Saturday, July 23, 2016

Certificate Based Authentication for Exchange Online

Exchange Online now has Certificate Based Authentication (CBA) in Preview.  I have been waiting for this for a while.  CBA will be supported with Microsoft mobile Outlook apps and it will be supported with Exchange ActiveSync (EAS).  This is a really important release for organizations who more complex security and authentication requirements when accessing Exchange Online data.  Typically organizations that use Smart Cards for all their log-in and access applications have required CBA.

For more information, review this - https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/exchange/2016/07/19/preview-of-certificate-based-authentication-cba-for-exchange-online/  

Monday, July 18, 2016

Microsoft Stream in Preview

Microsoft Stream
Microsoft made a really interesting announcement today about a new offering called Microsoft Stream.  Microsoft Stream is currently in Preview and available for customers to try out.

Microsoft Stream is a new business video service that builds on the past experiences Microsoft has had with the Office 365 Video Service.  Office 365 Video was originally announced back in Nov 2014 and has is available to customers who have purchased an Office 365 suite.  Office 365 Video leverages Azure Media Services to provides a portal solution for enterprise organizations to share video content.

Microsoft’s long term plan is to converge both the Office 365 Video with Microsoft Stream; making Stream the de-facto video service for Office 365 customers.  Over the short-term, both of these services will run side-by-side.

So what is new with Microsoft Stream?  There will be a several new features:
  • Updated user experiences in general with even more simplistic user experiences to upload video.
  • Enhanced content delivery and discovery.  Specifically trending videos will be powered by machine learning to get users to videos that more relevant to them.
  • More control over video channels to secure access videos.
  • Ability to follow channels through a personalized homepage.
  • New social features for sharing, liking, etc.
However, the vision of Microsoft Stream is what really excited me.  Microsoft mentioned some directions they see Microsoft Stream taking:
  • Integration between Microsoft Stream and Microsoft Skype Broadcast such that both live and video on demand is available to the user through a single video solution.
  • Intelligent video search so that you have the ability to search within a video instead of just relying on the descriptions, tags and metadata provided by a user.  For instance, audio transcription and face detection can be used to search videos. 
  • Integration of video into workflow and applications built into Office 365.
  • More IT management control for managing access to video channels, remove and monitoring video content and what video is available for specific groups of people.
  • New APIs that will allow partners to build Microsoft Stream solutions.

Resources
Introducing Microsoft Stream - https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/07/18/introducing-microsoft-stream-the-secure-destination-to-manage-and-share-videos-for-businesses-of-all-sizes
Microsoft Stream - https://stream.microsoft.com/en-us/
What Microsoft Stream means to Office 365 - https://blogs.office.com/2016/07/18/what-microsoft-stream-means-to-office-365/
Introducing Office 365 Video - https://blogs.office.com/2014/11/18/introducing-office-365-video/