One of the biggest challenges in supporting Office365 is getting a real statement on issues that have been put by users and also those known by Microsoft.
As part of the knowledge base on this site, I’ve provided direct from Microsoft a list of the most common Office365 answers concerning Office, SharePoint, Internet Explorer, Lync and Outlook. Use the below as an indicator; select the relevant technology, and then select the PLUS (+) icon next to the statement to get more information.
Microsft today released a new feature for Office 365. Eligible organizations will soon have access to Sway for Office 365. Sway is an intelligent storytelling app for business that helps create content using a web-based canvas. This could prove extremely useful for those using Office 365 in education.
Sway works by using a design engine helps the production of reports, presentations and more without the need for extensive formatting or additional training. Sway helps by helping the pull together all sorts of content without leaving the app, allowing drag and drop of images, text, videos and charts right onto the canvas.
Note you need to check to see if your Office 365 subscription is eligible to use Sway, visit:
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3080969.
To learn more about Sway and frequently-asked questions from Office 365 Administrators about the Sway experience, visit:
https://aka.ms/SwayAdminFAQ.
To get more information about today’s Sway announcement on the Office Blog, visit:
https://blogs.office.com/2015/08/05/sway-general-availability
Had some fun trying to get a domain validated with Office365. Here’s the issue.
When going for validation, you will be given instructions on setting a TXT or MX record and will be given a validation code to enter with your provider. If the provider given on the page is not yours you could then take a look at the
help screen that gives more details and step by step instructions.
However, it is difficult to ascertain whether the TXT record has been set.
NSLOOKUP comes to the rescue:
- Bring up a Command Prompt
- Enter NSLOOKUP
- type set q=txt
- Enter your Domain Name
You should then get a
response that looks something like this:
Non-authoritative answer:
yourdomain.com text =
“MS=ms1625352”
yourdomain.com nameserver = ns2.123-reg.co.uk
yourdomain.com nameserver = ns.123-reg.co.uk
ns1 internet address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
ns2 internet address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Notice the MS line above – thats the TXT record, and thats what the validation looks for. If you see this, then your domain should be validated successfully.
Introduction
If you run and/or own an Office365 tenant, you are guaranteed 99.9% uptime, you get a Service Health Dashboard, and you can see a Planned Maintenance Schedule.
Whilst these features are crucial to ensuring a resilient platform that gives visibility of status, it is important to recognise that there is another support plan which addresses compliance – particularly when it comes to who is responsible for the service, protection of connection and encryption.
Office 365 (enterprise version) offers enhanced versions of Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Lync Online dedicated support plans that are designed to support the security, privacy, and regulatory compliance meeting the following:
• U.S. federal government agencies requiring certification under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002.
• Commercial entities subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
This document describes the advanced security and privacy features that are available in the ITAR-support plans from Office 365.
It also calls out any significant feature differences between Office 365 ITAR-support plan solutions and Office 365 dedicated plan solutions.
What is ITAR
Microsoft Office 365 ITAR-support plans are a variation of the Microsoft Office 365 dedicated plans. The primary difference is that ITAR-support plan solutions are designed to meet the security, privacy, and regulatory FISMA/FedRAMP compliance requirements for U.S. federal government agencies and support the regulatory needs of companies operating under ITAR.
These enhanced services are offered to customers under the Office 365 ITAR-support subscription plans (“ITAR-support plans”).
The ITAR dedicated support plan attempts to address frustrations of having to deal with generic (raise a support call into a ‘global queue’) helpdesk tickets regarding compliance and security. Another benefit of this support plan is the ability for those providing Office365 to help the customer build SLAs and at the same time provides more confidence in the use of online systems. Since ITAR is specific, the support resources applied will be closer to the relevant issues and will define solutions specific to those relevant issues.
Summary of ITAR
Data Protection
Encryption at Rest and Encryption in Transit
Encryption at Rest and Encryption in Transit is covered, describing that documents would be encrypted using AD RMS. Effectively, this means that users would access AD RMS documents using AD authentication. Note that Encryption at Rest only applies to Exchange and SharePoint Online. As for Encryption in Transit, there is a description concerning dedicated and Internet Connectivity.
Environment and Customer Isolation
Environment Isolation, which is the isolation of the Office 364 Environment. Per Customer Isolation – describes where data is held and how as an ITAR plan customer hardware is provisioned and segregated. Note that this segregation covers only Exchange, SharePoint and Lync online.
Connectivity Protection
Trusted Connection
Trusted Internet Connection. Very useful for thise customers who need support for TIC requirements, Office365 ITAR support plans provide a dedicated connection, rather than an direct internet connection to data centres. This service is provided to SharePoint, Exchange and Lync only.
Two Factor Authentication
Smart cards using PIV (Personal Identity Verification) can be used to ensure secure authentication of clients. However, there are a number of client responsibilities described, including PIV implementation, client side authentication, including PKI and card management. This ITAR supported provision covers Exchange and SharePoint only.
Compliance and Support considerations
Described is the ITAR level plan information concerning compliance with FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) covering service hosting, and Microsofts’ plans to to comply with FEDRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program). Also, discussed are the security and screening features concerning dedicated hardware, infrastructure location, security access and screening.
Personnel and Background Checks
ITAR ensures that those responsible for supporting Office365 systems on behalf of customers undergo stringent personnel and background checks as follows:
- Employment History Check
- Education Verification
- Social Security Number (SSN) Search
- Criminal History Check
- Office of Foreign Assets Control List (OFAC)
- Bureau of Industry and Security List (BIS)
- Office of Defense Trade Controls Debarred Persons List (DDTC)
- Fingerprinting Check
The article details what kind of checks are carried out and that they are recurring checks. This is applied to Exchange, SharePoint and Lync.
Further Reading
Whilst reading up on ITAR, I found a number of other documents which are extremely useful and I would strongly suggest you check them out:
Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 – FISMA
Recognises the importance of information security to the economic and national security interests of the United States. The act requires each federal agency to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide program to provide information security for the information and information systems that support the operations and assets of the agency, including those provided or managed by another agency, contractor, or other source.
International Traffic in Arms Regulations – ITAR
Controls the export and import of defense-related articles and services on the United States Munitions List (USML).
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program – FEDRAMP
For security in Cloud computing, the US Government has compliance audits such as Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) which cloud providers can go through to meet security standards.
FEDRAMP is a program which develops relationships between Federal agencies and cloud service providers. The program is designed to be compliant with FISMA.
Microsoft Office 365 ITAR-Support Service and Network Descriptions
Documents that support and further describe FISMA and ITAR-Support Solutions Service Description and the Network Service Description for Office 365 ITAR Support Plans
Office 365 Dedicated
Resources covering Office 365 dedicated service descriptions, deployment guidance and dedicated administration.
For anyone working with software systems will know that there is nothing on the planet that is so completely frustrating, as a solution that does not work. Downtime leads to increased overhead costs, lost productivity, lost customer satisfaction and lost revenue. This hits business users of course, but also those who are there to support the business.
Small business users are especially hit by this since they are completely dependent upon the technology. Take into consideration therefore that if businesses do not understand the provisions of support for a cloud service that they will particularly suffer, especially since they will not, in the main have direct access to IT staff to aid them.
Office 365 carries with it solutions (SharePoint, Lync, Mail, Yammer, Office) within a significant number of feature such as Identity, Exchange, Rights Management, etc. Just think of what a small business will need to go through to start to raise a call concerning an issue if there is a problem with one or more of those solutions. And those with internal IT teams to help will fair no better. Having an IT team to turn to, without understanding that self service is available, that tools, troubleshooting techniques, videos, forums that are available, does not warrant a successful support structure. Additionally, the support level in Office 365 needs to marry with expectations from the client. You can only do that by understanding the provision of support provided.
So, here’s a call to action. For those utilising Office 365, or even providing Office365 to clients, I would strongly suggest that the following article is read and understood. And, before you start saying ‘this will not apply to me because I am using SharePoint 2013 on-prem, and I might be using an Office 365 tenant’ – it does!
The article describes:
- Community and self-service support options – describes the various resources that can be used to provide self-help.
- Pre-sales support – describes the various assistance provisions for understanding features, benefits, plan comparisons, pricing, licensing, etc.
- Billing and subscription management support – describes the kind of assistance for signing up, renewing subscriptions, paying bills, etc.
- Technical Support – describes what areas of support will be covered and how.
- Shared Support Responsibilities – very important for those who will need multiple roles in their Office 365 administration and support management scenarios.
- Additional support options – describes three other levels of support like Microsoft Cloud Vantage, Premier and Professional Direct Support, including partners, developers and volume licensing.
- Features – describes the support options, like phone support, technical, billing, pre-sales, etc. against the differing licencing options available for Office 365.
So check out the article on this link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-365-support.aspx
