Interlink Cloud Blog

Recently, Microsoft announced Windows Virtual Desktop’s move from public preview to general availability worldwide.

Read on to learn more, and how it applies and benefits you!
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What is Windows Virtual Desktop?

Windows Virtual Desktop is a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service running in the cloud. It’s the only virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that delivers simplified management, multi-session Windows 10, optimizations for Office 365 ProPlus, and support for Remote Desktop Services (RDS) environments. Multi-session Windows 10 allows multiple concurrent users to connect – meaning that Windows 10 may be used as a remote desktop session host server. In contrast, it was previously only available when using a Windows Server operating system. Organizations are now able to virtualize Office 365 ProPlus and optimize it to run in multi-user sessions. Additionally, manage your environment using built-in delegated access to assign roles and collect diagnostics to understand various configuration or user errors – and use Azure’s diagnostics service to troubleshoot errors.

Windows Information Protection (WIP) is a data loss prevention feature for Windows 10 (version 1607 or later) that can automatically apply protective tags for files and data. Thus, allowing end-users to be productive and still keep your organization’s data secure!
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What is Windows Information Protection (WIP)?

Windows Information Protection (WIP) is an alternative to traditional data loss prevention approaches that focus on protecting data leakage at the network level. WIP protects against both accidental and intentional leakage of data by automatically encrypting internal data anytime users save a file locally to a protected Windows 10 system. Protecting organizational data is critical - now more than ever before! Lawsuits, legal challenges, and/or a loss of reputation is at stake if an organization is not successful in protecting their data. The ongoing blend of work and home life – especially in a COVID-19 world isn’t making that easier. More and more, we see end-users utilizing their work provided devices for personal tasks and data management. Similarly, end-users will access organizational data on their personal devices, which makes protecting your data tricky. WIP provides peace of mind and helps protect critical data regardless of where it’s accessed from. WIP not only helps protect files on end-users’ devices but can also be used to remotely wipe a device clean if needed via Intune. By selecting the user and device and sending a wipe request, all data that was protected via the WIP policy will become unusable.

See how this change affects you...

Did you know Basic Authentication Retirement in Exchange Online will happen on October 13, 2020? Read on to learn how that may affect your organization and what you can do today!

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Big Change from Microsoft - Basic Authentication Retires:

Beginning October 13, 2020, Microsoft will retire Basic Authentication for Exchange Web Services (EWS), Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), IMAP, POP, and RPS to access Exchange Online. This retirement of Basic Authentication increases security against attacks and phishing schemes. Organizations should check today to see if they will be impacted – it is more than just old versions of Outlook! This may impact:

• Marketing software that sends emails
• Custom applications/written code that sends email
• Critical applications that send email
• Phone systems that forward voicemails into a user's email box

Compliance requirements have been increasing from governments and sometimes even from vendors and customers...

Understanding the key requirements of the main compliance frameworks including NIST, HIPAA, GDPR, and more can be confusing. Interlink and Microsoft 365 can make it easy.

On Thursday, August 13, 2020, Interlink experts will show you how Microsoft 365 can help you meet your compliance requirements in the most efficient and cost-effective manner on the market today.

In this special online event, Learn about Microsoft 365 features you may not have known about to make sure your organization keeps their data safe and limits risk. You'll also learn where Microsoft has a strong offering in the compliance space and provide a live demonstration of Microsoft Compliance Manager – one of the coolest products you’ve probably never heard of.

After this event, you will have a good understanding of:

• The most common compliance challenges businesses face today
• Overview of the key requirements of the main compliance frameworks including NIST, HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA and more
• The value of the Microsoft compliance stack in protecting your organization end-to-end including products and features you might not be aware of
• How Microsoft’s Compliance Manager can provide a solid roadmap to meeting and documenting your compliance efforts
• Licensing considerations to make sure you're meeting your organization's needs most effectively

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WEBINAR DETAILS

Date: August 13, 2020
Time: 10:00 - 11:00 AM ET
No Cost to Attend
REGISTER NOW

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PRESENTERS

Matt Scherocman
President, Interlink Cloud Advisors

Mike Wilson
CTO, Interlink Cloud Advisors

Mark Dreyer
Senior Consultant, Interlink Cloud Advisors

Learn how to get the best deal with Windows Server Hybrid Use Benefit, SQL Server Hybrid Use Benefit, Server Subscriptions, and Reserved Instances. 

We’ve seen a lot of people simply paying too much!

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Azure pricing can be confusing...

Many companies are struggling to understand how to get their best deal when running Azure workloads. Microsoft has programs that organizations should be taking advantage of. In this article, we’ll discuss the four major ways to get a programmatic discount on Azure that can save your organization money when compared to pay-as-you-go pricing.

A few years ago, Microsoft announced a price cut on Azure which made pricing between the various licensing vehicles all the same. Then they also gave guidance to their sales teams not to discount Azure until the customer commitment was in the millions. So, it is critical to take advantage of these programmatic discounts to get the best deal possible.