Don'tcha just LOVE meetings? Microsoft does, too, so here are some new Teams features, you lucky, lucky people
- Reference: 1595355788
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/07/21/microsoft_teams_rooms/
- Source link:
While Teams Rooms Premium offloads the responsibility for running meeting rooms (and compatible devices, which Microsoft's partners will be overjoyed to flog to customers) to Microsoft, the Standard version (formerly known as "Meeting Room") unveiled at the company's virtual Inspire event adds options to the Teams Admin Center aimed at making the management of a fleet of Teams Room devices easier.
Unsurprisingly, the $15 per device per month of the Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard is quite a bit down from the $50 per device per month of the Premium version (although the latter is due to receive some extra "experiences" at some point in the future).
Windows Server spotted behind cloudy curtain as Microsoft unveils the next generation of Azure Stack HCI [2]READ MORE
As well as improvements around the meeting room experience, Microsoft also teased a new Power BI app for Teams users aimed at creating a single place for data and visualisation rather than the scattergun approach sometimes seen today. Power Apps developers and those responsible for chatbots will also be able to make and manage their emissions directly in Teams, with apps built with Power Apps at last understanding the form factor on which they are running.
Both the Power BI app and Power Apps features are due to land in August, with the latter in Public Preview form. The former will turn up in the Apps section of Teams.
Microsoft [3]is also adding extra security features to its Microsoft 365 platform, including public previews of Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP), extra toys for its Insider Risk Management and Communication Compliance system and new double key encryption.
DLP is all about stopping data leaking out of an organisation via context-based policy enforcement. It already features in the likes of Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive. Endpoint DLP extends things, and is built into Windows 10, Microsoft's Edge browser and the Office applications making an additional agent to monitor things redundant.
Insider Risk Management now features additional Windows 10 signals to spot (for example) when files are being copied to USB or network shares. Other new signals come from the likes of Teams and Exchange to soothe enterprises feeling a bit nervous about employees suddenly remote working.
Finally, the public preview of Double Key Encryption for Microsoft 365 will see two keys being used to protect data. One key is under the control of the customer while the other is retained by Microsoft. Both are needed to view data (meaning that the Redmond gang cannot access confidential information). ®
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[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/21/microsoft-teams-meetings-hybrid-workplace-options/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/21/azure_stack_hci/
[3] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/21/meeting-experiences-teams-security-capabilities-microsoft-365/
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Meetings, Bloody Meetings
The saddest bit is not the endless meetings which occur at times which suit nobody, it is that various people can be relied on to talk complete bollocks for the original length of the meeting meaning it has to be either extended or rescheduled to cover the actual purpose of the original meeting.
Moving these meetings online seems to have actually made things worse as they are even harder to shut up if you can't reach over and slap them so I just say I am leaving and drop off the call. If I get invited to the next one I give them 5 minutes to get on with it before I just leave
Re: Meetings, Bloody Meetings
amen to that. I hate the creeping death "team meetings" - let's go around the room updating the boss. I don't understand why these can't be done in 10 minute individual 1:1 meetings so that just the boss gets to burn down an hour of their life instead of the entire department. There is zero interaction between the rest of the team so you just end up in a video surveilled queue to provide your stock answer: "everything is fine, see you next week."
what passes for management these days needs more than a software update.
Double Key Encryption
One key is under the control of the customer while the other is retained by Microsoft. Both are needed to view data
Why would you entrust MS with one of the keys? If you don't want anyone else to access your data, isn't it simpler to encrypt *only* with your own key?
Re: Double Key Encryption
Well, you kinda are: from a security standpoint, the Microsoft-controlled key is irrelevant and may as well not be there.
The only (nebulous) benefit is that if your key is compromised, MS may be able block access by withdrawing their key from the data set (aka dismounting the drive), but this could just as easily and safely be done by any means of taking the data store offline (or firewalling it to just your HQ).
Re: Double Key Encryption
Most users suck at security. If the user key leaks, their data is still protected by Microsoft's security.
Also, this is probably built on top of the pre-existing way of working, which was "everything is protected by Microsoft's security". Adding another layer of encryption won't make anything worse. Changing things may make things subtly worse in ways not realised until someone hacks it in a few years. What's worse, having the underlying mechanism change depend on whether the customer is using the "customers's keys" option makes that code more complex - and hence more likely to have bugs, and much more difficult to review or to security audit.
So this way is probably more secure.
Meetings, Bloody Meetings
Why are so many useless and unproductive meetings? Modern technology hasn't helped. It has if anything made it worse es.pecially since we implimented Teams. I'm sure that there are detailed logs of who attends what and when and for how long. Those will no doubt be used against people when it comes to being selected for redundancy
The title of this post is from an old training video fronted by John Cleese and called 'Meetings Bloody Meetings!'.
I hate the things especially ones that start five minutes BEFORE the work day is supposed to begin. I've started to request a detailed agenda with time slots.
There has been a reduction in requests for my attendance. The upside is that I can actually get some work done until I get laid off that is.