Office 365: Fluid Framework

Office 365 Fluid Framework preview is now available to anyone who has an Office 365 Enterprise subscription. O365 Fluid Framework will enhance user collaboration across apps, and being web-based, it will provide interactive and shared experiences through a componentized document model.

What is O365 Fluid Framework?

Housed in GitHub, O365 Fluid Framework is described as an open platform that is accessible for use by developers. Generic tools for web applications is available in the software development kit.

On a user level, O365 Fluid Framework enables user collaboration across applications, including co-authoring in Office applications and the ability for multiple users to ink documents. Artificial intelligence is also leveraged to enhance collaboration, such as simultaneous text translation into other languages. Crowdsource meeting agendas, minutes, note-taking, and managing projects with multiple stakeholders will be a breeze with O365 Fluid Framework’s flexibility.

In the O365 Fluid Framework preview, users will be able to create, edit, and share their Fluid Framework canvases. In Fluid Framework, end-users will not only be able to collaborate on Fluid Framework documents, but they will also be able to use Office 365’s @mention to send instant messages.

What is in the O365 Fluid Framework Preview?

As mentioned above, the O365 Fluid Framework is accessible for those who have an O365 Enterprise subscription. To begin accessing your preview, sign in at the O365 Fluid Framework preview with either your work or school account.

Once signed in, creating can begin:

1. On the left-hand side, choose to Create New;

2. Add a Title; and

3. Save your project but note that the project cannot be saved locally. The project location for saving must either be in OneDrive for Business or in SharePoint.

As you create, you can invite others to collaborate with you on this project by clicking the Share () button to grant access to your colleagues. You can also copy the URL. Another way to share your project is to use the @mention. By tagging your colleague, if they have access, they will be notified. If they do not have access, a pop up will appear, allowing you to easily grant them access while you keep working.

Connected and live, collaboration on fluid canvases is nearly instantaneous. All users who have access to the file will be able to immediately see edits.

In O365 Fluid Framework, components are added, and these components represent the types of content that can be used to customize the workspace. To add components, either type the plus “+” sign or, on the left side of the page, choose the “+” icon. Currently, in the preview, the following components are available:

1. Action Items: track, in a table, tasks, timelines, and assignees;

2. Mention: tag colleagues with “@name” anywhere in the content so that they can easily find relevant content;

3. Table: create and customize a table;

4. Date: add dates to track upcoming deadlines and to highlight overdue tasks; and

5. Check List: as items are completed, check them off.

Though Fluid Framework canvases are not the documents that we are familiar with, canvases can still be formatted. To format Fluid Framework canvases, right-click within the section that you want to format. A pop-up will appear and within this menu are contextually relevant options for areas of text and tables.

1. Text Area: text formatting options include those in the image below:

2. Tables: table formatting options include those in the image below:

On the left is a navigation pane which provides quick and useful access to:

  1. – quickly access recent projects;
  2. – quickly scan mentions;
  3. – easily start a new project; and
  4. – easily share suggestions and feedback.

As with all Microsoft products, there are keyboard shortcuts for the O365 Fluid Framework. These keyboard shortcuts are:

Keyboard shortcut Action
@ Tag and notify a person
+ Opens the Discover Menu with component options
Shift + F10 Opens the Commanding Surface with formatting options
Ctrl + Alt + 1 Heading 1
Ctrl + Alt + 2 Heading 2
Ctrl + . Creates bulleted List
Ctrl + 1 Creates a checklist, checks off an item, or removes a checklist

Supported Browsers for Preview:

1. Microsoft Edge;

2. Safari (Mac only);

3. Chrome; and

4. Firefox.

Note that only the latest versions of these browsers are supported.

Office 365 Fluid Framework is a flexible, live, and real-time application that enhances team collaboration with a blank fluid canvas that is customizable for each user through the addition of components for a variety of content types. Breaking down app barriers, O365 Fluid Framework provides multi-users the capabilities to co-author document and web content with speed and at large scale. Because O365 Fluid Framework is a componentized document model, authors can deconstruct content into collaborative blocks. These building blocks can then be used across applications, and by doing so, a new, flexible document is created. The power of the O365 Fluid Framework is further fueled with intelligent agents, translating text, suggesting edits, fetching content, performing compliance checks, and more.

Though this is still in preview, O365 Fluid Framework is providing us some insight as to the direction that Microsoft is headed towards with content collaboration between users. O365 Fluid Framework has great potential to become the freeform collaboration tool.

SharePoint Conference 2019 (SPC2019): Announcements Part 2

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

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 Fest DC 2019

Chicago Fest Chicago is April 29th to May 3rd, 2019, a full week packed with workshops, breakout sessions, Ask the Experts panel, and podcasts. This is one of my favorite conferences, and I am honored this year to present one workshop and 3 sessions:

  1. Workshop – 4/29/2019: OneDrive Deployment from Start to finish. This video gives you a quick overview of the workshop.
  2. Session 1 – 5/1/2019: The Evolution of SharePoint ECM to Content Services
  3. Session 2 – 5/2/2019: Increase your collaboration with Azure Automation
  4. Session 3 – 5/3/2019: Build an intranet with modern SharePoint

There is a great lineup of speakers, so make sure you check out the agenda and register for this awesome conference.

You can use Maadarani100 code and get a $100 discount.

SP Fest DC

Migrate SharePoint Classic to Modern

SharePoint Online is a dynamic collaborative platform that continues to provide visually pleasing, improved and more streamlined processes and accessibility for the end user. The availability of Modern sites is increasing. A Modern site consists of modern Office 365 group-connected team or communication sites. By combining these with improved functionality, content is presented in a modern user interface that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but provides content in a format that communicates clearly, navigates easily, and puts some controls back into the hands of the end-user.

But what if your organization has classic team sites and lots of them? How do you migrate these to the modern SharePoint Modern site? You can fully transform your classic team site into a modern Office 365 group-connected site with in-place modernization. Modernizing the sites will involve one or more of the following steps:

  1. Maximize and Leverage Modern List and Library: The modern user interface is the most visible aspect of a modern site. In the classic sites, particular pages will appear in the modern user interface, on the condition that modern experience has not been turned off. The pages will appear in the modern user interface include List and Library pages for most lists and libraries, site usage page, site contents page, and recycle bi pages. However, Home page and all other site pages such as wiki pages and/or web part pages, and List and Library pages for certain libraries and lists, will continue to the classic user interface.

    Starting April 1, 2019, it will no longer be possible to restrict an entire organization (tenant) to classic mode for lists and libraries. Refer to Chris McNulty’s Post.

    To transition to a modern user interface from the classic user interface, there are two areas that require attention. The first is transitioning of lists and libraries to the modern list and library experience, basically, the modern user interface. The second is to transform classic wiki and web part pages, your classic pages, to modern client-side pages.

    Planning is the foundation for a successful migration from classic to the modern user interface. Involving key players is an important step towards a successful migration.

    Identify and educate your stakeholders and they will include:

    a. Key business stakeholders – this group will be playing a crucial role in assisting end-users in adopting the modern user interface. Prepare them by working closely with them. Provide direct involvement through access to the play environment so they can become familiar with the upcoming changes. Listen to their needs, their feedback, and their recommendations. Ensure that their business needs are met;

    b. Customization team and developers – this team will need to be available to redesign customization that were built in the past for the classic user interface. Not all customization will be transferable to the modern user interface;

    c. SharePoint administrators – the admins are the ones who will enable the modern user interface to your tenant and sites; and

    d. Change management and governance teams – switching from the classic to the modern user interface will have an impact on users, and an update of internal training materials will be needed. Change management will be important for users who are affected by the switch.

    Analyze your site collections once your stakeholders are involved, educated, and supportive.

    How will you know which site collections are ready to be modernized? How is it determined which site collections are good candidates for this modernization? Luckily, Microsoft has built a scanner to help with transforming site pages, lists, and libraries or connecting sites to an Office 365 group. The SharePoint Modernization scanner will provide a detailed analysis of the readiness of the sites for connecting to an Office 365 group. This analysis will provide a deeper understanding of the compatibility between the modern user interface, lists, and libraries. It will also perform a detailed analysis of the web part pages and wiki pages so you can prepare for page modernization. Armed with the results of the scan, remediation work can begin to prepare the collection sites for modernization.

    a. Incompatible Customization – replace with equivalent ones that work in a modern user interface;

    b. Modernize User Experience – this is done by:

    i. Enabling lists and libraries to show in the modern user interface by replacing customization, remove incompatible columns from the used views, or move data into a modern user interface compatible list type (this should be the last resort);

    ii. Connecting the site to an Office 365 group. By doing so, this will provide your site a modern home page which, in turn, enables the end user to use modern app versions;

    iii. Creating modern client-side pages and configuring them to be “similar” to the key classic wiki and web part pages. For key pages of your site, programmatic page transformations should be done. However, not all pages will require this as it is resource intensive. The usage information can be obtained from the SharePoint Modernization scanner for the web page parts and wiki page; and

    c. Communicate with the End-Users – inform, educate, and prepare your end-users for the modern user interface as the sites will work differently than in the classic modern user interface.
  2. Connect Your Site to an Office 365 Group: Classic team sites are not connected to an Office 365 group. To modernize these sites, they will need to be connected to an Office 356 group. Once connected, the site will be able to access other Office 365 services such as Teams, Outlook, and Planner. Modern team sites are already connected to Office 365 groups.

    How do you connect the classic team site to an Office 365 group? There are two methods to do this. The first is to launch a wizard from the user interface. The wizard will walk the site owner through the process. The second method is to do a bulk operation or a group-connection. With a group-connection, a series of sites can be connected, at one time, to an Office 365 group. With this method, control over configuration, including site classification, alias name, the privacy of the site as public or private, are maintained. For this reason, it is the preferred method for large organizations.
  3. Switch to Modern Tenant-Scoped Branding: Connecting to an Office 365 group results in a modern site home page and it will also allow the use of a modern site theme. The new modern site home page accepts corporate branding on SharePoint team sites. With classic sites, branding was created by using site themes, master pages, and alternate CSS. The latter two are not compatible with the modern user interface, and evaluation of these branding customization will be required to determine their relevancy. Classic site themes can be transformed into the modern user interface. Even so, it is highly recommended to switch to tenant-controlled site themes which will be respected in future modern team sites.
  4. Transform Classic Site Pages into Modern Pages: This is the final step. Even though you have completed the previous steps, your site pages will still appear in the classic user interface. Transforming pages is not an easy or simple process. There is no one-on-one mapping between the functionality of classic web parts and what is offered by client-side web parts on modern pages. As such, it is recommended that only frequently used pages be transformed into modern client-side pages.

Migrating SharePoint Classic to Modern experience entails several steps and engages several audiences. Successful transition and migration of the classic user interface to the modern user interface require planning, remediation, analysis, and prioritizing sites and pages that are to be transformed into the modern user interface. Without a doubt, there are many positives to switching from the classic user interface to the modern user interface.

Office 365 Enterprise Mobility and Security

Cybersecurity has never been more on the forefront of global technological advancement as it has been now, especially for mobile security. Cyber threats have morphed into aggressive and complex attacks, and Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization to shut down cyber threats before they become attacks by providing first defenders the tools to do so with Microsoft 365’s core component Office 365 Enterprise Mobility + Security.

Office 365 Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) leverages artificial intelligence to provide intelligent mobility management and a security platform by increasing the security features in Office 365 and extends them across the entire environment, including third-party investments. Not only does EMS empower your employees with mobile flexibility but it secures your organization and protects its data.

The face of cyber threats and attacks change daily, resulting in challenges that are faced in securing the data environment. The first is the creativity and complexity of attacks that are now being formulated. These are more complex than the simple, identify theft that we are familiar with, though this is the step of how they gain access to your data. Digital access is global, and users can tap into information wherever they are, including stationary at a desk to moving in a car. The vastness of the digital real estate, by itself, is difficult to secure. Though we are advancing with faster, more trustworthy, and more intelligent technology, it is still expensive and time-consuming to manually correlate actions on threat and attack signals.

Office 365 EMS consists of five groups with actions to provide enterprise mobile security. These five core groups are:

  1. Identity and Access Management;
  2. Information Protection;
  3. Threat Protection;
  4. Unified Endpoint Management; and
  5. Cloud Access Security Broker.

Identity and Access Management

Identity theft is one of the many methods to breach data security. With EMS, there are several ways to help reduce the possibilities of data breaches with tighter requirements for identity to gain access. Access management can be enforced through several venues, including:

Securing Authentication: The one-word password for authentication no longer provides secure and guaranteed access as it once did. With the advancement of technology, the methodologies for cyber threats have also advanced. Combining software, artificial intelligence, and science, there are new ways of managing access to secured data. These include:

  1. Going Without a Password utilizes biometrics for authentication;
  2. Multi-Factor Authentication keeps user identities safe, the current rate at the time of publication is 99.9%;
  3. Password Protection in Azure AD bans password lists and provides smart lockout features to help safeguard credentials; and
  4. Windows 10 – Secure Identity and Access provides control access to mitigate credential theft in Windows 10.

Govern and Protect Access:  Microsoft’s “Never trust, always verify” is an apt motto when it comes to protecting and governing access. With Azure AD conditional access, Zero Trust can be delivered:

  1. Enable Secure Productivity by controlling data access based on the location of the user, the device, applications that are offline, and proactively determining the risk of the environment. Access modes can be secured in SharePoint Online, Microsoft Cloud App Security, and Exchange Online;
  2. Secure and Manage Endpoints through Azure AD conditional access, Microsoft Intune and Windows Defender ATP. Working together, Azure AD and Microsoft Intune ensure that only managed and compliant devices are allowed access to Office 365 services, email, SaaS apps, and on-prem apps;
  3. Secure Administration with Azure AD with Privileged Identity Management which secures admin accounts across Office 365 and Azure; and
  4. Azure AD Identity Governance ensures the identity, access, and admin lifecycle governance.

Obtain Comprehensive Identity Protection: Prevent identity attacks by implementing Microsoft Cloud Security, Azure AD Identity Protection and Azure ATP by:

  1. Securing Identity Infrastructure by following these five steps: strengthen your credentials, reduce your attack surface, automate threat response, increase your awareness, and enable end-user self-help;
  2. Identity Security Insights obtained with Azure AD Identity Protection detects risks and provides you the opportunity to define policies for remediation. Once an upcoming attack is spotted, the doors of access can be locked by using the What-If Tool, implementing Conditional Access, customizing and accessing the Security Dashboard, defining Identity Protection and generating security reports;
  3. Hybrid Identity Forensics combines the security measures in Azure ATP and Microsoft Cloud App Security, guarding against threats on-prem and in the cloud; and
  4. Long term security is a peace of mind with Identity in Microsoft Secure Score which provides the latest guidance on new threats that evolve on daily.

Information Protection

Protect Your Data: Whether being shared or being toted on the go, protect your sensitive data everywhere by controlling how a file is being used by:

  1. Identifying, Understanding and Discovering sensitive data across all apps, devices, and services including cloud and on-prem;
  2. Customizing Information Protection Policies by classifying and labeling documents based on sensitivity labels that you define. Configure protection actions such as access restrictions, visual markings, and encryption;
  3. Analyzing How Users Access and Share Sensitive Data in cloud services. By gaining insight, access to protected files can be revoked while policy violations and risky behaviour can be monitored; and
  4. Accelerating the Path to Compliance by enhancing privacy and security in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regulatory requirements.

Threat Protection

Integrate and Automate Security by:

  1. Protecting Against Threats by detecting and investigating compromised identities, advanced threats, and malicious actions across cloud environments and on-prem; and
  2. Securing identities so that malicious logins are blocked and threats are locked down, securing email, apps, documents, and data with the help of analytics to prevent phishing and 0-day attacks, securing endpoints with automated investigations to alerts and execution of remedial actions to threats, and securing the hybrid cloud infrastructure by safeguarding information, data, and servers from attacks by quickly detecting and blocking malicious activity running in the cloud or on-prem with advanced analytics.

Unified Endpoint Management with Microsoft Intune

  1. Support diverse mobile ecosystems by streamlining and automating deployment, provisioning, app delivery, updates, and policy management to iOs, macOS, Android, and Windows devices;
  2. Attain IT efficiency in the cloud through leveraging insights and baselines for security policies and configuration settings in a scalable globally distributed cloud service architecture; and
  3. Protect data with or without device enrolment continues on mobile devices through granular control over Office 365.

Microsoft Cloud App Security – Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)

  1. Multimode Microsoft Cloud App Security integrates with leading Microsoft solutions to provide simple deployment, innovative automation, and centralized management; and
  2. CASB consists of the following:

Specialized Products in Office 365 EMS

  1. Azure Active Directory – protects user credentials while allowing users to connect to apps in a secure method;
  2. Microsoft Intune – cloud-based unified data protection, access management, and endpoint management;
  3. Azure Information Protection – cloud-based data classification, protection, encryption, and tracking;
  4. Microsoft Cloud App Security – a multi-node CASB providing behavioural analytics, data protection, risk management, discover, and threat protection;
  5. Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics – protection against advanced and targeted attacks and insider threats for on-prem; and
  6. Azure Advanced Threat Protection – cloud-based solution to identify, detect and investigate compromises, threats, and malicious actions.

There is no one single software that can provide extensive and complete defences for increasingly complex forms of cyber threats and attacks. A tight defence requires a combination of several services that provide solutions to possible penetrations points, thereby working synergistically to provide full protection. Each group of solutions provides protection from different attack vectors, providing maximum coverage for security. With Office 365 Enterprise Mobility and Security, a comprehensive, end to end and fully integrated enterprise solution is provided for mobile security on devices, in the cloud, and on-prem.

Microsoft Search and SharePoint Search

Sharing of information and knowledge is the basis for a collaborative environment, but the collaborative environment is only as powerful as the capabilities built into the software that provide the abilities for the user to search for this information. Without strong searching capabilities, navigating to find specific information would be a major struggle, working against the whole premise of collaboration.

Microsoft Search is the powerhouse for bringing together search results from several data sources in Office 365 including SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, Teams, Groups, Yammer, and more. Driven by Bing’s search engine and leveraging AI, Microsoft Search brings data from within your organization and from the web in a single experience. Worry-free security authenticates users to ensure that only users allowed to access corporate content will receive the content by de-identifying search queries and logs, thereby separating these from public Bing search traffic. Microsoft Search is fully customizable allowing you to add your logo, use branding colours, company name, and more. This can all be accessed through the Microsoft 365 admin center.

With Microsoft Search, you have the flexibility to target specific groups of information to be shared with. Finding answers to questions, like troubleshooting, policies resources, can help support wise resourcing and decrease support costs by allowing users to become more independent in finding the answers that they are seeking.

The key admin features of Microsoft Search include the following:

  1. Enterprise Bookmarks: find information including sites and tools within your enterprise;
  2. Enterprise Q&As: here, you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions in your organization;
  3. Import and Export Bookmarks and Q&As: bulk importing, exporting and editing streamlines the creation and updating process;
  4. Location: on a map, locate your organization’s buildings, workspaces, and offices;
  5. Management: create content, configure, and define search keywords and phrases;
  6. Users and Permissions: both the Microsoft Search administrator and the Global Administrator will be able to authorize and add admins to manage the Microsoft Search configuration, editors who can create content, and end-users who can have access to Microsoft Search; and
  7. Analytics: provision of data of how your organization is using Microsoft Search.

What benefits will the end-user receive? These are a few of the key features for end-users:

  1. People: find people, understand their company role, projects they assigned and working on and contact information;
  2. Organizational Charts: a visual depicting a person’s place in the hierarchy of the organization, their peers, management and direct reports;
  3. Files: find relevant and contextual files on SharePoint and OneDrive for Business;
  4. Office 365 Groups: Find a group by its name, or by a member name, explore groups that a person belongs to, and browse shared content;
  5. Resources and Tools: find the information you need with links to internal and external resources;
  6. SharePoint Sites: search a site by name or see results for a group or person;
  7. Teams and Yammer Conversations: from public and group conversations, you can find contextual and relevant results;
  8. Locations: find the address and map results for buildings, campuses and offices; and
  9. First-Run Experience: for first-time users. With an initial sign in to Microsoft Search and Bing, they will receive information about using it including the types of work results they will find when they search.

SharePoint Online provides both a classic and modern search experience. Even though both experiences differ, they have one commonality and that is they use the same search index to find search results. With a modern search experience, your results shown are based on your previous activity in Office 365 and are very personal. Two users can use the same search parameters, but different content will be presented due to previous searches. Visual, intuitive and easy to navigate, the modern search experience provides ease of access and use for your users.

Because the modern search results page is not built with web parts, the modern search experience cannot be customized. However, the classic search experience can be customized and some of these customizations will have a limited impact on the modern experience. The following classic search settings will also apply to the modern search experience:

  1. Search Schema: this determines how content is collected in and retrieved from the search index. This will affect both experiences with the exception of the Sortable, Refinable and Company Name Extraction schemas which only apply to the classic search experience;
  2. Default Result Source: in the modern search experience, the results displayed are from the default result source only. If the default result source is changed in the classic search experience, it will also impact the modern search experience
  3. Remove Search Result: temporarily removing a search result will remove it from both experiences; and
  4. Promoted Result: users in both experiences will see organizational level promoted results. For the modern search experience, users will need to navigate to the All tab on the search results page and have searched across all of SharePoint to see the promoted results.

Whether you use the classic or the modern search experience, it is important to:

  1. Make sure that content can be found. Content will only be searchable once it has been crawled and added to the search index;
  2. Make the search results look amazing. Choose and create the right presentation format so that is it easy for your users to understand, access, and navigate;
  3. Show relevant search results. These can be customized by managing the search schema, query rule, query suggestions, result sources, result types, search dictionaries, authoritative pages, and with the export and import of search settings as well as using query transforms; and
  4. Check your analytics including logs, limits, and reports. These will provide information on whether the crawler has added content to the search index and if users are finding what they are searching for.

This all sounds great, but how does SharePoint Online search work? A simple explanation is that each document’s detailed information is stored within the site columns in the lists and libraries. The search follows this path and is graphically depicted:

  1. Crawling: Search crawls the lists and libraries. Site columns and their values are added to the search index;
  2. Search Index: in the search index, site columns are mapped to manage properties;
  3. Query Entry: the query that the user enters in a Search Box Web Part is sent to the search index; and
  4. Results: matching results are found by the search engine. These are then sent to a search results page and displayed in Web Parts.

By using the power of Bing’s AI search engine, Microsoft Search provides the powerful capability of searching for contextual content across several Office 365 platforms and the web to bring results to your organization and its users. Microsoft Search drives SharePoint Search, thereby providing your users the ability to search for content that is relevant to their projects, knowledge base, and skill sets across platforms and the web. Collaboration has never been easier and intuitive.

OneDrive Part Two: Additional Ignite 2017 Announcements


At Ignite 2017, many new and innovating announcements were shared, but most notably, were the many new features for OneDrive. In my previous article, OneDrive Part One: Files On-Demand, we examined the many new features and advantages of Files On-Demand. In this article, we will review the many other new features that were announced.

These new features include silent sync auto-account configuration with ADAL, Microsoft 365 powered device with OneDrive, multi-geo, updated OneDrive Admin Center, support for workflows via Microsoft Flow, simple and secure external sharing of documents without a Microsoft account, support for on-prem customers with Windows and Android App, support for NGSC (next generation sync client) in SharePoint 2019.   

Silent Sync Auto-Account Configuration for OneDrive with ADAL

Silent sync and account configurations for OneDrive are now supported by Microsoft Azure Active Directory Authentication Library. Silent Sync will automatically configure OneDrive during a new device provisioning. In addition to this, for a new user being added, OneDrive is automatically set up without any interaction of the new user. By automatically setting up a new user, there is now insurance that all users will have access and the capabilities to leverage OneDrive.  

Microsoft 365 Powered Device with OneDrive

What is a Microsoft 365 Powered Device with OneDrive?  It is a modern device running Office 365 ProPlus and Windows 10 and is managed with Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS).

Why is this exciting?  The traditional way of deploying a device was purchasing the device, having it shipped to IT where it is then imaged and prepared for the end user. Once ready, it is then shipped to the end user, which, quite often, took several days. With a Microsoft 365 Powered Device with OneDrive, the device can now be shipped directly to the end user, who can then, with great anticipation and excitement, open the box and take out the laptop/desktop/mobile device, and begin immediately using it for work after answering a few questions after turning it on.  After these questions are answered, Windows Autopilot (integrated with Azure AD Premium and Intune) will automatically configure the new device as a new Microsoft 365 powered device based on unique corporate IT and user needs.  The best part – the end user’s files, apps, emails, and preferences are automatically deployed while enforcing ITs security policy. In addition to all this, the system is always up-to-date with latest security and protection as well as continually updated services which provide a consistent, rich, and valuable content to the end user. All of this is achieved over the cloud, without physical contact between the administrator and device.

A Microsoft 365 Powered Device with OneDrive has taken what took days to deploy to only minutes to deploy – how cool and exciting is that?!?

Support for Synchronization of Encrypted Libraries

Libraries encrypted with Information Rights Management (IRM) or Digital Rights Management (DRM) are fully supported with OneDrive syncing. Why is this important?  Rights Management is the prevention of printing, forwarding, and copying of sensitive information by unauthorized people by restricting permission access. The access and restrictions are enforced, even if the information is received by unintended recipients as the access permission is stored in either the workbook, document, presentation or the email message itself. This access permission must be authenticated against the Rights Management server.  In SharePoint, downloaded files not only must be authenticated, but they are also encrypted and can only be opened by users that meet the requirements of the Rights Management policy that is set in the SharePoint library.

External Sharing without a Microsoft Service Account

The capability to share information externally with those who do not have a Microsoft service account (MSA) can now be accomplished with a simple and secure method.  You can now create and provide a one-time use verification code which grants external users access to specific content.  A limited time, single-use, verification code link is securely emailed to the external recipient. After opening the email, entering, and submitting the verification code, access to files and folders is then granted to the external recipient without the need for them to create and/or maintain an MSA as they have verified that they are the account holder of the email address. As an added layer of security, IT administrators are able to specify how often external recipients must re-verify their email address as well as obtaining a new verification code. 

User Experience Updates

OneDrive Modern Experience

An update to the OneDrive web UI has resulted in delivering visual information quickly and concisely with one glance. If there are documents in the folder, there will now be a slip of paper inside the folder and the folders now sport a number count of items in it.  New items will generate a notification to alert that there is a new item while the hover panel not only provides stats but it now also provides the opportunity to share directly from the hover panel. The People Card and Info Pane quickly provide information as to who has accessed content, what content has been shared, and who has not accessed the content.  OneDrive is now faster, more intuitive, and highly responsive, resulting in a streamlined, efficient and maximized workflow process.

 

Seamless Sharing in Office, Windows, and Mac

Office 2016 will reflect the updated sharing UI whereby the sharing of Mac, Windows, and the Web have been standardized and will be seamless across platforms. 

Multi-Geo

Multi-Geo addresses data residency and compliance for global companies.  In SharePoint and OneDrive in Office 365, the multi-geo capability will provide a choice of geographical locations to store and manage your data.  One or more satellite geo locations will connect to the main Office 365 tenant, the default location.  In other words, Multi-Geo allows a single tenant to span across multiple geo locations.

Service Level Encryption with Customer Key  

The customer key service is a new layer of security that provides you the control to encrypt and/or decrypt individual encryption keys used to encrypt your cloud storage services for OneDrive and SharePoint in Office 365.  The customer key service encryption allows you to revoke or change access to these keys, effectively preventing Microsoft from accessing this content.  This added layer not only hands you control of your data but also allows you to meet the compliance and specification policies of your company. 

OneDrive Admin Centre

OneDrive Admin Center

In the OneDrive Admin Centre, information regarding active accounts, file activity, and OneDrive Message Centre are all available on the OneDrive admin console. 

 

 

 

 

 

Files Restore

Disaster planning is imperative, and with Files Restore, recovery from disastrous events such as corruption, unexpected data loss or mass deletions, can be performed from this self-service.

 

OneDrive File Restore

Additional highlights include:  support for workflows in Microsoft Flow in OneDrive; a self service migration toolkit for those who would like to migrate from share drives or other cloud-bases services to OneDrive on their own; implementation of new ux for mobile clients for ease of sharing and managing files on the go; opening a file in OneDrive web or a shared link to a Word or PowerPoint file will now open right into edit mode of that app; support for clients on Android platforms for OneDrive On-Prem clients; zip files can now be viewed on the web allowing you to see what is inside so that you can choose the files you would like to extract; sync client has now been integrated into Mac Office as part of the installation process; and, the OneDrive sync client released for SharePoint 2019 is now supported.

As you can see, Microsoft continually innovates, updates and adds facets to OneDrive, SharePoint and Office 365 that continually provide better cohesion between platforms, stronger collaboration tools and increased efficiency in the workflow for end-users.

Microsoft Teams

 

What is Microsoft Teams?
Built on the global secure cloud of Office 365, Microsoft Teams brings together people, content and conversations in a chat-based workspace on the desktop and on mobile, supporting iOS, Android, and Windows platforms.  Microsoft Teams provides immediate, secure, and customizable communication with all team members whether on the go, in the cloud, in the office, a combination of any or all of these scenarios. 

The Four Core Foundation

Microsoft Teams is built on Four Core Foundations, creating a digital workspace for collaborative teams resulting in high performance. 

The Four Core Foundations are:

  1. Chat for Today’s Teams:  Microsoft Teams provides team chat in a persistent and threaded format for all team members.  The default setting provides visibility for conversations for all members; however, for breakout teams, private and smaller group discussions can be created.  Voice and video conferencing are supported with the integration of Skype, which in turn provides the flexibility for collaboration not only from a single site but also from multiple sites that can be in various cities or continents.  Bringing to a member’s digital workspace is the ability to add a personal touch for self-expression is a library of emoji’s, stickers, memes, and GIFs; 
  2. Hub for Teamwork:  Microsoft Teams is built upon Office 365 Groups providing seamless cross-application while preserving the team members sense of context when sharing with others.  Because Microsoft Teams is built upon Office 365 Groups, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote, Planner, Power BI and Delve are built right in providing the capability to work with Microsoft Office documents within the Microsoft Teams experience.  Microsoft Graph brings the power of intelligence for discovery, relevancy and sharing of the most frequently accessed information for the team and its members;
  3. Customizable for Each Team:  Rich extensibility and open APIs provide each team the ability to customize their experience to their specific needs, which follows Microsoft’s belief that there is no one tool that will fit the needs of every team and its members.  Each team member can customize and organize conversations by topic by creating channels.  Each channel can then be customized with a feature called Tabs.  Tabs provide access to frequently used documents, applications and cloud services such as OneNote, SharePoint, Planner or other third-party solutions such as Zendesk, Hootsuite, and Asana.  Sharing the same Connector Model as Exchange, Microsoft Teams allows for notifications and updates from third-party services like Twitter and GitHub. There is also full support for Microsoft Bot Framework, bringing intelligent first- and third-party services into the team environment.  Microsoft Teams Developer program will allow developers to start building integrations to extend Microsoft Teams; and
  4. Security Teams Trust:  Office 365 customers have a high standard of expectation for data security, and Microsoft Teams delivers with encrypted data in transit and at rest.  Enhanced identity protection with multi-factor authentication provides an additional layer of security.  As with all Microsoft commercial services, the transparent operating model will have no standing access to customer data.  Key compliance standards will be supported, such as HIPPA, ISO 27001, SOC 2 and EU Model Clauses.  As with all Office 365 services, it will be provisioned and managed centrally. 

Join the broadest and deepest portfolio of collaboration apps and services for true team collaboration.  To join, activate Microsoft Teams by going to the Office 365 admin center, clicking Settings>Services & Add Ins>Microsoft Teams.  Welcome to flexible, instantaneous team collaboration from your desktop and your mobile device!