by Steve Galloway | Nov 25, 2014
Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 are cloud based services which can be accessed from Microsoft’s braowser based OWA application. Outlook for desktop continues plays an important for users who want to manage email, calendars, and even OneDrive and Sharepoint services. This capability is really the domain of the power user, however Hosted Exchange connects to Outlook 2007, 2010, and 2013, and Office 365 users can download Microsoft’s most current version of Outlook 2013 for desktop as part of their subscription service.
by Steve Galloway | Nov 25, 2014
As users distribute more content to multiple mobile devices, issues of data leakage, data privacy, and data protection become increasingly important. Microsoft Exchange can cope with connectivity to a maximum of 5 devices per user, so the number of devices exposing an organisation to liability under data protection laws extend far beyond the number of an organisation’s “on-premise” workstations.
In the event of a lost mobile phone, laptop, or tablet which contains your customers’ personal data by way of contact information, emails, and/or documents, it is not enough to ask a mbile phone supplier to stop a SIM card – many smartphones can continue to connect to cloud services wirelessly to access organizational information and contact information even after disconnection from telco services.
ComStat is an authorised Microsoft Clour Partner, and is additionally authorised as a qualified network administrator. This means our engineers have a thorough working knowledge of advanced Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 technologies to help organisations subscribing to our supported services to deal rapidly with “won’t happen to me” events like lost mobile phones so that policies can be established to configure devices by brand, model, or individual, invoke keypad security, and restrict or wipe organisational data in the event of loss, including overseas travel.
by Steve Galloway | Nov 24, 2014
Microsoft Outlook Web App (or Outlook Web Access) is a browser-based email client. Outlook Web App (OWA) lets users access their Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox from almost any web browser. The tools has proven immensely popular, and in some cases organisations forego the deployment of desktop versions of Outlook in favour of OWA’s clean and intuitive presentation.
Additionally, OWA connects you to your contacts, calendars, tasks, and Office 365 tools like Sharepoint, Word online, Excel online etc., and other management facilities for handling your Office 365 accounts. Depending on user rights, some users have access to advanced services which permit network administration of in-house and third party installations.
by Steve Galloway | Oct 17, 2014
Office 365 users can tap into the Office Store’s app inventory to customise Office 365.
The facility enables authorised users to install apps from the Office 365 store.
Popular apps include Microsoft’s “Bing Maps”, which detects addresses in email content and gives users options to open maps within Outlook Web Acces (OWA). Another app which admins love is a tool for rendering email headers, which for some reason Microsoft have made so difficult for engineers to access in later versions of Outlook.
The real value comes for organisations whose admins can install apps within their Office 365 environment, and either make apps optionally available to end users, or push apps directly to end user accounts. This “server room” capability hints at Office 365’s more extensive features available to administrators, who have access to Exchange 2013’s full suite of management tools, which range from user account management to archiving policies and even options for managing, restricting, or wiping data on user’s connected mobile phones and tablets, following loss or theft.
For a thirty trial of Office 365, or for a demonstration of services, please contact Steve Galloway on 07834 461 266.
Message Header Screen shots
The Message Header Analyzer runs as a drop down windows in OWA’s email reading pane. Users click open the tool for a fully featured report on transport, anti-spam data, and other headers which help engineers isolate delivery issues. This screen shot shows summary header information – click on the images to see full res detail :
Message Analyzer also reports on header information not usually available in mainstream services like GMail, Windows Live, and Yahoo. Data is broken down into categories to help engineers understand present or potentially developing spam problems and transit information. In this screen shot, we have opened the “Original Headers” tab to capture raw data which is meaningful to engineers when troubleshooting. Click on the images to see full res detail:
