Cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has been a paradigm shift for organizations today as they migrate business-critical data to the cloud. With a predominantly hybrid workforce today, companies benefit from the flexibility and capabilities of cloud SaaS, including the ability to access critical tools and data from anywhere, not just on the corporate campus or on-premises network. One of the most popular and robust SaaS solutions available is Microsoft 365. In this beginner series, we will cover a wide range of topics for beginners to become familiar with Microsoft 365 and what it has to offer.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing refers to delivering computing services, including storage, software, databases, networking, and processing power, over the internet instead of on local physical hardware. Cloud computing enables businesses to access resources on-demand and scale their IT infrastructure as needed using remote servers. This flexibility, combined with pay-as-you-go pricing and improved efficiency, makes cloud computing an attractive option for organizations of all sizes.
Cloud Computing represents a more modern way of doing things. Organizations today need to move quickly and with agility. Unfortunately, managing infrastructure, networks, servers, racking and stacking equipment, and capital expenditures are not in line with today’s operational models.
With the era of cloud computing, including cloud SaaS environments like Microsoft 365, companies no longer have to provision racks of equipment and maintain the lifecycle of applications. Instead, with a swipe of a credit card, organizations can quickly spin up modern enterprise productivity stacks built upon world-class data centers, running “evergreen” (always up-to-date) software.
What is Microsoft 365?
Microsoft has long been the king of on-premises business productivity applications. The Microsoft Office suite of tools has been used for decades in the enterprise. In addition, familiar tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook have been at the heart of most organizations’ office applications used daily.
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based suite of cloud-based productivity applications and services designed to help users collaborate, communicate, and work more efficiently. Microsoft has included the ever-popular productivity applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook, along with a range of cloud-native services like OneDrive, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams. Microsoft 365 is available in various plans tailored to different organizations’ needs, including business, enterprise, and education.
Key features of Microsoft 365
Note the following benefits of cloud computing with Microsoft’s Software-as-a-Service applications found in Microsoft 365:
- Familiarity – One of the huge advantages that Microsoft has on the competition with its Microsoft 365 suite of applications is the familiarity that users have with the products. Since Microsoft Office fully-installed applications have long been used in the enterprise, users are already familiar with the tools. It makes the progression to the cloud-enabled versions very seamless and natural
- Strong collaboration – Microsoft 365 offers strong collaboration tools, enabling hybrid teams to communicate, collaborate, and remain productive, regardless of location. These tools include Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint
- Cloud file storage – With the hybrid workforce, cloud storage is important, allowing users to collaborate on file resources without needing to have access to on-premises file servers requiring a VPN connection
- Security and Compliance tools – Microsoft 365 has many native compliance and security tools and solutions baked into the SaaS environment. As a result, organizations under strict compliance regulations like GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and others have the security and compliance tools needed to remain compliant with these requirements
- Fully managed lifecycle operations – With Microsoft 365, users continually have access to the latest product versions without burdening IT teams to keep servers and applications updated. Instead, Microsoft handles lifecycle operations so organizations can concentrate on remaining productive
Getting started with Microsoft 365
What does the process look like to get started with Microsoft 365 and empower users to take advantage of the best features of cloud computing using Software-as-a-Service applications? Below is a high-level overview of the process to get started with Microsoft 365:
- Choose your subscription plan – Microsoft has a wide range of different subscription plans that fit different business needs and use cases. It allows business leaders and admins alike to evaluate the features and solutions needed by users and pick the Microsoft 365 plan that best suits the requirements
- Create an account – After you have picked the plan you want to use with Microsoft 365, you need to create an account. The first user account created with a new Microsoft 365 account is the first Global Administrator account in the organization. This first user is able to configure and set up the rest of the configuration required for the environment
- Authorize your domain – Organizations migrating away from on-premises email infrastructure will want to add their current mail domain to their Microsoft 365 tenant. Doing this allows configuring hybrid mail flow, until all user mailboxes have been migrated to the cloud
- Add additional users – The Global Administrator will start adding users to the environment, either manually or using automated tools like the Microsoft Azure Active Directory Connect tool. Users will be assigned subscriptions and added to any Azure Active Directory groups required
- Application configuration – Users will be assigned applications and other configurations based on their needs and job duties
- Training and onboarding – Most organizations will roll out Microsoft 365 in a phased approach, allowing users to be trained and onboarded by department or business unit
Wrapping up
Microsoft 365 is a powerful collection of SaaS applications that show the power of cloud computing at its best. It is designed to help companies use modern collaboration, communication, and productivity tools and provide all of this with flexible pay-as-you-go pricing. It is ideal for businesses that want to embrace cloud computing for modern capabilities and operational pricing. Businesses can then offload the responsibility of maintaining the infrastructure and lifecycle maintenance to cloud service providers like Microsoft to place their full attention on the applications and productivity of the business, instead of maintaining the infrastructure.
As teams and organizations grow, it becomes crucial to offboard employees efficiently once they separate from the organization. To successfully offboard users in Microsoft 365, a well-planned and systematic process should be followed.
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