Microsoft 365 and cloud

What this is

The platform most of your business now runs on: mail, files, identity, collaboration, and the licensing that pays for it. Managing it well is mostly about the parts nobody sees — who can reach what, which accounts have administrative rights, what is shared outside the organisation, and whether any of it is backed up.

What is actually delivered

Identity and access. Multi-factor authentication enforced properly, conditional access policies matched to how your staff actually work, and named administrator accounts kept separate from everyday ones. How much of this is available to you depends on your Microsoft licensing, and part of working out what you need is telling you what you already pay for.

Permissions and oversharing review. Finding the files and sites that are shared more widely than anyone intended. This is routine housekeeping until you turn on an AI assistant, at which point it becomes urgent.

Mail flow and email authentication. Correct SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, so your mail arrives and so your domain cannot easily be used to impersonate you.

Backup of the tenant. Mail, files, collaboration sites and the directory itself, held separately from Microsoft, with restores tested by taking items back out rather than by trusting the job that says it worked.

Licensing management. Reviewed against what you actually use. We tell you where you are over-licensed, which means less money for us — that is the point of saying it out loud rather than waiting to be asked.

Migration. From on-premises servers, from another tenant, or from a provider who has your credentials and is in no hurry to hand them over. Scoped and quoted as a project.

Device management. Enrolment, configuration and compliance policy, so a new starter’s laptop arrives set up rather than needing an afternoon. In practice most of this is done through our own management platform rather than Microsoft’s, which is usually the better answer and does not depend on which Microsoft licence you hold — where we do use theirs, that part is licence-dependent too.

If you are not on Microsoft

Microsoft is our preferred platform and most of our customers are on it, which is why this page reads the way it does. It is a preference rather than a condition: Google Workspace is supportable, and on the devices themselves we look after Apple and Linux endpoints alongside Windows. What changes is the service set rather than whether we will take you on, so tell us what you run and we will tell you honestly what we can and cannot do with it.

The starting point

If you are unsure how your tenant is configured, start with the free Microsoft 365 security review. It is a written report, it needs read access rather than control, and it finds something every time.

How it is charged

Largely through our managed cloud service, with some of the security sitting in the per-user charge. Licences are their own line, quoted before you buy and at the price you were quoted. Migrations are project work, scoped and quoted separately.

Related

• Security and compliance Detection, response, and the evidence your customers are asking for.
• Using AI without leaking your business What Copilot can actually see, and what to fix before you turn it on.
• Backup and recovery Backups that are tested, and a recovery time you have agreed in advance.

Questions people ask

Does Microsoft back up our data?

No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in the product. Microsoft guarantees the service is available; it does not keep a restorable copy of your mail and files if someone deletes them or an account is compromised. That is a separate backup, and it is in our Secure tier.

Can you review our tenant before we commit to anything?

Yes. We run a free written review of identity and conditional access, external sharing, licensing gaps and admin account hygiene. It needs read access rather than control, and takes a few days.

We think we are over-licensed. Can you check?

Usually yes, and usually you are. Licences bought for staff who have left, duplicate add-ons already included in a higher plan, and premium licences on accounts that never use the features are the three we find most often. Sometimes there is a good reason for it — an annual commitment still has to run its term, and holding a few spare seats through a hiring round can be deliberate — so we tell you what we found and what it would save rather than assuming it is a mistake.

How are the licences committed and paid for?

Two ways. Annual, paid up front, which Microsoft prices below the monthly rate — their discount rather than ours, since we sell at their list price either way. Or monthly, paid monthly, which costs more and lets your numbers move with your headcount. We do not offer the third arrangement — an annual commitment paid monthly — because the twelve months would be owed by us whatever happened to the business paying for them, and carrying a year of someone else's licensing is lending rather than IT support. That is the same answer at one user as at two hundred.

Who owns the tenant, us or you?

You do, always. We hold administrative access to do the work. If you leave, ownership does not need transferring because it was never ours.

Before you get in touch

• How we charge What is charged per user, per device and per site, and what moves the number.
• Service levels Response and resolution targets, and the hours they run within.
• Certifications ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials, with the numbers to check them.