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Update #89 for the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook
The Office 365 for IT Pros eBook team is thrilled to announce the availability of the 89th monthly update. Subscribers to the PDF/EUB edition can download the updated files from their Gumroad.com account or use the link in the receipt issued for their purchase. Those who bought the Kindle version from Amazon.com can request Amazon support to make the update available to them. See our FAQ for further information about obtaining book updates.
October Changes
Even though Microsoft declined to provide an updated number for Office 365 users (or paid seats) in their FY23 Q1 earnings briefing, there’s no doubt that the pace of change across Office 365 continues unabated. It’s true that many new features require add-on or high-end licenses as Microsoft attempts to extract more revenue from their installed base. This is a point that we consider when thinking about what content to add to the book: something that’s available to Office 365 E3 users is much more likely to be covered than an add-on for SharePoint Syntex. This doesn’t mean that we won’t cover interesting technical developments that need high-end licenses: it does mean that we think before we write anything about that topic.
The book’s change log gives a high-level view of the changes made in the Office 365 for IT Pros content chapters. Highlights in update #89 include:
- New features for Azure AD conditional access policies to give organizations more control over who connects to their tenant. These changes include updates for the Microsoft Authenticator app when processing MFA challenges.
- Coverage of inbox and sweep rules in Exchange Online.
- Rewritten description of administrator processing of quarantined messages.
- The Stream classic migration tool is now in public preview.
- New Business Scenarios API for Planner (essentially, application permissions for the existing API to allow customers to include code to create tasks in plans in their apps).
- The Teams Premium product ($10/user/month) gives customers who want more protection and security in meetings an extra option.
- Coverage of the new Teams Phone Mobile solution.
- Colors for sensitivity labels! Well, this feature was there before, but now it’s exposed in the Purview compliance portal and the Office (desktop click to run) apps, so we covered it.
- Included section covering the AI Builder for the Power Platform.
- Version 3.0 of the Exchange Online management PowerShell module supports managed identities, so we rewrote a couple of sections in the PowerShell chapter.
- The appendix was updated with data from the Microsoft FY23 Q1 results.
None of the above is particularly earth-shattering in terms of massive change. However, the thing to always remember about Office 365 is the amount of cumulative change as months pass. Announcements are made, details emerge, and new thinking evolves about how the service really works, all captured in Office 365 for IT Pros.
Update #90
The December 2022 update should bring some news of features announced by Microsoft at the Ignite 2022 conference that show up in tenants, There’s usually a delay of a month or so between enthusiastic announcement and initial reaction and the appearance of functioning code (in preview or GA) in tenants. The Thanksgiving holidays will slow things down a little, but we expect to see a bunch of new features appear during November. Stay tuned to learn more here and in Office 365 for IT Pros.
Thanks for Your Support
Without the support of our subscribers, we could not afford to spend the time we do on updating the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook. Maintaining a book spanning some 675,000 words takes a lot of effort. No team could do that without help and we’re very grateful for the support that we receive. Thanks again!