Believe it or not, Office 365 now contains 27 separate apps that are provided by Microsoft.   Many of these apps are provided with advanced security features.  Clearly managing these security features within each admin tool is a complex and onerous task.  So Microsoft have moved as much security as possible into the Office 365 Security & Compliance Centre.  This is now the central place to manage the majority of security functions in Office 365.

Click on the diagram below to link to the Microsoft TechNet article describing all the key Office 365 services:

You can augment this list by adding third-party apps that are available in the Microsoft AppSource app store.   You can also incorporate various Azure services that integrate with Office.  One service that is already included, is Azure Active Directory. 

Azure Active Directory or AAD, is a mandatory service that manages all the authentication and authorisations in Office 365.  It integrates with your existing corporate Active Directory, which probably lives in your data centre (on-premise), using a service called AAD Connect.  For companies that have very complex requirements around transferring data between your on-premise Active Directory and AAD, you can use the Microsoft Identity Manager product and the Active Directory Federation Service.

Here is a great link to a video that outlines some of the basics of Active Directory:

It becomes quite technical towards the end of the video, so just close it down, once you have the knowledge you need. 

Understanding Active Directory is key to understanding the fundamentals of how the Office 365 Security & Compliance Centre works, so check out my 2 day course where we cover all the basics, in non-technical language, so that anyone can start security their Office 365 tenancy:

Not only do we cover AAD, but we also run through:

• Overview of the 27 apps that Microsoft provides.
• Various short overview demo’s of the Security & Compliance centre, covering key security concepts such as threat management, data governance, search & investigation, service assurance and reporting.
• Azure Information Protection and how it fits with Office 365.
• A short introduction to Powershell.
• A primer on Cloud Computing and DevSecOps engineering.

Let’s pick out a couple of my favourite Office 365 services…Flow.

Flow is a product that allows you to integrate various cloud services, providing a platform for automating many of your tasks.  It’s a competitor to IFTTT.com, which stands for If This Then That, which provides a similar set of services.  For example, if an email comes into your inbox from a customer, there may be a series of manual tasks that need to be undertaken to start servicing that customer.  This can be automated and free up your time to focus on talking with customers, rather than having to do repetitive manual tasks.

Click on the graphic to be taken to a video outlining potential uses of the tool:

Now, let’s look at some of the key features of Data Loss Prevention

If want to know more about Office 365 services, please reach out to me on Linkedin.  Click on the image below to see my profile and start reaching out….