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THE OLIVE + GOOSE BLOG

Microsoft Ignite 2023, Microsoft’s premier technology conference, took place in Seattle last week from 14-17 November 2023. Per usual, it was bursting with significant announcements, and product updates, where Copilot featured prominently with over 100 updates revealed. New products and features (or enhancements) are always exciting; however, we know that it can also be a …

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Microsoft Inspire 2023 Announcement Highlights

Microsoft Inspire 2023 brought together a diverse audience of professionals, developers, and IT experts from across the globe, both digitally, and in person. Held with great anticipation, this year’s event showcased Microsoft’s latest innovations and future-focused strategies that are set to reshape the technology landscape. During the conference, Microsoft unveiled groundbreaking advancements in Artificial Intelligence …

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Take action to assess and streamline your security posture

Contributors: Collin Schutz, John Cummings, Konstantin Papadakis, Susan Benz Introduction With ever-increasing and more sophisticated cybersecurity threats, such as a 300% increase, nationally, in ransomware in the past year[1], many organizations are choosing to move away from disparate tools that often don’t work together and implement a more streamlined, cloud-based approach. Managing risk using cloud …

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Things to know about SharePoint Migration – Part 2

With the advancements in content management tools and technologies, the way we view, store, and manage content changes day by day. Content migrations are important for moving existing content from legacy systems to modern solutions. In this regard, Microsoft SharePoint Online is the foremost content management and collaboration platform, enabling organizations to effortlessly view and …

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Protecting Yourself from Ransomware with Proper Email Security

Ransomware attacks have become increasingly common in recent years and can have profound consequences for individuals and businesses alike. Ransomware is software designed to maliciously encrypt files on a user’s computer. The attacker will typically demand payment in exchange for either decrypting the files or providing a decryption key. Ransomware and malware are sometimes used …

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Increase your email security posture and save cost at the same time

Olive + Goose helped a large retailer of sports equipment achieve better email security and saved them significant costs by utilizing licenses they already owned to replace a point solution. We helped them migrate from Mimecast to Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Microsoft Defender for Office 365. We can also help you modernize your …

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Things to know about SharePoint Migration – Part 1

Are you planning to migrate SharePoint content to a newer version and looking for details about migration options? This blog post is divided into two parts: part one covers SharePoint migration types, and part two will cover additional migration tools to help you with your SharePoint migration. Content migration is the process of moving content …

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Microsoft Ignite 2022 Recap: “Do more with less”

Last week Microsoft hosted its first in-person Microsoft Ignite event since the pandemic hit the world in 2019. As per the norm, the event kicked off with a keynote by the CEO of Microsoft Corporation, Satya Nadella, whose focus was on “digital perseverance”. His keynote included some of the biggest and most important announcements from …

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Scenarios and Best Practices for Communicating with Your Client: Part 2

In Part 1 of the blog, I talked about the importance of being prescriptive when communicating with your client—especially if you’re joining a project mid-stream. Ask your client how they prefer to communicate tasks or project details with you, and don’t be afraid to let them know your preferred forms of communicating. On your first …

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Scenarios and Best Practices for Communicating with Your Client: Part 1

As a consultant and having worked with many clients over the years, I often look forward to rolling up my sleeves and diving into a new project. I’m all set to meet the client and any team members I might be working with. I happily set up meet-and-greet meetings to introduce myself and come prepared …

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The importance of backups: the boring subject that becomes important if something goes wrong

A difficult conversation In all my years in IT, the most difficult conversations I have had is telling someone their data is gone. After all, that is what computers are for, to store retrieve and process data. I do not have to tell you how upsetting it can be to lose photos, videos and work …

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Microsoft Ignite 2021: Key Announcements You Need To Know

This year’s Ignite conference was once again a virtual-only event featuring free and continuous digital content for 48 hours between March 2nd and March 4th. The event was packed with a series of announcements aimed at developers, IT Pros, enterprise business users, and data professionals. Keeping in mind the challenges the world faces due to …

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Responsible AI

The importance of Responsible AI principles in your AI strategy Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the critical innovations that will continue to change the way the world works in the coming years. In our increasingly digitally connected world, AI strategy and development is a necessary consideration for companies in various industries, from financial services to sports medicine. Whether using machine learning analytics, intelligent security, or other use, AI …

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Top announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2020

In a year full of lockdowns and quarantines, taking Microsoft Ignite virtual rather than cancelling altogether made for a refreshing change. The conference opened with a keynote from CEO Satya Nadella about “Building Digital Resiliency.” Throughout the keynote, in between the announcements, Nadella focused on consumer trust and finding ways to enhance business resilience in …

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Supporting Black Lives Matter by supporting black-owned businesses

As the world wakes up to the racism, discrimination, and fear that black people have felt for generations, we all are trying to do more to help. Whether protesting with the Black Lives Matter movement, donating to the SPLC, or registering to vote – it is clear that we all need to stand beside our …

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Reduce Distractions in Meetings with Microsoft Teams

Many businesses are utilizing online meeting tools now more than ever. Microsoft Teams has become the first choice for organizations that care about security, privacy, and productivity. Once you are in Microsoft Teams, you can create meetings and invite anyone from your team or someone outside your organization. Managing video/audio conferences isn’t difficult, but sometimes …

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Collaborate Securely while Working from Home

We are living in unpredictable times. Due to COVID-19, cities are enforcing lockdowns, countries are closing their borders, and businesses are shut down—all to flatten the curve. Every day, more and more employees are starting to work from home, and to do so, they often need to access company assets from remote locations. IT systems …

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Ten Tips for Working from Home (WFH)

I’ve had the pleasure of running my own company for the last 6 years, and long ago made the decision to hire from anywhere – focusing on the best and brightest. This meant that our team has had plenty of experience working from home and I wanted to take a few minutes to share some …

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Co-Managed or Full-Service Delivery – what’s your flavor?

Upon joining Olive + Goose, my goal was to create a value driven, impactful Support Service to our consulting customers. In my view, O+G’s strength was its depth and experience as a Microsoft partner: a majority of O+G’s consultants are Microsoft Alumni, with a wealth of relevant insights and expertise. This background lends itself well …

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KEY ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM MICROSOFT IGNITE 2019 AND WHY THEY MATTER

Earlier this month, Microsoft held its annual Ignite conference for tech leaders and practitioners in Orlando, FL. This year’s vision keynote by Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, came loaded with some of the biggest software and services announcements, touching on Azure, Office, Cortana, and Microsoft Edge, among others. In this recap, I will cover some relatively …

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Are you ready for the California Consumer Privacy Act?

On June 28, 2018, the California State Assembly and Senate passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), or Assembly Bill 375 (AB 375). Effective on January 1, 2020, the bill will impose new privacy obligations on certain businesses that collect personal information of consumers in California. At present, the bill is intended to …

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Password Managers – they are free and you have no excuse not to use one

In today’s blog post I’m going to switch gears and talk a bit more about something that affects consumers more-so than enterprises. That topic is password management. While this issue is an enterprise problem – it manifests itself horribly in the consumer world. Password management is key, and in this article I plan to offer …

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ANDROID ENTERPRISE ENROLLMENT

We all have heard about Windows Autopilot by now. It is a great product with a seamless out of the box experience (“OOBE”) for Windows devices and above all simplifies the IT admin and end user’s life. Apple’s DEP Program is also quite seamless for end users, and works well with Intune, but what options …

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The Effect of Blockchain Regulation on Washington State’s Fintech Community

As blockchain has emerged onto the world stage, a variety of businesses from Microsoft to  blockchain ecosystem startups have begun experimenting with this new technology. At Olive & Goose, we’ve tracked this development, with special interest near our home offices in Seattle. Seattle seems like it would be a hot bed for blockchain based businesses …

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Imagine never having to type another password…

A friend of mine recently took to social media to complain about his bank website’s newly-implemented two-factor authentication system. And I have to agree – having to enter your account credentials plus receive a phone call or text and enter a 6-digit code on my device is just not a great user experience. But as …

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Windows Autopilot – Closer to perfect

In the 16 months since it was announced, Windows Autopilot has revolutionized the way Windows devices are configured and deployed. Leveraging Microsoft’s cloud technology, Autopilot allows you to set up and pre-configure new Windows 10 devices while eliminating the cost and complexity associated with mass deployments. Prior to Autopilot, the standard procedure for such deployments involved building …

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Establishing a security incident response program

Hackers will go to surprising lengths to infiltrate an organization’s network, typically using threat vectors such as email attachments, websites, and USB removable media as a starting point. Once your account credentials or machine has been compromised, an attacker will typically install a remote trojan or backdoor on your system that allows the attacker to …

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Let’s take a look at the SharePoint Migration Tool from Microsoft

Free Tools! In my last post I touched on getting to the cloud, which can be a challenge if you’re not using the right tools. Metalogix, Sharegate, and AvePoint are all recommended solutions, and you won’t go wrong using any of these. But for now, I’ll leave their pros and cons for a future post. …

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Free Yourself from Server Administration and High Costs Using Cloud Services

In the spirit of the Fourth of July, I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about freeing yourself from the system administration and high overhead costs that come with hosting your own server hardware and infrastructure. Ever since the creation of the first websites and database applications, the same conversations have …

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The Importance of Multi-Factor Authentication

In our business, Olive + Goose works with many industries subject to stringent security requirements, including health care, pharmaceuticals, and defense. Unfortunately, many customers only come to us for help AFTER they have had a security breach. One common scenario that we see involves a phishing attack allowing a bad actor access to a compromised …

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To the Cloud! Know what you’re getting into before your migration

To the Cloud! Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Set up a Microsoft Office 365 tenant, spin up a few SharePoint Online sites for your teams, and you’re off! In a perfect IT world, this kind of fresh start seems like the easiest way to go. But then, well…reality hits. You have an on-premises farm with years …

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GDPR is here!

70% of firms say that they are NOT ready for GDPR1. Enforcement of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect today i.e. May 25, 2018, and we wanted to ensure that you were aware of what the regulation is and that you’re ready. The GDPR sets a new and higher bar for …

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Register now: Free webinar on device and app security

Are you interested in knowing how to manage devices and apps both on-premises and in the cloud, all from a single management console? Is keeping corporate information secure your organization’s top priority but is a growing challenge every day? You can learn about all of this and more by joining our consultant Riaz Javed for …

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Reduce eDiscovery and compliance costs with Advanced eDiscovery in Office 365

Effectively managing ever-growing data stores to meet internal and external compliance requirements is more difficult than ever due to the increased volume of data and diversity of data sources. To continue to meet legal, business, and regulatory compliance challenges, businesses must be able to keep and protect important information and quickly find what’s relevant. To …

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Future-Proof Your Data Management Strategy

Most of the conversation surrounding the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – an expansive new set of data protections which come into force in May 2018 – has focused narrowly on how to make sure businesses are in compliance with the letter of the law – and thus how to avoid incurring its infamously …

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Thinking about Automation? Let Olive + Goose and Microsoft Flow help.

Have you ever wished that you could write custom code to automate some mundane task that you have to do every day? Does having to work with the IT team to create a scope of work or write in-depth requirements seem like way too much hassle for your small project?  Does your company use Office …

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Bifrost Solutions joins Olive + Goose

Olive + Goose is happy to announce the acquisition of Bifrost Solutions, LLC, in a move that strengthens our ability to deliver world class cloud solutions to our customers worldwide. Bifrost Solutions brings years of experience in delivering time-critical solutions which complement Olive + Goose’s commitment to supporting our customers throughout the technology lifecycle. This …

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Demystifying the antimalware pipeline in Office 365

Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is a cloud-based email filtering service that protects organizations in Office 365 and on-premises from a variety of threats such as spam and malware. For tenants that also have Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) enabled, EOP and ATP are integrated to ensure further protection against advanced threats including zero-day malware, …

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