Bill Baer /bɛːr/

Balancing security and usability are core to ensuring people can collaborate effectively without interrupting the necessary flow of information across organizations. With SharePoint Online we’ve been at work developing security and sharing controls that are scoped at the site collection level. This allows Tenant administrators to configure more restrictive controls at the site collection level, than those that are configured at the Tenant level providing a balance between the need to protect corporate information and the requirement to collaborate effectively across and outside of the corporate boundary.

In March 2017 we introduced device-based policies for SharePoint and OneDrive, that enable administrators to configure Tenant-level policies. Device-based policies for SharePoint and OneDrive help administrators ensure corporate data is not leaked onto unmanaged devices such as non-domain joined or non-compliant devices by limiting access to the content to the browser, preventing files from being taken offline or synchronized with OneDrive. On September 1st, 2017 we’ve continued to evolve our conditional access investments to address the ever-changing security landscape and business needs by introducing new levels of granularity with conditional access that allow administrators to scope device-based policies at the site collection level.

Last week at Microsoft Ignite we shared our investments, our vision, and strategy for addressing today’s most challenging business and technology trends that are ever broadening the threat landscape. From meeting complex corporate and governmental regulatory compliance, to addressing a more mobile and connected workforce, SharePoint and OneDrive and uniquely positioned to address your business needs. Stay ahead of data residency requirements with Multi-Geo capabilities in Microsoft 365 Governments around the world are strengthening laws and regulations to protect citizens’ data, preserve national security, and protect business interests.

The collaboration landscape has changed, people expect to work across both boundaries and devices, to bring content with them versus bringing themselves to content. Location, location, location is the best choice when buying or selling a home, but introduces new challenges when it comes to securing that content. Ubiquitous connectivity and the proliferation of devices means responding to new security challenges. SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business are uniquely positioned to help you address these challenges… Over the past several weeks we’ve introduced a variety of policies, to include location-based policies, that provide contextual controls at the user, location, device, and app levels and we’re excited to share you can now explore new device-based policies in First Release.

When choosing a cloud collaboration platform, the most important consideration is trust in your provider. Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive for Business are covered by the core tenets of earning and maintaining trust: security, privacy, compliance, and transparency. With SharePoint and OneDrive, they’re your files. You own them and control them. The Microsoft approach to securing your files involves: A set of customer-managed tools that adapt to your organization and its security needs.

Unified eDiscovery and Data Loss Prevention in Office 365 allows Tenant Administrators to create, manage, and secure content from a unified console (Office 365 Security and Compliance Center). To date, Tenant Administrators have had to manage Data Loss Prevention for SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, and Exchange in two separate locations, the Office 365 Security and Compliance Center and the Exchange Admin Center respectively. In January 2017, Data Loss Prevention was centralized for SharePoint, OneDrive for Business and Exchange in the Office 365 Security and Compliance Center.

The days of the corporate boundary beginning at the firewall are over, today’s corporate boundary is the end user. Connectivity is ubiquitous and with an endless number of devices available, people have an increasing number of options for staying connected at anytime, anywhere. The freedom to work fluidly, independent of location has become an expectation as has the freedom to access email and documents from anywhere on any device—and that experience is expected to be seamless.