[m365weekly] #60

☁️What’s on my mind

The year draws to a close. Looking back, I can say that never in my life have I been so excited about all the changes that have taken place in my personal life, as well as in the professional field that I follow and present to you through this newsletter.
M365 Weekly Newsletter will be with you in the coming year as well.

I wish you a prosperous 2022.

Matic Z.

FEATURED STORY: 2021 RECAP

🎯 Remote and hybrid work became a real option for most people that use a computer as their main work tool.

🎯 Windows 365 was released in August. Windows 11 was released shortly after.

🎯 Mesh for Teams was announced at Ignite Fall 2021.

🎯 Teams Essentials was released on December 1st.

💻 Productivity & Modern Workplace

How Long Can You Access Microsoft Teams Meeting Chat? All the levels of access to the meeting chat have been a frustration to many that organize or simply join meeting in teams. Microsoft tends to overcomplicate things sometimes.

Why Microsoft Loop is the Future of Collaboration. Have you heard about Microsoft Loop but aren’t sure how it can apply to your organization?

How to associate a Hub to another Hub in SharePoint Online. In this blog, the author explains how you can associate a Hub with another Hub and provides instructions and highlights the limitations of the feature.

Sharing Links for Video and Audio Files Block Downloads by Default. A new tweak to the sharing link dialog used by OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, and other Microsoft 365 workloads block downloads of video and audio files by default.

11 Best Excel Presentation Tips in 2022. Learn how to make professional, or even beautiful spreadsheets with these eleven Excel presentation tips!

☁️Sysadmin Stuff

Getting Message Center information into Teams. The Message Centre is full of very important announcements that concern the whole organization. Wouldn’t it be great if this content was automatically dropped into the appropriate Team so that system administrators could react to it accordingly? Here’s how you automate this process.

Five Issues for Microsoft 365 Tenant Administrators to Focus on in 2022. Lots happened in 2021. Looking back on events, Tony Redmond has figured out five themes that will influence Microsoft 365 tenants in 2022.

Is it worth building a lab server for Microsoft 365 in 2021 – and can you do it for less than $500? If you’re one of those who lecture other IT professionals on what’s new in Microsoft 365 and Azure, then you might need a lab environment where you can demonstrate concepts ranging from hybrid deployments, migration scenarios, to 3rd party backup solutions.

Export email messages from Exchange Online to a CSV file with Graph PowerShell. Very quick and clean way of exporting email messages to a CSV file.

☁️Security & Data Governance

How Long Should Teams Chat and Channel Retention Be? Governance and Compliance is a complex subject. While cloud services and mobility have improved productivity and collaboration, it has also become essential to secure and monitor that data.

Guide: The Differences Between Microsoft 365 Backup and Retention. In case you’re unsure of the differences between Microsoft 365 backup and retention you need to read this article.

TEC TALK – Office 365 & Azure Active Directory Security. A great (Youtube) video from The Experts Conference – 10 security actions to take now.

☁️Noteworthy (long)reads

Microsoft named a Leader in the 2021 Forrester Digital Process Automation (DPA) Wave. DPA seems to be the next big thing. And apparently, Microsoft is going in the right direction, or so the analysts say.

Everything You Need to Know About Scrum. Learn about how Scrum helps to optimize your workflow and eliminate wasteful routines using only the necessary resources. And BTW, Scrum is not useful only for software projects. You can implement it elsewhere.

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 …

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