Many IT professionals are familiar with the German proverb, “Trust is good, but control is better."  As the father of two children, I understand that sentiment. Like most parents, I feel protective of my children and want to steer them out of harm’s way. Yet to be a good father, I actually believe what’s required is the right balance of trust versus control. Too much trust, and I’ll be the last to know if my children veer down the wrong path. Too much control, and I’ll turn their lives into a police state. Not good!

That same balance of trust vs. control also applies to information security. Too much trust, and an organization’s data may become unsafe. Too much control, and employees won’t have access to the information they need. We’ve paid close attention to achieving the right balance with Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 puts IT administrators in control through an easy-to-use administration console that lets administrators manage users, security groups, and domains, while monitoring service health – all from a single dashboard. Employees receive access to the information they need, while IT administrators maintain the proper level of control over sensitive information. 

While Office 365 puts IT administrators in control, there’s a certain amount of trust that’s required when moving one’s business productivity applications to the cloud. Will your organization’s data be secure? Will it be available whenever employees need it? Microsoft has worked hard to guard against these concerns by implementing a multi-layer approach to security that includes enterprise-grade reliability, continuous data back-ups, disaster recovery capabilities, globally-redundant data centers, and a strict privacy policy. For example, when you store your data in a Microsoft data center, it’s actually housed within two separate data centers located hundreds of miles away from each other. That way, if a catastrophic event occurs in one location, your data remains fully safe and accessible.  By applying enterprise-grade best practices such as these, we’re able to guarantee our customers 99.9 percent scheduled uptime.

To a lesser degree, trust is required by giving up certain tasks IT administrators were previously required to perform themselves.  With Office 365, IT professionals transfer some of the mundane tasks to Microsoft. No longer are you required to install updates or upgrade your Office software. Microsoft takes care of these tasks, managing the risk and complexity of the backend. The payoff is that IT administrators are freed up to focus on more strategic business initiatives. 

Another way in which we put IT administrators in control is by offering 24x7, IT-level support. This enables IT staff to get the support they need whenever they need it, in turn providing the highest level of support to their users. To better understand the control Office 365 offers, take an interactive tour of the Office 365 administrator portal.  As always, please share your thoughts and experiences. We would like to hear from you.