Article Secure collaboration for your workforce
By Insight Editor / 15 Dec 2019 / Topics: Microsoft 365
Long gone are the days when employees would turn up at the office, sit down at their desk, and sign in to their company-issued computer. Today, personal laptops, tablets and smartphones have taken over the workplace. With this rise in mobility and a “work anytime, anywhere” culture, it’s become more important than ever for IT to achieve true line of sight across the business.
A multi-device, mobile world
Businesses today manage an average of 2.3 devices per user. On these devices, workers may be using their own apps and tools; they may be signing on from potential unsecure networks, anywhere in the world; they may be collaborating with internal and external teams on confidential projects.
This multi-device, mobile work creates headaches for IT managers. Concerns about security are rife: in 63% of businesses, maintaining security is the top priority for IT.
Why line of sight matters
To mitigate the security risks that come with mobility, IT managers are demanding greater visibility across all the devices, apps and tools that employees use day-to-day. This visibility – or line of sight – enables IT to carefully monitor users and systems, and to shut down any potential breaches before they wreak havoc on the business.
Achieving true line of sight across multiple disparate systems can be hard work. With different dashboards for each app and tool – plus separate sign-ons for different devices – there are often too many balls in the air to effectively monitor the collective whole. Indeed, according to a 2018 survey of 2,700 IT professionals, IT managers lack visibility into about 45% of their organisation’s network traffic, and nearly a quarter of them are blind to as much as 70% of it.
Yet visibility is vital. A single data breach can cost millions. In 2019, the average cost of a data breach is US$3.92 million. Sixty percent of smaller companies are likely to fold within 6 months of an attack.
Visibility in the modern workplace
With collaboration and mobility on the rise more businesses are seeing the value in moving to Microsoft 365 (M365). It’s proving to be the most logical next step in the cloud journey, helping to achieve greater line of sight across the entire business.
M365 combines Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) into a single package to deliver much-needed peace of mind for IT professionals seeking to secure business data. You can rest easy with the knowledge that Microsoft spends US$1 billion on security and R&D each year, and has baked security into M365.
The EMS offering takes a multi-layered approach to security to keep your data safe, wherever it resides. It gives you comprehensive, intelligent, identity-driven protection, mobile device management, data protection and identity access in the cloud – helping you detect threats before they arise.
Microsoft Intune is a key feature of EMS, providing invaluable support for your diverse mobile ecosystem and safeguarding data that employees access on their own devices. It ensures all of your company-owned and BYO devices are securely managed and up to date; and gives you precise control without compromising the user experience.
Knowing that all of your employees can work productively, collaboratively and, most of all, securely – no matter where they are or what device they’re on – is no longer a pipedream for IT managers in the modern workplace. It’s an absolute necessity, and it’s all possible with M365.
Why Insight?
Insight is your trusted partner for Microsoft 365.
With Insight, you can pay the modern way – in a subscriber-based model for greater efficiency. We deliver an end-to-end ecosystem that’s tailored for your business and designed and managed by experts. And we help you harness the next generation of everything, with the most up-to-date devices, software and connectivity.
Key takeaways
- Concerns about security are rife: in 63% of businesses, maintaining security is the top priority for IT.
- To mitigate the security risks that come with mobility, IT managers are demanding greater visibility across all the devices, apps and tools that employees use day-to-day.
- M365 combines Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) into a single package to deliver much-needed peace of mind for IT professionals seeking to secure business data.
- Insight offers a subscriber based model for greater efficiency.
