Office 365 Security

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So recently in the download center for Microsoft the Office 365 Security document popped up as being published on 3/7/2013… not quite certain if there were any changes since Microsoft still doesn’t maintain standardization around documents, the download center and change logs, the document was published back in June 2011. If you’ve not read this document it’s a decent overview that covers everything from physical security to user authorization for Office 365, it’s data centers and its service.

http://go.spdan.com/o365security – Office 365 Security

Visual Studio 2010 Exam Retirement Dates

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So you’re still catching up on getting certified on Microsoft technologies that your clients and customers are using … may want to consider either switching over to ludicrous speed or just skipping ahead to the next iteration of Visual Studio exams.

Why praytell? Well Microsoft is retiring the exams on 31 July 2013. They (Microsoft) may consider pushing the exam retirement date, but for now that’s when they’re going bye bye.

So what exams does this apply to?

  • 70-511: TS: Windows Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
  • 70-513: TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
  • 70-515: TS: Web Applications Development with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
  • 70-516: TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft .NET Framework 4
  • 70-518: Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4
  • 70-519: Pro: Designing and Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft .NET Framework 4

For more information on this topic, check out the Born to Learn blog yonder at: Update on Visual Studio 2010 Exam Retirement Dates

Office 365 Dedicated – SLAs and SDs updated…

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Microsoft has published an update for their Office 365 Dedicated Service Level Agreements and Service Descriptions. If you’re not working with an Office 365 Dedicated client, but are instead working with an OnPremise deployment these documents provide a great starting point when defining your O&M strategy as well as helping to define processes and service level agreements.

For instance, the Custom Solutions Developers Guide for Office 365 Dedicated provides an outline that can be used for onPremise deployments in terms of areas that need to be considered for developers to operate within. That’s not to say that there isn’t greater flexibility in developing full trust farm solutions for your SharePoint implementation, but it is to say that Microsoft has invested significant cycles to put together this guide among other documentation that helps to think through the entire process.

If your client is however looking to go to Office 365 Dedicated – definitely need to become familiar with the information housed within this set of documents available here:
Microsoft Office 365 Service Descriptions and Service Level Agreements for Dedicated Subscription Plans

Office 365 Dedicated – Content Migration

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Interestingly enough, but if you’re using SharePoint Online in Office 365 in a dedicated environment there are opportunities for content migration from onPrem to the cloud by providing copies of content databases to Microsoft. Or at least you used to have that option as described in this document:

SharePoint Online Content Migration Policy – Office 365 Dedicated Plans – January 2013 – http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/4/0/04054360-DC5E-4AB8-B3AB-6BF01BB3946C/SharePoint%20Online%20Content%20Migration%20Policy_Office%20365%20Dedicated%20Plans_Jan%202013.docx

If you’re looking to have a backup copy of your data perhaps or looking to move off of Office 365 Dedicated, the cut off for having content databases pushed out of Microsoft’s system is 15 April 2013 as stated in the documentation:

Starting April 15, 2013, Microsoft will no longer process outbound migrations for SharePoint Online dedicated plan customers. Outbound migrations will instead be accomplished by third-party independent software vendor (ISV) solutions, just like Inbound migrations are today.

Microsoft states that they are doing this for a number of reasons to include:

ISVs provide an effective solution for migrating content out of your SharePoint Online farm, just like for inbound migrations. Using an ISV solution has the following benefits:

  • Reduces technical requirements and complexity involved in successfully attaching the data to an on-premises SharePoint farm.
  • Frees up customer change windows for deployment of configuration changes and custom solutions.
  • Removes the risk and inconvenience of a USB drive shipment.

For information about using ISV solutions for content migration, see the SharePoint Online Content Migration by Third-Party Solutions Policy document, available to customers on the Customer Extranet site.

Overall the document is an interesting read regarding the SharePoint Online 2010 Dedicated service offering that is a component of Office 365 and outbound data migrations. Just remember however that you do have an impending deadline in April if you wish to utilize Microsoft’s outbound data migration service.

Windows 8 Beta strikes again…

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So while tooling around in PowerShell this morning in Windows Server 2012, I had to chuckle when I ran a get-help command and read through the text where it stated Windows Server “8″ Beta. I suppose that even though this was released back in late September that Microsoft hasn’t had a chance to do an update of their help files.

And for anyone curious, yes, I did run an update-help prior to running the get-help cmdlet. Check it out :)

Windows8Beta-HelpText

KB Update – Microsoft Lync for Mac 2011 14.0.4

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Just in case you’re using Mac OSX as your primary operating system (hey Office 365 supports it now right?) and you’re wondering why you’re seeing errors with Lync here and there, consider getting the Lync update. Fresh from the Internet press, Microsoft has released update 14.0.4 available here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2778095

48 MB of downloadable DMG goodness

Seems to help with a few stability items and also the following:

2793013 A user cannot start an encrypted desktop sharing or application sharing session together with a Lync for Mac 2011 user
2793011 An update is available that enables Lync for Mac 2011 to be supported in Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
2793012 Video call or conference is stretched to a 4:3 aspect ratio when you use Lync for Mac 2011
2803796 “Lync was unable to sign in” error message when you try to sign in to Lync Online by using Lync for Mac 2011 in a Mac OS

DirectAccess Test Lab Guide Released…

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Looking to test out Direct Access and see how it can be used within your organization but don’t feel like setting up the entire infrastructure? Head on over to the Microsoft download center and pick up a copy of the test lab guide to build out a machine using Windows Server 2012. More deets here:

Download Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate DirectAccess Single Server Setup with Mixed IPv4 and IPv6 in Windows Server 2012 from Official Microsoft Download Center

If you’ve not used Direct Access, you’re missing out. With Windows Server 2012 you don’t even need a hard token client certificate but instead can use a hardware certificate which is pretty rockin’ awesome. Only thing to be mindful of, your Windows users need to be domain joined to take advantage of this – but it’s worth it :)

Microsoft Office 2013 DocRecrypt Tool – Deciphered…

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So if you’re thinking to yourself, “Cool! Microsoft released a tool called the Office 2013 DocRecrypt Tool! I’ll be able to decrypt all those documents and do whatever I want with them! No one can stop me now!”

Not so fast there Kimosabe. You still have to have the escrow key to decrypt files before you can do anything with them. The description is definitely a little misleading if you just read the first bit…

This tool allows admins to unprotect or change the password on password protected OOXML Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

When in reality the entirety of the description spells things out pretty clearly, removing the would be fun of those without escrow keys.

The tool gives admins who have configured the Escrow key feature options to get access to password protected files. The admin uses the tool and the private key of the escrow certificate to decrypt the file. Once decrypted the admin can choose between creating an unprotected copy of the file and changing the password of the file.

If you’re interested in obtaining the tool though, look no further than the Microsoft Download Center link here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36443

Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 Update – Explorer Error

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Always interesting when reading through the Download Center Updates that are available when something like this pops up:

Title:  Explorer.exe process may crash when you tap or click the desktop in Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012

Published: 1/18/2013

Link:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2795719
Download:  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36447

Is it just me or that’s… “Bad”?

Granted if you dig into the text you’ll see that it’s targeted at a particular language, but still interesting to see something like this pop up.