Office 365 Updated w/ Security Features to Ease Cloud Concerns
One of the most common barriers to entry into cloud is data security. With the newest features of Office 365, organizations all around the world no longer have the excuse of the cloud “Not being secure” enough for their enterprise.
The newest release of Office 365 allows administrators to have full, granular control over their data. Microsoft even allows organizations to take ownership of the encryption keys, which are used to keep your company’s data secure in the cloud.
One of the biggest worries for cloud-bound companies is that they may not only need to protect their data from the outside would; companies also need to be sure that their data isn’t vulnerable to inside attacks. Microsoft’s solution to this problem is called Customer Lockbox.
With Customer Lockbox, an organization can setup granular security rights for third party vendors or engineers at Microsoft to examine a problem. This setup allows businesses to feel comfortable about giving administrator access to certain functions of their cloud, allowing the contractors, vendors or Microsoft engineers to perform maintenance tasks without impacting the integrity of the data.
Infoworld contacted Vijay Kumar, the Senior Product Marketing Manager for Office 365, via telephone to chat about the new features. Kumar said, “We did a lot of engineering to abstract ourselves away from the data.” Kumar goes on to note, “We are only the custodians; it’s the customers who own the data.”
Microsoft explains that if a O365 user has some sort of issue, a trouble ticket can be submitted as usual. Microsoft says that the Customer Lockbox feature can be configured to only allow an engineer to see what they need, for the amount of time that they need access. Microsoft mentions that engineers would have to request access and have it approved by your company’s Office 365 administrator.
