22Dec2020
16Nov2020
How much security is ‘enough’ security? Looking at Microsoft 365 Defender vs. Azure Sentinel
How much security is 'enough' security? This is in fact a trick question, I just threw it in there to get your attention. When it comes to security, one can never be 'safe,' but only 'safer' (even with the most expensive of cybersecurity tools and talented, dedicated humans to back...
01Sep2020
A simpler Conditional Access baseline
Some folks have written to me about the "complexity" of my Conditional Access guide and were hoping to find something a bit simpler. This surprised me, and initially I shrugged it off. But I have heard this feedback more than once now, so I decided to take this thought experiment...
28Jul2020
Is “Best Practices” a myth?
I often find myself musing over this question these days. Granted, I actually do publish something called The Microsoft 365 Best Practices Checklists--but really these are more like recommendations. In fact, I recently updated them to include governance decisions around collaboration (e.g. affecting apps such as OneDrive for Business, Teams...
14Jul2020
U.K. Cyber Essentials Simple Assessment Tool
I recently came across the U.K.'s Cyber Essentials, as published by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Not two days after I learned about this simple control framework while on a conference call spanning several time zones with friends from around the world, that I received this email from a...
15Jun2020
Implementing the ACSC Essential 8 with Microsoft 365
I have had this request on my backburner for a while, and I finally got around to knocking it out: from a reader in the Land Down Under--Australia! Update: Microsoft has a much-improved set of Learn articles on the Essential Eight, with detailed guidance on implementing the three Maturity Levels (MLs)...
12Jun2020
Managed Services Opportunities within Microsoft 365
I still regularly receive questions from independent IT consultants as well as Managed Services Providers about Microsoft 365 in relation to "regular maintenance" tasks and the like, which can be translated into Managed Services opportunity. Everyone intuitively understands that something like this is possible, but they do not know where...
04Jun2020
Customers always have a choice when it comes to security
I had a reader ask me recently whether I now recommend Microsoft 365 E5 or E5 Security for my clients, even though it is a more expensive option, and I was a bit surprised at the question--as if they were suggesting it is my decision to make. It is important to...
29Apr2020
How do you deal with the unreasonable storage limits in SharePoint Online?!
I had a great question come in from a long-time reader recently: As I begin my journey to move clients from on-prem file servers to SharePoint/Teams, I keep getting hung up on the storage allocation. 1TB for an organization + 10GB/user is so far behind the times of what other vendors...
10Apr2020