Microsoft Graph

This is a continuation of a series of articles on Azure services from an operational engineering perspective with the most recent introduction of this topic with the link here. This article continues to elaborate on the services and features in the Microsoft Graph.

Microsoft Graph enables integration with the best of Microsoft 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise mobility and security services in Microsoft 365, using REST APIs and client libraries. We use the concepts of users and groups to elaborate on these functionalities.

A user is an individual who uses Microsoft 365 cloud services. Throughout Microsoft Graph, it is the focal point of whose identity is protected and access is well managed. It is the data associated with this entity and the opportunities to enrich the context, provide real-time information, and deep insights that make the Microsoft Graph so popular. The services supporting this entity are the Azure AD and most productivity, collaboration intelligence, and education services.

A group is the fundamental entity that lets users collaborate and integrate with other services which enable scenarios for task planning, teamwork, education and more.

The services included in the Microsoft 365 portfolio are:

1.       Identity and Access Management service supported by Azure AD which creates and manages directory resources.

2.       Calendar which is managed by Outlook that is used to setup appointments and meetings.

3.       Files which are used to manage and share on OneDrive and SharePoint

4.       Mail supported by Outlook which helps users communicate, organize messages

5.       Notes supported by OneNote which lets users plan and organize ideas and information

6.       Contacts manager on the web, mobile, and desktop devices.

7.       Workbooks and charts which let users use Excel spreadsheets to do complex calculations, track analyze and generate reports

8.       To-Do tasks which let users manage their personal tasks across work and life. It is integrated with Outlook, Teams, Planner and Cortana.

9.       Cloud communications supported by Teams and Skype which lets apps and services interact with users

10.   Sites and lists which are web-based platform for users and Microsoft 365 groups to share, organize, manage, and discover content

11.   Tasks and Plans which enable users in Microsoft 365 groups to create plans and track progress

12.   Teamwork supported by Microsoft Teams which enables hub-and-chat based workspace for teams to share files, notes, calendar, and plans.

13.   People supported by Azure AD, Outlook, SharePoint and more to get information about persons as ordered by their relevance to a user.

14.   Profile and Profile Card which provides lightweight mechanism for storing and retrieving information within a tenant

15.   Document insights which use advanced analytics and machine learning techniques

16.   Analytics uses advanced analytics and machine learning techniques to provide insights.

17.   Cloud printing which uses Universal Print API for simple, rich, and secure print service

18.   Corporate management of devices by enrolling, configuring, and managing them

19.   Cloud PC which works with Windows 365 cloud PCs using the Microsoft Graph API

20.   Device Updates which provide control over the approval, scheduling, monitoring, and safeguarding of content delivered from Windows update.

21.   Multi-tenant management which lets managed service providers to remotely manage multiple customer tenants

22.   Service Health and communications which provides access to the health status and message center posts about Microsoft Cloud services.

23.   Usage reports which use Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, SharePoint, Skype for business and Yammer.

24.   Security integration which provides a unified gateway to security insights and actions across Microsoft and ecosystem partners.

25.   Cross device experiences which enable application experience that go beyond a single device

26.   User notifications which enable cross-platform notification experiences

27.   Reports which enable activity and usage-information of a supporting service

28.   Education which provides information relevant for education scenarios, including schools, classes, students, teachers, and assignment information

29.   Customer booking which targets organizations to enable their users and customers to book services directly

30.   Financials which enable management of financial data, automation and securing of the supply chain, sales management and improved customer service.