Welcome to the October 7 - 13, 2018 edition of the Office 365 Weekly Digest.
There were six additions to the Office 365 Roadmap last week, including updates for Teams and Office 365 Message Encryption.
There are several new Azure Active Directory webinars for this week, as well as new instructor-led events for Microsoft Teams and a Microsoft IT Showcase live stream event focused on Microsoft 365 Security.
Blog posts in last week's roundup include information on new SharePoint admin center capabilities, the latest enhancements to the SharePoint Migration Tool, the new FastTrack Desktop App Assure service, and an update on FindTime in Outlook.
Noteworthy item highlights include the Office 365 Update video for October 2018, new integrations for Microsoft Teams, and a deep dive into custom visuals in Power BI.
OFFICE 365 ROADMAP
Below are the items added to the Office 365 Roadmap last week:
|
Feature ID |
App / Service |
Title | Description |
Status |
Added |
Estimated Release |
More Info |
|
34924 |
Office 365 Message Encryption |
Office 365 Message Encryption: Customizable branded templates | You can create customizable branded templates for encrypted emails originating from your organization. These templates can fulfill several use cases, such as:
Once created, these branding templates can be applied to encrypted emails using Exchange Mail Flow rules. |
In development |
10/11/2018 |
Q1 CY2019 |
New Updates to Office 365 Message Encryption |
|
34295 |
Office 365 |
Auto-Investigation with Key Threat Playbooks | Auto-investigation capabilities for threats will be available in Office E5 with integration with WDATP. Also, there will be key threat playbooks available at this time also. Ability to trigger automated investigations using the playbooks from Threat Explorer also will go live. |
In development |
10/11/2018 |
Q2 CY2019 |
n / a |
|
34296 |
Office 365 |
Auto-remediation with enhanced playbooks | Auto-remediation of threats with additional playbooks and deeper integration with Microsoft Cloud App Security and Azure Active Directory. There will be additional remediation capabilities made available in guided threat hunting scenarios. |
In development |
10/11/2018 |
Q2 CY2019 |
n / a |
|
34297 |
Office 365 |
Enhanced Threat Explorer | Guided hunting enhancements with delivery status, location, policy override data supporting email investigations. Also, added remediation actions from Threat Explorer and advanced malware and phish detonation details. |
In development |
10/11/2018 |
Q2 CY2019 |
n / a |
|
34298 |
Teams |
Safe Links Protection for Microsoft Teams | The power of Safe Links will now be available to protect users from malicious links sent via Microsoft Teams. |
In development |
10/11/2018 |
Q2 CY2019 |
n / a |
|
34281 |
Teams |
Create an org-wide team (for up to 1,000 users) in Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams will support an easy way for everyone in an organization with up to 1,000 active users to be a part of a single team for collaboration with the new org-wide team type. With this feature, all internal users (up to 1,000 active users) will be added as members automatically. |
In development |
10/13/2018 |
Q1 CY2019 |
n / a |
UPCOMING EVENTS
When: Tuesdays, August 21, 2018 – October 30, 2018 from 10am – 11am PT | Whether you're managing a new project or starting your own business, it helps to have a team behind you to brainstorm ideas, tackle the work together, and have some fun along the way. Now you can use Microsoft Teams to do just that. Join our team LIVE every Tuesday from 10-11am PDT to learn how you can get started with the free version of Teams. In this hour, we'll walk you through the product and key features, share best practices for getting started, and answer any questions you may have. We look forward to meeting you!
Getting Ready for Azure AD (Prerequisites)
When: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 at 7am PT | In this webinar learn how to prepare yourself and your organization to make the best use of Azure AD, prepare your directory on-premises, find out about the main features and get your questions answered.
Getting Ready for Azure AD (Prerequisites)
When: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 at 11am PT | In this webinar learn how to prepare yourself and your organization to make the best use of Azure AD, prepare your directory on-premises, find out about the main features and get your questions answered.
Getting Ready for Azure AD (Prerequisites)
When: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 at 9pm PT | In this webinar learn how to prepare yourself and your organization to make the best use of Azure AD, prepare your directory on-premises, find out about the main features and get your questions answered.
Accessing Your Organization's Internal Applications via Azure AD App Proxy
When: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at 7am PT | In this webinar learn how you can publish your on-premises, enterprise line-of-business applications to your external users without building a DMZ or exposing your infrastructure and without compromising on security.
Accessing Your Organization's Internal Applications via Azure AD App Proxy
When: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at 11am PT | In this webinar learn how you can publish your on-premises, enterprise line-of-business applications to your external users without building a DMZ or exposing your infrastructure and without compromising on security.
Accessing Your Organization's Internal Applications via Azure AD App Proxy
When: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at 9pm PT | In this webinar learn how you can publish your on-premises, enterprise line-of-business applications to your external users without building a DMZ or exposing your infrastructure and without compromising on security.
When: Thursday, October 18, 2018 at 7am PT | This webinar will teach you how to easily monitor on-prem components from the Azure portal using Azure AD Connect Health. This includes learning how to monitor and get alerts on Azure AD Connect, ADFS and Active Directory Domain Services.
When: Thursday, October 18, 2018 at 11am PT | This webinar will teach you how to easily monitor on-prem components from the Azure portal using Azure AD Connect Health. This includes learning how to monitor and get alerts on Azure AD Connect, ADFS and Active Directory Domain Services.
When: Thursday, October 18, 2018 at 9pm PT | This webinar will teach you how to easily monitor on-prem components from the Azure portal using Azure AD Connect Health. This includes learning how to monitor and get alerts on Azure AD Connect, ADFS and Active Directory Domain Services.
Getting Started with Microsoft Teams
When: Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 10am PT | This 60-minute session introduces you to the key activities needed to get started with Microsoft Teams today. From setting your profile, to running a meeting, users will leave this session with the foundation needed to use Teams with confidence.
Upgrade 101: Understanding your upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams
When: Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 10am PT | Looking to better understand the upgrade journey from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams? Join us for this 60-minute session to get familiar with our upgrade paths (Upgrade Basic and Upgrade Pro), our resources, and a walkthrough of our upgrade success framework to help you navigate through your journey.
Productivity Hacks to Save Time & Simplify Workflows
When: Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at 12pm PT | This 2-hour hands-on experience will give you the opportunity to test drive Windows 10, Office 365 and Dynamics 365. A trained facilitator will guide you as you apply these tools to your own business scenarios and see how they work for you. During this interactive session, you will: (1) Discover how you can keep your information more secure without inhibiting your workflow, (2) Learn how to visualize and analyze complex data, quickly zeroing in on the insights you need, (3) See how multiple team members can access, edit and review documents simultaneously, and (4) Gain skills that will save you time and simplify your workflow immediately. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.
IT expert roundtable: Microsoft 365 security
When: Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 10am PT | Microsoft is taking an integrated approach with Microsoft 365 to enhance identity protection, information protection, threat protection, and security management. During this live webinar, Microsoft security experts answer your questions about how we use Microsoft 365 security technologies to create a productive and secure workplace. Speakers include Joanne Schell (Senior Security Engineer), Sarah Scott (Senior PM Manager), John Cardarelli (Principal Program Manager), and Michael Shalev (Principal Program Manager).
BLOG ROUNDUP
Unleash your SharePoint admin superpowers with new admin center capabilities
At Microsoft Ignite, we announced several exciting new features coming to the new SharePoint admin center. We're excited to share that we'll start to roll out these features worldwide later in October 2018 to organizations that have "Targeted release for everyone" turned on. Some of the new features coming in this release include: (1) Make the new admin center your default admin center, (2) Improved management experience for group-connected sites, (3) Simplified hub site creation and association, (4) Customize and control the site creation experience, (5) Improved site management experience, and (6) Improved access control and policy options.
New service from Microsoft FastTrack: Desktop App Assure
Don't let compatibility issues slow down your deployment. Get more support with our new service from Microsoft FastTrack: Desktop App Assure. Our Desktop App Assure service is here to: (1) Assist customers in remediating custom developed line-of-business applications, (2) Engage 3rd party software vendors to help remediate their Windows 10 applications and issue support statements for Windows-as-a-Service, and (3) Address issues found in Microsoft first-party products (including Office macros & add-ins).
New capabilities coming soon to the SharePoint Migration Tool
The SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to simplify your journey to the cloud through a free, simple, and fast solution to migrate content from on-premises SharePoint sites and file shares to SharePoint or OneDrive in Office 365. The SharePoint Migration Tool allows you to accelerate your journey to Office 365 overcoming obstacles typically associated with migration projects. With the SharePoint Migration Tool you can evaluate and address the information that matters the most to your organization, the Libraries, and now Lists that form the foundation of the SharePoint experience. At Microsoft Ignite we announced several new capabilities coming soon to the SharePoint Migration Tool to include: (1) Windows PowerShell cmdlets to allow for a more programmatic and automated migration approach when using the SharePoint Migration Tool - available now, (2) Support for complete SharePoint Server 2013 site migrations to include subsites - coming in January 2019 as preview, (3) A new look and feel that is more closely aligned with the SharePoint Online design for easier use - available now in First Release builds.
Is ExpressRoute for Office 365 for me?
"Is ExpressRoute for me?" seems to be a recurrent question these days. And from Office 365 standpoint, the answer is probably not for the clear majority of customers asking that question. Why? Simply put, Office 365 is designed to work via the internet - securely and reliably. Moreover, many of the services require some level of Internet connectivity and none will work exclusively with ExpressRoute (with no Internet at all) as outlined in the Office 365 endpoints article. Of course, there are few situations where ExpressRoute makes sense, which typically involve regulatory requirements. This article provides more details on some of the common questions and answers to help determine if ExpressRoute for Office 365 will benefit your organization.
Outlook is committed to FindTime and to making group scheduling easier
We recently created some confusion with a decision to remove the FindTime add-in from the Office Store. We heard loud and clear from you that you missed FindTime and wanted it back. As a result, we brought it back as quickly as we could. We pride ourselves on being customer-focused so, again, we apologize for the frustration that our decision to remove the FindTime add-in caused. We want customers to know that going forward, we are committed to FindTime and plan to continue investing in making group scheduling easier. We will keep the FindTime add-in up and running, and we will continue to improve it based in large part on customer feedback. In parallel, we will invest to build an even more robust group scheduling solution that is integrated across Outlook.
NOTEWORTHY
Video: Office 365 Update for October 2018
Format: Video (11 minutes) | Jim Naroski covers recent enhancements to Office 365, including Office 365 subscriptions, OneDrive for Mac and iOS, Outlook, SharePoint, Power BI, Word and PowerPoint, and more. The video transcript, complete with links to additional information on everything covered, is available at http://aka.ms/o365update-blog.
New! Confluence Cloud Messaging Extension in Microsoft Teams
Messaging Extension for Confluence Cloud is now available for Microsoft Teams. It is available for teams channels as well as private chat, making your dialog much more descriptive and informative. You can get the Confluence Cloud app from the Microsoft Teams app store and connect to your Confluence Cloud instance. Once connected, you will be able to search through the Confluence instance and attach the desired Confluence page, blog post etc. in the informative card. | Related: Jira Cloud app now supports Jira Service Desk projects
Microsoft Ignite 2018 - Microsoft Flow Sessions to not miss!
Hello Flow Fans! If you didn't have a chance to make it to Microsoft Ignite, Fear Not! We have a nice wrap up post of all of the Microsoft Flow Sessions you are absolutely going to want to see! It's quite a list, so here we go... | Related: Flow of The Week: Automate Mass Company Communications with Page Approval Flow in SharePoint Online
Power BI: Deep dive in the organizational custom visuals
Custom visuals bring great value to your organization. By using tailor-made visuals, enterprises can tell their own story and visualize data in the best way! It is not a bar chart, and it is not a line chart, it is a custom visual that tells your data story! Hundreds of ready-made custom visuals can be found from our online marketplace or built in store. In some organizations custom visuals are even more important – they might be necessary to convey specific data or insights unique to the organization, they may have special data requirements, or they may highlight private business methods. Such organizations need to develop their own custom visuals, using the Power BI opensource custom visuals framework. Alternatively, use plenty of advanced examples and ready-made samples to build their own.
The world has changed since 2010, end of support for Groove 2010 products
Today's business environments are very different to those of 10+ years ago. Groove Server has been a trusted friend for peer-to-peer collaboration over a decade, but there are better ways to deliver against today's business expectations and technical possibilities. It's time to upgrade to a modern workplace, taking advantage of ubiquitous connectivity and access to the cloud for scale, agility and performance. Groove Server is a Windows-based software package that helps you deploy and administer Microsoft SharePoint Workspace when Groove peer workspaces are being used. Groove Server 2010 provides access to Groove Server Manager and Relay services through a hosted environment at a Microsoft data center. From October 13th, 2020, Microsoft will no longer offer security updates, support or technical content updates for Groove Server 2010 and related products.