CLOUD INTRANET

SOLUTIONS
WITH OFFICE 365

COLIN MURRAY BRIGHTSTARR SOLUTION ARCHITECT

This document is intended for managers, executives and senior decision makers
within large-scale organizations, both commercial and not-for-profit, that are
exploring, implementing or have a cloud Intranet solution. The document has been
written with non-technical readers in mind and focuses on organizational and broad
technical themes to ensure that an organization can get the most out of any cloud
based Intranet solution they undertake.

Cloud technology
is a game changer
in Information
Technology in
general, but in the
enterprise it delivers
measurable results
that many CIOs are
recognizing.

COLIN MURRAY
BRIGHTSTARR
SOLUTION ARCHITECT

BRIGHTSTARRS
INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE

CONTENTS
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2. WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING? 3

3. CLOUD TECHNOLOGY IN THE ENTERPRISE

4. COMPONENTS OF MICROSOFTS CLOUD OFFERING

5. THE BENEFITS OF AN OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT

ONLINE INTRANET 11
6

CLOUD CHALLENGES

17

7. HYBRID AS A PHASED APPROACH TO ADOPTION

18

8. CONCLUSION

22

9. ABOUT UNILY

23

10. REFERENCES

24

BrightStarr have been working

with SharePoint for over eight
years and are a Microsoft Gold
Partner regularly cited for our
technical excellence in delivering
solutions on the Microsoft
enterprise platforms. The following
whitepaper is far more than
simple supposition and is in fact
backed by the results of hundreds
of BrightStarrs own surveys,
which have received thousands
of responses. It is this directly
sourced and independently
gathered data that provides our
deep intrinsic knowledge of the
market in which we operate and
allows us to provide truly world
class solutions for our clients. Our
research is what helps us to not
only understand our clients, but
also empowers us to contribute to
the thought leadership within our
industry. As such our whitepapers
will always be supported by our
high quality data so that you
can get the most up to date and
relevant information to inform your
organizational decisions.

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1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY

Upon the inception of the Internet, the world changed

remarkably forever. One huge technological leap has
rapidly changed the way almost every person on the planet
lives their lives, and carries out even the smallest and most
mundane actions.
Now we are seeing the lofty rise
of cloud technology, and again it is
affecting an astronomical change in
the way the Internet, and the services
we use there-in, are being used. The
Cloud is elevating Internet access and
capabilities like never before and we
can already see how this ingenuitive
technology is terra forming our digital
landscape, in both the consumer and
commercial spaces. In the consumer
space we can take something as
simple as the iCloud which allows
people to use cloud storage to store
data from their Apple devices.
Looking into what will be the more
pertinent value of the Cloud in this
whitepaper, its commercial value for
organisational success, we can see
that it is making huge advances here
too. For instance OneDrive for business
is the commercial set up of Microsofts
hugely popular consumer cloud storage
system known simply as OneDrive. One
drive for business offers its users 1TB
of storage at just $2.50 per month and
$30 per year. A physical 1TB drive costs
between $50 to $120 on Amazon,

therefore users will actually pay more

(within a year) for a less reliable and
convenient storage solution. But its
not just this brilliant storage service at
reduced cost that makes up the quality
of the Cloud, but also the capability to
access it anywhere in the world that
you have a stable Internet connection.
Access on the go is endemic in modern
society, business and other wise and
the Cloud represents access at your
fingertips. Tools such as cloud storage
are increasing in uptake massively and
research by Nasumi puts the figure for
data currently stored in the Cloud at 1
Exabyte (1,073,741,824 GB).1 Now thats
a lot of data!
The focus of this whitepaper is
to understand exactly how cloud
technology is going to continue to
grow in capabilities in the future, and
exactly how its making huge in-roads
into the modern enterprise. We will
first cover the types of cloud offering
that exist in the market today for the
enterprise, and will then look at applying
this knowledge to one of the most
rapidly changing areas of enterprise IT,

the modern day Intranet. The modern

Intranet encapsulates a wide variety of
different functionality but essentially
embodies effective collaboration in the
enterprise. We aim to show you how
the Cloud is going to simultaneously
support and revolutionise achieving the
corporate collaboration solution.

OVER 1
EXABYTE
(1,073,741,824 GB)
the figure for data
stored in the Cloud from
research by Nasumi

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2. WHAT IS CLOUD
COMPUTING?

Cloud computing is providing the means through which

everything from computing power to computing
nfrastructure, applications, business processes through to
personal collaboration, can all be delivered to you as a service
whenever, wherever through the Internet.
It enables convenient, on-demand
network access to a shared pool of
configurable computing resources that
can be rapidly provisioned and released
with minimal management effort or
service provider interaction. This can
include all of the following:
S
 oftware
Infrastructure
S
 torage

With all of these possibilities, cloud

services are delivered in one of three
unique models depending on the
needs of the organization and they are
frequently defined as follows: 2

1. INFRASTRUCTURE AS
A SERVICE (IAAS).
The IaaS layer offers storage and
computer resources that developers
and IT organizations can use to deliver
business solutions.

R
 emote desktop access
E
 mail
W
 eb based voice communication
And more.

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2. WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING?

2. PLATFORM AS A SERVICE
(PAAS).
The PaaS layer offers black-box
services with which developers
can build applications on top of the
compute infrastructure. This might
include developer tools that are offered
as a service to build services, or data
access and database services, or billing
services.

3. SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE
(SAAS).
In the SaaS layer, the service provider
hosts the software so you dont need
to install it, manage it, or buy hardware
for it. All you have to do is connect and
use it.
Cloud computing has four essential
characteristics which make it attractive
to organizations and they are:

Within any cloud service there are

three set groups that will engage with
the technology with varying levels of
responsibility for the platform. First
is the end user who doesnt have to
know anything about the underlying
technology as long as it works. Then
you have the business management
who must take responsibility for all the
information and necessary services
that are being stored in the Cloud.
Finally you have the cloud service
provider who is responsible for the
up-time and maintenance of the cloud
service.
As you can see from these models,
cloud computing can take on various
forms and can provide a myriad of
different services, each of which require
different levels of engagement from
different parties. The real question is
How can this technology be applied in
the enterprise for business benefit?

Elasticity and the ability to scale up

and down
Self-service provisioning and
automatic de-provisioning
Application programming interfaces
(APIs)
Billing and metering of service usage
in a pay-as-you-go model

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3. CLOUD
TECHNOLOGY IN
THE ENTERPRISE

84

Cloud technology is a game changer in information

technology in general, but in the enterprise it delivers
measurable results that many CIOs are recognizing as they
adopt more and more cloud based services. In fact in a recent
survey, results show that 84% of CIOs cut application costs
by moving to the Cloud.3
With the ever growing reliance on IT in
the enterprise, in combination with the
rapidly evolving state of technology, it
can be difficult to maintain technology
solutions that are up to date, while
remaining cost effective. However, with
84% of IT professionals cutting costs
by moving applications to the Cloud,

you can see exactly how effective it can

be. It essentially allows for a set amount
of outsourcing of IT responsibilities,
delivering a tailored set of IT resource,
with far reduced corporate involvement
and reduced costs associated with
maintenance and in house skills.

of CIOs cut application costs

by moving to the Cloud.3

A very popular use of the

Cloud is for storage, however
not just in the private sector
but also in the enterprise...

69

of IT professionals state
storage as their primary
considered cloud service

IN FACT

Gartner predicts that

consumers will store

MORE THAN

A THIRD

of their digital content in the

Cloud by 2016.4

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3. CLOUD TECHNOLOGY IN THE ENTERPRISE

As previously mentioned a very

popular use of the Cloud is for storage,
however not just in the private sector
but also in the enterprise. A recent
BrightStarr survey showed that this
is by far the most influential and
highly adopted cloud service with
69% of IT professionals stating it
as their primary considered cloud
service. It is the simplest application
of cloud technology and has been
proven highly effective for increasing
corporate access to digital resource
and supporting secure digital sharing.
In fact Gartner predicts that consumers
will store more than a third of their
digital content in the Cloud by 2016.4

However while storage is a big driving

factor behind cloud adoption, possibly
the biggest IT use in the enterprise
today is the modern Intranet. Intranets
are designed to support all aspects
of modern business by uniting the
enterprise in a single digital location.
This facilitates, amongst other things,
information sharing and knowledge
transfer throughout the organization
and between its various operational
parts. In addition to this, an Intranet
means ease of access to digital
content, less content duplication
and greater digital content structure.
Intranets today connect employees
on a deep level, with not only the digital
resource they need to complete their
job, but also with their colleagues and
with corporate values. A powerful
Intranet forms the digital cohesive that
integrates every working part of the
organization, from digital assets and
knowledge, to staff and skills, into the
well-oiled and connected machine that
drives business success.

With this understanding of what a good

Intranet can be in todays business
environment, it is so easy to map
these key features and benefits with
the capabilities of cloud technology.
With no hesitation Microsoft have
recognized the significance of these
connections and have broken into
the cloud computing market with a
cloud technology enterprise offering,
to combine the needs of the modern
business with the capabilities of cloud
based IT solutions.
Intranets today connect employees
on a deep level, with not only the
digital resources they need to
complete their job, but also with their
colleagues and with corporate values.

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4. THE
COMPONENTS
OF MICROSOFTS
CLOUD OFFERING

Microsofts cloud offering is expanding all the time and it is

something we can expect to see to continue to grow as they
invest billions in the technology. The inherent ability of the
Cloud to bring content and applications to peoples fingertips
through the Internet is a tantalizing scenario and the business
applications are endless.

4.1 WINDOWS AZURE

Windows Azure is an open and
flexible cloud hosting platform that
enables you to quickly build, deploy
and manage applications, websites,
virtual machines and much more
across a global network of Microsoftmanaged datacenters. You can build
applications using any language, tool
or framework and you can integrate
your public cloud applications with your
existing IT environment. On top of this
Azure always provides IaaS in terms
of storage and compute resources for
developers to use in delivering tailored
business solutions.

Azure delivers a 99.95% monthly SLA5

and enables you to build and run highly
available applications without focusing
on the infrastructure. It provides
automatic OS and service patching,
built in network load balancing and
resiliency to hardware failure. It also
supports a deployment model that
enables you to upgrade your application
without downtime.

Azure delivers a

99.95

monthly SLA5

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4. THE COMPONENTS OF MICROSOFTS CLOUD OFFERING

4.2 OFFICE 365

Office 365 falls under the category of
SaaS and is essentially a Microsoft
subscription based e-mail service and
application service hosted in the Cloud.
Some of the basic functions of Office
365 are:
E
 mail
S
 hared calendar
D
 ocument management
T
 eam collaboration
M
 obile access
Instant messaging
O
 nline meetings

An Office 365 subscription gives you

access to the following Microsoft
applications:
L
 ync online
O
 ffice professional pro plus
E
 xchange online
S
 harePoint online
With all this functionality delivered
by Microsofts application hosted in
the Cloud, the Office 365 platform is
proving hugely popular as the all in one
business solution, providing all the tools
necessary for digital collaboration in the
work place. The inclusion of SharePoint
Online however is the big focus of this
whitepaper, as it is the all important
tool for a cloud hosted Intranet solution
tailored to your needs.

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4. THE COMPONENTS OF MICROSOFTS CLOUD OFFERING

4.3 SHAREPOINT ONLINE

SharePoint Online is a collaboration tool
developed by Microsoft. It is often used
as a content management system for
Intranets. SharePoint allows teams within
an organization to share information
anywhere there is Web access. With
SharePoint, users can set up websites
to share documents, manage projects
and publish information. SharePoint
also has many social media capabilities,
such as blogs and discussion boards
and now the potential integration
of Yammer. The key features of
SharePoint that support collaboration
can be seen in this diagram.6
SharePoint Online delivers the powerful
features of SharePoint without the
associated overhead of managing the
infrastructure, such as servers, on your
own. Flexible management options
ensure that you still retain the control
you need to meet the compliance
requirements of your organization. You
can purchase SharePoint in the Cloud
as a standalone offering or as part of
an Office 365 suite where you also get
access to the other services listed on the
previous page.

SITES

COMPOSITES

COMMUNITIES

SHAREPOINT
ONLINE

INSIGHTS

CONTENT

SEARCH

SITES

SEARCH

SharePoint Sites delivers a single

infrastructure to provide portal and
collaboration capabilities across
Intranet, extranet, and Internet
sites. Bring users together to share
information, data, and expertise
across organizations.

SharePoint Search give users the

ability to find the content, information
and people they need by combining
an integrated, easy-to-manage
platform with best-of-breed enterprise
search technology.

COMMUNITIES
SharePoint Communities empowers
people to work together in ways that
are most effective for them. Allow
people to collaborate in groups, share
knowledge and ideas, connect with
colleagues, and find information and
experts easily.

CONTENT
SharePoint Content enables all users
to participate in a governed, compliant
content management life cycle.
SharePoint Content makes it possible
to expertly balance user experience
with policy and process.

INSIGHTS
SharePoint Insights enables users to
access and interact with information
across unstructured and structured
data sources. Empower users
to discover the right people and
expertise to make better and more
agile business decisions.

COMPOSITES
SharePoint Composites empowers
users to rapidly respond to business
needs by creating their own no-code
solutions on-premises or in the Cloud,
through a rich set of building blocks,
tools and self-service capabilities.

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4. THE COMPONENTS OF MICROSOFTS CLOUD OFFERING

10

4.4 YAMMER
Yammer is Microsofts cloud only
enterprise social platform that
unites your staff in shared digital
conversations and allows faster and
easier knowledge sharing across the
organization. It can be fully integrated
with SharePoint Intranet solutions
for real time conversations that
feature alongside more static Intranet
information. This breathes life into an
Intranet system whilst delivering real
business value.
A recent Yammer survey found that
93% of business leaders agree that
Enterprise Social tools stimulate
innovation within their business
and BrightStarrs own technology
professionals survey found that
88% believed that enterprise social
networking would be vital or very
important to their organizations in the
coming years.
The implementation of a toolset for
employees that allows for fluid social
connections, interactions and sharing
of knowledge within enterprises is
becoming seen as a necessity by
organizations that wish to leverage
their internal knowledge base and
become more innovative and agile. As
knowledge workers have more and
more information to deal with they need
to be empowered with tools that allow
them to cut through data noise and find
the information they need quickly.

In an increasingly knowledge driven

economy, the competitive advantage
of a business can be acquired from its
agility and innovation in using its internal
knowledge. Collaboration between
employees often miles apart has
been a factor for IT provision within
businesses for many years, and many
would have hoped that a good Intranet
would satisfy the need for collaborative
technology. However business, culture
and organizational challenges evolve,
and technology evolves in response.
Enterprise social networking can be
seen as a response to this change and
in many ways it is simply an extension
of collaborative technology, such as
the corporate Intranet. The great thing
about Yammer as an enterprise social
tool is that lives in the Cloud, so that
you are never disconnected from your
valuable business conversations, no
matter where you are. Real time sharing
can deliver best practice to the front
line of your organization anywhere in a
matter of minutes not days, and with
the new mobile app Yammer Now the
accessibility of this tool has increased
even further. The app provides that extra
layer of user experience that makes ease
of use synonymous with the technology,
meaning that sharing and learning on
the go have never been easier. This
is the future of digital conversations,
powered by the Cloud.

93

of business leaders agree

that Enterprise Social tools
stimulate innovation within
their business

Enterprise Social Networking although

still relatively new has already shown
itself to be more than a fad. The
Enterprise social toolset provides real
buisness benefit, allowing you to:
Improve communication between
employees
Increase ease of knowledge transfer
Promote innovation
Breakdown barriers between
organizational units
Give leadership teams a view on the
grass-roots business operations

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10

11

5. THE BENEFITS
OF AN OFFICE
365 SHAREPOINT
ONLINE INTRANET

The benefits of an Office 365 SharePoint Online Intranet

solution are many and varied. This can range from an overall
reduction in costs to the increased mobility granted by cloud
access. All will provide tangible benefits to an organization
looking to increase productivity through cloud adoption.

5.1 COST
The price of a modern SharePoint
Intranet will vary significantly from
deployment to deployment but it is
often a sizeable investment. Lets
imagine that you hire a third party to
design and deploy an on-premises
SharePoint Intranet once you have
purchased the appropriate software
license. The cost is determined
by factors such as your specific
requirements and the processes
involved in appropriately discovering
them. The design of your SharePoint
solution to meet your needs, and finally
how much of the SharePoint out of
the box functionality can be utilized to
fulfil your requirements vs how much
of your Intranet solution will be bespoke
and custom built functionality. As each
Intranet is unique, fulfilling different
roles for each organization, there is
always going to be a certain amount of

customization necessary and on top of

this, it is never as simple as throwing
the out of the box functionality
together to deploy a fully functional
SharePoint Intranet.
In addition to the functionality of
your solution there is also the need
to ensure that your new Intranet
solution is engaging. While you may
have designed a piece of brilliant
utility, it is important that it looks
the part and works easily, so that
the staff experience when using
it keeps them engaged with the
relevant processes they can complete
through their new platform. This
design element of a new SharePoint
installation also takes time to prepare
and build into your solution, and this
time equivalates to further cost.

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5. THE BENEFITS OF AN OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT ONLINE INTRANET

Once you have a solution that has been

developed you then carry the additional
cost of the underlying infrastructure.
These are the servers that you will need
to host your solution and this cost is
again variable depending on what you
require to be hosted, the levels of traffic
and number of users.
Finally even with the most brilliantly
designed SharePoint Intranet, some
level of maintenance is going to be
required to ensure the continued
quality and effectiveness of your digital
collaboration platform. On top of more
general maintenance you also have
to consider potential upgrade costs in
the future too. Both maintenance and
upgrades will be a necessity in ensuring
you continue delivering maximum ROI
with your SharePoint deployment, but
both can prove unpredictable in nature.
This is just a very basic understanding
of the cost associated with an onpremises SharePoint installation
designed and built by experienced
SharePoint consultants. The one
benefit of this approach is that it is a
one-time outlay and your solution can
be as bespoke as you want, designed to
accommodate all the deep intricacies
of your organization. However when
we compare this to SaaS cloud Intranet
solutions, we can see straight away
that the cost can be less and at the
very least is certainly staggered.

12

The first and biggest reduction in

cost in this scenario is that there is
no need to concern yourself with the
infrastructure at all. All you do is pay a
subscription per user for their Office
365 account and all of the back end of
your solution is taken care of for you.
This means a SaaS Intranet solution
requires a much lower initial outlay.
You would of course pay a comparable
price for the customization of your
Intranet solution built on SharePoint
Online, but it would reduce the initial
outlay and organizational challenges
that are associated with supporting
an on-premises solution. This can be
very beneficial in the SMB sector as
organizations of this size might lack the
upfront capital to fund an
on-premises Intranet solution.
The other less obvious cost advantages
result from the fact that with your
Office 365 subscription you dont just
get the SharePoint product for your
Intranet. Bundled in with it you get
access to a variety of other productivity
software as listed in section 4.2. On
top of this the Office 365 product is
completely maintained by Microsoft
as they continue to roll out updates
and perform maintenance behind the
scenes, one less thing for you to worry
about and devote resources towards.

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5. THE BENEFITS OF AN OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT ONLINE INTRANET

13

5.2 INTERNAL
IT RESOURCES
The internal IT team needs to maintain
a new Intranet platform that will be
sustainable. This is a known fact as you
will need staff who can maintain and
upkeep a platform that they probably
didnt build, but that could be central to
your business operations. This means
should the solution go down in any way,
it could impede business operations
resulting in a direct loss of productivity
and costing you money. This example
of the need for in house IT skills with an
on-premises installation of SharePoint
only takes into account a scenario where
you already have the skills on board. You
could however be in a situation where no
such skills exist within the organization
or perhaps there is no available resource
to put into this role. In this case you
must then look to hire skills into the
organization, another outlay, or you must
invest in further training for existing staff.
If however you adopt a SaaS cloud
Intranet service, the platform for your
entire system is managed by your
service provider. Microsoft Office 365,
on which your potential SharePoint
Online Intranet would be built, has a
99.9% uptime guarantee7 and thousands
of support staff on hand to ensure that
once your Intranet solution goes live,
you have an Intranet that works, with
solid infrastructure and skills to keep
it that way. Therefore you will have
a far more limited need for in house
resources or extra training to ensure
that you have an Intranet solution
that is being taken care of allowing
you to devote resources elsewhere.

Microsoft Office 365 has a

99.9

uptime guarantee7

5.3 SPEED
One hold up that is almost unavoidable
in on-premises deployments of
SharePoint is getting infrastructure
in place in and around the rest
of the project requirements and
ahead of schedule. When it comes
to deploying an Intranet solution
servers must be in place to support

it. Quite simply, in the Cloud this

is not a problem. It is all managed
elsewhere. This can avoid any
potential project delays in organizing
infrastructure alongside all the other
work streams that go into developing
a SharePoint Intranet solution.

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5. THE BENEFITS OF AN OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT ONLINE INTRANET

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5.4 SECURITY

This is quite often cited as the number

one reason for companies to avoid
moving to the Cloud and in SafeNets
recent global survey 74% of IT and
Security professionals see compliance
and data protection as core must-haves
when sourcing cloud solutions.8 This
concern is obviously significant in the
minds of relevant IT professionals, and
yet when considered in its entirety and
in the scope of the potential partners
out there to work with on cloud based
solutions, it could be unwarranted.
First, two questions:
1. What is your yearly budget
on digital asset security?
2. How large is your digital
security team?
When we consider what Microsofts
budget and manpower is in this space,
their spending and effort in securing
their cloud solutions is likely to be far
greater than your own. With this level
of investment there is very little chance
that you will find services more secure
than theirs. They have already made
large gains in this space to help keep
your cloud as secure as possible. One
such example being the inclusion of
multi factor authentication for Office
365, meaning that a code can be sent
to your mobile for you to log in to your
Office 365 account with. Microsoft
invests in the best security partners

and their partner SafeNets cloud

authentication service, for instance,
has been granted the ISO 27001:2005
certification. It has thereby achieved the
highest attainable credibility ranking for
information security management.
The main issue with cloud security
that actually poses a significant threat
is not the technology itself, whether
that be a cloud or on-premises Intranet
solution. It is actually the human
element of that interaction with the
solution. The way people interact with
sensitive data and the permission
architecture need to be put in place
to protect information as the Cloud or
on-premises servers themselves are
both highly secure. With a governance
structure in place that defines access
and security permissions set out from
the start, security can be maintained
and regulated effectively. This means
a certain amount of time and resource
must be set aside to train staff so
that they are aware of the procedures
around information access and
sharing in the workplace. However it
also means that many cloud security
concerns are misplaced as they look
to the technology, not their employees
that are far more likely to pose a
security risk.

With this level of

investment there is
very little chance
that you will find
services more secure
than theirs. They
have already made
large gains in this
space to help keep
your cloud as secure
as possible.

74

of IT and Security
professionals see
compliance and data
protection as core
must-haves when
sourcing cloud solutions.8

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5. THE BENEFITS OF AN OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT ONLINE INTRANET

15

5.5 SCALABILITY
One of the great things about an
Office 365 Intranet solution, and
in fact any cloud based service, is
that the subscription nature of your
payments provides a certain amount
of scalability in your solution. Scaling
on-premises with anything other than
a routine addition becomes a project.
This generates not only incremental
hardware costs, but also additional IT
employee time requirements. This all
means that additional IT cannot simply
be turned on at the flick of a switch
or the click of a mouse. Moving to a
cloud solution gives you the ability

to add to the platform on a virtually

instantaneous basis.
The immediacy of a cloud Intranet is
not simply a luxury but allows
enterprises to remove barriers to
business changes, such as adding
new marketing and speeding the
assimilation of business units acquired.
This adds agility to the business so that
it exploits opportunities it sees faster,
and delivers on synergy gains from
business purchases quicker, in order to
satisfy shareholder value pressures.

Moving to a cloud
solution gives you
the ability to add
to the platform
on a virtually
instantaneous basis.

5.6 MOBILITY AND ACCESS

One of the single greatest benefits of
a cloud based Intranet solution is the
ability to be able to access your Intranet
solution from anywhere in the world
that you can get stable Internet access.
Scenarios such as travel time and
working from on-site locations or in
partner or client offices are no longer an
issue. You can reach the Cloud via any
Internet access point at any time, and
the resources you need are on hand in
just a few clicks of a button. However
this is just one small part of an ever
widening approach to work outside
the office that continues to develop
in the enterprise. Within this idea of
anywhere access is mobile accessibility,
and this is something that Microsoft
has introduced significantly in recent
releases for Office 365.
A big part of Office 365 is Lync, the real
time collaboration and chat tool. Not
only can this tool be used online and
using a desktop client, but Microsoft
have made a number of mobile clients
available for other devices too.
Microsoft has done a really nice job
of integrating Office web apps with
SharePoint Online. Being able to
browse a document in a document
library and then open it seamlessly for
editing in the browser is a really slick
experience. The latest version of the
web apps are much more powerful

than their 2010 versions and mobile

access has also improved.
OneNote now has dedicated mobile
apps that can be downloaded for
multiple devices, and a client comes
built in with Windows phones (as part
of the Office hub).
This is a bit of a no brainer, but of
course your Exchange Online email
can be accessed on your phone or
tablet.
SharePoint 2013, as part of Office
365, has seen lots of improvements
that make it play much more nicely
with mobile browsers. Code has been
cleaned up, use of HTML and CSS
is much more mobile friendly and
developers can use a feature called
device channels to target specific
content at specific devices.
All of these mobile features becoming
available for Office 365 point towards a
greater amount of accessibility to digital
working assets and this can be useful
in so many different working scenarios.
The time outside the office that was
previously un-productive can now be
utilised just as effectively as the time
at your desk. This is a huge bonus for
Office 365 Intranet solutions which will
really empower the workforce to get the
most out of their working day.

You can reach

the Cloud via any
Internet access point
at any time, and
the resources you
need are on hand in
just a few clicks of
a button. However
this is just one small
part of an ever
widening approach
to work outside the
office that continues
to develop in the
enterprise.

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5. THE BENEFITS OF AN OFFICE 365 SHAREPOINT ONLINE INTRANET

16

5.7 OFFICE 365

THE LATEST AND
GREATEST FEATURE SETS
Microsoft CEO Nadella has already
made it very clear that Microsofts
vision for the future is mobile first,
cloud first. 9 With Microsoft focusing
the future of their enterprise technology
in this space, they have already made
it clear in a number of ways that this is
where the major advancements will take
place moving forwards. Most recently
pointing to this trend is the introduction
of things like Power BI exclusive to Office
365. This is a self-service business
intelligence (BI) solution delivered
through Excel and Office 365 that
provides information workers with data
analysis and visualization capabilities,
to identify deeper business
insights about their data. These
kind of intuitive resources are
being constantly developed for
Microsofts cloud solutions.
And its not just Power BI but also the
Oslo app that leverages the Office
graph. This innovative and incredible
adaptation of advanced search is the
future of reduced search times, based
on a system that knows you and your

role within the organization. In essence

Office Graph creates a spider web
style set of connections between every
person and all resources. Behind the
scenes it establishes these links by
monitoring who you meet with, what
documents you access and what areas
of your Office 365 solution you frequent.
Oslo is the intuitive app on top of this
which accesses all of this information
to allow for sharper, smarter searching
within your Intranet solution. It serves
up documents that you are most
likely to be looking for based upon this
data, reducing search time and thus
increasing productivity. Oslo can also
be used to search for colleagues. If
you know that Dan was working on X
document, but you dont know where
he stored it, searching for Dan will bring
related documents and people that
he frequently works with / on to the
forefront. Oslo is just the first of many
apps that will be released by Microsoft
in the future, as they continue to invest
in the Office 365 platform for smarter
business IT solutions.

Mobile first,
cloud first.
SATYA NADELLA
MICROSOFT CEO9

In essence Office graph

creates a spider web style set
of connections between every
person and all resources.

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17

6. CLOUD
CHALLENGES

There are many challenges that are cited by those against

adopting cloud based Intranet solutions. Some are legitimate
concerns but others can be overcome with a balanced
and information driven understanding of the nature of the
challenge, such as security risks, as discussed earlier.

6.1 REGULATION
AND COMPLIANCE
Regulation and compliance is one of
the more complex challenges for cloud
based Intranet solutions in certain
industries. Within industries like banking
or government organizations and bodies
there will be specific rules around the
location of certain forms of digital
content. For instance a government
security body or a global bank will carry
certain types of restricted and highly
confidential information and within their
operational guidelines or even the laws
that govern them, it may be stated that
information cannot leave the country.

Or it may be that holding this kind of

sensitive data outside of the county
poses a significant security risk, or
that the laws on digital content in other
countries differ to that of the country
of origin. For example legal documents
need to be kept in house to comply with
UK law and retention. This can result in a
myriad of difficulties for the organization
in question if for instance the cloud
storage or cloud hosting service they
are using actually originates abroad.

Regulation and
compliance is one of
the more complex
challenges for cloud
based Intranet
solutions in certain
industries.

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6. CLOUD CHALLENGES

18

6.2 INTEGRATION WITH

EXISTING SYSTEMS
One thing that must always be
considered when adopting any cloud
service is how this may or may not
effectively integrate with your existing
IT systems. On-premises solutions
can be easier to integrate with existing
platforms and technologies due to the
nature of the technology being on site
and accessible at all times. With cloud
solutions, you might find that there are

more barriers between your Intranet

solution in Office 365 and your other IT
systems, however in most cases this
just forms a good excuse. The reality is
that with a good partner in place and a
proper and fully formed cloud adoption
strategy, there are a number of ways
to overcome this small difficulty for
a complete and full integration of any
cloud Intranet solution with existing IT.

On-premises
solutions can be
easier to integrate
with existing
platforms and
technologies due
to the nature of the
technology being on
site and accessible at
all times.

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6. CLOUD CHALLENGES

19

6.3 USER EXPERIENCE

This is possibly one of the most
overlooked issues with taking on cloud
services. You want the IT experience
for your employees to be a seamless
one, whereby as they navigate various
pieces of your IT infrastructure
they unnoticeably switch between
the various pieces of functionality
hosted in the Cloud and on-premises
without a tangible difference.
Incongruous systems can reduce
quality of experience, thereby reducing
engagement and adoption of any given
solution. With this in mind it is important
to plan for this early so that a consistent
and coherent user experience is
designed into the solution from the
outset. The look and feel of the solution
including the branding must be applied
to the new functionality to maintain a
high quality user experience.

Microsoft are already looking into this

business challenge and it is highly
relatable to the aforementioned need
for integration with existing systems.
Microsofts Office 365 platform aims
to be an all-encompassing business
suite by incorporating as many of the
day to day business tools that we might
need in a single handy subscription.
In combination with this, Microsoft
are already introducing single sign on
features so that your credentials can
provide access to all your Microsoft
tools, instead of the outdated notion of
numerous credentials that you might
have previously needed for each piece
of functionality.

6.4 MIGRATION
Migration is possibly the biggest
challenge for businesses today and
this can be for any number of reasons.
The first and most obvious would
be that at enterprise level, switching
thousands of employees over from
one set of systems to another is not
an instantaneously achievable thing. It
takes time, training and organization.
There will be old systems that need to
be transitioned to the new platform and

there will be new systems to replace

old ones, but one instant switch can
bring things crashing down around you.
Acclimation time is really important for
all employees. Again a solid choice in
partner can help alleviate this difficulty
by helping you plan a migration plan
that suits your organization down to
the ground. Your migration must be
planned and the right experts can
execute your plan without a hitch.

The look and

feel of the solution
including the
branding must
be applied to the
new functionality
to maintain a
high quality user
experience.

...switching
thousands
of employees
over from one
set of systems to
another is not an
instantaneously
achievable thing.
It takes time, training
and organization.

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20

7. HYBRID
AS A PHASED
APPROACH
TO ADOPTION

With cloud technology advancing at the rate it is, Microsofts

stance seems to be that its not IF you move to the Cloud but
WHEN you move to the Cloud.
With this view of enterprise technology
and plenty of the statistics pointing
towards rapidly increasing adoption of
cloud services ($180bn cloud service
market by end of 201510) businesses
need to be evaluating how and when a
transition to the Cloud can take place.
We have seen that migrating to the
Cloud can be a challenge, and this is
where there is a significant option to
reduce the difficulty of your transition.
A hybrid approach.
Hybrid approaches to cloud adoption
are the most stable and effective way
of taking on a migration to the Cloud,
while mitigating risk and increasing
profitability / productivity. A hybrid
SharePoint system is one that uses
both SharePoint on-premises and
SharePoint Online (part of Office 365)
to deliver an integrated solution. It in
effect combines a private traditional
SharePoint system, with a publically
hosted cloud instance. For some
clients, and projects, it offers the best
of both worlds.

Some of the more common reasons

for a hybrid approach include:
You have existing SharePoint
investments you want to leverage
Specific business needs require
customisation of SharePoint that
cannot be completed in the Cloud
You have some data that you cannot,
or do not want to put in the Cloud
You have large amounts of data, and
it may be more cost effective to store
it on-premise

$180
BILLION

$180bn cloud service

market by end of 201510

SharePoint on-premises and

SharePoint Online can be employed
in parallel to meet the needs of the
business. But this can be clunky, with
two different systems, two different
logins, separate search functions etc.

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7. HYBRID AS A PHASED APPROACH TO ADOPTION

The latest editions of SharePoint

provide three options for a more
integrated hybrid deployment.
This allows your business to get the
best of both worlds, while presenting
users with what seems like a single
unified system.

FEDERATED SEARCH
An enterprise search hybrid is based
on having an on-premises SharePoint
farm which is running search, and a
SharePoint Online setup that also runs
search. The on-premises and online
environments search services are then
federated, which from an end user
perspective means that although the
search is of two distinct sources, the
results are presented in a single unified
interface. It is important to note that
with hybrid search setups, both onpremises users and SharePoint Online
users can access the search results
from both sources, and that security
and permissions rules are applied.

BUSINESS CONNECTIVITY
SERVICES
Business Connectivity Services (BCS)
is the technology in SharePoint 2013
and Office 2013 that enables you
to interface with data that does not
live in the SharePoint Farm you are
accessing. A BCS hybrid enables you to
publish on-premises data to the Cloud
by connecting a SharePoint Online app
or list to SharePoint on-premise.
The on-premises SharePoint
environment can then broker BCS
connections to data located in Line
of Business (LOB) systems.

21

DUET ENTERPRISE ONLINE

Duet Enterprise Online enables users to
read and write to an on-premises SAP
system by either using a SharePoint
app or through the Duet Enterprise
Online Features. This means that the
user can access and interact with
business processes and information
that are stored within SAP. The data
itself is not stored within SharePoint,
but simply surfaced with appropriate
changes written back based on user
permissions. This means you can
implement a cloud based interface
for an onsite SAP system.

The main reason for implementing

this is to enable users to get access
to on-premises LOB data (think SQL
databases), while keeping the data
safely stored and maintained on the
internal IT setup.

This is an extremely useful way of

leveraging an existing SharePoint
investment, and making content both
searchable and usable regardless of the
data or the users location.

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22

8. CONCLUSION
Firstly SharePoint Online needs to be considered in the wider
context of Office 365. While it can be purchased on its own,
an Office 365 subscription offers incredible value.
A hosted Exchange mailbox, a corner
stone of Office 365, is almost reason
enough to choose Office 365 over
SharePoint Online. When you consider
the other features of the product
(including OneDrive, the Office desktop
apps, and Lync) the choice often
becomes an easy one to make.
As we have seen, there are use cases
where SharePoint on-premises is the
right fit. Those with concerns, legal
or personal, about cloud storage and
security might feel more comfortable
knowing their data is ultimately locked
away in a local SQL database. The
cloud variant is also less appealing
where heavy customisation of the
system look and feel is required, or
custom code for particular functionality
is needed. However we believe a large
number of users are now satisfied that
the Cloud is a viable computing model.
In fact CIO Insights research shows
that 77% of enterprises are already
in the initial stages of cloud adoption:
standardization, consolidation,
and virtualization.11
Before cloud computing really became
a viable enterprise option, clients
would have to spend a considerable
amount of time and money setting
up environments and configuring
software. Lots of decisions on
functionality would have to be made,
before a user even got sight of the
system. Office 365 and SharePoint
Online does away with lots of this
upfront work and risk.

The Cloud version of SharePoint

also gives smaller organizations a
simple way to get really hands on with
the product - to setup a fully blown
enterprise system containing real data,
and to work with it in the long term.
It is this ease of adoption of cloud
services and the often low barrier to
entry for such software like SharePoint
Online that is contributing toward
predictions like Forbes estimation that
SMB spending on cloud solutions will
grow by almost 20% over the next
five years, with 3 in 10 midsize firms
adopting public cloud solutions.12 And if
the service doesnt meet organizational
needs, then little investment has been
wasted. If it does prove to be of benefit
then the SharePoint Online platform
has the power and flexibility to scale
as needed. If functional limitations
are met in the Cloud, then there are
numerous options to move toward an
on-premises system.
For many users looking to invest in an
enterprise collaboration platform, Office
365 will prove the perfect choice. Its
low barrier to entry, powerful feature
set, and scalable architecture, make
a convincing argument for all but the
most niche of uses.
We believe the on-premises version of
SharePoint will undoubtedly be with us
for some time yet, and certainly has a
role to play for many organizations.
But it might well be the case that we
have seen the last big bang release
of an on-premises SharePoint product.
As Microsoft has suggested, it really
might be mobile first, cloud first
from here on in, and we welcome
that strategy wholeheartedly.

COLIN MURRAY
BRIGHTSTARR
SOLUTION ARCHITECT

TOP TIPS
K
 now if cloud is viable for your
organisation
P
 lan your cloud strategy
thoroughly before adoption
U
 nderstand what could impede
your move to the Cloud
C
 ome up with a measurement
for success
M
 onitor performance levels
throughout your organization
C
 hoose effective partners with
the relevant skills to facilitate
your move
S
 et security standards such as
enforcing strong passwords
U
 nify your cloud platform with
the rest of your IT systems
B
 rand your cloud Intranet
solution to increase user
engagement
P
 lan for the launch of your
solution with targeted events
to support adoption

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23

9. ABOUT UNILY

THE INTRANET AS A SERVICE UNITING THE

VERY BEST OF THE MICROSOFT CLOUD
Developed on Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint,
Unily draws on the full power of the Cloud and
the capabilities of Office 365, SharePoint and
Yammer to provide a united Intranet solution that
will support and grow with your organization.
Developed by four time Microsoft
Gold Partner BrightStarr, Unily is built
upon 8 years of experience delivering
Intranets, Extranets, Websites and
Portals for leading brands around the
world. Developed with the perfect

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CONTACT US TODAY

balance of form and factor, Unily

provides unique user experiences
that have been designed to drive
user adoption, delivering an Intranet
solution that your users will love.

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24

10. REFERENCES

1. http://www.neowin.net/news/research-firm-over-1-exabyte-of-data-is-nowstored-in-the-cloud
2. http://cloudtimes.org/glossary/
3. http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-its-not-easy-to-be-a-cio-2012-2
4. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2060215
5. http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/
6. http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-onlinecollaboration-software-FX103789366.aspx
7. http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/what-is-office-365-for-businessFX102997580.aspx
8. http://www2.safenet-inc.com/survey/SafeMonk-Survey-Results-v6.pdf
9. http://blogs.office.com/2014/03/31/embracing-cloud-first-mobile-firstcommunications/
10. http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/gartnertells-outsourcers-embrace-cloud-or-die/d/d-id/1110991?
11. http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/cloud-virtualization/slideshows/
enterprises-slowly-adopting-cloud-computing/
12. http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/07/30/roundup-of-smallmedium-business-cloud-computing-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2013/

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