Microsoft 365: The Next Generation of OneDrive

• Saturday, October 21, 2023
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

Microsoft announced its third generation of cloud storage OneDrive. With over a staggering 2 billion files added daily by trillions of consumers and businesses, the OneDrive web app is being overhauled to meet the demands of end-users whilst aligning with the Microsoft streamlined look and feel in all its products. Adapting to the dynamically changing landscape, OneDrive is more than cloud storage as it is the centre of Microsoft 365’s file experiences, powering collaboration through file sharing spanning across SharePoint document libraries, Outlook in the form of attachments in meeting invites, Teams as documents that can be accessed and exchanged, and throughout Microsoft 365’s suite of apps.

OneDrive is the central hub where users can easily find their files, dashboards, design boards, and loops that they need access to, no matter where the file lives and no matter where the user is accessing it from.

Sleek and user-intuitive, the new OneDrive web app provides effortless file management with ease of finding files, whether newly created or those shared with others.

OneDrive Home and Effortless File Management

Navigation from OneDrive Home for Web is simple, and intuitive, and provides a streamlined process for accessing files, including shared files, while contributing to and supporting improved communication, organization, and collaboration.

OneDrive Home: from your OneDrive Home Web page, you can easily navigate and retrieve newly created files or those that are shared with others, plus easily open and see your most recently accessed files.

For You: located at the top of the OneDrive Home Web page, recommendations powered by AI are surfaced at the right time for you, ensuring that what you need is at your fingertips.

Add New: from OneDrive Home, users can create new files or folders and will be able to upload existing files and folders from their machine.

Shared View: one can easily lose track of which files have been shared with whom. In Shared View, all files that have been shared with you will appear here. It does not matter who shared the file or how it was shared. Shared View is the repository for all the files that you are collaborating on.

Favourites: Important files can be marked as a Favourite, which allows users to access the file from their Favourites list from Microsoft 365, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, File Explorer, and many other apps.

People View: how many of us cannot remember the name of a file, but we can remember who sent or shared a file with us? In People View, files are organized by the people you work with, providing a different context by finding files visually.

Meetings View: in this view, past and future meetings along with recordings and shared files are easily accessible regardless of whether they were shared in the meeting invite or the chat.

Shortcuts: no matter where the original location is, simply collect files for projects by creating a Shortcut to them in OneDrive. Shortcuts provide users with quick access to files that are shared with them and to files residing in shared Teams locations.

Colorful Folders: everyone organizes in their own way, and with Colorful Folders, users can assign colors to their folders to keep them organized or to highlight important folders.

Simplified Sharing: Copying links and sharing files requires fewer clicks and is extremely user-friendly.

More Goodies Coming Soon to OneDrive Web App

Open in App: from inside OneDrive, users will be able to open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and CAD files in their respective desktop app, which in turn, will automatically sync in OneDrive. Expected release in December 2024.

OneDrive in Outlook: with the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web, a new button for the OneDrive app will be added to the left navigation pane, making it simple and quick to add a copied sharing link in an email or to find a shared file, all without leaving Outlook. Expected release in December, 2023.

OneDrive in Teams: the Files app in Teams will be updated to the OneDrive Teams app which will allow users to access their files across SharePoint and OneDrive from Teams. OneDrive Teams app will leverage the new updates made to OneDrive and SharePoint library experiences, including new views, feature enhancements, and improved performance in OneDrive. Expected release in December 2023.

Files On-Demand for Web: files and folders are available offline and can easily be accessed on a device by selecting them to be always available locally, directly from OneDrive for Web. Once selected, users will have access to these files offline. Expected release date early 2024.

Offline Mode: Files that are available for offline access can be opened and worked on in the browser, even if the user is offline. Once the user’s Internet connection is restored, all revisions that were performed in the browser will automatically sync back to OneDrive. Expected release date early 2024.

Add New: without leaving OneDrive, users can create a new file or folder. New files can be launched with a blank template or users can choose a rich template for a fast start. Expected release date Summer 2024.

Media View: this new view will, in one place, organize your media, including photos, videos, media, and images. Expected release date Summer 2024.

Copilot in OneDrive

Microsoft 365 is once again changing the datascape by utilizing AI to transform how users leverage, extract, and utilize the value from their files.

Copilot in OneDrive: without opening the file, and no matter where it lives (OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint), users can ask open-ended questions related to an individual file or obtain a summary of the content with Copilot in OneDrive. The expected release date is December 2023 for all customers who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

Microsoft 365 Chat: ask a question, and it will comb through your entire Microsoft 365 data universe, including data in SharePoint and OneDrive, and then it will connect the dots across all your content. Finally, it will gather and deliver the information you asked for.

Future of Copilot in OneDrive: an exciting future with Copilot in OneDrive is on the horizon as we steam towards supporting users with gathering, managing, and transferring knowledge with fewer clicks, greater intuitiveness, and streamlined speed.

Advanced Security and Governance

Advanced Security and Governance Admins have been empowered to tighten access to content, protect content from over-exposure, govern sharing, and assist in the migration of content in a safe manner during mergers and acquisitions with the new tool SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM). Unless otherwise noted, the capabilities below are currently available.

Granular Conditional Access Policies: multi-factor authentication can be added to specific users who require access to confidential files. By doing so, this fine-tuning will help ensure that the user will not accidentally access or leak sensitive information.

Restricted Access Control: admins can block users from accessing shared files in specific OneDrive accounts by limiting OneDrive access to members of a specific security group. This restricted access control policy ensures that only users in a specified security group will have access.

Moving OneDrive Accounts Across Tenants: companies grow, whether by mergers, acquisitions or organically. With cross-tenant OneDrive migration, admins can move OneDrive accounts across all tenants. The beauty of cross-tenant OneDrive migration is that all existing shared links will continue to work with the redirect feature.

Block Download Policy: SharePoint admins and global admins for Microsoft 365 can block the downloading of files and Teams meeting recordings from OneDrive or SharePoint sites. Users will have browse access only and will not be able to print, download, or sync files. Note that this feature can be set for individual sites but not at the organization level.

Collaboration Insights: Sharing patterns and user-centric collaboration can be identified across the organization, allowing admins to drill down on accidental sharing which is the main driver behind data leakage. (Available in private preview only)

Data Export for OneDrive Sync Client Admin Reports: as part of Microsoft Graph Data, data-driven admins will have reports on health, errors, volume, and more for SharePoint. Once available in Azure, admins will be able to visualize, analyze, and report on this data through Azure Synapse and Power BI.

With these tools, admins will be empowered to protect their organization’s content from intentional and unintentional exposure.

Consumer Photos: Improved Search

Search for People: with your permission, OneDrive can search and find images based on the names of the people in your photo collection, but only after you name the people in the images. This search feature searches and browses photos based on the people in them.

Search Your Photos Using Natural Language: going beyond object recognition, this search will allow users to search with specific parameters such as people, objects, settings, and specific places. Images that surfaced will include the specific details that the user included in the natural language search.

Beginning October 2023, these AI search features will be available in limited preview for consumers on OneDrive for Web and OneDrive mobile app. A public preview is expected in early 2024.

The next generation OneDrive for the web is super exciting as it brings many new features that are designed around user accessibility and streamlined, quick, and easy access across many Microsoft 365 apps. OneDrive is no longer a cloud storage app. Instead, it is evolving to be the central hub for data access across the Microsoft 365 platforms for online and offline users.

Microsoft Ignite 2021 Announcements:

• Saturday, March 06, 2021
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

Security and Compliance in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams

With the majority of the world working in various combinations of on-site and/or remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cyberattacks have, unfortunately, become more common and more successful because of the quick pivoting businesses had to do in order to change from being the traditional onsite workforce to the new hybrid-style of workforce that combines both onsite and remote workers. Businesses are targeted as breaches of privacy and security, as their workforce use their own devices and points of access into their business’s systems. In response, Microsoft has worked with customers and partners to innovate and design a unique and comprehensive approach to cybersecurity, compliance, and privacy.

Secure External Collaboration

1. Control SharePoint External Sharing Policies with Sensitivity Labels: Leveling up on the Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) sensitivity labels for a SharePoint Site or a Team, Administrators can now tailor external sharing policies. These policies are based on the sensitivity of the data and include labels like “Top Secret” that blocks external sharing and a “General” label that allows external sharing. By choosing the appropriate security level label, site owners will have the ability to manage how their sites handle external sharing of data.

2. Access Governance Insights in SharePoint and OneDrive: As many businesses have pivoted to become more digital with their remote staff, a natural result has been the exponential growth of the external sharing of data, especially data that is sensitive. As the footprint of the digital estate grows, so does the need for ease of governance. Microsoft, in its roadmap announced at the 2020 Ignite, began planning to address this issue. This year, it was announced that a governance insights dashboard, located in the SharePoint Admin Center and accessible by Admins, will provide insights including policy settings and external sharing activities for the most important sites. What are the most important sites? These include sites that use anyone links for content sharing, sites that have the most sensitive data including the volume of data, top sites, have access policies appropriate to the business’ security policies, and sites that require tailored policies. This insights dashboard will all Admins to easily monitor these activities and modify the policies as needed to ensure the security of the externally shared data.

3. Microsoft Teams Connect and Secure Files Collaboration: Microsoft Teams has become one of the major methods for remote and onsite staff to collaborate. Microsoft Teams files collaboration is powered by SharePoint, so it is of no surprise that there are announcements today of enhancements to Microsoft Teams. One of these focuses on external collaboration and sharing of data, especially that of sensitive data. Microsoft Teams Connect addresses this issue by granting Admins access to granular control. By doing so, Admins retain control over how information and data are accessed by external users within Teams. Microsoft Teams Connect provides the ability to share, collaborate, and access information with people, whether they are across organizations or within their own.

4. Co-Authoring and AutoSave on Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) Labelled and Encrypted Files: In 2020, this capability was made available for Microsoft 365 apps on the web, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. This has now been extended to Microsoft 365 apps on the desktop for both Windows and Mac. With co-authoring, two or more users will have the ability to co-author on an encrypted file that automatically saves, ensuring it is intact. Labeled and encrypted files will also have autosave capabilities so that co-authors can focus on their work without worrying about constantly saving the file to prevent lost data.

Securing Access with Contextual and Conditional Policies

Implemented for many years now, labels-based policies for SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams are being taken another step forward in response to the security of sensitive data and external users. Securing sensitive sites with labels-based granular conditional access (CA) policies will provide Admins the ability to secure sensitive sites and provide users with the ability to assign appropriate labels to their sensitive sites.  

By adding another layer of security, passwordless technology has become the standard for authenticating users and for providing access to resources. Passwordless technology can be applied to sensitive sites. For these sites, access for a user can be assigned based on the sensitivity of the site and the authentication context of the site. For example, a multi-factor authentication (MFA) can be enforced for a site labeled “Confidential” if the user’s context does not meet the requirement of the site. These conditional access authentication contexts can now be created by Admins in the Azure Active Directory and can be tailored to their organization’s security posture. Additionally, these can then be associated with MIP sensitivity labels. Note that when a sensitivity label is assigned to a site, the associate policies are automatically enforced. 

As a User, the complexity of the security policies is now transparent. A User can now assign, to their sensitive sites, the appropriate labels while granular contextual and conditional policies are enforced in the background. Users can be productive without interruptions unless they are accessing a sensitive site that requires MFA.

Comprehensive Compliance

1. Information Barriers Improvements in SharePoint and OneDrive: Implemented in 2020, Information Barriers provided Admins the ability to place a barrier that blocks collaboration and communication between segments of users. This will now be extended across to Administrators and Site Owners.
   
   From within the SharePoint Admin centre, Administrators can manage segments of information associated with the sites. With the information barriers compliance report, Administrators can view the compliance status of sites by implementing SharePoint admin PowerShell cmdlets.
   
   From within the Site Information pane, SharePoint Site Owners are now able to add to their sites explicit segments.
   
   Of note, information barrier policies in Microsoft 365 are honoured across Microsoft 365 Groups experience at groups’ members’ addition experience.

2. Teams Multi-Geo Support: Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo addresses and assists customers meet their data residency needs as not all countries have the same policies for data storage and use. Already supporting multi-geo are Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive, and this support has now been extended into Teams as Teams Multi-Geo. 

These are just a few of the measures that Microsoft has taken as proactive steps towards keeping externally shared, sensitive, and confidential data secure between internal and external users, within their organizations and external organizations. With the majority of the world working remotely during this pandemic, it has forced organizations to rethink how technology can be leveraged to continue the productivity of their workforce. As always, Microsoft has been forward-thinking and proactive since its inception, and the response has been in place for years. Instead of responding, Microsoft is enhancing and adding to its repertoire of defences, staying ahead as the leader in collaboration and data security.

SharePoint Conference 2019 (SPC2019): Announcements Part 2

• Sunday, May 26, 2019
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

There are so many great announcements at the SharePoint Conference 2019 (SPC2019)! The vision of Microsoft encompasses three pillars in building an intelligent workplace: teamwork and business process, employee engagement and communications, and search and content intelligence. By connecting these three pillars, with SharePoint underpinning as the connecting foundation, employees within your organization and those external that are teamed with them, become powerful through content management and collaboration across Microsoft 365 and Office 365.

Collaboration starts with individuals and through fostering inclusion and engagement, teams are built. Through engagement, collaboration becomes successful. Microsoft Teams provides the space for your teams, while engagement through learning, teaching, and sharing is provided through Yammer. Combining core applications like Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Yammer, Microsoft Search, OneDrive, Stream, and AI, you now have a powerful tool that provides your employees and teams the ability to collaborate in several mediums, on the go, on any device, and across platforms and applications.

Organizational attributes in sites, such as project, department, division, or region, are organized and connected through SharePoint hub sites. The unified navigation experience is provided with hubs. Sites can be created for a specific function and these sites can be added to the hub. All sites in the hub can roll up content to the top. If you click down to a different site, all the branding and design is automatically applied. Just like adding, sites can be moved from one hub to another.

Keeping your data secure is one of the forefront priorities with Microsoft, and with Classification Labels, this process is now more streamlined and simplified. There are two types of Classification Labels: Retention Labels for applying retention policies on all data; and, Sensitivity Labels for applying consistent security and access policies to all data. This includes content marking, group privacy, controlling level of access on unmanaged devices and restricting access to specific users in your organization. Additionally, anonymous sharing of sensitive files can be blocked through the creation of a DLP policy. And, an audit can be run with your DLP policy for accessed denied requests.

Not only are documents secured, but site access by an external user can be set through a tenant wide limit that defines how long an external user can access content on a shared site. Once the limit is met, the external user will automatically lose access. Requests for an extension can be granted by the Admin in the Admin Centre under User Expiration. Likewise, the Admin can terminate the access immediately.

Managing the Classic experience and the Modern experience is now made easier as the full features in the Admin Centre in the Classic experience is now in the Modern experience. Sites can now be managed with just one-click with bulk actions.

The ability to change the URL of a site is one of the coolest and handiest features (in my opinion). This can be accomplished by going into the Admin Centre, then choosing “Change site address”. Next, type in the new URL in the popup. At the same time, the opportunity to change the name of the site is offered. Once you accept, links will be updated plus a check is made to ensure all links are valid. Old links pointing to an old site are handled with Automatic Redirect. With this running automatically, the user is redirected to the new site, eliminating the need for you to copy content from the old site to the new site.

Collaboration, in real-time with multiple users, is the goal, and with Fluid Framework, this is now possible. Fluid Framework provides the platform for the collaboration of multiple co-authors to work on the same document and at the same time while edits and additions appear almost instantaneously for real-time collaboration.

Microsoft Search combines the power of AI and Microsoft Graph to produce search results not only from files, conversations, and insights but can find people, tasks, or even take you to the spot where you left off in a document. Microsoft Search connects your users with relevant content and people across several platforms and applications, including SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer, Microsoft Teams, Office, Outlook, Windows, and Bing. One powerful search engine across all Microsoft applications. One feel, and best of all, it brings your design, your branding, your company voice across all MS products.

These are just a few of the applications, and with so many applications, the Admin Centre has been redesigned. The newly redesigned Admin Centre allows the configuration of Microsoft Search settings across all apps and services. Using a third-party? No worries – with search connectors, third party and line-of-business application information will be connected and searchable.

The power of Microsoft Search in SharePoint is prominently featured in the header, like it is in all Microsoft apps and services, on the SharePoint Home Site. It is available when you are, wherever you are. Catching up on announcements and news or continuing where you left off in a shared document or finding sites that are relevant to you without endlessly scrolling through feeds or bookmarks, is made effortless with Microsoft Search in SharePoint.

One key feature is zero intent queries. Simply click on the new search box, and contextually relevant information pops up! What’s contextually relevant? Documents that you recently used, recent suggestions, and people (skills, projects, and interests are all searchable) are ranked based on insights from documents, sites, and people you work with. Matches with rich previews, from over 270 different file types, will display as a live site preview on the search results page, visually making it easy to identify the content you want. For people, a people card will appear that lists their basic information, who they report to, projects they are members of, and teams that they belong to. To help you decide on what content you want to open, and to highlight company endorsed content, Administrator curated answers with markers will appear in the appropriate space on your home page.

A key feature of Microsoft Search in SharePoint is the Megamenu. With the megamenu, not only content on your Home Site is accessible, but content across the entire estate is now at your fingertips.

Interestingly, traditional search engines are based off an inverted structure. However, Microsoft Search leverages machine learning to build optimal models that are refined based on the click thru rate, search results, and the use of documents by users in organizations. Microsoft Search is now the consistent search engine across all platforms and applications. The uniqueness of Microsoft Search is that it is an open source repository where teams across an organization build it cooperatively through collaboration and with AI, creating a repository that is the most relevant to the users.

With one click on the top left Apps Launch button, you can quickly navigate between apps like OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook, Yammer, and more while corporate branding and navigation flow through. Being natively mobile, all content and conversations are available on the go. An excellent feature is the News Digest Summary which summarizes what you need to know, and with one click, it takes you to the specific article. On the go or no time currently to read it? Simply save it for viewing and reading later.

Even with all these new, enhanced and exciting features, there is more to come! Based on community feedback, Microsoft continues to listen carefully and develop SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft 365 and its applications to provide the best tools to its customers. Announced for the future will be the capability to unlock text in images that are stored as PDFs, find conversations in Teams and Yammer across all applications, having these listed in a dedicated vertical search area, search videos in Stream, OneDrive, and SharePoint in a dedicated vertical search area, utilize custom connectors with adaptive cards for the search results page (you can customize how it looks and take action from that card), and develop your apps with endpoint for MS Search in MS Graph API (currently available in private preview).

These are just a few of the upcoming enhancements, but Microsoft has and will be delivering many new features to SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Yammer, Stream, Outlook, and many more of their applications. Combining their powerful individual capabilities together, and coupling it with AI, these applications provide your employees with the tools to use to support, engage, and redefine how collaboration between them is performed.

SharePoint Conference 2019 (SPC2019): Announcements

• Wednesday, May 22, 2019
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

At the SharePoint Conference (SPC2019) held in Las Vegas this spring, many new announcements were shared that will impact SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Yammer, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow and several other applications within Office 365 and Microsoft 365.  

The internet connects the world while an intranet connects the people and content in the workplace. But, an intranet does more than just connect people and content. A properly organized intranet will cause collaboration between people, whether in teams or in siloes, through the sharing of knowledge, the harnessing of this collective knowledge to create solutions and the provisioning of a platform for communication. SharePoint has been the powerhouse behind intranets for more than a decade and can be found in every industry and geography. As a leader, SharePoint continues to set the bar higher and higher, meeting the needs and goals of organizations and its people with intelligent solutions.

SharePoint Home Sites

A SharePoint communication site, but amped up, SharePoint Home Sites is the landing page for your organization and the new home view on the SharePoint mobile app. SharePoint Home Sites, with personalized content, information, and navigation, not only engages through conversation but also through video that is powered by Yammer and Microsoft Stream. It neatly organizes and curates the organization’s news, with official news being marked visually and is available for all users with access to the home site. Relevant content and news are shared based on the role of the person as well as their role while Microsoft Search serves as the main connector of content within the organization.

A key focus with all of SharePoint’s enhancements is the time-to-value for customers. With the improved navigation and activity insights across sites, and coupling these features with views of your documents to get back to work quickly, work processes are greatly streamlined, underscoring the valuable time-to-value gained.

As we all experience, we may come across content that we would like to read, but at that moment, cannot. With SharePoint Home Sites, news and content can be flagged for review at a later time. This feature, enhanced saved for later view, will be an extremely useful and well-used feature.

SharePoint Home Sites are easily deployed – within minutes – straight out of the box with no coding! Customizations to reflect company branding and design are easily done through web parts, navigation, and site design – all straight out of the box.

Being the leader as the powerful platform for delivering applications on the intranet, many SharePoint partners are onboard with integrating their intranet offerings closely to the SharePoint intelligent intranet. Additionally, solutions built with SharePoint Framework by your developers or by SharePoint partners can be embedded.

Yammer and Microsoft Stream

Both Yammer and Microsoft Stream are featured out of the box for SharePoint Home Sites. With Yammer and Microsoft Stream, engaging employees in communication and learning has never been easier.

Yammer provides the platform for employees to engage in open conversations that can drive cultural transformations and cause organizational alignment.  Every employee across an organization is empowered to express their opinions, ideas, and feedback and now, with the new Question and Answer feature, you or a group admin can mark the best answer, making this knowledge easy to find, share, and reuse. Taking it one step further, a group can feature bot-like, intelligent answers to questions that are frequently asked.

There are some major changes for customers using Yammer groups connected to Office 365 groups. For these groups, e-Discovery for Yammer will be available for them. Recognizing the unique data residency requirements for European customers, in-geo data storage for Yammer in the EU is now available for new Yammer networks in the EU. Yammer messages and files attached to these will be stored at-rest in Microsoft EU datacentres.

Video is becoming more popular, and is quite often the first choice, for learning, engaging, and communicating. Microsoft 365’s video capability is powered by Microsoft Stream, a powerful engine that provides users the ability to securely record, upload, and share videos from the iOS or Android mobile apps. By incorporating Microsoft Forms into Microsoft Stream, polls, surveys or quizzes can easily be inserted into the videos.  

A natural extension of video is 3D and virtual reality. SharePoint Spaces has been in development since 2018, and at Ignite 2019, expect to see what SharePoint Spaces is in its early stages.

OneDrive

OneDrive is the Office 365 files application that stores all your individual and shared files across platforms, across browsers, and across devices and is accessible on mobile or on desktop. With so many files stored, accessing has become more streamlined and simple with Microsoft Search in OneDrive as the powering search engine. Personalized recommendations are provided with the new AI-powered experiences. Activity, file insights, and lifecycle signals such as DLP policies are shown on OneDrive’s enhanced file hover cards. Another great feature is the save for later which allows you to flag a file that you can return to later to read.

With the OneDrive web application, you can now work with metadata columns, custom views, sync files to your PC or Mac, and preview more than 320 file types, including 360-degree images and AutoCAD .DWG files. This can all be done with the new, full-fidelity files experience for shared libraries. And, with the comments on non-Office files, comments and be added to any of the 320+ file types, including PDFs, CAD drawings, and images.

Sharing policies set by your organization can now be done directly from OneDrive, making it that much easier to collaborate through file sharing with internal and external collaborators with the create a shared library with a streamlined experience backed by an Office 365 group. With this, you can specify the people you want to share with. Files can also be shared in Teams, which is the hub for teamwork, with the new file sharing control in Teams chat. This allows you to either upload a copy of the file or share a link, and the access provided by the link is configurable. The new sharing control to Outlook will also be implemented.

A new request files capability is being introduced which allows you to select a folder and invite people to add files. Everyone can upload folders to the file, but the only files they see will be theirs. With each file added, you will receive a notification. With request files, you are able to collect files from multiple individuals while preventing individuals from seeing other peoples’ files.  

These are few of the highlights announced and shared at this year’s SharePoint Conference. All are very exciting and will help your organization’s employees collaborate with greater efficiency and productivity while encouraging learning through enhanced media platforms.

SharePoint 2019 New Features

• Thursday, January 17, 2019
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

The new features in SharePoint 2019 are based on three themes. These themes involve the users’ experience that is developed through SharePoint Online, content engagement across all platforms, and powerful scaling security and compliance capabilities.

What is new for SharePoint 2019? SharePoint 2019 will have many new and added features that enhance the “modern experience”, making it flexible, mobile, compelling and easier to use, especially for on-prem users. These new features include:

1. SharePoint Home Page: The home page will provide users with the ability to easily find and access SharePoint sites within the organization. Additional information will include the news from the sites that they are following as well as from suggested sites. If the administrator has given the user permission, the user will have the ability to create new communication sites from the home page. There are three out-of-the-box templates available:
   
     Topic which consists of four default web parts (Hero, News, Documents, and Events);
     Showcase leverages the default Hero and Image Gallery web parts to visually highlight products, events, and people; and
     Blank which provides a clean canvas so that you can customize with your own modern web parts;
   
   
2. Modern Lists and Libraries: Bringing List and Libraries in parallel with SharePoint Online, the modern experience is now the default for team sites, though Classic is still supported. Users will be able to copy and move files using the command bar as well as add files as links, filter and sort easily, pin documents, and apply column formatting including adding columns and rows to SharePoint Lists with JSON markup.
   
   By combining the powers of SharePoint 2019 and OneDrive, Libraries has a modern sharing experience with an updated and intuitive UI. Previous syncing and integration issues are now solved so that tasks, like creating new folders, saving documents, and uploading files in SharePoint and/or OneDrive, can be done at any time and from anywhere;
3. New Team, Site Pages: As the communication site, users and teams can share messages, news, broadcasts and they can also display stories. With the new Hero web part, five items with text, image, and links can be displayed, drawing attention to the most important content;
4. New Pages: Comprised of web parts, new pages are fully customizable to the needs of the user. Users will have the ability to add Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, images, feeds like Yammer, site activities, and embed videos;
5. Modern Search Experience: Using intuitive logic, the modern search experience will suggest relevant content before the user enters a keystroke. The results update as the user types in the criteria. The search results page shows an overall of search results and is grouped by type;
6. Lists: The modern lists simplify how users and teams create, curate, and interact with the information. Individuals and teams will be able to share, access, and collaborate around structured data. Additionally, information from other systems can be leveraged into SharePoint to support business processes.

True to its purpose, SharePoint continues to support collaboration between teams and individuals in their organizations. As SharePoint updates to 2019, there will be some features in 2016 and 2013 that will be deprecated and these six features will be:

1. Aggregated Newsfeed: The tile in the app launcher and the option to implement the newsfeed capability will be removed. The existing aggregate newsfeed will become read-only. The suggested solution is to use communication sites and Microsoft Teams;
2. Custom Help: The existing engine in SharePoint will be removed in the future. For the Microsoft legacy on-prem SharePoint help engine, it will be updated and will synchronize with O365;
3. SharePoint Designer 2013: SharePoint Designer 2013 will continue to function with SharePoint Server 2019 until 2026 where support will officially end. Alternatives include PowerApps and Microsoft Flow and both are available via the on-prem data gateway;
4. Multi-Tenancy: Inline with migrating services to the cloud, multi-tenancy capabilities are building dependencies on cloud technologies, and for on-premises environments, these capabilities are not available. Due to costs and complexities of providing on-prem alternatives, multi-tenancy will no longer be available;
5. Visio Services: Rendering based on Silverlight will no longer be supported effective October 12, 2021. Switching to PowerBI is the recommended solution; and 6. Code-based Sandbox Solutions: These customization packages deployed at the site collection level have already been removed from SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint Online. They will be removed from SharePoint 2019. SharePoint add-ins are the suggested alternatives.

Summarizing the added new features and the deprecation of others, is a handy cheat sheet below:

The Modern Experience is not only here to stay, but it is being integrated into SharePoint 2019. If an older version of SharePoint on-prem is being used, it is highly recommended that the upgrade to SharePoint 2019 be implemented. With nearly all the modern functionalities available, it will bring on-prem up to par with SharePoint online. With SharePoint 2019, user experience and collaboration become modernized with greater ease of access and use for individuals and teams. 

Ignite 2018 Announcements: SharePoint, Office 365, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365

• Thursday, September 27, 2018
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

At this year’s Ignite, Microsoft has focused their enhancements on combining the power of SharePoint and Microsoft 365, delivering to employees across the organization targeted digital content that pertains to their needs. Displayed visually, targeted for teams, and easily accessible, files can be accessed for live team collaboration.

Engaging Employees

The purpose of SharePoint is to share digital content across the organization, promoting collaboration amongst team members. SharePoint is already effective for sharing information for collaboration, but with audience targeting, knowledge, news, services, and corporate visions can now be delivered to the appropriate teams and their members. External articles can now be shared as news with news links, another great new feature. Visually, there are new page designs and new, powerful web parts, both which will help create stunning pages. Visual tags can be used to accent and highlight Organizational News.

Video Streaming

What better way than to engage your employees with video? Everyone loves to watch video, and with video becoming the preferred method of creating compelling news that captivates the audience, not only is Microsoft Stream the intelligent video service in Microsoft 365, but it is the driving force for video experiences in SharePoint sites and for live and on-demand events for Yammer, Microsoft Teams, and Stream. The mobile app, Microsoft Stream, features offline viewing when in areas of limited or no internet connection. Videos that you can engage in can be found across the organization on Microsoft Stream mobile.

Modern Portals

The digital experience for your employee can be fast, dynamic, natively mobile sites and pages, personalized, beautiful, social, and most importantly, actionable. There will be over a dozen new features that will give you the tools to make your sites and pages look amazing. The new portal web part will help create these experiences, including the ability to personalize views of recent sites, recent documents, and personalized news. For SharePoint portals, the new mega-menu and site footer are game changers. The new Yammer conversations web part will engage and build a community site that brings conversation and content together, encouraging learning and open sharing amongst your audience.

Hub Sites, Your Intranet, and Modern SharePoint

Hub sites is a great way to organize your intranet. With the roll-up events feed and hub join approvals, not only can you deliver information targeted to each team but managing hub sites can be done effectively and simply through SharePoint Admin Centre. In preparation of transitioning and replacing classic publishing sites and portals, the number of hub sites in a tenant has now been increased to 100. By migrating to modern SharePoint, your teams can now experience the new digital content in SharePoint.

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint

Microsoft Teams will be experiencing a new makeover as it morphs to encompass full capabilities of SharePoint document libraries. Create custom views, gain insights into file activities add and format custom columns, and pin files to the top are all capabilities that will be available. With the familiar files command bar, syncing files from Microsoft Teams to your PC or Mac is another added new experience.
With diverse needs, Teams must be able to create solutions to solve their needs. Building composite apps that can also be surfaced in Teams with modern SharePoint pages part-to-part communications. Data and custom-built SharePoint Framework web parts solutions can be shared by adding a SharePoint list as a tab in Teams. Additionally, one will be able to add Teams apps to SharePoint sites, bringing many more apps to your intranet.
Collaborating in a SharePoint team site, a new visual indicator of channel folders will provide information regarding the folders that are associated with channels in Teams. The new link to Teams in the site navigation will navigate you quickly to Teams.
Connect any SharePoint team site to Teams. With your site connected to an Office 365 group, and from your site, create your team with one additional click.
As you can see Teams and SharePoint are coming closer together, providing a platform where your Microsoft Teams and groups can collaborate without compromise on the intranet.

Collaboration – Office 365

Only with Office 365 and with files in the cloud, collaborators can work together and co-author in real-time across mobile, web, and desktop versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Add Comments – OneDrive
Coming soon will be the ability to add comments with @mentions to all file types, including photos, CAD drawings, PDFs and more, in OneDrive. If permission is required to the document, an email notification with a link to the file to join in will be automatically be sent.

OneDrive – Files On-Demand
OneDrive connects you to all your files (personal and shared) in Office 365 whether you are on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or web. OneDrive Files-On Demand in Windows 10 allows you to view and open files inside File Explorer, including files from Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. By opening up inside File Explorer, no storage space is used on your device. The files remain in the cloud and can be accessed, edited, and shared as if locally stored. If you choose to download and store locally, the file can be used. Once you connect back to the internet, your edits will be automatically uploaded to OneDrive. The power of OneDrive is enormous, and based on requests from UserVoice, OneDrive has now crossed platforms to Mac. OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac is now available for consumer and commercial customers.

AI and Content Collaboration
Machine-learning and AI can aid in increasing productivity, making informed decisions, and keeping files more secure, and by combining AI with content stored in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business, these goals are achieved. In addition, video and audio transcription services will be coming soon to SharePoint and OneDrive along with scan and metadata capture with the OneDrive mobile app.

Deployment
The new SharePoint Admin Centre will allow you to manage all sites, including group connected team sites, hub sites, and communication sites. Deploy with confidence.

Recovery
Personal files are protected from malicious attacks and file corruption with Files Restore for OneDrive which provides the capability to move a user’s Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders from their Windows device into OneDrive.
This same protection is now available for shared files in SharePoint. A self-service recovery solution, administrators can restore files from any point in time from the last 30 days with File Restore for SharePoint.

SharePoint On-Prem

For SharePoint On-Prem customers, SharePoint Server 2019 will be available in October this year and will offer modern user experiences, support for SharePoint Framework, OneDrive Files On-Demand, and improved hybrid integration with Office 365. The SharePoint Migration Tool is free and highly recommended for moving complete on-premises SharePoint sites, including data from libraries, lists, and file shares.

Ignite 2018: OneDrive Announcements

• Thursday, September 27, 2018
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

It was an exciting day for sure yesterday with many announcements about OneDrive. Here is my take on the OneDrive road map.

Connecting you from any device, Office 365 provides access to personal and shared files for team collaboration. Incorporating artificial intelligence will not only increase productivity, but real-time collaboration can take place across all platforms and operating systems. Security is on the forefront as new security and compliance capabilities are being implemented to keep your data safe from threats and attacks.

With new enhancements to Office 365, OneDrive Files On-Demand for Windows has cross-platformed to Mac: OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac. Office Insiders are the first ones that this has been released to.

OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac

Storage space is always a consideration, but with OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac, this is minimized with the ability to locally store the files that you need while having access to all your files. All files can be found in Finder, and they work like all other files on your device. There is no need to change the way you work. OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac is available for consumer and commercial OneDrive customers, and like One-Drive Files On-Demand for Windows, it operates across all personal, work, and shared files in Office 365.

Accessing OneDrive On-Demand for Mac

Accessing your folders in OneDrive On-Demand for Mac begins by choosing the OneDrive folder in Finder. Note that this folder occupies 0 bytes of storage on the disk. All documents in this folder are stored in the cloud.

How do I know if my document is stored locally or in OneDrive? New status icons in Finder provides quick visual cues as to where the file is stored. Folders and files in OneDrive On-Demand are stored in the cloud until you download and save locally. Why store locally? Perhaps at times, you will need to access the file when you cannot connect to the internet. In preparation for this event, choose the file or files that you would like to download locally. Right-click your selection and then choose Always keep on this device. Your file or files are now stored locally, ready to be accessed without an internet connection.

To access and work on your OneDrive On-Demand files, double-click on the file in Finder. You can also open the file from within an app. The file will automatically download and become locally available but will not be stored locally unless you chose to do so, thereby saving storage space.

End-user training is simplified as OneDrive On-Demand for PC and OneDrive On-Demand for Mac functions and works the same across both platforms. Those users who have had experience with PC will find it to be a natural transition to Mac.

IT Admin Controls

Not only has end-user experience been greatly enhanced with OneDrive On-Demand for Mac, IT admins and the organization will also benefit. Previously, a change in a file in a shared library on SharePoint on Mac automatically synced to all devices that were connected to that library, even if the collaborator was not active. With OneDrive On-Demand for Mac, continuous syncing with non-active collaborators is eliminated with the management options available to IT admins when deploying. By eliminating continuous syncing, network bandwidth is reduced. Management options include enabling Files On-Demand by default, select folders or files to always be locally available, and block apps from downloading files. As exciting as this is, Files On-Demand for Mac is currently available only for Office Insiders on MacOS Mojave or by running a simple script. For the public, it will be rolled out in the coming months.

Dark Mode for OneDrive

Another new and exciting OneDrive feature for MacOS Mojave is Dark Mode. Fully supported for OneDrive, Dark Mode works cohesively with the built-in apps for Mac. When Dark Mode is enabled, OneDrive will change to a dark theme across all user interfaces, including Finder and the OneDrive Activity Centre.

Files On-Demand Storage Sense Integration

Being released with the new Windows 10 in October, Files On-Demand will be integrated with Storage Sense. With the integration of Storage Sense into Files On-Demand, disk space can be automatically freed up by making older, unused, and local OneDrive files online-only. Your files will be safely stored in OneDrive while your files will be represented as placeholders on your device, a process known as dehydration. Once you have an internet connection again, the online-only files can be used just like any other file.

Collaboration, sharing, and accessing files has never been more powerful with the cross-platform compatibility of Office 365 and Files On-Demand for PC and Mac. Local storage space is freed up with storage in OneDrive but the ability to store locally on your device ensures that files you need to access without an internet connection are still accessible. And with Storage Sense integrated with OneDrive, local storage space is automatically freed up while making local OneDrive files online-only. OneDrive and Files On-Demand continue to strengthen Microsoft’s vision of collaboration on all devices and platforms.

New OneDrive for Business capabilities announced SPCNA

• Tuesday, May 22, 2018
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

You asked. You voted. You shall receive.

Microsoft has offered to listen to your feedback through a public, user driven forum aptly named OneDrive UserVoice (https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/filters/top). If you have a suggestion or have a request for an improvement or feature, this is the place to suggest it. In addition to requesting, you also have the capability to vote on other suggestions that have been submitted. As a collective voice, OneDrive UserVoice became the collaborative, driving force for the new capabilities that were announced at the SharePoint Conference in North America for OneDrive for Business.

Scan and Photos Experiences on Mobile

Scan Experience: a dedicated icon in the tab bar allows easier access to the built-in scan functionality. Annotating, adding multiple pages, and changing the destination folder or file name can now be done in the capture experience.

Camera Upload: photos and videos captured on your local camera roll in iOs and Android platforms are now automatically uploaded.

Sharing and Collaboration Security

Password Protected Links: Sharing a file or folder with your collaborators will have an additional level of security with the ability to not only set a password, but the recipient will also require a password. This will prevent accidental sharing of information if your recipient forwards or shares the link. Password protected links are unnecessary if secure external sharing is applied.     

Block Download: View-only links allow you to share Office documents in the cloud but with block download, users are prevented from downloading files for the purpose of keeping and storing them offline.

Deployment and Onboarding

Known Folder Move: Administrators will have the capability to seamlessly move folders such as Documents, Pictures, and Desktop, from their PC to OneDrive. This is supported during initial account configuration and for post-deployment migration.

Team Site Automount: Administrators can automatically connect and synchronize specific SharePoint Team Sites as part of the process of deployment or upgrading to OneDrive.

Sharing Controls

External Sharing Reports: Site administers will be able to see all the files that are being shared on their site, including files that are being shared through secure external sharing and anonymous links with this report. By setting filters, the data can be further refined for capture and can be exported to Excel or Power BI. This data report can then be used to analyze end user patterns, including sharing usage. These reports can also be imported into third-party management software as well as security software.  

Customization of Sharing Emails: For outbound and emails that are being shared with recipients, Administrators will have the ability to brand these emails with their company logo; however, Azure Active Directory Premium P2 is a requirement for this functionality.

Transfer Ownership for Deleted Users: A user’s ownership of their OneDrive files is currently transferred to their manager when they leave the organization. Soon, Administrators will have the ability to transfer the ownership to any individual in the organization.  

 

When does this all roll out?

These are truly exciting features that have been announced! The various stages of the updates and rollout dates can be found on the Office 365 Roadmap (https://products.office.com/en-US/business/office-365-roadmap?filters=#) and I suggest that you check here often as release dates have not yet been announced.     

Versioning Update for SharePoint Online and OneDrive

• Thursday, May 17, 2018
• By : Mike Maadarani
• 0 comment

The Importance of Version Control

Version control, or versioning, allows a file or item to be restored to an older state that is chosen from the version list. With versioning enabled, items and files in the SharePoint list or library are protected from unwanted, miscalculated and inadvertent errors. 

Applications of Versioning

Track Version History: version history discloses information about when an item or file was changed, by whom, what was changed, and any comments that were made when files are checked into libraries

Restore Previous Version: file or items that are corrupt can be restored from a previous version. A previous version can also be restored if mistakes are made in the file or item, or if the previous version is more akin to what is wanted. The restored version becomes the current version

View Previous Version: Before reverting to a previous version, there is the capability to compare two versions within a Microsoft Office document, such as Word or Excel, to determine the differences between the two documents without overwriting the current version.    

What is New with Versioning

Versioning is becoming more crucial as software and technology advances, as exemplified by the evolution of AutoSave and Restore Your OneDrive. Leveraging versions allows greater confidence for users and administrators alike while delivering better user experience.

In line with development, Microsoft recently announced they will be enabling versioning on all Document Libraries in team sites in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business with a default of retaining a minimum of 100 major versions. If your library is set to retain 100 or more major revisions, then this update will not affect you. However, existing libraries that are set to retain less than 100 major versions will be updated to meet the minimum criteria of 100 events.

Roll out will begin in June for first release customers while remaining tenants worldwide will receive the update in July. The rollout is expected to be completed by the end of July.

Who is Impacted

As mentioned, all team sites for OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online will be affected. Will you be impacted if your team sites are not connected to an Office 365 group? The answer is “yes”, the rollout will update to the 100 minimum major revisions if you are not set to be 100 or above.

What if we are On-Prem for SharePoint? Will this affect us? The answer is “no”, this will have no impact on your SharePoint document libraries.   

What Else Changes

Once the update is rolled out to your tenant, site owners and administrators will not be able to set a versioning limit of less than 100. In addition to this, they will not be able to disable document library versioning as it will now be standard practice to have it enabled.

What About Storage Space?

Prior to the redevelopment of the flat collection sites with Office 365, versioning of document libraries required large storage sites. This, in turn, created issues for the allocation of storage for site collections. The result of limited storage was the stringent, low versioning limit. With the new approach of flat collection sites, storage is less of a concern than it was in the past; however, with audits, the speed of change in technology, and the increase in collaboration between teams and individual members, errors and corrupt files can be incurred, which places a priority on the ability to restore and recover these files and items. Hence, the rollout of the new higher, minimum versioning limit of 100.