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Modern Authentication Support for Resource, Room & Desk Booking

Microsoft has announced that they will be changing the way that applications can authenticate with Office 365 Exchange Online. This change will be happening from October 2020 (although basic authentication support removal may be deferred owing to COVID-19) and may mean that your ResourceXpress and/or Resource Central system needs to be upgraded to V4.9J or above.

Background

Historically applications (and users) have authenticated with Exchange using a simple username and password. This has been the standard method built into most applications including ResourceXpress and Resource Central. Authentication has moved forward to incorporate more secure methods, including OAuth which is a modern authentication method. Microsoft has announced that they will disable basic authentication, which is the method of simple username and password, and allow only modern authentication.

The authors of the products we support have developed changes to utilise these new methods including OAuth.

When is this happening?

The change from Microsoft is not happening suddenly for all organisations, but the message from Microsoft is that they will be rolling out this change this year for all new tenants and any organisations that they detect are not using basic authentication. For this reason we are recommending that if needed your system is prepared in advance to prevent the risk of a sudden change stopping it from working.

Do you need to take action?

This change is only for connections to Exchange Online. If you are only using on-premises Exchange you will not be affected at this time, unless your company is pro-actively deciding to disable basic authentication for your Exchange environment.

ResourceXpress

The SaaS version of ResourceXpress and the on-premises version 4.9j onwards already support modern authentication so in these cases, you do not need to upgrade. You do, however, need to ensure that your system is configured correctly to use it. Essential can help you check this and advise on the necessary steps if needed, 

If you are running an on-premises version of ResourceXpress older than 4.9j you will need to upgrade and configure it.

Resource Central

The SaaS version of Resource Central will be upgraded in time to support the Microsoft change, all customer hosted implementations will need to be upgraded to a later version.  Whether on SaaS or customer hosted servers, system configuration will need to be updated in order to correctly use modern authentication.

What next?

Get in touch with Essential to find out more.