In this post I like to share a nice info graphic from statista which depicts where data is and will be stored.
In 2015 most data was stored locally (66 %) and only around a third (31 %) was in the cloud. The graph shows that, of course, storing data online in the cloud increases. By 2020 more data is stored online in the cloud instead of locally / offline / onpremise.
The author of the statista article also quickly mentioned the pros and cons, he says, that it is more comfortable and faster. Hence, he also says, that it poses risks, e.g. data breaches or leaks can cause high costs for people and companies which are subject to these.
Conclusion, opinion and summary
First of all, I’m a big fan of statista’s info graphics. Nicely illustrated and easy to understand figures.
Based on my personal and professional experience I’d assume that these above figures and trends regarding data storage locations seems to be comprehensible. I guess that cloud service adoption statistics would also draw similar trends.
For market observers, in this post I want to notify about Microsoft Build 2019. The event takes place in Seattle, WA from May 6th – 8th, 2019. It’s all about development around Microsoft products and services, e.g. containers, artificial intelligence, machine learning, DevOps, IoT and mixed reality.
Conclusion, opinion and summary
At the time I wrote this post there were no details regarding live streams available. Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure there will be a live stream at least for certain sessions available. I guess on the Build 2019 page and Channel 9 you might be able to watch the keynotes and later, after the event you could find recordings of certain sessions there. So, stay tuned for more details on the below pages as the event comes closer.
In this post I’d like to point out some Google Cloud Next ’19 recordings which you can watch on YouTube. Their focus are on modern communication and collaboration based on Google services. The links are at the bottom of this post.
Conclusion, opinion and summary
I watched some bits of the event to get some insights on what’s Google offering regarding modern collaboration and communication services. I saw some common, innovative as well as different (implemented/looking) features and services. From my point of view, although otherwise mentioned by the speakers of the sessions, to me the services deliver just some certain service building block for an enterprise grade IT service infrastructure. You need to take a close look at several aspects to find out if the provided services are right for your company. But that’s what you need to do for all services and things before you start rolling out anything.
To me, it was interesting to watch what and how certain modern collaboration capabilities are offered by Google. Also remarkable that Google partners with Cisco to enrich their, both, communication and collaboration portfolio and feature set. Finally, I’m looking forward to read news from Gartner regarding cloud-based unified communication (for 2019) and which player is categorized as a leader (for 2019).
For market observers, in this post I want to notify about Google Cloud Next. The event begins at April 9th, 2019 in San Francisco. However, you can watch it online at April 9th, 19:00 h (CET) on YouTube. The event is about news all around Google’s cloud services. There are “special” tracks you can stream which are regarding communication and collaboration services with the G Suite. I added the links to these communication and collaboration sessions at the bottom of this post.
Conclusion, opinion and summary
Why do I share this? In my opinion it’s important to observe the communication and collaboration market and always stay up-to-date. To know (different) communication and collaboration services’ capabilities helps in discussions regarding pros and cons plus adds more value to advisory services.
In this post I’d like to point out the most important aspects of the discontinuation of Exchange Online Unified Messaging (hereinafter: EXO UM, voicemail and auto attendant capabilities). EXO UM is discontinued as announced by Microsoft months ago. Now, Microsoft published an information regarding the planned transition towards Cloud Voicemail. Below a short summary of the announced information by Microsoft:
EXO UM will be transitioned and migrated to Cloud Voicemail in calendar year 2019 (not later than February 2020)
Voicemail messages can still be stored on Exchange Online as well as Exchange Server
You’ll receive a transition notification by Microsoft via Office 365 Admin Center
You can postpone the transition to Cloud Voicemail via the support panel in the Office 365 Admin Center (however before February 2020)
EXO UM with Lync Server 2010 will not be supported anymore and will not be transitioned
EXO UM with Lync Server 2013 will be transitioned to Cloud Voicemail
EXO UM with Lync Server 2015 will be transitioned to Cloud Voicemail
EXO UM Auto Attendants must migrated to Cloud Auto Attendant services
EXO UM Auto Attendants must be re-created on the Cloud Auto Attendant service
Conclusion, opinion and summary
EXO UM will be replaced by Cloud Voicemail. The EXO UM service will be transitioned to Cloud Voicemail based on Azure. To me it seems that it will not be a big difference for your users. They’ll still get voicemail and auto attendant capabilities. It’s more an slight cut over to a different backend for the same features.
However, if you are
still on Lync Server 2010 you should consider to upgrade to Skype for Business
Server to carry on providing voice mail and attendant services.
In case of many auto attendant services on EXO UM you should prepare and plan to re-create auto attendant services on Cloud Voicemail.
In this post I’ll
describe how federation towards federated partners can work. I’ll not describe meetings and guest access for
Teams which are great capabilities for modern teamwork across companies but not
subject for this post. Teams provides options for federation with external
organisations like suppliers, clients and partners.
Basically there are eight federation scenarios
I’d like to describe below. The federation scenarios are based on Microsoft
Teams as well as Skype for Business.
Skype
for Business Federation
Let’s take a look on
federation with Skype for Business. In Microsoft Skype for Business Server /
Online (hereinafter: SFBx) there are two major
federation types:
open
federation:
Users can communicate openly to everyone except users behind blocked
domains.
closed
federation:
Users can communicate only to federated domains configured by the SFBx
admin.
Teams
Federation
Now, with Microsoft
Teams federation is similair to SFBx federation but not 1:1 alike.
You can decide to
federate with everyone, openly, except towards blocked domains (blacklist).
Or you can decide to
federate only with allowed domains (whitelist).
Another thing to
keep in mind is what’s your current Teams upgrade mode or status?
In Microsoft Docs
there are five modes listed but not all are available by now.
Islands: All workloads on SFBx +
Teams
Skype for
Business-only:
SFB for all workloads. Single client.
Teams-only: Teams for all workloads.
Single client.
(not in
Admin Center, Feb. 2019, TAP customers-only) Skype for Business with Teams
(collaboration-only): SFB for chat, calling and meetings. Teams for collaboration.
(not in
Admin Center, Feb. 2019, TAP customers-only) Skype for Business with Teams
(collaboration and meetings-only): SFB for chat and calling, Teams for meetings and
collaboration.
Scenario
1a+1b
You are on Microsoft
Teams.
You can federate
with other organisations having a) SFBx or b) Microsoft Teams, too.
Scenario
2a+2b
You are still on
SFBx.
You can federate
with other organisations having a) SFBx or b) Microsoft Teams, too.
Scenario
3a+3b
You are on SFBx as
well as Microsoft Teams but your Teams Upgrade mode is “Islands”.
Your users are
having two clients installed and only the SFBx works for federation
communication.
You can federate
only via SFBx with other organisations having a) SFBx or b) Microsoft Teams,
too.
Scenario
3c+3d
You are on SFBx as
well as Microsoft Teams but your Teams Upgrade mode is “Islands”.
Your users are
having two clients installed and only the SFBx works for federation
communication.
Your users cannot
have an internal cross-client chat or else c) from SFB to Teams or d) from
Teams to SFB.
Teams federation
provides the ability to federate with external organisations similair to what
we’ve used to from SfBx. Nevertheless we need to pay attention to the user
experience and federation experience which migh be slightly different during a
coexistence of SFBx and Teams.
Typically you manage your Microsoft Office installations by using group policies(-only) and options you have before you deploy the software to the computers within your organisation. However, now cloud-based policies for Office 365 ProPlus are in preview (Feb. 2019). These new option helps you to centrally mange Office 365 ProPlus deployments either for domain-joined or non-domain joined (but MDM managed) devices.
The cloud-based
policies are for enforced user-based settings management and can complement
group policies.
