[m365weekly] #58

☁️What’s on my mind

Especially in IT, it is more than obvious that knowledge becomes obsolete very quickly. This week I was doing exams for Azure and when I was looking for official Microsoft materials, I noticed that many of the exams have a relatively short shelf life.

I was visiting my parents last weekend. I had to laugh loudly when my mother pulled out an old computer science book I was using decades ago to learn coding basics. A cursory glance at the contents showed that the knowledge of Fortran would not help me much today.

Have a great week.
Matic Z.

FEATURED STORY: MICROSOFT CERTIFICATION

There is a noticeable shortage of suitable IT professionals in the market. Have you thought about getting certified for Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Azure and getting a better-paid job?

You can start with the basics and then move on to more difficult topics. Microsoft has a well-designed education system that also leads to a good salary.

In case your budget is tight you can learn self-paced style from official or unofficial sources and from your own work experience by trial and error. Youtube is full of great exam prep videos.

Browse Certifications and Exams – Practically everything you need to know about which exams are available. With links to official Microsft training courses.

💻 Productivity & Modern Workplace

Virtual workshops and training. No one is born with knowledge planted in their head. Microsoft 365 is a large ecosystem and to use it optimally and effectively, you need to learn how to use it and gain some practice. Microsoft’s official materials are really well done and can be of great help. Check them out.

Visualize your team structure with org charts in Microsoft Visio for the web. Users with Visio paid plans can do org charts directly from the web app or start in Excel using data visualizer add-in and later finish editing in Visio web.

How to restore a previous version of an Item in a list. Did you know you could also restore a previous version of an Item in a list? That’s right, a version history is not just for documents.

How to record your presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint. No fancy 3rd-party software like OBS. Save your presentation only using PowerPoint.


☁️Sysadmin Stuff

Messages sent from a shared mailbox aren’t saved to the Sent Items folder. Have you noticed that messages you send from the shared mailbox are saved in the sent items folder in your mailbox and not in the shared mailbox? With a bit of hacking, you can fix that. The messages you send will drop into the correct mailbox.

Moving Teams Phone Systems During Tenant-to-Tenant Migrations. Usually, when we think of tenant-to-tenant migration, we think of data in mailboxes, OneDrive, and SharePoint. But what if the phone system also needs to be migrated?

How to Send as Alias in Office 365 and Outlook. Since early summer, Exchange Online has allowed users to send mail from e-mail addresses that they have set as aliases. How to enable this?

Moving from trial to paid licenses in Windows 365. It’s actually easier than you think and it’s without downtime. Read on.

Will Teams Connect unlock complex migrations to Microsoft 365? Teams Connect is coming in early 2022 and there’s a lot of buzz about how this will help people work together seamlessly. For larger organizations who need to work together, but can’t migrate to a single tenant, could this new functionality enable their plans to migrate?

How To Set Up A Hybrid Exchange Office 365 Environment. An excellent step-by-step guide.


☁️Security & Data Governance

Where is Sensitive Data Located in Microsoft Teams? Are you unsure where sensitive collaboration data lives in Microsoft Teams?

Protecting the Different Types of Microsoft 365 Data. Microsoft is responsible for app availability but customers are responsible for protecting data in the cloud.


☁️Noteworthy (long)reads

Your guide to mobile digital forensics. In reality, this kind of forensics is much more boring than what we see in TV series. But it is an interesting field nonetheless.

Microsoft’s Bold Vision for Loop Might Crash Due to User Habits. Office 365 tenants are now getting to use Loop components in Teams chat. Some are very excited at the new technology; others are less so. It all depends on how you use current composition tools.


DATES TO KEEP IN MIND

31 December 2021 – Last day of Microsoft Open License Program (OLP). From the start of 2022 OLP products are available in CSP (source, source 2).

January 2022 – Microsoft launches “New Commerce Experience”, a new way of transacting in CSP. Important for Microsoft partners (resellers) and MS distributors.

1 January 2022 – No more transacting in OLP program. From then on perpetual licenses are available in CSP.

1 March 2022 – First Microsoft 365 price increase since 2011 (source). It’s going to be a substantial price increase.


😂 On a Less Serious Note


☁️ Last but not least …

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

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