2023 is almost over. Almost. And if you haven't already left for your Christmas vacation? I can only hope you are starting to wrap it all up for the break. I know I am. The ebbing off at work is a great opportunity to catch up or pack in some fun stuff, and for me one of those things is getting personally reacquainted with Microsoft Teams which is changing rapidly having shipped some great new adds into 2.1. Last time, we looked at personal invites to everyone in a channel meeting which was a big gap that was finally filled. This time, we'll look at a new channel creation experience, as well another new experience giving admins the ability to create frontline teams using Microsoft Entra attributes right through the TAC. Why are these things so valuable? In terms of the new channel creation experience its an easy-to-hand, highly visible way of creating a channel and yet it's also a strategy for curbing the creation of Teams. If people don't have to scroll 20 teams down to create a channel in a specific team then they are - probably - more likely to do so. In terms of the frontline teams experience this is a wizard blending Dynamic Membership in Microsoft Entra ID and Teams Templates. Perhaps its an elephant in the room - but creating teams, adding every user and every app manually can take time. Maybe it's too much time when you have hundreds to teams to manage where many of those teams need to be simple, standardised and purposeful to audiences who typically need a focused team and set of apps. So let's see how we go.
Tag: Microsoft Entra
Teams Real Simple with Pictures: Deploying Microsoft Entra Internet Access in Preparation for Teams
Ok - 17 days to the holiday and counting! But before I get to a beach on the Atlantic one of the things I really wanted to do is ensure I get the opportunity to get a blog down on Microsoft Entra Internet Access. I think it's going to be an important solution moving forward. So this begs the question - what exactly is it? And why do I think it's important? Microsoft Entra Internet Access (MEIA) is part of Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access service defined as 'securing access to Microsoft 365, SaaS, and public internet apps while protecting users, devices, and data against internet threats...". Announced alongside Private Access at the Microsoft Entra moment prior to Inspire back in July, it's an '..identity-centric, device-aware, cloud-delivered Secure Web Gateway (SWG)' which is part of Microsoft's SASE/SSE strategy alongside Defender for Cloud Apps. Chances are you've already seen something like this from the likes of Z-Scaler and Palo Alto. But this is Microsoft's proprietary gateway built right into Microsoft Entra. That's awesome. But aside from being a net new proprietary feature what's its value? The importance of the SWG is, amongst other things, its ability to prevent attacks such as token replay attacks and attacker in the middle (AITM) attacks by ensuring conditional access to Microsoft 365 services through compliant networks and endpoints. Therefore, as attacks are becoming more sophisticated and we are seeing things such as token theft to breach tenants, or bypassing MFA, new defences such as a SWG are as timely as they are necessary. For me? This could become as fundamental as MFA and Conditional Access. Now at the time of writing this solution is actively being developed and Teams itself isn't supported. But we know it will be. And it will be soon. The point is this shouldn't be a blocker to implementation - it'll still cover Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and other things such as the Graph so let's not wait - let's get it in for Teams. So this blog is an exploratory one. It's the tip of the iceberg and you'll want to investigate your own scenarios, read others blogs and bear in mind that whilst for Windows only, it'll cover more in the future. I know this is something that we'll be collectively working on and writing more about in the future.
@Microsoft365Pro 