Benefits of Microsoft's Software Assurance - Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd

Hello!

Lot of Indian customers are using Microsoft licensed products but are not aware of what those products are fully capable of doing for them and for their businesses in terms of productivity. We at Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd feel sad when we see organizations investing lakhs and crores of rupees in Microsoft technologies but not making their optimum use.

Microsoft themselves sell support services called 'Software Assurance' i.e SA which can be bought along with any product license of Microsoft, of course at some additional 20-30% of the license cost.

Why You Should Consider Software Assurance (SA) For Your Organization?

There are below benefits of buying Software Assurance along with the product license -

1. New software versions - You get product version upgrades at a free of cost when SA subscription is alive. For example, if you are using Windows 8 and Microsoft launches Windows 9, you can download and start using Windows 9 without paying a penny from your pocket.
2. Planning services where you get onsite consulting services to create a deployment plan when you are getting ready to deploy new software. This service is available for desktop products (Office & Windows), SharePoint, Exchange and OCS. You can also use Business Planning services to help you get more efficiency out of your software solution.
3. Training vouchers for technical, classroom training to help you keep your IT staff up to date. The number of vouchers that customer will get depends upon the number of license and the type of product license. Training vouchers can be redeemed with the help of Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd.
4. E-Learning is online training to get your users trained on new software to prepare for a new software implementation, or to help them be more productive on current software.
5. Home Use Program (HUP) provides a license of Office, at a minimal cost, to employees for their home computers allowing them to become more proficient with the software they use at work, when they are using it at home. Microsoft takes the support calls for the home use licenses so it can also help reduce the support calls going to your IT staff.
6. 24x7 phone and web support to help you keep your IT infrastructure up and running. Customer gets number of support calls depending on number of license and type of product license bought. Each call is worth around $500.
7. TechNet for Software Assurance subscription to provide a community of information for all of your IT issues and questions.
8. Microsoft Office Multi Language Pack, which enables you to deploy a single image of Office with support for 37 languages.
9. Licensing programs like OVL, Select Plus, EA allows you to step up the license edition so as to standardize your infrastructure. For example, you can use Office Professional Plus edition (highest edition available) over Office Standard if you have purchased SA along with Office Standard.
10. You get an access to Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) which Sujata will help you deploy. MDOP is a set of technologies help manage PCs and make deployments across the network easy.

Do note that entitlement to above benefits will depend on the licensing program under which SA is to be purchased. Details of which licensing program gives what benefits given in below image.

We recommend our customers to take trainings, to take our help in implementation even if their own IT team is capable of doing things. Please contact us.

Click here to download the quick start guide of Microsoft on Software Assurance.

Click here to find an interactive guide to Microsoft Software Assurance (SA).

Anything Else Customer Should Know About Software Assurance (SA)?
Yes. Below things -

1. Software Assurance is valid for 2 years, it is optional for customer to renew it thereafter.
2. Whatever is the latest version of a product customer has installed, he can still use it after the expiry of SA. It is then recommended to renew the SA.
3. The only way to purchase Windows Enterprise desktop OS license is to purchase Software Assurance along with eligible Windows editions license.

Licensing Program Under Which Software Assurance (SA) Can Be Bought -

• Open license (MOLP) - One-time purchase. Software Assurance is optional in most of the products, only in some products SA comes bundled. It is a permanent/perpetual license.
• Open Value License (OVL) - 3 years contract with price locking. After 3 years, license become permanent / perpetual and SA renewal is optional. SA is built-in along with license.
• Select Plus - 3 years contract with price locking and bulk discounts. quantity purchase commitments required. SA is optional to purchase in this contract. Recommended when you have equal or more than 250 users and if you don't mind singing agreements.
• Enterprise Agreement - 3 years contract with price locking and bulk discount. quantity purchase commitments required. SA is built-in along with license. Recommended when you have equal or more than 250 users and if you don't mind singing agreements.

How To Buy It?

Talk to us to decide which program to select if license and SA is to be bought.
Some products come bundled with Software Assurance, for example, Visual Studio Premium, Visual Studio Ultimate, Office365 etc. And for some products you need buy additional SKU along with the license to get the benefits of Software Assurance.

You can buy SA along with OEM license or Volume License. If you have bought only license already, you can add SA within 60 days of it (as of now).

Best regards
Paresh Lodha
Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd
+91-7276000222

Introduction To Office365 - Administration Center - Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd

Hi!

We, Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd are one of the leading Microsoft Gold Certified and Cloud Accelerator Partner. We are also one of the few Cloud Deployment Partner of Microsoft in India.

We believe in guiding our clients use Office365 effectively so that the productivity of users increases.
Today, we will walk you through Administration center of Office365 (the way it looks as on 13 Nov 2014). Hope it will help you in understanding the value Office365 can deliver to your organization.
Contact us - +91-7276000222 | paresh.lodha@sujataindia.com if you have queries and I would be happy to assist you without any cost.

Introduction

·         Office 365 - Admin Center

·         Dashboard

·         Domain Setup

·         Users and Groups

·         Service Settings

·         Service Health

·         Reports

·         Support

Office 365 - Admin Center

Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based service for businesses of varied sizes that helps them create SharePoint sites to share documents and other data, Exchange mails, Lync unified communication, etc. Instead of installing and deploying SharePoint Server 2013, Exchange Server 2013 and Lync 2013 on premises, organizations can sign to SharePoint Online to provide employees with collaboration and information management capabilities that work with familiar Office applications.

To administer, manage and monitor Office 365 with SharePoint Server 2013, Exchange Server 2013 and Lync 2013 for an organization, we need a one stop location administrator. Microsoft has provided us Admin Center for Office 365, where administrator can control SharePoint Server 2013, Exchange Server 2013, Lync 2013 and other relevant products of Office 365.

The Admin Center is the central location for all the corresponding components of Office 365, SharePoint, Lync and Exchange, etc. The Global administrator users of the Microsoft Online Services Portal will have permissions to manage service licenses, users and groups, domains, and subscribed services.

 

 

The Admin Center page provides links for managing licenses and general system configuration. You can check on planned maintenance, enter a service request, and verify billing information. The first user created when the account was set up is configured as a Global administrator role. This gives them the ability to set up and manage additional user accounts as well as general account configuration. In the later part of the article, we will see how to create and add new roles and users.

Dashboard

The Global administrator users will be having the dashboard view of Microsoft Office 365 environment. The following screen capture will show the dashboard view and some of the key areas have been highlighted.

Let’s see what the key areas highlighted in are with numbers in the screen capture.

1.       Navigation links to all key areas to manage and administer Office 365 environment.

2.       Service Overview will show service health, inactive email users and service requests.

3.       Based on the Service Overview option user can have the corresponding information.

4.       Shortcut URL to administrators for managing Office 365 environment.

5.       Admin link to specific service SharePoint, Exchange and Lync, etc.

Domain Setup

Office 365 also provides an Enterprise solution that is prepared towards larger and more grown organizations. This kind of organization will likely already have an on-premise solution and want to move to a cloud-based solution. Here in this section, we will setup the Office 365 for our organization.

Here, we will see how to connect to existing domain and active directory details will be synced and reused with Office 365. Here, the administrator will have two options to setup the domain and build the platform in the Office 365 cloud for the organization. The following are the two options for the domain setup.

·         Basic

·         Custom

In the following screen capture, you will visualize how the setup page will be for administrators.

Basic: The basic setup option is mainly focused on for the organizations who wanted to create new users and mailboxes in the cloud, and can import the emails to cloud and make it up to run with minimal effort.

Custom: The custom setup option is for migrating on-premises messaging systems. Basically for large or complex IT environments to Synchronize directories, Deploy Active Directory Federation Services, single sign-on, set up hybrid messaging with Exchange Server, Support shared address book and messaging coexistence with an on-premises email system.

Here in this demonstration, we all see how to setup using the basic option. Now click on the basic setup button as referred in the following screen capture image to proceed further.

Now you will be navigated to the next page with list of all the configuration activity listed out with navigation hyperlinked. The following is the screen capture for your reference.

·         Add a domain.

·         Add users, assign licenses, and create mailboxes.

·         Help your users get set up.

·         Configure your domain for email delivery.

·         Import user data (Optional).

·         Lync Online and your SharePoint team site are ready to use.

Adding a domain is the first step. Only domain names that you own can be added to the domain list. If you don't own a domain name, you can purchase one from a domain registrar, and then return to add it to Office 365. Here in this demonstration, we’re adding a domain name called ‘agcindia’ to the domain list.

Once after adding the domain name, the next step will be the domain verification page. One should be the owner of the domain, which is about to be added in the Office 365.

Next is the verification process, to begin the verification process, we should add a specific record to the DNS records at your domain registrar. We then look for the record to verify ownership. Each DNS provider supports different features, so we provide two ways that you can verify ownership: by creating a TXT record or an MX record.

Once after all the verification process is completed, the user will be navigated to the domain list page. Where you can manage multiple domains; edit, troubleshoot, and DNS settings, etc.

Users and Groups

Users and groups help the global administrator to manage users profiles, security groups, bulk import users, etc. Let’s start exploring options available in the users and group section.

Here in the above users and group section, you can see the users listed under the active users section. First let’s see how to add single user using add option '+' highlighted in the above screen capture.

Fill in the mandatory details as listed in the above screen capture, the additional details are optional to fill in to create user.

For the same user, we can provide the administrator role based on our need. Just select the Yes option under the Assign Role and greyed ‘Select a Role’ drop down list will show you a list of different administrator roles available.

Next step will be assigning the license for the user under the Office 365; we can assign users to specific set of the products under the Office 365 environment. Here in the following screen capture, you can see for my account; I no longer have any more licenses to assign for the specific user. In this case, the user will be created in the Office 365 cloud with no products to access in the Microsoft Office 365.

Now let’s see how the groups are created and managed in the Office 365. To create new security group, use the add option highlighted in the below screen capture. 

Fill in the display name for the user group and description is the optional column for your user group. Now click save to proceed to the next step of creating security group.

Now the following screen will show the list of users under the available users. Select the users that you need to add to the security group and click Add.

Service Settings

Service Settings is the area in which the administrator will be able to find the key administrator activity link and information. For the Exchange Server online, administrator can see the links referencing, policies to protect email from spam and malware, and help keep your data confidential, mail flow and auditing.

Creating site collection link, Lync-to-phone, dial-in conference, password expiry policies and other user software links to download and install in the user computer.

Service Setting contains the four main sections.

·         Mail

·         Sites

·         Voice Conferencing

·         User Software

·         Passwords

Mail – In this option, all the configuration falls under the Exchange on Office 365. We will study in detail about the same in the next article, and will explain this option under the Exchange admin center.

Sites – In this option, the administrator will be able set up the Site Collection to share and publish information online.

Voice & Conferencing – In this option, all the configuration falls under the Lync on Office 365. We will study in detail about the same in the next article, and will explain this option under the Lync admin center.

User Software – Here you can find a list of software for download and installed directly to your laptop or personal computers. You can see Office 2013, SharePoint Designer 2013 and Lync 2013. Office 2013 will help you to create, edit office related files like Document, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. SharePoint Designer 2013 helps to customize SharePoint sites. Lync 2013 is a tool for instant message, voice and data communication.

Passwords – Here, the administrator can manage the password expiration policy for the users under your Office 365.

Service Health

Service health will provide the complete dashboard view for all the services running under your Office 365. The view will contain the status for today with past six day’s status history.

Reports

In the reports section, the administrator will be able to view the site usage, site usage, activity log and filter summary of the mails, sites and other related contents. On the Reports page, the Overview tab has a list of reports you can view. Click other tabs to see reports for relevant categories.

To view reports about how your organization is using the Office 365 services, go to the Office 365 admin center, and click Reports in the left pane. You can use information from these reports to identify issues, filter data, and download data into Excel.

The reports overview page contains related reports for the following four main categories:

·         Mail

·         Protection

·         Rules

·         DLP (Data Loss Prevention)

Let’s explore each one of the categories with all reports offered to administrators.

Mail: The mail section covers three reports for the administrator Mailbox login activity, New and deleted mailboxes and New and deleted groups.

Mailbox login activity: The number of active and inactive mailboxes over time.

New and deleted mailboxes: The number of mailboxes deleted, created, and archived by day, week, month, and year.

New and deleted groups: The number of groups that were created and deleted by day, week, month, and year.

Protection: Shows inbound, outbound, malware detection mail traffic, based on how the mail is filtered, such as spam, virus, and transport rules. The following are list reports offered under the protection category filtered inbound mail, filtered outbound mail, inbound spam filtered, inbound malware detection summary, outbound, malware detection summary, top malware and outbound suspicious filtering summary

Rules

When you click a report name, you will see a report graph. You can:

Filter the data: To see only the data you are interested in, use the drop-down filters above the graph, or the time-span indicators below the graph.

See related information: For some reports, there will be additional information in a table below the graph. In addition, related reports are linked to from the thumbnail-sized pictures to the right of the main graph.

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Why Traditional Firewalls And Anti-Virus Cannot Keep Up with Today's Threats - Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd

UNIFIED THREAT MANAGEMENT (UTM)

 

 

In today’s increasingly mobile world, networks change constantly posing new challenges to IT team and to the administration on how to control security and protect the data. New services, access methods, and even devices continue to show up in networks at a frenetic pace.

For years, you must have been told that you need antivirus or some piece of software to protect your computer. These antivirus or software are usually reactive and alert you once they discover something unusual on a particular computer and not in the network. Of course, they are helpful but they do not provide full-proof security to your data and to your network.

 

Users are accessing an increasing number of applications with a wide range of device types, often times to get their job done, yet with little regard to the business or security risks. Meanwhile, datacenter expansion, network segmentation, virtualization and mobility initiatives are forcing you to re-think how to enable access to applications and data, yet protect your network from a new, more sophisticated class of advanced threats that are adept at evading traditional security mechanisms.

 

Below are some challenges that are now concerns for Mid-size and Enterprise Businesses -

  

Challenge #1 : Employees bringing their personal mobile and tablet at work creates data security a concern for IT team
 

Who could have foreseen the impact of WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook,or iPads and Android smartphones and tablets, only a few years ago? Today, employees expect to use personal smartphones and mobile devices at work also known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), making data security a concern for IT teams.

  

Challenge #2 : New applications evade threat detection

Traditional or “first-generation” firewalls rely on scanning of port numbers or protocol that are used by applications to detect the  threat and to prevent any misbehavior or intrusion in the network.

Traditional firewalls cannot detect new applications that are accessed through web browser and do not use specific port number or prototype.
 
Challenge #3 : Multiple Devices or Tools Addressing Incoming Data Security Threats

With the new challenges and threats, there is a need to have multi-level security and to do so, we do not recommend customers to buy different brands of traditional firewall, Data Loss/Leak Prevention (DLP), Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), filtering of websites and data traffic, malware screening at the gateway level and patch management in the network. Different tools create problem of managing them effectively and there can be a problem of compatibility. 

From a performance point of view also it is not recommended as each tool/device performs its own inspection of network data, which means that data is inspected multiple times by multiple devices and that create a time latency in data transfer.

In below image, you can see the flow of the data and the possible ways in which threat can enter into the network.

BOTTOM-LINE :

As a network’s complexity increases, so does the expense required to manage that network.

Every administrator should carefully consider the TCO of add-on security appliances versus an integrated solution like UTM or Next-Gen Firewall before making significant infrastructure solution commitments.

UTM should be flexible in terms of output, should be future-ready and should be powerful enough to support your requirement.

The application, content, and user—the elements that run your business—then become integral components of your enterprise security policy. The result is the ability to align security with key business initiatives.

• Safely enable applications, users and content by classifying all traffic, determining the business use case and assigning policies to allow and protect the relevant applications.

• Prevent threats by eliminating unwanted applications to reduce the threat footprint and applying targeted security polices to block known vulnerability exploits, viruses, spyware, botnets and unknown malware (APTs).

• Embrace mobile computing by ensuring devices are properly configured and that they are protected from threats.

• Protect your datacenters through validation of applications, isolation of data, control over rogue applications and high speed threat prevention.

• Secure cloud-computing environments with increased visibility and control; deploy and maintain security policies at the same pace as your virtual machines.

As we write this, the best UTM solutions for networks include the following core security functions / policies in their arsenals:

·         Network firewalls perform stateful packet inspection.

·         IPS detects and blocks intrusions and certain attacks.

·         Application control provides visibility and control of application behavior and content. 

·         VPN enables secure remote access to networks. 

·         Content filtering halts access to malicious, inappropriate, or questionable websites and online content. 

·         IPv6 support in all network security functions protects networks as they migrate from IPv4 to IPv6.

·         Support for virtualized environments, both virtual domains and virtual appliances.

They also include additional security technologies that organizations can choose to deploy, including

·         Data loss prevention that blocks accidental or intentional loss of confidential, proprietary, or regulated data.

·         Anti-virus/anti-spam protection that prevents malicious payloads or unwanted messages from entering networks.

·         Endpoint control that enforces corporate security policies with remote users and devices.

·         Integrated wireless LAN (WLAN) controller to consolidate all wired and wireless traffic through a single device, to simplify policy creation and enforcement while reducing network complexity.

SOLUTION TO CHALLENGES ABOVE :

 

UTM solution is integration of multiple security features like firewall, application control, intrusion prevention, VPN, reporting and other elements into a single product. There are multiple brands for which Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd has expertise in.  We can recommend you an appropriate brand and model from Fortinet, SonicWall, Check Point, Cyberoam, Juniper, Palo Alto, Sophos and Cisco depending on your use, industry, existing and future infrastructure, budget and skill-set available with your IT team. 

 In short, we recommend UTM that includes following features:

1. Firewall
2. Application Control
3. IPsec and SSL VPN
4. IPS
5. Web content filtering
6. Anti-spam
7. Data loss/leakage prevention
8. Anti-virus and anti-spyware protection
9. IPv6 native support
10. Traffic shaping and bandwidth control
11. Detailed reporting

and if you have no constrain on budget, you should opt for UTM that has independent processors for one-single activity (feature) i.e the more silicon is in UTM the better performance it will deliver.

We also take up responsibility of maintaining the UTM for its customers and help them implement it. We can sign an annual or long-term service and support contract for UTM and help our customers safeguard their infrastructure.

 

For More Information, Read:

 

1. 7 Tips for Establishing a Successful BYOD Policy - http://www.cio.com/article/2395944/consumer-technology/7-tips-for-establishing-a-successful-byod-policy.html
2. BYOD policy Template - http://www.itmanagerdaily.com/byod-policy-template/ 
3. https://www.avnotenough.com/

 

CONTACT SUJATA COMPUTERS PVT LTD (INDIA) FOR UTM

 

Dinesh Golecha | +91-8888165300 | dinesh.g@sujataindia.com

Paresh Lodha | +91-7276000222 | paresh.lodha@sujataindia.com