Your company was an early adopter of Office 365; why transition your company to Microsoft 365?

Your company was an early adopter of Office 365; why transition your company to Microsoft 365?

If your company was an early adopter of Office 365, I applaud you for your patience and fortitude. Your company has endured a lot and it has not paid off until a couple of years ago. Your company lived through Exchange online going down regularly. Your end-users lived through the metamorphosis of SkyDrive to OneDrive and constant file sync problems. Your Help Desk braved a wave of new tickets any time major features changed without any warning. In the past three years, Microsoft has just gotten Office 365 together and listened to its partners to strengthen communication when services go down like Exchange, announce new features that are added to the roadmap or publish the sunset schedule of products. Microsoft’s vision of creating a holistic Modern Ecosystem for technology has become one step closer to realization with Microsoft 365. To be clear, Office 365 and Microsoft 365 are two different products, but Microsoft 365 is now the entry point for businesses into the new, Modern Ecosystem. Making the switch from Office 365 to Microsoft 365 for your company could be as easy as changing subscriptions, and your company’s subscription cost would remain the same. Here are five reasons to make that switch:

1. Microsoft Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection

We know the name is confusing, but as avid Microsoft ecosystem users and partners, we have come to expect this out of Microsoft product development team; so, it comes as no surprise. Microsoft Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (Office 365 ATP) is a cloud-based email filtering service that helps protect your company and its Modern Workforce against unknown malware and viruses. Office 365 ATP provides robust, zero-day protection and includes features to safeguard your company’s Modern Workforce from harmful links in real-time. Office 365 ATP has rich reporting and URL trace capabilities that give your IT team insight into the different kinds of attacks happening against your company and its workforce.

Click here for more information.

2. Azure Multi-Factor Authentication

Computer security started with just a password, which was quickly defeated. We have witnessed the evolution of the password to passphrases, and now multi-factor authentication. Azure Multi-Factor Authentication helps safeguard access to data and applications while maintaining simplicity for your company’s Modern Workforce. It provides additional security by requiring a second form of authentication and delivers strong authentication via a range of easy-to-use authentication methods. Your company’s applications or services don’t need to make any changes to use Azure Multi-Factor Authentication. The verification prompts are part of the Azure AD login event, which automatically requests and processes the MFA challenge when required.

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3. Device and App Management

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service that focuses on mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM). You control how your company’s devices are used, including mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. You can also configure specific policies to manage applications. Intune integrates with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to control who has access and what they can access. It can be used with the Microsoft 365 suite of products to deploy Microsoft Teams, OneNote, and other Microsoft 365 apps to devices. This feature enables your Modern Workforce to be productive on all their devices while keeping your company’s information protected with the policies you create.

Click here for more information on Intune.

4. Windows Virtual Desktop

Windows Virtual Desktop is the cornerstone for your company’s Modern and Remote Workforce. Windows Virtual Desktop is a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service running in the cloud. It is the only virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that delivers simplified management, multi-session Windows 10, optimizations for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise, and support for Remote Desktop Services (RDS) environments. Deploy and scale your Windows desktops and apps on Azure in minutes and get built-in security and compliance features.

Click here for an introductory video.

5. Upgrade rights to Windows 10 Pro for Win7/8.1 Pro licenses

Microsoft’s free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 and 8.1 expired almost four years ago. However, there are still about 25% of Windows 7 and 8.1 endpoints out in the wild. Since support for Windows 7 installed on endpoints ended on January 14^th of this year, Microsoft wants to convert those high-security risk endpoints to Windows 10. However, if your company needs to have Windows 7 because of some legacy applications, there is an exception. Convert your company’s remaining Windows 7 endpoints into a Windows Virtual Machine living in Azure; security update support for Windows 7 will be extended through January 2023. I am sure Windows 8.1 will fade into the night.

In the next few weeks, we will explore more of these new features in Microsoft 365. I hope you found this article helpful, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment. Until then, stay green.