book cloud-intranet-solutions-with-office-365.pdf

7/25/2019 BOOK Cloud-Intranet-Solutions-with-Office-365.pdf

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1CLOUD INTRANETSOLUTIONSWITH OFFICE 365COLIN MURRAY BRIGHTSTARR SOLUTION ARCHITECTThis document is intended for managers, executives and senior decision makerswithin large-scale organizations, both commercial and not-for-prot, that areexploring, implementing or have a cloud Intranet solution. The document has beenwritten with non-technical readers in mind and focuses on organizational and broadtechnical themes to ensure that an organization can get the most out of any cloudbased Intranet solution they undertake.

DISCOVER MORE ATWWW.UNILY.COM

CONTENTS

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2

2. WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING? 3

3. CLOUD TECHNOLOGY IN THE ENTERPRISE 5

4. COMPONENTS OF MICROSOFTS CLOUD OFFERING 7

5. THE BENEFITS OF AN OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT

ONLINE INTRANET 11

6 CLOUD CHALLENGES 17

7. HYBRID AS A PHASED APPROACH TO ADOPTION 18

8. CONCLUSION 22

9. ABOUT UNILY 23

10. REFERENCES 24

BrightStarr have been workingwith SharePoint for over eightyears and are a Microsoft GoldPartner regularly cited for ourtechnical excellence in deliveringsolutions on the Microsoftenterprise platforms. The followingwhitepaper is far more thansimple supposition and is in factbacked by the results of hundredsof BrightStarrs own surveys,which have received thousandsof responses. It is this directlysourced and independently

gathered data that provides ourdeep intrinsic knowledge of themarket in which we operate andallows us to provide truly worldclass solutions for our clients. Ourresearch is what helps us to notonly understand our clients, butalso empowers us to contribute tothe thought leadership within ourindustry. As such our whitepaperswill always be supported by ourhigh quality data so that youcan get the most up to date andrelevant information to inform yourorganizational decisions.

BRIGHTSTARRSINDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE

Cloud technologyis a game changerin Information

Technology ingeneral, but in theenterprise it deliversmeasurable resultsthat many CIOs arerecognizing.

COLIN MURRAY

BRIGHTSTARRSOLUTION ARCHITECT
http://hubs.ly/y0dxpW0http://hubs.ly/y0dxpW0


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Upon the inception of the Internet, the world changedremarkably forever. One huge technological leap hasrapidly changed the way almost every person on the planetlives their lives, and carries out even the smallest and mostmundane actions.

Now we are seeing the lofty riseof cloud technology, and again it isaffecting an astronomical change inthe way the Internet, and the serviceswe use there-in, are being used. TheCloud is elevating Internet access andcapabilities like never before and wecan already see how this ingenuitivetechnology is terra forming our digitallandscape, in both the consumer andcommercial spaces. In the consumerspace we can take something assimple as the iCloud which allowspeople to use cloud storage to storedata from their Apple devices.

Looking into what will be the morepertinent value of the Cloud in thiswhitepaper, its commercial value fororganisational success, we can seethat it is making huge advances heretoo. For instance OneDrive for businessis the commercial set up of Microsoftshugely popular consumer cloud storagesystem known simply as OneDrive. Onedrive for business offers its users 1TBof storage at just $2.50 per month and

$30 per year. A physical 1TB drive costsbetween $50 to $120 on Amazon,

therefore users will actually pay more(within a year) for a less reliable andconvenient storage solution. But itsnot just this brilliant storage service atreduced cost that makes up the qualityof the Cloud, but also the capability toaccess it anywhere in the world thatyou have a stable Internet connection.Access on the go is endemic in modernsociety, business and other wise andthe Cloud represents access at yourngertips. Tools such as cloud storageare increasing in uptake massively and

research by Nasumi puts the gure fordata currently stored in the Cloud at 1Exabyte (1,073,741,824 GB).1Now thatsa lot of data!

The focus of this whitepaper isto understand exactly how cloudtechnology is going to continue togrow in capabilities in the future, andexactly how its making huge in-roadsinto the modern enterprise. We willrst cover the types of cloud offeringthat exist in the market today for theenterprise, and will then look at applying

this knowledge to one of the mostrapidly changing areas of enterprise IT,

the modern day Intranet. The modernIntranet encapsulates a wide variety ofdifferent functionality but essentiallyembodies effective collaboration in theenterprise. We aim to show you howthe Cloud is going to simultaneouslysupport and revolutionise achieving thecorporate collaboration solution.

1. EXECUTIVESUMMARY

2


OVER 1EXABYTE(1,073,741,824 GB)the gure for datastored in the Cloud fromresearch by Nasumi


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Cloud computing is providing the means through whicheverything from computing power to computingnfrastructure, applications, business processes through topersonal collaboration, can all be delivered to you as a servicewhenever, wherever through the Internet.

It enables convenient, on-demandnetwork access to a shared pool ofcongurable computing resources thatcan be rapidly provisioned and releasedwith minimal management effort orservice provider interaction. This caninclude all of the following:

Software

Infrastructure

Storage

Remote desktop access

Email

Web based voice communication

And more.

With all of these possibilities, cloudservices are delivered in one of threeunique models depending on theneeds of the organization and they arefrequently dened as follows: 2

1. INFRASTRUCTURE ASA SERVICE (IAAS).

The IaaS layer offers storage andcomputer resources that developersand IT organizations can use to deliverbusiness solutions.

2. WHAT IS CLOUDCOMPUTING?

3



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42. WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING? 4


2. PLATFORM AS A SERVICE(PAAS).

The PaaS layer offers black-box

services with which developerscan build applications on top of thecompute infrastructure. This mightinclude developer tools that are offeredas a service to build services, or dataaccess and database services, or billingservices.

3. SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE(SAAS).

In the SaaS layer, the service providerhosts the software so you dont needto install it, manage it, or buy hardware

for it. All you have to do is connect anduse it.

Cloud computing has four essentialcharacteristics which make it attractiveto organizations and they are:

Elasticity and the ability to scale upand down

Self-service provisioning andautomatic de-provisioning

Application programming interfaces

(APIs)Billing and metering of service usage

in a pay-as-you-go model

Within any cloud service there arethree set groups that will engage withthe technology with varying levels ofresponsibility for the platform. First

is the end user who doesnt have toknow anything about the underlyingtechnology as long as it works. Thenyou have the business managementwho must take responsibility for all theinformation and necessary servicesthat are being stored in the Cloud.Finally you have the cloud serviceprovider who is responsible for theup-time and maintenance of the cloudservice.

As you can see from these models,cloud computing can take on various

forms and can provide a myriad ofdifferent services, each of which requiredifferent levels of engagement fromdifferent parties. The real question isHow can this technology be applied inthe enterprise for business benet?


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Cloud technology is a game changer in informationtechnology in general, but in the enterprise it deliversmeasurable results that many CIOs are recognizing as theyadopt more and more cloud based services. In fact in a recentsurvey, results show that 84% of CIOs cut application costsby moving to the Cloud.3

With the ever growing reliance on IT inthe enterprise, in combination with therapidly evolving state of technology, itcan be difcult to maintain technologysolutions that are up to date, whileremaining cost effective. However, with84% of IT professionals cutting costsby moving applications to the Cloud,

you can see exactly how effective it canbe. It essentially allows for a set amountof outsourcing of IT responsibilities,delivering a tailored set of IT resource,with far reduced corporate involvementand reduced costs associated withmaintenance and in house skills.

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3. CLOUDTECHNOLOGY INTHE ENTERPRISE

69%

IN FACT

of IT professionals statestorage as their primaryconsidered cloud service

Gartner predicts thatconsumers will store

A very popular use of theCloud is for storage, however

not just in the private sectorbut also in the enterprise...

of their digital content in the

Cloud by 2016.

4

84%

of CIOs cut application costsby moving to the Cloud.3

MORE THANA THIRD


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63. CLOUD TECHNOLOGY IN THE ENTERPRISE 6


As previously mentioned a verypopular use of the Cloud is for storage,however not just in the private sectorbut also in the enterprise. A recent

BrightStarr survey showed that thisis by far the most influential andhighly adopted cloud service with69% of IT professionals stating itas their primary considered cloudservice. It is the simplest applicationof cloud technology and has beenproven highly effective for increasingcorporate access to digital resourceand supporting secure digital sharing.In fact Gartner predicts that consumerswill store more than a third of theirdigital content in the Cloud by 2016.4

However while storage is a big drivingfactor behind cloud adoption, possiblythe biggest IT use in the enterprisetoday is the modern Intranet. Intranets

are designed to support all aspectsof modern business by uniting theenterprise in a single digital location.This facilitates, amongst other things,information sharing and knowledgetransfer throughout the organizationand between its various operationalparts. In addition to this, an Intranetmeans ease of access to digitalcontent, less content duplicationand greater digital content structure.Intranets today connect employeeson a deep level, with not only the digitalresource they need to complete theirjob, but also with their colleagues andwith corporate values. A powerfulIntranet forms the digital cohesive thatintegrates every working part of theorganization, from digital assets andknowledge, to staff and skills, into thewell-oiled and connected machine thatdrives business success.

With this understanding of what a goodIntranet can be in todays businessenvironment, it is so easy to mapthese key features and benets with

the capabilities of cloud technology.With no hesitation Microsoft haverecognized the signicance of theseconnections and have broken intothe cloud computing market with acloud technology enterprise offering,to combine the needs of the modernbusiness with the capabilities of cloudbased IT solutions.

Intranets today connect employeeson a deep level, with not only the

digital resources they need tocomplete their job, but also with their

colleagues and with corporate values.


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Microsofts cloud offering is expanding all the time and it issomething we can expect to see to continue to grow as theyinvest billions in the technology. The inherent ability of theCloud to bring content and applications to peoples ngertipsthrough the Internet is a tantalizing scenario and the businessapplications are endless.

4.1 WINDOWS AZUREWindows Azure is an open andflexible cloud hosting platform thatenables you to quickly build, deployand manage applications, websites,virtual machines and much moreacross a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can buildapplications using any language, toolor framework and you can integrateyour public cloud applications with yourexisting IT environment. On top of thisAzure always provides IaaS in termsof storage and compute resources fordevelopers to use in delivering tailoredbusiness solutions.

Azure delivers a 99.95% monthly SLA5and enables you to build and run highlyavailable applications without focusingon the infrastructure. It providesautomatic OS and service patching,built in network load balancing andresiliency to hardware failure. It alsosupports a deployment model thatenables you to upgrade your applicationwithout downtime.

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4. THE

COMPONENTSOF MICROSOFTSCLOUD OFFERING

99.95%

monthly SLA5

Azure delivers a


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84. THE COMPONENTS OF MICROSOFTS CLOUD OFFERING 8


4.2 OFFICE 365Ofce 365 falls under the category ofSaaS and is essentially a Microsoftsubscription based e-mail service andapplication service hosted in the Cloud.Some of the basic functions of Ofce365 are:

Email

Shared calendar

Document management

Team collaboration

Mobile access

Instant messaging

Online meetings

An Ofce 365 subscription gives youaccess to the following Microsoftapplications:

Lync online

Ofce professional pro plus

Exchange online

SharePoint online

With all this functionality deliveredby Microsofts application hosted in

the Cloud, the Ofce 365 platform isproving hugely popular as the all in onebusiness solution, providing all the toolsnecessary for digital collaboration in thework place. The inclusion of SharePointOnline however is the big focus of thiswhitepaper, as it is the all importanttool for a cloud hosted Intranet solutiontailored to your needs.


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4.3 SHAREPOINT ONLINE

SharePoint Online is a collaboration tooldeveloped by Microsoft. It is often usedas a content management system for

Intranets. SharePoint allows teams withinan organization to share informationanywhere there is Web access. With

SharePoint, users can set up websitesto share documents, manage projectsand publish information. SharePoint

also has many social media capabilities,such as blogs and discussion boardsand now the potential integration

of Yammer. The key features of

SharePoint that support collaborationcan be seen in this diagram.6

SharePoint Online delivers the powerfulfeatures of SharePoint without the

associated overhead of managing theinfrastructure, such as servers, on yourown. Flexible management options

ensure that you still retain the controlyou need to meet the compliancerequirements of your organization. You

can purchase SharePoint in the Cloudas a standalone offering or as part ofan Office 365 suite where you also get

access to the other services listed on theprevious page. SITES

SharePoint Sites delivers a singleinfrastructure to provide portal andcollaboration capabilities acrossIntranet, extranet, and Internetsites. Bring users together to shareinformation, data, and expertiseacross organizations.

COMMUNITIES

SharePoint Communities empowers

people to work together in ways thatare most effective for them. Allowpeople to collaborate in groups, shareknowledge and ideas, connect withcolleagues, and nd information andexperts easily.

CONTENT

SharePoint Content enables all usersto participate in a governed, compliantcontent management life cycle.SharePoint Content makes it possible

to expertly balance user experiencewith policy and process.

SEARCH

SharePoint Search give users theability to nd the content, informationand people they need by combiningan integrated, easy-to-manageplatform with best-of-breed enterprisesearch technology.

INSIGHTS

SharePoint Insights enables users toaccess and interact with information

across unstructured and structureddata sources. Empower usersto discover the right people andexpertise to make better and moreagile business decisions.

COMPOSITES

SharePoint Composites empowersusers to rapidly respond to businessneeds by creating their own no-codesolutions on-premises or in the Cloud,through a rich set of building blocks,

tools and self-service capabilities.

SITES COMMUNITIES

SEARCHINSIGHTS

COMPOSITES CONTENT

SHAREPOINT

ONLINE

4. THE COMPONENTS OF MICROSOFTS CLOUD OFFERING


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4.4 YAMMER

Yammer is Microsofts cloud onlyenterprise social platform thatunites your staff in shared digitalconversations and allows faster andeasier knowledge sharing across theorganization. It can be fully integratedwith SharePoint Intranet solutionsfor real time conversations thatfeature alongside more static Intranetinformation. This breathes life into anIntranet system whilst delivering realbusiness value.

A recent Yammer survey found that93% of business leaders agree thatEnterprise Social tools stimulateinnovation within their businessand BrightStarrs own technologyprofessionals survey found that88% believed that enterprise socialnetworking would be vital or veryimportant to their organizations in thecoming years.

The implementation of a toolset foremployees that allows for fluid socialconnections, interactions and sharing

of knowledge within enterprises isbecoming seen as a necessity byorganizations that wish to leveragetheir internal knowledge base andbecome more innovative and agile. Asknowledge workers have more andmore information to deal with they needto be empowered with tools that allowthem to cut through data noise and ndthe information they need quickly.

Enterprise Social Networking althoughstill relatively new has already shownitself to be more than a fad. TheEnterprise social toolset provides realbuisness benet, allowing you to:

Improve communication betweenemployees

Increase ease of knowledge transfer

Promote innovation

Breakdown barriers betweenorganizational units

Give leadership teams a view on thegrass-roots business operations

In an increasingly knowledge driveneconomy, the competitive advantageof a business can be acquired from itsagility and innovation in using its internalknowledge. Collaboration betweenemployees often miles apart hasbeen a factor for IT provision withinbusinesses for many years, and manywould have hoped that a good Intranetwould satisfy the need for collaborativetechnology. However business, cultureand organizational challenges evolve,and technology evolves in response.

Enterprise social networking can beseen as a response to this change andin many ways it is simply an extensionof collaborative technology, such asthe corporate Intranet. The great thingabout Yammer as an enterprise socialtool is that lives in the Cloud, so thatyou are never disconnected from yourvaluable business conversations, nomatter where you are. Real time sharingcan deliver best practice to the frontline of your organization anywhere in amatter of minutes not days, and withthe new mobile app Yammer Now the

accessibility of this tool has increasedeven further. The app provides that extralayer of user experience that makes easeof use synonymous with the technology,meaning that sharing and learning onthe go have never been easier. Thisis the future of digital conversations,powered by the Cloud.

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93%of business leaders agreethat Enterprise Social toolsstimulate innovation withintheir business

4. THE COMPONENTS OF MICROSOFTS CLOUD OFFERING


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The benets of an Ofce 365 SharePoint Online Intranetsolution are many and varied. This can range from an overallreduction in costs to the increased mobility granted by cloudaccess. All will provide tangible benets to an organizationlooking to increase productivity through cloud adoption.

5.1 COSTThe price of a modern SharePointIntranet will vary signicantly fromdeployment to deployment but it isoften a sizeable investment. Letsimagine that you hire a third party todesign and deploy an on-premisesSharePoint Intranet once you havepurchased the appropriate softwarelicense. The cost is determinedby factors such as your specicrequirements and the processesinvolved in appropriately discoveringthem. The design of your SharePointsolution to meet your needs, and nallyhow much of the SharePoint out ofthe box functionality can be utilized tofull your requirements vs how muchof your Intranet solution will be bespokeand custom built functionality. As eachIntranet is unique, fullling differentroles for each organization, there isalways going to be a certain amount of

customization necessary and on top ofthis, it is never as simple as throwingthe out of the box functionalitytogether to deploy a fully functionalSharePoint Intranet.

In addition to the functionality ofyour solution there is also the needto ensure that your new Intranetsolution is engaging. While you mayhave designed a piece of brilliantutility, it is important that it looksthe part and works easily, so thatthe staff experience when usingit keeps them engaged with therelevant processes they can completethrough their new platform. Thisdesign element of a new SharePointinstallation also takes time to prepareand build into your solution, and thistime equivalates to further cost.

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5. THE BENEFITSOF AN OFFICE365 SHAREPOINTONLINE INTRANET


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Once you have a solution that has beendeveloped you then carry the additionalcost of the underlying infrastructure.These are the servers that you will need

to host your solution and this cost isagain variable depending on what yourequire to be hosted, the levels of trafcand number of users.

Finally even with the most brilliantlydesigned SharePoint Intranet, somelevel of maintenance is going to berequired to ensure the continuedquality and effectiveness of your digitalcollaboration platform. On top of moregeneral maintenance you also haveto consider potential upgrade costs inthe future too. Both maintenance and

upgrades will be a necessity in ensuringyou continue delivering maximum ROIwith your SharePoint deployment, butboth can prove unpredictable in nature.

This is just a very basic understandingof the cost associated with an on-premises SharePoint installationdesigned and built by experiencedSharePoint consultants. The onebenet of this approach is that it is aone-time outlay and your solution canbe as bespoke as you want, designed to

accommodate all the deep intricaciesof your organization. However whenwe compare this to SaaS cloud Intranetsolutions, we can see straight awaythat the cost can be less and at thevery least is certainly staggered.

The rst and biggest reduction incost in this scenario is that there isno need to concern yourself with theinfrastructure at all. All you do is pay a

subscription per user for their Ofce365 account and all of the back end ofyour solution is taken care of for you.This means a SaaS Intranet solutionrequires a much lower initial outlay.You would of course pay a comparableprice for the customization of yourIntranet solution built on SharePointOnline, but it would reduce the initialoutlay and organizational challengesthat are associated with supportingan on-premises solution. This can bevery benecial in the SMB sector asorganizations of this size might lack the

upfront capital to fund anon-premises Intranet solution.

The other less obvious cost advantagesresult from the fact that with yourOfce 365 subscription you dont justget the SharePoint product for yourIntranet. Bundled in with it you getaccess to a variety of other productivitysoftware as listed in section 4.2. Ontop of this the Ofce 365 product iscompletely maintained by Microsoftas they continue to roll out updates

and perform maintenance behind thescenes, one less thing for you to worryabout and devote resources towards.

5. THE BENEFITS OF AN OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT ONLINE INTRANET


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5.2 INTERNALIT RESOURCESThe internal IT team needs to maintaina new Intranet platform that will besustainable. This is a known fact as youwill need staff who can maintain andupkeep a platform that they probablydidnt build, but that could be central toyour business operations. This meansshould the solution go down in any way,it could impede business operationsresulting in a direct loss of productivityand costing you money. This example

of the need for in house IT skills with anon-premises installation of SharePointonly takes into account a scenario whereyou already have the skills on board. Youcould however be in a situation where nosuch skills exist within the organizationor perhaps there is no available resourceto put into this role. In this case youmust then look to hire skills into theorganization, another outlay, or you mustinvest in further training for existing staff.

If however you adopt a SaaS cloudIntranet service, the platform for your

entire system is managed by yourservice provider. Microsoft Ofce 365,on which your potential SharePointOnline Intranet would be built, has a99.9% uptime guarantee7and thousandsof support staff on hand to ensure thatonce your Intranet solution goes live,you have an Intranet that works, withsolid infrastructure and skills to keepit that way. Therefore you will havea far more limited need for in houseresources or extra training to ensurethat you have an Intranet solutionthat is being taken care of allowingyou to devote resources elsewhere.

5.3 SPEEDOne hold up that is almost unavoidablein on-premises deployments ofSharePoint is getting infrastructurein place in and around the restof the project requirements andahead of schedule. When it comes

to deploying an Intranet solutionservers must be in place to support

it. Quite simply, in the Cloud thisis not a problem. It is all managedelsewhere. This can avoid anypotential project delays in organizinginfrastructure alongside all the otherwork streams that go into developing

a SharePoint Intranet solution.

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99.9%uptime guarantee7

Microsoft Ofce 365 has a


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5.4 SECURITY

This is quite often cited as the numberone reason for companies to avoidmoving to the Cloud and in SafeNetsrecent global survey 74% of IT andSecurity professionals see complianceand data protection as core must-haveswhen sourcing cloud solutions.8Thisconcern is obviously signicant in the

minds of relevant IT professionals, andyet when considered in its entirety andin the scope of the potential partnersout there to work with on cloud basedsolutions, it could be unwarranted.First, two questions:

1. What is your yearly budgeton digital asset security?

2. How large is your digitalsecurity team?

When we consider what Microsoftsbudget and manpower is in this space,their spending and effort in securingtheir cloud solutions is likely to be fargreater than your own. With this levelof investment there is very little chancethat you will nd services more securethan theirs. They have already madelarge gains in this space to help keepyour cloud as secure as possible. Onesuch example being the inclusion ofmulti factor authentication for Ofce365, meaning that a code can be sentto your mobile for you to log in to yourOfce 365 account with. Microsoft

invests in the best security partners

and their partner SafeNets cloudauthentication service, for instance,has been granted the ISO 27001:2005certication. It has thereby achieved thehighest attainable credibility ranking forinformation security management.

The main issue with cloud security

that actually poses a signicant threatis not the technology itself, whetherthat be a cloud or on-premises Intranetsolution. It is actually the humanelement of that interaction with thesolution. The way people interact withsensitive data and the permissionarchitecture need to be put in placeto protect information as the Cloud oron-premises servers themselves areboth highly secure. With a governancestructure in place that denes accessand security permissions set out fromthe start, security can be maintainedand regulated effectively. This meansa certain amount of time and resourcemust be set aside to train staff sothat they are aware of the proceduresaround information access andsharing in the workplace. However italso means that many cloud securityconcerns are misplaced as they lookto the technology, not their employeesthat are far more likely to pose asecurity risk.

With this level ofinvestment there isvery little chancethat you will nd

services more securethan theirs. They

have already madelarge gains in thisspace to help keepyour cloud as secureas possible.

74%of IT and Securityprofessionals seecompliance and dataprotection as core

must-haves whensourcing cloud solutions.8


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5.5 SCALABILITY

One of the great things about anOfce 365 Intranet solution, andin fact any cloud based service, isthat the subscription nature of yourpayments provides a certain amountof scalability in your solution. Scalingon-premises with anything other thana routine addition becomes a project.This generates not only incrementalhardware costs, but also additional ITemployee time requirements. This allmeans that additional IT cannot simplybe turned on at the flick of a switch

or the click of a mouse. Moving to acloud solution gives you the ability

to add to the platform on a virtuallyinstantaneous basis.

The immediacy of a cloud Intranet isnot simply a luxury but allowsenterprises to remove barriers tobusiness changes, such as addingnew marketing and speeding theassimilation of business units acquired.This adds agility to the business so thatit exploits opportunities it sees faster,and delivers on synergy gains frombusiness purchases quicker, in order to

satisfy shareholder value pressures.

5.6 MOBILITY AND ACCESSOne of the single greatest benets ofa cloud based Intranet solution is theability to be able to access your Intranetsolution from anywhere in the worldthat you can get stable Internet access.Scenarios such as travel time and

working from on-site locations or inpartner or client ofces are no longer anissue. You can reach the Cloud via anyInternet access point at any time, andthe resources you need are on hand injust a few clicks of a button. Howeverthis is just one small part of an everwidening approach to work outsidethe ofce that continues to developin the enterprise. Within this idea ofanywhere access is mobile accessibility,and this is something that Microsofthas introduced signicantly in recent

releases for Ofce 365.A big part of Ofce 365 is Lync, the real

time collaboration and chat tool. Notonly can this tool be used online andusing a desktop client, but Microsofthave made a number of mobile clientsavailable for other devices too.

Microsoft has done a really nice jobof integrating Ofce web apps withSharePoint Online. Being able tobrowse a document in a documentlibrary and then open it seamlessly forediting in the browser is a really slick

experience. The latest version of theweb apps are much more powerful

than their 2010 versions and mobileaccess has also improved.

OneNote now has dedicated mobileapps that can be downloaded formultiple devices, and a client comes

built in with Windows phones (as partof the Ofce hub).

This is a bit of a no brainer, but ofcourse your Exchange Online emailcan be accessed on your phone ortablet.

SharePoint 2013, as part of Ofce365, has seen lots of improvementsthat make it play much more nicelywith mobile browsers. Code has beencleaned up, use of HTML and CSSis much more mobile friendly anddevelopers can use a feature called

device channels to target speciccontent at specic devices.

All of these mobile features becomingavailable for Ofce 365 point towards agreater amount of accessibility to digitalworking assets and this can be usefulin so many different working scenarios.The time outside the ofce that waspreviously un-productive can now beutilised just as effectively as the timeat your desk. This is a huge bonus forOfce 365 Intranet solutions which willreally empower the workforce to get the

most out of their working day.

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Moving to a cloudsolution gives youthe ability to addto the platformon a virtuallyinstantaneous basis.

You can reachthe Cloud via anyInternet access pointat any time, andthe resources youneed are on hand in

just a few clicks ofa button. Howeverthis is just one smallpart of an ever

widening approachto work outside theofce that continuesto develop in theenterprise.



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5.7 OFFICE 365 THE LATEST ANDGREATEST FEATURE SETSMicrosoft CEO Nadella has alreadymade it very clear that Microsoftsvision for the future is mobile rst,cloud rst.9With Microsoft focusingthe future of their enterprise technologyin this space, they have already madeit clear in a number of ways that this iswhere the major advancements will takeplace moving forwards. Most recently

pointing to this trend is the introductionof things like Power BI exclusive to Ofce365. This is a self-service businessintelligence (BI) solution deliveredthrough Excel and Ofce 365 thatprovides information workers with dataanalysis and visualization capabilities,to identify deeper businessinsights about their data. Thesekind of intuitive resources arebeing constantly developed forMicrosofts cloud solutions.

And its not just Power BI but also the

Oslo app that leverages the Ofcegraph. This innovative and incredibleadaptation of advanced search is thefuture of reduced search times, basedon a system that knows you and your

role within the organization. In essenceOfce Graph creates a spider webstyle set of connections between everyperson and all resources. Behind thescenes it establishes these links bymonitoring who you meet with, whatdocuments you access and what areasof your Ofce 365 solution you frequent.Oslo is the intuitive app on top of this

which accesses all of this informationto allow for sharper, smarter searchingwithin your Intranet solution. It servesup documents that you are mostlikely to be looking for based upon thisdata, reducing search time and thusincreasing productivity. Oslo can alsobe used to search for colleagues. Ifyou know that Dan was working on Xdocument, but you dont know wherehe stored it, searching for Dan will bringrelated documents and people thathe frequently works with / on to theforefront. Oslo is just the rst of many

apps that will be released by Microsoftin the future, as they continue to investin the Ofce 365 platform for smarterbusiness IT solutions.


Mobile rst,cloud rst.

SATYA NADELLA

MICROSOFT CEO9

In essence Ofce graphcreates a spider web style setof connections between everyperson and all resources.


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There are many challenges that are cited by those againstadopting cloud based Intranet solutions. Some are legitimateconcerns but others can be overcome with a balancedand information driven understanding of the nature of thechallenge, such as security risks, as discussed earlier.

6.1 REGULATIONAND COMPLIANCERegulation and compliance is one ofthe more complex challenges for cloudbased Intranet solutions in certainindustries. Within industries like bankingor government organizations and bodiesthere will be specic rules around the

location of certain forms of digitalcontent. For instance a governmentsecurity body or a global bank will carrycertain types of restricted and highlycondential information and within theiroperational guidelines or even the lawsthat govern them, it may be stated thatinformation cannot leave the country.

Or it may be that holding this kind ofsensitive data outside of the countyposes a signicant security risk, or

that the laws on digital content in othercountries differ to that of the country

of origin. For example legal documentsneed to be kept in house to comply withUK law and retention. This can result in amyriad of difculties for the organizationin question if for instance the cloudstorage or cloud hosting service theyare using actually originates abroad.

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6. CLOUDCHALLENGES

Regulation and

compliance is one ofthe more complexchallenges for cloudbased Intranetsolutions in certainindustries.


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6.2 INTEGRATION WITHEXISTING SYSTEMSOne thing that must always beconsidered when adopting any cloudservice is how this may or may noteffectively integrate with your existingIT systems. On-premises solutionscan be easier to integrate with existingplatforms and technologies due to thenature of the technology being on siteand accessible at all times. With cloud

solutions, you might nd that there are

more barriers between your Intranetsolution in Ofce 365 and your other ITsystems, however in most cases thisjust forms a good excuse. The reality isthat with a good partner in place and aproper and fully formed cloud adoptionstrategy, there are a number of waysto overcome this small difculty fora complete and full integration of any

cloud Intranet solution with existing IT.

6. CLOUD CHALLENGES

On-premisessolutions can beeasier to integratewith existingplatforms andtechnologies dueto the nature of thetechnology being onsite and accessible atall times.


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6. CLOUD CHALLENGES

6.3 USER EXPERIENCEThis is possibly one of the mostoverlooked issues with taking on cloudservices. You want the IT experiencefor your employees to be a seamlessone, whereby as they navigate variouspieces of your IT infrastructurethey unnoticeably switch betweenthe various pieces of functionalityhosted in the Cloud and on-premiseswithout a tangible difference.Incongruous systems can reducequality of experience, thereby reducingengagement and adoption of any given

solution. With this in mind it is importantto plan for this early so that a consistentand coherent user experience isdesigned into the solution from theoutset. The look and feel of the solutionincluding the branding must be appliedto the new functionality to maintain ahigh quality user experience.

Microsoft are already looking into thisbusiness challenge and it is highlyrelatable to the aforementioned needfor integration with existing systems.Microsofts Ofce 365 platform aimsto be an all-encompassing businesssuite by incorporating as many of theday to day business tools that we mightneed in a single handy subscription.In combination with this, Microsoftare already introducing single sign onfeatures so that your credentials canprovide access to all your Microsoft

tools, instead of the outdated notion ofnumerous credentials that you mighthave previously needed for each pieceof functionality.

6.4 MIGRATIONMigration is possibly the biggestchallenge for businesses today andthis can be for any number of reasons.The rst and most obvious wouldbe that at enterprise level, switchingthousands of employees over fromone set of systems to another is notan instantaneously achievable thing. Ittakes time, training and organization.There will be old systems that need tobe transitioned to the new platform and

there will be new systems to replaceold ones, but one instant switch canbring things crashing down around you.Acclimation time is really important forall employees. Again a solid choice inpartner can help alleviate this difcultyby helping you plan a migration planthat suits your organization down tothe ground. Your migration must beplanned and the right experts canexecute your plan without a hitch.

The look andfeel of the solutionincluding thebranding mustbe applied to thenew functionality

to maintain ahigh quality userexperience.

...switchingthousands

of employeesover from oneset of systems toanother is not aninstantaneouslyachievable thing.It takes time, trainingand organization.


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With cloud technology advancing at the rate it is, Microsoftsstance seems to be that its not IF you move to the Cloud butWHEN you move to the Cloud.

With this view of enterprise technologyand plenty of the statistics pointingtowards rapidly increasing adoption of

cloud services ($180bn cloud servicemarket by end of 201510) businessesneed to be evaluating how and when atransition to the Cloud can take place.We have seen that migrating to theCloud can be a challenge, and this iswhere there is a signicant option toreduce the difculty of your transition.A hybrid approach.

Hybrid approaches to cloud adoptionare the most stable and effective wayof taking on a migration to the Cloud,while mitigating risk and increasing

protability / productivity. A hybridSharePoint system is one that usesboth SharePoint on-premises andSharePoint Online (part of Ofce 365)to deliver an integrated solution. It ineffect combines a private traditionalSharePoint system, with a publicallyhosted cloud instance. For someclients, and projects, it offers the bestof both worlds.

Some of the more common reasonsfor a hybrid approach include:

You have existing SharePoint

investments you want to leverage

Specic business needs requirecustomisation of SharePoint thatcannot be completed in the Cloud

You have some data that you cannot,or do not want to put in the Cloud

You have large amounts of data, andit may be more cost effective to storeit on-premise

SharePoint on-premises andSharePoint Online can be employed

in parallel to meet the needs of thebusiness. But this can be clunky, withtwo different systems, two differentlogins, separate search functions etc.

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7. HYBRIDAS A PHASEDAPPROACHTO ADOPTION

$180BILLION$180bn cloud servicemarket by end of 201510


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7. HYBRID AS A PHASED APPROACH TO ADOPTION

The latest editions of SharePointprovide three options for a moreintegrated hybrid deployment.This allows your business to get thebest of both worlds, while presentingusers with what seems like a singleunied system.

FEDERATED SEARCH

An enterprise search hybrid is basedon having an on-premises SharePointfarm which is running search, and aSharePoint Online setup that also runssearch. The on-premises and onlineenvironments search services are thenfederated, which from an end userperspective means that although thesearch is of two distinct sources, theresults are presented in a single uniedinterface. It is important to note thatwith hybrid search setups, both on-premises users and SharePoint Online

users can access the search resultsfrom both sources, and that securityand permissions rules are applied.

This is an extremely useful way ofleveraging an existing SharePointinvestment, and making content bothsearchable and usable regardless of thedata or the users location.

BUSINESS CONNECTIVITYSERVICES

Business Connectivity Services (BCS)is the technology in SharePoint 2013and Ofce 2013 that enables youto interface with data that does notlive in the SharePoint Farm you areaccessing. A BCS hybrid enables you to

publish on-premises data to the Cloudby connecting a SharePoint Online appor list to SharePoint on-premise.The on-premises SharePointenvironment can then broker BCSconnections to data located in Lineof Business (LOB) systems.

The main reason for implementingthis is to enable users to get accessto on-premises LOB data (think SQLdatabases), while keeping the datasafely stored and maintained on theinternal IT setup.

DUET ENTERPRISE ONLINE

Duet Enterprise Online enables users toread and write to an on-premises SAPsystem by either using a SharePointapp or through the Duet EnterpriseOnline Features. This means that theuser can access and interact withbusiness processes and information

that are stored within SAP. The dataitself is not stored within SharePoint,but simply surfaced with appropriatechanges written back based on userpermissions. This means you canimplement a cloud based interfacefor an onsite SAP system.


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8. CONCLUSIONFirstly SharePoint Online needs to be considered in the widercontext of Ofce 365. While it can be purchased on its own,an Ofce 365 subscription offers incredible value.

A hosted Exchange mailbox, a cornerstone of Ofce 365, is almost reason

enough to choose Ofce 365 overSharePoint Online. When you considerthe other features of the product(including OneDrive, the Ofce desktopapps, and Lync) the choice oftenbecomes an easy one to make.

As we have seen, there are use caseswhere SharePoint on-premises is theright t. Those with concerns, legalor personal, about cloud storage andsecurity might feel more comfortableknowing their data is ultimately lockedaway in a local SQL database. The

cloud variant is also less appealingwhere heavy customisation of thesystem look and feel is required, orcustom code for particular functionalityis needed. However we believe a largenumber of users are now satised thatthe Cloud is a viable computing model.In fact CIO Insights research showsthat 77% of enterprises are alreadyin the initial stages of cloud adoption:standardization, consolidation,and virtualization.11

Before cloud computing really becamea viable enterprise option, clientswould have to spend a considerableamount of time and money settingup environments and conguringsoftware. Lots of decisions onfunctionality would have to be made,before a user even got sight of thesystem. Ofce 365 and SharePointOnline does away with lots of thisupfront work and risk.

The Cloud version of SharePointalso gives smaller organizations a

simple way to get really hands on withthe product - to setup a fully blownenterprise system containing real data,and to work with it in the long term.It is this ease of adoption of cloudservices and the often low barrier toentry for such software like SharePointOnline that is contributing towardpredictions like Forbes estimation thatSMB spending on cloud solutions willgrow by almost 20% over the nextve years, with 3 in 10 midsize rmsadopting public cloud solutions.12And ifthe service doesnt meet organizational

needs, then little investment has beenwasted. If it does prove to be of benetthen the SharePoint Online platformhas the power and flexibility to scaleas needed. If functional limitationsare met in the Cloud, then there arenumerous options to move toward anon-premises system.

For many users looking to invest in anenterprise collaboration platform, Ofce365 will prove the perfect choice. Itslow barrier to entry, powerful featureset, and scalable architecture, makea convincing argument for all but themost niche of uses.

We believe the on-premises version ofSharePoint will undoubtedly be with usfor some time yet, and certainly has arole to play for many organizations.But it might well be the case that wehave seen the last big bang releaseof an on-premises SharePoint product.As Microsoft has suggested, it reallymight be mobile rst, cloud rstfrom here on in, and we welcome

that strategy wholeheartedly.

TOP TIPS

Know if cloud is viable for yourorganisation

Plan your cloud strategy

thoroughly before adoption

Understand what could impedeyour move to the Cloud

Come up with a measurementfor success

Monitor performance levelsthroughout your organization

Choose effective partners withthe relevant skills to facilitateyour move

Set security standards such asenforcing strong passwords

Unify your cloud platform withthe rest of your IT systems

Brand your cloud Intranetsolution to increase userengagement

Plan for the launch of yoursolution with targeted events

to support adoption

COLIN MURRAYBRIGHTSTARRSOLUTION ARCHITECT


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THE INTRANET AS A SERVICE UNITING THEVERY BEST OF THE MICROSOFT CLOUD

Developed on Microsoft Ofce 365 and SharePoint,Unily draws on the full power of the Cloud andthe capabilities of Ofce 365, SharePoint and

Yammer to provide a united Intranet solution thatwill support and grow with your organization.

Developed by four time MicrosoftGold Partner BrightStarr, Unily is builtupon 8 years of experience deliveringIntranets, Extranets, Websites andPortals for leading brands around theworld. Developed with the perfect

balance of form and factor, Unilyprovides unique user experiencesthat have been designed to driveuser adoption, delivering an Intranetsolution that your users will love.

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1. http://www.neowin.net/news/research-rm-over-1-exabyte-of-data-is-now-stored-in-the-cloud

2. http://cloudtimes.org/glossary/

3. http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-its-not-easy-to-be-a-cio-2012-2

4. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2060215

5. http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/

6. http://ofce.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-online-collaboration-software-FX103789366.aspx

7. http://ofce.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/what-is-ofce-365-for-business-FX102997580.aspx

8. http://www2.safenet-inc.com/survey/SafeMonk-Survey-Results-v6.pdf

9. http://blogs.ofce.com/2014/03/31/embracing-cloud-rst-mobile-rst-communications/

10. http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/gartner-

tells-outsourcers-embrace-cloud-or-die/d/d-id/1110991?

11. http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/cloud-virtualization/slideshows/enterprises-slowly-adopting-cloud-computing/

12. http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/07/30/roundup-of-small-medium-business-cloud-computing-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2013/

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10. REFERENCES
http://www.neowin.net/news/research-firm-over-1-exabyte-of-data-is-now-stored-in-the-cloudhttp://www.neowin.net/news/research-firm-over-1-exabyte-of-data-is-now-stored-in-the-cloudhttp://cloudtimes.org/glossary/http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-its-not-easy-to-be-a-cio-2012-2http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2060215http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-online-collaboration-software-FX103789366.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-online-collaboration-software-FX103789366.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/what-is-office-365-for-business-FX102997580.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/what-is-office-365-for-business-FX102997580.aspxhttp://www2.safenet-inc.com/survey/SafeMonk-Survey-Results-v6.pdfhttp://blogs.office.com/2014/03/31/embracing-cloud-first-mobile-first-communications/http://blogs.office.com/2014/03/31/embracing-cloud-first-mobile-first-communications/http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/gartner-tells-outsourcers-embrahttp://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/gartner-tells-outsourcers-embrahttp://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/cloud-virtualization/slideshows/enterprises-slowly-adopting-cloud-computing/http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/cloud-virtualization/slideshows/enterprises-slowly-adopting-cloud-computing/http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/07/30/roundup-of-small-medium-business-cloud-computing-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2013/http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/07/30/roundup-of-small-medium-business-cloud-computing-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2013/http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/cloud-virtualization/slideshows/enterprises-slowly-adopting-cloud-computing/http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/cloud-virtualization/slideshows/enterprises-slowly-adopting-cloud-computing/http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/gartner-tells-outsourcers-embrahttp://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/gartner-tells-outsourcers-embrahttp://blogs.office.com/2014/03/31/embracing-cloud-first-mobile-first-communications/http://blogs.office.com/2014/03/31/embracing-cloud-first-mobile-first-communications/http://www2.safenet-inc.com/survey/SafeMonk-Survey-Results-v6.pdfhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/what-is-office-365-for-business-FX102997580.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/what-is-office-365-for-business-FX102997580.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-online-collaboration-software-FX103789366.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-online-collaboration-software-FX103789366.aspxhttp://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2060215http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-its-not-easy-to-be-a-cio-2012-2http://cloudtimes.org/glossary/http://www.neowin.net/news/research-firm-over-1-exabyte-of-data-is-now-stored-in-the-cloudhttp://www.neowin.net/news/research-firm-over-1-exabyte-of-data-is-now-stored-in-the-cloud

book cloud-intranet-solutions-with-office-365.pdf

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