[m365weekly] #20

☁️What’s on my mind

I’ve been asked a few times this week: “What is your take on a naming convention for tenants in Azure AD (M365)”.

Some say you can use a random string, some say you need to use the company name, others say it doesn’t matter what name you choose.

But it does matter. Random string will most probably be unique. And a tenant name needs to be unique. But you have to take into consideration that SharePoint site URLs all include tenant names like tenantname.sharepoint.com. I guess cu8we3gzrkcjeh.sharepoint.com is not an option, huh?

Have a nice week.
Matic Z.

P.S.: Found something interesting on the net? Let me know and I will include it in the next newsletter.

💻 Productivity & Modern Workplace

Use Google Calendar to Schedule Microsoft Teams Meetings. Microsoft has released a version of the Teams meeting add-on for Google Calendar. You can create Teams meetings from Google Workspace or Calendar.

New Meeting Organizer Options Arriving in Teams. On one hand, it’s nice to have new features on a regular basis but on the other hand, new options may confuse and surprise users when they need to have a presentation at a meeting. This time new features are allowing some users to bypass the lobby.

11 + 5 reasons to fall in love with Microsoft To-Do. Besides the fact that To-Do is already included in your Microsoft 365 subscription, there are some pretty nice reasons to love the product.

Discover, learn and create flows using in-product help! Looking for guidance on how to get started with a trigger or action and popular scenarios with examples?

Revisiting some facts around Microsoft 365 backup. You can find a few great resources and opinions gathered in this article. Some authors say you definitely need 3rd party backup services, other experts say you don’t need them. The fact is that Microsoft has some quite nice data retention tools already build-in.

☁️Sysadmin Stuff

All you need to know about automatic email forwarding in Exchange Online. Due to privacy policy tightening measures Microsoft disabled automatic forwarding to external addresses a few months ago. Here’s gathered all you need to know about the change and how to properly change this setting.

Introducing the Office 365 for IT Pros GitHub Repository. Need a PowerShell script to do something with Office 365? You might find a script or at least an idea – in the Office 365 for IT Pros GitHub Repository.

How to Optimize Stream & Live Events traffic in a VPN scenario. Relatively “old” article but still valid and accurate.

Why you should consider using split tunneling for Microsoft 365 traffic. Another article on VPNs. VPNs and Microsoft 365 are both hot — and this can create traffic jams on your network. You can alleviate some network bottlenecks using split tunneling.

Removing (Decommissioning) Skype for Business Server after Microsoft Teams migration. If you’re thinking about moving from Skype for Business to Teams I salute you. Good decision as it’s much better product. You’ll have to remove on-premise structure in a proper way.

How to Use Windows PowerToys. Increase your productivity on Windows 10 with Windows PowerToys suite of tools. Here’s a quick guide to using all PowerToys features.

Skype for Business End of Life: 5 Questions to Ask Now. Are you transitioning from Skype for Business and want to know what this means for your business going forward?

☁️Security & Data Governance

Using Zero Trust principles to protect against sophisticated attacks like Solorigate. Trusting no one seems to be getting popular nowadays. After Solorigate stirred things up recently Zero Trust principles will be our new security mantra for the foreseeing future. Solorigate stirred things up quite a bit.

Eliminating passwords with conditional access: Never login again. Everyone hates passwords, so what if you never have to login again? We can take a big step forward in that direction using conditional access…

💻 Upcoming Webinars

February 9, 2021: GET-IT: Free SharePoint 1 Day Virtual Conference.

February 10, 2021. VIRTUAL EVENT: Collaborating in the Universal Workplace. Free event.

💻 Slightly Off-Topic

Microsoft is rolling out password monitor, tab sync, sleeping tabs and other new Edge features. Ever since it’s based on Chromium this browser is getting into the league of the best browsers available. I might even consider switching from Chrome to Edge in near future.

Monitoring identity, cloud apps and email at different service tiers. When IT was mostly on-premise monitoring the whole infrastructure was a standard. With cloud services like M365 and other monitoring is not so obvious choice. We just assume that it’s being monitored by someone. But even a cloud is a part of your infrastructure and as such should be monitored. What to monitor and what tools to use?

AZ-500 Study Guide: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies 2021. A great source for those preparing for AZ-500 certification.

☁️On a Less Serious Note


☁️ Last but not least …

Here are a few things you can do if you enjoyed reading this newsletter: