How Office 365 can benefit your business

Office 365 is “Microsoft Office in the Cloud” and provides access to email, contacts, documents and calendars wherever you are via cloud computing.

Office 365 comes with a range of functions which can be extremely useful to your staff. Some of these features you may not even be aware of, but they have the ability to revolutionise the way you work and improve both productivity and efficiency. Here we discuss some of the top features Microsoft Office 365 provides and how they can be used effectively within your business.

Lots of storage
A common problem, depending on your area of work, can be not having enough storage. With Office 365 each user gets 50GB worth of storage with Exchange online that can be used for emails, storing contacts, your calendar, storing notes, etc. Having access to the OneDrive cloud storage on email also means you can save space by using this for attachments. Each user also gets 1TB of storage available through OneDrive so there is no worry about running out of space.

Microsoft releases enhanced protections for ransomware aimed at small businesses

In the face of growing danger from cyber threats such as ransomware and phishing, Microsoft have released an upgraded set of features for their Microsoft 365 business edition in the hopes of safeguarding small businesses.

Microsoft has said that Microsoft 365 Business will now include sophisticated scanning of attachments and AI-powered analysis to uncover and destroy malicious messages. The updates also include automatic checking of links in emails and full device protection to prevent devices from accessing ransomware and other suspicious web locations.

Microsoft fixes a record number of security flaws this month

Microsoft has released its biggest patch update ever including 18 patches, with 9 classed as ‘critical’ and a further 9 classed as ‘important’.

Microsoft’s latest bumper package of patches comes after a quiet start to the year in terms of updates, with no patches released in February at all. However, this latest update includes fixes for a reported 135 different vulnerabilities across Windows operating systems from Vista to Windows 10.

Microsoft strengthen Office 365 security

Responding to the ever growing threat of cyber crime, Microsoft has ramped up their security efforts for their Office 365 platform. Users will now benefit from better visibility, control and security of data when using the cloud based services.

In a blog posted on the Microsoft website, Bret Arsenault, Chief Information Security Officer for Microsoft, explained that their new approach “empowers customers to accelerate their adoption of a ‘protect, detect, respond’ security posture”.

Windows 10 receives positive reaction

Back in 2012, Microsoft launched its first attempt at an operating system that coped with the inevitable collision of tablets and desktops. Regarded by most users as a flop, Windows 8 was typified as an awkward mismatch between touch friendly technology and more traditional desktop operating systems; in short, it didn’t work for either desktop or tablets users. Whilst the Windows 8.1 update helped, its lifespan was still most notably marked by headlines such as ‘’Windows 8, it really is that bad’’.

Millions of computer users at risk from “Freak”

At the end of last week, Microsoft issued a major security warning about a computer bug that has been named “Freak” and announced that it was working on a security update to tackle it.

Initially it was thought that only some users of Android and Blackberry phones were at risk, along with users of Apple’s Safari web browser, but it was later discovered that in fact millions of computer users are at risk.

Microsoft no longer forced to offer web browser choices

A rule forcing Microsoft to offer new Windows users in Europe options for web browsers has come to an end, five years after it was introduced.

The so called Browser Ballot had forced Microsoft to give as much prominence to non-Microsoft browsers such as Firefox and Chrome on Windows as it does to Internet Explorer (IE).

The deal had supposedly been about giving Windows users choice, and was drawn up in 2009 after rivals of Microsoft complained that because IE was bundled with Windows it gave the browser an unfair advantage.

Still running Windows Server 2003? It’s time to switch

Anyone still using Microsoft Windows Server 2003 is being urged to upgrade after Microsoft announced that they will no longer offer extended support as of July 14^th 2015. But what does this mean to current users and why should they switch?

Problems with upgrading Windows XP

Microsoft officially stopped supporting the Windows XP operating system on 8^th April this year after more than a decade. This means that it no longer provides technical support services, but more importantly it also stopped updating the software. So, no more bug fixes, and most crucially of all, no more security patches. Desktops or laptops still using the XP operating system are now much more vulnerable to cyber attacks as a result. XP hasn’t updated since 8^th April 2014, which makes it a sitting duck target.