My first introduction to PowerShell was at Microsoft TechEd 2005 in Orlando, Florida. A guy named Jeffrey Snover with a funky bow tie talked about this new thing he created called Monad. It was going to revolutionize IT administration forever. His excitement and enthusiasm was the same as a new father talking about his baby. The talk was, “Next-Generation Command Line Scripting: Monad” and the standing room crowd was mesmerized.

This object-oriented programming language was built on, and fully leveraged, the .NET framework, which at the time was still relatively new itself. Jeffrey described how to use its simple verb-noun syntax to get, set, and manage objects and collections in an entirely new way.

I had quite a bit of experience writing scripts in VB, Visual Basic Scripting (VBS) and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), but none of those languages provided the power, flexibility, and ease of use that Monad provided. It opened a whole new world, as I realized how much time it would save me.

We had little idea that it would become the framework for Exchange Server 2007 and later Exchange Online. Who would have thought that it could be extended in such a way? When Microsoft marketing got wind of it they just had to change the name to Windows PowerShell (they get paid by the syllable).

Microsoft’s first foray into cloud computing came in the form of BPOS, the Business Productivity Online Suite, which was based on Exchange 2007. At that time, remote PowerShell was still a new thing and BPOS couldn’t take advantage of it. Admins would have to forward their task requests to Microsoft, and an engineer would (maybe) run a PowerShell script to implement them. Obviously, this was not scalable, so Microsoft worked on the next generation of cloud computing, Office 365, running on Exchange 2010 with much improved remote PowerShell support.

Being able to remotely manage cloud services using PowerShell is fantastic but knowing how to use it properly can be a daunting challenge. That’s where this book comes in. Whether you’re new to PowerShell or you’re a seasoned administrator, “Practical PowerShell – Office 365: Exchange Online” will guide you through the basics and beyond. You’ll develop good scripting techniques using real-world examples that you can refer to over and over again.

As you may have already learned, everything that can be done in the Exchange Online Admin Center can be done with PowerShell, but not everything you can do with PowerShell is in the GUI. A lot of learning PowerShell content out there forces you to test the weight of your eyelids. Damian does an excellent job showing you the tips and techniques for managing Exchange Online without diving too much into the weeds. His examples are on point and give you the information you need to start using it right away.

I’m sure you will get a lot of useful information from this book and will continue to use it as a resource for those not-so-common tasks.

Jeff Guillet

Microsoft MVP | MCM and Founder EXPTA Consulting

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