Expand your Office 365 capabilities with Enterprise Mobility + Security

Office 365 is a powerful productivity platform that gives your users the freedom to work from anywhere, using any device. With Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), you can extend and build onto your Office 365 capabilities to securely deliver your Office mobile apps as well as your broader portfolio of cloud-based or cloud-aware applications.

EMS helps execute on your end-user management strategy by delivering three fundamental capabilities

• Secure, streamlined access to all the corporate resources
• Managed mobility that empowers users to do more on their devices, while safeguarding organizational assets
• Advanced security that constantly listens and learns from the ever-changing threat landscape so you can anticipate, detect, and respond to threats as they emerge

For many organizations, deploying Office 365 is a critical step toward digital transformation. EMS is your opportunity to deliver additional end-user productivity, collaboration, and protection by enabling secure access, mobile management, and advanced security.

Download the E-book here: Expand your Office 365 capabilities with Enterprise Mobility + Security

Access Official Blog post here: Why Office 365 customers need to consider Enterprise Mobility + Security

Secure Productive Enterprise replaces Enterprise Cloud Suite

Secure Productive Enterprise is the most trusted, secure, and productive way to work that brings together Office 365, Enterprise Mobility + Security, and Windows 10 Enterprise. It replaces the Enterprise Cloud Suite and introduces even more value within this offering.

Secure Productive Enterprise helps you empower employees on your Digital Transformation journey. Secure Productive Enterprise uses best-in-class cloud services to deliver the latest and most advanced innovations in enterprise security, management, collaboration, and business analytics.

Visit the Products and Services Site here and Select the plan that suits your requirement: Secure Productive Enterprise

Access the presentation on Secure Productive Enterprise Licensing to know things in a nutshell.

Also read: EMS Partners: Focus on Secure Productive Enterprise

Update:

Microsoft team evolved Secure Productive Enterprise and and replaces it with  "Microsoft 365 Enterprise" - A complete, intelligent solution, including Office 365, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Enterprise Mobility + Security, that empowers everyone to be creative and work together, securely.

You can select Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 or Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 per your needs.

Know more here : Microsoft 365 Enterprise

Stay tuned for more updates...

Free Cloud Migration Assessment for your Journey to Microsoft Azure

Whether you’re considering migrating all or just a portion of your applications to the cloud, the transition from on-premises can present challenges for any organization. You need to understand how much it will cost, how to size your environment, what virtual machine option to choose, and more.

To help with this transition, Microsoft is offering a free cloud migration assessment designed to provide you with detailed information based on the specific configurations of your own datacenter.

This assessment can help you:

• Identify all the servers across your datacenter environment
• Analyze your workload configuration
• Estimate the initial cost benefits of moving to Microsoft Azure
• View and export the results into a customized report

You can register for the assessment here: Explore the value of migrating your datacenter to a hybrid cloud.

Access the Azure Migration Tech Community space for more information.

Everything You Want to, Need to, and/or Should Know About EMS in 2017

Get to know the Latest improvements, updates and enhancements in EMS for 2017 from Microsoft Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson in this new video.

Access the video here: Enterprise Mobility + Security Training Video

Official Blog post here: Video:  Everything You Want to, Need to, and/or Should Know About EMS in 2017

Also read :  Happy Birthday EMS: How cloud architecture and customer obsession is disrupting EMM

Few more new enhancements to know,

• Azure AD B2B Collaboration is Generally Available!

• Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security and the Microsoft Graph API

• Improving the branding logic of Azure AD login pages

• Microsoft Mechanics Video: New Conditional Access capabilities in Azure AD and Enterprise Mobility + Security!

• Announcing the public preview of Azure AD group-based license management for Office 365 (and more)!

Update:

Microsoft is offering a series of free, instructor-led, live virtual classes on Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS)

Specifically, the class will cover the following two scenarios in depth:

• Identity and Access Management: learn how to centrally manage single sign-on across devices, your datacenter, and the cloud

• Identity-driven Security: learn how to guard your data from attacks on multiple levels using innovative, identity-driven security techniques

The class is offered in recurring sessions in different time zones throughout April, May and June. Space is limited so check out the class schedule and reserve your virtual seat today!

Update:

Access Microsoft Inspire 2017 session Recordings related to Enterprise Mobility + Security here: Inspire 2017 Enterprise Mobility + Security Session Recordings

Stay tuned for more updates in Enterprise Mobility and Security Blogs.

Deployment Advisors for Office 365 Services

The deployment wizards for Office 365 give you self-guided support for setting up Office 365. Just select a wizard and sign in to Office 365. As you select the features and options you want to deploy, the wizard builds a step-by-step setup plan that’s customized to your needs.

You’ll get a full set of instructions, videos, reference articles, and scripts. The wizard won’t change any of your organization’s settings or data. Instead, you make the changes using the wizard to guide you. You can use these wizards anytime, even during planning or after you’ve already set up the services, to learn more about Office 365 features and options.

Small business quick start

File creation, storage, and sharing

Mail migration

Security and Identity

Device security

Communication and online conferencing

Videos for IT Pros

Walkthroughs for users

Access the Deployment Advisors here: Deployment advisors for Office 365 services

Want more assistance and guidance, access Microsoft FastTrack Center today.

Global Azure Bootcamp 2017 is just a week away !

All around the world user groups and communities want to learn about Azure and Cloud Computing! On April 22, 2017, all communities will come together once again in the fifth great Global Azure Bootcamp event.

Access the Official Site here: https://global.azurebootcamp.net/

This event is hosted across the world, check for a Location near you and be a part of this great event.

Register soon...

Update:

Global Azure Bootcamp 2017 completed recently with a huge success across the world, I got an other opportunity to deliver a session on Azure AD and EMS at this event hosted in Chennai, India.

Access the slides here: Understanding Azure Active Directory and Enterprise Mobility & Security (EMS)

Controlling the Uncontrollable and Six Steps to Control the Uncontrollable e-Books

Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security team published the Controlling the Uncontrollable Series to provide very deep look at how you need to Enable, Protect, and Manage Mobile Productivity End-to-end. To make this process as simple as possible, EMS team has put together a detailed, step-by-step guides to accompany this series.

In this e-book, you'll learn how to better manage and secure your organization's mobile devices and data while examining why Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security is the mobile workforce solution you're looking for.

Download the e-Book here: Controlling the Uncontrollable

In this e-book, you’ll find a step-by-step guide on using the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security to protect your cloud apps, manage devices, and guard against advanced threats—all in one end-to-end solution.

Download the e-Book here: Six steps to control the uncontrollable

Review the Official Blog post here: Controlling the Uncontrollable: Overview & Additional Resources

End of support for DirSync and Azure AD Sync !

As of today April 13, 2017 “Windows Azure Active Directory Sync (DirSync)” and “Azure Active Directory Sync (Azure AD Sync)” reaching end of Support, and now its time to upgrade to Azure AD Connect. Make sure you plan the upgrade soon as Azure AD will stop accepting connections from DirSync and Azure AD Sync after December 31, 2017.

Get the upgrade guidance here: Upgrade Windows Azure Active Directory Sync and Azure Active Directory Sync

Ensure that you upgrade to the latest version, Review the Release history here: Azure AD Connect: Version release history

If you are already on earlier version of AAD Connect, you have below guidance to upgrade to the latest version.

Azure AD Connect: Upgrade from a previous version to the latest

What's Next, Make sure your AAD Connect environment is healthy by Monitoring using the AAD Connect Health for Sync

Monitor Azure AD Connect sync with Azure AD Connect Health

Share your feedback in Azure Active Directory Forums for improvements.

Exchange Server 2007 End of Life !

Exchange Server 2007 extended support ends today, and the product finally reached its End of Life.

End of life means that Microsoft will no longer provide the following for Exchange 2007:

• Free or paid assisted support (including custom support agreements)
• Bug fixes for issues that are discovered and that may impact the stability and usability of the server
• Security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered and that may make the server vulnerable to security breaches
• Time zone updates

Your installation of Exchange 2007 will continue to run after this date. However, because of the changes listed above, Microsoft strongly recommend that you migrate from Exchange 2007 as soon as possible.

If you haven’t already begun your migration from Exchange 2007 to Office 365 or Exchange 2016, now’s the time to start your planning.

Access the Official EHLO Blog post here: Exchange 2007 reaches end of life on April 11th. What’s your plan to move?

Microsoft has published the Exchange 2007 End of Life Roadmap Reference guide that helps you to plan your migration

Access here: Exchange 2007 End of Life Roadmap

Based on your environment choose the best Approach for migration, Would recommend to Migrate to Office 365 or upgrade your Exchange Server 2007 to a latest version, recommend to go for Exchange Server 2016 and choose an Hybrid deployment model to get the benefits of both innovations in the Cloud and On premises.

As you know, Its not just Exchange Server 2007 the reaching End of Life, Support is ending soon for all the Office 2007 Client and Server products in the Office 2007 release. This is a great time to retire your Office 2007 applications and plan your upgrade to Office 365.

Review the below Resources page that will help you upgrade from Office 2007 servers and clients

Access here: Resources to help you upgrade from Office 2007 servers and clients

In addition to the above resources, review the Microsoft Tech Summit video sessions below,

View here: BRK2303: Moving from legacy on-premises Exchange: upgrade to Exchange 2016, or Exchange Online?

View here: BRK2307: Managing End of Life for Office products and services

Join the "Office Retirement Spaces" in Microsoft Tech Community site to get more guidance on your migration path, and also share your migration stories to help others in the Community.

Microsoft Teams Reaches GA !

Microsoft Teams is the chat-based workspace in Office 365 that helps teams achieve more together. Access Official Announcement here and in depth look here  Microsoft Teams preview received much positive feedback across the globe,  finally on March 14 2017,  Microsoft Teams reached General Availability.

Access the Official Blog post here: Microsoft Teams rolls out to Office 365 customers worldwide

To get started with Microsoft Teams Access the Success with Teams website: Get Started with Microsoft Teams

Make sure you utilize all the resources in the site, including the New Bandwidth Calculator released recently.

Additionally, review the Microsoft Teams Survival Guide, Your one stop resource to know more and do more with Microsoft teams: Microsoft Teams Survival Guide

Access Microsoft Teams Space in Microsoft Tech Community site to know the latest announcements.

New Interactive Demo for you to experience Teams: Microsoft Teams Interactive Demo

Review Excellent Blog posts from "Matt Soseman's "The Productive Cloud" Blog" to know more on Microsoft Teams here: Microsoft Teams Useful Blog Posts

Access the latest Microsoft Teams update in my new blog post here: Skype for Business is now Microsoft Teams ?

Additionally, access this new blog post from Matt Soseman MSFT on Microsoft Teams: Overview and Demonstration

Share your Feedback through UserVoice Forums

Stay tuned for more updates...

Get started guide for Azure IT operators

This guide introduces core concepts related to the deployment and management of a Microsoft Azure infrastructure. If you are new to cloud computing, or Azure itself, this guide will help get you quickly started with concepts, deployment, and management details. Many sections of this guide discuss an operation such as deploying a virtual machine, and then provide a link for in-depth technical detail.

Download here: Get started guide for Azure IT operators

Intune Groups Migrating to Azure AD Groups !

Organisation's using Microsoft Intune via Enterprise Mobility & Security (EMS) or Standalone Service should have now received update from Microsoft team that over the next few months, Intune is migrating all Intune groups over to Azure AD groups.

Below is the extract from the Communication mailer:

What does this mean to you? As an Azure AD admin, you’ll start to see Intune groups in your Azure AD infrastructure. Please do not delete these groups; they’ll pop in there in preparation for migration, then will be populated by our migration engine.

We’re excited to bring Intune groups over to Azure AD groups as this will provide an improved experience for our Intune service admins. Migration will also allow Intune admins to use the new Intune on Azure experience currently in preview at portal.azure.com.

Ensure that your Intune Administrators are having right access to the Azure Portal and also getting familiar with the Interface.

Read the documentation here: Introduction to Microsoft Intune in the Azure portal preview

Also if your Organization is using Microsoft Azure AD Privileged Identity Management then make sure Intune Service Administrator Role management is on its way.

Review the below EMS Blog post Published recently to know more: Perspectives on the New Intune Console

Additionally check out Intune 2016 year in review to see a list of features, innovations, and product news that was released in 2016.

Add-on Read:

If you are still in the phase of Migrating to Intune from a Third party MDM provider this below guide will be your prime resource.

Access the Guide here: Intune migration guide

Update:

Get to know the Latest Updates to Microsoft Intune on Microsoft Azure as of April 2017

Access here: Latest Updates to Microsoft Intune on Microsoft Azure

Update:

Intune Admin experience is now Generally available in Azure Portal

The New Intune and Conditional Access Admin Consoles are GA

Also Read: Better together: Intune and Azure Active Directory team up to improve user access

Stay tuned for more updates...

New Skype for Business Online Training Videos !

Microsoft Skype Academy team partnered with the Office 365 Center of Excellence (CoE) of Microsoft Consulting Service, to create the following trainings' to help all customers and partners leverage Skype for Business Online.

We have 8 training videos Available now.

• Hybrid Configuration  
• Upgrading Server 
• Meetings
• Skype Meeting Broadcast
• Maintaining Health 
• Cloud PBX Introduction 
• Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling
• Cloud PBX with on premises PSTN connectivity via existing pool
• Cloud PBX with on premises PSTN calling via Cloud Connector Edition

Review this full Announcement in the following Microsoft Tech Community Post, Register soon to start your learning :  Training extravaganza: New training sessions about E5 workloads

Join Microsoft Tech Community today if you have not yet Joined for more exciting opportunities and be a part of the Elite community and stay updated.

Identity and Device Protection for Office 365 Poster !

Microsoft provides many protection capabilities across the cloud services. It can be challenging to choose the right set of capabilities for your organization.

This document / Poster recommends the most common capabilities to help you secure your data, identities, and devices.

Capabilities are recommended in three tiers:

• Baseline protection
• Sensitive protection
• Protection for environments with highly regulated or classified data. 

Download here to know more: Identity and Device Protection for Office 365 

Access Microsoft Cloud IT architecture resources site for more resources. 

New Office 365 ProPlus deployment guide for IT pros

Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus deployment team recently released a new guide with Preferred Practices for Office 365 ProPlus Deployment.

The guide is available for download in the Office 365 onboarding resources at fasttrack.microsoft.com and features actionable guidance and real-world scenarios, including:

• Recommended guidance for discovery of applications.
• Preferred deployment scenarios and practices.
• Recommended approaches for channel management.
• Reporting capabilities for licensing and usage.

Access the Guide here: Preferred Practices for Office 365 ProPlus Deployment

Official Blog post here: New Office 365 ProPlus deployment guide for IT pros now available

Update: 

Get to know the latest significant Office 365 ProPlus updates as of April 2017

Access the Microsoft Tech Community site to know more: Office 365 system requirements changes for Office client connectivity

Stay tuned for more updates...