Desktop to Cloud day this Saturday

This Saturday the 18th of May at North Ryde RSL Club from 8.30am I will be conducting the Desktop to Cloud Day 2013.

The event brings together key speakers to talk about the best technologies from both ends of the technology spectrum. If you want to see the full agenda then you can download it at:

http://www.ciaops.com/storage/d2c13/agenda.pdf

You can of course still register for the day at:

http://d2c13.eventbrite.com.au/

Entry includes access to all sessions, meals and refreshments, WiFi access, on site parking and more.

I look forward to meeting you on the day.

Replacement for Microsoft Speed test

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A while ago there was a tool known as Microsoft Sped Test (www.microsoftspeedtest.com) but for some unknown reason it is no longer operational. It was a great way to get an indication of the speeds from a desktop to the Office 365 data centres.

So, now what can you use? The solution is the Lync Online Transport Reliability IP Probe (TRIPP) tool that can be found at:

Just choose your closest data centre and plug in the URL to your browser. You’ll need to have Java on your machine to run the variety of tests available.

One of the tests (shown above, on the speed tab) allows you to do what Microsoft Speedtest used to do.

I’d strongly recommend you spend the time getting to know this tool as it provides a lot of information and is invaluable in troubleshooting issues with Office 365 in my experience.

Deleted items is NOT for email archiving

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One of the really bad email habits that I see people adopt is using their Deleted Items folder as an archive. The belief would seem to be that it is an ‘easy’ way to archive because it only takes a single keystroke (i.e. the Delete button) to ‘archive’ the email.

Because most on premise mail servers never enforced a retention policy (i.e. how long emails are kept) people were not penalized for their bad habits. However, in the world of Office 365 things are a little different. Let me illustrate this with an example.

After a user recently moved to Office 365 they were shocked to find that their ‘email filing system’ (i.e. their Deleted Items folder) had been emptied. Where was it? Why had it been emptied? How do you get it back? Panic! etc , etc, etc.

The reason those emails were removed is that by default Office 365 has a number of default email retention policies in place. One of these is that:

By default, in Exchange Online, the retention period for deleted items is 14 days. The retention period starts when the item deleted is moved to the Recoverable Items folder. After 14 days, items in the Deletions subfolder are automatically moved to the Purges subfolder.

From – http://help.outlook.com/en-au/140/hh125820.aspx

Thus, 14 days after migrating to Office 365 the deleted items folder will be emptied by default. Then 14 days after that the deletions are then sent to purges where they remain for another 14 days. After that they are permanently removed from Exchange Online, i.e. bye, bye filing system. The best way to understand all this is look at:

http://help.outlook.com/en-au/140/hh125820.aspx

Can the default retention policy be changed? Yes, but probably an easier way is simply NOT to use Deleted Items as an email archive. Create another folder and drag and drop the ‘email filing system’ there to ensure it is always retained! Deleted Items is designed for exactly what it is called! Deleted Items!

You can read more on Office 365 retention policies and tags here:

http://help.outlook.com/en-ca/140/gg271153.aspx

Up to $1,500 cash back on Office 365

If you have been considering Office 365 for your business now may be the best time to sign up as Microsoft is offering up to $1,500 cash back for new subscribers before May 31, 2013. The details of the offer are here:
http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-au/buy/special-offers/Pages/fastcash365.aspx
A great incentive that you can take advantage of as we approach the end of the financial year. Remember if you need help deciding what Office 365 plans is best for your business or moving into the cloud don’t hesitate to contact me (director@ciaops.com).

A beginner’s guide to SharePoint Online

Microsoft runs a regular Office 15 minute webinar and recently it focused on SharePoint Online. You can find the video at:

If are interested in getting started with SharePoint Online this video will give you a brief overview. Once you have watched that you can also check out the CIAOPS SkyDrive Pro Primer video:

There are of course plenty of other SharePoint and Office 365 publications over at:

http://www.ciaops.com/publications

So take a look, however if you haven’t looked at SharePoint and especially SharePoint Online then I’d strongly recommend you do.

Connecting PowerShell to SharePoint Online

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So you have configured your environment to have PowerShell connect to Office 365 using my previous blog post:

Configuring PowerShell access in Office 365

However, this only used to provide access to tenant and Exchange administration. With the Wave 15 release of Office 365 you can now also connect to SharePoint Online. here is how to do just that.

You are going to need a machine that has the Windows Management Framework 3.0 installed, which basically means you need PowerShell version 3.0. if you are keeping up with the times and running Windows 8 as your desktop then you already have PowerShell 3.

Next you’ll to install the SharePoint Online Management Shell. The latest one I found is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35588

I also found an earlier preview following some links but I’d suggest the latest version is what you want.

So on the Windows 8 machine on which you have the Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell installed ,run it as an administrator and accept the UAC.

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The next step is to load in the SharePoint Online cmdlets for use in this session. after some digging around I found that they are called:

Microsoft.Online.Sharepoint.PowerShell

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So at the prompt type:

import-module microsoft.online.sharepoint.powershell

that should result in the above warning.

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Now you will need to log into your Wave 15 account. i normally do this by saving the login details to a variable by typing the following:

$cred=get-credentials

A dialog windows as shown above will appear into which you need to enter the login and password of a suitably enabled Office 365 user who can administer SharePoint Online. If in doubt use the initial global administrator that was provisioned with your site.

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The next step is now to use those credential to connect to SharePoint Online. To do this execute the following line:

connect-sposervice –url https://-admin.sharepoint.com –credential $cred

in my case this was:

connect-sposervice –url https://ciaops365e1-admin.sharepoint.com –credential $cred

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In true PowerShell form, if everything is correct you will simply be returned to a prompt. Now you can execute commands against SharePoint Online. For example the following will display all your SharePoint Online sites by URL in a table:

get-sposite | ft “url”

Now you can start exploring all the cmdlets that are available for SharePoint Online which you can find at the bottom of this page:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint-help/introduction-to-the-sharepoint-online-management-shell-HA102915057.aspx

Does the same process work on Wave 14 tenants that haven’t yet been upgraded to Wave 15 and SharePoint 2013?

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I tried it on my Wave 14 tenant (https://ciaops365.sharepoint.com) above and it worked! Excellent, roll on SharePoint Online control via PowerShell everywhere.

74-324 Exam Cram notes available for purchase



Because every little bit of information helps you pass those Microsoft Certification exams, I am happy to announce that the training notes from my recent 74-324 Administering Office 365 for SMB Exam Cram sessions are now available for purchase.
In the download you will find:
– 4 x PowerPoint presentations covering each session
– 1 x OneNote 2007 course notes
You will need PowerPoint 2007 and OneNote 2007 or better to view these files.
The material contains over 60 exam questions and answers to help you prepare for the test as well as explanations and other links on Office 365.
You can purchase this product directly from:
http://www.e-junkie.com/ciaops/product/487843.php
or from the CIAOPS Publications page:
http://www.ciaops.com/publications
Remember, these notes are aimed at helping you pass the current 74-324 exam. Here are some testimonials:
“I sat the exam last night and passed. Roberts Exam cram and links helped tremendously.” – Doug Wilson
“I just passed the O365 exam, I highly recommend that if you are thinking of taking the exam to review all questions in the OneNote that was provided by Robert at the cram exam session and you’ll be guaranteed a high pass” – Gregg Mimmo
“I found the Exam Cram training with Robert, further study of his course notes and url references in the notes to be excellent.” – Darren Webb
“Passed 74-324 today thanks to Rob’s detailed notes and my brain, but mainly Roberts notes. I use O365 everyday and have done since its release but i still got a lot out of the training” – Damian Wiseman
“Robert’s focus on the things you need to know coupled with extensive relevant reference points are a sure formula for success.” – Boris Britbart
As always current subscribers to my SharePoint and Office 365 Guide receive these free as part of their subscription.

Clever Windows Phone ad

Go the Windows Phone

This is a clever ad for the Nokia Windows Phone. It is an interesting commentary on the current state of affairs around technology these days. I am still of the opinion that a Windows Phone is a better overall device but I fully accept that others can make their own choice based on their own preferences.

Perhaps what it signals most is the fact that mobile technology is moving so fast. People are turning over their devices at least every 2 years. That means that manufacturer’s need to come out with new models incessantly. That is pretty demanding.

It will be interesting to see whether this growth levels off or continues to accelerate. If history is any judge we’ll continue to see rapid growth until we reach a point whether only small incremental changes are made. Most modern devices are probably powerful enough for what people need to do these days. What we really need is more bandwidth to overcome the choke point to cloud services.

So sit back and enjoy the video, I’m sure it won’t be the last in this vain.