To help companies rapidly deploy and fast-track Office 365 service consumption, we’ve been teaming up with Centrify. Centrify Identity Service (CIS) for Office 365 runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and is a comprehensive solution for Active Directory-based SSO, user provisioning and mobility management.
Together, we recently held a webinar on the topic “Proven Practices for Office 365 Deployment, Security and Management.” Joe Palarchio, a lead technical consultant within Perficient’s Microsoft practice, kicked off the session by reviewing a few statistics that were mentioned during sessions he attended at Ignite:
Nearly 80% of the Fortune 500 have Office 365
35% of Exchange install base is on Office 365
More than 80% of Office 365 Enterprise customers have two or more workloads
He made the point – the cloud should no longer be considered bleeding edge, and companies of all sizes have adopted it with great success. Joe also noted that the second statistic, the Exchange install base on Office 365, is climbing rapidly. Joe went on to share best practices… for example, to get started, you need to acquire licensing (trial, EA), identify an appropriate pilot group, and consider workloads such as OneDrive for Business or Office 365 ProPlus.
Accept changes in terms of network, security and provisioning. Also – seek support and experience when necessary. Look for certified vendors, leverage Microsoft documentation and work with a deployment partner. Side note: We have a change management practice here at Perficient that has helped many customers move to Office 365 successfully. You can read a case study detailing change management with Partners In Health here.
Joe also reviewed common mistakes to avoid and discussed the first step to the cloud: identity and authentication. Next, Chris Webber, Director of Product Marketing at Centrify, spoke further about your security goals and deployment goals around cloud identity and authentication. He showed attendees how Centrify Identity Service enables you to secure and simplify your Office 365 deployment. Centrify Identity Service is powered by Azure and validated by Microsoft. You can request a free trial or watch this short video to learn how to centralize and automate deployment of Office 365 and other apps across data centers, Macs and mobile.
Watch the webinar replay at your convenience and check out www.Centrify.com/Office365.
