Google Suite Admin asks a Office 2016/19 365 question.

[Jaan]

Ok, i'm probably gonna sound stupid here.......but here's the best place to ask.... as you guys don't judge........

 

So we're primarily a Google Suite site. Chromebooks/Devices, Google sites, Classroom etc etc. We have Office 2016 on our "golden image" for exams, Office power users and the like etc.

 

We're running windows 10 1809 (ltsc) Just looking at making a 1903 image, and was thinking of updating to office 2019 whilst at it. Now we need office onsite, i'm not trying to get rid of it. But i was just wondering what the update path is for office in the future. Will Microsoft remove Officeskus in favour of 365?

 

Where does that leave us as a school that uses Gsuite and where users have Google logins and not MS accounts? Can office 365 be deployed and used "offline" without MS account in a traditional sense?

 

Just dont want to be in a senario where once 2019 is nolonger supported, we can only use 365.

 

Any thoughts are welcome, just thinking outloud pre coffee.

 

Cheers

[LeMarchand]

IIRC they want to make O2019 the last "installation" version and they want people to move to a subscription-based model. I believe the endgame is to kill off "Office" in favour of Office 365.

 

I have 2 "GMail" schools and one "O365". The former use "desktop" Office and have volume licensing as well. With the correct setup/licensing, it's possible to sign into O365 with the "GMail" credentials (I heavily use MS To Do).

 

I'd be tempted not to build O2019 into the image as it's deployment strategy has changed, but feed it out via GPO (or SCCM if you are using that). As it's now preferred to use an XML to define the installation, you could have various XMLs deploying different "load outs" to different areas.

[Jaan]

Thanks for the reply,

 

We looked at having single sign on for o365 and Gsuite. But the approach here is that we shouldn't be using o365 to store school data. Users get a warning stating they should be using G Suite for official school data. We allow staff to access O365 (personal) but don't allow logins against our domain. The management of two cloud storage locations would make collaboration fun.

 

i can foresee a "Well we'll just have to use O365 then instead" senario in the future.

 

thanks again for the reply

[Boredguy]

Don't forget you can disable the onedrive/sharepoint component for users via your o365 licencing so you can still have them using Office, but without the option to save to onedrive.

[Jaan]

Don't forget you can disable the onedrive/sharepoint component for users via your o365 licencing so you can still have them using Office, but without the option to save to onedrive.

 

Yep mange to do that. Although some users had already created some files/folders be i closed it. I also disabled external sharing.

 

I know Google admins dont have the option to view all file stored in Drive, But to 365 admins have the ability to view all users files in onedrive/sharepoint?

 

I need to make sure that nothing is being stored there that shouldn't be and purge it if poss.

 

It all works very similar to Google, the same but different.

 

cheers

[jmak]

Yep mange to do that. Although some users had already created some files/folders be i closed it. I also disabled external sharing.

 

I know Google admins dont have the option to view all file stored in Drive, But to 365 admins have the ability to view all users files in onedrive/sharepoint?

 

I need to make sure that nothing is being stored there that shouldn't be and purge it if poss.

 

It all works very similar to Google, the same but different.

 

cheers

Yes, you can view users' files. Not in front of a console at the minute, but the info on this link matches my recollection of how I achieved it (obviously on request and with documented permission of SLT):

 

https://sharepointmaven.com/how-to-access-someone-elses-onedrive-account/

 

Note: you need to be logged in to the O365 admin console as Global Administrator.

 

On your original query, O365 Pro Plus can be installed locally - and I had it saving to Google drive via Filestream. As mentioned in a previous reply, installing O365 doesn't stop you blocking access to OneDrive and SharePoint, but you will need users to sign in to an O365 account. You should be able to use seamless SSO via your Google account though, so it won't be an issue for users.

[jthompson]

I know Google admins dont have the option to view all file stored in Drive

 

Not sure if that's just a typo, but yes, you do. Using Google Vault, you can search across and access files or messages of any of your users or Shared Drives.

[Jaan]

Not sure if that's just a typo, but yes, you do. Using Google Vault, you can search across and access files or messages of any of your users or Shared Drives.

 

Sorry yes i meant directly from within Drive.

[mavhc]

Don't spend time making Windows images, you'll only have to do it again in 6/12 months, script the deployment of the software so you can just swap the new WIM file in