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Michael Van Horenbeeck is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) and Exchange Server MVP from Belgium, with a strong focus on Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Active Directory, and a bit of Lync. Michael has been active in the industry for about 12 years and developed a love for Exchange back in 2000. He is a frequent blogger and a member of the Belgian Unified Communications User Group Pro-Exchange. Besides writing about technology, Michael is a regular contributor to The UC Architects podcast and speaker at various conferences around the world.
Recently, one of my customers reached out to me stating they were having trouble delivering emails due to SPF failures. While it’s not uncommon for SPF checks to fail (you don’t want to know how many organizations struggle implementing SPF records correctly!), I was a little surprised. After all, the customer had successfully implemented SPF records for quite some time now, and rarely ran into issues with it.
Over the past two weeks, Microsoft has made a range of announcements around updates and new releases of Office, Office 365 and Exchange. The fact that Microsoft announces updates is hardly surprising. By now you should be used to the never-ending cascade of new features that are constantly dropped onto the market. A good way to keep track of what’s to come is the Office 365 Roadmap website.
Earlier this week, Tony Redmond wrote about Jeffrey Snover – also known as the godfather of PowerShell – being promoted to Technical Fellow at Microsoft; one of the highest achievable ranks.
Given that Jeffrey is considered to be the founding father of PowerShell, that does not really come as a surprise, as PowerShell has changed the way we work and interact with systems. And this does not only apply to large-scale environments or cloud solutions like Office 365.
A few days ago, Microsoft released the public preview of Exchange 2016 to the world. For many messaging professionals, this is usually an exciting time. But is it really? I remember when Exchange 2007 'hit the market.' I spent quite a few long days and nights discovering the new features and dramatically changed architecture. Pretty much the same happened when Microsoft unleashed Exchange 2010. The newly minted Database Availability Group kept many people – including myself – fascinated and busy for a long time. One of my fondest memories about that time was a hefty, yet in hindsight very funny, discussion that followed a technical presentation at my former employer.
On June 16 2015, Microsoft released Cumulative Update 9 for Exchange Server 2013 along with Update Rollup 10 for Exchange Server 2010 and Update Rollup 17 (yes, that many already) for Exchange Server 2007.
Unfortunately for some, Update Rollup 9 looks like it's going to be another uneventful update —provided that no post-installation issues arise. Except for changing where Sent Items are stored when a message is sent as or on behalf of a Shared Mailbox, Microsoft reported no new features or changes in existing functionality. That is not too surprising, given that Exchange Server 2013 is now in its third year.
Yesterday, Microsoft issued its monthly security bulletin. This time around, the bulletin also includes a fix for a vulnerability that affects only Exchange 2013 environments.
When designing for a migration to Exchange Server 2013, chances are you’ll have to deal with public folders. Given that Exchange 2013 has been around for a while, you might think such a task would be a proverbial walk in the park. Of course, if you are looking at a cookie-cutter environment, you might be right. However, in every design there are elements specific to the customer that require a different approach.
On March 17th, Microsoft released Cumulative Update 8 for Exchange Server 2013. By now, we're all used to the idea that cumulative updates and not only Service Packs have also become a vehicle to introduce new features into Exchange. Hence, it is no surprise that CU8 comes with a bunch of new features and improvements alongside a myriad of bug fixes.
Update 02/13/2014: By popular demand, “Lost modified on:” field has been added which displays the date on which one of the settings on the virtual directory was last modified.
As described in the Office 365 CON 2014 Virtual Conference sessions, “Stairway to heaven – Best practices for Hybrid Deployments”, it is very important that you validate your on-premises environment before getting started with the hybrid bits.
The reason why this is so important has to do with the many interactions between Office 365 [the cloud] and your on-premises environment. Let’s take a look at what components are at stake here.