Quest Software,
a global systems management and security software provider, today
announced the availability of Quest On Demand, a new, cloud-hosted
software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that makes it simple for IT
administrators to manage and secure Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) workloads. The first release of Quest On Demand delivers
solutions that make it easy for organizations to rapidly backup and
recover Azure AD and Office 365 users, attributes, groups and group
membership. Additionally, it allows for secure access to Microsoft
Exchange Online and Skype for Business Online features through automated
policy management.
On
Demand, the first SaaS platform from the Quest Microsoft Platform
Management (MPM) business, delivers automation at scale. With On Demand,
customers no longer need to install and configure on-premises software
nor manage the roll-out of updates. The On Demand platform is ready to
use after a few clicks and integrates the core security features built
into Azure to ensure data integrity and security. Now, IT organizations
can innovate faster, lower costs, and take advantage of enhanced
security.
"Quest
is committed to helping customers leverage their Microsoft investments,
and with more organizations managing workloads in the cloud, they need
simple, reliable tools to help them efficiently secure, manage and
recover those workloads," said Michael Tweddle, President and GM, Quest
Microsoft Platform Management. "Quest On Demand helps organizations
leverage - and benefit from - the variety of productivity platforms that
comes with O365 in a simple-to-use SaaS offering."
Increasing Office 365 Productivity
According
to Microsoft's most recent quarterly report, revenue growth for Office
365 commercial is up 45%, reinforcing a movement by organizations to
move workloads from on-premises to the cloud. This explosive growth is
driving an organizational shift in finding ways to not only better
manage workloads in Office 365 environments, but also understanding how
the business can take advantage of and benefit from all the productivity
platforms Office 365 has to offer. With cloud adoption comes a new set
of challenges for IT staff.
Quest
is taking a new approach to address these cloud challenges with On
Demand. The cloud-hosted platform offers interconnected SaaS-based
modules that help organizations cost effectively manage and maintain
control of what users can access and how they use cloud resources -
whether they are internal or federated users - all through a
simple-to-use interface. The first solutions available with Quest On
Demand include:
- Quest On Demand Recovery for Azure AD helps
organizations quickly and securely back up and recover users,
attributes, groups and group membership in Azure AD and Office 365
environments with zero impact to the business. Difference reporting
makes it easy to not only view granular changes between backups and live
Azure AD but also allows users to select exactly what they want to
restore, a capability not available with native tools.
- Quest On Demand Policy Management for Skype for Business Online and Exchange Online helps
organizations set, enforce and restrict Exchange Online and Skype for
Business Online policies from a central location. This provides an easy
way to ensure that cloud resources comply with ever-changing business
and regulatory policies. With Policy Management for Exchange Online,
organizations can set policies for ActiveSync (mobile), mail retention,
OWA, file sharing and address book - and, critically, increase control
over mobile usage. With Policy Management for Skype for Business Online,
organizations can easily regulate how end users conduct voice
communications and share data with internal and external users.
"As
companies move to the cloud, they often view management as something
delivered by their cloud provider. But as their cloud deployments grow,
they find a management gap compared to their on-premises experience.
This gap poses one of the biggest unforeseen challenges for cloud
deployments," said Edwin Yuen, Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group.
"Quest On Demand will help customers moving to Office 365 and Azure AD
get the most from those offerings, closing the management gap, without
having to be PowerShell wizards."
"As
we migrate our existing customers to the cloud, we can use Quest On
Demand to give them peace of mind without another piece of software or
hardware needed to install," said Law Murphy, Account Executive, Cloud
and Disaster Recovery Consultant at Abtech Technologies.
Commitment to SaaS Innovation
Quest
On Demand represents a significant investment in SaaS for the newly
independent Quest organization. With a continued commitment to helping
businesses maximize value from their Microsoft environments, Quest On
Demand makes it easy to manage Microsoft cloud workloads in a simple,
scalable SaaS delivery model.
"As
a business, we have a newfound commitment of delivering SaaS solutions
to market fast that make it easy for businesses to optimize for the
cloud," added Tweddle. "Quest On Demand is our SaaS innovation platform
that is designed so we can rapidly deliver new technology releases to
market that help organizations manage every aspect of their Office 365
productivity platform."
Quest
will quickly expand upon the On Demand platform to deliver the
solutions that enable full, multi-tenant lifecycle management of Azure
AD and Office 365 environments, including migration, audit and license
management. This is in addition to the recovery and policy management
features now available in the first release.
Pricing and Availability
Quest On Demand is available now. For more information, including a trial download, go here.