Teams, Teams, Teams!

Teams, Teams, Teams!

Yesterday Microsoft announced Microsoft Teams, which is a new service in Office 365. It is an integral part of Office 365 Groups, which again is an integral part of the future of collaboration in the cloud. You can access Teams on your own Office 365 subscription at https://teams.microsoft.com. Diving in I am a huge believer in trying, and possibly failing fast. A bit after last night’s announcement I activated Teams on my own company’s production Office 365 subscription. We are a relatively small company of just a little under 30 people – techies, sales and backoffice ninjas, so activating a …
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Configuring Synology to synchronize with Microsoft Azure

Configuring Synology to synchronize with Microsoft Azure

I’ve been looking for a robust and affordable storage solution for use at home, and possibly at the office also. A few years ago I found the Synology devices, and started my journey by purchasing a Synology DS 412+ device (the ‘12’ reflects the year of release, and 4 reflects the amount of disks the device can hold). It’s been a truly great investment as I can use the same small form-factor device for my media needs with Plex, backup, apps and storage. It’s been really robust with zero issues or hiccups during the two years or so I’ve been …
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I’m renewed as Microsoft MVP!

I’ve been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for two years now. On SharePoint for the first year and Office Servers and Services this past year. I received good news last Friday that I am renewed as a Microsoft MVP for 3rd year, on Office Servers and Services – as it is my primary field of work and expertise. It’s been a very busy 12 months for me – numerous events that I’ve organized and co-organized, tons of conferences and seminars I’ve been a speaker at, a few books I’ve published or co-written, and so many workshops I’ve lost count. Spring is …
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Thoughts

Thoughts from beta certification exam 70-339: Managing SharePoint 2016

I’ve been waiting for the first IT Pro exam on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016 to become available – the 70-339 Managing SharePoint 2016. I might have missed the beta announcement, but I noticed from Pearson VUE, that you are able to book the exam before the official release date of June 23rd. Without really having time to prepare I took the exam today (20th of June), after a huge cup of coffee. Studies possibly show that adequate levels of caffeine might boost your short-term memory. I cannot go into details on the questions themselves, so here are some initial thoughts …
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Shout it out loud!

My checklist for speaking at conferences and events

June 23rd: Updates: This post was updated with community comments and additional ideas on – see the end of the post for the changes. I decided early last year I would focus a bit more energy and effort for speaking at conferences and events than I normally do. I’ve been a Microsoft Certified Trainer since 2003, so there has been plenty of speaking opportunities in classrooms and for slightly larger audiences. I wanted to have more speaking opportunities outside Finland, and also in shorter pieces. Instead of a 3 day workshop, I craved for a 30-60 minutes “straight to the …
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Thank you, SharePoint Saturday Netherlands 2016!

I was happy to be accepted as a speaker for SharePoint Saturday Netherlands, which was held in Vianen (near Utrecht) last weekend. It’s been a super busy May and June for me so far, yet I was very happy to be able to make a visit to the Netherlands before the holiday season. My sister (and her Dutch husband) live near Utrecht, so the event was also a good opportunity for me to catch up with them. Last time our catch-up ended at 5 am by bicycling through Utrecht – so good memories. Flying to Schiphol is rather easy, as …
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Thank you, SharePoint Saturday Paris 2016!

I was honored and privileged to be chosen as a speaker for SharePoint Saturday Paris 2016. The event was held this past weekend, 28th of May at the Montparnasse Tower. My trip started as usual from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland. I normally fly Finnair, and after a few years of collecting the elusive flyer’s miles I am finally able to get free coffee in the lounge. I’m not fully certain if this is the peak of my exclusive membership, but it sure feels like a lot of work. Upon arriving to Charles de Gaulle airport I decide to take …
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Windows proverbs

Thank you, SharePoint Saturday Madrid!

I had the honor to attend SharePoint Saturday Madrid this past weekend as a speaker. This was the second such event in Spain for me, the previous one being SharePoint Saturday Barcelona in September 2015. My Spanish language skills are still very much missing, broken and limited but I was happy to realize I could kind of follow a simple discussion – those few minutes on Duolingo I took last year are starting to pay off! The event was held at Microsoft Madrid offices. One of the main reasons for attending SharePoint Saturday events for me is the chance to …
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The Future of SharePoint: collection of resources

Today is May 4th, or Star Wars day, and also the date for The Future of SharePoint announcements from Microsoft. I knew that many of my friends, colleagues and people I follow on social media would blog about the event during the webcast, as well as their thoughts on the new and shiny things for SharePoint, OneDrive for Busines and Office 365. So, while I love writing I also seem to be a bit too busy to do it properly this time of the year. My company’s fiscal year ends on April 30th, so there’s some housekeeping that needs to …
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Build keynote (2nd day)

Second day announcements and thoughts from Build 2016

(This blog post is being updated during the keynote, last updated 31st of March, 10:50 am PDT) Today is the second day of Build 2016 in San Francisco. I wrote about my travel and first day in another post. Expectations for this day are high, as yesterday’s keynote was somewhat a let-down. There were good bits, but not the usual wow-effect people have come to expect from an event like this. A lot of the stuff that was shown was either previously released and marketing hype was strong during the talks. Second day keynote Keynote starts, as expected, with Scott …
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