How to Build Confidence and Secure Buy-In for Office 365 within Your Organization
Microsoft just welcomed a pair of massive – and also very different – organizations into the Office 365 (O365) fold. All told, these deals represent a combined commitment of roughly 400,000 licenses, which will be utilized by end users across the globe. A level of trust is an essential precondition in any IT engagement. However, a commitment on that scale shows just how much faith these organizations are willing to put in the reliability, security and efficiency of O365.
Most recently, Microsoft and General Electric (GE) reached an agreement to bring O365 to an estimated 300,000 of its employees who work in 170 countries worldwide. GE cited an interest in furthering its investment in employee productivity and collaboration as the main driving forces behind the deal. The company sees these endpoints being achieved via O365 features such as Skype for Business, its dependable scalability, and its ability to power a mobile workforce – while keeping data secure and adhering to corporate policies and industry regulations.
Earlier in the month, the United States Air Force (USAF) also got on board with O365. The USAF purchased roughly 100,000 licenses and will begin rolling them out during the government’s next fiscal year. What led the USAF to pursue this deal, which is the largest commercial cloud contract in the history of the Department of Defense? In addition to cutting computing expense over the next three years, the USAF was also drawn to O365 due to its ability to forge solid lines of communication between disparate groups, in this case the USAF’s active, civilian and reserve personnel.
Feel secure with Office 365
Organizations considering making the switch to O365 have probably already done a good deal of research on it. They know their options, the benefits, etc. However, there still may be some questions or concerns which need to be addressed. For those cases, Microsoft has put together Trust Center.
Trust Center is an online warehouse of blogs, FAQs, lists and whitepapers related to O365 and trust. It’s designed to ease any fears potential customers may have about getting onboard with O365 by providing them with easy access to answers to the questions which typically haunt potential adopters. Once they have this foundation, they can feel more comfortable putting their faith in O365 to manage their two most precious assets – their people and their data.
Topics covered include:
- Built-in security– Threats can come from anywhere. O365 employs a defense-in-depth approach to protect your network at the physical, logical and data layers. Trust Center can help explain those defenses as well as the enterprise-grade user and admin controls which come standard with O365.
- Privacy by design– In the context of O365, Microsoft wants to be seen as a data custodian and processor and nothing more. Trust Center details the ways in which O365 utilizes data and the controls that have been put in place to ensure customers’ data stays private.
- Continuous compliance– Standards and regulations are fluid concepts. Whether those standards are location or industry-based, updates are a regular occurrence. With Trust Center, it’s easier to see how O365 can automatically adjust to those changes, helping to keep organizations in compliance.
- Transparent operations– Just because your data is in the Cloud, it shouldn’t mean sacrificing your ability to keep a close eye on it. Dive in deeper with Trust Center to find out more about the methods O365 uses to keep customers connected to their data through its access, support and accountability policies and processes.
The information Trust Center provides can be a good jumping off point for those who want to learn more about O365 or are still working to overcome internal doubts about the safety and security of Cloud applications. (Another way to overcome doubt? With the help of Microsoft VP & General Counsel Brad Smith’s recent keynote at the Microsoft World Partner Conference.)
Deepening that knowledge can be difficult without the help of a partner like Arraya Solutions. Our Microsoft team has the O365 knowledge and experience to clear up lingering questions or fears. Beyond that, our team can help determine the optimal service level, architect and help execute a hassle-free deployment plan, and provide lasting support to ensure full value is achieved from the solution.
Ready to learn more about O365 or how our Microsoft team can make a difference at your organization? Visit us at www.ArrayaSolutions.com/partnership/microsoft/ or reach out to one of our Arraya Account Executives today to schedule an information session.
In the meantime, be sure to follow us on Twitter, @ArrayaSolutions, to keep up with all of the latest company news, special offers and industry updates.
