Top 10 Things to Consider
before Implementing Office 365
Call it what you want — consumerization, the democratization of IT, the maturation of cloud — but the fact is that both
endpoint resources and IT infrastructure are moving outside of the traditional business network.
Bring Your Own Device led to Bring Your Own App, driven largely
by the first round of file sharing apps that consumers brought into
business. But the current focus of cloud migration has moved more
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squarely into the center of IT responsibility, with email moving
others move to the cloud. This way you can migrate on your
geographies — is Microsoft Office 365.
Sounds good — but before diving into a deployment or migration,
there are key issues that should be planned for, or at least thought
through, to ensure successful adoption of Office 365.
own timeframe, and test as you go.
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servers to deploy and maintain.
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Any new app, especially in the cloud, runs the risk of having yet
other cloud apps, back to your on-premises Active Directory.
other cloud app accounts, directly to Active Directory — without
The best solutions should be simple to install, not require
requiring your sensitive Active Directory data to be copied out
Office 365 is already easily configured for remote and mobile
access. But provisioning accounts on mobile devices is a
challenge often solved by standalone MDM tools, which push
certificates and profiles to user devices. Look for a solution
that integrates the necessary mobile management, enabling
Office 365 means just that — keeping user info in sync in
proxy authentication requests from Office 365, and all your
identities, look for a solution that ties Office 365, and all your
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Synchronization between on-premises Active Directory and
multiple copies of directory information, look for solutions that
If you already use on-premises Active Directory for your user
Access from mobile
Account synchronization
multiple places. Rather than dealing with sync frequency and
another username and password for employees to remember.
into the cloud.
Active Directory to Office 365 (and Azure Active Directory),
that federate identities to your cloud apps without additional
products provide a single, integrated solution to everything below.
Multiple passwords
Originally, in order to federate accounts from on-premises
no longer the case. Look for simple software-based connectors
and Access Management-as-a-Service (IDaaS). But not all IDaaS
days instead of months, and with very little investment
Account federation
dedicated federation servers were required on-premises. This is
The migration and use issues below can be addressed with Identity
Plan ahead and compare closely, and you can move to Office 365 in
cutover. No fun for IT, and no fun for users when they have to
a hybrid mode, where some mailboxes remain on-premises as
this trend — across verticals, across business size, and across
availability, global redundancy, and easy mobile access.
We all know about the dreaded “forklift” upgrade, or hard
suddenly change behavior. Look for a solution that allows for
from on-premises to cloud infrastructure. The best example of
The benefits of Office 365 are clear: User simplicity, scalability,
Data migration
firewall changes, and keep your data secure.
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Hybrid environments
If you are looking to keep SharePoint on-premises and move
only email to Office 365, make sure you don’t introduce
complexity for your users. You can find solutions that provide
seamless, encrypted access to on-premises SharePoint without
the need for VPN — all with single sign-on from any device.
you to avoid having to stand up a separate, standalone MDM
as a prerequisite to deploying Office 365.
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Account provisioning
Setting up accounts across cloud apps is cumbersome and
can quickly get out of control. Make sure you find a solution
Moving data to the cloud doesn’t have to mean
exposing your organization to risk. Look for solutions that
that lets you automate account setup across cloud apps —
minimize the identity information copied to the cloud,
typically the easiest way is based on new user adds in Active
provide deep policy to block unauthorized access, and
Directory.
provide multi-factor authentication and integrated device
management — to further protect your data no matter
Account clean-up
Perhaps more important than account provisioning is
revoking access to apps when an employee leaves. Make
sure you have fully automated deprovisioning — again
based on changes in Active Directory — to save on licenses
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Security
where it’s accessed from.
Just as we have seen massive adoption of other cloud services over
their legacy on-premises counterparts — think Salesforce, Concur, and
Marketo — so too will email in the cloud soon become the standard.
and minimize the threat surface.
IDaaS solutions can help to make both the transition and the ongoing
Licensing
employees and IT.
Office 365 licensing is fairly straightforward, but still
includes many options. Many users will require different
levels of license, based on use case. Look for granular
license management and automation so that new users
have the right entitlements based on role. Also make sure
use of cloud apps like Office 365 simpler, and more secure, for both
Be sure to evaluate IDaaS solutions carefully before making any
investment. Just a small time investment up-front to make the right
decision will give you a solid foundation that can live and grow with
your Office 365 deployment. A hasty choice can leave you snarled in
ever-lengthening deployments or migration and stunt future growth.
you can easily track license consumption and availability
so you can save costs and simplify true-ups.
Centrify strengthens enterprise security by managing and securing user identities
S A N T A C L A R A , C A L I F OR N I A from cyber threats. As organizations expand IT resources and teams beyond their
EMEA premises, identity is becoming the new security perimeter. With our platform of
integrated software and cloud-based services, Centrify uniquely secures and unifies
identity for both privileged and end users across today’s hybrid IT world of cloud,
mobile and data center. The result is stronger security and compliance, improved
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Centrify to secure their identity management. Learn more at www.centrify.com.
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F Y 7CO
BRF0016
3 2 E N-0
1 4RP
2 0O1RA
5 TION. ALL RIGHT S RESERVED.
W W W . C EN TR I FY. C O M
+1 (669) 444- 5200