Interlink Cloud Blog

You may have noticed that there are currently four Microsoft products with “Advanced Threat Protection” in their name:

1. Azure Advanced Threat Protection
2. Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection
3. Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection
4. SQL Advanced Threat Protection

While each of these solutions offers value to its users, there’s been some confusion around the similar naming of these products. Let’s clear up confusion by taking a closer look at each of these products and their features, benefits, and intended use cases.

Figuring out the best way to implement Single Sign-On (SSO) in a Microsoft cloud environment can be challenging given how the options have evolved over time, but it’s a key component of any successful Office 365 or Azure deployment. There are four main options on how you can configure SSO:

• Cloud-only passwords without SSO

• Password synchronization with SSO

• Pass-through Authentication with SSO

• Federated Identity (ADFS or 3^rd party) 

In the modern workplace, chances are that your employees are using their in their own devices for work, which often results in unsecure access to company files. This creates a challenge because organizations need to be able to secure their company’s data on these devices without violating personal information. Also, if an employee leaves the organization, it’s important to have a means to avoid wiping their personal information from their devices.

With your company’s valuable data in mind, Microsoft has created two device management services that allow you to secure your organization’s data - no matter what device is being used. Microsoft Intune and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager are both good options for device management, but it can often be hard to determine which option is best for your business. Sometimes it’s better to run a hybrid of them both.

Hackers are dedicated to getting into and compromising your systems. They can use sophisticated coding techniques to get around or break through your security defenses. Unfortunately, many times that type of extensive effort isn’t necessary because organizations make it easy for hackers to steal credentials by failing to have adequate defenses in place.

Nearly two out of every three confirmed data breaches involve weak, default, or stolen passwords.¹ In total, according to Microsoft, tens of millions of credentials are exposed every month and are added to growing lists on the dark web. These stolen user IDs and passwords are extremely valuable to cyber thieves since three of every four users re-use credentials across multiple sites and continue to use the same credentials for years.²

G&J Pepsi Cola is the largest family-owned and operated Pepsi franchise bottler in the United States. Over 1,000 of their 1,600 employees are made up of deskless workers, including drivers, salespeople, and merchandisers. Not yet utilizing mobile devices, this sizable workforce did their job based on paper marching orders each morning. Over time, these paper instructions became hefty books that field people lugged around and rummaged for information.

Realizing the need for change, G&J transitioned from paper to electronic documents and outfitted its deskless workforce with Android smartphones. The move created hundreds of new, unsecure and unoptimized mobile endpoints.

Here’s just a couple of ways Interlink used the full value of Microsoft enterprise cloud products to meet G&J’s business challenge.

• Secured the Digital Link with Microsoft EMS
  Using Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), Interlink quickly secured 1,200 smartphones and tablets.
  
  With the mobile devices secure, G&J corporate offices, distribution centers, and field employees can now communicate and collaborate without having to worry about endpoint security. Management is free to share sensitive data in real time with other business units, decreasing data availability downtime while increasing efficiency of response to changes in operations.

• Extended Microsoft EMS with Azure Active Directory Premium
  G&J uses several different applications across their IT infrastructure, all deployed with the challenge of needing to be secure and easily accessible. Using Azure Active Directory Premium, Interlink streamlined the management of these applications and improved the secure accessibility of multiple applications.
  
  By using a cloud-based single-sign-on (SSO), G&J consolidates application management and usage into one simple process. IT no longer needs to spend time and resources configuring multiple sets of credentials, and field employees never need to be concerned about not having access to their suite of third-party applications.

Read the full case study and see how Interlink met G&J Pepsi’s business mobility challenges with Interlink and Microsoft EMS.

Contact us to show you how we can improve your collaboration, security, and mobility with Microsoft EMS too.