Sunday, September 24, 2017

New Office 365 admin and IT pro courses now available !

Microsoft Partnered with LinkedIn learning announced new courses for Enterprise Admins and IT pros to ramp up on critical skills for Office 365 deployment, administration, and internal help desk support. You have free Premium video training up to 7 hrs. via support.office.com with the option to get a LinkedIn Learning trial or paid Subscription to complete the full learning Series.



Below are the available courses:
  • Microsoft Cloud: Explore Cloud Services
  • Office 365: Deployment
  • Office 365: Administration
  • Office 365: Manage Identities Using Azure AD Connect
  • Microsoft Cloud Services: Administer Office 365 and Intune
  • Office 365: Troubleshoot Availability and Usage
  • Office 365 for Administrators: Supporting Users Part 1

Access the Courses here: Office 365 admin and IT pro courses

Also you have latest Office 365 training courses now available for both Small Business customers and End users

Access the source Microsoft Tech Community post more details: Just released: Free Office 365 training for IT pros, small business, and end users   

These resources are essential and much helpful for every IT Pro work with Office 365.

Happy Learning !!!

Get to know Microsoft Project Honolulu !

Microsoft is all set to release the next version of Windows Server, version 1709 at Microsoft Ignite 2017 Next week. This new version is built on the innovation in Windows Server 2016.

Microsoft team published Sneak Peek posts for the past few weeks following the Official Announcement on the new version  and one of the most admired feature is Project “Honolulu” Microsoft's new Windows Server management experience made available in Windows Server, Version 1709 and several other versions.


Honolulu is a locally deployed, browser-based, management tool set that enables on-premises administration of Windows Servers with no Azure or cloud dependency. Honolulu gives IT Admins full control over all aspects of their Server infrastructure, and is particularly useful for management on private networks that are not connected to the Internet.

Honolulu is the modern evolution of “in-box” management tools, like Server Manager and MMC. It is complementary to System Center and Operations Management Suite, and is not intended to replace these products and services.

More information is available in this blog post: Sneak peek #4: Introducing Project “Honolulu”, our new Windows Server management experience

Last week "Project Honolulu" Technical Preview was released and made available for Download along with the deployment guide.

Access the Official Blog post here: Project “Honolulu” technical preview is now available for download!

Review the Video Walk-through made available in the above blog posts to know more on this new feature.

Technical Preview Download link : Project Honolulu Technical Preview Evaluation

Download Poster here: Honolulu Ignite poster

Documentation Link: Microsoft Project Honolulu

Be sure to follow the Project “Honolulu” team blog for latest news and additional resources.

Update:

Microsoft Project Honolulu gets renamed as "Windows Admin Center" and  now Generally available and also gets a new documentation.

Access here to know more : Windows Admin Center Overview

Follow the @servermgmt and dedicated Windows Admin Center blog for latest updates.

Stay tuned for more updates...

Monday, September 11, 2017

Skype for Business is now Microsoft Teams ?

Most of you might already be aware about this ongoing buzz in today 's IT World, that Skype for Business is going to be upgraded to Microsoft Teams. Users try to login to Skype for Business saw this surprise change notification, and there were no Official Public Announcements made by Microsoft on this change through their major channels.



Office 365 Message center notification that indicated the changes confirmed this, which was later removed, but the news spread across the world and made everyone aware on possible upcoming changes to get prepared soon, and to add to this Microsoft Teams finally got the most awaited "Guest Access" support.

Since there are lot of Excellent write-ups are already made available, I am going to refer some of the posts that I came across on this topic in the community that could be helpful.

First this new change was reported by  Mary Jo Foley via ZDNet article: Microsoft may be repositioning some (or all) of Skype for Business as Teams

Then we have the following Blog posts from Petri IT Knowledgebase that outlined more information on this update



There are lot more great posts in the community on this topic and above one's covers things in a nutshell.

Yesterday Microsoft announced the availability of Guest Access in Microsoft Teams along with the new developer Tools 





Note: Currently Users with an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) account can be added as a guest in Teams. Ability to add anyone with a Microsoft Account (MSA) to be added as a guest in Teams will be available in the next few weeks.

A Nice walk-through from  UC Expert Randy Chapman here: How to enable external guest access in Microsoft Teams

Another great post from MVP Matt Landis here: Microsoft Teams Guest Access: How it Works

A detailed write-up from MVP Tony Redmond on Microsoft Teams Guest Access below

How External Access for Microsoft Teams Works

Things You Should Know About External Access for Teams

Also review this post from Matt Soseman MSFT : Microsoft Teams: Enabling and Using Guest Access

We are only few weeks away from Microsoft Ignite 2017 to get more updates on the new changes and innovations in Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

Following Microsoft Tech Community post outlines the key sessions on this topic to watch-out for


Stay tuned for more updates...