Additional Security settings in Office 365

Exchange Online in Office 365 is protected by Forefront Online Protection for Exchange [FOPE] (at no extra charge mind you). In BPOS you could look at the FOPE console but couldn’t make any changes. Not the case in Office 365, where you have much more control.

To access the FOPE console login to your Office 365 console as an administrator. Select the option to Manage Exchange.

From the menu on the left hand side select Mail Control and you should see a screen similar to:

On the right hand side you will notice the following under Additional Security Settings.

You can actually click this and when you do it will open up the FOPE control panel like so:

Be very careful what you change here as you really need to know what you are doing. Selecting the wrong option can block mail for your Office 365 organization.

Apart from the configuration settings you will find some handy features like email reports. Which are pretty sweet as you can see:

FOPE is an excellent part of Office 365 that probably doesn’t get the acknowledgement it should as part of the offering. So if you are using Exchange Online with Office 365 take a look at what FOPE can provide.

The other advice I would give you when it comes to FOPE is that it REALLY works best when viewed through Internet Explorer and also without an lingering Windows Live ID around. So if you want to access FOPE, open a new Internet Explorer windows, login to the Office 365 console as an administrator and go from there.

Podcast Episode 20 with Brett Hill

Been too long since my last podcast but I have managed to produce another one for your listening pleasure.

In this episode you’ll hear from Microsoft MVP Brett Hill all about Office 365 and what it has to offer for both customers and resellers. You’ll get a good idea of the product as well as some of the challenges cloud computing faces in general along with Brett’s tips and tricks for a better implementation.

You’ll find the episode at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/2012/01/03/episode-20-brett-hill/

with information about Brett at http://www.office365answers.com.

All the previous episode are available at http://ciaops.podbean.com so take a look.

Remember, I’m always looking for guests. So if you have something you’d like to discuss please contact me (director@ciaops.com). Alternatively, if there is someone or something that you would like to hear please also let me know and I’ll try and arrange it.

Year 2011 in retrospect

So here’s a few thoughts on the year that was in 2011.

Office 365 – one of the more important things to become available in my opinion. Although still far from a perfect product it certainly is a marked improvement from BPOS. The upgrade to the latest versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Lync as well as the inclusion of Office makes this product a real winner in my opinion. The result has been the adoption of Office 365 from the two extremes of the market towards the middle. By that I mean, I have seen Office 365 begin widely adopted by large enterprises as well as very small businesses. From here I expect that to start moving towards the middle of the market and encompass traditional small to medium businesses that traditionally relied on products like Small Business Server (SBS).

In short this means that I expect to see more businesses adopt Office 365 this year, especially in the traditional SBS market. I was also amazed this year ay how many businesses are still running on old versions of server software like SBS 2003. The main reason? Costs. It is a tough market out there and that isn’t likely to change in the near future either so moving to the cloud is certainly a way that many businesses see in reducing their IT overhead, rightly or wrongly. This IS the way things are moving.

IPad – having the second generation released in 2011 has really grown the adoption of this product. Hell, I even got one myself and am amazed at how useful it is for business and pleasure. The average consumer wants simplicity, especially when it comes to technology, and the iPad does this in spades. So many technology people I know deride the tablet or look to Android equivalents but I can tell from what I see with customers is that firstly the tablet is here to stay so deal with it and secondly the competition to the iPad has a long way to go.

The other change in my thinking this year, brought about by the iPad, is the question of apps. These are what makes a platform. They also make life much simpler for consumer and also represent a massive opportunity for developers. To my way of thinking, we are now in the age of developer and standard old IT support is so passe (given tools like search engines). The real money now is in developing apps but not only for iOS but also Android, Windows Phone 7 and even the Xbox as I have mentioned in a previous blog post.

Kindle – This is the year that I got serious about e-readers and bought myself a Kindle. As I have mentioned many times, I love the device and everybody I know who has one, even if they are a book reader, love their Kindle.

To me the Kindle and the Amazon ecosystem just works so well. I have bought so many more books this year because of that fact. Conversely, I have also read many more books for that reason. Honestly, if you haven’t looked at e-readers then I recommend that you give them a go (they are so cheap now) and for my money the Amazon Kindle is the best by far.

So there are some parting thoughts for 2011. I’ll take this opportunity to thank anyone who reads my blog. I also thanks those who have left comments or contacted me directly about what I have written. It make doing this so much more worthwhile when you get feedback, good or bad I welcome it all.

See you all in 2012.

Lync for iPad and iPhone here

Yes friends you can get Lync for iPad and iPhone right now. I have downloaded the iPad version and am playing with it as we speak.

More information soon!

Missing Lync

If you aren’t aware, Microsoft has recent released its Lync client for MAC machines. I was configuring this recently as part of an Office 365 installation and seemed unable to connect. It turns out that Microsoft has recently added to the requirements for DNS records for Lync online. You need, in fact, to add 2 new CNAME records. They have documented this in the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2566790

I didn’t have time to allow the DNS records to update the local name servers so you can also insert the following URL in both the internal and external server fields in the Lync MAC client:

sipdir.online.lync.com:443

Once I had done that the Lync client connected.

Microsoft also recently released Lync for Windows Phone 7. You will also note that Lync clients for iDevices (iPhone and iPad) as well as Android are coming soon, before 2012 if you believe the rumours.

Being a Windows Phone 7 user I eagerly downloaded the app and installed in on my phone but again I couldn’t seem to connect to Lync online. Same issue as before, you need to update your DNS records as detailed the above KB article. However, again, I couldn’t wait that long so once more I needed to make some manual settings.

To do this on a Windows Phone 7 toggle the “Auto-detect services” and enter the following as the “External Discovery URL”https://meet.lync.com/Autodiscover/autodiscoverservice.svc/Root. Chances are you’ll never be “internal” to the Office 365 network so leave the internal one clear for now.

Again, once I made these changes I could connect my Windows Phone 7 to Lync Online. Cool stuff.

I can’t wait to see the Lync client emerge for the iPhone and iPad devices as this will really open up the market for Lync. As I have said previously, Lync is one of the real selling points of Office 365 and the more places it can be used the better I say.

Viewing Exchange archive folders

One of the options available to Exchange 2010, whether online or on site, is the ability to create an archive folder and store emails there. It is possible to apply policies to automatically have items archived to these folders if desired. For most Office 365 plans users receive a 25 GB mailbox which can be shared between the normal inbox and this archived location (when enabled). With the Exchange Plan 2 and E 3 Suite in Office 365 this archive has an ‘unlimited’ capacity. Thus, on these plans you effectively receive an unlimited email box.

Have a look at these two screen shots.

In this second one, note there is an additional item Archive – admin@ciaops365.com.

The issue is that these are shots of a connection to the SAME Exchange Online mailbox using Outlook 2010. The first screen shot was with Outlook 2010 from Office 2010 Standard and the second (where the archive mailbox appears) was from Outlook 2010 from Outlook 2010 Professional Plus.

It turns out that you need Outlook 2010 from Office 2010 Professional Plus to see the Exchange Archive folder. Now this problem is not unique to Exchange Online via Office 365. Turns out it is a factor of Exchange 2010 Server whether onsite or in the cloud. Here a few links worth looking at to confirm this behaviour:

http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/160/t/7510.aspx

http://www.msoutlook.info/question/523

It all has to do with the licensing for Exchange server Enterprise. Information about that can be found at:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/license-requirements-for-personal-archive-and-retention-policies-HA102576659.aspx

You can always view the archive folder using Outlook Web Access but it is a bit of a constraint if you can’t see your mailbox archive via Outlook. The issue is that traditionally only large enterprises used Exchange Archiving and thus they normally had access to Office 2010 Professional Plus. Problem now with Office 365 is that every business utilizing it has access to Exchange Archiving.

So how is this going to affect the different plans?

No issues

E3 suites – because Office 2010 Professional Plus is included as part of the license.

Major issues

Exchange Plan 2 – if sold to a business that doesn’t already have Office 2010 Professional Plus installed. They won’t be able to see their archived email folder (when enabled).

Minor problems

Remaining plans – unlikely they will have email archiving enabled as they are limited to 25GB in total spread between inbox and archive (i.e. why do you need archiving when you can put it all in your inbox?).

The place it will be an issue is when archiving is enabled. Why would people do that if they can safely store everything in their inboxes as mentioned previously? A good reason that they might want to enable an archive (even on the 25GB max inbox plans) is that they are looking to limit the amount of email that gets synced with the local Outlook via the OST files as archived emails are not cached locally.

Now those audiences with the major and minor problems above are probably small but they are still important. Why? For those on Exchange Plan 2 (with the potentially major problem) it is because this is the plan that many will opt for when they start to dip their toes into the ‘cloud’. They will pick Exchange Plan 2 because it provides an unlimited email box size and allows them to attach other products such as SharePoint and Lync as they become more familiar with the ‘cloud’ in the future. Those with the minor problems (most of the other plans with a limited 25GB mailbox) still need to have the ability to configure and utilize archiving, especially to reduce the amount of information they sync with the cloud.

In some ways I feel this is something that Microsoft overlooked when it brought the enterprise version of Exchange down to small business. I also don’t believe that it impacts a great audience at this stage but still it is something that Microsoft should address to prevent it being used as ammunition against them and Office 365. Maybe some additional update would be available for installations of Outlook 2010 that connect to Exchange online so they can view the archived emails not matter what version of Outlook 2010 they have on their desktop. Doesn’t seem that hard to do. At worst, maybe a separate version of Outlook for those using Exchange Plan 2 so they can take advantage of the feature?

For now it is something to be aware of when working with Exchange and archiving. It is also something to remember affects on site Exchange Enterprise 2010 as well as Exchange Online via Office 365. Is it a big issue? Probably not at the moment but should be rectified as soon as possible to ensure Office 365 continues to grow in acceptance across all businesses, large and small.

Office 365 updates

There have been some quiet improvements to Office 365 recently. Probably the best place to visit on a regular basis to see what these updates are on a month by month basis are:

Service updates for Office 365 for enterprises – http://community.office365.com/en-us/w/office_365_service_updates/service-updates-for-office-365-for-enterprises.aspx

Service updates for Office 365 for professionals and small business – http://community.office365.com/en-us/w/office_365_service_updates/service-updates-for-office-365-for-professionals-and-small-businesses.aspx

Some of the highlights include:

– Lync client for MAC

– Official support for a wider range of browsers including IE9 and Chrome

– 64 bit version of Directory Sync

– Access to SharePoint site for external users via Windows Live IDs

Another improvement is the provision of Self Service Password resets for administrators. Full details of this can be found at:

http://community.office365.com/en-us/b/office_365_technical_blog/archive/2011/11/30/office-365-self-service-password-reset-for-administrators-grid-user-post.aspx

What excites me the most are the improvements to SharePoint and these are covered in this blog post:

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/BlogPost.aspx?pID=1002

The biggie here I reckon is the provision of Business Connectivity Services (BCS). This will allow SharePoint online to easily start connecting to external data sources. This should start to open up the flood gates for third party apps to hook into SharePoint.

Most interestingly of all is that most of these update have come under the radar, with little fanfare. What it does importantly illustrate is that Office 365 continues to improve and I’ll bet will continue to do so at an even more rapid pace.

SharePoint Guide breakout

The CIAOPS SharePoint Guide is now going into its fourth year and continues to add content and information. Here is some subscriber feedback:

“The Computer Information Agency and their Windows SharePoint Operations Guide has made a considerable difference in the way we deploy and integrate SharePoint Services within our client sites. CIAOPS regular testing of new software releases and associated updates gives us the confidence to go to our clients with the best advice”

Part of the Guide has been the inclusion of information around Office 365 since SharePoint Online was part of the Microsoft offering. However, from January 1 2012 things will be changing.

From the first of the New Year the Office 365 information in the Guide will be broken out into a new product with a different subscription model and a different offering. More information about this will be announced soon. However, all existing SharePoint Guide subscribers will continue to receive access to the new product as part of their existing subscription as long as they stay subscribed to the SharePoint Guide.

This means, that if you have ever thought about being a CIAOPS SharePoint Guide subscriber and if you sign up before December 31, 2011 you will not only receive the SharePoint Guide but also the new Office 365 Guide for the duration of your subscription. After that date you’ll have to purchase each separately. Thus, for $ 299 ex GST up to the end of year you will also get the Office 365 Guide for free.

If you want the best information on SharePoint and Office 365, including documents, videos, tutorials, support, etc then you have until the end of the month to sign up for the existing CIAOPS SharePoint Guide. Come January, the Office 365 information produced will only be available with an additional subscription (details to be announced).

For all the information about the CIAOPS SharePoint Guide visit – www.wssops.com.