scuff

How big is your office? It's a learning curve for teams, as you explore functionality beyond just sending emails and making powerpoint presentations.

Thanks bot. I have another article due next week that you are welcome to write for me.

True, but in a SaaS context you're removing the cost of hardware, ongoing maintenance and some/most support tasks. You incur those costs too on-prem - you just don't see them in a separate monthly invoice. Note I'm not saying that means Cloud all the things, everybody. I know some businesses who prefer to invest in…

Absolutely - with new and shiny comes risk, so as a consumer you have to be very careful throwing all of your eggs in a new product basket. Easier for larger companies to sink some time and money into a test bed, proof of concept etc, but there's still risk in making that decision to adopt into production when the…

It's rare to see innovation in a 'standard' business, agreed, and by that I mean a business who hasn't developed an innovative product or service, but an innovative way of making or delivering a standard product or service. Yet the possibilities are endless!

I do too!

Absolutely! The right tool for the right job, implemented the right way. I like hearing of those case studies where companies are using IDM to obscure login details to Cloud services, to retain control. And back in a previous role ( a long time ago) one client embarked on a HUGE corporate identity project with some…

You've circled around to one of the biggest issues I'm seeing - Trust that the Cloud provider will do as good a job as we can do, from ongoing work to recovering form a failure, and our need to be in control.

Yes, if there's a chance for anything -as-a-Service you'll find it these days. Identity as a Service is generally a Cloud based user directory, usually applicable across multiple SaaS services. And I hear you re magic quadrants. In the SMB world, they'd go "Magic what?" -SCuffy

I'm sorry, George, I'm afraid I can't do that.

If you're talking about Office 365 Groups, the main difference is it's all used within Outlook and collaboration is email-driven. Here are a couple of additional blog posts: Will Office 365 Groups Displace Team Sites? -- Redmondmag.com SharePoint 2013: Office 365 Groups and SharePoint Team Sites

Test environments help. Pick a small repetitive task and see if you can make it easier/faster/better. Do you have any examples where automation isn't a good idea?

Do you have a Google account?

Now that looks like an interesting read!!

"Are we forced to trust that which we cannot verify?" Good question. I'd say "Can we trust that which we cannot verify?" And I'm wondering if we do that other areas of our lives? Certainly there are people who never give any real details online, don't use Internet banking etc, but with all of the online services we put a…

That's a whole other story - different password expirations, different password quality and length across multiple systems. No wonder passwords can be a nightmare!

You'll love my next article then.

Microsoft has made great strides with security clearance here in Australia, but I can't ever see classified workloads going anywhere near the Cloud and for good reasons: The official seal of approval was granted in late June 2017, with Azure, Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365 added to the Australian Signals Directorate…

Agree with you both and it varies depending on the Cloud service. There are some great SaaS capabilities that mean I don't need a DBA. But for PaaS and IaaS for sure that's a different skillset, so you might need an Azure or AWS expert that you don't already have (unless you're upskilling in-house resources). Someone asked…

Absolutely. Do you think the Enterprise customer has much change of swaying the contract arrangements for a SaaS offering? Part of the cost effectiveness of SaaS is the low/no level of platform customisation. And yet a lot of SaaS vendors play in the Enterprise space.

lol why do they think we get this stuff for free?!?

Couldn't agree more!

Certainly. If you can automate the good ... you can automate the bad.

Too many occurrences of Windows 98 or Windows 95 workstations still in micro business (eg car mechanics) and manufacturing (running application software that controls machinery) because the owners have not sought to find an alternative application or the machinery manufacturer hasn't kept up with the times. First step is…

Microsoft is having a fun time trying to convince sys admins that the in place upgrade is not how we know it! I can understand the hesitation based on history, but it really is a completely new process. Maybe they needed a better title for it?

That's interesting. Even the 'colourful' theme really isn't colourful. It is a big look and feel change from 2007, for sure.

It's more a communication tool for groups of people, as opposed to emailing attachments etc. This is also a good run through, and if you don't have time to watch the video they've also embedded the slide deck AND provided a full text transcript. Groups for Office 365: How It Works & How to Manage Them | Sharegate

I agree that automation doesn't replace knowledge, but I've seen it make it easier for teams to share that knowledge. If you do something manually naturally because you know the system, you can run the risk of those stars in the team where that knowledge is only in their head. Scripting something means that someone else…

Oh the lovely term serverless! It's the easiest way to get sys admins fired up. I laugh and say it's like calling McDonald's "kitchenless". There's still a kitchen, but I don't have to change the fryer fat or clean it up. I get why software developers like the concept of "serverless". If their applications are…

That's been a huge strategic change for them - not just focussing on their own platform. Sadly it's getting loyal Windows Phone fans offside (all 5 of us) as new Microsoft products are released for other platforms first. I'm hoping Windows Phone doesn't have a death sentence .. but it's getting harder and harder to remain…