Technical

The realities and limitations of managing personal (BYOD) devices in Microsoft 365 and Endpoint Manager

These days, I am willing to bet that I get asked about BYOD endpoints over corporate endpoints 10 to 1. Personal devices (even personal Windows devices) are creeping into the workplace more and more, especially with so many working from home. And this does present a few challenges for those...
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Monitoring identity, cloud apps and email at different service tiers

Today I want to give you two ideas that you can take to your customers as new offerings. Some of you may already be doing some form of this, but based on my recent survey results, identity protection and monitoring in the cloud is still an area that is wanting...
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How much security is ‘enough’ security? Looking at Microsoft 365 Defender vs. Azure Sentinel

How much security is 'enough' security? This is in fact a trick question, I just threw it in there to get your attention. When it comes to security, one can never be 'safe,' but only 'safer' (even with the most expensive of cybersecurity tools and talented, dedicated humans to back...
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The “Five Rules of Fields” for File Server Migrations to Microsoft 365

What a fun tongue twister, and such a practical resource that I am excited to share with you today! Well, actually a lot of this information you might have already gleaned by following my past posts about file server migration. But I still find that when I consult with folks...
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Deploying Conditional Access Policies via PowerShell

There is a new GitHub repository available from Microsoft: Manage Conditional Access policies like code. Similar to the infamous Intune samples repo from which I and many others have built their automated Intune setup scripts for new tenants, this repo is replete with the resources that you need for accomplishing...
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A simpler Conditional Access baseline

Some folks have written to me about the "complexity" of my Conditional Access guide and were hoping to find something a bit simpler. This surprised me, and initially I shrugged it off. But I have heard this feedback more than once now, so I decided to take this thought experiment...
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Troubleshooting weird Azure AD Join issues

If you are starting to do more Azure AD Join (or disjoin/rejoin) operations, you may run into some issues at times where the computer reports an error. These can take several forms, but generally the message is, "Sorry dude, but you can't join/register this device." Here are a few scenarios that...
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Implementing the ACSC Essential 8 with Microsoft 365

I have had this request on my backburner for a while, and I finally got around to knocking it out: from a reader in the Land Down Under--Australia! Update: Microsoft has a much-improved set of Learn articles on the Essential Eight, with detailed guidance on implementing the three Maturity Levels (MLs)...
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