Federated vs Trusted organizations in Meeting Policies

[Morten Bøtkjær]

Hi Team gurus!

I have been testing out the Microsoft Teams meeting policies for a client and I'm curious if anyone else is experiencing the same behavior in the Lobby option as I am:

The global policy set in the Teams Admin Center is set to Automatically admit people who is a part of the organization or federated organization:

However, when i choose the Meeting Options for the specific Teams meeting, the policy looks like this: 

In my test scenario, all authenticated organizations (in my example my other Microsoft account, that is not in any way federated with the tenant) can join by bypassing the Lobby function.

When using my gmail account, the user shows up as a "Guest" and I'm told to enter my Display name when joining the meeting and then I'm placed in the lobby. 

Can anyone specify the difference between federated and trusted (unless federated actually means trusted as in my test case?), as I cannot find this in the Meeting Policy docs or anywhere else. 

Thanks in advance

[#2]

see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/set-up-skype-for-business-online/allow-users-to-co...

[#3]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your reply.

The doc site doesn't mention anything about trusted or federated organizations and what the difference is in terms of Meeting Policies in Teams.

[#4]

Agreed, and apologies for not explaining further. Federation is the concept of allowing a Skype for Business or Teams organisation to communicate with another Skype for Business or Teams organisation, e.g. via instant messaging / chat, without the need to invite each other to a pre-booked meeting, or add guest accounts in either tenant.

That article explains how to allow / block all or specfic organisations.

My understanding is that by default, Skype for Business Online (and Teams) are configured to use 'open federation' - which means that users from any other organisation using Skype for Business Online or Teams would be able to bypass the lobby, because they are treated as 'federated' or trusted.

[#5]

@Rob Ellis 

No worries, and thanks for your reply once again.

So by design, because federation is open to all external tenants with Teams/Skype they are all treated as trusted?

In that case, if i remove the "federation" by disabling the External Access for SfB/Teams in the Teams Admin center, all other organizations would then no longer be treated as trusted?

Then it would only be the organizations that I add list below, that would be able to bypass the lobby?:

It's actually quite amazing that this isn't mentioned in the docs nor anywhere else, as it is in my opinion, very misleading. 

[#6]

I think this article might explain it slightly better, and in the context of Teams - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/manage-external-access

[#7]

@Morten Bøtkjær I'm wondering if you got any further with your testing of "trusted organizations" related to the virtual lobby in Teams meeting options.  I read the doc that @Rob Ellis provided and I still don't see a clear answer.  We have a fairly short list of federated partners, not open federation.  Do those partners enter meetings directly without waiting in the lobby if I choose People in my organization and trusted organizations for bypass lobby in the meeting options?

Thanks!

[#8]

@George Cabe 

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@George Cabe wrote:

...Do those partners enter meetings directly without waiting in the lobby if I choose People in my organization and trusted organizations for bypass lobby in the meeting options?

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That is my understanding - yes. You have federated with them, therefore they are a 'trusted organization'.