Enabling Enterprise Mobility through People-Centric IT

The trend towards Bring-your-own-device(BYOD) presents an opportunity for IT to help increase user productivity and satisfaction. But this trend also brings numerous management and security challenges to IT organizations, which must see that enterprise infrastructure and corporate data are protected from malicious intent, while ensuring that these resources can be accessed in compliance with corporate policies regardless of device type or location.

An enterprise model that supports the use of consumer devices and cloud storage in the workplace and the ability to work from virtually anywhere and anytime must move from a device-centric view of IT management to one that’s people-centric.

people-centric IT

 

Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility Suite is a comprehensive cloud solution that supports the consumerization of IT and retains effective management, security, and compliance capabilities. It the most cost-effective way to acquire the included cloud services:

  • Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Premium for Hybrid Identity management
  • Windows Intune for mobile device and PC management
  • Azure Rights Management for information protection

Now, with these three cloud services brought together in the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), Microsoft makes it easy and cost-effective for IT to acquire the full set of capabilities necessary to manage enterprise mobility challenges.

Hybrid Identity and Access Management

Azure AD Premium delivers robust identity and access management from the cloud, in sync with your existing on-premises deployments:

  • Cloud-based self-service password reset for your employees
  • Group Management, including user self-service management of groups
  • Group-based provisioning and access management for hundreds of Software- as-a-Service applications
  • Rich and robust synchronization of user identities from on-premises directories, including write back of changes
  • Reduce risk and support compliance requirements with comprehensive Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) options

Mobile Device Management

Windows Intune enables you to manage PCs and mobile devices from the cloud. People can use the devices they love for work while protecting corporate data and adhering to security policies:

  • Deliver and manage apps across a broad range of devices.
  • Manage a variety of device types, from Windows, Windows RT, and Windows Phone 8 to Apple iOS and Google Android.
  • Configure and deploy policies, and inventory hardware and software.

Data Protection

Azure AD Premium and Azure Rights Management can help protect your corporate assets:

  • Deliver information protection in the cloud or in a hybrid model with your existing on- premises infrastructure.
  • Integrate information protection into your native applications with an easy-to-use software development kit (SDK).

 

 

Overview to Azure Active Directory Premium

Microsoft’s Azure Technology has created a great opportunity for IT professionals.  Providing the ability to further enable people with secure access to information from a plethora of devices is one of the newer abilities provided through cloud and is enabled through Azure Active Directory Sync, formally DirSync. Microsoft is also taking this synchronization ability to the next level via the recently announced Enterprise Mobility Suite which includes Azure Active Directory Premium.

Capitalizing on the capabilities made available in the free offering, Azure Active Directory Premium includes additional features mentioned below to further empower businesses in offering secure access to data.

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Overview to Azure Active Directory

Like most directory services, Azure Active Directory stores information about users and the organizations they belong to. It lets users log in, then supplies them with tokens they can present to applications to prove their identity. It also allows synchronizing user information with Windows Server Active Directory running on premises in your local network. While the mechanisms and data formats used by Azure Active Directory aren’t identical with those used in Windows Server Active Directory, the functions it performs are quite similar.

Understanding Azure Active Directory

It’s important to understand that Azure Active Directory is designed primarily for and used by cloud applications. It can be used by applications running on Azure, for example, or on other cloud platforms. It’s also used by Microsoft’s own cloud applications, such as those in Office 365. If you want to extend your data center into the cloud using Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Virtual Network, however, Azure Active Directory isn’t the right choice. Instead, you’ll want to run Windows Server Active Directory in Virtual Machines.

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