Microsoft Teams and Information Barriers

A feature that I have always been fascinated with is Information Barriers and it has been expanded to Microsoft Teams (in Preview).

Information Barriers is a feature of Office 365 that can be used to restrict conversation and communications between groups of people to avoid conflicts of interest.

For Microsoft Teams this means:

• Adding users to a Team could be restricted
• Private chats can be restricted
• Inviting other users to meetings
• Performing screenshare between users
• Placing a phone call between users

Here are some references:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Information-Barriers-Preview/ba-p/505536

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/information-barriers-in-teams

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/securitycompliance/information-barriers

Microsoft Teams DLP

Microsoft Teams is releasing new Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capability.  It is very similar in concept to SPO DLP.  Users could potentially have chat conversations on topics between users or in channels that are not appropriate.  Teams DLP can be configured centrally with all your DLP policy and then used to protect information.  Please use the information to get started.

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-rzLPnixiM
TechNet - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/securitycompliance/dlp-microsoft-teams

Office 365 Network Onboarding tool

A lot of questions have questions when onboarding into Office 365 around networking.  There is a new proof of concept tool that is available to help you with this planning.  Go here for more information - https://connectivity.office.com/

Windows Virtual Desktop Preview

Windows Virtual Desktop is a new solution that is in preview.  This solution:

• Delivers a Windows 10 experience
• Provide an experience with Office 365 ProPlus
• Supports your ability to move your Windows Server desktops to Azure

For some more information about this – read this - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/modern-desktop/enterprise/windows-virtual-desktop

New Updates Coming for Office 365 Security and Compliance Centers

If you have not been watching, there are some new changes to the Microsoft Office 365 Security and Compliance Center.

This new portal experience is bringing together all the information being collected by Office 365, Windows 10, EMS and Azure.  Security administrators will be able to see a singular view and have the ability to drill in on areas that they need to investigate.  Additionally, features will be highlighted that you can use to help mitigate risk.

The new compliance center provides information about our current compliance with reminders on areas where customer configuration is required to stay in compliance.

Announcement - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Security-Privacy-and-Compliance/Introducing-the-new-Microsoft-365-security-center-and-Microsoft/ba-p/326959

Microsoft Teams Support when user mailbox is in Exchange On-Premises

I have been asked a lot lately, it is possible to use Microsoft Teams while still having your mailbox located on Exchange On-Premises.

The answer is yes, this is a supported scenario.  Microsoft Teams has a strong dependency on Exchange Online because all of your personal discusses are stored in Exchange Online.  If the user’s mailbox is still on-premises, a cloud-based storage area will be created for that user called a “cloud-based mailbox for on-premises user”.  This solution will only store Teams conversations and the user cannot directly log into this mailbox.

To support this, you must have Exchange Hybrid configured and you must be using AAD Sync.
To enable this, there is a request process you must go through, defined in the references below.

Additionally, if the on-prem mailbox is ever migrated to Exchange Online later, the Teams chat data will not be lost, the data will be migrated over to the primary mailbox in the cloud.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/exchange-teams-interact
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/securitycompliance/search-cloud-based-mailboxes-for-on-premises-users

Microsoft Teams Government Cloud Service Descriptions

Microsoft Teams has published out Service Descriptions for GCC, GCCH and DoD cloud deployments.  Please review this closely as the accurately convey what capabilities are available and not available in the respective clouds.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/plan-for-government-gcc
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/plan-for-government-gcc-high
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/plan-for-government-dod