TOP STORIES #57

Probably the biggest news of the week is Microsoft's unbundling of Teams From Office worldwide. This will probably benefit nobody.

If you have a volume licensing agreement, it is VERY important to read more about this below.

Last Week's TOP STORIES #56 is here.

If you would like colleagues to sign up to this newsletter, they can click here.

Hardware

Terabit-per-second data transfer speeds are coming

It is now looking certain that we will see these transfer rates before 2030, as we already are seeing devices supporting PCIe 6 that achieve 800Gb/s. You can read more about what to expect here.

The Key-Code for the CoPilot Key

This is for the inner Geek in you. The key (F23) actually exists on an ancient IBM Terminal keyboard which you can read more about here.

Microsoft

Windows 11 24H2 on track for September. LTSC Edition confirmed

This piece of news is very important as it tells Corporates that THIS is the edition that should be adopted. LTSC is a version of Windows Enterprise that’s designed for stability and as such, feature updates are infrequent and can be delayed or skipped entirely, and only opting for crucial security patches and fixes is an option.

This is NOT typically the version you should install on your users' machines. It is intended for critical systems that should be "touched" as little as possible.

Time to Deploy Windows 11 (almost - read above)

Microsoft has just given you the best incentive possible to start the migration to Windows 11 before Windows 10 comes to the end of Support in October 2025. The price for extended support has been announced! $61 in the first year, and then doubling every year after that!

Teams unbundled from Office

Score: EU=0 Microsoft=1

This is actually old news first published in TOP STORIES #26. It started years back with Slack complaining to the EU that it was uncompetitive for the EU to allow Microsoft to sell Office bundled with Windows, as it prevented companies like Slack from selling their offering to compete with Teams.

Well, Slack got it's wish.

Directions on Microsoft analyst Jim Gaynor said: "In the end, this move is about Microsoft trying to stay ahead of regulatory scrutiny, not about offering customers a way to reduce costs."

What is really important to read is this paper from Directions on Microsoft, where you should particularly note this statement:

"Because so many Microsoft and third-party products are integrated with Teams these days or use Teams-based apps as their main user interfaces, axing Teams might not be a simple decision. Many of those using Microsoft 365 Copilot claim the most useful piece is Teams Copilot."

The benefits of Teams with CoPilot is very impressive, and if you have not explored just how impressive the results you get from Meeting summaries, recaps etc.... I recommend that you reach out to our Unified Communications Division, GaldonData, here, to request a demo of the more advanced and impressive features of Teams with CoPilot. (In the "Let us know how we can help box" - just enter #57). And of course refer to our CoPilot workshops below.

Redmondmag has published a more detailed breakdown of the Teams and No Teams pricing here. This site from Microsoft has more information but is more directed at partners.

When it comes to the pricing implications and how this will affect your agreement, especially when it comes to planning your renewal, it is ESSENTIAL that you contact your First Tech Licensing account manager to understand your options going forward.

New Planner for Teams rolling out

Complete with a new logo, Microsoft is rolling out this update in Teams right now. so It should appear in your Teams soon.

The new Planner app in Teams mashes up the features found in the older To Do, Planner, and Project for the web apps. It includes the new My Tasks view, where you can see all of your scheduled tasks on one page, including from basic and premium plans in one and from other Microsoft apps like Loop, Teams, and emails.

Cloud & AI

Opera allows users to run LLM's locally

This is a big deal that you can now download multiple LLM's to experiment with them locally. You can read more about this here. NVIDIA also has an LLM that you can experiment with on your own machine that you can download here.

Major Upgrade to CoPilot

Right after Open AI making GPT 3.5 freely available, all CoPilot users now have access GPT-4 Turbo, a massive context window and up to 100 image generations per day. You can read more here.

Security

Dangerous DOS Server attack

Here's a reminder to always keep security a top priority. Recently, a new attack has been discovered that can crash web servers. Read more here.

What's up at FTG

CoPilot Readiness FTG is offering an M365 CoPilot Readiness Workshop to help you get ready. You can register here

Copilot for Security You and your team are invited to a one-on-one demo session we are hosting featuring Microsoft Security Copilot. It's a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase this cutting-edge technology to you. Sign up here.

Movies

Now Playing: The First Omen

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12 April: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

12 April: Mothers Instinct

12 April: Back to Black

12 April: Civil War