Friday, December 16, 2022

Microsoft Teams Linux Client

I missed this announcement last month.  Microsoft Teams now has a web app that is fully supported and generally available for users who are on Linux.

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/microsoft-teams-progressive-web-app-now-available-on-linux/ba-p/3669846 


Monday, November 21, 2022

Microsoft Teams Premium Announcement Notes

There was an important announcement at the recent Ignite conference in October 2022 for Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams is introducing a new SKU called Microsoft Teams Premium which will include a wide array of new capabilities.  Here is a listing of features that caught my attention:

  • Meeting Guides: pre-configured meetings set by IT based on the type of meeting you want to have (internal, external, etc.)
  • Customer meeting branding: great for external attendees meeting join experience
  • Intelligent Recap: creates smarter recordings and after meeting actions
  • Live translation for captions
  • Advanced meeting protection: water marking, limit who can record a meeting, additional integration with E5 features like meeting labels
  • Advanced Meeting Appointments: text reminders, custom branded virtual appointments, streamline appointment management, additional analytics, etc.
  • Advanced Webinars: streamlined registration workflows, registration waitlists, automated email reminders, virtual green room, manage what attendees can see, etc.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2022/10/12/introducing-microsoft-teams-premium-the-better-way-to-meet/

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/premium

https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/79428f77-1867-41cb-8d0d-17d178a38605?source=sessions

Sunday, November 13, 2022

User Data Migration Across Tenants

Cross tenant data migration is capability that comes up a lot.  Customer tenants have to be merged or divested commonly through business acquisitions.  Tenant to tenant migration capabilities are now in full GA in our commercial cloud.  This enables organizations to move a user’s mailbox and OneDrive data.  

Note that this is for user data, not organizational data.  For instance SharePoint Online sites and Microsoft Teams data is not in scope at this time.  

Additionally, these features will be introduced to the GCC, GCCH and DoD clouds soon, and they are currently available in Preview.  

Finally, the capabilities only work within a cloud and are not intended to be supported across clouds.

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/cross-tenant-user-data-migration-is-now-generally-available/ba-p/3667700


Friday, September 30, 2022

Blog 15 Year Anniversary

Wow.  This is actually kinda of exciting, I am now celebrating 15 years running this blog.  Like this blog, my career has take several twists and turns, yet I have been able to keep this blog going.  When I first started this blog, I was a developer and I was very focused deep diving very technical aspects of what I was working on.  These days, I am much more focused on running a team of principal product managers and focusing on managing their careers.  Yet one constant has been here; Microsoft.  I am so thankful for everything I have been able to achieve and I still look forward to the future.  Even though the types of blogs I am authoring are very different from the ones I wrote 15 years ago, I really believe this Blog has helped me with my career.  

Exchange Online Client Access Rules (CAR) Planned Depreciation

Today I saw that Exchange Online Client Access Rules (CAR) plan to be deprecated in about 12 months.  Customers are encouraged to start leveraging AAD Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) in its place.  I have seen customers extensively leverage CAR policies as way to control access to email.  Please see article for additional information.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/deprecation-of-client-access-rules-in-exchange-online/ba-p/3638563 


Monday, August 29, 2022

Viva Engage is now Generally Available

The new Viva Engage is now generally available (GA).  Viva Engage is Microsoft’s work social computing solution delivered within Microsoft 365.  No additional licensing is required to utilize the service.   Users who are currently using Yammer Communities will transition over to Viva Engage.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/yammer-blog/viva-engage-is-here/ba-p/3606594

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Microsoft Teams Collaborative Annotations

Microsoft Teams Collaborative Annotations is now generally available.  It is powered through Microsoft Whiteboard and it gives meeting participants the ability to draw and type on top of any content being shared in a Teams meeting.  Super helpful feature.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-annotation-while-sharing-your-screen-in-teams-876ba527-7112-437e-b410-5aec7363c473

Microsoft Teams "Chat with self"

You may not want to admit it, but sometimes you talk to yourself.  The Microsoft Teams “Chat with self” feature is now generally available.  I definitely have used this to make little notes to myself or draft chat messages…

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/microsoft-inspire-2022-innovations-coming-to-teams/ba-p/3559351

Microsoft Teams Video Clip Chat Public Preview

Video Clip messaging to Microsoft Teams as Public Preview in Aug 2022.  Instead of typing a message to someone, just leave them a quick video message right into their chat window.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/microsoft-inspire-2022-innovations-coming-to-teams/ba-p/3559351

Microsoft Teams Webinars Public Preview

Microsoft Teams is revamping and streamlining our solution for users to create and manage webinars with Public Preview coming in Aug 2022.  Several really new features that help you manage the entire life-cycle for webinar management leveraging features like organizers, co-organizers, presenter bios, brand management, registration management, attendance questions, attendee status, expanded reporting and new structured Q&A features.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/enhancing-webinar-experiences-with-microsoft-teams/ba-p/3573223

Microsoft Teams Connect GA

Microsoft Teams Connect enables organizations to collaborate freely across tenant boundaries.  This feature highly desired feature has been in Public Preview since March 2022, and will be transitioning to full GA through August 2022 in our commercial cloud.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/microsoft-teams-connect-shared-channels-is-moving-into-generally/ba-p/3568000

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Microsoft Teams Cross Cloud Anonymous Meeting Join (CCA)

Microsoft Teams Cross Cloud Anonymous Meeting Join (CCA) is now fully deployed.  This allows meeting attendees from Commercial, GCC, GCCH and DoD to join meetings anonymously in any direction using thick client, mobile and web apps.  We are hard at work on expanding cross cloud for both Teams Cross Cloud Meeting Join (CCM) and Cross Cloud Guest Access (CCGA).  Please continue to watch our roadmaps.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/what-s-new-in-microsoft-teams-april-2022/ba-p/3297881 


Thursday, May 26, 2022

Cross-Cloud AAD B2B Public Preview

Public Preview for cross-cloud B2B collaboration is now available.  This will enable guest users can access your resources (such as LOB/SaaS apps), SharePoint sites, and OneDrive files.  

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/build-2022-new-frontier-of-collaboration-with-external/ba-p/3407091


Friday, April 29, 2022

Microsoft 365 Account Switching

Coming in Summer of 2022, Microsoft 365 web apps will support the ability to sign into multiple accounts in a single web browser session without requiring you to do workarounds like sign in/out, private browser sessions, alternate devices, etc.  Super excited to see this coming because I have had to these same workarounds over the years.

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/announcing-account-switching-for-microsoft-365-web-apps/ba-p/3290787

Friday, March 18, 2022

Microsoft Teams Connect (Shared Channels) Public Preview

 Microsoft Teams Connect (IE Shared Channels) is coming to Public Preview in commercial cloud enabling richer cross organizational collaboration experiences.  This new feature allows for secure and seamless collaboration between tenants without tenant switching and enables streamlined sharing with trusted tenants. 

I am so happy and ecstatic to see this feature come to public preview.  This feature has been such a high demand request with so many Microsoft customers.

Announcement: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/microsoft-teams-connect-shared-channels-is-rolling-out-to-public/ba-p/3252901  

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Microsoft Teams Loop

There is a pretty new feature now available in Microsoft Teams called Microsoft Loop.  This feature allows you to have chat entries that everyone in the chat can actually edit.  This is super cool because it allows users to collaborate on thoughts and content without having to leave chat itself.  

Reference

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/transforming-creation-and-collaboration-with-microsoft-loop/ba-p/2972240?ocid=usoc_LINKEDIN_M365_spl100002931841213


Monday, February 14, 2022

Azure AD Certification Based Authentication (CBA) Public Preview

Azure AD Certification Based Authentication (CBA) is now in Public Preview.  This is really exciting because this will allow customers to meet their PIV/CAC card multi-factor auth requirements without having to maintain ADFS servers for federated authentication.

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-active-directory-identity/azure-ad-certificate-based-authentication-now-in-public-preview/ba-p/2464390


Thursday, February 10, 2022

AAD Cross-Tenant Access Public Preview

The AAD team has put in a new public preview for cross-tenant access settings for external collaboration.  With this new feature, you have the ability to trust security claims from external AAD organizations.  A good example is, if an external user from a partner organization has already completed a MFA claim in their tenant, your tenant will trust that claim and allow the user to have access to approved resources in your tenant without requiring the external user to perform an additional MFA check within your tenant.  

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-active-directory-identity/collaborate-more-securely-with-new-cross-tenant-access-settings/ba-p/2147077

Monday, January 31, 2022

Microsoft 365 Adaptive Policy Scopes for Retention

There is a new feature called Adaptive Policy Scopes is coming available soon that allows administrators the ability to apply retention policies and labels by user, site and groups.  This will allow you to create more granular rules that appropriate to for specific scenarios.  For instance, you may have exception policy where a retention policy may not apply or could be different based on set of criteria.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/announcing-adaptive-policy-scopes-for-microsoft-365-records/ba-p/2857532 

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/using-adaptive-policy-scopes-to-apply-m365-retention-to-shared/ba-p/3053641

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/retention-settings?view=o365-worldwide#configuration-information-for-adaptive-scopes