22Feb2016
18Feb2016
How-to migrate Email from Small Business Server 2008/2011 or Exchange Server 2007/2010 to Office 365 with Zero Downtime
Update: Please refer to this newer article. Some of the details here are very dated--like there is no hybrid key anymore--and the activation only works on 2016, not 2019, plus we have minimal hybrid now, etc., etc. A "minimal hybrid" approach is preferred if you're just doing a quick migration...
15Feb2016
Key Differences between Essentials Dashboard Azure AD Integration and Azure AD Connect
Windows Server Essentials Dashboard allows you to connect your on-premises domain to Azure Active Directory and Office 365. Â Arguably the best feature of this mechanism is similar to the primary benefit provided by Azure AD Connect or DirSync--the ability to sync local passwords into the Microsoft Cloud.* But we need to...
11Feb2016
Microsoft Intune vs. MDM for Office 365
I have previously written about configuring Mobile Device Management for Office 365.  The Office 365 Admin Center has a great subset of features lifted from Microsoft's cloud-based Intune service, which is admittedly a much more "full-blown" MDM solution. Whether you are using MDM for Office 365 or Microsoft Intune, the enrollment process works basically the...
08Feb2016
Azure Multi-factor Authentication vs. MFA included with Office 365
I have previously described MFA for Office 365. It's a great way to add an extra layer of security to your cloud-based applications. Here are the features included with MFA for Office 365: Administrators can protect accounts with MFA Mobile app as a second factor Phone call as a second factor SMS as a second...
04Feb2016
How-to set up Multi-factor Authentication for Office 365
Note that there are multiple layers to Microsoft's Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) service. In this post, we are only covering the MFA included with Office 365.  Additional Azure MFA features are available, for example, through a subscription to the Enterprise Mobility Suite. In order to begin setup for multi-factor authentication, go to the Office 365 Admin...
01Feb2016
Office 365 MDM Enrollment Process
I added an account named "clouduser1" for the purposes of this demo.  Before enabling MDM for this user, I added the email account to my iPhone. The reason I did this is so that we can see the enrollment process for a user who may have previously configured their device for company Email....
28Jan2016
How-to Configure MDM for Office 365
This article updated 8/22/18 with new screenshots, since they moved some items around. Today we're going to take a deep dive with the Mobile Device Management (MDM) features available through Office 365, powered by Microsoft's Intune cloud service. Note: This is not the same as enabling a full Microsoft Intune subscription. Think...
25Jan2016
Manage Office 365 Mailboxes using Directory Synchronization w/o Hybrid Exchange
When you have a hybrid environment configured between Exchange 2010 or 2013 and Office 365, then you will probably have noticed that mailbox creation and management happens on-premises. For example, to create a new mailbox, you would initiate this process from the local Exchange server instead of the Office 365...
21Jan2016