John Policelli's Blog

Configuring Lync Server 2010 for Large Meetings

John Policelli — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:11:43 +0000

Did you know that Lync Server 2010 can support meetings with up to 1,000 participants using audio/video conferencing, including sharing PowerPoint presentations? Microsoft has released a white paper that describes how to support large meetings using a dedicated Lync Server 2010 pool. The white paper can be downloaded here.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010: Access the Address Book with Ease TechNet Magazine Article Published

John Policelli — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:22:22 +0000

One of the real benefits of Microsoft Lync Server is the seamless manner in which you can access the updated address book from any device. Published in the February 2012 issue of Microsoft TechNet Magazine. The article can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/magazine/hh824722.aspx.

Security Compliance Manager (SCM) 2.5 Beta Released

John Policelli — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:27:45 +0000

Security Compliance Manager (SCM) is a free tool from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team that enables you to quickly configure and manage your computers, traditional datacenter, and private cloud using Group Policy and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. SCM provides ready-to-deploy policies and DCM configuration packs that are tested and fully supported. Product baselines are based [...]

Comparison of how Availability is Calculated in Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps

John Policelli — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:43:19 +0000

The Why Microsoft blog has an interesting article that details the difference in how availability is calculated in Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps. The article focuses on seven important criteria in considering cloud service availability, and compares how each is calculated in Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps. The seven criteria include: Percentage of [...]

Exchange 2010 SP2 Multi-Tenant Scale Guidance Released

John Policelli — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:00:10 +0000

Microsoft has released a document that contains high-level guidance for properly scaling and deploying a multi-tenant Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 solution. It includes details of testing performed in Microsoft labs to validate the scalability of the product and suggests methods that can be used during the design and deployment process to mitigate potential [...]

Lync 2010 Mobility and Mobile Clients

John Policelli — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:23:41 +0000

Anyone following Lync should know by now that Microsoft (finally) released a Lync 2010 client for Windows Phone today. Microsoft also officially announced that Lync 2010 clients for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Nokia Symbian have been submitted for approval to their respective app stores. Availability can be tracked here. The Lync 2010 mobile clients combine instant [...]

Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Released

John Policelli — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:31:54 +0000

As you may have heard already, today Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Exchange Server 2010. SP2 includes the following changes: Hybrid Configuration Wizard Address Book Policies Cross-Site Silent Redirection for Outlook Web App Mini Version of Outlook Web App Mailbox Replication Service Mailbox Auto-Mapping Multi-Valued Custom Attributes Litigation Hold Exchange Server 2010 SP2 [...]

Everything you need to know about Remote Desktop Licensing

John Policelli — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:04:08 +0000

Remote Desktop Licensing (Terminal Services Licensing) is one of those things that is not well understood, and there hasn’t been a lot of quality documentation on it…until recently. The Directory Services team at Microsoft has written a good article that should answer all the questions you’ll ever have on Remote Desktop Licensing, such as: The different [...]

New Features Announced for Office 365

John Policelli — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:47:22 +0000

Today Microsoft announced new features for Office 365, in addition to the addition of 22 markets for Office 365 availability. Some of the key new features include:

Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 Release Candidate Released

John Policelli — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:14:51 +0000

Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 R2 release candidate is available for download from Microsoft Connect. This release candidate includes new and updated features for FIM 2010 R2: Historical reporting using integration to the System Center Service Manager data warehouse Web-based Self-Service Password Reset Scale and performance improvements Outlook 2010 support for the FIM add-ins and [...]

Office 365 Release Notes

John Policelli — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:35:31 +0000

I stumbled across a post on the Office 365 Technical Blog, which points to the Release Notes for Office 365. As the post author put it

Lync 2010 Cumulative Update (CU) 4 Released

John Policelli — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:59:58 +0000

Microsoft has released CU4 for Lync 2010. This update package fixes the issues that are previously documented in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles

64-bit Directory Synchronization Tool for Office 365 Released

John Policelli — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:41:12 +0000

The 64-bit version of the directory synchronization tool is now available. The 64-bit version now uses Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 as the underlying synchronization engine. FIM is installed silently when you run Setup. To download the 64-bit version of the directory synchronization tool from the Office 365 portal: In the header, click Admin. On [...]

Exchange 2010 Transaction Log Capacity Planning

John Policelli — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 03:03:29 +0000

Great post on The Exchange Team Blog that speaks to Exchange 2010 Transaction Log Capacity Planning. The post can be found here.

Directory Synchronization in Office 365 Explained

John Policelli — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:51:56 +0000

The Office 365 Technical Blog has a post that covers Directory Synchronization in Office 365. More specifically, the post explains the filtering built into the Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization Tool, the filtering criteria used by the tool, and why custom filters are not supported. The post can be read here.

DIY Troubleshooting Support Tool for Office 365 Released

John Policelli — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:23:37 +0000

Microsoft has released a DIY Troubleshooting Support Tool for Office 365. The DIY Troubleshooter offers a refined set of options to guide you to a resolution as quickly and painlessly as possible. The Troubleshooter pinpoints key technical support issues and provides immediate solutions without the need to post questions to the community or submit a [...]

Explanation of Service Availability in Office 365

John Policelli — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:56:11 +0000

Kumar Venkateswar, a senior product manager on the Office 365 Technical Product Management team, explains Service Availability in Office 365 in a post on the Office 365 Technical Blog. His post covers the availability features that distinguish Office 365 from on-premises systems that are based on Exchange 2010 Server, SharePoint 2010 Server, and Lync 2010 [...]

Sneak Peek: Using the Active Directory Administrative Center to Restore Deleted AD Objects in Windows Server 8

John Policelli — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:40:13 +0000

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in Windows Server 8 includes several management enhancements. One of which, is the ability to use the Active Directory Administrative Center to restore objects in the Recycle Bin. What follows is a sneak peak at using the Active Directory Administrative Center in the Developer Preview of Windows Server 8 to [...]

Sneak Peek: Installing Active Directory Domain Services on the Developer Preview of Windows Server 8

John Policelli — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:14:38 +0000

As you may already know, Microsoft released a Developer Preview for Windows Server 8. Although the Developer Preview is not feature complete, there are several changes and new features. In terms of Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), the way in which AD DS is installed has also changed (for the better). Some examples of [...]

Office Web App Integration with Outlook Web App in Exchange Online

John Policelli — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:21:35 +0000

Microsoft has introduced an update to OWA in Exchange Online that now integrates the Office Web Apps into the attachment previewing experience for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Along with continued PDF support, this means Exchange Online users get high-fidelity previews of Office documents on the web, in exactly the same format they were created. [...]

Open beta of BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365

John Policelli — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 02:09:40 +0000

RIM has launched an open beta of BlackBerry® Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365 – a new RIM-hosted cloud-based service for businesses to extend Microsoft Exchange Online to BlackBerry® smartphones and self-manage their BlackBerry deployments in the cloud. You can see RIM’s press release here. BlackBerry® Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365 is [...]

Update Rollup 1 for Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0

John Policelli — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:46:00 +0000

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 1 for AD FS 2.0. This update resolves a handful of known issues, but it also introduces new capabilities, two of which are specific to Office 365. Specifically...

Understanding Federation in Office 365 and Exchange

John Policelli — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:27:21 +0000

I ran across a good Wiki that explains Federation in Office 365 and Exchange. The Wiki covers: Microsoft Federation Gateway Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) Exchange Federation The Wiki provides a good understanding of Federation in Office 365 and Exchange and links to more details. The Wiki can be found here...

The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Office 365

John Policelli — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 01:24:42 +0000

Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to examine the total economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) that SMBs may realize by deploying Office 365, consisting of Office Professional Plus (as a subscription), Exchange Online (with Forefront Online Protection for Exchange), SharePoint Online, and Lync Online. Office 365 delivered an ROI of 321% with a payback [...]

Good Article that Demystifies Exchange 2010 SP1 Virtualization

John Policelli — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:58:37 +0000

The Exchange Team Blog posted a good article that Demystifies Exchange 2010 SP1 Virtualization. The article covers...