Microsoft 365
Managed Cloud Services
The Microsoft 365 cloud services represent not only technical change but also operational, financial, and security benefits.
Axio Networks helps organizations across America embrace Microsoft 365 for email, file management, phone systems, cybersecurity, help desk, advice, and easy billing. Our goal is to help people make the technical shift, save money and create operational boosts – all while improving their cybersecurity posture and even regulatory compliance.
Business owners love us for it!
Business Cloud Systems
Managed Business Cloud Solutions
Axio Networks believes good decisions start with a good education. We’ve put together good information that’s easy to understand and digest for organizations with 10 – 300 users.
Better IT
Improve your IT with Cloud Services
IT Managers with up to 300 users also leverage Axio Networks to help them improve their IT function and services to end users by helping them with Microsoft 365 cloud services like SharePoint Online and OneDrive, Teams, Intune, Azure Identity Protection, Cloud App Security, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, Azure, or the Microsoft Phone System. We can get you launched properly and quickly into those systems as your Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider and subscription reseller.
Migrate Email to Microsoft 365
If your organization is using an Exchange server, Gmail, GoDaddy or some other email service, it is time to migrate to Microsoft 365. The reasons being: it is extremely affordable, headaches around adding/removing email accounts go away and you can keep your domain name. More importantly, by moving email to Microsoft 365, organizations are gaining all the benefits of an enterprise cloud. Mobility, security, retention, virus and spam protection are all included, plus they are establishing a Microsoft Tenant!
What is a Microsoft Tenant?
Think of a Microsoft Tenant as the entry point to a whole new world of technology. Email is the ticket in, but now organizations can begin to free themselves from the technological burdens of the past.
Gone are the old days with technology like domain controllers, file servers, Exchange email, folder structures, phone systems, user accounts/permissions, terminal servers. Office licensing etc.
These technologies have been re-invented, re-shaped and re-launched in the cloud. The result is lower capital costs and technical complexity for organizations and IT departments. A flexible intuitive set of services for users empowering them to work from anywhere from any device.
Read more...File Migrations to Microsoft 365
Far too many organizations continue to store and organize their files on file servers, desktops, and My Documents folders.
Others might have expanded to use their personal GDrive or a Dropbox account.
Or maybe you, or some of your employees, attach files to emails and find their files that way. (you know who you are...)
Any of the above strategies won’t: scale, provide for work from anywhere, collaboration, security, or flexibility. By leveraging Microsoft 365 and technologies like OneDrive, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams organizations can cheaply store, secure, share, retain and collaborate on files easily from any device.
Beneficial for any sized company
Whether you have 3, 30, or 300 employees you’ll be glad you made the move – so will your IT department whether it’s in-house, outsourced, or some combination thereof. They will be able to backup, restore and manage access and retention with confidence and without undue overhead, cost, or risk.
Stronger Security
For those with more advanced security needs, Microsoft can auto encrypt files based on the type of content that’s in them like credit card info or personal identifiable information to avoid files getting emailed in plain text or force retention of certain files so that they can’t be deleted accidentally or intentionally. Or remove files older than 7 years.,
Leverage your resources
If you already have a Microsoft 365 tenant don’t let it just sit there for email only. Leverage SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams. You can still use Windows File Explorer from your desktop to access your files and move files like you always have. Or begin to learn the interface from your browser or the Teams client to get even more comfort, capabilities and controls.
Read more...Still using a VPN to access files?
Retire the VPN by migrating your files to Microsoft 365. Concerned employees may have copies of your files on their machines? With 365 organizations can allow employees to sync copies to their local devices but you can also auto wipe those devices in the event of the employee’s device being stolen or they leave your employment. Axio Networks can setup multi factor authentication so that people will need more than a password to access your files in the cloud. M365 is smart and can alert you if someone internally is trying to copy a bunch of your files to say their personal google drive.
Microsoft Teams and Collaboration
Collaboration is one of the biggest business buzz words out there. Axio Networks hates buzz words. Buzz words don’t help organizations work smarter. By leveraging Microsoft Teams organizations will be collaborating, not just buzzing about it.
Teams is a stack of tools from our friends at Microsoft. It’s FREE with most Microsoft 365 environments for all your users. At Axio Networks we fully embraced Teams, and we would NEVER go back. Our work, work lives, and professional relationships are substantially better for it.
Teams is an application that easily enables the following for your end-users:
File access and management
Chat & Calling
Discussion Boards
Video Conferencing and Meetings: one on one, departmental, companywide, webinars etc.
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
Phone System (extra fees apply)
Application integration with many 3rd party apps
Think of Microsoft 365 as this technology platform and Microsoft Teams as a tool to make it easy to use and accessible for your users whether they are on a PC or Mac, an iPhone or an Android, or some combination thereof.
It’s very rare that a technology comes along that is cheap AND makes work easier and our connection to people richer. Teams is on the same level of innovation as the telephone, cell phone, smartphone, or email. Every business embraced those technologies, and Teams is no different.
Microsoft Teams drives organized, focused, collaboration in your company in a way not possible with legacy Outlook email messaging, Windows server file shares, and a traditional phone system. Axio Networks has been using Teams for years. Because of that, we don’t need a separate file system, Zoom subscription, DropBox, GDrive, Slack etc. Email use is down radically and it’s easy to use.
Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams are simpler, easy to use, secure, and far more affordable than having a spaghetti mess of vendors and subscriptions. Plus, its enterpriselevel meaning the uptime is extremely high, disaster recovery is built-in with world-class continuity across the globe and people can work the same way no matter where they are. No more file servers, mail servers, VPNs, Phone Systems etc. Finally, you will be actually collaborating versus using it as a buzzword.
Windows Virtual Desktop
Many organizations need to consider ditching the office building and physical workspaces for some or all their workforce. Not just because of the pandemic but because of the opportunity to reduce expenses and attract and retain good employees.
If your organization is considering that consider ditching physical computers as well. Using Windows Virtual Desktop, you issue employees with a virtual Windows desktop that they can access from any device from anywhere.
Cut Costs
Imagine getting out of the game of buying desktops and laptops for your employees. Instead, you just supply them with a link and a username and password. They log in and there is a complete Windows system to work from over the cloud.
Easy Billing
Your Microsoft Tenant and subscription includes the licensing for this. Think of Microsoft as the power company, they are billing you not for the virtual desktop, but for the computing power each user consumes, and the amount of data stored on the virtual device between software programs installed and files stored each month. It’s a “metered” desktop with easy billing through Axio Networks as your Microsoft Cloud Solutions provider.
Multi-Options for Use
Users can continue using their old company computer to access the Windows Virtual Desktop. Or they could use their own personal device with the company paying them a small nominal fee for its business use. Another approach is to purchase a thin client or what used to be called a dumb terminal for your employees to use.
Your business can save money by:
Users can:
Sleep better, knowing employee desktops and their settings and data aren’t sitting in your offices, in your employees’ homes or who knows where, as they move around. Virtual desktops and your installed applications and local date are in the Microsoft Azure Cloud with simple to implement controls to ensure data protected from being downloaded or saved to local physical machines.
Managed Resources
With Windows Virtual Desktop organizations can also manage their computing resource by resource, day by day, even hour by hour. A couple of scenarios:
Lay off 10 employees
Any version of the file, conversation or mailbox that exists in the backup can be restored at any time.
Bringing on temp labor?
Restore all files and folders from a chosen Windows workstation or laptop back to their original machine or to an endpoint management server.
New employees starting in a rush
Backups are searchable and browsable through various filters, taking the hassle out of searches.
Limit Access
Advanced search functionality lets you select individual files for recovery for OneDrive accounts, SharePoints, and endpoints.
Office is down to a fire, flood or some other reason
Business continuity is built when the desktops are virtual and hosted in the cloud.
Going 100% Virtual Windows Desktop is not required. Axio Networks has customers who have just one employee or a handful of employees on Virtual Desktops. Some cloud providers demand their clients are 100% cloud. Not Axio Networks. We work mostly with hybrids. Axio Networks’ job is to understand your environment, users/roles, applications, connectivity, horsepower requirements and put together a plan that makes sense technically, financially, operationally and for security.
Axio Networks can provide Windows Virtual Desktops from the Microsoft Azure platform or from a private 3rd party enterprise data center to ensure your requirements for uptime, security, performance and cost management are right for your organization.
Microsoft’s Office 365
Avoid high capital expenses and pay only for what you use. With low up-front subscription costs and the power of the cloud, your employees will always have the latest tools to do more.
Get the rich, full-featured Office experience you know, always up to date in the cloud, with Office 365.
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc.
Cloud Storage
Business Class Email, Calendar and Contacts
Online Meetings, Instant Message and High Def Video Conferencing
Collaboration tools
Security and controls
Virtual Work Options
Windows Virtual Servers
Servers too can be virtualized to the Cloud. SQL servers, application servers, etc. are normal table stakes in the Azure cloud. Many servers as previously discussed like file, print, domain, patch management (WSUS) servers are retired as those are replaced by cloud services in Azure and 365.
Costs need to be analyzed and compared but most organizations that simply tell you it’s too difficult or too expensive just simply aren’t qualified and don’t have the history of doing it. The old adage “it’s easy once you know how” applies here. All Microsoft Partners are not created equal.
Modern Security
For much of the last two decades, businesses have worked to secure their physical offices because that’s where their files, servers, data, users, and applications resided.
zToday the workplace and the workforce are wildly more flexible. The old perimeter-based security strategy is outdated both in thinking and in tools.
The modern security approach is what is called Identity based security. The premise is straightforward: Hackers aren’t hacking firewalls; they are hacking people’s identities! Security is now given to the user based on who they are, what they do, what they need access to and to secure the devices they use. Rights and controls are established using this thinking.
Execution is difficult in that users use lots of different 3rd party applications and services. They use devices other than Microsoft Windows.
Microsoft has embraced those facts and developed two technologies to make Identity based security a reality.
Azure Active Directory
Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) so that even if a password is stolen in a phishing scam, the attacker needs the 2nd form of authentication to login.
Geographic Blocking
Azure Active Directory can be set to only allow logins from specific geographic areas. Only the USA for instance or even a specific state. So, if an attacker from a foreign country tries to access it, they are automatically blocked.
Azure Active Directory
Azure Active Directory can also work with a device management technology from Microsoft called InTune to ensure the devices users are using meet your company’s standards.
Microsoft InTune
Microsoft’s solution to manage rules and compliance across Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS devices. Some examples:
Force Settings
Force machines to have certain settings such as what applications are installed; how certain settings are set (for example screen idle lockout time or number of failed logins before lockout).
Limit Access
Insure employees can only access company data on specified company applications and limit how they can share those files. Example: word documents can only be opened in word and can’t be shared via a SMS text message or to a DropBox account on their smartphone
Easily Apply Updates
Apply patches and updates that are required by the company for the device to be secure. There are so many controls and options for security in Azure and Intune it can make your head spin. The key takeaway: Identity is the new perimeter.
The Microsoft cloud has far more capabilities to enable and deliver security across devices and various other 3rd party applications than traditional IT security models. Having a qualified partner like Axio Networks can help you navigate the options and implement solutions that make sense.
Microsoft Cloud Managed and
Professional Services
In the Microsoft world organizations can try and go at it alone or develop a relationship with a qualified Microsoft Partner.
As explained a Microsoft Tenant is the entry point to a whole new world of technology. Organizations can keep the scope narrow by only having their email and Microsoft Office licensing served through the tenant or they can embrace strategies for their files, collaboration, phone system, Teams and collaboration, Windows Virtual Desktops, Virtual Servers, Active Directory, and device management through Intune.
Axio Networks offers fixed monthly billing for:
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