Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast

Episode 20, Scott and I are already approaching 6 months of our podcast! To celebrate the big two-zero, we wanted to do an episode on getting started with Skype for Business Online.  In this episode, we walk through getting up and running on Skype for Business, things to be aware of, various features and functionality within the Skype for Business platform and wrap it all up nicely with some of the boundaries and limitations to be aware of.

Skype for Business Online

Tune Skype for Business Online performance

Skype for Business bandwidth calculator

Allow Skype for Business Online users to communicate with external users

Skype for Business Online Security and Archiving

Voice Calling

Cloud PBX

PSTN Calling

Call Queues

Auto Attendant

Devices

Skype for Business Online limits

P.S.  Make sure you tune in next week for some exciting news and a chance to see us recording the podcast live!  It might just happen to be related to Microsoft Ignite.  If you aren’t signed up for our mailing list, make sure you sign up there as well so we can keep you updated on additional details in the coming weeks!

This week Scott and Ben tackle the Office 365 Content Adoption Pack. It’s available for free, uses Power BI, and is an invaluable tool in your toolbox.

Announcing the public preview of the Office 365 adoption content pack in Power BI

Office Support – Office 365 Content Adoption Pack

Working with the reports in the Office 365 Adoption content pack

Customize the Office 365 Adoption content pack

Office 365 adoption content pack data model

Office 365 Management APIs overview

In this episode we have our first guest on the show!  Scott and Ben interview Matt McDermott about SharePoint hybrid.  You’ll get an overview of the what exactly is SharePoint Hybrid and why you would want to do it.  Then we jump into what may be some deal breakers when it comes to deploying hybrid.  We also talk about how to get start configuring it and some of the “marketing hype” around SharePoint hybrid.  Finally we wrap up talking about how to decide which workloads to deploy and which ones are easy and others that may be a little harder.

Episode Guest: Matt McDermott

Matt’s Blog

Reach out to Matt on Twitter

Matt on YouTube

Aptillon

Courses and Classes

Configuring Hybrid Workloads For SharePoint And Office 365 – Online Class

Upgrading Your Farm to SharePoint 2016 – Pluralsight Course

SharePoint 2013 Search Back To Front – Pluralsight Course

Show Notes:

SharePoint Hybrid

What are the big wins in Hybrid? Why do I care?

Reduced On-Prem Footprint

Better access from everywhere with all devices

Massive Scale

Access to cloud features

What are the deal breakers?

No User Sync – Episode 13 – Identity and Authentication in Office 365

Poor Performing Network – Network planning and performance tuning for Office 365

Poor Governance

Patch Level

What is the marketing hype?

Sites

Modern Attachments

Profile Redirect

B2B Extranet

What is easy and what is hard (or what can we do now and what requires planning)?

Easy – OneDrive, Sites

Harder – Taxonomy

Hard – Search

In Episode 17, Ben and Scott review Azure Automation, Microsoft’s cloud-based automation platform.

Azure Automation Overview

Azure Automation Integration Modules

Variable assets in Azure Automation

Credential assets in Azure Automation

Runbook execution in Azure Automation

Checkpoints in PowerShell Workflow

Azure Automation: Reliable, Fault-Tolerant Runbook Execution Using Checkpoints

Automate resources in your data center or cloud with Hybrid Runbook Worker

Azure Automation Pricing

Time for another Office 365 news update! In episode 16 Scott and Ben cover Office 365 news from July 17 around Skype for Business, SharePoint, PowerBI, PowerApps, Flow, Groups and more!

Microsoft Pulse is now available in Skype Meeting Broadcast

Skype for Business integration in Yammer

Yammer Desktop App

Office 365 Secure Score

Sharepoint Online – Exit classic experience

Column creation in modern SharePoint lists and libraries

Improved search and auto detection of image types in OneDrive

SharePoint Online Site Collection Admin Audit Log

Skype for Business Call Analytics Preview

Embed Power BI tiles in PowerApps

Flow -> Grow up to Azure Logic Apps

John Liu’s Blog for more Flow fun!

Latest PowerApps update adds the ability to Import/Export apps

Import Power BI Desktop files into Azure Analysis Services

New Collaboration Features in Teams Mobile App

Get Started with the Getting Started Sample App for Microsoft Teams

Office 365 Groups Owners Limit Increased

In this episode Scott and I meander away from Office 365 into Azure.  You may or may not know you automatically get an AzureAD instance tied to an Azure subscription as soon as you sign up for Office 365.  There are also lots of additional ways Azure and Office 365 can work together allowing you to get even more out of Office 365.  So, in this episode we walk you through getting started with Azure so you can get started expanding the Microsoft Cloud capabilities within your organization.

Getting Started with Azure

Understanding Office 365 identity and Azure Active Directory

Azure subscription limits and constraints

Azure Trial

Purchase an Azure Subscription

What is Azure IaaS?

Getting Started with Azure and Service Documentation

Azure Pricing, Calculator and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Azure Reference Architectures

Azure Service by Region Matrix

Getting Started with the Azure Management Portal (Video)

Azure Weekly Newsletter

Build Azure

Microsoft Virtual Academy

Opsgility

Pluralsight

This week, Ben and Scott get together to talk about fireworks, how you can gain access to Office 365 before the rest of the world, and how you manage your Office 2016 release schedules.

Set up the Standard or First Release options in Office 365

Office 365 Roadmap

Want to Get a Look at the New Communication Sites? Here’s a Trick!

Message center in Office 365

Overview of update channels for Office 365 ProPlus

Overview of the Office 2016 Deployment Tool

Office 2016 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization Tool

Office 365 ProPlus Configuration XML Editor

This week, you intrepid hosts take you through the ins and outs of Office 365 Identity and Azure Active Directory.

Understanding Office 365 identity and Azure Active Directory

What is Azure Active Directory?

Windows Azure Active Directory vs. Windows Server Active Directory

The difference/relationship between Azure Active Directory and “Normal” Active Directory

Azure Active Directory Domain Services

Azure Active Directory Editions

How to use SMTP matching to match on-premises user accounts to Office 365 user accounts for directory synchronization

How to prepare a non-routable domain (such as .local domain) for directory synchronization

What is application access and single sign-on with Azure Active Directory?

In this episode, Scott and Ben discuss the Office 365 news for the month of June 2017.

Microsoft Teams: New Cloud Storage Option

SharePoint Online Filter Panes: Lists and Libraries

Custom Markup Script Disabled in Calculated Fields

New feature: SharePoint Communication sites

New feature: Microsoft Forms Preview – Enterprise Tenants

The New Intune and Conditional Access Admin Consoles are GA

Updated Android Company Portal App

New feature: Exchange Online Remove-CalendarEvents

New Service: Visio Online

Important information about Docs.com end of service

In this week’s episode, Ben and Scott break down Microsoft Stream and Office 365 Video.

Microsoft Stream General Availability

Introducing the new enterprise video service – Microsoft Stream

What is Microsoft Stream?

Overview of groups & channels

Stream Pricing

Licensing overview