Monthly Update #114 Now Available to Office 365 For IT Pros Subscribers

The Office 365 for IT Pros writing team is delighted to announce the release of monthly update #114. Current subscribers can download copies of the updated PDF and EPUB files for the Office 365 for IT Pros (2025 edition) eBook from Gumroad.com through their account or by using the download link in the receipt emailed to them. For more details about how to get the latest files, please visit our FAQ. Details of the changes made in update #114 can be found in our change log.

Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell Gets an Update Too

The Automating Microsoft 365 for IT Pros eBook has also been updated and is now at version 6.0. We’re particularly pleased with the progress this book has made since its launch. It now spans some 270 pages and contains more content about using PowerShell to automate common Microsoft 365 processes than anywhere else.

Updated files for Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell are included in the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook bundle. Those who bought standalone copies of Automating Microsoft 365 for IT Pros eBook can also download updated PDF and EPUB files using the download link in their receipts. We’ve also updated the paperback edition of Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell on Amazon.com. Obviously, paperback copies are one-off purchases that cannot be upgraded. If we had the technology to update paperbacks with new content, we’d consider using it, but no such facility exists.

Digesting Ignite 2024

As expected, Microsoft made a bunch of Microsoft 365 announcements at the Ignite 2024 conference. Many of the announcements were focused on making their AI tools more manageable and useable in customer environments. Disappointingly, many Microsoft 365 tenants won’t see the product of that work because they don’t have expensive Copilot licenses. Let’s hope that the results of the new technology show up for everyone in the future.

Most of the Ignite 2024 announcements haven’t shown up in production tenants yet and won’t appear for several months. That’s just the nature of marketing events, a category that Ignite is now firmly in. But we’ll keep a keen eye on developments and make sure that important changes show up in Office 365 for IT Pros as soon as features are available in production.

Speaking of AI, I received quite a response from the article published about the affect AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot exert over sites that publish articles about technology. Companies like Microsoft will continue to publish documentation for their products. The danger lies that sites specializing in independent commentary and insight might cease operations because their sources of revenue are being choked.

We live in interesting times, or so we’re told. AI isn’t going to go away and will become more embedded in technology as years go by. The question is how knowledge sharing within the technology community will evolve. It would be a pity if knowledge started to be hidden behind paywalls, but that’s what might be necessary to stop AI reusing knowledge without payment.

Off to Stockholm

This coming week I shall be at the ESPC conference in Stockholm, Sweden. I’m speaking about decoding the Microsoft 365 audit log at 10:30am on Tuesday (session T7) and the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK on at 10:15am Wednesday (session W3). If you’re at the ESPC, please come along and say hi. I’d love to hear your comments about how we can improve the Office 365 for IT Pros and Automating Microsoft 365 with PowerShell eBooks. The great thing about eBooks is that we can respond to user feedback by tweaking the updates we incorporate into our monthly updates, starting with update #115, our first of 2025.