Office 365 is one of Microsoft's most popular cloud offerings, a low-cost service that people subscribe to in order to access various Microsoft services and software. It is the replacement of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Microsoft's previous cloud offering. It is free or super-low-cost, depending on the subscription, for 501(c)3 nonprofits and accredited educational institutions.
Office 365 is securely accessible anywhere with a supported device and an internet connection, and is independently verified to comply with regulations such as FedRAMP, FISMA, HIPAA, ISO 27001, EU, and others, with over 900 controls that enable keeping compliant never-changing industry standards. Office 365 has a financially backed guarantee of 99.9% uptime.
As such, Office 365 is constantly being updated due to customer feedback and Microsoft's desire to offer evergreen and best-in-class services. Due to this, they are constantly updating and improving the service, as well as offering new services.
This book is for those who are new to Office 365 administration, or may have worked with it for a while but are looking to verify their knowledge and take their skills to the next level. This book illustrates administration from the basics to more advanced topics.
Chapter 1, The Office 365 Administration Portal, introduces the reader to the Office 365 admin portal.
Chapter 2, Using PowerShell to Connect to Office 365 Services, enables you to connect PowerShell to various Office 365 services and perform tasks.
Chapter 3, Administering Azure Active Directory, helps you manage and administer various identities and groups.
Chapter 4, Administering Exchange Online - Essentials, covers the basics of administering Exchange Online—mailboxes and rules/message management.
Chapter 5, Administering Exchange - Advanced Topics, covers all the more advanced and/or obscure parts of Exchange Online administration.
Chapter 6, Administering SharePoint Online, introduces the reader to the SharePoint admin portal and other SharePoint administration techniques needed to manage SharePoint, including some PowerShell.
Chapter 7, Office 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams Administration, introduces the reader to administering Office 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams through the Office 365 admin portal and through PowerShell.
Chapter 8, Understanding Security and Compliance, shows how to secure Office 365 and enforce compliance, and help you manage security, create permissions, and enforce compliance.
Chapter 9, Administering Skype for Business, teaches the reader how to manage the instant messaging, voice, and video components of Skype for Business.
Chapter 10, Administering Yammer, introduces the reader to the Yammer admin portal. Some administration through PowerShell is also included.
Chapter 11, Administering OneDrive for Business, covers everything the reader needs to manage OneDrive for Business for their users.
Chapter 12, Power BI Administration, introduces the reader to the Power BI admin portal.
Chapter 13, Administering PowerApps, Flow, Stream, and Forms, introduces the reader to various new products available in Office 365, what they are useful for, and how to administer them.
Chapter 14, Usage Reporting, shows how to get support and monitor the service health of Office 365.
The topics in this book assume that you have some knowledge of Office 365 and have used it as an end user. We assume that you know what the main components are in Office 365. We also assume that you are not already an advanced administrator of Office 365 who is looking for a book entirely comprising master's-level topics and techniques. Although, in some chapters, some techniques are of the master's level, most range from basic to advanced skills.
In order to perform the techniques in this book, we suggest setting up an Office 365 tenant that you can play around with before applying your newly acquired skills to your actual organizational tenant.
You can sign up for a free 30-day trial tenant at https://products.office.com/en-us/business/compare-more-office-365-for-business-plans. We highly recommend signing up for the E3 or E5 subscription and making yourself the global administrator (this happens automatically if you sign up with your info). You may also want to set up multiple users at different administration levels to test them out. You get 25 user licenses with every trial. You will also need PowerShell, SharePoint Online PowerShell, and Exchange PowerShell in order to execute the scripts.
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