Are you currently using Skype for Business and skeptical about a move to Microsoft Teams? You aren’t alone. Ever since Teams was released, there has been a huge push for feature parity between the two technologies due to concern that Teams will lack the same capabilities.

It’s been just over a year since the Teams launch, and Microsoft claims to have reached a true parity with Skype for Business (SfB). In the Microsoft July Update, Microsoft stated that most features minus a few Enterprise Voice features are still pending on the roadmap. However, upon close inspection, several native features are now referred out to 3rd party solutions (e.g. Whiteboard).

According to reviews and our Interlink experts, there is not a true parity between the two – yet. Teams has recently added a few key elements from Skype Online, that had previously been missing:

Big changes are on the horizon for Microsoft’s Enterprise Agreement (EA).

If your company is currently on an EA for licensing, you may need to rethink your renewal. Back in March of 2018, we published the blog article Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) vs. Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Licensing Agreement: What's Best for You? and due to the most recent and future changes, the time has come to revisit the topic. SMB customers that currently have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA will soon be faced with the decision –  or be forced – to say goodbye to the EA and hello to an alternative licensing program like Cloud Solution Provider (CSP).   

The EA has been the flagship licensing program for many years for companies with more than 250 users or devices looking to standardize their organizations on enterprise products like Windows OS, Office Pro, and the CAL Suites. The EA is beneficial because it offers support and other deployment and training benefits via Software Assurance as well as offering predictable pricing for the 3-year duration of the agreement. If you met that criteria, it was hard to argue why you wouldn’t sign up for an EA, as the discounts far superseded the alternatives. Another benefit with the EA is being able to mix on-premise products and cloud products on the same agreement, which was 100% cloud only until Server Subscriptions was recently added to Cloud Solution Provider Licensing Program (CSP). 

Cyberattacks are starting to hit harder than ever – and they are hitting every sector.

Ransomware attacks are becoming more vicious and impactful to our clients. Here are some high-level thoughts on preparing for the next attack.

Ransomware attacks are nothing new, they have been around for ages – the first documented attack being in 1989 known as the AIDS Trojan. This attack set the stage for the more sophisticated attacks we are seeing more frequently today. Infections have steadily increased every year since 2013, reaching record levels last year in 2017.

Recently, these infections have become more advanced and more dangerous. Hackers are now making their software harder to detect. Attackers can now also combine attacks by crafting a software to first hack into a network and then build a second software to capture the keystrokes of the users. With these attacks becoming more complex, it is important to ensure your organization is actively working on security practices and adding layers of protection constantly.

Are you near the end of the migration journey?

Have all your mailboxes been successfully transferred to Exchange Online?

Customers will often want to turn off the Exchange mailboxes servers but sometimes debate if they should keep the Hybrid Exchange Server in place or not. Interlink typically recommends keeping the Hybrid Exchange Server in place becasue there are more pros than cons. We have outlind those below:

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate.

That’s what it comes down to in today’s hectic working environment with more mobile workers and remote teams. You need to get more done and you have less time in which to do it. Increasingly, you need the cooperation and input from fellow employees who could be located anywhere in the world. Getting together can be difficult in a tangled environment of disparate applications, platforms, and communication options.

Microsoft simplifies the chaos with Microsoft Teams, the collaboration solution that consolidates applications and communications in one place. Teams makes it easy to: