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References and Information Resources



 


Microsoft 365 Public Roadmap
This link is filtered to show GCC, GCC High and DOD specific items.  For more general information uncheck these boxes under “Cloud Instance”.


New to filtering the roadmap for GCC specific changes? Try this:


 

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Stay on top of Office 365 changes
Here are a few ways that you can stay on top of the Office 365 updates in your organization.


Microsoft Tech Community for Public Sector
Your community for discussion surrounding the public sector, local and state governments.


 


Microsoft 365 for US Government Service Descriptions










Office 365 Platform (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


Office 365 U.S. Government GCC High endpoints


Office 365 U.S. Government DoD endpoints


 


Compliance (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


Enterprise Mobility & Security (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (GCCH)


Microsoft Cloud App Security (GCCH)


Azure ATP (GCCH)


Azure Information Protection Premium


 



Exchange Online (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


SharePoint  (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


OneDrive (GCC, GCCH, DoD) 


Teams (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


 


Office ProPlus (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


PowerApps (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


Power Automate (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


Power BI (GCC, GCCH)


Planner (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


Outlook Mobile (GCC, GCCH, DoD)


My Analytics (GCCH, DoD)


Dynamics 365 US Government



 









Be a Learn-it-all



 


December Webinars & Remote Work Resources



  • Microsoft Teams – IT Admins & Planning

  • Microsoft Teams – End Users & Champions

  • Security & Compliance

  • Device Management

  • Blogs & Articles of Interest


 









Newsworthy Highlights




Planner integration with Message center available for GCC customers
Message center posts can be hard to manage and easy to lose track of—and that’s where Microsoft Planner comes in


Custom Apps and Sideloading now live in GCC


We are excited to announce that sideloading and custom apps are now available in GCC.


 


Build Bots for Microsoft Teams Using Power Automate in GCC – Getting Started with AtBot [Guest Blog]
Bots in Teams are a great way to provide your users with access to systems and information outside of Teams while keeping them in a single application to perform their jobs.


Using SharePoint Look Book in your GCC High Tenant


Getting errors when you try to use Look Book templates in your GCC High tenant? Read on!


 


Why We Use Microsoft for Our CMMC Managed Service Customers [Guest Blog]
Here are three resources to get you started on your journey to CMMC compliance


 


Release News


 


High Confidence Phish verdict overrides bypass rules


 


We are rolling out multiple SharePoint document libraries and lists improvements to targeted release and GA soon


 


After users create a list in Microsoft Lists, SharePoint, or Teams, they can create rules to automate tasks such as send someone a notification when data changes in the list


 


Microsoft 365 apps and services will no longer support Internet Explorer 11 and End of support for Microsoft Edge Legacy


 


SharePoint spaces will soon transition from public preview to general availability


 


Sharing e-mails for Word files will soon include the estimated time to read for the document as well as the key points


 


The Planner app in Teams will be renamed to the Tasks app with an updated experience powered by Planner and To Do – targeting GCC / High / DoD January 2021


What’s new in Migration Manager


 


Microsoft To Do to become available to GCC starting December 2020


 


Breakout Rooms allow meeting organizers to move attendees into several smaller sessions for focused discussions – targeting GCC December 2020









Message Center Highlights



 


MC225752 – Extending the temporary limit increase for live events


The temporary limit increases for Microsoft 365live events hosted with Teams, Stream and Yammer will be extended until January1, 2021. 



  • Limit increases for live events include:

  • Event support for up to 20,000 attendees

  • 50 events hosted simultaneously across a tenant

  • Event duration of 16 hours per broadcast


After January 1, 2021, an Advanced Communications license will be required to host events for more than 10,000 attendees and durations longer than 4 hours


 


MC226347 – SharePoint spaces: Touch device support


Roadmap ID 67107


SharePoint spaces is adding support for viewing spaces using touch devices. Some visual updates to context menus are included with this change in order to provide the best experience on touch devices.


 


MC226549 – Compliance Manager: Announcement of release to GCC cloud


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 67132.


In mid-September (Roadmap IDs 60771) we announced (MC222630 and MC222638) that Compliance Manager solution was available via the Worldwide/Multi-tenant cloud. We are now pleased to announced Compliance Manager availability in the GCC cloud. 


 


MC226631 – Exclude specific files from OneDrive sync


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 66188


We are introducing a setting that allows you to exclude newly added OneDrive files from syncing to the cloud by file name or extension on Windows devices.


 


MC226681 – Full screen support in new meetings experience for GCC


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 67171


As promised in July, we are bringing full screen support back in the new meeting experience for Teams desktop applications.


 


MC226682 – We’re moving tenant-wide search usage reports


We will be retiring tenant-wide search usage reports from the SharePoint admin center beginning December, 9, 2020. Instead we recommend the utilization of Microsoft Search Insights, which is where we will continue to invest.   Additional Information


 


MC226683 – Secure by Default – Honoring EOP/ATP detonation verdicts


We’re making some changes to how tenant (Anti-spam/Hosted Content Filter policy) and user (Safe sender) allows work when it comes to high confidence phish. A message is marked with the high confidence phish verdict when we detonate it and know that it is malicious. We want to ensure that our customers are protected and therefore block those messages from getting to the inboxes of end-users. This is normally the case, but tenant and user overrides can stop this from happening. We have decided to no longer honor Allowed senders or domains when the messages are considered as high confidence phish.


 Key Points:



  • Timing: Beginning mid-December through the end of January 2021

  • Action: Review and assess impact


Secure by default in Office 365


 


MC226539 – Updates to ‘Records Management’ default role group in Security


To simplify the permissions management of the new Records Management solution, we will be updating the configuration of the ‘Records management’ role group in the Security & Compliance Center. The updates will add additional roles to this role group to manage all facets of the Records Management solution including disposition review.


 When this will happen?


We will roll out this update starting on December 14th, 2020.


 


MC226863 – Azure SSL/TLS certificate changes


In early November, DigiCert replaced the certificate of an Intermediate Certificate Authority (ICA) which issues SSL/TLS certificates used by Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) services, such as Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365, in the Public and US Government Clouds. In most cases, no action is required. However, if you explicitly hard code (i.e. “pin”) the ICA certificates to be trusted or have custom solutions that depend on storing ICA certificates in a trust store, you will need to take action as soon as possible in order to avoid service disruptions.


 


MC223082 – (Updated) Microsoft To Do web app available for GCC


Updated November 17, 2020: We have updated the content of the message for clarity.  Thank you for your patience.


The Microsoft To Do web app will soon be available for GCC customers.


Key points:



  • Timing: Beginning in December and complete in January


How to enable or disable a user license for Microsoft To Do


 


MC223174 – (Updated) Redirecting eDiscovery tool usage from the Security and Compliance Center to the Microsoft Compliance Center


Updated November 18, 2020: To ensure the best experience, we will be adjusting the roll out timeline to align for all customers.  Thank you for your patience.


Today, customers can access content search, eDiscovery, and Advanced eDiscovery through:



  1. Security and Compliance Center (SCC) via protection.office.com

  2. Microsoft 365 Compliance Center (MCC) via compliance.microsoft.com


On Oct 30th, we will redirect customers accessing content search, eDiscovery, and Advanced eDiscovery from SCC to the same solutions offered in MCC.


Key Points:



  • Major: Retirement

  • Timeline: GCC, GCC-High and DoD tenants: December 18, 2020


 


MC226990 – (Updated) Improving the Message Center user experience


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 67102


Updated November 19, 2020: We have updated the roll out timeline below. Thank you for your patience.


We are making it easier to discover relevant Message center posts and are providing an improved Message center reading experience.


When this will happen?


We will begin rolling out this feature in mid-December 2020 and expect the rollout to be complete in end of February 2021.


 


MC227199 – Restrict sign-in to specific accounts in Microsoft Teams desktop


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68693 


You will soon be able to restrict Teams sign-in for Windows and Mac managed devices to ensure that employees cannot sign-in to another organization’s tenant using other tenant’s credentials from the device they are authorized to use for work. This policy can also be used to configure access to personal accounts. This policy does not apply to the Teams web app. Similar policies are available to restrict sign-in on Teams on iOS and Android apps.


 


MC224359 – (Updated) Meeting chat moderation settings


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 67175


Updated November 20, 2020: We have updated the roll out timeline below.  Thank you for your patience.


We are updating the Meeting options to allow an organizer to manage participants ability to chat prior to, during and after a meeting.


 


MC227307 – SharePoint site header updates


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 63776


We are expanding the SharePoint branding options that make it easier to customize your site, including new header configurations for modern sites.


 


MC227284 – Teams Linux (Public Preview) Client Availability in GCC-High


Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 68866


We would like to inform you that the Linux Teams app will be available in Public Preview in GCC-High.


For information about differences that exist between our various clients, please see Teams Features by Platform. Also, see the following list of Known Issues.


When this will happen?


The public preview version of the Teams Linux client will be fully available to GCC-High users on November 23, 2020.


 









Microsoft 365 IP and URL Endpoint Updates



 


Documentation – Office 365 IP Address and URL web service


 


28 October 2020 – GCC


28 October 2020 – GCC High


28 October 2020 – DOD

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.