CIAOPS

SkyDrive Pro client now available for free

2013-05-22T09:36:00.001+10:00

In an not unexpected move Microsoft has just release the SkyDrive Pro client as a free download. You can find it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39050

Previously, as I have detailed in this blog, the only way that you could obtain the client app was by installing Office 2013 Pro Plus.

This is GREAT news as it makes SharePoint SkyDrive so much easier and available for all users! The SkyDrive Pro client app although now free is still only available for current Windows PC’s but I would expect you’ll see versions for other platforms available very, very soon. So stay tuned to this blog for updates!

Thank you Microsoft.

Typically Google

2013-05-20T16:26:00.001+10:00

Before I launch into this tirade I will tell you that I use and like many of the Google products but this sort of experience is typical of what happens when issues do arise with Google services.

If you read “In the Plex” by Steven Levy you’ll learn that Google’s focus is on engineering better products rather than providing support. Their philosophy is that '”users help users”. That works most of the time but sometimes it would really handy to actually get through a real life human being rather than just a python script.

Case in point. I want to sell my eBooks via the Google Play store. so I visit the Google books partner login at:

https://books.google.com/partner

This presents me with the following blank page:

If I click the Contact Us links I am greeted by:

So now where do I go? Only option seems to go “Googling” for an answer and I REALLY shouldn’t have to do that now SHOULD I?

If someone else out there know what I can do to get my eBooks listed on the Google Play store I’m ALL EARS!

Desktop to Cloud Day a success

2013-05-20T10:43:00.001+10:00

I am happy to announce that the CIAOPS Desktop to Cloud day 2013 was a resounding success. Attendees were able to choose from two tracts with 5 sessions in each as well as a panel discussion to end the day.

The average approval for all the sessions by attendees was over 85% which is fantastic!

Some of the feedback received also included:

- Very relevant information

- Presenter knows their stuff

- Excellent presenter

I take this opportunity to thank the presenters:

Andrew McMurray

Jeff Alexander

Mark O’Shea

Leon Tribe

Ishai Sagi

Dean Calvert

Abi Vickram

for their time not only presenting but preparing for the day.

Of course a big thank you goes to everyone who turned up on a Saturday to attend. I hope you got value for your time and enjoyed networking with your peers and the presenters. I’ll make the slide decks available soon for attendees but until then I hope to see you at an upcoming CIAOPS Desktop to Cloud event.

Office 365 email data at rest now encrypted

2013-05-17T14:46:00.001+10:00

A while back I wrote a blog post about how I’d found that Office 365 data at rest was not encrypted. However, according to this newly released document:

Security in Office 365 White paper - http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=26552

It says:

Encrypted Data

Customer data in Office 365 exists in two states: at rest on storage media and in transit from datacenter over a network to a customer device. All email content is encrypted on disk using BitLocker 256-bit AES Encryption. Protection covers all disks on mailbox servers and includes mailbox database files, mailbox transaction log files, search content index files, transport database files, transport transaction log files, and page file OS system disk tracing/message tracking logs.

So it now appears that Microsoft has implemented an additional level of security on client’s data, which is great news! Now if they could only do the same for SharePoint, but I am sure it is coming soon.

Image - http://www.cnmeonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/encryption2.jpg

Outlook Web App browser offline settings

2013-05-17T14:07:00.001+10:00

One of the things you can now do with the version of Outlook via a browser (Outlook Web App) is actually take it offline in a browser. All the details can be found here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/support/using-outlook-web-app-offline-HA102828007.aspx

However to enable all you basically need to do is open your Outlook Web Access

In top right of the window select the cog icon.

From the menu that appears select Offline Settings.

Then simply select Turn on offline access.

What else do I need to know (from article)?

Offline access may not make all of your email and calendar information available offline. Some of the available features and limitations are:

The last few days of messages. Supported folders include Inbox, Drafts, and any folders viewed within the last few days, up to 20 folders. If you’ve viewed more than 20 folders in the last few days, the most recent 18 plus Inbox and Drafts will be available.
In each folder that’s available offline, you will see three days of content, or 150 items, whichever is larger.
Attachments aren’t available when offline.
The previous month and future year of your calendar.
A limited set of upcoming calendar reminders. If you’re offline for a long period of time, calendar reminders will stop working until you go online and Outlook Web App can download current information.
Only your primary Calendar will be available offline.
All the items in your Contacts folder, plus any people that you email often and any that you’ve emailed recently.
Offline access doesn’t include archived folders, Team folders, tasks, or Favorites.
You can’t search for or sort items in your mailbox when offline, and the built-in filters won’t work when you’re offline.

You have to enable offline access on each computer that you want to be able to use Outlook Web App on when not connected to a network.

Offline access for Outlook Web App is designed for portable computers such as laptops and notebooks. It can't be enabled in browsers on smaller devices, such as tablets and smartphones.

Your web browser determines where on your computer the offline information is stored and how much space it can use. If your offline information won’t fit in the space that’s been set aside, you may be prompted to increase it. If the space can’t be increased, less of your information will be available when you’re offline.

Office 2013 Quick start guides

2013-05-17T13:07:00.001+10:00

Here a range of quick start guides for the latest version of Office (2013) from Microsoft. Each is in PDF format and free to download.

You can access all the guides from:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/office-2013-quick-start-guides-HA103673669.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA103673689

CIAOPS Podcast–Episode 52

2013-05-15T16:15:00.001+10:00

In this podcast Mitch Garvis about Windows Intune.

You can listen to this podcast and subscribe to the series at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/2013/05/15/episode-51-mitch-garvis/

You can support this podcast via http://donation.ciaops.com

Don't forget all the other previous podcasts at

http://ciaops.podbean.com

and appreciate a like over at

http://www.facebook.com/n2kpodcast.

Remember if you want to be a guest please contact me (director@ciaops.com).

Copying files to SharePoint using Explorer

2013-05-15T10:58:00.001+10:00

The most thing that people want to do with SharePoint is to copy files. This video shows you how to achieve that by using Windows Explorer. Simply and easy

Desktop to Cloud day this Saturday

2013-05-15T10:15:00.001+10:00

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

2013-05-14T19:42:00.001+10:00

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:

Amsterdam, NL: http://trippams.online.lync.com
Blue Ridge, VA: http://trippbl2.online.lync.com
Dublin, IE: http://trippdb3.online.lync.com
Hong Kong: http://tripphkn.online.lync.com
San Antonio, TX: http://trippsn2.online.lync.com
Singapore: http://trippsg1.online.lync.com

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

2013-05-14T15:37:00.001+10:00

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

2013-05-13T14:46:00.001+10:00

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).

Image: http://www.alectricsa.com.au/images/Australian-Cash-424x283.jpg

A beginner’s guide to SharePoint Online

2013-05-13T14:06:00.001+10:00

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

2013-05-10T14:43:00.001+10:00

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.

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

So at the prompt type:

import-module microsoft.online.sharepoint.powershell

that should result in the above warning.

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.

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://<yourtenant>-admin.sharepoint.com –credential $cred

in my case this was:

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

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?

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

2013-05-08T09:57:00.001+10:00

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.

Image - http://8tracks.com/nisher/exam-cram-ii

Clever Windows Phone ad

2013-05-06T13:02:00.001+10:00

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.

Office 2013 bulk deployments from Office 365

2013-05-03T15:44:00.001+10:00

I wrote a post a while back on doing bulk deployments of Office 2013 from Office 365. since then Microsoft has released an Office Deployment Tool for Click to Run which you can find at:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778

Once you have downloaded and installed the tool you can run the setup executable with a number of parameters like:

C:\download>setup /?

Usage:
SETUP mode [path to configuration file]

SETUP /DOWNLOAD [path to configuration file]
SETUP /CONFIGURE [path to configuration file]
SETUP /PACKAGER [path to configuration file] [output path]
/DOWNLOAD Downloads files to create an Office15 installation source
/CONFIGURE Adds, removes, or configures an Office15 installation
/PACKAGER Produces an Office App-V package from an Office installation source

This allows you to download a complete copy of Office 2013 that can then be deployed across a network. Here’s an article on how to do just that:

Download click-to-run for Office 365 products by using the Office Deployment tool - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219424

You can even go further than this by using the configuration.xml file to customize both downloads and deployments. The reference for this file is at:

Click to run configuration.xml reference - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426

It is great to see Microsoft making the bulk deployment of Office 2013 from Office 365 easier for IT Professionals.

Office 365 and SharePoint Guide turns five

2013-05-02T23:04:00.001+10:00

I am proud to announce that the CIAOPS Office 365 and SharePoint Guide has reached it fifth birthday!

So what is it? The Guide is a collection of technical and training material on all aspects Office 365 and SharePoint. It contains, documents, videos, OneNote notebooks, links and more all accessed via a SharePoint portal. At last count there was over 9 hours of videos and 1,500 pages of documentation, all of which is updated monthly with new and additional content.

In the Guide you will find things like:

- Study and preparation material for the 74-324 Administering Office 365 for SMB exam.

- Every CIAOPS publication

- Learning tracks to help you get up to speed on the products

- so much more

Guide subscribers also receive discounts on other CIAOPS items such as:

- Bootcamps / Training

- Consultation

So what do some of subscribers say?

I just thought I'd add my accolades to Robert Crane's guide and remind all our members that Robert's wealth of knowledge in all things cloud, experience and willingness to help is unmeasurable. All the useful tips in one place. Why wouldn't you spend the $299 to subscribe to the guide? – Mike Hatfield (HIT)

"I can truly credit Robert for his training day and his SharePoint Guide (which includes Office 365 notes and information on the exams we require to continue or certification with Microsoft). I managed to pass with the highest score I have ever achieved in a Microsoft exam (900+)" - ( Rod Arthur, LAN Creation )

I also take this opportunity to thank every single subscriber for their support of my business but I’d especially like to thank my foundation subscribers who have been with me from the start. Without your faith in me this product would not be what it is today.

Special Birthday offer

Therefore to celebrate the Guide reaching the five year milestone I am going to make the following offer to every new subscriber during May 2013:

- Receive 10% off the normal purchase price of AU$299. Use the offer code 5YEARSNOW at checkout.

- Receive up to 1 hours remote consultation/training session free in a single session available until 30 June 2013 (Valued at > AU$200).

For ANY existing Guide subscriber, in recognition of their continued support, I will offer during May 2013:

- Up to 1 hours remote consultation/training session free in a single session available until 30 June 2013 (Valued at > AU$200).

Finally to ANYONE who recommends my Guide to someone who takes up a new subscription during May 2013 I will offer:

- 10% commission of the retail price (i.e. AU$29.90) for every converted referral. Thus, if you make 2 converted referrals you’ll receive AU$59.80, 3 referrals AU$89.70, etc, etc.

This applies ONLY until the end of May 2013 and don’t forget that the Guide is undated every month and includes all existing CIAOPS publications.

For more information about the Guide and to subscribe visit:

http://www.wssops.com

Once again, I thank all subscribers for their support of my business and I look forward to adding even more content in the coming year.

Image - http://www.myveronanj.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Happy-Birthday-60.jpg

CIAOPS Podcast–Episode 51

2013-04-30T21:36:00.001+10:00

In this podcast Ryan Phillips, a Technical Account Manager (TAM) in the Microsoft Online Services Division, will discuss how Office 365 can be used, in concert with certain applications, components, etc. to properly scope, plan, deploy and use Synchronization and Single Sign-On (SSO) services to provide end-users with the best login and usage experience. Ryan will discuss specifics around Directory Synchronization, Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), differences between Online (Managed) users versus Federated Users and how end-users will experience sign-on into Office 365 services, such as the Microsoft Online Portal (MPO), SharePoint Online (SPO), Exchange Online (EXO) and other services.

You’ll also learn about the new version of DirSync coming soon that will allow password synchronization from a local network to Office 365!

You can listen to this podcast and subscribe to the series at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/2013/04/30/episode-51-ryan-phillips/

You can support this podcast via http://donation.ciaops.com

Don't forget all the other previous podcasts at

http://ciaops.podbean.com

and appreciate a like over at

http://www.facebook.com/n2kpodcast.

Remember if you want to be a guest please contact me (director@ciaops.com).

May their memory live on

2013-04-26T00:02:00.001+10:00

On every April 25 Australians and New Zealanders pause to remember those who have served their country. Some have paid the ultimate price, while others continue to bear the scars. To them and those that continue to serve our nations and put their themselves in harms ways we simply say – Thank You.

For anyone interested in the history of the ANZAC soldiers after their Gallipoli campaign I commend my site:

www.anzacsinfrance.com

as a great way to appreciate the major contribution these troops made to the war on the western front.

Additional SharePoint space for M and P plans not available yet

2013-04-22T17:43:00.001+10:00

One of the really great additions to Wave 15 Office 365 SharePoint for all plans was the ability to add more SharePoint space beyond what you receive allocated per user. Where did I get that from? Here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/office365-sharepoint-online-enterprise-help/sharepoint-online-software-boundaries-and-limits-HA102694293.aspx

Having just revisited that page after speaking with another reseller who had issues attempting to add space I note the above page says the following for P plans:

Additional storage for Small Business plans is not yet available.

and M plans:

Additional storage for Midsize Business plans is not yet available.

Problem for the reseller is that their customer needed greater space than the default and being told that it could be added went down the M plan route for the customer because of the cost savings over an E3 plan. Trouble is now that they need the additional SharePoint space and it can’t be added ‘yet’. That didn’t sit well with the customer or the reseller as the only option available with the space is an E3 plan and migrating from an M plan is not a simple upgrade of plans.

I am seeing a lot of confusion around what each plan does and doesn’t include. My recommendation is always E plans due to their flexibility. I would also recommend that if you go with either P or M plans check VERY carefully as to whether it exactly fits your needs now and into the future. Don’t rely on someone else, check it for yourself to avoid situation like the above.

CIAOPS Podcast–Episode 50

2013-04-20T12:03:00.001+10:00

The CIAOPS podcast has now reached a milestone, 50 episodes! Who would have ever thought? And for such a special occasion we need to have a special guest and we have, SBS Diva Susan Bradley joins us again. Susan speaks about the challenges of compliance with technology and especially in the new world of cloud computing.

http://ciaops.podbean.com/2013/04/16/episode-50-susan-bradley/

You can support this podcast via http://donation.ciaops.com

Don't forget all the other previous 49 podcasts at http://ciaops.podbean.com and appreciate a like over at http://www.facebook.com/n2kpodcast.

Remember if you want to be a guest please contact me (director@ciaops.com).

Show notes:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/business/office-365-security-and-privacy-verified-by-a-third-party-FX103089231.aspx

http://certification.comptia.org/getCertified/certifications/security.aspx

https://www.isc2.org/cissp/default.aspx

http://www.guidancesoftware.com/computer-forensics-training-courses.htm

http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR933.html

https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/

https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/topthreats/csathreats.v1.0.pdf

https://downloads.cloudsecurityalliance.org/initiatives/top_threats/The_Notorious_Nine_Cloud_Computing_Top_Threats_in_2013.pdf

Cloud Computing Risk Assessment

https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/risk-management/files/deliverables/cloud-computing-risk-assessment

Cloud Computing Information Assurance Framework https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/risk-management/files/deliverables/cloud-computing-information-assurance-framework

Procure Secure: A guide to monitoring of security service levels in cloud contracts https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience-and-CIIP/cloud-computing/procure-secure-a-guide-to-monitoring-of-security-service-levels-in-cloud-contracts

Just to add that ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) has some excellent material for free;

Cloud Computing Risk Assessment

https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/risk-management/files/deliverables/cloud-computing-risk-assessment

Cloud Computing Information Assurance Framework

https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/risk-management/files/deliverables/cloud-computing-information-assurance-framework

Procure Secure: A guide to monitoring of security service levels in cloud contracts

https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience-and-CIIP/cloud-computing/procure-secure-a-guide-to-monitoring-of-security-service-levels-in-cloud-contracts

ALSO, RAND did a decent cloud security / trust overview ...

http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR933.html

AND As these guys are good too, great organization... recent papers on top security threats..

https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/

https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/topthreats/csathreats.v1.0.pdf

https://downloads.cloudsecurityalliance.org/initiatives/top_threats/The_Notorious_Nine_Cloud_Computing_Top_Threats_in_2013.pdf

http://www.verizonenterprise.com/DBIR/2012/

http://governmentcio.com/content/going-all-cloud-computing

Office 365 SharePoint Administration requires a license

2013-04-18T15:20:00.001+10:00

One of the misconceptions I see is that people believe you need to assign every Office 365 user a license. It has been best practice to create an Office 365 global administrator assign them no license and then use that user to configure and manage Office 365. You can create as many of these ‘admin’ users as you want generally as they don’t consume a license.

I just tried that with the latest version of Office 365.

So I created a user called Tech Support and made them a global admin as shown above.

I then didn’t assign any licenses as shown above.

If I then login as the admin user I can go to Exchange Online administration as shown above.

I can also go to Lync Online administration, again as shown above.

But when I go to SharePoint Online administration I see the above error. I tried to add that Tech Support user as a site collection owner and that didn’t work either.

As soon as a assign a SharePoint Online license to that user as shown above,

I can access SharePoint administration.

So it would seem that to administer SharePoint Online I need to assign the user a SharePoint license but I don’t have to do the same for either Exchange or Lync Online?

That’s a little strange to my mind. I hope I’ve overlooked something obvious in all this.

Little work gets done at work

2013-04-15T00:39:00.001+10:00

I am lucky that in my office of one I can totally control my work environment, yet am constantly attempting to strive for improved productivity. I really want to end each work day with the satisfaction that ‘I got something done’.

The occasional times that I do work at someone else’s office I am stunned by how little work actually gets done. Everyone seems so ‘busy’ but nothing really gets accomplished. If you are curious about this then I recommend the following TED talk by Jason Fried.

For those who are not frequent readers of my blog you may not appreciate that Jason is also the author of what I consider to be one of the ‘must read’ books on business – Rework. You can find my review and more about Jason and his concepts of ‘work’ here:

http://blog.ciaops.com/2010/07/rework.html

If you struggle getting ‘real work’ done every day, simply feel overwhelmed and fail to find fulfilment at the end of each work day then I commend to you the above video, book and additional information about Jason.

Bulk Office 2013 installations from Office 365

2013-04-13T23:58:00.001+10:00

Here’s some interesting issues that I came across with Office 2013 from Office 365. What happens in the case where you have a lot of PC’s which already have a previous version of Office (say 2010 in this case) already running Outlook connected to an old email account and you want to upgrade them all to Office 2013 with the latest version of Outlook?

I would have thought that the normal process you would do this via is simply to visit the downloads area in Office 365, download the Office 2013 software and upgrade the existing version on the desktop, retaining all the existing settings. At the very least I would have thought that it would have given you the option to do an upgrade or a side by side installation with the existing version of Office.

Turns out from my testing that this is in fact not the case. If you have an existing version of Office (in my test case Office 2010 Pro Plus) and you install Office 2013 office 365 it automatically does a side-by-side installation, leaving the existing version in place. This now means you have two versions of Office on that desktop.

Interestingly, it also means you have two versions of Outlook. This is a little different from the experience I blogged about a while back when I upgraded my desktop to Office 2013 via non-Office 365 means. I wanted two of every application including Outlook. What I got was two versions of everything EXCEPT Outlook! This Office 2013 via Office 365 installation is different in that it does provides two complete versions of everything on the system

Now, having two versions of most applications like Excel, Word, PowerPoint etc isn’t a big issue. The main issue is that by not doing an in place upgrade of Outlook means you have to manually re-establish the old email account and somehow migrate the emails into the new version. Not such an issue if the old account was already using Exchange, since the users mail is still stored on the server, but what about the case when the emails where POP3? All these emails are stored locally in a PST file in the OLD version of Outlook.

What I did find is that when I ran the new Outlook 2013 on the desktop it automatically picked up the account settings I had in the old Outlook (which were Exchange based) and set up Outlook 2013 using these. Thus, I could easily add the new Exchange Online account from Office 365 and see both accounts as shown above. With this I could simply drag and drop emails from the old account to the new account to do a migration if I wanted (although something like migrationwiz.com makes a lot more sense for Exchange accounts).

However, that doesn’t solve the problem for POP3 accounts. All you could really do is export to a PST in the old version of Outlook and then import this into Outlook 2013 and allow it to sync back to Exchange Online.

It would have been nice if Office 2013 from Office 365 had offered you the choice of doing an in place upgrade simply to save you the trouble of exporting old data and deleting the older version of Office. I am sure there is a reason why it doesn’t do this but I can’t think of why myself at the moment. However, when you have lots of machines to do in a network, with frustrated users standing over you wanting access to their stuff, that can take a very long time.

Now the next challenge with lots of machines is that you would appear to have to go to every machine and do the ‘click-to-run’ install of Office 2013 on each machine. Firstly, that is a lot of manual work and secondly that I believe creates a lot of downloads which can cause an issue if they are being done on multiple workstations at the same time.

It would be nice to be able to download a single copy of Office 2013 from Office 365 to a network share and then use that local copy to install on all workstations rather than running a download on each workstation.

Unfortunately, Office 365 uses the new streaming ‘click-to-run’ technology, which means no single download and install file. However, I believe I may have a solution.

Firstly visit the following site and download a trial of Office 2013 Pro Plus as a single download to a network share.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj192782.aspx

Install this trial onto all the machines on the network from the local file share.

If you run an Office 2013 application now and look at the information about the product you will see that it is a trial version as shown above.

Now downloading and running the installation of Office 2013 Pro Plus from Office 365 I believe that it updates the existing Office 2013 Pro Plus version it finds on the desktop so that it is licensed for Office 365. You can see this if you look at the application information again.

Looking at the application information in Outlook 2013 you will see that it is not only licensed for Office 365 but you can also manage the account by pressing the Manage Account button.

That button will take you to the area in Office 365 where you can manage the Office 2013 installation for that user.

So in summary, based on the testing I have done:

1. Office 2013 from Office 365 will do an automatic side-by-side installation with previous versions of Office rather than an in place upgrade which could have ramifications for migrating accounts.

2. You should be able to install a trial version of Office 2013 Pro Plus onto a network share and then simply run the Office 2013 installation from Office 365 over the top of it to appropriately license it, thereby saving downloads and setup time.