Office 365 Management Platform Roadmap

The Office 365 management platform will continue to improve over the next 12 months, according to plans announced by Microsoft in mid-2015. 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 a directory service, Azure Active Directory (AD); a mobile device management service based on Microsoft Intune; and 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, a program that offers customers early access to new features. The capabilities described here are all likely to be available for production use in the United States by mid-2016, and some are already rolling out there as of Aug. 2015.