Microsoft prohibits the use of Slack internally, favors its own Teams collaboration software

[Matrix]

 

 

 

In context: As it pertains to collaborative chat software, Slack and Microsoft's Teams have taken center stage over the past couple of years. Microsoft has gained ground in its battle with Slack, and both companies now offer compelling free versions. However, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it seems the Redmond software giant isn't keen on its employees using Slack or other competitive products, preferring to keep the software in the family.

While Slack just made a successful debut onto the stock market, news has surfaced that Microsoft actively bans the use of Slack for its employees, as reported by GeekWire. They have also obtained a document that outlines "prohibited and discouraged" software and technology.

While Microsoft's Teams is Slack's foremost competitor in terms of collaborative chat software, it seems competition isn't the only reason for the ban. Or at least, that's not how Microsoft is framing it. While Microsoft does mention the competitive nature of Slack, it also cites a security concern. Below is Slack's entry on the list:

Slack Free, Slack Standard and Slack Plus versions do not provide required controls to properly protect Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP). Existing users of these solutions should migrate chat history and files related to Microsoft business to Microsoft Teams, which offers the same features and integrated Office 365 apps, calling and meeting functionality. Learn more about the additional features that Teams can provide your workgroup. Slack Enterprise Grid version complies with Microsoft security requirements; however, we encourage use of Microsoft Teams rather than a competitive software.

Also joining Slack in the "prohibited" category is Grammarly, the popular writing and grammar checker. “The Grammarly Office add-in and browser extensions should not be used on the Microsoft network because they are able to access Information Rights Management (IRM) protected content within emails and documents,” reads the list.

Meanwhile, Microsoft discourages the use of of Amazon Web Services and Google Docs, which also compete with Microsoft's Azure and Office 365, respectively. While there is no outright ban on the services, they ostensibly "require a business justification" in order to be used. GitHub's cloud version is also unsurprisingly discouraged for "Highly Confidential types of information, specs or code.”

In some cases, it seems Microsoft has legitimate reason to warrant concern. In others, it seems Microsoft just wants to corral employees into the Microsoft ecosystem. Slack and Microsoft have been battling it out since 2017, and in April, Slack recognized Microsoft as its primary competitor.

Microsoft also launched a free version of Teams that includes unlimited messages and search to better compete with Slack.

 

 VIEW: Original Article.

[steven36]

No Slack for you! Microsoft puts rival app on internal list of ‘prohibited and discouraged’ software

 

 

 

As Slack makes its stock market debut, there’s a major company that won’t be allowing its employees to use the business collaboration and chat app as part of their daily work.

 

It’s Microsoft, and it’s not just because the Redmond giant is Slack’s biggest competitor through its own Microsoft Teams collaboration app. At least, that’s not the primary stated reason. And it turns out Slack is far from the only piece of popular technology to earn this distinction.

 

GeekWire obtained an internal Microsoft list of prohibited and discouraged technology — software and online services that the company doesn’t want its employees using as part of their day-to-day work. We first picked up on rumblings of the prohibition from Microsoft employees who were surprised that they couldn’t use Slack at work, before tracking down the list and verifying its authenticity.

 

While the list references the competitive nature of these services in some situations, the primary criteria for landing in the “prohibited” category are related to IT security and safeguarding company secrets.

 

Slack is on the “prohibited” category of the internal Microsoft list, along with tools such as the Grammarly grammar checker and Kaspersky security software. Services in the “discouraged” category include Amazon Web Services, Google Docs, PagerDuty and even the cloud version of GitHub, the popular software development hub and community acquired by Microsoft last year for $7.5 billion.

 

Here’s the full description from the Slack entry on the list.

Slack Free, Slack Standard and Slack Plus versions do not provide required controls to properly protect Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP). Existing users of these solutions should migrate chat history and files related to Microsoft business to Microsoft Teams, which offers the same features and integrated Office 365 apps, calling and meeting functionality. Learn more about the additional features that Teams can provide your workgroup. Slack Enterprise Grid version complies with Microsoft security requirements; however, we encourage use of Microsoft Teams rather than a competitive software.

Slack and Microsoft declined to comment in response to our inquiries.

 

The security justifications distinguish the situation, to an extent, from the past era when Microsoft frowned upon employees using competing technologies, such as iPhones when Microsoft aspired to compete with Apple in smartphone hardware. At a company meeting during his tenure as CEO, Steve Ballmer once famously snatched an iPhone from an employee and pretended to stomp on it.

 

Since taking the reins five years ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has espoused a “learn it all” philosophy that encourages employees to understand and adapt to new viewpoints and information. Under his leadership, the company has struck a series of partnerships with longtime rivals.

 

Of course, Microsoft still competes energetically. In the competition with Slack, Microsoft has the benefit of decades of experience in enterprise software. It touts the security and compliance features of Microsoft Teams as a selling point for its big business customers. Slack launched its Enterprise Grid version in 2017 as a way of catering to many of these same customers.

The inclusion of Slack on Microsoft’s “prohibited” list is notable in part because Slack in April unveiled a series of integrations with Microsoft Office 365. However, Slack didn’t work directly with Microsoft on the initiative, instead relying on the tech giant’s APIs and other services for integrating products.

 

Here are some of the other notable services and technologies from Microsoft’s list of discouraged and prohibited software.

• GitHub is perhaps the most surprising inclusion on the “discouraged” list, given Microsoft’s ownership of the coding repository. However, it’s not an outright ban. Microsoft cautions employees not to use the cloud version of GitHub “for Highly Confidential types of information, specs or code.” The on premises version of GitHub does not appear on the list.
• Amazon Web Services, which competes with Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, and Google Docs, which competes with Office 365, are both “discouraged for use” and “will require a business justification” to be used, according to the internal Microsoft summary. “It is highly recommended to start a migration plan to Azure prior to engaging the Governance team for new request or renewals,” the summary reads.
• Grammarly, the writing and grammar-checking technology, is on the “prohibited” list. “The Grammarly Office add-in and browser extensions should not be used on the Microsoft network because they are able to access Information Rights Management (IRM) protected content within emails and documents,” Microsoft said, cautioning that this could lead to the exposure of sensitive data, and noting that Microsoft security is evaluating what can be done to make the technology secure for use within the company.

In many ways, the precautions make sense in an era of widespread security concerns, with tech companies at risk of sensitive data being intercepted.

 

“It’s not just the risk that Google will try to find trade secrets from data stored on their servers,” said Christopher Budd, who has worked in security technology for 20 years, including past roles in Microsoft security and privacy communications. “When you’re at Microsoft, you’re at risk of state sponsored industrial espionage. These days we generally think of hacking in criminal or traditional geopolitical espionage. But industrial espionage is still out there and brings the full force of nation-state hacking to bear.”

 

It makes sense that Microsoft would want to keep its people inside the ecosystem, but it’s also a risk. Slack is a hit among developers, engineers and other tech personnel. Putting too many restrictions on the tools they’re able to use risks rubbing those highly valuable workers the wrong way, which can have implications in a competitive recruiting environment

 

The competition between Microsoft and Slack has been simmering for more than two years, dating back to when Microsoft launched Teams in 2017. Slack took the unusual step of placing a full-page ad in The New York Times both congratulating the tech giant and warning that “all this is harder than it looks.”

 

Slack listed Microsoft as its “primary competitor” in an IPO document in April. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield has acknowledged the challenge it faces going up against Microsoft. It’s the most valuable company in the U.S., and “if they start channeling all their resources against you, that’s a lot to compete with,” Butterfield told Business Insider in 2017.

 

The competition is a two-way street. Last summer, Microsoft acknowledged the rivalry publicly, officially adding Slack to its list of competitors in its annual 10-K report.

 

Slack began its next chapter, and the rivalry with Microsoft, Thursday when it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. It took the unusual route of listing its shares directly on the exchange, rather than going through intermediaries that buy stocks and sell them to the public.

 

Slack’s decision paid off out of the gate. The stock jumped more than 50 percent in early trading, pushing Slack’s valuation to more than $20 billion. On its second day of trading, Slack stock is down about 2.5 percent, but still well above its initial price.

 

Source

[steven36]

Really nothing new Microsoft already forced  there employees to use Microsoft Teams   as i posted last year  about  what a Microsoft Employee who use linux said about them.

 

https://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/323815-software-love-microsoft-teams-love-linux-then-you-wont-love-this/?do=findComment&comment=1379919

 

If you work for Microsoft your only allowed to use there services at work its nothing new , there was  no Microsoft Team  chanting on Slack to begin with  but really who cares what they use unless you work for  them ?  If they wanted me to use shitty M$ software if i worked for them i would not care as long as they paid me !

 

At lest there getting paid  what about the millions of lab rats Microsoft use for beta testing that  test Non production software for them  for free, they the ones that have a real problem. When there employees use Linux at home and say there stuff is junk it should tell you something.

 

You can use Google to see here the date of

Overview of security and compliance in Microsoft Teams

 

 

 

It been since  last year since they updated that page so Geekwire waited  tell Slack went IPO to make a story about it but  they been doing it  all along, so do many other  companies that worry  about secrets  being stole ban these type chat services  . Do you read the news  about all the crap being stole online nowadays?

 

 

 

If i work for  slack and seen some tech secrets  id sell them and get rich and retire  .

 

Meanwhile  Microsoft has there app in Windows 10 store for non M$ employees

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/slack/9wzdncrdk3wp?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

 

To me both Slack and Microsoft Teams are just  babies  I use open source XMPP use  to be called Jabber 1st released in 1999 with  open source end to end encryption anyone can run a server so there's 100s of servers all over the world  to chose from many way older  than these and you can review each servers privacy policy  and  not use one that is based in a 5 eyes country ,

 

The thing about using XMPP if you worried about spying and you own a big company  it's way better than using any big chat platforms because you can set up your own private  server and fork your own chat software  to use it.

 

XMPP/Jabber

Jabber offers many of the same functions of Google Talk or AOL Instant Messenger, but one area where it differs from competing instant messaging services is that it's an open-source application. This means that any user or company can take the Jabber platform and customize it based on what they need or desire. For those reasons, it's very appealing. Jabber also can be controlled from a company's information technology department, meaning that a company won't have to rely on a third-party source for any troubleshooting.

 

 

"XMPP is the secret weapon of the most groundbreaking websites, as well as the infrastructure behind the fastest growing instant messaging systems. Not only is this sorely needed bible written by a dream-team of XMPP experts, the facts are interesting, the jokes are amusing, and quite honestly, I really wish I'd written it."
-Dave Cridland, XMPP Lead, Isode Ltd.

 

 

Today, XMPP is the underlying instant messaging (IM) protocol for WhatsApp Messenger, as well as Google Talk, and has become the official IM standard of the U.S. Department of Defense and many large financial institutions.

 

 

This a interesting read if your really worried about privacy you and you have the money you make your own chat apps.

 

What Can You Do with XMPP?

http://fyi.oreilly.com/2009/05/what-can-you-do-with-xmpp.html