Office 365 Weekly Digest | Week of September 25 - October 1, 2016

  • Article

MESSAGE CENTER

Note: The information below may not be posted to your Office 365 tenant as not all notifications apply to all tenants.

 

Updated Feature: New Office 365 admin center reaching GA

Posted: September 27, 2016 | Urgency: Normal | Category: Stay Informed | Action: Awareness | The new Office 365 admin center has reached general availability. One year ago, we started building a new modern Office 365 Admin Center that provides admins with an improved management experience that makes it easier and faster for them to manage Office 365 while providing new capabilities and insights. In March 2016, we made significant advances in the portal experience, and started to roll out the Admin Center Preview to all customers as the default experience. We also gave admins the ability to switch back to the classic experience. We have completed our work to bring parity and improvements from the classic Admin Center to the new Admin Center. As such, we are taking the new admin center out of preview. Moreover, on December 31st, we will retire the classic Admin Center experience. We have modernized the Office 365 admin experience by simplifying the experience and providing more functionality and insights, making it easier to access the tools and complete common tasks. This new experience will be the only admin center experience, beginning December 31st. Familiarize yourself with the new Office 365 Admin Center today. Click "Take a tour" from the new Admin Center home page. For more details, please see the "Office 365 administration announcements: new admin center reaches general availability and introducing the Service health dashboard" post in the "Blog Roundup" section below.

 

New Features: PDF Previewer and Thumbnails for Web for OneDrive for Business

Posted: September 28, 2016 | Urgency: Normal | Category: Stay Informed | Action: Awareness | OneDrive for Business PDF Previewer and Thumbnails for Web are new features for Office 365. These new features will begin rolling out starting with First Release tenants today, and are expected to complete for First Release customers in early October then followed by worldwide rollout expected to complete by the end of the month. Office 365 end users will be able to preview PDF files and see thumbnails for multiple new file types without having to leave the OneDrive for Web environment. To learn more, please see the "Major OneDrive updates at Ignite 2016 include SharePoint Online sync preview" post in the "Blog Roundup" section below.

 

We’ve made a change to the Microsoft Trust Center

Posted: September 28, 2016 | Urgency: Normal | Category: Stay Informed | Action: Awareness | We have updated the subcontractors list for the services offered under the Data Processing Terms (DPT) section of our Online Services Terms (OST). As you might be aware, security, compliance and privacy information about our Online Services is located in the Microsoft Trust Center. As a commitment to transparency, anytime we add new vendors/subcontractors, we disclose this information in the Microsoft Trust Center and send you a notification about this change. The Microsoft Online Services List covers the subcontractors for all the online services offered under the Data Processing Terms section of our Online Services Terms. As detailed in those terms, this includes most services in Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Office 365, and Microsoft Power BI. Starting on October 1, 2016, Microsoft will publish the names of any new subcontractors six months in advance of their authorization to perform services that may involve access to customer data. To view the updated Subcontractor's List and get familiar with changes to the Microsoft Trust Center, please visit https://aka.ms/subcontractors.

 

New Feature: New Office 365 App Launcher

Posted: September 28, 2016 | Urgency: Normal | Category: Stay Informed | Action: Awareness | The New Office 365 App Launcher is a new Office 365 feature. You’ll begin seeing this new feature over the coming weeks, starting in October with rollout expected to complete by the end of the month. The new version of the Office 365 App Launcher provides improved discoverability to new and recently used apps, additional customization options and search across all the services and applications you use in the Microsoft Cloud. You don't need to take any action, however we suggest you familiarize yourself with the new layout and customization tools. Additional information is available in the "Introducing the new Office 365 App Launcher" post in the "Blog Roundup" section below.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS Azure Active Directory Webinars for October

Are you looking to deploy Azure Active Directory quickly and easily? We are offering free webinar briefings on key Azure Active Directory deployment topics! Sessions include: Getting Ready for Azure AD, Manage Your Enterprise Applications with Azure AD, Secure Your Identities with Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication, Securing Your Enterprise Office 365 Applications with Azure AD and more. Each 1-hour or 75 minute webinar is designed to support IT Pros in quickly rolling out Azure Active Directory features to their organization. All webinars are free of cost and will include an anonymous Q&A session with our Engineering Team. Capacity is limited so sign up for one or all of the sessions today!

 

Online Immersion Experience: Boost your productivity with Windows 10 and Office 365

When: October 5th / 12th / 19th, 2016 at 10:00am and 12:00pm PT | Boost your productivity with Office 365 and Windows 10. An online immersion session is not your typical online event. These 90-minute interactive sessions start with an online roundtable discussing your business challenges and then launch into a live environment in the cloud. A skilled facilitator guides you through simulated business scenarios that are customized to your interests. We will send you a link to connect your own device to a remote desktop loaded with our latest and greatest technology, so you can experience first-hand how Microsoft tools can solve your biggest challenges in a collaborative, fun environment. Please note: Each session is only open to 20 participants. Reserve your seat now and learn how you can be more productive anywhere, anytime with Office 365.

 

Modern Workplace: The Privacy Balance - Staying Secure and Ethical with Your Data

When: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 @ 11:00am ET | In this episode, learn how to navigate common blind spots in data security and avoid privacy pitfalls. Hillery Nye, Chief Privacy Officer of Glympse, shares how you can create an amazing user experience while limiting your legal liabilities. Jules Polonetsky, Chief Executive Officer for the Future of Privacy Forum in Washington DC, will share his top tips for creating an organization that is profitable and ethical. Plus, get an inside look at Secure Productive Enterprise, the new premier offering from Microsoft that brings together Office 365, Enterprise Mobility + Security, and Windows 10 Enterprise. Don’t miss the discussion on how to balance privacy and data security without sacrificing growth and innovation.

 

FastTrack Webinars: Learn how to do more, together

When: Multiple sessions currently scheduled through October 17, 2016 | Ask questions, learn shortcuts and find out how Office 365 can make you and your team more productive. Each webinar is a live, instructor-led session offered at multiple dates and times. Facilitated discussion follows each session, with opportunities to ask questions and discuss specific scenarios to you. Direct registration links for each webinar are provided below.

 

BLOG ROUNDUP Office 365 news in September at Ignite - intelligence, security and collaboration

Last week at Microsoft’s Ignite Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, we announced updates across Office 365 to help IT professionals drive digital transformation within their organizations. We were excited to showcase new intelligent cloud services that help make your employees more productive and your organization more secure. This post includes a breakdown of the opening day's key news, including new services for Office apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as new security capabilities, richer communication features and enhancements for team collaboration across Office 365.

 

Applying intelligence to security and compliance in Office 365

Given the explosive growth in data production, IT is tasked with securing a volume of corporate data that is growing exponentially. To stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape, companies need the ability to analyze and learn from that data in order to identify, intercept and respond to threats. Office 365 provides unmatched security intelligence to help customers protect, detect and respond to threats. As part of the Office news announced today at the Microsoft Ignite conference, we are pleased to introduce the following new security and compliance capabilities in Office 365: (1) Improvements to Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection, (2) Threat Intelligence, (3) Advanced Data Governance, and (4) Updates to Advanced Security Management. These new capabilities enable organizations to take advantage of intelligence built in to Office 365 and protect, detect and respond to threats, while reducing risk and maintaining compliance.

 

Move all your communications to Skype for Business Online

Last week at the Microsoft Ignite Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, we announced several new Skype for Business innovations that enhance the Office 365 collaboration experience across devices and empower IT professionals to deliver modern communications to their end users. Read on for more about what we announced today including the best user experience for workplace communication, the next generation of Skype Room Systems, the power of global availability and capability and deployment excellence with the Skype Operations Framework (SOF).

 

SharePoint innovations further advance intelligence and collaboration in Office 365

Last May, we unveiled a cloud-first, mobile-first vision and roadmap for SharePoint and OneDrive to empower people, teams and organizations to intelligently discover, share and collaborate on content from anywhere and on any device. We promised to make file sharing both simple and powerful, to establish the mobile and intelligent intranet, to accelerate productivity with experiences that surface relevant, high-value information in the context of your work. We promised our developers an open and connected platform that embraces modern web development and open standards. And we promised IT an ongoing commitment to security, privacy and compliance. Over the last weeks and months, we have been delivering on those promises to you. Your passionate support for our vision and for each new feature or capability we released has been inspiring. Last week at Microsoft Ignite, we announced the next wave of innovations, highlighted in this blog post. The following blogs contain more details about our announcements at Microsoft Ignite:

 

Office 365 administration announcements: new admin center reaches general availability and introducing the Service Health dashboard

We’re excited to announce that we’re taking the new Office 365 admin center out of preview. Since the first preview in September 2015, the new admin center has provided admins with an improved management experience that makes it easier and faster for you to manage Office 365 while providing new capabilities and insights. Over the last years, Office 365 has been evolving at a rapid pace, making more features and functionality available to users and admins on an almost daily basis. Over 350 new services and features were introduced last year alone. As we continue to add new capabilities to Office 365, we are focused on providing a first-class admin experience with tools to efficiently manage all aspects of the service. The new admin center has been designed to support this rapid growth and will continue to improve as the service further evolves. This post contains a summary of the main improvements and a Microsoft Mechanics episode dedicated to these updates.

 

Introducing the new Office 365 App Launcher

As we continue to expand the great set of online productivity tools available to Office 365 users, we are committed to improving the experience that ties these services together. We’re announcing a new version of the Office 365 App Launcher, which will provide improved discoverability to new and recently used apps, additional customization options and search across all the services and applications you use in the Microsoft Cloud. The Office 365 App Launcher has always provided a simple, consistent experience to surface applications when and where you need them. Now, we’re taking this one step further and helping bring the apps you use most front and center. The new tabbed layout allows you to pin and organize tiles in a “HOME” section to provide fast, familiar access to your favorite apps from your Office 365 subscription, the Office Store, Azure apps, SharePoint apps, Line of Business apps and even custom tiles added by organization administrators.

 

NOTEWORTHY

Updated: Office 365 URLs and IP Address Ranges

September 28, 2016: Updates for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office 365 identity and authentication, Office 365 portal and shared, Skype for Business Online and Exchange Online Protection.  Details on the updates are available on the RSS feed and the complete list is located here.

 

Microsoft Tech Community: Empowering IT - Free resources for a career in cloud technology

At Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft announced more resources to help IT Professionals in their cloud career journey, including the launch of the Microsoft Tech Community - a place for IT Professionals to connect with Microsoft engineers, MVPs and their peers to drive discussion, exchange ideas and share best practices. The digital transformation taking place in companies around the world is changing the nature of IT organizations, their roles, and the skills required in these roles. IDC believes that more than 50% of enterprise IT teams will need to create new cloud management roles by the end of 2016. Microsoft is helping IT Professionals navigate through this digital transformation by providing free resources throughout their career journey; from planning their career path to getting started with Azure to hands-on practice with the latest cloud technology. Microsoft is providing resources to meet the needs of IT professionals globally and today expanding availability of the Microsoft IT Pro Career Center and IT Pro Cloud Essentials to 25 languages, extending across 40 markets.

 

Microsoft Ignite 2016: Additional Blog Content

At the annual Microsoft Ignite Conference in Atlanta last week, we announced numerous updates and improvements for Office 365, most of which are detailed in the Blog Roundup section above. The remainder are included below with a simple link to the pertinent information.