☁️What’s on my mind
We’re just a few days away from Microsoft’s first service price increase in Microsoft 365 in 11 years. But there is no need to panic, as only 6 services will be more expensive. A few others are getting even cheaper.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic will be 20% more expensive. Seems a lot. With a new price of $6, it will be on par with Google’s Workspace Business Starter package. So what does this mean?
Not much, actually, because Microsoft’s service has a much better price/performance ratio. As far as I could see, quite a few small businesses that were currently in the Google ecosystem on a free G Suite bundle that’s being canceled in May, are deciding to jump into Microsoft’s embrace. They get a lot more there.
Have a really great day.
Matic Z.
💻 Productivity & Modern Workplace
3 Cool Effects You Did NOT Think are Possible in PowerPoint. Powerpoint is always full of surprises. Even though it is a mature product, it is still being developed very carefully. And of course, there are creative ways to get more out of Powerpoint’s existing capabilities. Here are three interesting tricks that will enrich your presentations.
New and exciting features available for Microsoft Teams breakout rooms. Okay, let’s be completely honest. Microsoft Teams is far behind Zoom when it comes to breakout rooms. But things are changing, and slowly, slowly we will get to the point where breakout rooms are actually useful.
How to Block Planner Users from Removing Tasks Created by Others. Administrators can set a block policy on users to stop them deleting Planner tasks that they didn’t create. The client experience isn’t great, even if the code works.
Copy SharePoint files from one tenant to another using Power Automate. Once we are faced with the task of regularly copying files from one tenant to another, we get hung up in the air because we run out of tools. Power Automate comes to the rescue with its arsenal of features.
New tools to create and customize professional-looking diagrams in Visio for the web. Visio for the web is getting new features. Shapes and stencils were something we were familiar with in the desktop version of Visio. Well, now it’s coming to Visio for the web. And that’s just one of the new features. Read more.
Add tasks to your To Do list right in the SwiftKey keyboard. Microsoft bought Swiftkey back in 2016. Logically, they also integrated this great keyboard for Android devices into their Microsoft 365 ecosystem. How does it work?
Table Loop Component | How to use #MicrosoftLoop. Last week I was playing with the Loop features available for Teams, OneNote, Outlook web app, and so on. In a nutshell, I could describe this experience as very interesting, but I don’t see a scenario where I would use Loop components on a daily basis. At least not yet.
☁️Sysadmin Stuff
3 Questions to Ask When Choosing a SaaS Backup Provider. Are you looking for a service provider to back up your data in the cloud, but are struggling with how to choose the right one? Here are some useful tips.
Understanding Microsoft Teams devices Certification end dates. It used to be that you bought a phone, plugged it in and used it until it was out of date. Now your phone goes out of date much faster if you don’t keep it up to date. More details in the article.
10 Challenges with Google Drive to Microsoft 365 Migration. It’s an article that’s a commercial for a specific product but still makes you think about what you need to pay attention to when migrating data from one cloud to another. It’s not simple.
How to use Teams/SharePoint as a logs location for support and send logs from device. I never thought I could use SharePoint as a location for logs. Definitely worth considering and exploring further.
☁️Security & Data Governance
How to Encrypt Emails in Outlook (Microsoft 365). By default, sending mail is similar to sending a postcard. Any postman can read everything. What if we could ensure the confidentiality of emails by encrypting their contents? How do we do this in Microsoft 365 and Outlook?
Unboxing Defender for Business, Part 3: Attack Surface Reduction rules. Part 3 of a great series on what Microsoft 365 Defender for Business brings to the table.
Ten Ways to Harden the Security of a Microsoft 365 Tenant. In the SaaS model, the responsibility for the security of data, user accounts, and identities lies squarely with the user. In M365, Microsoft provides all the tools for the user to configure this security as they wish. So how do we keep users and data secure?
Train Your Office 365 Users Against Phishing Attacks using Attack Simulation Training. Something you definitely don’t want is for users in your organization to have their identities stolen. They need to be trained, they need to be made more aware of phishing attempts. Microsoft has the tools to do exactly that.
💻 Noteworthy (long)reads
Microsoft Teams performance improvements reduce power consumption in meetings by up to 50%. Thank God the developers at Microsoft are slowly improving even these kinds of shortcomings that Teams has.
Satya Nadella: Microsoft has “permission to build the next Internet”. I am not Steve Balmer, making fun of a competitor’s product and making a fool of myself at the same time. The Metaverse idea has been snapped up by virtually all the tech giants, and I fear it will be a very successful idea commercially. I cannot yet quite articulate what exactly it is about this idea of the metaverse that bothers me. Perhaps buying clothes for my virtual self that are more expensive than the ones I buy in real life. So what will the next internet look like?
4 best practices to implement a comprehensive Zero Trust security approach. Zero trust can be just a letter on paper. But we can take concrete steps to make it a reality.
💻 Classifieds
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😂 On a Less Serious Note
☁️ Last but not least …
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