April Webinars and Remote Work Resources

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

April 2021 Edition Sections:



  • Highlighted 

  • Microsoft Teams – IT Admins & Planning

  • Microsoft Teams – End Users & Champions

  • Security & Compliance

  • Device Management

  • Blogs & Articles of Interest


 


 


Highlighted


 


Microsoft Ignite 2021 – Microsoft Ignite 2021 


Didn’t have a join the all-virtual Ignite 2021 in March? Catch up on event sessions, news, and other announcements, including government-specific sessions at Microsoft Ignite 2021 Government Sessions – Microsoft Tech Community


 


Microsoft Federal Collaboration and Cybersecurity Summit – Microsoft Tech Community


The Microsoft Federal Collaboration & Cybersecurity Summit is a FREE half-day virtual event designed to advance U.S. Federal agencies collaboration and cybersecurity initiatives. We are bringing together executives and leaders from the U.S. Federal agencies to deliver key insights, lessons learned, and practical guidance on a variety of topics, including advancing Cybersecurity in the Federal Government and breaking down silos to facilitate partnership with industry and academia. While the event is not open to the public, customers should have received a formal invite by the end-of-March. If you have any questions, please contact us at MSFTFedCollab@service.onmicrosoft.com.


 


Power Up Microsoft 365 with the Power Platform [M365 Meetup for Government] – Microsoft Tech Community


Microsoft 365’s greatest business impact can be achieved using the Power Platform family of technologies. PowerApps, Power Automate, and PowerBI are a core part of the Microsoft 365 experience and empower both citizen developers and IT to meet the mission needs of the organization. In this session, we will focus on transforming enterprise IT service administration leveraging MS PowerApps, which allows for low level IT administration without risk of high level access and permissions. Sign up for the event here!


 


 


Microsoft Teams – IT Admins & Planning


 


Microsoft Teams: Plan your upgrade (Start here!)


Discover everything you need to facilitate a successful upgrade to Teams. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Understand why a formal plan is crucial for upgrade success, (2) Identify the steps to the upgrade success framework, (3) Recognize common attributes of successful customers, and (4) Create and implement their own upgrade plan. The audience for this session is All (Business Sponsors, IT Admins, User Readiness/Change Manager, Project Lead).



 


Choosing the right tools for your Microsoft 365 migration


When: Tuesday, April 6, 2021 at 9:00am PT | Moving to Microsoft 365? There are several tools and methods offered by Microsoft to help you through this journey. In this webinar we will demonstrate the various options available to enable you to successfully migrate your organizational data to Microsoft 365 so that you can empower your users for collaboration and productivity. The agenda is as follows: (1) Introduction, (2) Migration from file shares and SharePoint servers, (3) Migration from cloud providers, (4) Future investments, and (5) Conclusion and QA.


 


Best practices for data migrations to Microsoft 365


When: Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at 9:00am PT | If you are evaluating , kicking off or in the process of moving your organizational data to Microsoft 365 here are some recommendations from the subject matter experts based on their learnings post managing large scale migrations for multiple organizations. Tune in to learn more about the best practices that will help you run an effective, speedy and seamless migration to OneDrive and SharePoint irrespective of the tools you choose to use. The agenda is as follows: (1) Introduction, (2) How to prepare data for migration, (3) How to plan and communicate about the migration, (4) How to run a successful migration, and (5) Conclusion and QA.


 


Teams Chalk Talk: Get to Teams – Zero to Production


Microsoft Teams can help your employees stay connected and collaborate with each other, especially in the current unprecedented time where remote work is a reality of employees around the world. Being able to chat, do video meetings and collaborate on Office documents within Teams can help companies stay productive. Whether you are a small business, a non-profit or a large organization, you can get started with Teams within Microsoft 365 or Office 365 suite – even before deploying any other Office app or service. Join Microsoft Teams experts as we review Teams implementation for collaboration, chat and meetings. We’ll share key configurations, considerations, best practices, and resources to get your users up and running quickly. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Recognize key success factors for technical and user readiness, (2) Identify pre-requisites and tenant setup for your environment, (3) Install the Teams clients appropriate for your organization, (4) Configure policies that enable your preferred user experiences, and (5) Leverage collaboration features to enhance remote work scenarios.



 


Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Enabling Remote Work with Microsoft Teams


To be productive in a remote environment, your employees need to be able to safely collaborate from anywhere. Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Enabling Remote Work with Microsoft Teams helps you provide a remote workforce with the tools, resources and solutions they need to stay connected and productive. Join us to learn how to get the most out of Microsoft Teams online meetings, calling, video and chat, and empower your workforce to work from any location on any device. During this two-part training event, you will explore how to: (1) Enable your people to meet and collaborate from home, (2) Make productivity applications available on any device, and (3) Deliver the best remote user experience.



 


Teams Chalk Talk: So…you want to make calls with Microsoft Teams?


Are you ready to add PSTN calling capabilities to Microsoft Teams? Join Microsoft Teams Engineering subject-matter-experts as they demystify the options for adding PSTN calling to Teams, provide you with best practices for configuring calling options and show you how to monitor call quality. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Understand the history of voice services in Microsoft products, (2) Identify what calling options in Microsoft Teams are right for you, (3) Configure your calling options in the Teams admin portal, and (4) Monitor and use call quality tools in Teams.



 


Teams Chalk Talk: Taking charge of AV quality experiences


Are you looking to ensure users have optimal experiences with meetings and voice capabilities in Teams? During this session, we’ll discuss tools, reporting and best practices to help you manage service quality — from establishing a proactive  strategy to resolving common quality issues as they arise. We’ll build upon best practices from Teams experts and make it real with examples of common scenarios that may arise as your organization embraces meetings and voice capabilities in Teams. Join us for an expert-led workshop for guidance on key resources and actionable insights to manage audio and video quality with Microsoft Teams. Your users will thank you for it! After this session, you will be able to: (1) Define key service metrics and user experience factors for quality, (2) Recognize concepts and metrics in core tools and resources that help you assess usage and quality, (3) Identify key indicators of poor experience in common scenarios and relevant actions to address, and (4) Establish a proactive quality management strategy to ensure optimal user experience.



 


Teams Chalk Talk: Apps in Teams Fundamentals


Join Microsoft Teams experts as we review how you can deploy commonly-used applications directly within Teams, enabling your users to work more efficiently and effectively by accessing everything they need in a single interface. This foundational workshop covers basic capabilities across app management and security. With over 400 out-of-the-box applications available (and growing), you’re sure to find an app, or two, that your team can begin using today in Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Identify suitable apps to meet the needs for your organization, (2) Recognize common attributes of successful app deployment, (3) Navigate security and compliance considerations for Teams’ apps, and (4) Determine the next steps to deploy an app to your environment.



 


Teams Chalk Talk: Supercharge key workflows with apps in Teams


Join Microsoft Teams experts as we review high-value scenarios including incident management (help desk), employee engagement, and productivity that can be enhanced through simple integrations in Teams. We focus on popular enterprise applications your users may already be using every day. Come see how easy it is to connect your systems, increase automation, and deliver improved experiences by bringing the apps your organization relies on into Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Understand common app integrations for Teams across multiple scenarios and user personas, and (2) Understand third-party apps available for key scenarios.



 


 


Microsoft Teams – End User & Champions


 


Get Started with Microsoft Teams


Whether you are switching from Skype for Business or brand new, join us to learn the basics of how to use Teams to chat with your colleagues and collaborate on projects. Through a series of live demonstrations and best practices, you’ll leave this session with everything you need to start using Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Set up your profile and notifications in Microsoft Teams, (2) Use chat and calling for 1:1 and group conversations, sharing and collaboration in Microsoft Teams, (3) Schedule and conduct meetings in Microsoft Teams, and (4) Align your team and teamwork in Microsoft Teams.



 


Leverage pro tips and tricks for Microsoft Teams


Do you use Microsoft Teams on a regular basis and want to learn more? Are you looking for ways to increase your efficiency and productivity in Teams? Join us to discover ways to enhance communication and increase your efficiency and productivity within Teams. Learn how Teams can help organize your workday and make it easier to stay connected with colleagues. In this training, you will learn how to: (1) Leverage formatting best practices to help get your messages noticed and responded to, (2) Integrate tools and best practices to streamline and collaboration process, and (3) Implement strategies to manage and organize your work.



 


Customer Immersion Experience: Getting Started with Microsoft Teams


Whether you are switching from Skype for Business or brand new, join us to learn the basics of how to use Teams to chat with your colleagues and collaborate on projects. Join us for this session and leave this with everything you need to start using Teams. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Set up your profile and notifications in Microsoft Teams, (2) Use chat and calling for 1:1 and group conversations, sharing and collaboration in Microsoft Teams, (3) Schedule and conduct meetings in Microsoft Teams, and (4) Align your team and teamwork in Microsoft Teams. Each session is limited to 15 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Build collaborative workspaces in Microsoft Teams


Do you need an online, collaborative workspace for your project or workgroup? Join us to explore effective, virtual workspaces for projects and workgroups. Microsoft Teams offer the flexibility to set up a workspace that suits your needs. In this training, you will learn how to: (1) Determine the best approach for your collaboration needs, (2) Create workspaces for your team to provide the best teamwork experience, and (3) Determine best practices in Microsoft Teams to enhance productivity.



 


Microsoft Teams: Master working from home


Working from home offers the opportunity to maintain your workflow while allowing flexibility in how and where you get your work done. Shifting to a remote worker status can be an adjustment as you look for ways to balance home and work life, maintain focus and be fully productive. Microsoft Teams can help you stay connected to your team while providing access to all of the tools and resources you need to get your work done. Join us to learn tips that can help set you up for success as you transition into a ‘work from home’ scenario. During this session, we’ll share: (1) Guidance for setting up your home environment for work, (2) Best practices for maintaining your workflow while working at home, (3) Tips for staying connected to your team while remote, and (4) Insights for effectively supporting a remote team.



 


Run Effective Meetings with Microsoft Teams


Have you spent significant time and resources to prepare for a meeting and felt it wasn’t productive and not much was accomplished? Join us to learn how to make your meetings engaging, productive, and meaningful. Use Microsoft Teams for your entire meeting experience. In this training, you will learn how to: (1) Schedule and join meetings and initiate calls, (2) Use collaborative tools such as sharing, whiteboards, meeting notes, recording, and more, (3) Easily access important meetings and related content at any time, and (4) Assess which audio and video devices are best for your meeting needs.



 


Customer Immersion Experience: Running Effective Meetings with Microsoft Teams


Whether you are switching from Skype for Business or brand new, join us to learn the basics of how to use Teams to chat with your colleagues and collaborate on projects. Join us for this session and leave this with everything you need to start using Teams. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Set up your profile and notifications in Microsoft Teams, (2) Use chat and calling for 1:1 and group conversations, sharing and collaboration in Microsoft Teams, (3) Schedule and conduct meetings in Microsoft Teams, and (4) Align your team and teamwork in Microsoft Teams. Each session is limited to 15 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Integrate apps to do more in Microsoft Teams


Do you want to get more done in Teams? Receive targeted and timely updates? Access services directly through Teams? Apps let you complete tasks, receive updates and communicate. This session introduces you to the key activities needed to get started with adding applications, bots and connectors in Microsoft Teams today. Through a series of live demonstrations and best practices, you’ll leave this session with everything you need to start using apps in Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) See how applications, bots and connectors can help you be more efficient while working in Teams, (2) Select an application, bot or connector for your workspace, (3) Install an application, bot or connector, and (4) Use an application, bot or connector in your workspace.



 


Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Building Microsoft Teams Integrations and Workflows


Remote work requires smarter workflows. Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Building Microsoft Teams Integrations and Workflows shows you how the Microsoft Teams developer platform makes it easy to integrate your apps and services to improve productivity, make decisions faster and create collaboration around existing content and workflows. Join us to learn how to build apps for Teams and create integrated, people-centered solutions that can transform productivity in your organization, whether you’re on-site or working remotely. During this two-part training event, you will explore how to: (1) Build modern enterprise-grade collaboration solutions with Microsoft Teams, (2) Transform everyday business processes with Microsoft 365 platform integrations for Power Platform, SharePoint and Microsoft Office, and (3) Use the wealth of data in Microsoft Graph to extend Microsoft 365 experiences and build unique intelligent applications.



 


 


Security & Compliance


 


Customer Immersion Experience: Protecting Identity, Apps, Data and Devices


Identity is at the center of security: don’t compromise when it comes to your company’s valuable information. Join us to explore how to use secure authentication, govern access, get comprehensive protection and set the right identity foundation. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Enable password protection, (2) Bring multi-factor authentication to your Windows 10 users, (3) Protect your users and data through Office 365 multi-factor authentication, and (4) Use conditional access to protect across devices, locations and apps. Each session is limited to 15 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Customer Immersion Experience: Simplifying Your Privacy and Compliance Journey


Your business needs to control how sensitive data is managed. Join us and explore how to assess your compliance risk, protect sensitive and business critical data, and respond efficiently to data discovery requests. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Simplify assessment of compliance risk, (2) Integrate protection and governance of data, and (3) Intelligently respond to data discovery requests. Each session is limited to 15 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Customer Immersion Experience: Creating a Secure Online Meeting


With the dramatic shift to remote work, we all continue to seek creative ways to stay connected and productive in our jobs. How do we recreate those meetings, calls, and large events that previously brought us together and helped us achieve our business goals? Do we have the right tools and devices to do so? And how do we do all of this while keeping security top of mind? These aren’t easy questions to answer. This one-hour session will give you the opportunity to test drive Microsoft Teams, Yammer, and Power BI in a live cloud environment. A facilitator will guide you as you create a virtual company-wide meeting and explore how to: (1) Build a communication and collaboration hub, (2) Engage employees through chat and polls, (3) Set up automated meeting captioning, translation, and transcripts, and (4) Use analytical tools to make sense of data, categorize it, and make it easier to visualize. Each session is limited to 15 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Customer Immersion Experience: Protecting Your Sensitive Information


Data needs to be protected wherever it’s stored and whenever it travels, and you need the tools to monitor policy violations and risky behavior. Join us to explore how to implement a comprehensive and integrated approach across devices, apps, cloud services, and on-premises. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Identify, monitor and automatically protect sensitive information across Office 365, (2) Help classify and protect documents and email, and (3) Use policies to enable BYOD scenarios by protecting data at the app level. Each session is limited to 15 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Secure and Protect Your Organization


When employees are confident in their ability to collaborate remotely and securely, they are free to achieve more without worry. Learn how to protect data, devices, and applications while simplifying IT and minimizing the impact on employees at Microsoft Security Virtual Training Day: Secure and Protect Your Organization. During this free two-part learning event and accompanying Q&A, you’ll form the foundations to safeguard your company’s digital footprint. During this training event, you will explore how to: (1) Craft identity synchronization, protection, and management, (2) Utilize security in Microsoft 365, and (3) Integrate cloud app security and device management plans.



 


Customer Immersion Experience: Protecting Assets and Empowering Your Defenders


Today’s workforce can work from anywhere, on any device, and on any app. Security teams need to understand threat signals from disconnected products and optimize security with minimal complexity. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Safeguard users from malware attacks such as phishing and spoofing with Office 365, (2) Use the Windows Defender ecosystem to proactively monitor and protect your users, (3) Utilize Office 365 ATP to help protect users from bad links and attachments, and (4) Let machine learning and automation protect users from threats. Each session is limited to 15 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


Microsoft 365 Virtual Training Day: Protect Sensitive Information and Manage Data Risk


As people increasingly shift to remote work, protecting your organization’s information and managing risk should be a top priority. Microsoft Security Virtual Training Day: Protect Sensitive Information and Manage Data Risk teaches you how to take advantage of Microsoft technologies that identify and remediate risks that arise from creating, storing, sharing, and using sensitive data. In addition, you’ll learn how to protect that data throughout its entire life cycle—on-premises and across devices, apps, and cloud services. During this two-part training event, you will explore how to: (1) Understand, identify, and protect your most sensitive data, (2) Identify and take action on insider risks and code-of-conduct violations, and (3) Utilize information protection and governance.



 


 


Device Management


 


Office Hours: Managing Windows 10 Devices & Updates


To support your efforts to deliver and deploy updates to the Windows 10 devices being used by remote, onsite, and hybrid workers across your organization, and manage those devices effectively, we are continuing our series of weekly “office hours” for IT professionals here on Tech Community. During office hours, we will have a broad group of product experts, servicing experts, and engineers representing Windows, Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Microsoft Intune, Configuration Manager), security, FastTrack, and more. They will be monitoring the Windows 10 servicing space and standing by to provide guidance, discuss strategies and tactics, and, of course, answer any specific questions you may have. Office hours are text-based; there is no audio or virtual meeting component. To post a question, you just need to be a member of the Tech Community. Simply visit the Windows 10 servicing space and click Start a new conversation. At the start of office hours, we’ll pin a post outlining the individuals on hand, and their areas of expertise. Can’t attend at the designated time? Again, no problem. Post a question in the Windows 10 servicing space up to 24 hours in advance and we’ll make sure we review it during office hours.



 


Getting Started with Windows Virtual Desktop


Businesses are shifting to a desktop experience that empowers IT and enables employees to be more productive and secure, but not all employees sit in an office or always work from secure locations.  With Windows Virtual Desktop, you can set up a scalable and flexible environment to unlock mobility, productivity and security. This new 2-hour session will give you the opportunity to get hands-on experience with Windows Virtual Desktop. During this session, you will explore how to: (1) Create your first Windows Virtual Desktop architecture, (2) Create images and assign them to users, (3) Operationalize the virtual desktop infrastructure with monitoring, scaling, and image management, and (4) Explore security best practices within Windows Virtual Desktop. Each session is limited to 15 participants, reserve your seat now.



 


 


Blogs & Articles of Interest


 


Public Sector Blog Website | RSS Feed



 


Featured Blog Roundup



 


Microsoft Teams Blog Website | RSS Feed



 


Office & Microsoft 365



Enterprise identity, mobility, and security



Microsoft Azure and Development



Windows, Operations, Management, and Deployment



Support and adoption



Misc



 


Thanks for stopping by and reading our monthly resources. Feel free to reach out in the comments below with any comments, questions or ideas on other events to add to the list. Here in Public Sector we want to make sure we are giving you the information and insights to best serve your needs in this community.

Confidently modernize to cloud authentication with Azure AD staged rollout, now generally available

Confidently modernize to cloud authentication with Azure AD staged rollout, now generally available

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Howdy folks,


 


I’m excited to announce that staged rollout to cloud authentication is now generally available! This feature allows you to selectively test groups of users with cloud authentication methods, such as pass-through authentication (PTA) or password hash sync (PHS), while all other users in the federated domains continue to use federation services, such as AD FS, Ping Federate, Okta, or any other federation services to authenticate users.


 


Moving your Azure AD authentication from federation services to the cloud allows you to manage user and device sign-in from a single control plane in Azure AD. Some benefits of using cloud authentication include reducing the dependency on on-premises infrastructure, which typically includes a farm of servers and proxies that need to be accessible from the internet. In addition, you can take advantage of security capabilities like: Azure AD multifactor authentication (MFA), Conditional Access, Identity Protection for leaked credentials, Identity Governance, and more.


 


New with the general availability, we’ve added the ability to monitor the users and groups added or removed from staged rollout and users sign-ins while in staged rollout, using the new Hybrid Auth workbooks in the Azure portal.  In addition, we’ve built a staged rollout interactive guide to help you learn more and deploy this feature.


 


Hybrid Auth workbook.png


 


Hybrid Auth workbook


 


 


As always, we’d love to hear your feedback or suggestions in the comments or on Twitter (@AzureAD).



Alex Simons (@Alex_A_Simons)


Corporate VP of Program Management


Microsoft Identity Division


 


 


Learn more about Microsoft identity:


New release: SharePointDsc v4.6 is here!

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

It is a Good Friday to release a new version of SharePointDsc, so v4.6 has been published to the PowerShell Gallery. This release fixes a bunch of issues, but it also includes a changes to the requirements: ReverseDsc is no longer required. We removed this requirement so it is not required to install the module if you only deploy changes to SharePoint environments.


 


Instead the Export-SPConfiguration cmdlet now checks if the module is present and throws an error when it is not. That way, you only need ReverseDsc when you want to export an existing configuration.


 


You can find the SharePointDsc v4.6 in the PowerShell Gallery!


 


NOTE: We can always use additional help in making SharePointDsc even better. So if you are interested in contributing to SharePointDsc, check-out the open issues in the issue list, check-out this post in our Wiki or leave a comment on this blog post.


 


Improvement/Fixes in v4.6:



Added


  • SharePointDsc

    • Export-SPDscDiagnosticData cmdlet to create a diagnostic package which can easily be shared for troubleshooting



  • ReverseDsc

    • Added a check in Export-SPConfiguration/Start-SharePointDSCExtract to check if ReverseDsc is present or not. Show instructions if it isn’t

    • Added DocIcon to export GUI

    • Renamed export cmdlet to Export-SPConfiguration, to match Microsoft365DSC naming. Added old Start-SharePointDSCExtract as alias




Changed


  • ReverseDsc

    • Made the export GUI logic more dynamic



  • SPFarmAdministrators

    • Added check to see if a central admin site is returned and stop if it isn’t



  • SPManagedMetaDataServiceApp

    • Added check to see if a central admin site is returned and stop if it isn’t



  • SPSite

    • Added check to see if a central admin site is returned and stop if it isn’t




Fixed


  • SPAccessServiceApp, SPAccessServices2010, SPAppManagementServiceApp, SPBCSServiceApp, SPExcelServiceApp, SPMachineTranslationServiceApp, SPManagedMetadataServiceApp, SPPerformancePointServiceApp, SPPowerPointAutomationServiceApp, SPProjectServerServiceApp, SPPublishServiceApplication, SPSearchCrawlRule, SPSearchFileType, SPSearchServiceApp, SPSecureStoreServiceApp, SPServiceAppSecurity, SPSubscriptionSettingsServiceApp, SPUsageApplication, SPUserProfileProperty, SPUserProfileSection, SPUserProfileServiceApp, SPUserProfileSyncConnection, SPUserProfileSyncService, SPVisioServiceApp, SPWordAutomationServiceApp, SPWorkManagementServiceApp

    • Fixed issue with the Name parameter of Get-SPServiceApplication, which is case sensitive



  • SPExcelServiceApp

    • Fixed issue where PSBoundParameters was used multiple times, but manipulated at an early stage, breaking all subsequent usages



  • SPInstallLanguagePack

    • Fixed issue in the Norwegian Language Pack detection



  • SPSearchManagedProperty

    • Fixed issue where setting Searchable=True resulted in an error



  • SPSearchResultSource

    • Clarified the use of ScopeName and ScopeUrl with SSA as ScopeName and added examples



  • SPUserProfileServiceApp

    • Fixed issue where MySiteHostLocation was return from Get method including port number, which causes the Test method to fail



  • SPWebAppAuthentication

    • Fix issue in Get method to return Null when zone does not exist. That way the Test and Set method can detect a non-existent zone and throw a proper error.



  • SPWordAutomation

    • Fixed issue where the resource never went into desired state when using AddToDefault




Removed


  • SharePointDsc

    • Removed the ReverseDsc dependency for the SharePointDsc module since the module is only required when performing an export





 

A huge thanks to everybody who submitted issues and all that support this project. It wasn’t possible without all of your help!


 


For more information about how to install SharePointDsc, check our Readme.md.


 


Let us know in the comments what you think of this release! If you find any issues, please submit them in the issue list on GitHub.


 


Happy SharePointing!!

Champion Management Platform – Now Available!

Champion Management Platform – Now Available!

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

cmp.jpg


We are happy to announce that the Champion Management Platform is now available! We’ve heard your feedback and love the Champion communities and work that you all are doing to drive and inspire usage of these solutions. With this first release of the Champion Management Platform we are bringing the ability to manage three core functions of a Champion program.


 



  • Program Management: Manage the Champions in your organization by keeping a list of members, enabling the ability to signup new Champions, and providing an approval system to onboard new members into the Champion program who can be categorized by focus area and region.

  • Leaderboard: Track campaigns across the champion group. You will be able to define the types of activities and point values. Champions will be able to see their ranking from a global perspective, based on people near them in location, as well as the focus area they have assigned.

  • Digital Badge: Overlay a teamwork Champion badge over your profile image for display across the Microsoft 365 solutions. Showcasing this badge helps to identify Champions and provide a bit of recognition for their contributions to the role


We can not wait to hear what you think about this first release. Please provide feedback on how we can improve the experience here and keep inspiring your communities to achieve more!


 


Get the solution today!


Champion Management Platform – Solution Home

VMware Releases Security Update

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Security, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

VMware has released a security update to address a vulnerability in VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload appliance. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2021-005 and apply the necessary updates.

FBI-CISA Joint Advisory on Exploitation of Fortinet FortiOS Vulnerabilities

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Security, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and CISA have released a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to warn users and administrators of the likelihood that advanced persistent threat (APT) actors are actively exploiting known Fortinet FortiOS vulnerabilities CVE-2018-13379, CVE-2020-12812, and CVE-2019-5591. APT actors may use these vulnerabilities or other common exploitation techniques to gain initial access to multiple government, commercial, and technology services. Gaining initial access pre-positions the APT actors to conduct future attacks.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review Joint CSA AA21-092A: APT Actors Exploit Vulnerabilities to Gain Initial Access for Future Attacks and implement the recommended mitigations.

Microsoft 365 Developer Community Call recording – 1st of April, 2021

Microsoft 365 Developer Community Call recording – 1st of April, 2021

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Recording of the Microsoft 365 – General M365 development Special Interest Group (SIG) community call from April 1, 2021.


 


sig-1st-april-recording.png


 


Call Summary


Latest news from Microsoft 365 engineering and updates on open-source projects: PnP .NET libraries, PnP PowerShell, modernization tooling, on yo Teams, on Microsoft Graph Toolkit, and on Microsoft Teams Samples.


 


An update on SharePoint Framework v1.12.1 release plan.  Recent PnP project releases include – PnP .NET Libraries – PnP Framework v1.4.0 and PnP Core SDK v1.1.0 and PnP PowerShell v1.5.0 (new commandlets for Microsoft Viva Connections and Syntex).   yo Teams generator-teams (apps generator) v3.0.3 GA and 3.1.0 Preview, yo teams-build-core (gulp tasks) v1.0.1 + v1.1.0 Preview, and msteams-react-base-component (React UI helpers) v3.1.0, have been released.   Microsoft Graph Toolkit in the works MSAL 2.0 provider and preview of OneDrive file components.  Delivered 1 new Microsoft Teams sample – the first SPFx Teams Meeting sample from the community!  Register now for March/April trainings on Sharing-is-caring.   Register to join fellow community members to watch the 2-hour livestream – Building Apps with Microsoft Graph, on the 14th of April. The host of this call was Vesa Juvonen (Microsoft) | @vesajuvonen.  Q&A takes place in chat throughout the call


 


 


Actions:  


 



 


Microsoft Teams Development Samples:  (https://aka.ms/TeamsSampleBrowser)



 


1st-april-together-mode.gif


 


 


It’s together time – Spring time!     


 


Demos delivered in this session




  • List group header formatting options – new list formatting options in JSON using use groupProps for Group header and footer formatters.  Conditional formatting – colors, counts, icons, for all list items now available for groups of list items.  Formatting capabilities in both list and gallery views.  There are new tokens for group headers and footers.   Copy and paste code chunks from docs.microsoft.com into Format View pane.    




  • Introduction to PnP Core SDK – Getting started – see how PnP Core works and how a mixture of APIs – Microsoft Graph GA and Beta, Rest, CSOM, Microsoft Teams, are called behind the scenes, transparent to developer.  Create basic .NET console application, add NuGet, PnP.Core and/or PnP.Core.Auth and Microsoft.Injection.Hosting packages, minimum code.  Add more code to get data.  Create list, add items, query the data, update data and delete list.  




  • Customer scenario – Microsoft Teams integration with external systems – appreciate the power of Teams to deliver a SSO personal app experience to consume and share data and analytics from an external data catalog in a Microsoft 365 environment.   This Proof-of-Concept solution includes search and message composition capabilities.  App created in yoTeams v3.0, .NET back-end, Security Vault, consuming Alation (data catalog) APIs   Uses Fluent and React Northstar library components for Teams.    




Thank you for your work. Samples are often showcased in Demos.


 


Topics covered in this call



  • Updates from Microsoft 365 Engineering – Vesa Juvonen (Microsoft) | @vesajuvonen – 7:23

  • PnP.NET library updates – Bert Jansen (Microsoft) | @O365bert – 9:06

  • PnP PowerShell updates – Erwin van Hunen (Valo Intranet) | @erwinvanhunen – 11:08

  • yo Teams updates – Wictor Wilén (Avanade) @wictor – 13:07

  • Microsoft Graph Toolkit updates – Beth Pan (Microsoft) | @beth_panx – 14:23

  • Microsoft Teams Samples – Bob German (Microsoft) | @Bob1German – 16:17


  • Demo:  List group header formatting options – Naveed Ahmed (Microsoft) – 17:56




  • Demo:  Introduction to PnP Core SDK – Getting started – Bert Jansen (Microsoft) | @O365Bert – 25:54




  • Demo:  Customer scenario – Microsoft Teams integration with external systems – Kathy (Qingyu) Xu (Pfizer) and Paolo Pialorsi (PiaSys) | @PaoloPia – 43:43




 


Resources:


Additional resources around the covered topics and links from the slides.



 


General resources:



 


Upcoming Calls | Recurrent Invites:


 



 


General Microsoft 365 Dev Special Interest Group bi-weekly calls are targeted at anyone who’s interested in the general Microsoft 365 development topics. This includes Microsoft Teams, Bots, Microsoft Graph, CSOM, REST, site provisioning, PnP PowerShell, PnP Sites Core, Site Designs, Microsoft Flow, PowerApps, Column Formatting, list formatting, etc. topics. More details on the Microsoft 365 community from http://aka.ms/m365pnp. We also welcome community demos, if you are interested in doing a live demo in these calls!


 


You can download recurrent invite from http://aka.ms/m365-dev-sig. Welcome and join in the discussion. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, feel free to provide your input as comments to this post as well. More details on the Microsoft 365 community and options to get involved are available from http://aka.ms/m365pnp.


 


“Sharing is caring”



Microsoft 365 PnP team, Microsoft – 2nd of April 2021

Native external sender callouts on email in Outlook

Native external sender callouts on email in Outlook

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Overview


We know that some of our customers leverage Exchange transport rules to prepend subject line or insert the message body to show the email is from external senders. This approach has a few limitations which we heard:



  • You can end up with duplicate [External] tags in subject line if external users keep replying to the thread (some of our customers use customized solutions to remove the duplicates).

  • Adding things to subject line breaks Outlook conversation threading, as the subject line is modified, so messages no longer “belong” to the same conversation.

  • Changed subject (or message body) stays as a part of the message during reply or forward, which leads to confusion if the thread becomes internal.

  • There can be localization issues, as transport rules have no knowledge of client language that end-users are using.

  • Those additions might take a lot of space in the subject line, making it hard to preview the subject on smaller devices.


We have heard the feedback on this, and are working on providing a native experience to identify emails from senders outside your organizations (which can help protect against spam & phishing threats). This is achieved by presenting a new tag on emails called “External” (the string is localized based on your client language setting) and exposing related user interface at the top of your message reading view to see and verify the real sender’s email address.


To set this up



  1. Exchange Online tenant admin will need to run the cmdlet Set-ExternalInOutlook to enable the new user interface for the whole tenant (this is available now); adding certain emails and domains to the allow list via the cmdlet is also possible.

  2. Outlook on the web already supports this. Outlook Mobile (iOS & Android) and Outlook for Mac are rolling out this feature. Specific versions:

    • Outlook on the web: available now

    • Outlook for Windows: available in May 2020 (starting with Insider Fast)

    • Outlook mobile (iOS & Android): version 4.2111.0 and higher

    • Outlook for Mac: version 16.47 and higher




If you are using the prepend subject line transport rules currently to add an [EXTERNAL] tag in external email subject line: the new Outlook native callouts are adding a new MAPI property called IsExternalSender to the email item. Once all the (above listed) client versions you require have this functionality, to avoid emails being marked ‘External’ twice (once by new native functionality and once by the transport rule), please turn off the transport rule first before turning on Outlook native external sender callouts.


We are tracking this feature in Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70595. This feature can be enabled on the tenant level now.


Outlook on the web, Mac, and mobile will display an External tag in the message list. Outlook Desktop and OWA will show the sender’s email address at reading pane info bar. Outlook mobile and Outlook for Mac will only see an external tag on the message reading pane, and users will need to click the tag to see the real sender’s email address.


Outlook on the web view of External sender:


NativeOLExternal01.jpg


In Outlook for iOS, External sender user interface in the message list, External tag when reading chosen email and view of sender’s email address after tapping External label:


NativeOLExternal02.jpg


Once this feature is enabled via PowerShell, it might take 24-48 hours for your users to start seeing the External sender tag in email messages received from external sources (outside of your organization), providing their Outlook version supports it.


If enabling this, you might want to notify your users about the new feature and update your training and documentation, as appropriate.


Let us know here if you have any feedback!


The Outlook Team

Friday Five: Azure Communication Services, More!

Friday Five: Azure Communication Services, More!

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

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Learn Azure Communication Services Day 14 – Showing Video and Screen Share Content


Tom Morgan is a Microsoft Teams Platform developer and Microsoft MVP with more than 10 years of experience in the software development industry. For the last 8 years, Tom has worked at Modality Systems, with responsibility for delivery of the Modality Systems product portfolio. Tom is passionate about creating great software that people will find useful. He enjoys blogging and speaking about Microsoft Teams development, Office365, Bot Framework, Cognitive Services and AI, and the future of the communications industry. He blogs at thoughtstuff.co.uk and tweets at @tomorgan.


IMG_0747.jpg


TestServer & ASP.NET Core 5: Fix “System.InvalidOperationException : Solution root could not be located using application root” with a custom Startup file


Anthony Giretti is a specialist in web technologies with 14 years of experience. He specializes in particular in Microsoft .NET and he is currently learning the Cloud Azure platform. He has twice received the Microsoft MVP award and he is also a certified Microsoft MCSD and Azure Fundamentals. Follow him on Twitter @anthonygiretti, and visit his blog for more on the C# 9 Series.


hal.jpg


My first trip to Redmond, the 1997 Microsoft MVP Summit


Hal Hostetler is an Office Apps and Services MVP who has been in the MVP program since 1996. Now retired, Hal is a Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer and remains the regional engineer for Daystar Broadcasting and a senior consultant for Roland, Schorr, & Tower. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. For more on Hal, check out his Twitter @TVWizard


tobias.jpg


Getting started with Azure Bicep


Tobias Zimmergren is a Microsoft Azure MVP from Sweden. As the Head of Technical Operations at Rencore, Tobias designs and builds distributed cloud solutions. He is the co-founder and co-host of the Ctrl+Alt+Azure Podcast since 2019, and co-founder and organizer of Sweden SharePoint User Group from 2007 to 2017. For more, check out his blog, newsletter, and Twitter @zimmergren


ChrisH-1Edit.PNG


Teams Real Simple with Pictures: An Approval process for List Items using Lists, Teams, Power Automate, Outlook and the new Approvals App


Chris Hoard is a Microsoft Certified Trainer Regional Lead (MCT RL), Educator (MCEd) and Teams MVP. With over 10 years of cloud computing experience, he is currently building an education practice for Vuzion (Tier 2 UK CSP). His focus areas are Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 and entry-level Azure. Follow Chris on Twitter at @Microsoft365Pro and check out his blog here.

AzUpdate: AD FS sign-in activity in Azure AD reporting, Azure Cost Management updates and more

AzUpdate: AD FS sign-in activity in Azure AD reporting, Azure Cost Management updates and more

by | Apr 2, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

News the team is covering this week includes Public preview of AD FS sign-in activity in Azure AD reporting, Networking for Key Vault references on Windows in App Service and Azure Functions now generally available, Azure Cost Management and Billing updates, What’s New in Microsoft Teams and an identity focused Microsoft Learn module of the week.


 


 


AD FS sign-in activity in Azure AD reporting now in Public Preview


Alex Simons recently shared the latest Active Azure Directory capabilities to help streamline your hybrid identity, monitoring, and B2B user experiences. These updates help achieve a more unified identity management from a single control plane and enrich experiences to help provide seamless and secure collaboration with guest users. 
 


Azure Monitor workbook for Azure AD and AD FS sign-in reporting.png


AD FS sign-ins can now be added to Azure AD activity reporting, giving organizations a unified view of their hybrid identity infrastructure and helping them along their identity modernization journey. Also added, activity is now recorded in the Azure AD audit logs of the tenant the user was signed into with the Azure portal, not just the logs of the newly created tenant whenever a user creates a new Azure AD tenant.


 


Read the following Microsoft Idenitity article to learn more: March identity updates – Public preview of AD FS sign-in activity in Azure AD reporting and more


 
 


Networking for Key Vault references on Windows in App Service and Azure Functions now generally available


Apps previously deployed using App Service Environments have been able to access network restricted vaults. Windows apps with virtual network integrations can now also access these vaults enabling teams to further restrict access to secrets with support for Linux apps to follow.


 


Learn more here: Use Key Vault references for App Service and Azure Functions



 


Azure Cost Management and Billing updates for March 2021


Cloud cost is always top of mind for most organizations when looking to adopt Azure services. Microsoft recently announced updates to Azure Cost Management and Billing which include forecasted cost alerts, new cost view for subscriptions and other cost saving tools.
 


  


These are just a few of the big updates announced. Don’t forget to check out Azure Cost Management and Billing updates to learn more.



 


What’s New in Microsoft Teams for March 2021


A lot of updates to services to report on this week.  Microsoft Teams is also included in that list as a lot of exciting product updates and offerings announced at Ignite have now become generally available.


 


meeting recap.png


 


 


PowerPoint Live, Live Reactions, Invite-only meeting options now available in meetings. Webinars and larger meetings can now host 20,000-person view-only broadcasts and download attendee reports. Low data calling mode limits the bandwidth used on cellular connections. Also, Android devices can now use remote device provisioning to better manage Teams Rooms.



You can read about all Teams announcements here: What’s New in Microsoft Teams | February and March 2021


 


Community Events



  • Azure Landing Zone Q&A – Join Sarah Lean and Thomas Maurer, as they take your questions regarding Azure Landing Zones and walk through a deployment of a landing zone during this show.

  • Hello World – Special guests, content challenges, upcoming events, and daily updates

  • Patch and Switch – Patch and Switch are back to share thier “from the trenches” stories


 


MS Learn Module of the Week


Microsoft_Learn_Banner.png


 


Implementing and managing hybrid identity


Creating a hybrid-identity solution to leverage your on-premises active directory can be challenging. Explore how to implement a secure hybrid-identity solution.
 




Modules include:


 



  • Plan, design, and implement Azure Active Directory Connect (AADC)

  • Manage Azure Active Directory Connect (AADC)

  • Manage password hash synchronization (PHS)

  • Manage pass-through authentication (PTA)

  • Manage seamless single sign-on (Seamless SSO)

  • Manage federation excluding manual ADFS deployments

  • Troubleshoot synchronization errors

  • Implement and manage Azure Active Directory Connect Health


This module is also part of the SC-300 prep material.


 


Learn more here: Implement and manage hybrid identity


 



 


 


Let us know in the comments below if there are any news items you would like to see covered in the next show. Be sure to catch the next AzUpdate episode and join us in the live chat.