Yesterday we announced the release of Office 365 Manager, a new module that enables organizations to extend their existing on-premise security and audit control model to the Microsoft Office 365 and Azure Active Directory Cloud. We have also released a new web site dedicated to information on Office 365 Manager. The new site is located at http://office365.empowerID.com.

We are seeing rapid adoption of Office 365 to reduce the cost of IT operations. Office 365, however, is presenting our customers with some security and management challenges because it offers only basic audit controls and a limited ability to delegate administrative tasks. Our new Office 365 Manager provides organizations with the first and only Identity and Access Management solution that applies existing security practices for on-premise Active Directory and Exchange to the management of Office 365 in the Cloud.

Office 365 Manager allows organizations to leverage the same secure delegation and flexible administration model that they use for their behind the firewall systems. It addresses a key shortcoming of Office 365 which runs on Azure Active Directory and lacks a hierarchical structure that forces the placement of all users, groups, mailboxes and contacts in a single location. By extending the existing structure of a customer’s on-premise Active Directory, LDAP, or HR system to Office 365, Office 365 Manager can securely delegate responsibilities by role, department, business unit and location.

With Office 365 Manager's Single Sign-On capabilities, your internal users can continue to use their existing Active Directory username and password when logging in to Outlook, OWA, Lync, and SharePoint after they have been migrated to the Office 365 cloud. External partners or customers can leverage Social Media logins, your own branded EmpowerID login, or even their remote corporate AD credentials.

Top 10 features and benefits of the new Office 365 Manager:

1.    Role-Based Delegated Administration to Reduce IT Staff Workload 
2.    Automated Provisioning and Sync for Better Productivity and Security 
3.    Dynamic Group Management for Improved Group Security 
4.    Single Sign-On for Ease of Use 
5.    Multi-Factor Authentication for Improved Access Security 
6.    Mobile Device Security (BYOD) To Properly Secure Mobile Device Access 
7.    Self-Service Password Management to Reduce Help Desk Workload 
8.    Shopping Cart Style Self-Service to Automate Request Fulfillment and Audit Tracking 
9.    Access Recertification and Audit Reporting For Better Access Governance 
10.     Mailbox and Folder Permission Audit, Management, and Self-Service for Improved Productivity and Governance