Microsoft is a predominant name in the field of information technology. In 2018, Microsoft was recognized as the most valued public company. This title was previously owned by Apple. The company owns a major market share in domains like software, hardware, cloud infrastructure, and operating systems. Office 365 is one of the flagship products of Microsoft. Latest statistics show that Office 365 has around 120 million commercial users per month.

At times, some developments in the field of technology raise security concerns in business and hence its imperative to have the entire IT infrastructure robust and secured all the time. Microsoft 365 is a bundled subscription service that secures and integrates all the products including Office 365. This subscription model mainly includes Windows 10, Office 365, enterprise mobility and security. It has a scalable cloud service feature, device management in a single integrated package that can effectively manage workplace productivity in a business.

There are two types of Microsoft 365 bundles offered by Microsoft

Microsoft 365 Business

Microsoft 365 Enterprise

Microsoft 365 Business :

This software bundle includes Office 365 running on Windows 10, security features like threat detection, information protection policies and continuous data back up. This package also includes mobile device management across multiple platforms such as windows, MAC, IOS, etc and windows autopilot.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise :

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is mainly used by larger organizations with intricate information technology requirements. This bundle has data security and mobility management capabilities and comes in three tiers,

Microsoft 365 E5: Microsoft 365 E5 is designed to simplify the entire IT infrastructure into a single platform which is easy to use, has increased privacy, transparency and refined user controls. An interesting feature of Microsoft 365 E5 is ‘Voice with phone system’. This feature helps to make receive and transfer business calls without the need for a traditional phone system Microsoft 365 E3: Microsoft 365 E3 enhances the office experience with advanced data protection, advanced IT controls and simplified data compliance. E3 has prime features like archive and legal hold capabilities, unlimited storage for compliance needs, DLP policies for additional compliance enforcement, right management services to restrict access to documents and emails within specific users. E3 also has a few out of box encryption policies like encrypt only, do not forward, etc Microsoft 365 F1: Microsoft 365 F1 is designed exclusively to provide a seamless digital experience for first-line workers in a business. F1 has staff hub capabilities to clock in/ out and track the tasks performed by them. F1 enhances the experience of first-line workers by digitizing their complete business process., providing ample training and upskilling programmes and making expertise available to solve business problems

By migrating from Office 365 to Microsoft 365, the entire administration process in a business can be streamlined in no time. Users can avail all the office 365 applications, security features, data loss prevention, and compliance tools and thereby avoid purchasing these products from different vendors. Microsoft 365 can create policies, monitor threats, take necessary mitigation measures and manages it all from a single console in the admin center.

Key advantages of migrating to M365 are,

Being on a cloud platform reduces the expense of the local IT infrastructure and resources

Microsoft ensures continuous uptime, flexible scalability, reliability and security for data

Tools and applications like one drive interface, Skype for business, etc.

The company is constantly adding new features to this platform such as advanced data governance ( event-based detection), tracking flagged emails, etc. Helmerich and Payne, a renowned petroleum contract drilling company started using Microsoft 365 to easily connect with the employees and keep the operational performance at its maximum. Shortly they could see that the communication gaps between the corporate office, district office, and the rigs have come down and this made a noticeable difference in their projects.

Microsoft offers training and certification programs for IT professionals so as to get them well versed in the Microsoft 365 platform, effectively implement and manage it. Once the migration happens to Microsoft365 from a legacy environment, it's important to train your resources on the solution to achieve the strategic, tactical, operational and functional return on investment in a business.

Effective training on the solution promotes the workforce competency to administer the solution. This gives a strategic return on investment,

Increase the efficiency and consistency of the workforce gives a tactical return on investment,

increase the professional growth of the technical staff brings in an operational return on investment and,

Increase in the effectiveness of the IT resources contributes to functional return on investment.

The ideal certifications and training courses for Microsoft 365 business users as well as technology professionals who would be using the platform are, Microsoft 365 fundamentals certification

Microsoft 365 certified: Modern Administrator Associate Microsoft 365 certified: Modern desktop Administrator Microsoft 365 certified: Teamwork Administrator Associate Microsoft 365 certified: Enterprise Administrator Expert Microsoft 365 certified: Security Administrator Associate

While the initial certification is to create a good understanding of the fundamentals of the solution, the remaining are role-based certifications for IT administrators who handle same. Aforementioned certifications can be achieved with the help of NetCom Learning's Microsoft 365 Training courses.

Businesses are mostly running based on cloud solutions these days. A solution like Microsoft 365 is very important to make sure that the infrastructure is seamlessly integrated at all its levels and highly secured. With the road map that Microsoft has devised for this product, much more spellbinding developments and features are to be expected in the coming years.