Microsoft brings advanced security management to Office 365
"This is really tailored to the chief security officer, the IT administrator — in smaller businesses, the IT manager," says Ron Markezich, corporate vice president for Office 365 Commercial Marketing, formerly Microsoft's CIO. "It allows you to see what apps are being used within the environment. A lot of customers want to manage where their data goes."
Markezich says that Advanced Security Management is built on three pillars:
Advanced Security Management is available as part of the top-tier Office 365 E5 package, but is also available as an add-on to all other Office 365 plans for $3 per user per month. The threat detection and activity policy creation features are available immediately. Microsoft says the discovery and insights portion will be available by the end of the third quarter this year.
"Office 365, at its core, is extremely secure," Markezich says. "Everyone that buys Office 365, regardless of the SKU they buy, are getting premium security Office 365. We're broadening capabilities to keep the broader set of data in their entire organization secure."
Markezich also notes you can expect more advanced capabilities in Office 365 down the road, including voice capabilities and richer analytics capabilities built with Power BI and Delve.
"I think that's going to be the next wave of Office 365 — all these premium services customers will be able to build on top of their Office 365 environments," he says. "They'll be advanced premium capabilities that only the largest customers could have in the past."