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Office 365 is a fantastic product and allows organizations of almost any size take full advantage of the cloud and the redundancy, scalability, and lower administration costs. The most recognizable feature of Office 365 is Exchange Online as it is the cloud version of Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2010.

Unfortunately, as with most solutions that need to be designed for the masses, you have to make some architectural decisions that will ensure that the system stays up and running. One of those limits is that the max message size allowed in Office 365 is 25MB. This is a hard limit and cannot be overridden.

For the most part, this really isn’t a problem as you see most commercial email vendors or spam services limit their max message size to <25MB. However, internally between your own users you probably did not have a limits set and potentially have multiple 300MB videos of the company holiday party in everyone’s inbox.

So now that we want to move to Office 365 how do we identify ahead of time those users who have very large messages in their mailboxes and then after we do that help them actually identify and remove the messages?

Enter EX Folders.

ExFolders is a tool built by the exchange team that was originally designed to help perform mass permissions changes or other edits on public folders and was originally known as PFDAVAdmin. However as time progressed, the program became able to work on more than just public folders and with the removal of WebDAV in Exchange 2010, the name just didn’t fit anymore. It has a good number of features, but the one we are going to focus on is getting item and size counts of the various folders and items in a mailbox database. In today’s blog post, we’ll go over how to do that. I’m going to focus on the process for Exchange 2010, however the process is almost identical for 2003 and 2007 servers as well. (more…)

Microsoft Lync 2010 for iPhone app has been released by Microsoft and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The app requires iOS 4.3 or later on these devices.  New Signature is excited to see iOS support added for Lync, which also support Windows and Android powered phones.  As a quick reminder, the use of this app does require a Lync Server or Office365/Lync Online account and will not work without it.

I was excited to read yesterday’s announcement that Microsoft Office 365, the company’s next-generation cloud productivity service, is the first and only major cloud-based platform to offer leading information privacy and security standards for customers operating in the European Union and United States.  This importantly means that now as  part of Microsoft’s contractual commitment to customers they will facilitate full compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements. Additionally, Microsoft will now sign the EU’s model clauses, which will help customers certify compliance with the European Commission’s stringent Data Protection Directive.

Microsoft also announced the availability of the Office 365 Trust Center. The site provides in-depth information about the privacy and security practices for Office 365 and was recently redesigned to be more accessible and easy to understand.

If you aren’t familiar with Office 365 it is Microsoft’s cloud based solution that brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service.  New Signature is a national leader in Microsoft private and public cloud solutions, including Office 365.  Contact us today if you are interested in learning more about how adopting Office 365 can benefit your firm!

I was excited to see that the Microsoft Lync 2010 for Android client was released earlier today in the Android Market.  As a quick reminder, the use of this app does require a Lync Server or Office365/Lync Online account and will not work without it.  I am excited that Lync 2010 for Android will extend the power of Lync to my favorite Android mobile device – including rich presence, instant messaging, audio conferencing, and calling features from a single, easy-to-use interface.  Looking forward to installing this new app tomorrow and starting to use it to collaborate with my colleagues here at New Signature!

Lync 2010 for Windows Phone launched on December 12, 2011, together with an update to Lync Server 2010 that enables new Lync mobile clients.  Microsoft is also dedicated to providing support across all major mobile platforms and they have developed Lync 2010 apps for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and Nokia Symbian.  Each of these apps has been submitted to their respective mobile app stores and our hope (and Microsoft’s plan) is that they will be available very shortly.  With the new Lync 2010 apps, you can check colleagues’ availability at a glance, start an IM conversation on the go, or join audio conferences with a single tap.

This is a huge win for extending the mobile workforce and an important step that helps make Lync a ubiquitous communications tool.  New Signature is excited to begin delivering this new capability to our many customers that use Lync Server 2010 and to new customers that need a single solution (Lync) that unites enterprise voice communications, IM, and audio, video, and Web conferencing.

New Signature is excited to announce that the AFL-CIO’s Collective Bargaining Facts, Foundation for Excellence in Education’s Digital Learning Now!, and Food & Water Watch websites have won IMA Outstanding Achievement Awards. These awards recognize that the websites met and surpassed the standards of excellence that comprise the web’s most professional work. The judging consisted of various criteria, including design, usability, innovation in technical features, standards compliance and content. In order to win this award level, all three websites had to meet strict guidelines in each area — an achievement only a fraction of sites in the IMA competition earn.

The Interactive Media Awards are a highly sought-after prize, and this nod from IMA is a demonstration of New Signature’s ability to create world-class websites and capitalize on our close working relationships with our clients.  These awards further validate that New Signature is a leader in the interactive industry, able to effectively and efficiently develop powerful and appealing websites for our clients.

There are even more features coming to Microsoft’s Exchange Online service (part of the Office 365 cloud solution) starting this month.  Microsoft will stagger deployment globally and they expect full deployment to complete within six months.  There are a number of exciting improvements including:

• High Availability Architecture Enhancements
• Sender Photos in Outlook Web App
• Outlook Web App in Internet Explorer 9 App Mode
• Group Naming Policy
• Retention Policy and Tag Management
• Multi-Mailbox Search Enhancements
• Migration Enhancements
• Exchange Hybrid Configuration Wizard

The standout improvements that we are most excited about are:

Outlook Web App in Internet Explorer 9 App Mode: Outlook Web App can now be pinned to the task bar using Internet Explorer 9 App Mode. This gives you the ability to launch Outlook Web App with one click and run it with fewer distractions, separated from other browsing sessions. It also keeps you informed of incoming email and IM when minimized or hidden and offers quick access to common Outlook Web App commands from the taskbar.

Group Naming Policy: You can now standardize and manage the names of distribution groups, also known as public groups, created by users in your organization. You can require a specific prefix and suffix be added to the name for a distribution group when it’s created, and you can block specific words from being used. This helps you minimize the use of inappropriate words in group names.

And for those of you that didn’t think office 365 had great uptime before… High Availability Architecture Enhancements: Microsoft is extending their high availability architecture across additional sites to provide greater resilience in the event of network failures.

Visit TechNet to learn more about the Exchange Online December 2011 Service Update or give New Signature a call if you are interested in leveraging the capabilities, agility and security of the Microsoft public cloud.

Did you ever wonder how exactly Microsoft deploys exchange in its own network? Did you know that there are only 14 DPM servers to protect all 115 Microsoft branch offices? You can learn this and more by visiting the “Microsoft IT Showcase: How Microsoft Does IT” website–part of the TechNet Library. The articles contained within provide best practices and experiences from Microsoft IT that give a unique, inside view into how Microsoft plans for, deploys, and manages its own enterprise solutions. It is a favorite website of mine to read in my spare time and if you have a moment I highly recommend checking it out.  The website provides great case studies and examples of best practices that Microsoft IT uses to run their own solutions in their own offices.

Back in October, Michael Otey wrote a great summary in Windows IT Pro entitled “Top 10: New Features in Windows Server 8 — Get ready for better Hyper-V and cloud-ready management.”  The article provides a quick run down on why Windows Server 8 is one of the biggest and most important server releases by Microsoft.  New Signature has been working with Server 8 for some time now and we are really excited by the opportunities it presents to small, medium and large enterprises.

Otey points out that “Microsoft carved out a clear advantage [over VMware] by introducing the ability to perform Live Migration and Storage Live Migration without requiring shared storage.”  This is a game changer, especially for smaller firms that can’t afford the cost or any firm that doesn’t want to deal with the complexities of a SAN.

Here is a quick run down of the ten new features that are Michael Otey’s standouts from Windows Server 8:

1. Multiserver support in Server Manager
2. Server Core is the default
3. Ubiquitous PowerShell management
4. Built-in NIC teaming
5. SMB 2.2
6. Data deduplication
7. Expanded cluster scalability
8. Multiple concurrent Live Migrations
9. Storage Live Migration
10. Live Migration without share storage

Call New Signature today if you are interested in learning more about Windows Server 8 and we will be excited to advise you on how to position your firm to take advantage of this emerging technology when it is released to manufacturing.

Join us for a free breakfast and briefing on the morning of December 14th to discover how System Center 2012 can provide complete management from the datacenter to the desktop.  The event starts at 8:30am and will be held at the Turf Valley Resort (2700 Turf Valley Rd Ellicott City, MD 21042).

Come hear System Center experts Michael Van Cleave from Microsoft and Reed Wiedower from New Signature present:

• What’s new in the System Center 2012 version of solution
• A deep dive discussion of each System Center component
• Technical demonstration and preview of each solution

Microsoft System Center solutions help you manage your physical and virtual IT environments across datacenters, client computers, and devices.  Using these integrated and automated management solutions, you can be a more productive service provider for your business.  Register today for this great opportunity to learn more about System Center 2012!

Agenda for Wednesday, Dec. 14th, 2011

• 8:30 – 9:00am: Registration & Full Breakfast
• 9:00 – 9:15am: Welcome & Introduction
• 9:30 – 11:00am: Presentations with Demos
• 11:00 – 11:30am: Conclusion & Giveaways