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November 2024 Newsletter

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We’re Grateful for YOU This Thanksgiving Season

As we celebrate this Thanksgiving season, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to you! This year has been filled with growth, challenges, innovation, achievements, and accolades—and we know none of it would be possible without your trust and partnership.

Your partnership has allowed us to reach new milestones and receive recognitions that truly honor the work we do together. We are thankful for the opportunity to work alongside you and for the confidence you’ve placed in us to empower your organization by leveraging technology to drive business success.

From all of us at eGroup Enabling Technologies, thank you for letting us be a part of your journey. 

#TogetherWeMakeITHappen

What’s New in the Hybrid Data Center?

Cisco

  • ThousandEyes Enterprise Agents now have native support on Cisco Meraki MX devices, enhancing visibility into SaaS performance and network health, allowing for proactive network management beyond their own domain without needing extra hardware.  
  • Cisco has introduced new AI-native features in ThousandEyes focused on Digital Experience Assurance. These advancements use comprehensive telemetry data and AI to enhance IT operations, enabling customers to move from reactive to proactive management for improved digital resilience. 
  • Cisco Wireless: 
    • Cisco has introduced AI-native innovations across its networking portfolio, including wireless solutions. These enhancements leverage AI to provide proactive insights and automated actions, enhancing the performance and reliability of wireless networks. 

Cohesity

  • Cohesity has shifted the Long-Term Support version from 6.8.x up to 7.1.  Version 7.1 provides some additional features for database protection, WORM support for Cloud Archives, and many other features! 
  • Cohesity Data Protect-as-a-Service now includes a Microsoft 365 Backup Status Overview report, detailing the success of M365 backup operations. This report offers quick insights and supports various filters like M365 object types (e.g., Mailbox, OneDrive). Currently, this feature is in Private Preview and can be activated with Cohesity’s help. 

Nutanix

  • If you’re a customer currently running VSAN-ready Nodes and have been looking to move away from VMware, Nutanix is doubling down on supporting the migration of VSAN-ready nodes, providing a flexible way to adopt the Nutanix ecosystem. 
  • Nutanix continues to drive value to unstructured data on-premises, and with the latest Gartner report for File and Object storage, Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) provides that value. Whether it’s SMB, NFS, or S3 storage, NUS provides performance, security, and scalability all within an easy-to-use hybrid platform. 
  • A repeat message for November—now’s the time to start planning your migration to the latest LTS release of AOS, 6.10. Performance enhancements, additional Disaster Recovery features, and Flow Network Security enhancements make this a release to jump on NOW! Note that version 6.10 has a very specific Prism Central release, so make sure you check your version compatibility matrix prior to upgrading! 

Rubrik

  • Rubrik Cloud Vault, which uses Microsoft Azure storage services, now offers Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS) and Geographically Redundant Storage (GRS) protection options. These new options surpass the existing Locally-Redundant Storage (LRS) by protecting against single or multiple data center failures in the Rubrik Cloud Vault region. It’s strongly advised to use ZRS or GRS for data stored in Rubrik Cloud Vault. 
  • Rubrik NAS Cloud Direct, a SaaS backup tool for NAS platforms, now supports backup, recovery, and archiving of Nutanix Files. These backups can be stored in various repositories like Rubrik Cloud Vault, customer-managed Azure, and AWS S3, as well as NFS and S3 storage systems. 

Pure Storage

  • Pure has launched a fully-managed Cloud Block Store on Azure to enhance Azure VMware Solution storage with Pure Storage Cloud. This complements the existing customer-managed Cloud Block Store, which continues to offer cost savings by reducing the necessary footprint for AVS. 

What’s New with Microsoft?

Azure

  • Get the latest on how you can effectively manage Azure Virtual Desktop with 5 Tips for Effective AVD Management from our partners at Nerdio. 
  • Struggling to contain costs in Azure? Let us introduce you to the Azure FinOps Library (Unlocking Azure Savings) and the latest iteration of What is New in the FinOps Toolkit 0.6. 
  • Azure VMware Solution has another option for the “right fit” between Compute/Memory and Storage with the addition of Elastic SAN for AVS. Above you can see how Pure Storage is an alternative for meeting your storage needs. Elastic SAN provides yet another option.
  • Gain better data privacy and less latency with the general availability of ExpressRoute Metro services. 
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) is a primary use of Azure Infrastructure. For those looking to enhance the management of their BCDR capabilities, take a look at the public preview of the Azure Business Continuity Center (ABCC). The 5-part series details the evolution of BCDR in the cloud and how you can enhance your control and management. 
  • With a new Azure Backup public preview, you can now enable Immutable WORM storage for your backups when you lock immutability on the Recovery Services Vault. 

Defender for Office 365

  • Outlook for Mac introduced new reporting buttons for phishing, junk, and not junk emails, controllable by admins via the Microsoft 365 Defender portal.  
  • Microsoft’s Secure Score recommendation for Spam confidence level (SCL) in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 will be updated. The recommendation will only trigger if a transport rule explicitly sets SCL to -1. The rollout will complete by December, and may increase the Secure Score. 

Defender XDR

  • The “Alert notifications” feature in Microsoft Defender for Identity will retire, replaced by Incident email notifications in Microsoft Defender XDR. Existing settings must be transferred to avoid disruption.
  • Defender for Endpoint will update the InitiatingProcessFolderPath to include file names, affecting all Advanced Hunting tables. Organizations should adjust custom detection rules and queries accordingly. The change applies only to Windows activity.

Entra ID

  • Get all of the details on the new Microsoft Entra Suite and the problems it solves for your organization with our blog and webinar recording! 
  • Starting mid-January 2025, organizations with enabled passkey (FIDO2) policy and no key restrictions will have passkeys in the Microsoft Authenticator app. Users can add this via aka.ms/MySecurityInfo, and it’s enforced by Conditional Access policy. Organizations can opt out with key restrictions. 
  • B2C update: SMS is now generally available as an MFA method for external accounts. This supports enhanced methods for MFA for your external account authentication. Read more here.

Exchange Online

  • Exchange is enhancing bulk email filtering with recalibrated bulk sender distribution across different bulk complaint levels (BCL). New BCL recommendations are 7 for default/standard, and 5 for strict policies. Admins should adjust BCL settings accordingly. 

Forms

  • Forms is getting a new, modern experience with an updated portal page, form creation, and response analysis. Look for organized templates, a selection of styles, and results analysis with charts and graphs. 
  • Forms will introduce a new data sync to Excel for the web, replacing the older version by January 13, 2025. Users must manually update to the new solution before this date. 

Intune

  • Intune will end support for Android device administrator on devices with Google Mobile Services access by December 31, 2024. Users should stop enrolling devices with this method and migrate to alternative management methods. Intune will not update or support these devices after the end date. 
  • In April 2025, Intune will stop supporting custom profiles for Android Enterprise personally-owned work profile devices. Admins should transition to equivalent settings in the Intune admin center. 
  • Pain point fixed: Latency when adding an Enterprise App to the catalog is reduced by adding a direct link rather than duplicating app binaries. Read more here.
  • GCC and GCC HIGH update: Defender for Endpoint settings support is now generally available.  You can use Intune now to manage Defender for Endpoint in the Gov Cloud. 
  • The Windows Autopatch experience is now available, with update management moved to a new section and Autopatch groups relocated. The service unifies Autopatch and Windows Update for Business.

Loop

  • Loop will allow guest sharing for all tenants, including those with sensitivity labels, after a rollout in December. Admins can configure policies for B2B guest sharing in SharePoint, and users can share Loop components with external guests, respecting existing OneDrive and SharePoint settings. 
  • Microsoft Loop will introduce container-level sensitivity labels by December, enhancing security features for organizations using Microsoft Information Protection. 

Microsoft 365 Copilot

  • Declarative Agents will be available by late November in Word and PowerPoint Web, allowing users to customize Copilot. Users can install and interact with these agents via Teams or the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. No admin action is required before rollout. 
  • Copilot Pages should now be available for users with an Entra account and SharePoint license to allow for collaborative and persistent workspaces in Copilot chat. 
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot will soon allow users to share BizChat prompts via a link, starting in late November. Licensed users can share prompts on the Copilot Lab website, and admins can export these prompts. 
  • Web mode is being released for Copilot in Teams and Outlook, with full rollout by late November. Users can switch between Web and Work modes like in BizChat, with no admin action needed for the update. 
  • The Microsoft Graph API will soon include Copilot usage metrics, enabling customized reporting and analytics. The rollout begins in September for Public Preview and March for General Availability. 
  • By mid-January, Copilot retention policies can be separated from Teams chats, allowing admins to create distinct retention policies for Copilot interactions.  
  • OneNote for Win32 introduces Copilot quick actions on the canvas, including Rewrite, Summarize, and Todo. Rolling out by mid-December.  
  • There’s an early preview of new Graph connectors, including GitHub, Google Drive, and others. Sign-ups for the preview are open via a form or email. These connectors allow indexing of third-party content, enhancing search capabilities across Microsoft Search clients. 
  • The Copilot Dashboard update allows global admins to manage access using Microsoft Entra ID Groups. Tenants with certain license counts will have full or limited dashboard features. 
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot now integrates with SharePoint organization asset libraries, allowing direct access to brand assets in PowerPoint and Word. 
  • By default, people can prompt Copilot about “sentiment of the meeting” and other inferences. Admins can now turn off that capability so that only facts are reported. See the roadmap for more info.  
  • Copilot in Edge will reintroduce page summarization and contextual prompt suggestions for users signed in with a Microsoft Entra account or using Copilot in web mode. Admins can configure the feature. 
  • Themes by Copilot will be available in Microsoft Outlook, allowing users to create themes inspired by global locations or their current surroundings. 
  • Copilot now auto-generates a document summary when opening a file in Word. Users can hide it. 
  • Look for the “Allow Web Search in Copilot” policy, enabling separate management of Bing searches in Copilot from other optional connected experiences. This can be configured at the user/group level. 
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat will enable chart, graph, and data analysis creation via prompts, via Python code. 

Outlook (New)

  • Outlook is updating the My Day pane to allow users to view and edit work hours and location.
  • Users can now create events by dragging emails into the Calendar icon. 

Outlook Mobile

  • Microsoft Outlook on iOS and Android now opens standalone Microsoft Office apps instead the Microsoft 365 app for opening document files. 
  • Outlook for iOS and Android will soon support choosing fonts while composing and improve font support for reading emails, with rollout completion by early December. 
  • Outlook’s handling of PDFs with Purview Information Protection labels on iOS/Android is updated. Users will be prompted to open such PDFs in the Microsoft 365 app. Users should be advised. 

Places

  • The Microsoft Places app will be enabled by default starting in December, helping people coordinate in-office days with colleagues. It’s accessible via web, Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 app, with added features for Teams Premium users.  

Power Platform

  • Look for the Security page in the Power Platform admin center. It is a centralized location for managing security recommendations, evaluating your security score, and implementing policies. 
  • Customers can use their own encryption key for encrypting data at-rest for existing environments with flows in Power Automate, helping meet data and privacy policy guidelines.  
  • The prevent data exfiltration by securing app access feature is available. This will allow admins and makers to protect against data exfiltration by controlling what apps can be run in your Dataverse environment, and help to prevent malicious users from creating or using unapproved apps to export. 

Purview

  • A Purview DLP analytics feature is available, providing weekly recommendations to enhance data protection. Users can turn on analytics, which spotlight risks and fine-tuning policies.  
  • Public Preview has begun for Communication Compliance’s enhanced policy alerts. Expect improved capabilities and customization options, allowing admins to adjust alert frequency and recipients. 
  • Purview Information Protection will soon integrate Advanced Message Encryption with Message Recall in Outlook, allowing licensed users to recall encrypted emails. 
  • Purview’s compliance portal is being updated to introduce a new schema to track Power Apps and Power Platform Connector activities, logged under the PowerPlatformAdministratorActivity activity type. 
  • Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management will soon support bulk upload for priority user groups. 
  • The rollout of default sensitivity labels and policies enhancements for Microsoft Purview Information Protection now includes meetings, in addition to files and email. 

SharePoint

  • SharePoint will enable approvals for document libraries by December 2024. Users can configure approvals in the Automate menu, with in-progress approvals viewable in Teams.  
  • SharePoint is introducing coauthoring for Pages and News, allowing multiple authors to edit simultaneously with real-time changes.  
  • Design Ideas are now available in Microsoft SharePoint, allowing page authors to enhance sections with new layouts and formatting. 
  • The SharePoint SendEmail API will be retired on October 31, 2025. Update any components using this API with alternatives like Microsoft Graph or Power Automate’s Outlook connector for email. 
  • SharePoint list and library rules’ automated emails will now be sent from no-reply@sharepointonline.com with the display name “SharePoint Online.”  

Teams Chat and Channels

  • A new chat and channels experience is coming between mid-November 2024 and late April 2025, streamlining conversations and management across different locations. This update excludes Education tenants. 
  • Teams will add skin tone settings and reactions to personalize emojis and reactions by late November. 
  • A block-user feature will allow admins to prevent malicious users from contacting the organization again, by mid-December. Admins need to turn on and configure the block list in external access settings.
  • Teams has a new onboarding process for teams and channels, where team owners can recommend channels, and team members will initially see only the ‘General’ channel upon joining a team. 

Teams Meetings

  • The new Microsoft Teams policy, ‘csTeamsAIPolicy,‘ will default to enabling voice and face enrollment, and replace the ‘csTeamsMeetingPolicy’ in mid-January. Admins should configure settings before then. 
  • Teams on the web will soon allow users to take control during screensharing, a feature already available on the desktop version. Look for rollout by mid-January 2025. 
  • Teams is introducing CAPTCHA verification for anonymous meeting participants, with rollout by mid-November. Tenant Admins must enable this feature in the Teams Admin Center. 
  • Teams is introducing a new ‘Event chat’ feature for Premium town halls, allowing all participants to chat during the event. It supports a large number of users and messages. Organizers can disable this feature. 
  • Teams is increasing meeting passcodes from 6 to 8 characters for enhanced security, by late November, with no admin action required. External users joining with a Meeting ID and passcode will be affected.

Teams Phone

  • The Quality of Experience Report v5.0 for Teams Call Quality Dashboard in Power BI is now generally available, featuring new intelligent media quality classifiers and an updated design. 
  • Survivable Branch Appliances are being updated to extend their certificate expiration lifetime to 7 days, meaning if an outage occurred 23 hours after the last refresh, the SBA would continue to function for another six days, one hour (as opposed to just one hour). It’s a mandatory patch for AudioCodes SBAs. 

Teams Premium

  • Meeting organizers with Teams Premium licenses will be able to prevent participants from copying chat, captions, transcripts, and AI-generated insights by early 2025. No admin action is required. 
  • An Intelligent recap for ad-hoc meetings and calls, allowing users to access AI-generated notes, tasks, and mentions post-meeting, will roll out by January 2025. 

Windows 2025

  • Windows Server 2025 is generally available, offering advanced security, improved performance, and cloud agility. Deploy for apps in any environment, whether on premises, hybrid environments, or cloud. 

Conclusion

If any of these updates or changes pose as a challenge for your team, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We will be happy to work with you to navigate these changes. Feel free to fill out the form below to get in contact with our team.

We Want to Hear From You!

Like any good partner, we’re listening! Since the latest advancements and announcements are coming in quickly, we’ve separated the list into subcategories below. Let us know what you’d like to see more of! 

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