What’s New in Microsoft 365 | August 2023
August 28, 2023 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams 1. Group Policy Assignment Rank Assistance New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization Group policy assignment rank assistance information is available on the side panel, when the admin is creating a new group assignment. This doesn’t […]
What’s New in Microsoft 365 | July 2023 | Inspire Highlights
July 31, 2023 | Published by ShoaibMicrosoft Teams 1. Copilot in Microsoft Teams New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization Copilot in Teams Phone The introduction of Copilot makes Teams Phone the first leading UCaaS solution to add generative AI capabilities to phone calls. With this new capability, you can make and receive calls from your […]
What’s New in Microsoft 365 | June 2023
July 2, 2023 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams 1. Compact Chat List New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization Compact chat list is a feature addition that is coming to compact mode. Users in compact mode will now have hidden message previews in their chat […]
What’s New in Microsoft 365 | May 2023
May 29, 2023 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams 1. New Channels Experience New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization A new channels experience in Microsoft Teams has been built with an intuitive design that allows teams to focus and stay on tasks, bring everyone […]
What’s New in Microsoft 365 | April 2023
May 1, 2023 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams 1. Intelligent Meeting Recap New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization For users with a Teams Premium license, Intelligent Meeting Recap is a comprehensive AI-powered meeting recap experience that helps users catch-up, recall, and follow-up on […]
What’s New in Microsoft 365 | March 2023
March 27, 2023 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams 1. Green screen feature in Teams Meetings New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization Microsoft Teams will soon be releasing a new green screen feature for users. The virtual background with a green screen will provide an […]
What’s New in Microsoft 365 | February 2023
February 26, 2023 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams 1. Ultrasound Howling Detection in Teams Meetings New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization When a user wants to join a meeting that has other participants in it already that are physically in the same room, the […]
What’s New in Microsoft 365 | January 2023
January 29, 2023 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the latest feature updates coming to Microsoft 365 Microsoft Teams 1. Microsoft Teams Flyout Enhancements New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization App flyouts are contextual menus found throughout the Microsoft Teams experience that enable users to launch installed apps and to discover and install new apps […]
Microsoft December 2022 Updates
January 2, 2023 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from December Microsoft Teams 1. Virtual Appointment as a new Teams Meeting Template New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization A new Teams Meeting Template, Virtual Appointment, will be added as a new template type accessible from the ‘New meeting’ dropdown […]
Microsoft November 2022 Updates
December 1, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from November Microsoft Teams 1. Teams Premium-Advanced Virtual Appointments New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization The Virtual Appointments app in Microsoft Teams includes a comprehensive dashboard that provides a quick view of an employee’s schedule as integrated with Bookings. […]
Microsoft October 2022 Updates
October 29, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from October Microsoft Teams 1. Teams Premium New License × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization Introduction of new licensing model with Microsoft Teams that includes a wide range of new features. For the complete list see the following article: Introducing Microsoft […]
Microsoft September 2022 Updates
October 3, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from September Microsoft Teams 1. Cameo in PowerPoint Live New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization Cameo is a new PowerPoint experience that seamlessly integrates your Teams camera feed into your presentation, letting you customize how and where you want […]
Microsoft’s New Partner Program is bad news for the average MSP
September 13, 2022 | Published by ShoaibMicrosoft is making major changes to their partner program and it’s not looking good for most MSPs. Part of these updates includes eliminating Silver and Gold competencies in lieu of a single “Solutions Partner” designation. Microsoft is adding new growth metrics that make it unlikely for the average MSP to qualify for this new designation […]
Microsoft August 2022 Updates
September 1, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from August Microsoft Teams 1. Microsoft Teams Meeting Auto-Transcription New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization When the meeting organizer sets the Record automatically meeting option to On for a meeting, Transcription will now also be turned on with Recording when […]
Phased Rollout for Microsoft Information Protection
August 17, 2022 | Published by ShoaibIn previous blog posts, I have discussed the Azure Information Protection feature set with Microsoft Information protection. This feature set includes labeling and the AIP scanner you can run in an on-premise repository. I have some suggestions for your first 30, 60, and 90 days when rolling out this portion of Microsoft Information Protection. I personally […]
Microsoft July 2022 Updates
July 31, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from July Microsoft Teams 1. Shared Channels now Generally Available New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization Powered by B2B direct connect, shared channels provide the flexibility to collaborate with parties both inside and outside an organization and work effectively as […]
Microsoft June 2022 Updates
July 1, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from June Microsoft Teams 1. Meeting Chat Bubbles on iOS and Android New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization User will see chat bubbles for meeting messages on mobile. Users can turn them off temporarily in the current meeting by […]
Microsoft May 2022 Updates
May 30, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from May Microsoft Teams 1. Suggested Replies in Teams Desktop New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization Suggested Replies present users with an option of three responses to choose from for selected messages and is now available to your users in […]
A Brief History of Azure Rights Management
May 17, 2022 | Published by ShoaibMicrosoft has had some form of information protection in place over many years and if you have been a Microsoft user over that time, you may have some confusion because of all of the name changes and locations where this has existed within the admin experience. In this article, I wanted to briefly cover that history to demystify some of those changes Microsoft […]
Introduction to Microsoft Information Protection
May 7, 2022 | Published by ShoaibDigital data creation is exploding. This data is being stored and shared everywhere. Protecting important information across your digital estate, both in Microsoft’s cloud, on-premise, and in 3rd party apps is critical. Microsoft Information Protection is a comprehensive and integrated solution to help you discover, classify, label, and protect sensitive information within your organization. MIP includes many Information Protection and Governance solutions which help you solve […]
Microsoft April 2022 Updates
May 1, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from April Microsoft Teams 1. User requests for apps in Teams store New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization If there are blocked apps in your organization, the end-users will be able to find and request them in the app catalog. […]
Automating Safe Link/Safe Attachment reporting
April 22, 2022 | Published by ShoaibIn previous blog post, I have talked about best practices around Safe Links and Safe Attachments policies with Microsoft. Both of these policies are configurable if you have Defender for Office 365. Ultimately they provide pre-and post- email protection against malicious links or attachments that may get sent to a user. This type of protection […]
Best Practices for Safe Links Policies
April 10, 2022 | Published by ShoaibSafe Links policies are a powerful feature in Defender for Office 365. They allow you to leverage a virtual sandbox for URL scanning of inbound email messages in mail flow. This includes time of click verification of URLs and links in email messages as well as all of the Office apps. Safe Links is a great tool to leverage to defend against phishing attacks. In today’s article, I am going […]
Microsoft March 2022 Updates
March 30, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from March Microsoft Teams 1. Workflows in Teams app store for messaging New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization Workflows let you automate repetitive tasks or processes that connect one or more apps to Teams. In short, they can save you […]
Best Practices for Safe Attachment Policies
March 20, 2022 | Published by ShoaibSafe Attachment policies are a powerful feature in Defender for Office 365. They allow you to leverage a virtual sandbox to check attachments in inbound email message before they are delivered to the recipient. In addition, safe attachments also allow you to protect files in Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive so that users aren’t inadvertently sharing malicious […]
Intro of Defender for Office 365
March 12, 2022 | Published by ShoaibIn this article, I am going to be walking you through an introduction of Microsoft’s Defender for Office 365 which comes part of the Microsoft 365 Defender offerings. Defender for office 365 contains some of the following high level features: Real-Time Detection and Prevention against malware/phishing Automated Investigation and Response Threat Hunting Attack Simulation Training […]
Microsoft Defender Licensing Considerations
March 7, 2022 | Published by ShoaibMicrosoft has evolved the Microsoft 365 Defender products over time. The product line used to be known as Microsoft Defender Threat Protection and has since been rebranded. It is made up of the following offerings: Defender for Identity (hybrid identity security solution) Defender for Endpoint (EDR, AV) Defender for Office 365 (Anti-malware, anti-phishing) Cloud App […]
Microsoft February Updates
February 27, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from February Microsoft Teams 1. Chat Density New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization Customize the number of chat messages you see on the screen. Use the compact setting to fit 50 percent more messages on the screen. Comfortable setting keeps […]
Microsoft Defender Security Center
February 13, 2022 | Published by ShoaibMicrosoft recently announced that they are going to start to automatically redirect anyone going to the legacy “security and compliance admin center” to the newly rebranded Defender Security Center (located at security.microsoft.com). Microsoft Defender is an integrated experience of Microsoft’s suite of security services spanning Defender for Identity, Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, and […]
Reducing New Commerce Liability
February 10, 2022 | Published by ShoaibI think we can all agree that one of the largest concerns of New Commerce with Microsoft is liability. In this article, I wanted to provide you a simple formula that will help you decide whether or not to put customers on annual or monthly contracts as well as some guidance for the legal contracts […]
Microsoft January 2022 Updates
January 30, 2022 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from January Microsoft Teams 1. Walkie Talkie on iOS General Availability New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization With Walkie Talkie in Teams, employees can now securely communicate with a familiar push-to-talk (PTT) experience without needing to carry bulky radios. […]
Setting Up App Registrations
January 23, 2022 | Published by ShoaibCreating an app registration in Azure AD is extremely powerful. As an MSP it allows you to create a headless connection to all of the customers in your Partner Center. When I say headless, I mean that you can connect to PowerShell across all of your customers, without having to sign in to authenticate. Instead, we are using a token-based architecture to create a secure […]
Automating PowerShell workloads with Azure Functions
January 14, 2022 | Published by ShoaibAs we continue to push environments to the cloud, running powershell as a scheduled task on a server is quickly going to become outdated and inefficient. Azure Functions in Microsoft’s Azure Cloud are the next iteration of running scheduled or triggered powershell jobs in your customer environments. Azure Functions allow you to connect to all […]
Microsoft December 2021 Updates
December 31, 2021 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from December Microsoft Teams 1. Configure your activity feed notifications New Feature × Dismiss this alert. How this will affect your organization Users will be able to control the type of notifications that appear in their activity feed. Right click on the feed item, and […]
Running Powershell Reports for All Customers
December 21, 2021 | Published by ShoaibIn a previous article, I showed you how to create an app registration in Azure AD. App registrations have a wide variety of use cases but one of the most powerful for MSPs is being able to run powershell across all customers under management. In this article, I am going to show you how to […]
Microsoft Defender coming soon to Business Premium
December 10, 2021 | Published by ShoaibRecently, Microsoft has announced a fork of the Defender for Endpoint offering into two plans. Defender for Endpoint has traditionally been an enterprise grade solution and only included in higher level plans such as E5. Over the past few years Microsoft has made this a standalone offering that could be bolted on to other plans […]
Microsoft November 2021 Updates
December 1, 2021 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from November. Microsoft Admin 1. New Commerce Updates Billing Impact × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization Microsoft will launch introductory promotional pricing for CSP seat-based offers, providing more time for customer transitions to new commerce. Originally scheduled for October 14, 2021, the […]
Understanding Microsoft’s MFA
November 22, 2021 | Published by ShoaibOver the years, Microsoft has evolved the enforcement of multi-factor authentication into various sections of the application. These changes are making it confusing as an admin to know where to go to see a report of MFA adoption. In this article, we will cover the various methods of MFA enrollment and provide a script that you can use to report […]
AVD vs Windows 365
November 15, 2021 | Published by ShoaibWith the introduction of Windows 365 Cloud PC at Microsoft Inspire, there are now two Desktop-as-a-Service offerings from Microsoft. Azure Virtual Desktop has certainly gained a ton of adoption from COVID and many are wondering if Cloud PC will be a more attractive offering. In this article, I will be breaking down what I consider […]
Registering for Microsoft Incentives
November 8, 2021 | Published by ShoaibIncentives Overview Many MSPs do not know that you are potentially eligible for hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars in monthly rebates from your customer spend. Microsoft’s Partner Program provides licensing, rebates, and co-op funds to partners who obtain a Silver or Gold Membership. These memberships come at an annual fee but in some cases, […]
Microsoft October 2021 Updates
October 31, 2021 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from October. Microsoft Teams 1. View Switcher- a new dedicated menu of view options in Teams Meetings New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization: This new feature will place all of the view related options that are found in Teams Meetings […]
Securing Azure Active Directory
October 30, 2021 | Published by ShoaibHaving checklist for security is becoming more and more important as you onboard customers. In this article, I will provide a list of security tips to harden Azure AD Environments. Enable MFA You should enable MFA for all of your user accounts because a breach of any of those accounts can lead to a breach […]
Conditional Access GPS-Based Named Locations
October 25, 2021 | Published by ShoaibWhen I think about today’s remote workforce for MSPs (Managed Service Providers), conditional access policies can be incredibly useful in securing client environments. VPNs are being used now more than ever to connect securely to corporate resources. For this reason, using IP ranges as a named location in conditional access polices might not be the […]
4 Major Benefits of Labeling with Microsoft Information Protection
October 18, 2021 | Published by ShoaibIn this article I will be covering some of the key benefits of Microsoft Information Protection. Microsoft Information Protection encompasses many different solutions but the benefits I will be reflecting on today focus in on labeling and document classification. Key Benefits Discover Sensitive Data It today’s current landscape, its extremely hard as an organization to say that it knows where all it’s data resides and that […]
Azure AD Cloud Sync
October 18, 2021 | Published by ShoaibIf you are an MSP in the SMB market, you are likely are running a hybrid environment with most of your customers. We have used AD Connect for years now (previously known as DirSync) to sync local active directory into our cloud environments. I’ve personally performed over 100 email migrations and it was something I […]
Microsoft Partner Program for MSPs
October 7, 2021 | Published by ShoaibPartner Program Overview If you are an MSP doing at least $3500/month (4,680 AUD) in gross revenue from Microsoft, then you should keep reading. Not many MSPs are taking the full advantage of Microsoft’s partner program. The program can be lucrative but is hard to navigate because of the rebate structure and the enrollment process. […]
Microsoft September 2021 Updates
September 30, 2021 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from September. Microsoft Teams 1. Content from camera now launched in Teams New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization: This option enables users to stream content from directly from physical artefacts such as whiteboards and documents in a legible way. During […]
Microsoft Teams Webinars
September 19, 2021 | Published by ShoaibMicrosoft recently introduced webinars into Teams which allows users to create a registration page for an event. The event is conducted in a live session and allows for interaction with the audience. In this article, I will be covering some of the features, functionality, and licensing constraints I found through testing. This will include how […]
5 Tips for Securing Microsoft Teams
September 11, 2021 | Published by ShoaibMicrosoft Teams adoption has skyrocketed over the past year. This may seem like an obvious statement but I don’t just mean chat and video capabilities. Teams is becoming the central hub to interact with apps, share files, and perform daily tasks with members inside and outside the organization. Microsoft is putting the most development effort […]
Microsoft August 2021 Updates
September 1, 2021 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from August Microsoft Teams 1. Paging in Large Gallery New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization: This feature introduces paging to help you view up to 98 videos by choosing Large Gallery (Teams meetings currently supports up to 49 videos). This […]
Microsoft 365 Lighthouse Overview
August 19, 2021 | Published by ShoaibMicrosoft has recently released a multi-tenant management platform for Managed Service Providers called Microsoft 365 Lighthouse. As an Indirect Reseller with Microsoft, you can utilize Lighthouse at no additional cost. The platform provides you aggregate reporting across customers and limited write capabilities (for now). In this article, I will show you how to obtain Lighthouse […]
Shipment Tracking in Gorelo
August 4, 2021 | Published by ShoaibTracking shipments of hardware across customers can be a very time consuming task. With the rise of remote work, many MSPs are shipping hardware directly to end users. Leveraging Windows Autopilot, the onboarding of users becomes a very modern experience. Wouldn’t it be nice to automate shipping updates in tickets to avoid having to look […]
Microsoft July Updates
July 30, 2021 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from July. Microsoft Teams 1. Releasing Fluid Live components in Teams Chat New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization: Fluid components in Teams chat allow end users to send a message with a table, action items, or a list that can […]
Microsoft June 2021 Updates
June 28, 2021 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from June. Microsoft Teams 1. Chat Bubbles New Feature × Dismiss alert How this will affect your organization: Chat has become a lively space for conversation and idea-sharing and offers an option for people to participate in the discussion without having to jump in verbally. […]
Microsoft May 2021 Updates
May 31, 2021 | Published by ShoaibBelow are all of the relevant MSP related Microsoft announcements from May. Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams: Profile menu update, relocating profile menu links to a new menu in the title bar How this will affect your organization: The Me Menu will be focused on account management, where users can switch to another account or tenant […]
Guide to Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) for Tech Companies
April 21, 2021 | Published by ShoaibWhile they’ve been around for a couple of years, progressive web apps (PWAs) are among the newest in-things in IT today. Not only do they allow developers to reach various online platforms, they are also a good tool for enhancing user experience (UX). So, what’s the buzz surrounding PWAs? Progressive Web Apps Consider an app […]
Basics and Benefits of Single Sign-On Authentication (SSO)
March 17, 2021 | Published by ShoaibSecure framework should be a primary concern for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). As reported in 2019, many MSPs were victims of hacker invasions. According to an article on CSO, MSPs suffered irrevocable loss and subsequently their clients’ networks were also compromised. True to what the article states, MSPs are prone to such attacks and breach […]
Compiling latest Redis on WSL2
February 12, 2021 | Published by ShoaibWe have been using Redis on our windows workstations for some time now. It just works. If you are in the mood to get something done, your best options are: Download an MSI from here: https://github.com/microsoftarchive/redis/releases Use your distro package installer (apt in this case) sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get upgradesudo apt-get install redis-server Let’s go […]