Management and Security

Office 365 includes an administrative platform for organizations to manage and secure its services. The platform includes a directory service, Azure Active Directory (AD); a mobile device management based on Microsoft Intune; and an encryption service, Azure Rights Management. Office 365 also offers other administrative tools through Web, scripting, and mobile management interfaces, all of which will continue to improve over the next 12 months.

The Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) delivers premium tiers of Azure AD, Intune, and Azure Rights Management, and these premium tiers are also available stand-alone. The premium service tiers work with Office 365, but they also work with other services and applications and deliver additional capabilities provided by the service tiers delivered free with Office 365.

Azure Active Directory

Azure AD is a Microsoft-hosted directory service that provides identity and access management for Office 365 and other online services. It authenticates users and manages user account information and offers self-service password reset and multifactor authentication. It can synchronize with AD on-premises to centralize user and password management and federate with AD on-premises and third party directories to provide single sign-on. Reports enable organizations to audit usage of Office 365 services and look for anomalies that might indicate security risks.