Ben is the owner and chief cloud consultant and architect at Intelligink, where he focuses on the Microsoft Cloud – Microsoft 365 and Azure. He is a Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and brings with him 20+ years of experience with SharePoint and 10+ years of experience with Microsoft 365. He is a Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Cybersecurity Architect Expert, and Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert.
Secure your tenant with Conditional Access!
Hello Reader,
It’s time for another Microsoft 365 management expert tip this week! This one is a bit broader, but we may have a few management tips diving deeper into this one in the coming weeks.
Before we do, though, we’re getting close to having some exciting news to share about a new training offering from Intelligink. Keep your eye on your mailbox for more coming soon!
💡A Microsoft 365 Management Tip:
Conditional Access is our tip of the week! Ok, a little vague, but in my opinion, this is the single greatest feature of Microsoft Entra ID Plan 1 (formerly Azure AD P1). If you aren’t using it, you should; if you don’t have a license to use it, you should look at purchasing one. Why? This is one of the best things you can do to secure your Microsoft 365 tenant (outside of MFA). And this even lets you control those MFA prompts better than security defaults will.
Aside from MFA control, Conditional Access empowers you to limit which devices can access your tenant, which locations your tenant can be accessed from, and which controls are in place for users. You can also specify which apps can connect to Microsoft 365 (if any) and even block downloads from SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange. These policies can be customized, tweaked, and refined to focus on who and what you want to protect. So much so the limit for the number of policies is 195 policies per tenant, and I’ve seen people asking for more. It’s so customizable that organizations can come up with 200+ different policies they want to fine-tune that secure Access to their environment. Go start playing your conditional access deployment!
📅 Upcoming Microsoft 365 Events
- Microsoft 365 Community Day Miami - February 2: I’ll be speaking at this one and would love to see you. If you’re in Florida, hopefully, it isn’t a bad drive, and if not? Who doesn’t want to visit Miami in the middle of winter 🙂
- Microsoft 365 Conference Orlando - May 1 & 2: I’m not planning to attend this conference, but maybe I’ll still make an appearance since it’s only 2 hours away. So, if you will be there, let me know, and maybe we can meet.
🗞️ Microsoft 365 news highlights
- Maybe you are tired of the AI news, perhaps you aren’t, but this one should be highlighted. Microsoft 365 Copilot is now available to organizations of all sizes! Microsoft has eliminated the 300-seat minimum for purchasing it. However, there are a few caveats. 1) You still need to purchase it through a CSP (let me know if you need one), and 2) you need to pay for the entire year up-front. There is no monthly payment option. Maybe these will change too, but it’s what it is for now.
- Microsoft 365 Archive (and Backup) are in Public Preview. Personally, Archive is the one I’m a lot more excited about as it will provide a much more cost-effective way to store older content in place in SharePoint compared to just purchasing more SharePoint Online store space. All the warnings about using a preview feature still apply, but if you are paying for extra storage in SharePoint, this one is worth checking out.
Helping you become a Microsoft 365 Expert!
Ben Stegink
Microsoft 365 Management Tips and Tricks
We focus on Microsoft 365 and Azure, so you can focus on your job!
Ben is the owner and chief cloud consultant and architect at Intelligink, where he focuses on the Microsoft Cloud – Microsoft 365 and Azure. He is a Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and brings with him 20+ years of experience with SharePoint and 10+ years of experience with Microsoft 365. He is a Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Cybersecurity Architect Expert, and Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert.
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