Upcoming events

I’ll shortly be once again out and about doing presentations on Azure and Office 365 for Ingram Micro. This time we’re going to places that we haven’t been before. I look forward to meeting a sea of new faces at these upcoming events. Here are the details of the upcoming roadshow:

Join us for our Cloud Elevate Bootcamp with Robert Crane, Microsoft MVP for a full day of learning around Office 365 and Azure. You’ll come away with not only technical answers but business solutions you can implement and sell to customers.

We have divided the day into two major sessions to maximise your learning:

Why Office 365 and Azure?
This session will take a technical deep dive into both Office 365 and Azure. You’ll learn about the services that constitute both products, you’ll learn how they are licenses and deployed as well as how to migrate from existing on premises environments include Small Business Server (SBS).

The session will be interactive with whiteboard tutorials and answers to your specific questions. By the end of this session you’ll have a much greater understanding about what Office 365 and Azure are and how they can be implemented within businesses.

How to sell Office 365 and Azure?
Azure and Office 365 represent a seismic shift in the way that IT providers need to think about delivering services to customers, but where do you start? This session will give you the knowledge and the tools that will allow you to take advantage of the opportunities that both Office 365 and Azure provide.

This session again is designed to be interactive with lots of practical business examples, whiteboard discussions and examination of real world SMB scenarios.

No matter what stage of your cloud journey you are current at, as an IT professional you’ll get value from attending both of these sessions.

You’ll get the chance to hear the latest product news, have your specific questions answered and learn about the opportunities that are now available to you in the Microsoft Cloud.

A day not to be missed.

Dates and locations

Melbourne – 22nd February
9:00am to 5:00pm
Registration starts 8:30am
All Seasons Bendigo
171-183 McIvor Road
Bendigo VIC 3550

Adelaide – 28th February
9:00am to 5:00pm
Registration starts 8:30am
Mercure Adelaide
125 North Terrace,
Adelaide SA 5000

Sydney – 2nd March
9:00am to 5:00pm
Registration starts 8:30am
Novotel Homebush
Olympic Blvd & Herb Elliott Ave
Sydney Olympic Park NSW 2127

Gold Coast – 7th March
9:00am to 5:00pm
Registration starts 8:30am
Novotel Surfers Paradise
3105 Surfers Paradise Blvd
Surfers Paradise QLD 4217

Hobart – 9th March
9:00am to 5:00pm
Registration starts 8:30am
Grand Chancellor Hotel
1 Davey Street
Hobart TAS 7000

Register here

I hope to see you there.

Need to Know Podcast–Episode 131

Some news and opinions to start the show from Marc and I. We discuss some of the new learning offerings from Microsoft and why they are so important for IT Professionals to use to upskill the knowledge. We then dive into another discussion with a Microsoft Ignite Australia presenter, Elaine van Bergen whose topics are:

How to build a modern portal with Office 365 and on premises data

See how you can build a modern portal on Azure PaaS by leveraging the API’s and out of the box elements available from Office 365. We’ll showcase a modern portal on Office 365 including use of the Graph API, Office 365 Groups, OneDrive and the Video Portal all combined into a compelling and responsive design with full level of control over customisation. Also we’ll discuss options for utilising the SharePoint framework for smaller customisations and how elements of the solution can be integrated with on-premises data via Azure Hybrid Connections.

Deploying and governing Office 365 Groups

Office 365 Groups is one of the best ways to get wide adoption and usage of Office 365. It’s a fundamental building block of many of the newer features of Office 365 including Planner. Explore how to get Office 365 Groups deployed and setup and how to do this with the most common Hybrid setups of Exchange. In addition, we will also go through the various governance and control options to help keep groups well controlled in a large organisation. Finally, we will briefly cover the API’s that can be used to pull Office 365 Groups into custom solutions.

Don’t forget to send us your feedback at feedback@needtoknow.cloud

You can listen to this episode directly at:

https://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-131-elaine-van-bergen/

or on Soundcloud here:

Subscribe via iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send us any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show.

Resources

Microsoft teams gains steam

Flow updates

Why developers (And IT pros) need Azure skills

Microsoft OpenEdX

CIAOPS Need to know Webinar–February 2017

Our next webinar of 2017 is now ready for registrations. As always, the event is free to attend and provides you with the latest news around Office 365 and the Microsoft Cloud as well as deep dive into a particular topic. This month we are going to have a close look at the relationship between Office 365 and Azure to give you a better idea of how the products work together and how you can take advantage of both in your business.

You can register now at:

February Webinar Registration

The details are:

CIAOPS Need to Know Webinar – February 2017
Thursday 16th of February 2017
11am – 12am Sydney Time

All sessions are recorded and posted to the CIAOPS Academy.

There of course will also be open Q and A so make sure you bring your questions for me and I’ll do my best to answer them.

The CIAOPS Need to Know Webinars are free to attend but if you want to receive the recording of the session you need to sign up as a CIAOPS patron (for only USD$10 per month) which you can do here:

https://www.patreon.com/ciaops

or purchase them individually at:

http://www.ciaopsacademy.com/

Also feel free at any stage to email me directly via director@ciaops.com with your webinar topic suggestions.

I’d also appreciate you sharing information about this webinar with anyone you feel may benefit from the session.

Need to Know Podcast–Episode 130

Marc and I have some brief news and cloud updates for you and then we are straight into our guest for this episode. I speak with MVP Alan Burchill all about his upcoming Microsoft Ignite presentations:

Using Edge in the Enterprise

Microsoft Edge is one of the most secure and web standards compatible browsers on the market. See how the new management features in Windows 10 can help IT Professional to provide support for legacy web sites while still allowing users to access web sites with the latest web standards.

Don’t forget to send us your feedback at feedback@needtoknow.cloud

You can listen to this episode directly at:

https://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-130-alan-burchill/

or on Soundcloud here:

Subscribe via iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send us any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show.

Resources

Office 365 German datacenters

Microsoft tech days online

Microsoft tech summit – Birmingham

Need to Know Podcast–Episode 129

Marc and I give our usual Office 365 and Azure update. We then speak with John Liu about his upcoming presentation at Microsoft Ignite Australia:

Serverless in Office 365 – Build Services with Azure Functions

There was a time when it was the good old days – we ran SharePoint on-premises, and business always wanted more customizations, and so we built them and delivered great value. Now, it seems as everything is moving towards Office 365, and there are fewer and fewer customizations we can do. To the business, it seems more and more we have to say no – we can’t do that. Code has to run somewhere. Suddenly, we are in the realm of hosting our own webjob, we may even have to find or buy a VM. We are left to wonder if we need to learn Docker too. Thank goodness – in 2016 we saw the rise of a new buzzword #Serverless – it promises a solution to many of these problems and lets us focus on what we do best again – creating solutions. Without having to worry so much about where or how to run it. This session is about introducing Azure Functions, and various amazing scenarios we can apply it to SharePoint and Office 365. Whether you are a new, veteran or even front-end developer, or if you are an IT Pro well versed in Powershell. This session is for you.

Don’t forget to send us your feedback at feedback@needtoknow.cloud

You can listen to this episode directly at:

https://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-129-john-liu/

or on Souncloud here:

Subscribe via iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send us any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show.

Resources

Microsoft Cloud run rate

OneDrive and Officelens updates

Dynamics 365 roadmap

Need to Know Podcast–Episode 128

Marc and I are joined by a returning guest to talk all about her upcoming Microsoft Ignite Australia presentations. Sonia Cuff gives us the low down on what to expect with the following two sessions she is presenting:

Making SaaS part of your IT Strategy

With the business pushing for SaaS apps, why are we saying no? Can you balance an in-house infrastructure under strict controls & policies with a business reliance on an outsourced, uncontrolled solution? We’ll look at how to enable the business while still protecting them and how to keep your sanity.

and

The CEO reviewed your project & you won;t believe what happened next

Your budget was agreed. A reasonable timeframe was achieved. The implementation went smoothly. So why is the business still unhappy? You’ll learn why Digital Transformation is more than just technology deployment. We’ll show you what successful Digital Transformation looks like to the CEO & how you can ensure your IT work really is enabling people to achieve more. Find out some of the practical tools that Microsoft provides that can help you navigate this conversation with your executive stakeholders.

There is also the latest Office 365 and Azure news and don’t forget to send us your feedback at feedback@needtoknow.cloud

You can listen to this episode directly at:

https://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-128-sonia-cuff/

or on Soundcloud here:

Subscribe via iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send us any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show.

Resources

Azure Active Directory meets Power BI

Office 365 planned service changes

Cloud platform roadmap

The Missing Chair: http://themissingchair.com.au/

Personal website: http://soniacuff.com

MS Ignite Session: Making SaaS part of your IT Strategy https://msftignite.com.au/sessions/session-details/2209/making-saas-part-of-your-it-strategy-

MS Ignite Session: The CEO reviewed your project & you won’t believe what happened next … https://msftignite.com.au/sessions/session-details/2320/the-ceo-reviewed-your-project-you-wont-believe-what-happened-next-

Microsoft FastTrack: https://fasttrack.microsoft.com/

Sharing files with external users using OneDrive for Business

Here’s a bright shiny new video detailing how to share files with external users from OneDrive for Business. You’ll see how to share with external users via email address and via a direct URL. Nice and easy.

If you wish to share with external users via email (i.e. they have to actually login to view the document), then they’ll need a free Microsoft account which they may already have or can easily set up using their own email address.

If you wish to share the document without the need for a login you can also do that easily via OneDrive for Business.

Sharing your files via OneDrive for Business means that you retain the source and control of the files. It also means there is a single point of truth when it comes to the document. That alone is worth using OneDrive for Business to share personal business documents.

Office 2013 via Office 365 is going away

A key date that is fast approaching is the removal of availability and support of Office 2013 from the Office 365 portal. As detailed here:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/skywriter/2017/01/19/office-365-planned-service-changes-2017/

Office 2016 is the recommended version of Office 365 ProPlus and includes all the latest upgrades and new features. As we announced in September 2015, when we released Office 2016, beginning March 1, 2017, the Office 2013 version of Office 365 ProPlus will no longer be available for installation from the Office 365 portal. Beginning March 1, 2017, your users will no longer see Office 2013 as an option for download through the Office 365 portal, and admins will no longer have the option under Software download settings in the admin portal to choose to enable Office 2013. In addition, we will no longer provide feature updates for this version, nor provide support.

The requirement to upgrade an old version of Office on the desktop has been detailed previously and I detailed it here:

Questions about Office 2016 via Office 365

Probably the major point with Office 2016 is that it doesn’t support connection to Exchange 2007. This is typically going to affect those users still running SBS 2008, so you have been warned.

Part of the subscription features of Office 365 means that subscribers have access to the latest software. They should now ensure that they have upgraded any previous versions to the latest that Office 365 offers.

As mentioned in my article, users have 12 months from the release date of new software to upgrade to the latest version of the software. Failing to do so will result in their current version going into ‘reduced functionality mode’ where they can only carry out basic functions such as as read and open.

If a user has Office 2013 from Office 365 they will not be upgraded automatically, they will need to install the software manually. For answers to more questions about Office from Office 365 I urge your to read the above articles and make the change over as soon as possible.