Orchestry continues to deliver on its mission to make work simple in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and across Microsoft 365 with the latest release. Paying close attention to Orchestry Partner and customer feedback and enhancements requests, this Compliance release aims to hit the mark on the biggest, boldest and brightest requests submitted to date. The second release of 2021 is the biggest one yet and Orchestry is aiming higher from here.
Regionalization for Performance & Data Sovereignty
Orchestry is now split into multiple regions including North America, Australia Pacific, and Europe, and will be using the following data centers:
- North America Region – Azure Data Centers: US Central and US East 2
- European Region – Azure Data Centers: Europe North and Europe West
- Australia Pacific Region – Azure Data Centers: Australia East and Australia South East
The regional split brings users several benefits. To start, we will now have more room to scale with Orchestry across regions and to accommodate the incredible growth that we have seen. In addition, customers that are using Orchestry in APAC and Europe will see significant performance improvements as they are accessing a data center closer to their geographic location.
This latest release also addressed data sovereignty challenges as European and Australian customers will have data stored in those regions. Not to mention, Orchestry now has a system where environments can now be upgraded with no downtime to users. Finally, the Orchestry infrastructure has also changed to introduce redundancy, failover, and scalability using the latest capabilities available in Microsoft Azure.
New Data Storage for Better Security and Customer Control
We know that organizations want to be in complete control of their data and the latest release of Orchestry has transformed the way data is stored. Certain aspects that were earlier stored by Orchestry, will now be saved in the new Storage library located directly in your Microsoft 365 environment.
Items such as our rich document template thumbnails, Feature configurations, all logs and files associated with Workspace requests, and any custom PnP files that you use will now be stored directly in your Microsoft 365 tenant so that you can control the access, content, and duration of this data.
Latest PnP Version + Improvements
Orchestry has now been updated to the latest and greatest PnP version, with many additional capabilities expanded upon by the Orchestry team. We know that our customers love the PnP Framework to provide additional flexibility to Orchestry in provisioning and are very happy to be on the latest version to take advantage of this great community effort.
Workspace Directory Filtering Enhancements
There were some exciting enhancements made to the Orchestry Workspace Directory in January 2021, but there is more. In the latest release, there are better filtering capabilities by adding: Workspace Type Filter, Sensitivity Label Filter, and Classification Label Filter.
As requested, the option to filter workspace by the type used when creating the workspace is now available. These might look like small changes, but they are extremely meaningful and important for a seamless user experience. Users can now find content by the type of template that was originally used to create the Workspace as well as Sensitivity or Classification.
Sensitivity and Classification Label Support
Providing support for Sensitivity Labels in Orchestry is a sizable portion of the features being introduced in this release. Orchestry now has full support to use Sensitivity Labels to control Workspace attributes such as privacy, guest access, SharePoint default sharing options, and access from unmanaged devices.
As Microsoft further expands on these new abilities Orchestry will continue to provide support for container-based features in Sensitivity Labels for Teams, Team Sites, Group, and Communication Sites.
Image: Configuring Sensitivity Labels in Microsoft 365
But that isn’t all! Providing a simple way just to choose a Sensitivity Label isn’t the only thing we have done. Orchestry now allows additional configuration options above and beyond what Microsoft offers.
For instance, you have the option to enforce a Sensitivity Label for a Workspace Template. This means that for a particular type of template Orchestry will automatically associate the Sensitivity Label without giving the users a choice. Great for scenarios where an organization requires complete control.
Also, we provide the option for users to pick a Sensitivity Label during the request process but unlike the out-of-the-box experience, you can also limit the Sensitivity Labels to a subset for the Workspace Template. This is a noteworthy feature, as this is not a feature included in Microsoft 365, and provides additional control and a simpler end-user experience.
Image: Microsoft Teams Sensitivity Labels End User Experience in Orchestry
Microsoft SharePoint Group Options with Workspace Templates
Based on popular demand, Orchestry has introduced the feature where administrators can now control various group options on a Workspace Template level. The control capabilities include a wide range of new opportunities to implement and manage governance across the tool. We found talking to our customers that many administrators were either running PowerShell to control these items after Workspace creation or having to manually use the Groups Administration center and perform this task manually.
Well, no more with Orchestry as this process can be completely automated.
Image: SharePoint Sharing Configuration Options in Orchestry
What can you do with these options? Firstly you can now control guest access on a Workspace by Workspace basis! A huge win that provides all the control that organizations need to manage their external users and guest.
Also hiding a Workspace from the Global Address List or removing it from the Exchange clients are common asks which can now be easily performed. Disabling the Group welcome email is another popular ask especially when you can use the Orchestry Webhook feature to fire off PowerAutomate and create your own custom welcome email! Amazing for adoption.
SharePoint Site Sharing Options for Governance
Controlling SharePoint Site sharing is usually done at the Tenant level as it requires manual work or automation. In this latest Orchestry release we give you the ability to control SharePoint External Sharing, Default Link Type and Default Link permissions on a Workspace by Workspace basis.
This capability means that you can better ensure governance, compliance and end user experience for all your Workspaces. For example, for your Project Workspaces you might want to enable sharing with Anyone as you want to encourage cross organizational collaboration. But for your Internal Department Workspace, you want to ensure that this content doesn’t get shared with those outside the organization so you can control sharing to only people in your organization.
Taking Orchestry customer feedback very seriously, in conjunction with general feedback from the community Orchestry has also provided the ability to set the Default Link Type to ‘People with Existing Access’. This is something not available out of the box with Microsoft 365 and with over 830 votes in Microsoft’s User Voice you can see how important this is!
All of these options in Orchestry provide an unparalleled level of governance and adoption for Microsoft 365. We are super excited about all the new capabilities and hope you will love them as much as we do.
Join the Orchestry Work Made Simple Journey
If you haven’t already joined the Orchestry Work Made Simple across Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint Online journey, there are many ways to commence:
- Are you a Microsoft Partner? Join our Orchestry Partner Network.
- Are you an organization looking to get started with Microsoft Teams? Request an Orchestry Work Made Simple Demo.
- Are you an organization ready to clean up your rush to remote work with MS Teams? Request FREE access to Orchestry with an MS Teams Remediation session.
- Are you an organization looking to do more with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365? Request a FREE Trial of Orchestry to learn how Orchestry can amplify and replicate your progress.
This might be the biggest release announcement yet, but Orchestry is nowhere near done making the user experience more seamless. Stay tuned for more information on this release and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated with all things Orchestry.
If you have any questions about Orchestry and its many capabilities, reach out to us at hello@orchestry.com.
