When migrating to the cloud it can be easy to jump in headfirst. But you must take a step back and review things before you start your cloud journey. Migrating to the cloud provides you with the chance to think ahead and create an environment that allows you to scale and innovate with ease.

Whilst some workloads can be easily migrated to Azure with little adaption – these are the ones we target in our first phase migration – many will need to be re-configured for performance and cost optimisation.

To realise the true potential of Azure and build a scalable base, you should start with Azure Landing Zone. They are the fundamental structures that put security and optimal performance at the core of your cloud environment.

What is an Azure Landing Zone?

A Landing Zone is a key concept of Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework that allows you to build a secure foundation to scale and innovate with ease. Not familiar with the Cloud Adoption Framework? Fear not as we have a beginner’s guide that covers everything you need to know. Microsoft has created the Landing Zone based on best practices and cloud services for you to leverage as part of your migration, mitigating any complexities you may face.

A Landing Zone can be deployed at any stage – whether you’re in the process of deploying your first production application in Azure or operating a complex portfolio of tech platforms and workloads. Landing Zones have been created to be both scalable and modular – you’ll have repeatable environments with the same configuration and controls allowing you to scale but also have a modular environment thanks to its common set of design areas that can be extended to support specific technologies.

Why you should deploy a Landing Zone

It should be clear by now that to ensure a safe take-off in Azure you need a Landing Zone in place, enabling you to have a faster, more secure and efficient migration. Which is ultimately what you’re trying to achieve, right? Having a Landing Zone in place before you start migrating your infrastructure provides you with a solid foundation for you to future-proof your IT. Plus you’ll have access to Microsoft cloud services and best practices that set you up for success. But that’s not all. You’ll also be able to benefit from:

Increased speed Landing Zones have the tools and capabilities you need to migrate to the cloud and deploy new workloads quickly.

Increased scalability You can build repeatable environments with the same configuration and controls, enabling you to scale with ease.

Best security and performance Deploying a landing zone enables you to leverage Microsoft’s security and performance tools.

Five principles for deploying a landing zone

Microsoft has put together five key principles that you should be leveraging when deploying a Landing Zone.

• Utilise Networking Services – Add or remove workloads without disrupting the rest of your environment and leverage connectivity to bring your applications together.
• Identity Management – Within a Landing Zone, you’ll be able to set identity rules so only certain employees will be able to access data – providing you with better user management. You’ll be able to leverage Single Sign-On, Role-Based Access Control and Authentication to enable effective identity management.

Once you have the first two principles in place, you’ll be able to start migrating low-risk workloads. When you’ve migrated any low-risk workloads, you’ll then be in a place to start looking at the next three principles.

• Governing your environment – Microsoft will enable you to govern your environment with compliance policies to ensure you’re meeting industry regulations.
• Leverage Microsoft security – You’ll be able to leverage Microsoft security controls to protect both data at rest and in transit, allowing you to detect threats before it’s too late.
• Manage your environment – Once you have your Landing Zone in place you’ll not only have a secure space for your environment but also the tools in place to effectively monitor performance.

When you’ve got all of these three principles in place, you’ll be able to accelerate your migration and now have a secure foundation to move any business-critical workloads into Azure.

Ready to deploy a Landing Zone?

As an accredited Microsoft Azure Expert MSP and Cloud Adoption Framework ready partner, we’re able to help you deploy a landing zone. Simply get in touch with our experts.

If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that how we work is far more important than where we work from. Across the globe, remote working has become the norm and it’s opened up a plethora of opportunities for the modern workplace. Which, by the way, will undoubtedly be hybrid.

Hybrid Working is on the rise and with an end to the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, we’ve already seen an uplift in businesses adapting to this way of working. One such example is that of Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society who recently told 13,000 of their staff to ‘work anywhere’. And they’re in good company. The Work Trend Index: 2021 Annual Report, found that:

So, what exactly is the Hybrid Workplace and Hybrid Working?

Apart from being a slick sounding buzzword, the Hybrid Workplace is a business model that’s geared towards the need for increased flexibility in modern business. It’s by no means a new concept; however, it has become increasingly relevant as more and more businesses plan their post-pandemic way of working.

Hybrid Working allows some employees to work remotely, be that in a coffee shop or at home, while others work on-premises. Having your cleaning staff work from home probably isn’t the best idea, however, other teams such as Development and Marketing could greatly benefit from this model.

“Over the past year, no area has undergone more rapid transformation than the way we work. Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing to drive career advancement for every worker, including frontline and knowledge workers, as well as for new graduates and those who are in the workforce today. All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work.” – Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft

The benefits of Hybrid Working

While there are several factors to consider before implementing Hybrid Working, such as technology, the nature of your work and the socioeconomic factors that may inhibit your workforce’s ability to work from home, Hybrid Working carries significant benefits when implemented correctly.

1. Improved productivity

A well-structured Hybrid Workplace creates a culture that empowers employees to work to their strengths. Through increased flexibility and independence, employees have the freedom to work when and where they are most productive. Employees will be able to experience the best of both worlds by using the office for scheduling on-premises days for meetings and collaboration, and remote days for tasks that require focus.

In an interview with BBC, Baruch Silverman, founder of personal finance website The Smart Investor, said: “We try to use home working days less for video sessions and more for the tasks that require concentration. A task that may take several hours in the office may be completed in just an hour or two at home.”

 “We try to use home working days less for video sessions and more for the tasks that require concentration.” – Baruch Silverman, founder of The Smart Investor

2. Increased employee wellness and satisfaction

Mental wellness

Hybrid Working grants employees the ability to structure work around the rest of their lives, not the other way around. It removes the stress of everyday commuting and allows employees to work without the pressure of only being able to tend to non-work-related commitments when they get home after a long day at the office.

Physical wellness

Working from home provides people with disabilities or medical conditions the chance to work comfortably while staying connected. Having a more flexible working schedule allows employees to accommodate healthy eating habits and a regular exercise routine. You’re also able to decrease health exposure risks. Fewer in-house employees mean you’re able to lower the risk of colds, flu, or any other illnesses spreading around the office.

3. Remove geographical restrictions when recruiting new talent

Removing geographical restrictions allows businesses to access larger talent pools by leaning on remote work as a permanent fixture of talent acquisition. The Work Trend Index: 2021 Annual Report found that Forty-six percent of remote workers are planning to move to a new location in the next year because they can now work remotely. The report also noted that remote job postings on Linkedin increased more than 5 times between March and December 2020.  By recruiting nationally (or even globally), you’re able to build teams with rich cultural and experiential diversity as well as capitalise on time-zone differences. Thus, allowing you to offer 24/7 customer support or the ability to bring in some extra brainpower during peak business hours.

Become an attractive forward-thinking employer

Less geographical restrictions mean more opportunities for jobseekers. Gone are the days where you could attract and retain talent by simply offering them a flashy salary. As we start transitioning to the new way of working, employees will come to expect flexibility and consideration towards their well-being. It’s therefore crucial that you position yourself as a forward-thinking employer by having the right technology and an effective hybrid working strategy in place.

4. Cost savings

With a flexible workforce, the need for fixed office space changes – allowing you to make significant savings on costly overheads such as electricity and rent. It’s common practice among hybrid companies to have a small office space for on-premise staff and separate meeting rooms and hot-desking areas for employees with irregular working patterns. These working areas may be situated in-house or rented from shared workspace companies like WeWork.

5. Be prepared for an uncertain future

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that life as we know it can be flipped upside down in an instant, which is why it’s crucial that businesses remain agile and prepared for change. The Hybrid Working model empowers you to do this by already having the right technology, structure and employees in place to adapt to unexpected circumstances.

Conclusion

While there is still a lot of uncertainty about the future of work, there is also a massive opportunity for forward-thinking businesses to get a better handle on employee well-being and productivity, while benefiting from the cost efficiencies of Hybrid Working. Now is the perfect time for organisations to establish their Hybrid Working strategy and take advantage of the significant cost savings of diverting spend from physical assets to technology. As is always the case, the businesses who fully embrace change with a growth mindset are the ones who will develop a better workplace for everyone.

 

Ready to prepare your business for Hybrid Working?

We recently hosted the first instalment of our new webinar series: Preparing for the Hybrid Workplace, where we took a dive into how you can set your telephony up for success with Teams Voice. To watch the recording and get caught up, visit this page. We also recommend you keep an eye on our events page to stay up to date with all our upcoming webinars and workshops.

For more information on how you can prepare for Hybrid Working, get in touch with us via the link below:

 

 

According to a recent study the Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has run, two in five businesses reported having cybersecurity breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. Of these, one in five respectively ended up losing money, data or other assets. The most common attacks were phishing emails, followed by instances of others impersonating their organisation online, viruses or malware including ransomware.

With security breaches happening more frequently, it’s increasingly important that your business stays resilient. This doesn’t mean looking at short term security solutions – instead, you should be looking at creating a secure foundation for your business that helps you stay resilient. Thousands of businesses across the world, such as AI corporation, First Great Western and Mishcon De Reya are using Microsoft Azure to mitigate security threats.  Microsoft has built Azure to provide a secure foundation, it comes with built-in security controls to help you quickly configure security, and has unique intelligence at cloud scale to help you safeguard data and respond to threats in real-time.

Here are four ways you can leverage Azure to transform security:

1. Azure protects your most valuable asset – data

We all know that data is most companies’ most valuable asset in 2021, making it vital you keep it secure. Azure can help you with this. Microsoft has created several tools that help you stop external sources accessing your information and data, such as; double encryption, Azure Firewall and Azure Information Protection (AIP). Let us explore how these three tools will enable you to protect your data.

Azure uses double encryption, which is when you have at least two layers of encryption to protect both your data at rest and data in transit. Using double encryption on your data will mean threats have to break through two barriers to access your information.

Then there’s Azure Firewall, a cloud-native network security to help protect your Azure Virtual Network resources. You’ll have intelligent filtering for your firewall, which in sort will deny traffic from any malicious IP address and domain sourced from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence feed. Azure Firewall will help you ensure that only the people you trust get access to your resources.

Finally, there’s Azure Information Protection (AIP) which enables you to better protect your sensitive information. AIP will help you better control and secure any emails, documents or other sensitive data that’s shared outside your organisation through classification labels and permissions.

 

2. Get your user and identity management on track

One of the easiest ways to maintain high levels of security within your organisation is to start with your employees. Make sure their accounts are protected to avoid hackers gaining access and ensure they only have access to what they need to avoid any accidental data theft or breaches. Using Azure will enable your business to gain better user and identity management with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is when you assign Azure roles to control what access users have to different resources. Azure already comes with several built-in roles, but you’ll also have the ability to create your roles based on your organisation’s requirements – plus it will help you ensure employees only have access to the data they need. Once you’ve identified your roles, you then need to set out the Scope, which is essentially the resources that the role will have access to. You can add as many or as few resources as you’d like. Once you’ve mapped all of this out, you’ll have a list of roles with resources they can access, for example, the Virtual Machine Contributor role allows a user to create and manage virtual machines.

We then have Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), which is a process where a user needs an additional form of identification when signing in, e.g. enter a code that was sent to their mobile or provide a fingerprint scan. Gone are the days when users would only use passwords to log in – it leaves you vulnerable for an attack if employees use a weak password. Doubling up on your authentication upon logging in will significantly reduce the risk of hackers accessing and compromising your employee’s accounts.

Enabling RBAC and MFA are quick wins to help you gain greater control of your users and what they can do.

 

3. Intelligent security monitoring

Fewer businesses (35%) are using security monitoring tools to identify abnormal activity which could indicate a breach, suggesting firms are less aware than before of the risks. This was 40% last year.

Microsoft has created their very own cloud-native Security Information and Events Management (SIEM), Azure Sentinel, that leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) to proactively monitor and stop any threats before they harm your business. The SIEM will identify legitimate security threats with its built-on machine learning and knowledge. Meaning, you don’t have to spend hours reviewing which security threats are legitimate and not and instead can focus on doing what you do best.

One of the true benefits of Sentinel is that it’s continuously collecting data. Not just the odd bit here and there, but sheer amounts of data at scale across users, devices, applications and infrastructure. It’ll then use that data to detect threats and false threats using the data it’s collected, plus the threat intelligence Microsoft has.

Often, by the time you’ve identified a threat, it could be too late to respond. Not with Sentinel. Microsoft will allow you to rapidly respond to any threats with built-in automation of common task. For example, you could stop compromised users from moving around your network and stealing information through an automated, multifaceted response to incidents generated by rules that detect compromised users.

We’re hosting a webinar, Making Sense of Sentinel, that runs through all of the data Sentinel provides, and how you can start making sense of it. Sign up to discover how to leverage Sentinel’s data.

 

4. Make continuous improvements

Security threats don’t take breaks – they’re constantly evolving as hackers and technology are getting smarter. You must be actively improving your security to protect your business from these attacks. Trying to identify these improvements has been proven to be quite a challenge if you’re manually trying to identify them. If you’re looking for someone to help improve your security then look no further.

Microsoft is constantly looking out for your business by proactively identifying security improvements and recommendations with their Secure Score. The Secure Score will show your overall security posture as a percentage value, and to increase it you’ll be presented with a list of recommended actions to help raise your score. Each of the recommendations presented to you will include clear instructions for you to improve your security and the points your score will increase by.

As your Secure Score is displayed as a percentage, it’s easy to make this a regular KPI for you to improve – pushing your team to regularly review and implement the improvements suggested.

You can find out more about the tool in our Beginners Guide to Microsoft’s Secure Score.

 

Want to find out how Azure can help keep your business secure? Talk to the experts

As an Azure Expert MSP, it’s safe to say we know a thing or two about Azure. We have our very own in-house security experts to help you leverage the power of Azure to protect your business. Ready to find out how? Get in touch.

The past year has fundamentally changed where, when and how we work, and more than ever we’re reminded that work is something you do, not somewhere you go. With the rise of hybrid working, flexible working patterns will soon become the new norm, with employees spending some days at the office and some days at home.

It’s crucial that businesses take the time to look ahead with strategic focus and find answers to the following questions: How will you accommodate flexible working patterns, and do you have the technology in place to fully capitalise on the benefits of hybrid working?

In this blog, we’ll dive into what we believe to be a core piece of the hybrid working puzzle: Azure Virtual Desktop (WAD).

 

What is Azure Virtual Desktop?

Azure Virtual Desktop is a complete desktop and application virtualisation solution that runs on the cloud. In the past, virtual desktop solutions have been complex and expensive to set up and manage, making them inaccessible to most small and medium businesses.

By utilising the cloud, WVD changes that. Instead, it’s a cost-effective solution that is easy to deploy, configure and scale. And like all Microsoft Cloud Services, it’s completely flexible to your business needs. Making it the perfect solution for your Hybrid workplace.

 

What are the benefits of using WVD as a hybrid working solution?

Set your business up for remote working success

The Hybrid Workplace will be built on having the power to work from anywhere – whether that’s at the office, a coffee shop or home. Allowing employees to have the flexibility to work from any device used to be a headache, but not anymore. As long as employees have an internet connection, they can power up, log in to their desktop and they’ll be equipped with any business-critical applications, regardless of their device.

WVD gives you the ability to choose what Azure VM will meet their team’s needs and leverage the Windows 10 multi-session that’s exclusively available in Azure. Windows 10 multi-session means you can run multiple concurrent user interactive sessions easily with the same deployment for more cost-efficiency.

Secure your most valuable assets – data and applications

Gone are the days when a business’s most valuable IT asset was their hardware – in more recent years we’ve seen this shift to data and applications. Whilst a Hybrid workplace is a great way to provide employees with the flexibility of working where they want, you need to make sure you have the right security in place, so you don’t put your data and applications at risk.

Microsoft kept this at the forefront of their mind whilst developing Azure Virtual Desktop, and you’ll be able to benefit from the $1 billion security investment Microsoft makes every year. You’ll experience this through:

• Being able to store all employee and company data within Azure
• Benefitting from Azure security features including; Sentinel, Azure Security Center and Microsoft Defender ATP
• Have employees use a secure login with multi-factor authentication

You’ll also reap the benefits of the Azure Virtual Desktop compliance certifications including ISO 27001, 27018 and 27701, PCI, FedRAMP High for Commercial and HIPAA.

Scaling up and down has never been easier

WVD allows you to scale your infrastructure up or down quickly and easily based on your business needs. Allowing you to not only save resources but save on costs too. Within Azure Virtual Desktop you’ll have a centralised portal where you can configure networks, deploy desktops and enable security for employees in just a few clicks.

What’s best is you’ll be able to focus on your desktop apps and policies whilst Microsoft manages the rest. Find out more about scaling up and down with Azure Virtual Desktop on Microsofts website.

Leverage what you already have

Already using other Microsoft products, like Azure or Microsoft 365? You’re going to love hearing this. Azure Virtual Desktop enables employees to benefit from the seamless Microsoft Teams and Office experience they’re used to on a local device. Plus, you’ll be able to utilise your current Microsoft licencing if you have Microsoft 365 Business Premium or above.

 

Want to find out more about Azure Virtual Desktop? Talk to the experts.

The benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop are endless – especially when it comes to providing a flexible work environment. If you want to find out more about Azure Virtual Desktop or have any burning questions, then you’re in luck. Microsoft has identified us as one of a handful of Azure Virtual Desktop Specialist Partners. Simply get in touch to talk to one of our experts.

With new threats evolving it can be challenging for your organisation to stay protected. It’s time to review your security posture with the Microsoft Secure Score.

Do you want to know how secure your organisation truly is with Microsoft 365 (or Office 365 – PS did you know the licence names changed in 2020)? The Secure Score provides Microsoft 365 users with a security metric, providing an insight to their current level of protection. The score is calculated by analysing your regular activity and security settings in Microsoft 365, showing how aligned your organisation is with Microsoft’s best security practices by providing recommended steps to improve your security position in Microsoft 365. To view your Secure Score, you must have an administrative role within your organisation’s Microsoft 365. You can then view your score here.

Organisations utilising their Secure Score have seen it increase five times more than organisations who aren’t. Microsoft’s Secure Score will encourage you to utilise the security features that are already available, but you may not be aware of.

What’s best is you don’t need to set anything up in order to view your score. It’s instantly available. Plus, if you have Microsoft Defender for Endpoint enabled, you’ll be able to view your Secure Score for Windows. Your Microsoft Secure Score is presented to you in a dashboard that’s made up of three key parts – your score, recommended actions and score analysis. But what do they tell you about your score?

Your Secure Score

Within your dashboard, you’ll be able to view your Secure Score, and how you compare against the industry average. Alongside this, you’ll be presented with a target score you can alter depending on how quickly you’re aiming to increase security. You’ll have the ability to increase your Secure Score at your own pace by setting your own target score through a slider. The higher you set your target score, the more recommended actions you’ll have. Have the flexibility you need to increase security.

Secure Score Recommendations

As mentioned above, you’ll be presented with a list of recommended actions in order to reach your target score. You can filter the actions by user impact, implementation cost and action type. This will help you prioritise actions based on your organisation’s security needs.  To find out more about a specific recommendation, simply click on it to discover what the action is helping you solve, how it will increase your overall score and what you’ll need to do to complete it. By implementing the recommended actions you’ll increase security in your organisation in no time!

Score Score Analysis

Everyone loves to see the progress they’ve made. In your Secure Score dashboard, you’ll be able to analyse how your score has changed over time, and how you compare to the average Secure Score. You can easily change the date ranges and view actions you took on specific days. Want to share your actions with other staff members? In Score Analyser, you can easily export the recommended action list for a specific date.

New security threats are on the rise, and keeping your business protected from these threats can be challenging. Utilising your Secure Score is the first step in the right direction to increase security within your organisation. It will help provide you with clear guidance to increase your security level – reducing the overall risks your business may face. The workplace is constantly evolving and whilst you’re keeping up with these trends, it’s important you do so securely – whether it’s implementing remote working or new online communication methods.

Migrating to Microsoft 365 Business will instantly increase your score by over 100. It comes with security features that Office 365 doesn’t have, including:

• Advanced Threat Protection
• Windows Defender
• Mobile Device Management

Think of Microsoft 365 as an extra security fence around your organisation.

 

Secure Score Webinars

We’ve hosted a range of webinars around the Secure Score. If you’re looking to discover a thing or two about improving your Secure Score, then please download a copy of the relevant webinar below.

An introduction to the Secure Score Want to find out more about the Office 365 Secure Score? You can download a copy of our webinar that will provide you with an introduction to the Office 365 Secure Score.

A look at the Secure Score Recommendations We’re hosting a webinar on the Secure Score Recommendations and how you can start utilising them to improve your score.

 

Talk to an expert

So, what are you waiting for? Start improving your security today.

Our team of experts are here to help your organisation stay protected. We’ve put together Kickstart packages which are designed to help you increase security with Microsoft 365. To find out more about improving your Secure Score, get in contact with a member of our team today. We will be here to support your organisation’s first steps to increase security.

DevOps has evolved over several years to become the go-to methodology for developers. It’s been adopted by some of the worlds most successful companies – Netflix, NASA, Etsy and Hertz. The rise in DevOps has been thanks to more companies adopting an agile development process. And technology is evolving to keep up with this trend too – look at Microsoft for example, they’ve created Azure DevOps which comes packed with industry-leading features such as Azure Pipelines, Azure Boards, Azure Repos and much more. If you’re looking to find out exactly what DevOps is, how it compares to traditional methods and how you can adopt it to benefit from some of these new technologies then you’ve come to the right blog.

 

What is DevOps

Microsoft defines DevOps as; A compound of development (Dev) and operations (Ops), DevOps is the union of people, processes and technology to continually provide value to customers.

Adopting a DevOps culture alongside practices and tools, your team will be able to efficiently respond to customer needs and build applications quicker than ever. DevOps brings together siloed jobs such as IT operations, development teams, quality assurance and security to create a more fluid way of working that encourages collaboration. Which allows you to produce better applications or software by having all of those roles working towards a common goal. As all of those roles are working towards the same goal, right?

 

How do traditional development methods compare to DevOps?

We have answered some of the most popular questions we get asked on how traditional development methods, such as waterfall, compare to DevOps.

How efficient are the development cycles?

• Traditional methods often focus on planning big releases, which are much riskier due to the amount of work involved. When working in longer cycles with infrequent releases things can often become complex quite quickly. You’ll be up against hard deadlines compiled with a list of added features. Whilst the big releases look impressive, they are often an inefficient way of working.
• DevOps on the other hand takes a different approach. They run with smaller releases that are often much easier to understand and test – making the release a lot less risky. It’s also easier to manage if things don’t go to plan as there isn’t so much to fix. By running more frequent smaller releases, DevOps enables your business to quickly respond to any new customer needs or requirements.

How do they manage scheduling?

• Traditional methods often use planning and scheduling systems, to help manage any development. Within traditional methods there are typically a lot of moving parts to a development cycle, making scheduling quite a challenging task.
• DevOps is built on continuous smaller releases and automation from a dedicated team, making it much easier to schedule. You’ll be planning for the coming weeks as opposed to a few months, giving you better visibility of your team’s time. Plus, by having a dedicated team working on this, you’ll be able to coordinate everything effectively rather than having to schedule different people in different roles.

What’s the big deal?

• Traditional methods often make an event of their upcoming release or update. A lot more work would have gone into a single release when a company uses traditional methods – meaning there’s a lot more at stake and much higher risk. Have you ever seen developers locked in a room for hours on end before a big launch? That’s because they’ve been working weeks, if not months for this release and are spending the final push fire-fighting any last-minute issues to hit their hard launch date.
• DevOps works in much smaller, more frequent cycles, meaning they don’t go popping the confetti every time they launch a release or update. There’s a lot less risk involved as not as much work would have been required since the last cycle. Plus, with automated testing in place, they can rest assured knowing that their environments are in sync. DevOps only promote from one stage to another if they are confident it will work. Thereby, eliminating the release window so they can move new functionality into productions at a faster rate.

How easy is it to turn data into actionable improvements?

• Traditional methods will typically have to get numerous different parties involved when trying to collate information and data, which often ends up in a wordy report that’s shared with management. Lengthy reports can typically become a bottleneck as it’s not clear on what data is relevant and can result in unactioned tasks.
• DevOps enables you to quickly react to data thanks to the automated processes within the team. Meaning, you won’t have to sit and scroll through pages of information. By having a dedicated team gathering data from the application, you’re able to ensure that everyone within that team has a better understanding of the relevant information and data. This not only eliminates the time taken to gather the data but also to get sign-off from management.

What type of culture do they encourage?

• Traditional methods are often risk-averse. The culture is built around trying their absolute best to not harm the business, which results in them having a lot of pressure to get things perfect. When in reality, is anything ever perfect?
• DevOps creates a culture very different from this. They adopt a ‘fail early’ culture, understanding that failure is inevitable. That’s why they’ve created a strong structure and process around controlled failure through continuous testing, smaller deployments and automation. The team adopts the mindset of the sooner you fail, the smaller the impact and the quicker you recover.

What metrics do they use to measure success?

• Traditional methods use a cost and capacity model which looks at how much they get done for the least amount of money. The key challenge with this model is that it can be difficult to cut costs but still maintain the same capacity – which is why a lot of companies using traditional methods have to regularly outsource tasks.
• DevOps has taken this model one step further by adding in ‘flow’ since new applications should be measured by the time involved. This encourages them to review the end cycles time to identify any areas of waste by calculating true productivity so they can focus on the activities that add the most valuable.

What do they define as a completed task?

• Traditional methods often complete a task by doing their part and passing it onto the next person. They’ll be so focused on completing a task by meeting the deadline rather than making sure what is done is deployable. Using this method can often lead to a loss in quality and a lack of accountability.
• DevOps on the other hand focuses on creating a cross-functional team where everyone’s accountable for the task being completed. All team members will be working towards the same goal and will therefore have the same definition of a completed task, which is creating high-quality software. They are driven by the bigger picture rather than focusing on the specific tasks they need to carry out.

 

Looking to modernise your DevOps practices?

Are you keen to start using DevOps practices to adopt new technologies? We can help. Microsoft has created Azure DevOps, which provides you with the tools you need to adopt a DevOps culture effectively. As an Azure Expert MSP, we can support you in transforming the way you work. Get in touch to talk to our experts about improving the way you create applications.

 

Two in five businesses report having cybersecurity breaches or attacks in the last 12 months. Of these, one in five (21% and 18%) end up losing money, data or other assets.

If you’re one of the 180 million Microsoft 365 users, then there’s a tool waiting for you to utilise to secure your account and your business. This is your Secure Score. If you’re not familiar with it yet, now’s the time to check out our Beginners guide to the Microsoft 365 Secure Score. 

To help you kickstart your journey we’ve outlined three of the most common Secure Score recommendations our customers came across when trying to improve their score.  

 

1. Enabling MFA is as easy as 123

If you don’t know what Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is, then you best start familiarising yourself with it. To put it simply, MFA adds multiple layers to your users – making it more difficult for attackers to access your data. Passwords are no longer enough to keep external hackers out. The additional identity check that MFA enables, is the first step in your journey to improving your Secure Score.  

 

2. Protect your devices

It sounds simple but with more people working from home, it can be tricky to manage devices. Shockingly, less than a quarter of businesses (23%) have a cybersecurity policy covering home working. So what can you do to protect your data if employees are using different or personal devices?

Make the most of Microsoft Intune, a cloud-based service that focuses on mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM). Within Intune, you have the ability to control how your organisation’s devices are used and can configure policies to control applications that employees have access to. Using Intune will enable employees to use their personal devices whilst keeping your business data protected by isolating business data from personal data.

A step that often gets overlooked is making sure employees have passwords on their mobile devices, that way you can prevent someone from gaining physical access to its data. If an employee were to lose their device and a stranger was to find it, they will have difficulty trying to unlock it – the password and encryption add a layer of authentication, helping protect your business’s critical data.    

 

3. Restrict those not worthy (…of global administrator rights) 

The more admin users you have, the more options hackers will have to get in and access your data. By reducing the number of admin users you have, the less risk you’re creating for your company. The first step to having your administrator roles set up correctly is reviewing who already has an administrator role and revoking access for those who don’t need it or have left the business. 

 

These are just some of the first steps you can take to start improving your Secure Score. But you shouldn’t stop there. Staying secure is a continuous task. The moment you stand still, you fall behind – putting your business at risk. 

 

Secure score workshops

Start improving your security with our exclusive one-on-one Secure Score workshop.  In these sessions our experts will take a deep dive into your Secure Score and analyse your Microsoft 365 and Azure security. Take a look at what it involves and register your spot.

 

Microsoft 365 Secure Score Webinars

We’ve hosted a range of webinars around the Microsoft 365 Secure Score. If you’re looking to discover a thing or two about improving your Secure Score, download a copy of the relevant webinar below.

An introduction to the Secure Score Want to find out more about the Office 365 Secure Score? You can download a copy of our webinar that will provide you with an introduction to the Office 365 Secure Score.

A look at the Secure Score Recommendations We’re hosting a webinar on the Secure Score Recommendations and how you can start utilising them to improve your score.

 

 

 

As an Independent Software Vendor (ISV), your application is at the heart of your business and you’ll understand the importance of leveraging cloud-native technologies for application growth in 2021. Commvault has recently spoken about cloud-native applications and is predicting “IT organisations to make the rearchitecting of their applications and workloads into cloud-native formats one of their top digital transformation priorities for 2021”.

The benefits of moving your application to Azure are endless. In fact, it can completely transform the way your business operates. Reach new by accessing intelligent tools such as Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure DevOps and Azure App Service. The benefits are endless.

Moving your application to Azure can completely transform the way your business operates. You’ll have the ability to reach new markets by accessing intelligent tools such as Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure DevOps and Azure App Service. The benefits are endless.

During this blog post, we’ll be exploring the three infrastructure options for your application in the cloud.

Your options at a glance

When migrating your application or software to Azure you need to decide on whether your application will be delivered as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or App Service. Here’s an infographic we’ve created that highlights the key differences between these approaches.

Ready to dive into each of these options and what that approach will mean for your business?

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure-as-a-Service is the first step in building new technology that’s delivered over the cloud. This option is usually the quickest for you to get your application up and running in the cloud. IaaS enables you to build and manage data as you grow by only billing you for the storage and server space needed to build hardware or software. Allowing you to scale up and down with ease.

IaaS provides your business with the greatest level of control and power over your software and hardware. However, you’ll still be responsible for making sure everything is secure and up and running to prevent any outages that could impact your business operations.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

Platform-as-a-Service enables you to provide an online platform that is accessible to developers to start creating software that can be delivered over the internet. PaaS leverages cloud-native technologies but is still very cost-effective. Plus, you’ll only have to manage your application and data, whilst your cloud provider looks after the rest for you.

You’ll be able to free up a lot of your IT team’s time as you’ll be able to create custom applications online without having to deal with any of the data serving, storage or management of the platform – allowing them to focus on building new features into your app. You’ll also gain full control over any software or applications that are being built within the platform.

You’ll be able to create custom applications online without having to deal with any of the data serving, storage or management of the platform. The result? More time for your IT team to focus on building new features into your app. You’ll also gain full control over any software or applications that are being built within the platform.

One of the downfalls of PaaS is that you’ll only be able to control what is built on the platform. Therefore, if there is ever an outage or any issues with the hardware or operating system that the platform is built on, this will affect the software that is being delivered.

Azure App service

Azure App Service is a fully managed platform for building, deploying and scaling your web applications. The platform has built-in infrastructure maintenance, security patching and scaling – allowing you to really focus on transforming your app whilst Microsoft does the heavy lifting. You’ll be able to build, deploy and scale apps quicker than ever. Thanks to the comprehensive security and compliance features in Azure, you’ll be able to do all of this within a trusted managed platform.

Making your application fit for the Azure App Service is often the option that takes the most work, but the long-term cloud-native benefits are incomparable. With your cloud provider managing everything for you, you’ll have the time to continuously optimise your app by leveraging some of the available tools, such as; Azure Monitor, Azure DevOps and Azure Active Directory.

But that’s not all. Microsoft has created a range of pricing and performance options to fit your every need, which offers savings up to 55% when compared to pay as you go.

Want to talk to an expert?

We’re a Microsoft ISV partner and can help seamlessly guide you through your cloud journey. Simply get in touch.

 

We’re excited to announce that Cloud Direct is one of the first Microsoft partners to have been awarded the Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (WVD) Advanced Specialisation in the UK.

The WVD Advanced Specialisation serves as a signal of a partner’s knowledge, experience, and expertise. It was introduced by Microsoft to help customers identify which partners are most capable of deploying, scaling and securing virtual desktop infrastructure on Azure.

“Being recognised as one of the first UK partners to receive the Azure Virtual Desktop Advanced Specialisation is a welcomed addition to our Azure Expert MSP status, and an achievement we take great pride in. It’s a testament to our on-going investment in the Microsoft Stack and allows us to continue providing top-tier technology to the mid-market. We look forward to leveraging our expertise to help more businesses deploy the technology they need to scale with confidence.” – Brett Raynes, CEO, Cloud Direct

Only partners that meet the criteria below are able to earn the advanced specialisation:

• Pass a third-party audit of WVD practices
• Have proven experience in WVD project delivery
• Have skilled staff with the appropriate certifications

“The Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop advanced specialization highlights the partners who can be viewed as most capable when it comes to deploying Azure Virtual Desktop in Azure. Cloud Direct clearly demonstrated that they have both the skills and the experience to offer clients a path to transition to desktop-as-a-service in a scalable, secure, and cost-effective way.” – Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner (OCP) at Microsoft Corp.

What is Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)?

AVD is a Microsoft solution that seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft products and allows customers to implement virtual desktops in a scalable, secure, and cost-effective way. You can learn more about AVD here.

There’s never been a better time to deploy AVD

Looking to deploy AVD as part of your organisation’s secure remote working efforts? if you adopt WVD before 31 March 2021 you’re able to qualify for a 90-day discount on your Azure consumption costs.

We’ve completed numerous successful Azure Virtual Desktop projects with our deployment packages. These range from fast cost-effective remote working solutions, through to advanced multi-site engagements.

 

Get in touch to find out how you can take advantage of this exclusive offer.