What Readers Say About Office 365 for IT Pros

Best Office 365 Book Available Today

Obviously, we’re biased, but we think that Office 365 for IT Pros is the best Office 365 book you can buy today, even if you never take advantage of the regular updates. Obviously we’re doing something right because people from more than 94 different countries (July 2020) have bought the book (we don’t know where Amazon has sold the Kindle edition, so that number might be higher!).

Office 365 for IT Pros is the only Office 365 book updated every month, meaning that when you buy a copy, you get the latest information instead of text that might have been written years ago. Here’s what more independent assessments think…

Windows Weekly #784 6 July 2022

Mary-Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott gave the book a nice shout-out on Windows Weekly #784. You can hear what they said on the video/audio. Our favorite comment is when Mary-Jo says “if you’re an [Office 365] admin, you basically need and want this book.“

Windows Weekly #628 3 July 2019

On July 3 2019, Mary-Jo Foley made Office 365 for IT Pros 2020 Edition her “Enterprise Pick of the Week” on episode #628 of the Windows Weekly podcast. Our favorite line from Mary-Jo is “If you’re an IT Pro and do anything with Office 365, you should have this book,” while Paul just called the book “awesome.”

To hear Mary-Jo and Paul Thurrott discuss the book, download and listen to the 2-minute snippet below.

Practical365.Com Review

Read Steve Goodman’s review of the September 2019 update for the Office 365 for IT Pros (2020 edition) eBook on Practical365.com.

Here’s another review by the “Lazy Admin.”

Reader Comments

Gerard Toscano, Director of IT Services, The Pinnacle Group (24 November, 2021)

It has been almost 1 year since we journeyed into O365 and for me it has been a non-stop learning curve made manageable by O365 for IT Pros. This book has proven an invaluable resource as are reading your daily posts on https://office365itpros.com/.

Peter Turnbull​ , Chief Information Officer, BAI Communications (15 July, 2019)

Office 365 for IT Pros is the authority for Office 365 services and capabilities. It has been an essential part of our Office 365 journey, which included bringing together our U.S, U.K, Canada, and shortly Hong Kong businesses onto a single, multi geo tenant. This book and its continual iteration brings together the wealth of information around Office 365 and presents it in a practical, easy to follow way. Thank you to Tony and the team for the time and effort invested in building and maintaining this knowledge base.

Steve Crowe, UCF IT, University of Central Florida (26 June 2019)

Office 365 for IT Pros is a book for novices and experts alike.  It is 1100+ pages (and growing) of information for IT professionals to navigate the Office 365 maze of systems, applications, and administration.   The book provides practical insights and real world examples to migrate, build, design and troubleshoot Office 365 infrastructure.   The in-depth topics are too numerous to mention, but it is safe to say I call it our Office 365 “bible” and a go-to for daily guidance. The best part is the data is never stale and is updated frequently, which is a requirement when supporting cloud based systems.   I highly recommend this book for any IT Pro.

Carsten Büttemeier (July 15, 2018)
7:03 PM: … working myself through the Office 365 for IT Pros 5 book I bought from Gumroad. The whole authoring team did a tremendous job here, thanks for putting that beast together and keeping it fresh. Should be put in every OneDrive of all these so-called Office 365 consultants out there. 😉

Big Kudos, never spent my money for a more comprehended and complete publication!

T. Patrick-smith 28 March 2019 (Kindle Edition)
Deploying or using O365? You need this book

Dean Gross (on Amazon).

This book is outstanding. The authors do a fantastic job explaining how (and why) the numerous applications and services work. Since the authors don’t work for Microsoft, they are free to point out limitations and identify work-arounds. They provide scripts for doing repetitive tasks and actions that cannot be performed in the User Interface. If your career involved administering one or more of the services in Office 365, I highly recommend this book. I have purchased several editions over the years and refer to it frequently. The authors have made corrections to minor issues that I have identified on several occasions which was very impressive. Given that Microsoft updates Office 365 many times a week, the authors ability to update this book on frequent basis with in-depth explanations in remarkable. Support their efforts and buy this book !

For a take on the 2019 edition from someone who was deeply involved with previous editions, read the review published by Paul Cunningham on Practical365.com.

Office 365 for IT Pros made it to the Best Microsoft Office eBooks of All Time

The 2019 edition made it to BookAuthority’s Best Microsoft Office eBooks of All Time list. According to the description on their site, BookAuthority collects and ranks the best books in the world. They picked the Kindle version instead of the EPUB/PDF version, probably because they can get data used for their ranking algorithm.

Older Comments

Here are some comments about older editions of the book. You can check out other reviews on Amazon.

“One of the most useful IT books I’ve encountered. Has it all but is put together so you can find what you need. Authors really know their stuff too.” – Peter Kincaid (via Amazon)

“I’ve been focused on Office 365 for almost 5 years and this resource has been a tremendous asset in all areas… especially those I have not spent much time in. When a client asks about a certain offering in 365, I always check this book first and then do more research if needed.”– Jeremy Johnston (via Amazon)

“This is an incredible resource for Office 365 newbies and experienced admins alike.It’s well laid out by topic and it condenses many technet articles and blog posts worth of information and tips into an easy to read format. it is also kept very up to date which is a plus. Can’t recommend this book enough.” – Nathan Taylor (via Amazon)

“I thought I was good with most things in Office 365, but the amount of little things I have picked up on throughout the book is amazing!”– James Kindon

“A comprehensive, constantly updated Ebook; constantly updated and accurate. The author is responsive and quick to provide feedback/updates. You get practical understanding, good for a beginner or expert, and PowerShell Examples. Really well written, lots of content. And updated almost weekly it seems.” – Amazon Customer

We are considering a move from our current on-premises Microsoft environment to Office 365. I like to think that I’m a fairly competent system administrator, having previously successfully completed projects such as full production environment server rebuilds and cross-domain Exchange migrations, but I had concerns that “I don’t know what I don’t know” with respect to migrating to Office 365. We looked into getting consulting help with an Office 365 implementation, but the quotes that we received back were in the five figure range, which was far more than what the organization that I work for was willing and able to spend. Using my own funds, I had purchased Paul Cunningham’s earlier ebook on Exchange Server as part of my cross-domain Exchange migration project, and found it to be a very helpful resource. Upon discovering that he had co-authored this book, I asked my supervisor if I could use company funds to purchase it. I have only had the book for about a few weeks now, but I have already found it to be helpful and without a doubt worth the cost. It is evident that the authors are deeply knowledgeable about Office 365, and provide a clear, unvarnished appraisal of the available services, including both its positive and negative aspects. Armed with the information available in this book, I now feel substantially more confident that I could guide the organization through a migration to Office 365 on my own, without the need to spend large sums of money on external consulting services.

I unreservedly endorse and recommend this book to any experienced system administrator who is tasked with migrating their organization to Office 365. It is well worth the nominal investment to have the information and insights that it provides. – Amazon customer