Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics

If you are wondering what Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics is then take a look at these two videos.

and

To learn about how the product works then have a look at:

Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics coming next month

and

Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics public preview now available

If you are looking to purchase the product today have a look at:

Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics Pricing

For most most smaller customers the best way to get the product today is via the:

Enterprise Mobility Suite

However, it is also expected to be part of the new E5 Office 365 license that will be available shortly.

— Update —

I found today that if you go to the Add-ons for your Office 365 subscription you can purchase Exchange Online Threat Protection as a stand alone extra to your existing Exchange Online mailboxes. That make it easy to quickly and easily increase the security of your email protection with Office 365.

For more details see:

Exchange Online Advanced Threat Protection

OneDrive consumer space gets scaled back

In a world where we are use to seeing more it is surprising to discover that Microsoft is limiting the amount of space available in OneDrive consumer. That is until you read this blog post they recently posted:

https://blog.onedrive.com/onedrive_changes/

In essence what it says is that a small number of people have been ‘exploiting’ the amount of storage available in OneDrive consumer to use it for things that it wasn’t really designed for such as storing images of hard disks, entire movie collections and so on.

To prevent this and ensure OneDrive is used as a collaboration tool rather than just a free dumping ground for data Microsoft will start to limit the amount of space available to users of the service. If you want to know how that may affect you I suggest you read the above blog post from Microsoft.

The following quote from the blog post sums it up well and reinforces what I say about all versions of OneDrive:

“OneDrive has always been designed to be more than basic file storage and backup. These changes are needed to ensure that we can continue to deliver a collaborative, connected, and intelligent service. They will allow us to continue to innovate and make OneDrive the best option for people who want to be productive and do more.”

I see so many people trying to shoehorn their whole one premises file server into OneDrive for Business. It is not designed for that and you should not be merely copying all your data to a location that was designed for individuals not teams. You should also not be dumping all your data (much of it unused generally) into a single document library. SharePoint Online (which includes OneDrive for Business) is designed primarily for collaboration. If all you want is web storage then SharePoint Online is probably not the best solution.

I wrote the following article a while back to highlight the appropriate way to consider migrations to SharePoint Online:

The Classic SharePoint Online Migration Mistake

The important thing to remember here is that this recent control of the space available to OneDrive refers to the consumer version NOT OneDrive for Business (for now). However importantly, the takeaway for Office 365 users here is that OneDrive for Business is designed for individual users and is not designed as a general data dumping ground for data.

Go forth and collaborate.

CIAOPS Configuring Office 365 Federated Identity online course

I’ve just made available my next online course – Configuring Office 365 Identity which you can view here:

http://ciaops-academy.teachable.com/courses/configuring-office-365-federated-identity

It is aimed at teaching you the basics of configuring ADFS and Single Sign On with Office 365.

The course contains 6 lessons:

Understanding Office 365 Federated Identity
Preparing the environment for Office 365 Federated Identity
Setting up the Federated ADFS Server
Converting to an Office 365 Federated Domain
Setting up a Federated ADFS Proxy Server
Troubleshooting Office 365 Federation Configurations

with each lesson containing a video, downloadable lesson notes and some external resources.

You can sign up for this or any of the other courses I have published via the new URL:

www.ciaopsacademy.com

This course has also been included in the Getting Started with Office 365 Administration course that now covers 9 areas and aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to managing all aspects of Office 365.

I appreciate those who have supported me by already signing up for my online courses. The more support I get, the more courses I can develop.

if you have any suggestions or ideas for online courses that you’d like to see me do please contact me, I’d love to hear from you.

Changing the default SharePoint list forms using InfoPath

In a recent post I showed you how you could access InfoPath with Office 2013. Even though Microsoft has deprecated InfoPath 2013 it is still supported for quite a while and is a quick and easy way to start customising the look and feel of SharePoint, especially forms.

When you enter information into a standard SharePoint list you get the standard ‘look and feel’ as you see above.

You can modify this ‘look and feel’ using InfoPath. To do this select the List tab at the top of the page.

Then in the Customize list section to the right, select the Customize in InfoPath button.

You should now see InfoPath launch on the desktop (you’ll obviously need it installed on the local desktop prior).

In the middle of the page you will see a form like the one you saw when in SharePoint but in a different layout, font, style, etc.

’’

Don’t make to changes to anything but simply select the Quick Publish button on the quick launch toolbar in the top left. It is the third button from the left as shown above.

You can also select File | Quick Publish if the quick start button is unavailable.

After a few moments you should receive a message that the form was successfully published as shown above.

If you now return to SharePoint and edit or create a new item you will see that that the form displayed has changed to match that from InfoPath as shown above. InfoPath has in effect has created new display, edit and create forms for this list in SharePoint.

The idea now will be to start customising these forms further using InfoPath and then ‘publishing’ them back to the SharePoint site. However, that will be the subject of upcoming posts.

Now what happens if you want to revert back to the original SharePoint forms and remove the InfoPath ones? To do this, select the Sites tab and then the List Settings button from the ribbon.

Then select Form settings at the bottom of the first column on the left which has the heading General Settings.

Select the option to Use the default SharePoint form (and optionally to Delete the InfoPath form from the server).

Now when you return to work with the list you should see the default SharePoint form displayed as shown above.

CIAOPS Getting Started with Office 365 Administration online course

You may have seen on my Twitter feed all the new online courses I have been posting up. You can of course take these courses individually but I have now combined them all into a single course;

Getting Started with Office 365 Administration

The course includes the following material:

1. Configuring Office 365, licensing and creating users

1.1 Create a trial Office 365 tenant via the web
1.2. Create Office 365 tenant via Volume Licensing
1.3. Set Partner of Record
1.4. Managing licensing, subscriptions and domains
1.5. Adding cloud users
1.6. Office 365 administration roles
1.7. Company profile and theming
1.8. Managing Office 365 Service Settings

2. Configuring users for email on the web and via Outlook

2.1. Using Outlook on the Web
2.2. Using Outlook on the desktop
2.3. Shared mailboxes
2.4. Configuring mailbox options
2.5. Office 365 groups

3. Configuring shared Document access via office 365 Team Sites

3.1. Accessing SharePoint Online
3.2. Uploading Documents to Team Sites
3.3. Adding apps to Team Sites
3.4. Creating sub-sites in Team Sites
3.5. Administrating SharePoint Online

4. Working with private documents using OneDrive for Business

4.1 The difference between OneDrive and Team
4.2 Uploading documents to OneDrive for Business
4.3 Synchronising Office 365 files to the desktop
4.4 Sharing Office 365 documents
4.5 Using the SharePoint Recycle Bin

5. Collaborating using Delve, Yammer and SharePoint

5.1. Using Delve
5.2. Enabling Enterprise Yammer
5.3. Using Enterprise Yammer
5.4. Using Office 365 video
5.5. Editing office 365 User Profiles

6. Integrating Skype for Business for all users in Office 365

6.1. Install Skype for Business client
6.2. Enabling external Skype for Business communications
6.3. Adding contacts in Skype for Business
6.4. Scheduling online meetings using Skype for Business
6.5. Conducting Online meetings using Skype for Business

7. Configuring and managing synchronised Office 365 users

7.1. Understanding Office 365 identity management
7.2. Installing Azure AD connect
7.3. Syncing local AD user to Office 365
7.4. Managing users with synchronised identities
7.5. Troubleshooting synchronised users

8. Office 365 PowerShell

8.1. Configuring Office 365 PowerShell access
8.2. Managing users with PowerShell
8.3. Managing mailboxes with PowerShell
8.4. Managing SharePoint with PowerShell
8.5. Managing Skype for Business with PowerShell

With more lessons coming soon.

Each lesson includes a short video tutorial as well as downloadable lesson notes. Each lesson also includes a number for questions to test your knowledge and understanding on the topic.

To celebrate the launch of this new course I have a number of discount coupon codes that will provide a discount of 10% off the normal price of this complete course. I only have a limited number of these coupons so please contact me via email (director@ciaops.com) to receive yours. I expect these coupons to go fast so if you are reading this after November 2015, I’d suggest there won’t be any left. So hurry.

Going forward I’m planning migrate much of my published content into these online courses. You can check out what is there via:

CIAOPS Academy

Where you will find each individual course plus aggregated courses like Getting Started with Office 365 Administration.

Keep you eyes peeled for more courses launching soon.

CIAOPS Configuring and managing synchronised Office 365 users online course now available

If you want to understand how to configure and manage the synchronisation of users from a local Active Directory to Office 365 then you can now do so thanks to my latest course:

Configuring and managing synchronised Office 365 users

Each lesson contains a short video tutorial, downloadable course notes and a quiz to test your knowledge. You can also ask questions and provide feedback to gain even more knowledge.

You’ll find this and a growing number of CIAOPS online courses at:

http://ciaops-academy.teachable.com/

Got a suggestion for a course you’d like to see me do? Then don;t be shy, let me know either via Twitter (@directorcia) or email (director@ciaops.com).

CIAOPS Office 365 PowerShell online course now available

I’ve been working hard recently building a lot of Office 365 content that I plan to offer online. The first of these projects is now public:

PowerShell for Office 365

You can go, sign up and take the the course immediately. It is based on my original eBook from a while back but has been updated with the latest information.

Each lesson contains a short video tutorial, downloadable course notes and a quiz to test your knowledge. You can also ask questions and provide feedback to gain even more knowledge.

I am aiming to improve and extend the course over time, so please let me know what you’d like to see n future updates to the content.

As I mentioned previously, I am starting to add more and more of these online courses which you’ll find at:

http://ciaops-academy.teachable.com/

So take a look at what’s there already and keep an eye there for new material coming REAL soon!