23Sep2020
09May2020
Building your Security Practice with Microsoft Threat Protection and Azure Sentinel
I have some exciting news today. I have a new publication available covering Microsoft 365 E5 Security and Microsoft Threat Protection, with a bonus section at the end featuring Azure Sentinel (which is a separate product, not included with Microsoft 365). The document is available here if you want to...
09Mar2020
Azure AD Premium P1 comes to Microsoft 365 Business; get ready…
I am calling it now--the Microsoft 365 Business SKU is going to be the most widely deployed 365 subscription someday (and perhaps soon). Maybe not by total number of seats, since the Enterprise has so many people in it, but certainly by number of customers/tenants (because there are MANY more...
11Feb2020
Boost your security with Hybrid Azure AD Join: From Zero to Conditional Access in one afternoon
"Alex, I work at a non-profit and I would love to take advantage of the better security in Microsoft 365 Business (we have Business Premium now), but it sounds like it is for "cloud-only" customers? Is that right?? We are using Office 365 for Exchange, but we can't go cloud-only...
20Aug2019
Protecting extra-sensitive accounts and data sets in Microsoft 365, Part 1: Identity
As I have previously pointed out on this blog before, all of the best security products, like Microsoft Cloud App Security or Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, are held hostage in E5 plans. But there is a really big cost delta in the SMB space between the Business plan and...
24Jul2019
Updates coming soon to the Azure AD Best practices checklist
Update: The best practices checklists and guides are now available. I will be updating the best practices checklist and guide for Azure AD again soon, but I wanted to post a couple of notes about the coming changes--since it may be a while before I get around to editing and publishing...
01Jul2019
The Azure AD Best Practices Checklist
Update: Downloadable/printable copies of the Microsoft 365 Best practices checklists and guides are now available. Thanks for your support! Disclaimer: This checklist is NOT a comprehensive overview of every consideration when implementing Azure AD. For instance, the list was built with a typical SMB/SME in mind. That means there is no...
20Jun2019
Conditional access for the SMB, a how-to guide
**This resource was updated 09/01/2019** Unfortunately it is not yet possible to import CA policies from JSON, the way we can for Intune compliance policies or device profiles. Nevertheless, now that Conditional access is available to all Microsoft 365 Business customers, you will want a good roadmap for getting started. I have...
14May2019
Introducing the Microsoft Office 365 Email Security Checklist
Update March 2023: This project morphed into the Microsoft 365 Best Practices Checklists, which includes a checklist and guide for each of the major services in Microsoft 365. You can get the product here. Okay. I think I have had enough. Enough of what? Enough of reports like this one. And...
09May2019