As we strive to ensure the safety of our employees and create business continuity during these difficult times. I wanted to provide an overview of resources available from Microsoft. The majority of the programs listed are included in most Office 365 licensing. We’ll be adding more programs over the next few weeks and I will update this blog as new information becomes available. To collaborate with peers and share your experiences join the community Microsoft Tech Community: Enabling Remote Work Microsoft has also created a detailed guide designed for IT Pros which you can download below.
Please reach out to me if you need more information. Thank you.
Enable your Infrastructure
Ensure your infrastructure is capable of supporting the increased traffic and optimize performance.
- How to quickly optimize Office 365 traffic for remote staff & reduce the load on your infrastructure
- From Running on VPN: How Microsoft is keeping its remote workforce connectedTips for retooling VPN at your company here are some best practices on VPNs
For enterprises and organizations looking to optimize and scale out their VPN capabilities, some of the best practices shown above and recommended by Microsoft are:
- Save load on your VPN infrastructure by using split tunnel VPN, send networking traffic directly to the internet for “known good” and well defined SaaS services like Teams and other Office 365 services, or optimally, by sending all non-corporate traffic to the internet if your security rules allow.
- Collect user connection and traffic data in a central location for your VPN infrastructure, use modern visualization services, like Power BI, to identify hot spots before they happen, and plan for growth.
- If possible, use a dynamic and scalable authentication mechanism, like Azure Active Directory, to avoid the trouble of certificates and improve security using multi-factor authentication (MFA) if your VPN client is Active Directory aware, like the Azure OpenVPN client.
- Geographically distribute your VPN sites to match major user populations, use a geo-load balancing solution such as Azure Traffic Manager, to direct users to the closest VPN site and distribute traffic between your VPN sites.
Finally, and probably most important, know the limits of your VPN connection infrastructure and how to scale out in times of need. Things like total bandwidth possible, maximum concurrent user connections per device will determine when you’ll need to add more VPN devices.
If your devices are physical hardware having additional supply on-hand or a rapid supply chain source will be critical. For cloud solutions, knowing ahead of time how and when to scale will make the difference.
Enhancing VPN performance to enable remote work provides additional guidance from Microsoft.
Manage remote devices
- If you need to get started quickly Office 365 provides much of the essentials. Set up Mobile Device Management (MDM) in Office 365 describes how to turn on the built in features MDM features. More advanced features including MAM are available in Microsoft Intune and Microsoft EndPoint Manager. Guidance on creating a POC can be found here. FastTrack resources are also available to assist in your deployment.
- Deployment guidance and assistance is available for corporations using Defender ATP. This post Secure your remote workforce with Microsoft Defender ATP provides on overview.
- In partnership with Commvault they are offering free data protection for devices through 9/1. Please see offer here.
- As we move to a greater dependence on external connectivity adopting a Zero Trust security becomes a critical security stratedgy, To see where your company is on its journey and recommendations you can take the Zero Trust Assessment.
Move user data to Office 365
Migrate data to Office 365 allowing users to access the data from anywhere. Microsoft offers free tools to help you migrate your data including Mover and the SharePoint Migration Tool as well as FastTrack services to guide you through the project. Here is the File share to OneDrive and SharePoint Migration Guide.
International organizations maybe faced with data residency requirements and low bandwidth sites. Office 365 Multi-Geo allows you to store select datastores (mailbox, onedrive, site collection) in a region that s different from your tenant region,
Go mobile
Microsoft provides a suite of mobile applications the most relevant to working from hme include Outlook, Teams, Office, SharePoint and PowerApps. Your Office 365 licenses allows for access for up to 5 PC’s and Macs plus 5 Tablets plus 5 Phones. When I work from home I have my laptop docked in my office. I will use my tablet when I’m downstairs in the kitchen and my phone when outside feeding the fish, walking the dog or just getting some fresh air.
- Plan, deliver, and adopt Outlook for iOS and Android in your organization
- Support remote workers using Microsoft Teams
- Read about the new Office app here.
Enable work at home with Teams, Office 365 ProPlus and Windows 10
Microsoft currently has several programs available to assist in enabling remote work including.
- If you own Office 365 and are currently deploying Teams, we have multiple free programs we can offer to assist. Here is Microsoft Teams admin documentation which provides extensive instructions on deployment. End user training including a very useful quick start guide is available at Get work done from anywhere with Microsoft Teams. If you are interested in learning more about the programs, we can schedule a 30-minute call to review the available resources.
- If you have users that are not licensed for Teams, we are offering a free 6-month Office 365 E1 subscription to our clients affected by COVID-19.
- Firstline workers are often the hardest group to reach. Teams offers a solution specifically designed for this use case. Please see Shift App for Teams for an overview. In safety-critical environment our partner RealWear developed a Teams enabled headset allowing field workers to share what they are seeing with remote experts.
- Microsoft is offering Windows Virtual Desktop at reduced rates. If you are interested, we can schedule a call to review options.
- Deploy Office 365 ProPlus to remote workers.
Leverage Augmented Reality
Using augmented reality you can provide remote access to sites. As an example a safety inspector can visually inspect a site guided by first line workers while being remote. Dynamics 365 Remote Assist allows field technicians and engineers to collaborate with colleagues and experts from different locations, reducing travel and resolving some of the immediate obstacles facing us all. Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Dynamics 365 Remote Assist may be available free of charge for up to 6 months if you are implementing a solution in response to COVID-19, either on a Microsoft-provided template or custom implementation.
Keep everyone informed
It is crucial to keep employees up to date during uncertain times. Here are options to leverage Microsoft Technology as a communication platform.
- Microsoft has created a PowerApps CRISIS COMMUNICATION template and reclassified Push Notifications from premium to standard licensing so you can use the apps full functionality.
- Key features include:
- Employees can report their work status (e.g., working from home) and make requests. This helps managers coordinate across their teams and helps central response teams track status across an organization.
- Admins can use the app to push news, updates, and content specific to their organization, and can provide emergency contacts specific to different locations.
- The app includes the ability to add RSS feeds of up-to-date information from reputable sources such as WHO, CDC, or a local authority.
- Key features include:
Details are available here. If you need help deploying this app we can provide guidance.
- Build a crisis management site in SharePoint to connect people and information here is the blog post and the Look Book so you can add to your tenant.
- Build a Crisis FAQ bot using Power Virtual Agents.
- Deliver online events and meetings. Microsoft provides a range of options for meeting. This post provides an overview.
- Here is the work from home guide Microsoft created for its employees.
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