Johannesburg, 21 Jul 2015
Thirty years ago, organisations were only just beginning to accept the benefits of e-mail as a recordable, and therefore valuable, method of corporate communication. Since then, the technology to host, archive, audit and secure these communications has undergone many evolutions, catering to the changing requirements of business information management and the associated regulations governing data storage and handling.
The most recent of these evolutions is the increasingly widespread adoption of messaging and collaboration services in the cloud, of which Microsoft's Office 365 platform is arguably the fastest growing and best example globally.
As a result of this adoption, the current trend of using third-party security, gateway and archiving services as part of an onsite Exchange, Lync and SharePoint deployment is fast becoming obsolete, as these services are now 'built-in' as native elements of the online cloud solution. A controversial statement, perhaps, but one supported by the consistent and ongoing movement towards software as a service that continues to simplify and reduce the costs associated with these collaboration tools.
A great illustration of this movement is the progression of server infrastructure over the years. Back in the 80s and early 90s, on-premises servers were the only real option for all but the largest of businesses, with self-owned, self-managed and self-maintained hardware kept within the immediate office environment.
With the rise of data centres during the dot-com bubble, however, server hosting began to gain ground. It was a convenient way of handing over the day-to-day responsibilities of maintaining server hardware (power, cooling, redundancy, space, etc), while retaining control over all the server functionality, including operating system, security, software and data. The creation of virtual servers as an affordable alternative to bare-metal options made this an even more attractive solution.
Inevitably, hosting providers soon realised they could offer an even more comprehensive service to their clients, not only providing and maintaining server hardware, but basic software set-up as well. Businesses once again embraced the opportunity to reduce the time and hassle involved in running their servers, gladly handing over the set-up of operating systems and even essential security elements to their service providers. From there, it was a small step to the adoption of more and more complex SaaS applications as hosted services.
The problem with all of these server solutions is the consistent need for additional third-party software or hosted services in order to archive, audit and secure data in a compliant manner - something especially complex when it comes to mail and collaboration. While Exchange, Lync and SharePoint onsite have certainly played their part successfully in the field to date, they remain expensive, complex, time-consuming and resource-intensive, requiring a host of skilled people and third-party point solutions for security, archiving, gateway and routing services.
With these inconveniences in mind, it becomes easy to see why service providers like Microsoft have decided to incorporate archiving, auditing, compliance and security functionality into the comprehensive toolset that is Office 365. It's just one more step in the evolution of simplifying the IT landscape.
In the case of Microsoft, it's making things much more affordable as well. It offers a 50GB mailbox (something that would be considered extraordinarily large for any onsite deployment) and unlimited, searchable, auditable and secure archive and retention for almost the same price as a third-party archive and security service on its own. And yet, there is still reticence among many considering the move to Microsoft's cloud.
One of the major hurdles is trust. Microsoft is American, through and through, and the US government isn't exactly known for its respect of privacy. Can we really trust Microsoft, then, to secure our data from all prying eyes, including those in the administration? For the majority of our clients the answer is, thankfully, yes. Microsoft has committed to defending the rights of its users against the US government's claims that all data in Microsoft facilities across the globe fall under US governance, and as part of this commitment, Microsoft's European data centres remain under the protection of, and compliant with, the EU's stringent privacy laws. The company is so confident of the security and privacy it provides that it is now targeting cloud services at the US government itself (hosted on US soil), and Soarsoft International has already helped two of South Africa's largest financial institutions transition with confidence to Microsoft's cloud (hosted in European data centres).
What about the nightmare that used to be Microsoft's archiving and eDiscovery abilities, you might ask. Take a look at Office 365's latest eDiscovery innovations, and you'll quickly shelve that concern. How about rights management? Windows' onsite solutions are notorious for limiting privacy and protection to communications within the organisation. Good news - Microsoft Azure's cloud services extend that protection to all communications, including those outside the borders of the organisation.
Then, of course, there are the traditionally snail-paced Microsoft release cycles. Another problem solved - Microsoft's cloud services already outpace their onsite solutions, taking advantage of the control they have over the platform to quickly implement improvements and updates in preference of massive periodic releases that suffer from legacy compatibility issues.
All in all, Microsoft's Office 365 and Azure-based cloud solutions are a force to be reckoned with: slick, modern and inclusive, offering exceptional and continually evolving functionality at affordable rates, and successfully simplifying the landscape of business messaging and collaboration to make data management, security and auditing a breeze.
Soarsoft expects to see many more clients making the transition to Microsoft's cloud in the next year.
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