[m365weekly] #100

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Issue #100

☁️What’s on my mind

My sincere sympathies go to Rackspace and its IT professionals. They were sweating last weekend. I know the feeling because I have tried to get an Exchange server up and running at inhuman hours in the past.

Do you know the story? Their hosted Exchange service was down all weekend and even on Monday, it’s not working as it should. At the time of writing this, the security incident is not yet officially being talked about, they have just hinted that this is probably it.

The latest info from their side suggests that the’ve been a victim to ransomware attack.

And that, of course, immediately raises a few questions. Given that hosted Exchange is much closer to Exchange on-premises than Exchange Online in sense of architecture, I wonder if there is any room left for hosted Exchange players.

Not because Microsoft is in their way and stopping them, but because Microsoft simply has the needed human resources to prevent such attacks. But let’s not jinx the whole thing.

Well, after all, Exchange Online runs at the vendor itself, which has all the source code readily available, while Rackspace has hosted Exchange, which depends on Microsoft’s whim as to when it will release patches for the Exchange server. That’s the curse of hosted and on-premises (not only) Exchange servers.

Given that Rackspace in light of the events recommends migrating to Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online, answers are probably at hand:

If you offer your own hosted Exchange, it’s just a question of when you’re going to move your customers to the Microsoft cloud: before you’re hacked or afterwards.

Have a really great day.
Matic Z.


If a few years ago I laughed at Microsoft’s attempts to secure endpoints, I can’t laugh anymore. The huge investment in security, the multitude of users using Microsoft services, and the terabytes of live data that AI systems analyze on the fly have made Microsoft one of the leading forces in cybersecurity.

Defender for Endpoint is therefore a solution that is also in Gartner’s market leaders quadrant.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint documentation. The starting point for all explorers.


Want to grab the attention of exceptional talents for your job opening?

All you need to do is to fill out the form and follow the instructions. I’ll publish your job posting in the next issue.

☁️Productivity & Modern Workplace

SharePoint vs. OneDrive – which one to use? Evergreen question. In practice, I often see users using their OneDrive to share files with their clients and colleagues. What is SharePoint for then? Explained in the article.

Spreadsheets as a To-Do list? I’m pretty sure that using Excel for task management is a serious abuse of Excel. But, it can be done.

Teams Housekeeping for beginners. While at the beginning of the Teams pandemic we were just getting to know it, and learning how to use it, today we have certainly worked out how to adapt it as much as possible to our needs. But I’m sure there’s a lot of rubbish left over from those early days of use. So what should we do to clean it?

Conferences and OneNote. Use OneNote even when you’re at a conference. It’s a powerful tool that will help you make the most of your conference.

Why can’t I share when using PowerPoint Live? As a guy in the video puts it: “There’s a lot of problems with PowerPoint Live”. It’s still in preview so let’s hope that Microsoft will brush up on it in the future.


☁️Sysadmin Stuff

Enable Organization Customization in Exchange Online. When you try to enable Organization customization, you may encounter the error “The command you tried to run isn’t currently allowed in your organization …”. The problem may be the dehydration of the tenant (yes, I know, it sounds silly).

How to Limit Teams Client Sign-in to Specified Tenants. A system registry setting allows tenant administrators to limit Teams client sign-ins to specified Azure AD tenants. The setting works for the desktop client.

What is stored in an Exchange Online mailbox? What all is stored in the Exchange Online mailbox? At first glance, you wouldn’t think of anything other than mail messages, contacts and calendar entries. But the real picture shows up when you look under the hood.

Tenant-to-Tenant – PST based Exchange Migration automation approach – Part I. A very detailed article in three parts, covering one of the options for migrating data to Exchange Online.


☁️Security & Data Governance

Making it easier to apply and manage security settings for your users in Microsoft 365. Some really good stuff in this transcript of some sort of video, I guess. MS support technician talks about best practices when it comes to managing security settings in the M365 environment.

Basic Authentication Deprecation in Exchange Online – What’s Next. Nope, we’re not over yet. I’m still seeing a lot of problems originating from Basic Auth deprecation in the wild. Microsoft started to disable Autodiscover for basic auth in November for selected users.

Enhanced phishing protection in Windows 11 22H2. Microsoft put some new features in Windows 11 version 22H2 that address phishing protection. Learn how to turn it on.


☁️Noteworthy (long)reads

Microsoft Flight Simulator Celebrates Momentous Milestone and the Release of the 40th Anniversary Edition. Flight Simulator is a legendary game. Oops, I stand corrected: it’s a simulator. It has always had a wide following of aviation enthusiasts. May the legend live on. 40 years is certainly a long time, especially when it comes to software.

Grow your small business with Microsoft 365. Discover how Microsoft 365 can help you meet your business goals and reduce costs without sacrificing productivity.


DATES TO KEEP IN MIND

April 11, 2023 – Microsoft Office 2013 – End of support. You might experience performance or reliability issues if you continue to use Office 2013 with Microsoft 365 services because it will no longer be a supported client to connect to M365.

April 11, 2023 – Exchange Server 2013 – End of support.

November 15-16, 2023Microsoft Ignite 2023


☁️Classifieds

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☁️On a Less Serious Note


☁️ Last but not least …

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