Tuesday, October 27, 2015

MVA Learning: Core Concepts of Skype for Business Server 2015

Skype for Business Server 2015 is gaining momentum and multiple customers started to adopt or migrate to the latest Microsoft communication platform. If you are currently working on a new roll-out or working on a migration project, then this Microsoft Virtual Academy course is an essential resource to your learning road-map and also assisting you in preparing for the latest Microsoft Exam 70-334 ("Core Solutions of Microsoft Skype for Business 2015") 



Below are the topics covered in the series,

1 | Overview of Skype for Business Server 2015

2 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Planning and Design Process

3 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Setup and Management

4 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Client and Device Deployment and Management

5 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Conferencing Concepts

6 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Conferencing Interoperability

7 | Skype for Business Server 2015 External Access

8 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Persistent Chat

9 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Monitoring and Archiving

10 | Skype for Business Server 2015 High Availability

11 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Disaster Recovery

12 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Migration

13 | Skype for Business Server 2015 Hybrid Scenarios

Access the course here: Core Concepts of Skype for Business Server 2015

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Active Directory from on-premises to the cloud – Azure AD whitepapers now Available!!!

Identity management is the key for every Organization, Microsoft Azure AD is enhanced in such away that it addresses every need of the customers with advanced set new features and innovations occur rapidly day by day.When you extend your On premises AD infrastructure to the cloud and deploy an Hybrid model you can manage and take advantage of both the AD environment seamlessly.



Microsoft team published the below Whitepapers for ease of understanding of various rich features a available with Azure AD and the benefit you will get when you extend or bridge your On premises to the cloud.

Below are the series of whitepapers available for download


  • Active Directory from the on-premises to the cloud.
  • An overview of Azure AD.
  • An overview of Azure AD B2C.
  • Introducing Azure AD B2B collaboration.
  • Azure AD & Windows 10: Better together for Work or School.
  • Azure AD/Office 365 single sign-on with AD FS in Windows Server 2012 R2.
  • Azure AD/Office 365 single sign-on with Shibboleth 2.
  • Leverage Multi-Factor Authentication with Azure AD.
  • Leverage Multi-Factor Authentication Server on your premises.
  • Leverage Azure AD for modern Business Applications.


To know about what each whitepaper contains refer the description or you can review the below excellent presentation from Microsoft using the new Office Sway

View Sway presentation here: Active Directory from on-premises to the cloud – Azure AD whitepapers

Download the whitepapers here: Active Directory from on-premises to the cloud – Azure AD whitepapers

Friday, October 23, 2015

Skype for Business—IT Pro video broadcast series

Check out the latest Office Blogs post for the day, Its the new learning video series for Skype for Business for IT Pros powered by Skype Meeting Broadcast. This is a great resource added to the product learning and all you need to do is to join the the Skype for Business IT Pro yammer community.


Access the Official Blog post to know more: Skype for Business—IT Pro video broadcast series goes live

Also I would recommend that, you can Join the Office 365 Network and search for your relevant group and join the technical discussion to gain more insight on the product and enhance your technical skills and also a key place to share your queries for answers and vice versa.

If you are Microsoft partneryou have access to Skype for Business Online Academy courses for advanced learning.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Skype for Business Server, Real-Time Statistics Manager now Available

Monitoring server performance and health is quite critical, Microsoft Skype for Business server 2015 has an in-built management tool called Statistics Manager for Skype for Business Server 2015, a powerful tool that allows you to view Skype for Business Server health and performance data in real time.



You can download the tool here:Skype for Business Server, Real-Time Statistics Manager (64-bit)

Read the planning and deployment guide for more information.

Update:

Read the below excellent walk-through post on Statistics manager installation from Mark Vale's Blog

Skype for Business – Statistics Manager (Installation Guide)

Office Mechanics becomes Microsoft Mechanics

Microsoft team launched Office Garage series quite some time before to provide real-time demo videos of latest Microsoft innovations in Office 365 and later it got renamed to Office Mechanics and covered a vast majority of topics from Office Server and services product line, to further expand this with additional technologies, a new unified name has been chosen which addresses everything this show will be hosting as "Microsoft Mechanics".



Review the Official Blog post here: Office Mechanics is expanding to become Microsoft Mechanics

If you are new to this show, I would recommend you to review the archive of videos from the Official YouTube channel to stay a head with the new innovations from Microsoft.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Azure Active Directory PowerShell with Modern Authentication

Microsoft team recently released the public preview of Modern Authentication to the Azure Active Directory PowerShell Module, Now this new update removes the dependency of Microsoft Online Services Sign-In assistant and utilizes the new modern authentication model using Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL).


You can review the Connect site for more updates, this includes changes to the way we connect to the service along with other enhancements etc.

Access here to know more: Azure Active Directory PowerShell with Modern Authentication

Be sure to read the release notes for more updates.

Also recently we had the Azure PowerShell 1.0 Preview release to manage Azure.

Read the product documentation to know more: How to install and configure Azure PowerShell

Update:

Here comes the Official announcement from Microsoft team regarding the Public preview of Azure AD PowerShell with Modern authentication.

Azure AD PowerShell: Public Preview of support for Azure MFA + new Device Management Commands

Update:

Here is Quick demo from my experience.

I installed the new AAD PowerShell module, Next we are going to connect to the service using an admin account enabled for MFA.

You can refer my earlier blog post, Let's Learn Azure Multi-Factor Authentication today!!! to know about Azure MFA .

Here is the new sign-in experience



Once second factor authentication is successfully completed, I am connected to the service and able to manage my tenant.



Play around with this new product and share your feedback in connect site for betterment before it reaches GA.

Access the Version Release history here: Microsoft Azure Active Directory PowerShell Module Version Release History

Friday, October 16, 2015

Exchange 2016 Saga Continues!!!

After the release of Exchange Server 2016 RTM, Microsoft Exchange team now started to publish their guidance one after the other and in series, we now have the Sizing guidance for Exchange 2016 and also the renowned Exchange Mailbox Server Role requirements calculator is updated for Exchange Server 2016 deployments.


Access the below EHLO Blog posts to know more:

Ask the Perf Guy: Sizing Exchange 2016 Deployments

Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator Update

Earlier I wrote blog posts to curate the guidance articles published earlier and you can access the below

Exchange Server 2016 now Available!!!

Exchange Server 2016 Namespace planning !!!

Exchange Server 2016 Load Balancing!!!

Exchange 2016 Preferred Architecture Now Available!!!

Update: 

Review the new Client Connectivity articles

Client Connectivity in an Exchange 2016 Coexistence Environment with Exchange 2010

Client Connectivity in an Exchange 2016 Coexistence Environment with Exchange 2013

Client Connectivity in an Exchange 2016 Coexistence Environment with Exchange 2013

Update:

One more great feature for Exchange Server 2016 Hybrid customers is now available

Modern Attachments for Exchange 2016 Hybrid Customers

Watch out for more articles, now made available in the community and share your experience.

Stay tuned for More updates...




Microsoft Ignite 2016 moves to Atlanta!!!

Microsoft unified event " Microsoft Ignite" new dates are announced for 2016, Earlier this conference was scheduled to occur in May 2016 in Chicago and now moved to late September ( 26-30, 2016) in Atlanta, GA.


Officially Microsoft updated this information in The Official Microsoft Blog along with the line up of great events for the year 2016.

Access the announcement here: Microsoft’s 2016 event lineup

Navigate to the Microsoft Ignite site to gain access to the new updates and pre-register your reserve your seats with a special discounted price for a limited period of time.

Pre-register here: Pre-register for Microsoft Ignite

Update:

Standard Registration Opened for Microsoft Ignite, start reserving your seats soon.

Review here: Microsoft Ignite 2016: Registration is open—sign up now

Update:

Access Microsoft Ignite 2016 Session CatalogMicrosoft Ignite Sessions


Microsoft Skype for Business Basic Client now Available!!!

Microsoft team finally released the basic version of Skype for Business client. Skype for Business full client is available with Office 2013 and Office 365 subscription that includes Skype for Business online. Now, this basic client can be downloaded directly and installed to the user machines.




Download 32 Bit here: Microsoft Skype for Business Basic (32 Bit)

Download 64 Bit here: Microsoft Skype for Business Basic (64 Bit)

Review the Comparison table below to know what are the features available with the Basic client in comparison with Skype for Business client.

Compare here: Client comparison tables for Skype for Business Server 2015

Quick preview of the new client experience,


Ensure that you install appropriate version of client to your machine, if you are running a 32 bit version of Office Applications ensure that you install the 32 bit client.

Be sure to review the Support Article to know how to troubleshoot sign-in issues with Skype for business Online

Access here: How to troubleshoot sign-in issues in Skype for Business Online

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Azure AD Domain Services is now in Public Preview

Microsoft Azure now gets innovations added at a rapid rate, Today we have one more significant announcement  with the availability of "Azure AD Domain Services" currently in public preview that takes Azure AD to the next level by make us use Azure AD as a cloud domain controller.



Additionally, take a look at the new Azure AD and Identity Show: Azure AD Domain Services Preview

Update: 

New enhancements to AzureAD Domain Services

Update:

Exactly after an year from the Public preview, Azure AD Domain Services now goes GA 



Access the Official Announcement here: AzureAD Domain Services is now GA! Lift and shift to the cloud just got WAY easier!

Utilize the resources and plan your deployments.

Update:

Microsoft team recently announced the Public preview of Azure AD Domain Services in the new Azure portal. You can now create new managed AD domains and perform administrative tasks like configuring secure LDAP using the Azure portal.

Know more here: New Public Preview: Azure AD Domain Services admin UX in the new Azure Portal

Update:

New public preview of Azure AD Domain Services support for virtual networks created using the Azure Resource Manager deployment model is now available, this public preview release makes deployment of Azure AD Domain Services much easier.

Access the Official Blog post to know more: New public preview: Azure AD Domain Services support for Azure Resource Manager virtual networks

Follow the AD Team Blog for more updates...

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Office Delve for Office 365 admins

Office Delve is one of the cool features for Office 365 customers and lot of Organizations are already using Delve. As an Office 365 Administrator its good to have a resource that assist us to know more on the topic and also help us to guide our end users with adequate steps to do more with delve effectively.


Microsoft team published the Support article for Administrators with required information handy and this whereto post is written to take you to the place for better Management of Office Delve.

Access here: Office Delve for Office 365 admins

Exchange 2016 Preferred Architecture Now Available!!!

After the launch of Exchange Server 2016 RTM, Microsoft Exchange team started to update their product documentation and also published new planning guides for successful Exchange Server 2016 deployment.


Now in series, we have the most important guidance published on the EHLO blog on Exchange Server 2016 Preferred Architecture.

Microsoft team clearly stated that PA is their recommendation and still you can design your environment as per your requirement. Ensure that you read this guidance to gain additional insight that helps you for a successful deployment.

 "The Preferred Architecture (PA) is the Exchange Engineering Team’s best practice recommendation for what we believe is the optimum deployment architecture for Exchange 2016, and one that is very similar to what we deploy in Office 365".

Access the Post here: Exchange 2016 Preferred Architecture

Monday, October 12, 2015

Availability of Office 365 from local datacenters in India

Microsoft team recently launched Azure DataCenters in India, Now we have one more exciting aannouncement that Office 365 services will now be delivered in India from the local datacenters in Mumbai, Pune and Chennai.



More Organizations in India are already using Office 365 and now having local datacenters provide more enhanced experience.

Review the Official announcement here: Announcing the availability of Office 365 from local datacenters in India

Let's Learn Azure Multi-Factor Authentication today!!!

Multi-factor Authentication is critical in today's world. Many Organizations already adopted this model from a long time and today's blog post is written to provide you with some essential resources with a Quick demo to experience the benefits of Azure MFA.



What is Azure Multi-Factor Authentication?

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a method of authentication that requires the use of more than one verification method and adds a critical second layer of security to user sign-ins and transactions. It works by requiring any two or more of the following verification methods:
  • Something you know (typically a password)
  • Something you have (a trusted device that is not easily duplicated, like a phone)
  • Something you are (biometrics)                              



Multi-factor authentication is a method of verifying who you are that requires the use of more than just a username and password. It provides a second layer of security to user sign-ins and transactions.
Azure Multi-Factor Authentication helps safeguard access to data and applications while meeting user demand for a simple sign-in process. It delivers strong authentication via a range of easy verification options—phone call, text message, or mobile app notification or verification code and 3rd party OATH tokens.

How it works ?




Get your answers here :  Azure MFA Overview

Read the complete information available in each section on this  above article

Methods available for multi-factor authentication
  • phone call
  • text message
  • mobile app notification—allowing users to choose the method they prefer
  • mobile app verification code
  • 3rd party OATH tokens
Available versions of Azure Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365
  • Multi-Factor Authentication for Azure Administrators
  • Azure Multi-Factor Authentication
Check what is available with each version before you adopt the MFA using
  • Feature comparison of versions Section
How to get Azure Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Purchase Azure Multi-Factor Authentication licenses and assign them to your users.
  • Purchase licenses that have Azure Multi-Factor Authentication bundled within them such as Azure Active Directory Premium, Enterprise Mobility Suite or Enterprise Cloud Suite and assign them to your users.
  • Create an Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Provider within an Azure subscription. 
Billing options 
  • Per user or Per Authentication model
Be sure to read to know the Pricing 

Most important part to review is to adopt the best one for your needs

Choose the multi-factor security solution for you : 
On premises or cloud


These are the basics to begin your learning.

Microsoft has provided great documentation articles as one of the essential resources when you begin your learning with Azure MFA.

For Office 365 below is the essential one


Currently we have about 40 documentation available on the Azure MFA topic and you can access them below


Some vital articles to read for a successful MFA deployment
  • Directory integration between Azure MFA Server and Active Directory
  • Getting started with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication and Active Directory Federation Services
  • Getting started with the Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server
  • Securing cloud resources with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication and AD FS
  • Secure cloud and on-premises resources using Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server with AD FS 2.0
  • Secure cloud and on-premises resources using Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server with Windows Server 2012 R2 AD FS
  • Azure Multi-Factor Authentication FAQ
Update:

Review the new Security Best practices article for Azure MFA


More Organizations already use ADFS to secure their environment and now with MFA it adds more one more layer of strong authentication to provide a highly secure access to end users without compromising the Organization's Information Security.

Once you are done with the documentations, you can view some demos with deep dive discussion from Microsoft Virtual Academy course intended on this topic




Its now time for a Quick demo walk-through with my own experience.

I have setup MFA in the cloud and chose Azure Multi-factor authentication for my Office 365 users.

*You can Setup MFA from Office 365 Portal for free and additionally you don't need create a Authentication provider as shown below, I am planning to use some advanced features so, explicitly selected Azure MFA in Cloud for demo.

Also Azure MFA comes as a part of your Azure AD premium and EMS. For this demo I am using the MFA Authentication provider .

Here is the Azure portal view showing my Multi-Factor Authentication Provider


I have selected a test account and configured the Authentication contact info with my Mobile number



Already my test account is enforced for MFA and below is the snapshot




If I navigate to the Service Settings, I have options to configure App passwords, Skip multi-factor authentication for federated users in the intranet and also Suspend MFA for remembered devices.




Since I have already configured the Azure Multi-Factor Authentication as Authentication provider, I can take advantages of the advanced features.

I can Navigate to the MFA portal by accessing the Go to the Portal Hyperlink

  

For Instance I am showing an example of Usage Reports, I can generate the report for a set of time frame for analysis.
  


More options are available and the above one is an example.

Lets get in to the end user experience, My user is trying to access his Office 365 Webmail and below is the experience he gets before successfully authenticates to his inbox.




If you take a look at the steps Pic 4 Indicates the user is authenticating for the call he received and after successful authentication he will be accessing his inbox, which is shown in Pic 9.

voluntarily failed the authentication to show you the another method, using Text message with the Verification code.

In Pic 5 the authentication is failed and user is provided with alternative options in Pic 6 I am selecting the Text Me option and successfully receiving the code in the next pics and finally accessing my Inbox.

This is a pretty regular experience with Azure MFA, we can do more than this and hope this one is good with a quick demo.

Note: Selecting Alternative authentication method when primary authentication method failed shown above is available by default in Azure MFA. The same experience was not available in On premises Azure MFA Server, until the recent MFA server version 7.0.0 released with this feature inclusion.

Update:

Review the below excellent office blog post showcasing end user experience with MFA

Sign in to Office 365 with a second verification method

Up Next, We have the Office 2013 device apps now support multi-factor authentication through the use of the Active Directory Authenticaton Library (ADAL). Currently this is in preview and you can test this by enabling Modern authentication for your tenant.

You can refer the Plan for multi-factor authentication for Office 365 Deployments guide for more details on the topic.

Update:

Modern Authentication reaches GA

Updated Office 365 modern authentication public preview

Before I conclude, I want to share you with one more great TechNet blog post, I came across recently that is pretty new and shows us how to use MFA Support for Windows Azure Active Directory PowerShell Module.


Hope this write-up is quite useful for readers to know Azure MFA a bit better with the curation of various resources under a single window with bits of my own experience and learning.

Update:

Microsoft AD team is publishing Azure AD Mailbag series with rich set of information on Azure AD. We also have the MFA Q & A available as a part of the series.

I recently came across this excellent walk through from one of the MFA Q & A series, that makes you understand the logic flow of AD FS and MFA Server as it works with Azure AD.




Access here: Azure AD Mailbag: MFA Q&A, Round 3!

Additionally read the Q&A Round 4 here for more Scenarios : Azure AD Mailbag: MFA Q&A, Round 4!

I would recommend you to read the complete series and stay update.

Update:

If you are using Azure MFA Server On premise, make sure you review the release history below,  and ensure that you stay with the current version to get the new benefits

Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server release notes

Update:

Read the below Technical documentation when you are planning to upgrade your MFA Server.

Read here: Upgrade to the latest Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server

Also read the below post from fellow MVP Brian Reid for additional reference.

Access here: Upgrading Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server

Update:

A new  Azure multi-factor authentication (MFA) cheat sheet.is available now from Kloud Blog created by Lucian Franghiu.

Access here: Azure multi-factor authentication (MFA) cheat sheet

Update:

Read the below Excellent Blog post from MVP Sander Berkouwer to know more about Azure MFA server

Ten Things you need to know about Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server

Update:

AzureAD: Remember my MFA is now GA!


Update:

A nice summary of MFA Call Results with Reasons that you can refer and analyze the logs, when you troubleshoot issues with MFA failures.

Access here: MFA Call Results

Update:

Preview of Azure AD Conditional Access policies for Exchange and SharePoint Online is now available. These policies can be used to require multi-factor authentication (MFA) or block access based on network location.

Read here to know more: AzureAD Conditional Access for Office365 Exchange & SharePoint preview!

Microsoft recommend enabling these polices alongside risk based Conditional Access policy available with Azure AD Identity Protection.

You can read my blog post covering key updates on Azure AD Identity Protection  along with Azure Security Center here: Azure AD Identity Protection Public Preview and Azure Security Center Overview

Update:

AzureAD device based Conditional Access Policies now in preview

AzureAD Conditional Access Policies for iOS, Android and Windows are in Preview!

Update:

Azure AD Conditional Access is now GA 

Take look at my new blog post to know more : Protect your data at the front door with conditional access

Update:

Review the below Excellent blog post from Kloud Blog to know how On premises MFA Authentication works with ADFS when you have Conditional Access Policies configured in Azure AD.

Using ADFS on-premises MFA with Azure AD Conditional Access

Update:

Read my latest Blog post to know about the new "NPS extension for Azure MFA" that extends your cloud-based Azure Multi-Factor Authentication features into your on-premises infrastructure

Access here: NPS Extension for Azure MFA reaches general availability !

Update:

Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Configuration settings are now available in the Azure Portal (in Public Preview), Read the below Blog post to know more:

Configure Azure Multi-Factor Authentication settings in Azure Portal - Public preview

Update:

Access the updated conditional access documentation here: Azure AD Conditional Access Documentation

Update:

Outages are unexpected and Azure AD is not an exception and its always good to be prepared to manage the situation during such scenarios.

Access the new documentation from Microsoft team to know how to manage emergency accounts here: Manage emergency access accounts in Azure AD

Update:

Long waited combined registration for Azure AD MFA and Self Service password is now available

Access here for more details: Combined registration for Azure AD MFA and Self Service Password Reset plus two other cool updates now in public preview

Update:

Combined MFA and password reset registration is now generally available


Stay tuned for more updates...

Friday, October 09, 2015

Azure Active Directory and Identity show on Channel 9

Microsoft team is innovating new features to their product line at a rapid rate, Azure is one of the key areas where lot of new exciting features are introduced day by day and to stay tuned with all the recent updates keep an eye on the Microsoft Azure Blog.



Identity and access management is a critical component in any deployment and with the advent of Azure AD Microsoft expanded this to a new level.

Microsoft team launced the "Azure Active Directory and Identity show" on Channel 9 hosted by well know Microsoft Corporate IT Technical Evangelist Simon May and the AzureAD team to learn the newest innovations in Microsoft IAM technology.

Currently we have four great videos on the series and lot to come in the upcoming days
  • Azure AD and Identity Show: 10 Ways to Secure Productivity with Azure AD
  • Azure AD and Identity Show: Azure AD B2B Collaboration (Business to Business)
  • Azure AD and Identity Show: Azure AD Join in Windows 10
  • Azure AD and Identity Show: Azure AD B2C (Business to Consumer)

Access the new Series here: Azure Active Directory and Identity Show

Thursday, October 08, 2015

Office Blogs: The Evolution of Microsoft FastTrack - The Customer Success Service

Microsoft team launched Office 365 FastTrack Onboarding center last year September 2014 to assist customers to migrate to Office 365 with free support and now after assisting vast group of customers, Microsoft team announced the evolution of FastTrack from an onboarding service to our customer success service designed to help customers to realize business value faster with the Microsoft Cloud.





Microsoft team made FastTrack from a one-time benefit to an ongoing benefit. This enables customers to request support in onboarding new users and capabilities at any time, and as many times as needed, for the life of the subscription.

Most significant announcement is the support for new products as addition.

Key extract,

In addition, we are expanding FastTrack to now offer customized support and resources across envisioning, onboarding and driving business value. This builds on our announcement earlier this year around the addition of new products to the FastTrack onboarding services, including the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), Azure Active Directory Premium, Intune and Azure Rights Management.

Review the Official announcement here:  The Evolution of Microsoft FastTrack - The Customer Success Service

Visit FastTrack.microsoft.com to get started today

As always follow Office 365 Roadmap to learn more about upcoming changes

To know more read the FAQ section and if you are planning for an Office 365 migration then this new benefit will add more value to your road-map.

Join the YamJam on Tuesday, October 13 from 9–10 a.m. PDT on the Office 365 Network to get your queries answered.

Hope this key announcement will make most of the Organizations delightful and enhance the adoption rate.

Update:

You can now Migrate your file shares into OneDrive for Business with help from FastTrack

Access FastTrack Center Benefit Overview for more updates.

Happy Onboarding...

Exchange Server 2016 Load Balancing!!!

Today next to Namespace planning guidance for Exchange Server 2016, Microsoft Exchange team published the Load Balancing guide for Exchange Server 2016, As with Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Server 2016 does not require session affinity at the load balancing layer.


key scenario includes

Single Namespace / Layer 4 (No Session Affinity)
Single Namespace / Layer 7 (No Session Affinity)
Single Namespace / Layer 7 (Session Affinity)
Multiple Namespaces / No Session Affinity

New Office Online sever load balancing scenarios are also explained in the article.

Review the Official EHLO blog post here: Load Balancing in Exchange 2016


Wednesday, October 07, 2015

Office Blogs: Expanding the preview of Skype for Business services in Office 365

Microsoft team announced the preview of new Skype for Business Services in Office 365 this July, Initially the preview was limited to US customers and today Microsoft is expanding the preview to another 14 new countries along with other service enhancements.



Key announcements include

PSTN Conferencing preview now available in 14 additional countries

Cloud PBX Preview now available to customers worldwide

Number portability and voicemail

IP Phones with Cloud PBX

Call Quality Dashboard


If you belong to any of these 14 countries now its time for you to experience the new features, register for the preview program now and get started

Register here:  www.skypepreview.com

Be sure to read the FAQs for more information.

More updates is available in the Official blog post here: Expanding the preview of Skype for Business services in Office 365

Exchange Server 2016 Namespace planning !!!

Exchange Server Namespace planning is crucial for any Exchange Server Deployment model and with the release of Exchange Server 2016, Microsoft team published the new Namespace planning guide via the EHLO blog.


Namespace model remains the same as with Exchange Server 2013 in VNext with some additional Namespace planning for Office Online servers, which are new enhancements introduced to the Exchange deployment, that provides new features like modern attachments and document collaboration.

Review the Official Blog post here to know more : Namespace Planning in Exchange 2016

Friday, October 02, 2015

Exchange Server 2016 now Available!!!

"The wait is Over" Exchange Server 2016 RTM reaches GA today and sets another milestone in the history of Microsoft Exchange Server product line. Exchange Server 2016 is already deployed in Office 365 and serving millions of users and now available for our On premises customers.


Microsoft team has published the EHLO Blog announcement with some quick preview of the new innovations.


Download the bits here: Microsoft Exchange Server 2016

Be sure to read the TechNet documentations for more updates.

Read here: Exchange Server 2016 - Documentation

Read the Product Guide here: Exchange 2016 Product Guide

Microsoft team released the September Quarterly updates for Exchange 2010 and 2013 proactively before the release which are the key to co-exist with Exchange Server 2016.

Hope we can see more news on the product in the upcoming days, as usual watch out for new updates from the Technical community and share your experience to others.

Stay tuned for more updates...

Update:

Review the below excellent write-up from our renowned MVP Tony Redmond to get better insight on the topic in a nutshell

Exchange 2016 debuts to delight on-premises customers