ATP for SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams.


You can read the Official Announcement here: GA of Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection for SharePoint Online, OneDrive For Business, and Teams

Also Read: Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection for SharePoint, OneDrive and Microsoft Teams now available

Note: Advanced Threat Protection for SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams is not available on-premises. Advanced Threat Protection is included in Office 365 Enterprise E5. If your organization is using another Office 365 Enterprise subscription, Advanced Threat Protection can be purchased as an add-on. (As a global admin, in the Office 365 admin center, choose Billing > Add subscriptions.)

Follow the instructions provided in the support article here to enable Enable ATP and secure your Organization.

Hybrid Modern Authentication (HMA) is now available for Exchange On-Premises and Skype for Business

Hybrid Modern Authentication (HMA) is now available for Exchange On-Premises and Skype for Business. Hybrid Modern Authentication provides users ability to access On-premises applications using Auth tokens obtain from the cloud (Azure AD). HMA allows to leverage Azure AD capabilities like MFA, Conditional Access across both On premises and Cloud seamlessly.

You can read this blog post to know how HMA works: Deep Dive: How Hybrid Authentication Really Works

Below are the Official Posts on the HMA availability for Exchange On premises and Skype for Business.

Exchange On-Premises



Read here: Announcing Hybrid Modern Authentication for Exchange On-Premises

Skype for Business





Read here: Hybrid Modern Authentication for Skype for Business   

Following are the updates required for HMA to get enabled for Exchange On-premises and Skype for Business.
  • Skype for Business Server (SfB) 2015 May 2017 cumulative update supports Hybrid Modern Authentication (HMA).
  • Hybrid Modern Authentication (HMA) is available with next set of Cumulative updates for Exchange 2013 and 2016 that's CU8 for Exchange Server 2016, and CU19 for Exchange Server 2013.
Read the support article provides the complete set of prerequisites here: Hybrid Modern Authentication overview and prerequisites for using it with on-premises Skype for Business and Exchange servers

Stay tuned for more updates...

First Release becomes Targeted Release in Office 365

To experience the latest features released, updates and changes made to Office 365 Service most Organizations opt in for First release program to validate the features and provide feedback to Microsoft Product team before its made available as a Standard release.

Microsoft team recently renamed the First Release Program as Targeted release and published the support article that covers this change with key updates.



Access the support article here: Set up the Standard or Targeted release options in Office 365

Official Tech Community Announcement here: Enable “Targeted Release” in Office 365 to receive updates first (formerly known as "First Release")

Its advisable to opt in for Targeted release in the Test tenant if you have a large user base, or opt in only for selected users in the Primary tenant if no Test tenant is available.