Office 2016 available to first release tenants

The most common method of deploying Office from Office 365 subscriptions is via the Office 365 portal. To do so you select the Cog in the top right and from the menu that appears you select Office 365 settings.

From the options that appear on the left you select Software.

You then see Office 2013 and you select the Install button to kick off the Click to Run install.

BUT, if the tenant has the First Release option enabled and you scroll down a bit you’ll see that you also have the option to install the Office 2016 Preview!

Potential issue here is that if an end user decides to install the Office 2016 Preview then it REPLACES the existing Office 2013 (i.e. no side by side install).

Now Office 2016 is not currently supported by Microsoft (as it says) which may mean it is not a good idea for an organisation. ~~Problem is, I can’t see how to disable this option for end users without turning off First Release (which would remove other features you may want) or disabling Office installs completely.~~

Hopefully, there is a PowerShell command or some option I have overlooked that allows administrators to disable the option for installing Office 2016 Preview. I understand that people on the First Release program want to see the new stuff BUT not sure whether administrators want their users running Office 2016 just yet! At least until it is out of preview.

~~If you know how to disable the Office 2016 Preview option without disabling First Release or Office downloads in general I’d love to hear.~~

Update – I spoke too soon (the ability to control which users get first release features is rolling out as we speak. More in my updated blog post).

More OneDrive information from Ignite

As I mentioned in a previous post, OneDrive news from Ignite, I am very happy to report the goods news revealed about OneDrive for Business. One of these improvements that can’t come soon enough for me is the selective sync as you see in the above screen shot from the session:

I Sync, Therefore I Am: A Deep Dive on OneDrive Sync capabilities and Roadmap

The great thing about this session was some more information from Microsoft but by far was the questions and answers towards the end. It was great to hear so many of the burning questions I’ve had about the sync client asked and then answered. Well worth a listen if you want more answers about OneDrive for Business.

The above screen shot taken from the presentation also gives us some more information around when the next generation sync client will be released.

I am happy now that the roadmap for OneDrive for Business is much clearer and I can’t wait to get my hands on the new sync client.

Stay tuned here to more updates from Ignite.

OneDrive news from Ignite

I’ve been catching up on the sessions from Ignite and one of the sessions I have been most keen to see is:

A File’s Future with OneDrive for Business – BRK2192

Why? OneDrive for Business sync client is currently, probably unfortunately, the weakest component of Office 365. I see a lot of frustration out there with clients when they hit the limits of this application. These can be overcome and minimized with some tuning but the sync software currently doesn’t really support they way many customers believe they should work with the cloud. Most want (inappropriately in my opinion) to sync everything from the cloud to every desktop. Like it or not, that is how they expect to work and at the moment the OneDrive for Business sync client struggles to support this.

As you can see from the above slide the OneDrive for Business team recognise that the sync client basically hasn’t met client expectations and fixing this is currently their highest priority.

(click image to enlarge)

The good news as shown on the roadmap above is that we can expect to see a next gen sync client in Q3 2015 with the final release before the end of the 2015 year.

(click image to enlarge)

The other exciting news is that before the end of the year the currently maximum limit of 20,000 file being synced will be removed, the maximum file size that can be synced will increase to 10GB and selective syncing of files from within a Document Library will be available.

There are a few other sessions on OneDrive at Ignite that I’ll be working through and reporting back what I find so stay tuned. However, I think the news is very positive now for OneDrive for Business in general. Yes, many of the changes coming have been a long time in materialising but the good news is that they will be with us shortly.

The news from Ignite has been very positive and the improvements Microsoft are being to Office 365, Azure and like are truly amazing. I’ll report on more of these as I work through all the content. Kudos also to Microsoft for making the content from Ignite readily available so quickly to review on demand. I certainly wish I could have attended in person but in some ways having access to the on demand content makes it even easier to stay up to date.

To view the sessions from Ignite visit:

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015

My podcast with Karl Palachuk

I’m featured again on Karl Palachuk’s latest OddTuesdays podcast. You can find the episode here.

http://www.oddtuesdays.com/2015/05/sharepoint-office365-consultancy/

or download the audio directly at:

http://www.oddtuesdays.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/OT_2015_05_05.mp3

I briefly cover some of the work I do to help resellers when it comes to SharePoint and Office 365 so they can offer a broader range of services.

Have a listen and let me know what you think. I also take the opportunity to thank Karl for having me on the podcast.

Office 365 data import service rolling out

Here’s an interesting item from the Office 365 Roadmap in development.

Drive Shipping and Network Based Data Import for Office 365

The ability to import data into Office 365 in a quick and easy manner has been a known constraint of Office 365, and a solution for this issue has emerged as a key request from customers. We are working on a solution that will allow quicker imports of data into Exchange Online Archive Mailboxes. You will now be able to import Exchange Online data through PST files into the service without using third party tools. Drive Shipping and Network Based Ingestion options will use Azure-based services to import data. Over time we will be extending this to other data types across Office 365.

This option is not yet available on my Office 365 tenant but here is a blog post of someone who has it and has documented the process:

http://blogs.perficient.com/microsoft/2015/05/office-365-using-the-new-pst-import-service/

What excites me is not the PST stuff but this line:

Over time we will be extending this to other data types across Office 365.

That to me reads that soon Office 365 will support drive shipping and network based ingestion of SharePoint and OneDrive for Business data! That will be huge and save massive amounts of time for customers looking to move the bulk of their files and folder information to Office 365, who may also be somewhat bandwidth limited.

The second thing I note here is:

Drive Shipping and Network Based Ingestion options will use Azure-based services to import data.

That further reinforces to my mind the fact that if you are an Office 365 IT professional you are going to need to be comfortable with Azure.

To me it is no longer Office 365, it is now Office365/Azure combined as a skill set you must have going forward.

Mobile Device Management has arrived–Part 2

You’ll find the initial part of getting Mobile Device Management (MDM) working with Office 365 here:

https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/05/mobile-device-management-has-arrived.html

The end result was that I had ended up with the following error:

As a reader of this blog pointed out to me on Yammer (yeah Yammer!),

What I had overlooked was the above, highlighted text. I couldn’t apply the policy to an individual user I needed to apply that to a security group. Ah ha! Thanks for the keen eyes there.

So I went off and created an Office 365 Security group and then added the appropriate user to that group AND THEN added that group to the policy and voila, no more errors in my policy!

After a little while (<5 mins) I receive the following message on my iPad that is already using that account.

Interestingly, that message does not appear in OWA via the browser.

I now select the Enrol your device link and I’m taken to:

https://portal.manage.microsoft.com/

Where I’m prompted to install the Microsoft Intune Company Portal, on my device.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/microsoft-intune-company-portal/id719171358?mt=8

I’m then prompted to login to my Office 365 account as the user in question.

So now the Microsoft Intune Company Portal app launches and I see the above screen. I select Enrol to continue.

I now get taken to the device settings and prompted to Install.

I note that Office 365 will now be able to remotely manage my iPad, which is what I want so I select Install to continue.

Shortly I see my device is enrolled. Yeah!

If I now return to my Office 365 admin console and refresh the Mobile Devices page I see the above. My iPad now appears as a managed device. Job done.

All in all this is a pretty simple process. The trick that that managed users need to reside in an Office 365 Security group before they can have the mobile device policy applied to them.

I will need to dig into all the options and better understand what is happening behind the scenes but gotta say I am pretty impressed at how easy the process of enrolling a device. Now I’m off to try a few other devices.

New CIAOPS Office 365 bootcamp package coming

I am working on an update to my Office 365 bootcamp notes that I plan to offer. This new product will include:

1. OneNote notebook with all the knowledge I have accumulated over the years about Office 365. It includes links and information about the product. It includes troubleshooting tips and links, it includes links to third party solutions and so much more. Basically, everything I discover about office 365 goes into this notebook every day and I USE it everyday!

2. OneNote notebook with all the knowledge I have accumulated over the years about Azure. Like the Office 365 notebook, this one contains links, tips information and more about everything Azure. Everything I discover about Azure goes into this notebook and I am using it more and more EVERY day.

3. OneNote notebook with notes designed to help you pass the Office 365 70-346 certification exam.

4 OneNote notebook with notes designed to help you pass the Office 365 70-347 certification exam.

I plan to update all of these notebooks on a regular basis and make them available as an annual subscription. Before, when you bought the bootcamp notes you only got them as a point in time publication. With the product changing so rapidly much of the information becomes obsolete and out of date so quickly.

Also, because all the notebooks continue to grow over time I need to spend some dedicated time updating and improving them. However, if I am just doing that for myself then it always seems to take a lower priority. Having them as an subscription model will give me the impetus to ensure they are as up to date and relevant as possible.

There are two ways to get access to this material:

1. You can join my Cloud Business Blueprint community via:

http://www.cloudbusinessblueprint.com/members-sign-up/

where you’ll get immediate access to the latest versions plus heaps of other unique on demand training, cheat sheets, re-brandable content, articles AND access to the members forums to converse with other cloud resellers.

2. You can purchase the existing Office 365 bootcamp notes via;

http://www.e-junkie.com/ciaops/product/488325.php

for AU $148. This purchase will entitle you to a 12 monthly subscription to my new bootcamp notes product when it becomes available soon.

As a sweetner for option 2 (as everything offered is already part of option 1 anyway), I will also throw in, for a limited time, my:

Getting Started With Azure (valued at AU $120)

and

Getting Started with SharePoint Online Tutorial Team Site Standard Edition (valued at AU $90).

So that’s an extra AU $210 of value if you sign up today for the ‘pre-release’.

Note, this ‘pre-release’ of my new bootcamp notes product will only be available for a very limited time. As soon as I have put the finishing touches on it and launched it, then there’ll be no more sweeteners.

So many people come to me asking where they can find information about Office 365 (and now more so Azure). With this offer you can have access to the information I use in an easy to access format that you can upload to the cloud and sync and access on every device (how I do it).

As a final point, if you enjoy and obtain benefit from all the free stuff I do like this blog, my YouTube channel, my free downloads, my open sourced SharePoint Guide then I’d REALLY appreciate your support. Doing so will allow me to focus more on providing you a great solution and all the up to date information you need in one location for Office 365 and Azure.