FastTrack now assists with more threat protection capabilities
Announcing FastTrack remote guidance for Microsoft Cloud App Security and Microsoft 365 Defender solutions for endpoints, identities, cloud apps, email, and docs Microsoft FastTrack is committed to helping you realize the value of your Microsoft 365 security solutions by providing remote deployment guidance. FastTrack for Microsoft 365 provides remote deployment guidance at no additional cost for customers with 150 or more licenses of eligible plans. In addition to the baseline security assistance we already offer, FastTrack has expanded the benefit in threat protection to now include Microsoft Defender for Identity and Microsoft Cloud App Security, and guidance to leverage Microsoft 365 Defender. FastTrack will provide remote deployment guidance to help eligible customers configure and deploy these Microsoft security products: Microsoft Cloud App Security discovers and controls Shadow IT, helps ensure secure access to your apps and resources, protects your sensitive information, and detects threats in the cloud for you to take action on, surfacing valuable insights and recommendations to help improve your cloud security posture. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (formerly Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection) delivers preventative protection, post-breach detection, automated investigation, and response for your endpoints. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (formerly Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection) helps protect all of Office 365 against advanced threats like business email compromise and credential phishing, and automatically investigates and remediates attacks. Microsoft Defender for Identity (formerly Azure Advanced Threat Protection) helps secure on-premises identities across your organization by leveraging Active Directory signals to identify, detect, and investigate advanced threats, compromised identities, and malicious insider actions directed at your organization. In addition, Microsoft FastTrack will show you how to leverage the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Defender (formerly Microsoft Threat Protection), which protects against attacks with automated cross-domain security. You can use your security data to prevent and detect threats, heal affected assets, and proactively hunt across your Microsoft 365 data. FastTrack for Microsoft 365 provides remote guidance for customers with 150 or more licenses, at no additional cost with your eligible Microsoft 365 subscription. This is an ongoing benefit throughout the duration of your eligible subscription, delivered by Microsoft and approved FastTrack Ready Partners. If you want to learn more, review eligibility and the service description here. If you’re ready to get started, request assistance at microsoft.com/FastTrack (sign in required). When you request assistance from FastTrack, you’ll select which product you want guidance on, and Microsoft 365 Defender assistance will also be included with that product. Here is a screen shot of the Request for Assistance page on the FastTrack site: Interested in deploying Azure services to improve your security posture? FastTrack for Azure is a technical enablement program that works directly with customers and partners to help you build Azure solutions quickly and confidently. FastTrack for Azure brings together best practices and tools from engineering and real customer experiences, including business continuity and disaster recovery, security and management, and many more to guide customers from design, configuration, and development to production of Azure solutions. Learn more and check your eligibility at azure.microsoft.com/programs/azure-fasttrack/. We’d love to hear from you on our Tech Community channel. Give us feedback in comments or tell us what we should write about in the future.Announcing FastTrack assistance for Employee Experience scenarios including Microsoft Viva!
FastTrack can now help you enable Microsoft Viva and the foundational services that support an Employee Experience scenario. What is Viva? Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights into the flow of work. Visit the Microsoft Viva webpage to learn more and stay up-to-date with the latest Microsoft Viva news! Now more than ever, organizations need tools to foster a culture where people and teams are empowered to be their best from anywhere. As you work to address today’s challenges, Microsoft Viva and FastTrack can help. Viva consists of four key scenarios: Harness knowledge and expertise: Viva Topics automatically organizes content and expertise across your organization, making it easy for people to find information and put knowledge to work. Amplify culture and communications: Viva Connections is your gateway to a modern engagement experience designed to keep everyone involved and informed. Accelerate skilling and growth: Microsoft Viva Learning empowers employees with formal and informal learning when and where it’s needed, making it easier for people to learn while working. Balance productivity and wellbeing: Microsoft Viva Insights helps people and business thrive with data-driven, privacy-protected insights and recommendations to improve productivity and wellbeing. Scenario based deployment FastTrack deployment assistance for Microsoft Viva is offered through the Employee Experience scenario. The scenario-based approach begins with the premise that the IT admin we assist is in the middle of a mindset shift in their organization. The blurring of the line between business and tech is reflected in our Employee Experience scenario approach. How so? First, the guidance for IT Admins is organized by use cases that the Admin’s business partners would consider relevant. The intention behind this packaging is to empower the IT Admin to move back and forth from a business, human resources, or communications discussion to a tech enablement project. Second, the technical guidance is intended to simplify deployment by integrating workload guidance for Viva and its technical prerequisites rather than relying on the IT Admin to locate disparate guidance and do the synthesizing themselves. Third, through our self-service automation (wizards) we offer a dashboard that allows the IT Admin to see where they are in the journey. Our hope is that this view helps the IT Admin manage internal stakeholder expectations and coordinate with their business partners. FastTrack provides this guidance via a team of experts (engineers and architects), as well as self-service automation set-up guides that are available to customers in their admin portal. What FastTrack can do for you FastTrack can help you, the IT Admin, accelerate or enhance the employee experience in your organization no matter where you are on your journey. This includes enablement assistance for the Microsoft 365 tools you already own which are foundational for Viva, as well as deployment with each of the specific Viva modules. Remote guidance from FastTrack will help you: Confirm relevant Viva modules to address your needs including Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Topics, and Viva Learning Assess your source environment and scenario requirements Bring your source environment to the minimum requirements for a successful deployment Walk through Employee Experience scenario configuration steps for each Microsoft Viva service you want to enable based on your requirements How to engage with FastTrack Customers with 150 or more licenses of an eligible product will be able to use FastTrack for remote deployment guidance on Employee Experience scenarios, including Microsoft Viva at no additional cost. Log in to submit a Request for Assistance at www.microsoft.com/FastTrack.
Simplify your Windows 365 Enterprise deployment with the updated Windows 365 deployment checklist
We’re excited to announce that we’ve just released an updated Windows 365 deployment checklist in the Microsoft 365 admin center (MAC). What is Windows 365? Windows 365 is a cloud-based Desktop as a service (DaaS) solution that automatically creates a new type of Windows virtual machine for your customer, known as a Cloud PC. A Cloud PC is a highly available, optimized, and scalable virtual machine that provides customers with a rich Windows desktop experience. Cloud PCs are hosted in the Windows 365 service and is accessible from anywhere, on any device (Learn more about Windows 365). Windows 365 deployment is made to be simple (to see an end-to-end deployment overview, visit Overview of Windows 365 deployment). However, we understand that our customers have unique and complex environments. What is the Windows 365 deployment checklist? To help you integrate Windows 365 with your existing enterprise environment, we've compiled learnings and best practices from the Microsoft 365 FastTrack Team, which has worked with hundreds of enterprise customers. We're excited to offer these in an updated Windows 365 deployment checklist experience as part of the Advanced Deployment Guides in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. This checklist will guide you as you plan, deploy, and scale Windows 365 in your environment. The Windows 365 deployment checklist guides admins through the considerations around Azure basics, identity, networking, licensing, management, security, applications, and end user experiences that are applicable to their deployment configuration. Admins can assign tasks for each area to the responsible stakeholders and define a target date of completion. Admins can also see a summary view with an overall status to track progress against their timelines. How can I access the Windows 365 deployment checklist? To access the Windows Enterprise 365 checklist, visit this link or directly at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2251210. Additional Resources: Product Info: Windows 365 Enterprise on Microsoft.com Microsoft Learn: What is Windows 365 Enterprise? Microsoft Learn: Requirements for Windows 365 Access all Microsoft 365 Advanced Deployment GuidesMicrosoft FastTrack: A refreshed web experience with new tools & resources
Microsoft FastTrack continues to work with organizations like yours to accelerate cloud deployment of Microsoft 365. We just refreshed our Microsoft FastTrack web experience with a new landing page and supporting resources so you can find what you need faster. Links to the Microsoft Productivity Library and Resource Hub are now front and center to for quickly learning about Microsoft 365: Productivity Library: Whether you’re exploring the benefits of Office 365 for your organization or looking for innovative ways to address business challenges with Microsoft 365, the Productivity Library gets you going fast with scenario-based solution “cards.” Resource Hub: From the initial assessment to driving user adoption, FastTrack provides self-serve resources – like best practice guides, documentation, templates, and more – to help at each step in your deployment process. Engaging FastTrack has never been easier: Visit the Resource Hub to explore and download resources and templates to help with managing adoption of Microsoft 365 within your organization. Sign in to the FastTrack portal to submit a Request for Assistance (RFA), access global best practices and expert assistance from FastTrack specialists to help drive a successful deployment. Get organized by creating a Success Plan that identifies a timeline, outlines key activities, and helps you prepare for deployment and user adoption. Watch and learn more, then visit our website to try for yourself: In addition to this enhanced web experience, Microsoft FastTrack is pleased to now provide deployment support for Microsoft Intune co-management on your Windows 10 devices. From helping you enable Active Directory auto-enrollment, to setting up Intune to deploy the Configuration Manager agent to new devices, FastTrack now supports a variety of co-management activities. Read more about this new benefit. Login today to start your FastTrack journey with Microsoft 365. Please let us know what you think in the comments.
