Management and Security

The Office 365 management platform will continue to improve through 2016. The Office 365 management platform is the customer’s primary tool for user identity management and Office 365 data encryption, and the platform can help secure mobile client devices and the Office 365 data they contain. However, some organizations that want to manage other applications and services with the same tools as Office 365 will need to purchase additional services from Microsoft.

Office 365 Management Platform Background

The Office 365 management platform includes the following:

• A directory service, Azure Active Directory (AD)
• A mobile device management service based on Microsoft Intune
• An encryption service, Azure Rights Management.

It also offers other administrative tools through Web, scripting, and mobile management interfaces.

Microsoft updates Office 365’s management platform components continuously, starting with customers in Office 365 First Release. The capabilities described here are all likely to be available for production use in the United States by mid-2016, and some began rollout in the third quarter of 2015.