91% of the Fortune 100 use Microsoft Teams, so why not join them?

Back in September 2017, Microsoft announced that Teams will build on the capabilities of Skype for Business. Microsoft Teams will bring together chats, meetings, calling, collaboration, app integration and file storage into one system. Skype for Business is now coming to End of Life on 31st July 2021, so it’s time to plan out how you’ll upgrade to Microsoft Teams. 

To start benefiting from the capabilities of Microsoft Teams immediately, we’ve put together this guide to help ensure you have a smooth migration from Skype for Business to Teams.

Five steps to a seamless Microsoft Teams upgrade

Ensuring a successful transition is not just about changing the technology you use. It’s about changing your behaviour and empowering your employees to become Teams gurus. In this simple five-step guide we will show you how to do just that and seamlessly transition from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams.

1. Spread the word

Before upgrading from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams you need to make everyone aware of the change. The first step to change is getting your stakeholders onboard. Once your stakeholders are excited about Microsoft Teams, it will be easier to engage other employees about the change.

Sending an email announcement is a good starting point. But, why not follow up with an internal webinar to help get everyone on board? This is the perfect opportunity for employees to ask any questions they may have.

2. Prepare your team for Teams

Do you have any Skype for Business advocates in your organisation? They may need a little more persuading than others in adopting Microsoft Teams. Now’s your chance to share the benefits of Microsoft Teams with the rest of your employees.

Reassure them that things are only going to get better. Microsoft Teams has built on Skype for Business capabilities, meaning your employees won’t be missing out on any features they’ve previously been using. Microsoft has improved the way group chats, online meetings and conference calls take place. With Microsoft Teams, it has never been easier for employees to collaborate with Office 365 apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint.

They’ll be able to make their very own modern workplace. With the addition of third-party integrations to increase productivity. You can see a full list of the Microsoft Teams apps and integrations here.

No need to worry about governance in Microsoft Teams. The built-in security features of Office 365 extend to Teams, delivering the advanced security and compliance your business expects.

3. Activate the user upgrade notification

The truth is, everyone forgets things from time to time. Your employees will be busy with their daily duties, so it’s important to keep them updated with the progress of the upgrade. Otherwise, they may forget.

In Skype for Business, you can provide a visual alert to ensure employees are reminded of the upcoming upgrade to Teams. Microsoft has put together a simple guide on how you can enable these upgrade notifications.  

4. Upgrade users to Teams

Today’s the day – your business is ready to upgrade from Skype for business to Microsoft Teams. Everyone’s excited about the new communication and collaboration solution to help them get more done.

Here are the instructions given by Microsoft to upgrade to Microsoft Teams:

In the Microsoft Teams admin centre, activate the upgrade switch by setting the coexistence mode to Teams Only. (In the admin centre, go to Org-wide Settings > Teams Upgrade.) Users will receive a notification in their Skype for Business client that they’ve been upgraded to Teams.

Once you’re all upgraded, Microsoft suggests you send an email to your employees and encourage them to start using Microsoft Teams. Highlighting a key point of contact is vital at this point for employees to ask any questions they have and remind them of any resources available to support the transition from Skype for Business to Teams.

5. Maximise user adoption

Microsoft Teams is in place. Employees have started using it. Now’s your chance to maximise user adoption. We have three suggestions to help you to make the most of your upgrade to Microsoft Teams.

Have a launch event. Why not celebrate your upgrade to Microsoft Teams with a launch event? Whether this is a quick ten minute get together in the meeting room or office lunch, it’s worth getting employees excited about the upgrade. If employees are engaged, they’ll be more willing to fully adopt their new collaboration system.
Understand who’s using what. Teams generate several reports to help you understand who is using the app and how it’s being used. Below is just a small sample  of a few reports that can be generated:

 

Image source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-analytics-and-reports/teams-reporting-reference

It’s important to put time aside to analyse these reports, especially in the first few months of upgrading to Teams. Analysing these reports will help you identify any usage gaps for you to try and close and check to see if users are fully adopting their new collaboration tool. Still seeing a skills gap? Our year of complimentary training with Mandarine Academy will educate your employees on the Microsoft Teams features they aren’t yet utilising.

Offering training to your employees will allow them to fully utilise all Teams has to offer. Once they know how to integrate Teams into their work, they will start to reap all the benefits of the collaboration system.

 

Microsoft Teams is on course to become the top business chat app by 2020. So why not stay ahead of the crowd and start using Teams today? Our experts know everything about Microsoft Teams and are waiting to share their knowledge with you. Get in contact with us today to find out how Teams can support your business.   

Futurist Ray Kurzweil has a lot of faith in the future of AI. If his prediction is correct, the impact on the way everyone does business will be huge: 

‘Artificial intelligence will reach human levels by 2029. Follow that out further…and we will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our civilization a billion-fold.’

It’s fair to say that Kurzweil is bullish about AI, its capabilities in the coming years, and the role it will play in our lives. But what are the facts behind the AI hyperbole? Why does your business need to be ready for it? 

We recently conducted a survey that asked organisations if they’re prepared to implement AI and machine learning. Here’s what we found out, and why the results are significant. 

Businesses see AI saving them money – and making it

The applications of AI are countless and are only limited by an organisation’s ability to implement them. As AI moves beyond cost efficiency, expect to see a rise in revenue generated by automation.  

Most of our respondents saw cost efficiency and customer service as the major areas that AI would positively impact for them. Which isn’t surprising. AI automates busy-work and increases productivity(especially when it comes to compliance-related tasks). It makes use of data to benefit operational efficiency and improves customer relations by effectively managing customer service. It does these things already, and does them very well.  

What could you gain?

There is, however, a definite shift taking place. 21% our respondents saw the potential to change their go-to-market strategy. MIT’s investigation of organisations further along in their AI journey found that a significant number of them are ‘prioritising revenue-generating AI applications over cost-saving ones.’ This suggests that AI is poised to not only save these businesses money, but start making them significant amounts, too.

How, though? AI requires a solid infrastructure, as mentioned before, but it also requires machine learning to vastly improve inefficiencies in products and processes. Making use of the technology’s processing power during ideation and market research puts a near-boundless amount of flexible, customisable knowledge at your disposable. While real-time data analysis allows for minute refinements in the production or service-provisioning process.

The ability to manage customer relations is a major part of the money-making puzzle. Developments in machine learning capabilities could lead to applications intelligent enough to successfully handle the sales process from start to finish, with data collection and analysis leading to decision making, product refinement and customer service delivery.

How can you get ready?

Widen your scope. Don’t just think about areas in which AI can help you save money or send the right email to the right lead and start thinking about ways in which it could help you improve your product or service further down the line.

Be imaginative, optimistic and aspirational, and take a wish-list to the experts. They’ll know what you need to reach your AI goals.  

 

Half of businesses have the infrastructure and skills they need to take advantage of AI

Around half of the businesses we spoke to already have the infrastructure and skills they need to make use of AI.Half didn’t.

Investing in infrastructure – in this case, the kind of cloud processing power you’ll need to implement a business-changing AI program – is a necessity. 

A global survey of CIOs across a broad range of industries revealed that 72% of those working in digital-forward organisations – and 58% of those in ‘baseline organisation’s – saw AI and machine learning as a priority in terms of investment in the next three years. 

What could you gain?

Why are these CIOs so interested in AI? Because they know it’s the future of efficient data analysis, decision making and business growth. According to analytics expert Thomas H. Davenport’s The AI Advantage, there are three stages to an organisation’s AI adoption: 

• Assisted intelligence makes use of data on a far greater scale than we’ve ever seen;
• Machine learning mimics human cognitive skills to produce informed analysis of data; 
• And finally, autonomous intelligence brings decision-making into the mix. 

The future of AI for business is bright. Davenport’s three stages point to a future in which AI is making the kinds of business decisions that the C-suite usually managesand is doing so based on an in-depth knowledge of regulations, industry processes and tailored data analysis. Who knows, business decision-making in the future could approach a kind of logical perfection! The C-suite won’t be replaced, but they’ll have an assistant with superhuman brain-power by their side. 

How can you get ready? 

Again, you’ll want to take an inventory of what you already have. Is there a solid foundation to build on, or do you need a ground-up cloud solution to refresh your infrastructure and make room for AI? Consult with your IT department and involve them in the decision-making process, then open lines of communication with an MSP that can take stock of your situation and make structural recommendations.

The same goes for your staff. 80 percent of respondents to an EY survey on AI cited a lack of skills as the biggest hurdle to implementing a successful AI strategy. Make sure you’re training existing staff, hiring strategically and fostering relationships with MSPs to fill in knowledge gaps. Without the skills necessary to make the most of AI technologies, you’ll doubtless miss out on some of its most significant capabilities.  

Only 32% of businesses have a fully mapped-out AI strategy

The majority of businesses aren’t yet ready to implement AI and make use of its benefits.  When we asked whether people were strategising for AI, most respondents either completely lacked a strategy or didn’t yet have a fully thought-through plan.

What could you gain?

The respondents in the not-so-prepared camp need to rectify this. Why? From a positive perspective, AI and automation has the potential to massively benefit organisations no matter the industry they’re in.

A recent study from McKinsey found that businesses in industries such as insurance and travel will see tens of billions of dollars in positive impact with the arrival of advanced automation and machine learning. In fact, an article written earlier this year by analysts at Deloitte began by arguing that: 

‘As AI technologies standardise across industries, becoming an AI-fueled organisation will likely be table stakes for survival.’

How can you get ready?

Essentially, if your organisation isn’t prepared to make use of automation, it’ll be missing out on the two percent year-on-year productivity growth that it creates. Building out a full AI strategy is the first step. Ask yourself whether you’ve got the infrastructure, in-house expertise and budget set aside to make the most of what’s to come. Look for resources on automation and AI infrastructure, and where it might positively impact your existing business model.

If you’re involved in production, for example, installing sensors along the production line will gather masses of data that can save huge amounts of time and money by recommending proactive maintenance and cutting production inefficiencies. Machine learning then makes use of the huge amounts of data that these sensors generate, and are the backbone of the ‘smart factories’ forecast to generate trillions of pounds in the next few years. This will funnel data into an AI platform that can point out inefficiencies, saving you money where it was wasted before. Once you’ve gotten as far as you can with the knowledge you already have, it’s time to bring in the experts.

What we’ve learned

The results of our survey, which gathered 100 responses from participants in a variety of industries, have given us several valuable insights. The key takeaway, however, is that:  

Getting ready for AI – whether that means training and hiring staff, building your infrastructure or even preparing a basic strategy – is a necessity. 

Almost a third of our respondents already have an AI strategy, and a further third have begun the work. AI readiness is no longer an option; it’s a necessity if you want your organisation to remain competitive and continue to grow. 

There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to AI’s future in your business. Starting out on the right foot in terms of infrastructure and strategy means you’ll avoid any obstacles that might get in the way of the benefits that the technology promises.To find out more about how your business can build the foundations of automation and get ready for AI, speak with an expert today.

 

If you’re thinking about organising anything in 2019, it pays to consult the newly-crowned queen of tidying, Marie Kondo, for advice:

‘Once you learn to choose your belongings properly, you will be left with only the amount that fits perfectly in the space you own.’ 

While Marie Kondo may specialise in tidying up houses, her advice can also be applied to Azure governance and cost management. The public cloud requires careful management and systematic organisation before you can realise its full benefits for your organisation.  

Azure is an empowering, growth-enabling tool, but if you’re not organised in your approach to using it you risk losing control of your cloud spend. Azure costs can mount and fly under the radar if you don’t have a thought-through cost management plan and governance framework in place. Proper organisation is the key to an efficient, cost-effective Azure experience.  Don’t let the tool’s costs outweigh its benefits.  

Here’s what Marie Kondo would do if she was cost-managing her Enterprise Azure profile. 

Make the most of groups

It doesn’t make sense to deploy an entire program of subscriptions in Azure if you’re not going to keep track of the resources involved. A tool that is designed to save or even make you money can end up costing you quite a lot if you’re paying for things you don’t need, or that aren’t delivering the kind of ROI you expect. 

The Azure Scaffold exists to ensure that your subscriptions are effectively cost- and compliance-managed, and its grouping system plays a big part in making that happen. Management groups are a useful feature within Azure, allowing you to group subscriptions together in ways that make sense for your business. Governance features such as Azure Policies and Role Based Access Control (RBAC) can then be assigned to the Management Groups, providing a consistent and secure standard across the organisation. These groups can be crafted to reflect your internal structure, making it easy to ensure the right department has access to the right Azure subscriptions, and those that don’t need access are kept out. 

Resource groups go into more granular detail, and can be structured in an organised way to ensure all resources are easily identified. If you’re looking to cap your spending on an individual project, you can apply a spend limit to the resource group instead of hoping that someone’s remembered to do it for each individual subscription. 

Naming conventions 

One of the simplest and most effective steps you can take to organise your Azure costs is to ensure that you’ve got a naming convention that everyone follows. Creating and tagging resource groups is much more useful if this is done consistently across your business. If no naming convention is followed, specific resources will be harder to find, and groups of resources or subscriptions could potentially fall by the wayside and continue to accrue costs without your knowledge. 

Naming conventions can be tailored to the specific character of your organisation, reflectingyour internal structure to make finding resources in Azure an intuitive process. Removing barriers to checking up on your subscriptions and resource spending is a crucial step towards ensuring that you’ve got a detailed overview of where your money is being spent. 

Monitoring and management

The transition from budgeting for hardware to budgeting for services – from CAPEX to OPEX – has the potential to be a confusing one. If your subscriptions are disorganised, it’s difficult to take advantage of what’s great about OPEX spending: the ability to scale costs up and down according to your changing business needs. 

If you’ve named, tagged and grouped your resources effectively, they should be easy to find using Azure’s cost-management tools and turned off when you don’t need them. Say you’ve completed work on a web app that you’re no longer using. If you haven’t organised the resources that it used properly, you might end up paying for some of them long after the project finishes because they didn’t show up where you thought they’d be in the Azure portal.

Azure Monitor constantly gathers data from all your subscriptions to show you what’s working and what isn’t. While Azure Advisor crunches the numbers and offers cost-management recommendations to ensure you’re paying for what you truly use.. With this knowledge, you can set workloads on timed schedules to maximise efficiency and unused workloads can be properly terminated, which can add up to significant savings. Switching off a virtual machine for just four hours a day can save 15 percent of its cost. Without proper Azure cost-management organisation you’d never get that insight.  

Work with the experts

Azure Expert Managed Service Providers (MSPs) like Cloud Direct can provide consultancy services,simplified portals and budget tracking to ensure that users at all levels of IT skill can understand and act on the data Azure’s monitoring tools provide. 

The My Azure section of Cloud Direct’s PROVIDE portal, for example, does just this. Behaving like a smart energy meter, it creates a granular breakdown of your spending, allowing you to respond accordingly. This opens the door for a significant increase in ROI. If, for example, one of your subscriptions isn’t performing as well as you’d like (or expected it to), you’ll see that straight away, and be able to make the necessary changes to your resource allocation. 

When this ability is given over to managers with specific knowledge of their department’s needs, it translates into real efficiency in your Azure environment and significant opportunities for savings. 

Automate what you can 

Automation goes even further in keeping those who manage spending abreast of the latest developments in your Enterprise Azure program. Azure’s Event Grid lets you create automatic processes when something happens in your portal. This means that any changes are easily flagged, and resources are easily deleted when a project comes to an end. 

Azure Automation gives users the ability to create runbooks that perform routine tasks, so you don’t have to, freeing up employee hours from busywork for more valuable projects.Autonomous tasks such as patching every month, can be automated with Azure automation. With the introduction of Azure Blueprints, Management Groups and Automation work together to provide a time-effective and consistent approach across your organisation. As Microsoft say, automation is ‘a full-time job’ and well worth the investment. 

Everyone is involved 

This isn’t a siloed job. Azure cost management organisation must come from the top down as part of a collaboration with each department, so that there’s consistency across the Azure environment. The effort will pay dividends when you don’t have to waste hours searching for a specific resource. When everything is tagged and named according to the same convention, you’ll know exactly what to look for, and where. Then when you’ve automated your Azure processes and learned how to use the monitoring tools, you’ll be making savings instead of wasting money. 

There you have it. The KonMari method applied to Azure cost-management. Apply this advice to your Azure environment, and you’ll ensure that you’ve got all the resources that ‘spark joy’ in your investors, and none of the ones that don’t. 

 

Collaboration can improve company productivity by 20 to 30%, according to McKinsey. But, increased communication and cross-pollination requires a more open-access approach to tools. Which can be cause for concern as it opens up the potential risks to governance of compliance, security, record-keeping and usability.

In this blog post, we’ll show how Citrix and Microsoft 365 will keep your data safe, your company compliant and, most importantly, your employees productive.

Deploying Citrix-on-Azure with Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is a clear favourite for businesses. With more than 120 million users worldwide, it’s a versatile solution for company communication and collaboration.

But, Microsoft 365 is only the beginning. The next logical step for any organisation looking to become more efficient is to partner your Microsoft 365 with Citrix-on-Azure. Citrix and Microsoft 365 go hand-in-hand to deliver secure productivity, simplified document-sharing and greater communication. 

In short, Citrix lets your employees load up their virtual desktops from any device at any location, while giving you governance over access management and security, direct from the source. It’s complete freedom for your employees, and absolute control for you.

Take advantage of Microsoft-level security

The reality is: most organisations use a combination of on-premises business applications and cloud-hosted applications. Consequently, employees struggle to access applications unless they’re within the secure network of the office.

Citrix Virtual Apps, however, opens up access to vital business applications without creating security weaknesses. Protected by Azure’s security centre, employers can:

• Retain access control;
• Deploy system updates direct to virtual machines,
• And, proactively shut down threats with enhanced machine learning threat protection.

For employees, it means the freedom to collaborate and share information without worrying about a data hack.

User experience 

Rewind a few years, and remote working was a company’s worst nightmare. Employees couldn’t access the tools they needed outside of the office, and if they did, employers still weren’t open to the idea.

Now, remote working is a necessity for any business to remain competitive. Consequently, employees need to access applications and systems via multiple devices quickly and efficiently. 

Citrix Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) on Azure gives employees the freedom to operate as if they’re at the office, but from any location. Whether it’s an airport lounge in Brussels; a coffee shop in Paris or even the doctor’s office in London, employees can get work done. And, employers can rest easy knowing their vital data is secured at the source within Azure, not on the localised device.

Governance 

Creating your governance framework early means that your cloud-based projects are delivered with less hassle for you. It also means avoiding some of the growing pains most commonly associated with rapid growth.

With Citrix, companies can take advantage of Azure governance, deploying compliant applications using Azure blueprints. As a result, your business can easily audit applications and remain as compliant and accountable as possible.

Building on what you know 

In Azure, user experience and governance are top of the agenda. But, Citrix and Microsoft 365’s enablement means communication and productivity are improved, too. For example, Teams (and other Microsoft 365 applications like Office 365) means employees can operate in a transparent, unified way, regardless of location. This makes for a more efficient, productive workplace.

Deploying Citrix-on-Azure can seem more complex than it is. Cloud Direct are on hand to advise you through the process, helping your business collaborate more efficiently and securely, all the while retaining control of your all-important data.

Contact an expert today to find out more.

When Vickii isn’t busy meeting with her accounts, then she’s off training for her next rugby match. We managed to interview her about her role as a Key Account Manager at Cloud Direct whilst being a newly professional Rugby player. Here’s what we found out! 👀

Vickii first picked up a rugby ball aged five, after her Dad took her siblings to Mini’s rugby at her hometown club, Portsmouth, and she hasn’t put it down since. In 2006, Vickii was selected into the England U20’s age group and won multiple Nations Cup titles, before making her debut in Women’s rugby with Richmond Women in 2008. Vickii currently plays in the Tyrells Premier 15s League for Harlequins Ladies. She also represents England at prop – meaning she’s right at the front of the scrums, in the centre of the action. We asked her what it was like playing for both her club and country. This is what she had to say:

“I’m very lucky to play for an elite team at Harlequins, so the transition between Club and Country is seamless and shows the progression of women’s rugby.”

When Vickii’s not on the rugby pitch, she’s busy at Cloud Direct as a Key Account Manager. She’s been with Cloud Direct for four years and “has enjoyed every minute of it”. Her role as a Key Account Manager involves finding new ways to delight her accounts and support their business growth – meaning she often travels across the country for meetings. Which suits her just fine as Vickii has never been one to sit behind a desk all day. Regular contact with her accounts has helped her build up strong relationships with them – most of which now support her on the pitch. Vickii said the reason for her success as a Key Account Manager at Cloud Direct is “because I’m always striving for excellence and pushing myself to be the best I can be.”

Every job comes with demands, and when you’re balancing two, you’re doubling the demands. Vickii looks at each role as if it’s a break from the other – this helps her to fully focus on what she’s currently doing. As a professional both on the pitch and in the workplace, she’s constantly growing in her roles. With a strong passion for both her clients and rugby, Vickii can’t see her life without either of them.

There’s no such thing as an average week in Vickii’s life. Every day is different, and she believes this is the reason for her development as a Key Account Manager and rugby player.

“If every day was the same, I would never be able to progress. It makes life very exciting when every day is different!”

Any successful athlete knows you need the combination of being out on the field and in the gym. As a full-time athlete, Vickii has weekly gym focusing on heavy lifting, mixed with speed and conditioning sessions, interspersed with rugby skills with her Harlequins teammates.

Vickii’s secret to managing her busy schedule? Preparation. Time management is key. Being successful both on and off the pitch is a real achievement, and Vickii makes it look easy. She’s always strict on herself and what she needs achieve, which has really helped her push herself during the 6 Nations.

“Cloud Direct has been very supportive of me becoming a professional athlete. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Women’s rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in England. Vickii feels honoured to be at the heart of the women game as it grows. World Rugby has seen a 60% increase in female participation globally and the sporting dynamic is changing – they’re making massive leaps and improving the environment for the next generation.

 “Women’s rugby has come into an elite league of its own.”

Want to watch Vickii Cornborough in action? England has one game left in the Six Nations, a doubleheader with England Men:

• 16^th March at Twickenham Stadium, Kick Off 19:40

So far, so good, with England Women on track for a Six Nations Grand Slam. Vickii says:

“We’ve done fantastically this season, and we’re always looking at the next game as the next challenge. If we carry on with the same performances that we’ve had this tournament, hopefully the result will take care of itself.”

You can watch England Women’s games on Sky Sports, but if you want to watch the Red Roses in action then come along to their games!

Harlequins Ladies will be playing against Gloucester Hartpury Women in The Game Changer, hoping to make history once again. They’re looking to break the record for the highest attended women’s premier league match.

Once the six nations are over, Vickii will be going straight back into the Tyrrells Premier 15s and has a big run of games coming up, in the hopes of winning the League with Harlequins Women.

Almost 30,000 companies operate on Windows Server 2008 today, with 140,000 still using Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

But 2008 was more than a decade ago. Spotify and Airbnb had only just launched, and the iPhone was less than a year old. Sure, Windows Server and SQL Server 2008 provided a great foundation for businesses looking to deploy multiple technologies, but it’s outdated now. After all, how many people still use the first-generation iPhone?

For many organisations, it’s time to shake hands, say goodbye and modernise their business servers. One way or another, your business will have to update, or you’ll put your entire operation at risk.

Here’s what’ll happen if you don’t adapt.

Say goodbye to regular security updates

End-of-life support means an end to regular security updates, which will leave your business vulnerable to attacks. Considering there are an estimated 65,000 attempted cyber-attacks on businesses in the U.K. every day, you can’t ignore the ever-growing threat to personal data.

You certainly can’t operate without state-of-the-art measures to keep your data safe.

Say goodbye to compliance and governance

On the back of security updates is compliance. Without regular updates on Windows and SQL Server 2008, your business will quickly fall short of the new GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. And we all remember how much work it took to get compliant, don’t we?

Moving your workloads from on-premises to Azure and updating your servers will mean that your business can remain agile and compliant with regulations, regardless of how rigorous they become. And given that Microsoft is spending more than $1 billion a year on cybersecurity research, it’s safe to assume that there’s more regulation to come.

Say goodbye to all that efficiency

That’s right. With an end to support comes an end to effective performance, too. This change has a knock-on effect across your entire business. If you fail to update, there’s a good chance you’ll experience slower workloads, more glitches and, with time, broken technologies.

That’ll mean inefficient business processes, a slower time-to-market and a poor customer experience. Woof.

We won’t let you do it to yourself

Migrating your workloads to the cloud and onto an entirely new server is no easy feat. Although Windows Server 2008 support is due to end on 14^th January 2020, it’s important to get ahead of the race and plan your migration now.

Cloud Direct’s End of Support Assessment Package will give you the transparency you need to make an informed decision about your migration. We’ll review your existing 2008 Servers and explain the best way your business can handle a migration.

We’ll also help you achieve secure, scalable growth with Azure Scaffold, providing you with the framework to deploy Azure as effectively and efficiently as possible.

By modernising your IT systems and migrating to Azure, your business can unlock the potential it needs to remain competitive, increase its agility and ultimately, push forward with business growth.

Dates for your diary

SQL Server 2008/2008 R2 End of Support: 9th July 2019

Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 End of Support: 14th January 2020

The number of remote workers and those seeking to work flexibly continues to rise. With 3.7 million employees now working remotely, it’s clear the working environment is changing. Are you worried about getting left behind without a modern workplace? We know a thing or two about managing remote workers. So, let us tell you our secret to successfully managing remote workers – Microsoft 365.

Think of Microsoft 365 as your one-stop-shop for creating a modern workplace – allowing employees to work from any location, worry-free from any threats. So, here’s a breakdown of our five top tips to managing remote workers with Microsoft 365.

1. Around the clock accessibility

The first step to successfully implementing remote working is giving employees the access they need to work as normal.

With Microsoft 365 in place, accessing vital documents has never been easier. Your employees will have access to OneDrive – an online storage platform allowing you to save files and then access them anywhere on any device. Simple.

But what about shared company files? That’s what SharePoint’s for. It’s a web-based collaborative platform that’s a part of Microsoft 365. SharePoint allows employees to:

• Share and manage content, knowledge and applications
• Quickly find information
• Seamlessly collaborate across the organisation

2. Work together when everyone’s apart

You don’t have to be sat next to someone to work with them anymore. One of the perks of Microsoft 365 is having access to all Office 365 products and their benefits – including Word, PowerPoint, Excel plus many more! You’ll have the ability to share and collaborate with co-workers on documents in real time. Whether you’re putting together a proposal, presentation or project plan, you’ll be able to work on it together. These products allow employees to collaborate on work together, even if they’re halfway around the world.

3. A secure workplace is a happy workplace

To make remote working work, it must be safe and flexible. Organisations need to have the correct software and security in place to keep employees and company data protected. The threat landscape’s evolving and staying protected from threats can be challenging – especially when half of your workforce work remotely.

But don’t worry. Microsoft 365 has got you covered. When you purchase Microsoft 365, you’ll have instant access to a range of security features you can enable, including:

• Advanced Threat Protection: keep your files, emails and Office 365 products protected against attacks.
• Windows Defender: keep your Windows computer protected against adware, spyware and viruses.
• Mobile device management: securely manage employee’s mobile devices. You can manage security policies, wipe a device and view device reports.
• Secure Score: you can find out how secure your organisation truly is in Office 365. View recommendations based on your activities and security settings.

4. Communication is key

Communication is key. And remote working shouldn’t affect this. Many businesses worry about a lack of communication once they allow employees to work remotely. But, let us put your worries to rest.

Microsoft 365 opens your business up to different communication channels, including; Skype, Teams and Yammer. These three tools will allow you to carry on with regular communications. Have your morning catch-ups with a video conference on Skype, keep your team aligned with a group chat in Teams and pass on those vital company announcements through Yammer. Make employees feel like they’ve never left the office.

5. Break your bad habits

When 5 O’clock hits, do you often sit and wonder what you did today? With MyAnalytics, employees can see a summary of how they’ve spent their time, giving them an insight to:

• Meeting hours
• Time spent on emails
• How many focus hours you had
• Time spent on chats and calls
• The documents worked on
• After hours work

From this information, MyAnalytics will provide employees with suggestions on how they can improve their working habits at home – whether it’s reducing unproductive meetings or getting a better work/life balance. Work smarter, not harder and start building better work habits with MyAnalytics.

So, there you have it. Our five tips for successfully managing remote workers. If you’re thinking of implementing remote working or wanting to adopt the latest technologies, then we highly recommend rolling out Microsoft 365.

For support and guidance on this transition, contact our experts to discuss what it would take for your company to adopt a remote working environment through Microsoft 365.

Do you know SQL Server and Microsoft Server 2008 go end of support in the next 12-months? Read on to find out what this means for your business and what your next steps should be.

The all important dates:

 

SQL Server 2008/2008 R2 End of Support – 9th July 2019

Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 End of Support – 14th January 2020

 

What does this mean for your business?

After these dates, SQL Server and Microsoft Server 2008 will no longer be supported by Microsoft. This means no more security updates, performance updates or patches from Microsoft. You’ll still be able to use SQL and Windows Server, but you’ll no longer receive support leaving your business increasingly vulnerable to new cyber threats.

Your options to extend support

Microsoft are extending support for both these solutions, including security updates, for 3 years if they are moved to Azure. This could mean re-hosting your 2008 servers in Azure or a full migration to Azure Virtual Machines. But the right solution for your business depends on a variety of factors, including your current workloads, the impact on the wider business and cost implications.

Plan your migration

Cloud Direct’s 2008 End Of Support Assessment Package is designed to provide you with the knowledge you need to make an informed decision and to approach your migration with confidence. The assessment package provides customers with a review of their current 2008 server set up and insight into their migration options.

Benefits of the package

This package will help you prepare and plan the best way to handle your migration. Providing you with an understanding of the impact on the business and potential costs.

What the assessment looks at

The assessment provides a high-level overview of your Windows and SQL estate including a comprehensive review of your current set up and assessment of the individual workloads on each server. Building a comprehensive understanding of what you use the servers for and the impact on the business if one of these fails or is breached.

Your individual report

Once the assessment is completed you will receive a full report with recommended actions for individual items based on the review’s findings. This will include a Road Map for your migration outlining the recommended migration option for your business with an estimated cost breakdown.

Don’t miss the deadline for SQL and Windows Server 2008 End of Support. Get in touch today to discover the opportunities for your business.

Are you using Microsoft cloud IT solutions? Do you want to unlock features and collaboration streams you didn’t know were available to you? Integrate Azure seamlessly with your existing Microsoft tools, making them work even harder for your business.

As any collector knows, there’s more value in a complete set.

Start your collection

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform built with business needs in mind. As such, it works perfectly with your current setup. Chances are you already have a few Microsoft services as part of your collection of cloud IT solutions. If you can answer yes to any of these questions, this blog post is for you:

• Have you got your team connecting and collaborating with Office 365, Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business?
• Are your customers getting amazing customer service, with Dynamics 365?
• Have you got the full Microsoft 365 set of Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security all rolled into one?

Yes? Then it’s time you consider adding Azure to your collection. Get the set.

Azure Active Directory and apps with Office 365

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is an identity and access management system designed to help you manage your user and group accounts, set up single sign-on and sync passwords.

The good news is, if you have Office 365, you get a free subscription to Azure AD. The better news is, by upgrading you gain a whole host of additional management capabilities. You could use gain broader functionality with the Azure AD Application Proxy. This lets you publish on-premise web apps with Azure AD. Or, improve the flexibility of your management systems using Microsoft Identity Manager and create dynamic groups or set up self-service group management.

And, grant granular application access with Integrated apps (including third-parts SaaS apps and Power apps), so that if you want to roll out access on an enterprise scale, you can do it en masse. Go even further and run customised web apps and mobile apps in Azure, and integrate these easily with SharePoint Online to share information gained from these apps with your teams.

Secure customer data with Dynamics 365, Power BI and Azure

Access is one thing. On the other side of the coin, how do we prevent threats from accessing data?

Dynamics 365 hosted on Azure provides integrated advanced encryption and security capabilities for sensitive data, such as customer information. By coupling Azure Service Bus with Dynamics 365, you gain a reliable information delivery service that improves communications between systems. Not only does this make transferring data easier, but also it is reliably secure.

As well as keeping this data safe from external threats, you also want to use customer data, such as preferences, behaviours and actions, to inform your decision-making. With Azure and Power BI, you can take stored data and create real-time business intelligence analytics. Power BI Embedded on Azure even lets you load custom visualisations to suit your business’ individual needs.

And before you ask, yes there’s plenty to learn from Dynamics 365 reports, but we say boost your reporting power ten-fold with Power BI’s advanced functionality. Read more about it, here.

Get an expert to value your collection

Cloud Direct is an Azure Expert MSP, ready and waiting to offer our knowledge and resources to a business looking to expand their cloud IT solutions with Azure.

Collect and connect, in the cloud.