How SaaS Management Platforms Reduce Security Risk
Learn about the hidden security risks of SaaS, how SaaS management platforms reduce them, and how the best SaaS platforms help maximize security and compliance.
What Is Zero Trust? All You Need to Know
Companies are increasingly adopting Zero Trust to secure their newly distributed workplaces. But what exactly is Zero Trust? And what do you need to implement it?
SaaS Security: A Complete Best Practices Guide
As companies adopt more SaaS solutions to solve business challenges, the explosion of SaaS brings new benefits—but also new problems. In this post, we’ll dive into the biggest SaaS security challenges, plus best practices to help protect your organization.
The Hidden Risks of SaaS
Your SaaS environment grows as each well-meaning employee adds another perfect, productivity-boosting SaaS application. But all too often, that new app ends up introducing enormous and unnecessary risks to your company’s SaaS environment. Here are the hidden risks of SaaS that can impact every IT organization.
The Fundamentals of Role-Based Access Control
Statista reports that there were a whopping 540 data breaches in 2020. The solution for many IT teams? A slightly more nuanced approach known as role-based access control (RBAC). This is not exactly a new approach, but it enables you to grant access based on the specific needs of each user’s role and business unit. Let’s take a closer look.
IT Considerations for a Remote World: How Tech Companies View DLP & Vulnerabilities
What should IT leaders in today’s remote work environment be thinking about when it comes to data protection, particularly with SaaS? We dug into the data to see how SaaS-savvy tech leaders view data loss vulnerabilities as well as what they do for data loss prevention (DLP).
Data Protection and SaaSOps on Your Zero Trust Journey
With the shift to remote work and continued acceleration of SaaS adoption, Zero Trust is more relevant than ever. Here, we talk about shared commonalities between the newer Zero Trust eXtended (ZTX) model and SaaSOps—specifically visibility and automated data protection.
How to Keep Institutional Knowledge from Walking Out the Door
As boomers retire, companies are unwittingly losing valuable institutional data. Why? Because, while the retiree’s job is transitioned to a new employee, many organizations don’t consider the knowledge and experience walking out the door with that employee. Since boomers are the first generation to transfer their knowledge to machines and computer programs and not to apprentices and junior employees, it’s important to know how to transfer all of this data smoothly as part of an ongoing search journey.
6 Things You Should Look for When Selecting a Secure SaaS Vendor
Selecting the right SaaS vendors can prove instrumental in propelling your organization to the next level. However, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. You also need to select vendors with the right security measures in place. This is especially true if you are giving them access to other SaaS applications that are critical to your organization or process sensitive information. But how do you know if a SaaS vendor is secure? We sat down with BetterCloud’s Security Compliance Director Mosi Platt to find out.
What Does a Successful Security Program Look Like?
In the era of data breaches, what makes up a successful security program? BetterCloud’s Senior Security Architect Austin Whipple shares what success and failure look like in a security program. After reading this article, you’ll come away with a few ideas you can implement right away. Here’s what he’s seen work.
The Essential Steps, Tools, and Technologies for Achieving a Zero Trust Security Model in Your SaaS Environment
It’s time to get tactical. In the third and final part of our blog series, we discuss the necessary tools and technologies to implement a Zero Trust security model in your SaaS environment.
Rolling Out a Zero Trust Security Model? Here’s What You Need to Think About
In part two of our blog series, we discuss 12 best practices when implementing a Zero Trust security model for effective SaaS management.
Taming SaaS Security Challenges with the Zero Trust Security Model
Today, the new reality is that network-based security is no longer adequate. Companies need to invest in a new security architecture to effectively manage their sprawling SaaS portfolio. Enter: Zero Trust. Part one of our blog series explores why a new security framework is essential right now.
Paranormal (User) Activity: 4 Terrifying IT Stories on Insider Threats
For IT and security professionals, spooky season can feel like a year-round experience. Research shows that insider threats — specifically, those caused by end users — are keeping folks up at night. At BetterCloud, we’re seeing insider threats take shape in a variety of surprising forms. Here are four frightening tales from implementation sessions with new customers where we uncovered both malicious and negligent employees jeopardizing confidential business information.
6 Takeaways from Altitude 2018
Last week, we hosted Altitude, our annual customer summit, in Denver, Colorado. It was our best customer summit yet, with over 140 IT and security professionals attending. Thirty speakers from all over the country gave insights and tips on security automation, SaaS management efficiency, and the future of IT and technology. Missed it? No worries. Here are six key takeaways from the conference.
Activity-based Alerts: Giving IT More Granularity and Control
You spoke, we listened. At our annual customer conference last year, the number one feature you requested was activity-based alerts. These are alerts for things like suspicious user logins or the downloading of confidential files. So we built it. So far we’ve released alerts for Okta, Dropbox, and G Suite, with more on the way for Box, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Activity-based alerts are the next frontier for companies securing mission critical SaaS apps. Here’s how they give IT more control and insights than ever before.
A Top G Suite Expert Shares His 31 Best Modern Security Tips
If you ever wanted to find a treasure trove of excellent security tips — written by a top Google expert in a lively, easy-to-understand way — then look no more. Kevin A. McGrail is a cybersecurity and privacy expert who is also ranked as the #1 contributor in the world on Google’s official G Suite platform, Google Cloud Connect. In this post, he shares 31 recommendations and best practices related to passwords, email security, and more. While some of these tips are specific to G Suite, many are broader ones that can help secure any system.
Automate Security & Compliance for Google Drive with AODocs and BetterCloud
BetterCloud has partnered with AODocs, a document management and business application platform built on top of Google Drive. Given the need for companies to identify, audit, and repair security breaches, AODocs and BetterCloud make it easy to automate security and compliance while allowing employees to focus on business critical issues. Learn more about how the two platforms work together.
Here’s What We Found in One Customer’s SaaS Environment That Caused Their IT Director to Say “Nooooo”
The widespread adoption of SaaS apps is creating new risks and ways to expose data. Unbeknownst to IT, these blind spots lie undiscovered below the surface, waiting like a dormant volcano to erupt. Over the last few months at BetterCloud, we’ve uncovered major blind spots during dozens of implementation meetings with new customers, and what we found in their SaaS environments stunned many IT teams. Here’s what we discovered.
Secure Your Data: Where to Start When There Are 1 Million Threats
There are seemingly a million security threats and exposures everywhere today. So where do you start? In a recent webinar, our founder and CEO David Politis explained what the new security frontier is and why IT must start paying attention to it. He also revealed the top three concerns 1,500+ IT professionals have around managing SaaS apps and offered actionable tips for mitigating them.
The 6 Essential Elements of a Successful SaaS Management Strategy
In recent years, SaaS adoption has been like the Wild West: a somewhat chaotic “free-for-all” frontier with lots of unknowns. After interviewing, surveying, and talking to thousands of modern IT professionals over the last few years, we’ve identified six elements that are integral to successful SaaS management. Here’s a holistic strategy that will set you up for IT success.
The 5 Most Popular Tools Recommended by IT Pros
What are the must-have IT tools? A panel of IT pros weighed in on their favorite software and services, and then community members upvoted their faves. Here are the top five results.
The Top Security Blind Spots in Your SaaS Environment
“Fired IT Guy Puts Porn in Ex-Boss’ PowerPoint, Gets Sweet Revenge.” “Corporate Data Slips Out Via Google Calendar.” “Hundreds of Companies Expose PII, Private Emails Through Google Groups Error.” These are just a few of the news headlines that represent hidden security threats lurking in SaaS environments. Last week, we hosted a webinar on the top security blind spots you should know about. Don’t worry if you missed it. Here’s a recap.
SOM vs. CASB vs. IDaaS: The Unique Value of BetterCloud Demonstrated in 10 GIFs
“What is BetterCloud? Is BetterCloud a CASB? An IDaaS?” People ask us these questions all the time. But BetterCloud is solving a set of challenges that no other vendor addresses. We’re not a CASB or an IDaaS (in fact, many of our customers use us alongside those solutions). Instead, we’re pioneering a new IT market: SaaS Operations Management, or SOM. Here are 10 GIFs that illustrate the unique value of BetterCloud.
3 Real-Life IT Horror Stories That Illustrate Dangerous Blind Spots in SaaS Environments
As the adage goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” And that’s especially true when it comes to managing SaaS environments. Increasingly, IT teams are running into unforeseen challenges and realizing that there are critical areas—aka blind spots—they have no visibility into. Here are some real-life horror stories that illustrate major blind spots in SaaS environments and the damage they can cause.
These Two Things Impact Workplace Technology More Than Anything Else
In recent years, what has impacted technology in the workplace the most? Aspi Havewala, Director of IT at Verizon, has a concise yet powerful answer. He identifies the two most critical factors that IT must understand and be thoughtful about, and explains how and why these areas must evolve.
Are You at Risk? 5 Stories That Show the Devastating Consequences of Insider Threats
The vast majority of organizations (74%) feel vulnerable to insider threats, which is why it’s vital to understand the potential consequences and learn from the experiences of others. Only then can executives, IT and security staff, and employees throughout the organization come together to address the problem.
Audit, Update, and Enforce: How to Avoid This Preventable Google Groups Data Exposure
A simple misconfiguration in the Google Admin console made headlines recently by exposing personally identifiable information (PII) and sensitive messages to the internet. Here’s how you can audit, update, and enforce group settings automatically.
5 Undeniable Benefits of Orchestrated Offboarding
Outside of IT, many employees don’t understand the ROI of orchestrating/automating offboarding. This list will help you explain the benefits to anyone.
The Top 4 Threats Posed by Improper Offboarding (and How to Overcome Them)
Whether it’s an ex-employee stealing company data, compliance violations, excessive costs, or productivity loss, improper offboarding threatens organizations of all sizes and in all industries. Thankfully, IT experts have developed best practices over the years to identify and eliminate those threats before they occur.
How First Round Capital Orchestrates Employee Offboarding for Immediate Data Security and Precision
BetterCloud, combined with Okta, helps VC firm First Round Capital orchestrate around 90% of the employee offboarding process. With more than $700mm under management, data simply cannot be publicly exposed and offboarding must happen almost immediately. Here’s how Ryan Donnon, IT and data manager at First Round Capital, ensures data security across multiple SaaS applications during offboarding in “thirty seconds.”
3 Reasons Modern Day Offboarding is Getting More Complex
When was the last time you took an honest look at your offboarding process? With data sprawl out of control, an ever increasing number of SaaS applications, and a workforce that’s quick to move on to the next gig, offboarding has become an organizational nightmare.
Notification vs. Remediation: Will the GDPR Transform Data Breach Response?
If you think the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) doesn’t affect you, think again. The regulation will impact operations for companies all around the world. However, it’s not all bad. There is a silver lining for IT.
Stop Acting Recklessly. Why You Need a Policy-Driven Approach to Multi-SaaS Automation.
To manage a multi-SaaS environment, IT turns to what they know best: automation. But not all automation is created equal. With compliance and government regulations becoming a bigger issue each day, ad hoc scripts and end-user automation tools will no longer cut it.
The Cost of Complacency: Why You Need a Comprehensive Data Loss Prevention Strategy
The average data breach costs $4 million. That’s the cost of complacency. But it won’t happen to you, right?
How the Retail Industry Learned the Hard Way: Finding Success in the Battle Against Phishing Attacks
Target, Home Depot, and Tesco have all fallen prey to massive data breaches. What can we learn from these incidents? It all starts with changing your approach to security training. By focusing on behaviors instead of awareness, you can implement security training that’ll drastically reduce the chances of being the next data breach headline.
What You Need to Know About the Recent Google Docs Phishing Scam
Phishing scams are getting more sophisticated on a daily basis, thus making them harder to detect and avoid. If you aren’t well-versed in the latest phishing scams, here are some important tips for you.
Here’s Our Take: 7 Major Takeaways from Google Cloud Next ’17
Google Cloud Next ’17 offered a window into some of the brightest minds in tech, but what does it all mean for your organization?
We Let 300 IT Professionals Ask Our Cloud Security Expert Any Question They Wanted, These Were the Best
Here’s what members of our new Slack community, BetterIT, asked during our first-ever security AMA. BetterIT is a community for leading IT professionals to share ideas, discuss best practices, and talk about the solutions they use every day.
Onboarding Isn’t Just Provisioning: Are You Leaving Out This Vital Step?
So you’ve provisioned your new user in Google Apps, set him up with a shiny new account, and added him to the right groups and OU. Think your onboarding job is done? Not so fast. To really set up your users for success, there’s one more step you should take.
5 Steps Every Google Apps Admin Should Take When Onboarding New Users
When new hires show up at the office on their first day, they want to hit the ground running. Here are five critical steps for provisioning and onboarding so that you keep your organization secure and set up your users for success.
Ransomware and Google Apps: What You Need to Know
Every day, individuals and businesses alike are becoming victims of ransomware, a form of malware that captures your computer’s data and holds it captive until you pay the assigned ransom. …
3 Real Phishing Attacks Your C-Suite Needs to See
In 2015, CEOs lost $2.3 billion from phishing attacks, according to the FBI. As an executive, do you know how to identify a phishing email?
12 Essential Steps for Deprovisioning Users in Google Apps
If you’re not organized, the process of offboarding departing employees can frazzle even the most seasoned IT professional. Here’s a Google Apps deprovisioning checklist with best practices to help mitigate risk, avoid critical errors, and ensure a smooth, hiccup-free transition.
Our Poll Results Are In: How IT Professionals are Handling Pokémon GO at Work
As the Pokémon GO frenzy continues to sweep the nation, and amidst news that the game gets full access to your Google account, we wanted to see how IT professionals are handling this potential security risk at work. To find out, we asked our readers to take a quick 2-minute poll yesterday. Here are the results.
HIPAA Compliance in the Cloud: Tips for Keeping Your Business Safe
For today’s post, we’re joined by James Ferreira from Ignite Synergy and Michael Herrick from HIPAA.HOST to discuss several security features of Google Apps for Work, and how you can keep your …
Evaluating Third-Party Apps and Helping Employees Do Their Jobs Better
How do you manage and evaluate the proliferation of third-party apps, especially if your organization has thousands of employees? Brandon Williams, Director of Google Operations for the State of Colorado, provided some innovative tips and insight. To hear how Williams did it for the State of Colorado, watch this video.
Successful Strategies for Improving User Adoption of New Technologies
More often than not, employees are resistant to change and training sessions are ineffective. Brandon Williams, Director of Google Operations for the State of Colorado, shared a few helpful (and surprising) strategies for improving user adoption of new technology. To hear how he was successful in improving user adoption (for 30,000 employees, no less), watch this video.
Modern Workplace Innovators: Meet Brandon Williams
For Brandon Williams, Director of Google Operations for the State of Colorado, working in government means that you can make truly meaningful change. In the latest installment of our Modern Workplace Innovators video series, watch the inspiring story of how Williams used Google Apps to redefine emergency communications, and how he also leveraged shadow IT to empower 30,000 employees.
The Easy Guide to Android Encryption
Consumers are more security conscious than ever, and cellphone manufacturers are taking notice. Default iPhone encryption and Android encryption allow users to lock down their phones, protecting stored data from hackers, as well as government spying. Here’s what you need to know to protect your Android data—both on the device and in the cloud.
A HIPAA Compliance Checklist for the Cloud Era
The only way to keep PHI secure is to build a secure system from day one, but that’s not exactly easy. After all, HIPAA is a complicated piece of legislation. This complete HIPAA compliance checklist from guest contributor and Virtru Founder and CTO Will Ackerly will get you started.
Ransomware is on the Rise: Is Your SaaS Data Protected?
Ransomware isn’t an empty threat–it’s real, and no organization is immune. As an IT professional, putting safeguards in place is essential to ensuring your data is protected. Are you prepared should the worst happen to you?
If You’re Not Phishing Your Employees, You Should Be: Here’s How
Phishing is a dangerous ever-growing threat to your organization. Putting technology in place can help, but educating and testing your employee base is best. BetterCloud Sr. Application Security Engineer Austin Whipple explains how you can pull off an internal phishing campaign to keep employees on their toes.
Hacker Psychology: Understanding the 4 Emotions of Social Engineering
Social engineering is a powerful (and persuasive) skill that hackers use to manipulate their targets. But which emotions are hackers actually trying to exploit, and what can you do to stop them?
How to Create a Custom DLP Policy Tip in Office 365
Data loss prevention is a crucial responsibility for Office 365 administrators. Microsoft offers a variety of features and tools to keep your Office 365 data secure, but a lot of …
Growing Pains: Latest Research Shows IT Struggling to Meet SaaS Application Demand
Once they have ’em, they can’t get enough. Explosive demand for SaaS applications leaves IT scrambling to meet the demands of their end users.
How to Reset The Passwords of Everyone On Your Slack Team
Slack has a reputation for replacing emails or at least replacing many aspects of internal emails when implemented at an organization. It is important to keep in mind, that although Slack behaves differently than email, you still need to keep it secure in the same way you secure your domain email accounts.
How to Sign Out of Slack on All Your Devices at Once
If Slack is going to become an integral part of your office communication, then just like email, security is paramount. In a multidevice world, signing out of Slack only on …
5 Features in Your Compose Window You Need to Know
There are a lot features available in the New Message Window in Outlook on a Mac. In this video, we provide an overview of the available options and dig a …
How to Recognize and Prevent Social Engineering Attacks
Phishing scams make breaking news at a dizzying pace, but there are other ways hackers use social engineering to steal your data. Learn how to prevent the most sophisticated attacks.
Set the Expiration Date on Your Google Drive, Docs, Sheets & Slides
Did you know you can set an expiration date on the Google Drive files you share? Increase your domain’s security while still encouraging workplace collaboration with this easy-to-implement tip.
Arm Your End Users With These 7 Tips for Identifying Phishing Emails in Office 365
Chances are high that you’ve recently received a phishing email in your inbox. Did you detect it as a fraud immediately? Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to trick individuals into …
7 Ways to Identify and Protect Against Phishing Emails in G Suite
Chances are high that you’ve recently received a phishing email, even if you didn’t notice. Here are 7 easy ways to identify and protect against phishing emails.
Addressing File-Level Encryption in Google Apps
There’s no doubt that Google Apps is staking a claim in the market; studies indicate that usage of the Google ecosystem and its various apps has only increased in the …
8 Reasons Why You Should Change The Way You Think About Cloud Partners
Through our 2015 Trends in Cloud IT research, we found that today’s cloud-enabled organizations use an average of eight cloud applications. In two years, that number more than doubles to …
Information Security and Pop Culture: How Real-Life Social Engineering Techniques are Used in Movies and Television
Social engineering isn’t reserved for hackers. It’s a common con used in many acclaimed films and television series.
Steps to Take Before Migrating A Big Data Project
What drives business models faster and enables data-driven decisions better than big data analytics? Nothing. Still, executives struggle to manage the huge amounts of data from multiple sources. The search for an agile, scalable platform to deploy analytic tools and share apps and data ended some time ago – with Google Cloud Solutions.
Real-Time Messaging: Data Unearths Surprising Findings on Usage, Distraction, and Organizational Impact
Real-time messaging has changed the way employees communicate, mostly for the better. However, there’s surprising data we uncovered that shows another side, which isn’t quite as rosy.
How the IT Guy Became the “It Guy”: The Evolving Portrayal of Tech Professionals in Movies and Television
The “IT nerd” image is hard to shake; Hollywood has plastered it into our collective consciousness for years. We go in-depth to show how IT’s image has evolved.
Google Releases New Security Features for Gmail
This article covers DLP Policy for Gmail. If you need a DLP Policy for Google Drive check out our video about BetterCloud (and here is BetterCloud’s marketplace listing) Google just …
Here’s What 3 IT Professionals Have Learned Since Moving to the Cloud
Curious to hear what’s on the mind of experienced cloud IT professionals? We brought three together to discuss what the shift to cloud IT means to admins like them.
New and Improved Features in Google Apps Password Sync
Google Apps Password Sync (GAPS) is the password updating tool that works directly with Microsoft Active Directory. Recently, the Google team made several security updates to GAPS that improve the …
Office 365 Expands Services to Small and Midsized Businesses
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that customers with 50-149 seats of Office 365 enterprise and small business plans can now join Microsoft FastTrack. Prior to February, FastTrack was only available …
Celebrate Safer Internet Day with a Security Checkup and Free 2GB on Google Drive
For the second year in row, Google is giving away 2GB on Google Drive. Google chose today as the freebie day to celebrate Safer Internet Day 2016. In order to …
7 Office 365 and Google Apps How-to Articles You Don’t Want to Miss
The new year is underway, but let’s not forget about what took place over the course of 2015. Last year was a banner year for cloud office systems. We saw …
5 Office 365 Updates from December You Can’t Miss
New Office 365 E5 Plan Makes Its Debut At WPC this summer, Microsoft released the news that a new top-tier enterprise plan was being released: E5 would replace E4. In …
How Google Is Testing Password-Free Logins
For many Google Apps users, their password is their only line of defense when it comes to security breaches. As hackers get more sophisticated, passwords are becoming increasingly weaker as …
Download All of Your Emails from Gmail
If you work in IT, learn how BetterCloud’s Unified SaaS Management platform can help you manage G Suite and other applications. Also, learn how you can 10x your G Suite productivity. …
We Asked 200 Leading IT Professionals to Predict How Their Jobs Will Change in 2016 – Here’s What They Said
Change is the only constant for IT professionals. From the technology you use to your role and expectations, here’s how your peers think IT will change this year.
This is How Microservices Will Help You Develop Better Products
The technology industry is never void of the “latest thing.” New frameworks and innovative approaches drum up discussions on blogs, at conferences, and in the meeting rooms of many companies. …
What Gmail’s Encrypted Email Warning Doesn’t Tell You
Gmail’s encrypted email warning is coming for emails that are sent and received through unsecured connections. Earlier this month, Google released their Safer Email Transparency report, which revealed the strides …
New Office 365 E5 Plan Makes Its Debut
At WPC this summer, Microsoft released the news that a new top-tier enterprise plan was being released: E5 would replace E4. This week, Office 365 Enterprise E5 finally made its …
11:11 Top Office 365 Posts from the Eleventh Month of the Year
1. One Stop Shop for Office 365 Security and Compliance Features As an IT administrator, security concerns often loom over your head. With the new customer security considerations (CSC) workbook, …
Here’s How We Took Advantage of Shadow IT and Rolled Out Slack
Shadow IT is a security risk, but is it all bad? BetterCloud’s Director of IT Tim Burke explains how we used the organic growth of Slack to our advantage.
How to Create a Data Loss Prevention Policy That Works
Google Drive brings sharing and collaboration to your fingertips, but for IT, it also means added security risks. BetterCloud’s Google Drive Compliance Engine significantly increases your domain’s security.
How to Whitelist IP Addresses for Multi-Factor Authentication
Requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) on employee computers is an important security measure for many reasons, however, it may not always be necessary. If your organization currently enforces MFA and you …
Lessons Learned from 2,000 Data Breaches and 80,000 Security Incidents
What should you do in the event of a data breach? Here are our takeaways from the 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report with added security best practices.
6 Strategies Cloud Partners Can Leverage to Differentiate Their Offerings
Microsoft has cultivated an enormous partner ecosystem. But the shift to the cloud is forcing more than 600,000 Microsoft partners to reevaluate their business approaches. A growing portion of Microsoft …
Flexibility, Accessibility, Communications: 365NinjaLIVE Day 2 Recap
If you missed our Day 1 recap, check it out here. Our second day of 365NinjaLIVE took place on Thursday, October 29th and produced three more sessions led by experts …
8 Office 365 Updates You Can’t Afford to Miss From October
October was a month of recognition, user interface updates, and mobility momentum for Office 365. New integrations in Outlook from Skype and Sunrise allow for improved productivity and more multi-tasking …
A Step-by-Step Guide to Provisioning Users in Office 365
Provisioning and deprovisioning users in Office 365 are commonplace activities for IT professionals. Unfortunately, they’re also time-consuming and error-prone. The process necessitates accuracy. Nothing is worse than a new employee …
4 of The Best Ways to Increase Your Privacy in Drive and Gmail
These tips allow you to maintain your privacy while also making full use of G Suite’s collaborative capabilities. These are four of our favorite ways to increase your privacy in G Suite.
Monitor Your Office 365 Service Health with BetterCloud
Rarely will you find an IT manager without a server uptime horror story to tell. Exchange or SharePoint servers going down unexpectedly, perhaps in the middle of the night with …
Zuora Estimates a 30% Time Savings with BetterCloud Enterprise
With BetterCloud, Zuora has been able to leverage comprehensive workflows that streamline their processes.
Set it and Forget it: 3 Things You Didn’t Know You Can Automate in Google Apps
“I have way too much time on my hands!”, said no Admin ever. Being stretched thin comes with the territory for any Google Apps Admin. Your time is split between …
5 Critical Numbers Every Google Apps Admin Needs to Know
Knowing these five numbers will instantly give you a better understanding of what’s happening within your domain and help improve your organization’s security.
Modern Workplace Innovators: Colin McCarthy
Colin McCarthy is the North American Associate Director of IT for Essence. Colin has not only managed the IT and Google Apps suite for the multinational marketing agency, but has also orchestrated multiple migrations to the cloud for the companies they have acquired.
Deprovisioning in Office 365: Your Security Depends on It
You can hardly find a company that doesn’t treat provisioning procedures seriously. Usually there are lots of steps and protocols to get a new employee going. For Office 365, that …
Predicting the Future with Agile Development
Bold article title, I know, but I promise it to be true! And to make things more confusing, I am going to start off by proving the opposite. BetterCloud believes …
14 Office 365 Updates You Might’ve Missed in September
September’s Office 365 announcements provide admins and end users with many software updates and a variety of new features. Read on for a summary of the newsworthy updates you can …
Demystifying the Cloud Partner Ecosystem: How to Choose a Cloud Partner That Works For You
The shift to cloud IT is reshaping the way businesses and other organizations operate. It’s changing partner business models, rewriting job descriptions, altering IT infrastructures, and overhauling entire industries. The …
9 Training Sessions From Google Apps Bootcamp
gCON Bootcamp, the free online training series for Google Apps, wrapped up last week. Nearly 7,000 Google Apps users tuned in to the three days of actionable training sessions covering …
Long-Awaited OneDrive for Business Updates are Here
Did you see the news? Today marks a huge step forward with OneDrive for Business. It’s the most significant set of updates we’ve ever released. First and foremost, we’re delivering a …
4 Things We Learned From The Second Annual Cloud IT Summit
Two weeks ago, more than 75 BetterCloud customers gathered in New York City for the second annual Cloud IT Summit. The Cloud IT Summit is an invite-only event for IT …
Getting to Know BetterCloud’s New VP of Security Brett Greenwood
Brett Greenwood sits down to answer questions about the evolving nature of cloud security, its importance to BetterCloud and our customers, and how his experience with companies like Adobe and Boeing …
Office 2016: What You Need to Know
Office 2016 is here! What do you need to know about this release? The Office blog summed it up like this: This marks a milestone in delivering new value for …
Office 2016 is Coming Next Week
If you haven’t yet paid much attention to the upcoming release of Office 2016, it’s time to start! There are so many great features to look forward to, including: Easier …
How SaaS Economics are Changing the Partner Channel
It’s a critical time for many channel partners. The emergence of software as a service (SaaS)–and its inherent subscription-based pricing model–has led to numerous challenges, but also massive opportunity. When …
7 Office 365 Updates You Might’ve Missed in August
August was a busy month for Office 365. Read on to explore seven updates across all Office 365 workloads that are not to be missed. 1. New features added to Outlook on the …
How to Instill a Culture of Security in Your Organization
Despite doing the heavy lifting and often shouldering the blame in the event of a breach, security is an organizational responsibility that requires companywide buy-in.
4 Ways to Fill the Gaps in Google Apps
I love Google Apps. That is why I spend my days making videos to help everyone better utilize the platform. However, I’ve heard from many people that Google is missing …
7 Ways to Improve Your Google Apps Domain Security
A little more than two months ago, we hosted more than 700 individuals for our first webinar on cloud IT: How to Overcome the Top 7 Security Flaws of the …
The Role of IT: How the Shift to the Cloud is Creating Agents of Innovation
What’s required from IT professionals grows hazier with each passing year. The shift to cloud IT is redefining roles and responsibilities and ushering in a new era of IT professionals.
11 OneDrive for Business Tips for Boosting Adoption and Creating Power Users
Struggling to increase OneDrive for Business adoption? There are tactics Office 365 IT admins can use to spark adoption, turning naysayers into power users. Here are 11 of our favorite.
63 Resources to Take Your Cloud IT Admin Skills to the Next Level
Looking to learn more about managing your environment? Here is the most exhaustive list of educational resources for cloud IT admins on the BetterCloud Monitor.
4 Necessary Tasks for the Beginner IT Admin
Experienced IT administrators may be able to do some of these tasks with their eyes closed, or choose to eschew the admin center altogether and perform these tasks in bulk …
Looking Forward to Office on Windows 10
Today, Microsoft is celebrating the unveiling of Windows 10, now available across 190 countries with a free upgrade or with new PCs and tablets. With Windows 10, we’ll get a familiar …
Case Study: Why Columbia Association Replaced CloudLock with BetterCloud
Columbia Association (CA) is a nonprofit service corporation that manages Columbia, MD, home to approximately 100,000 people. Columbia was founded in 1967 by James Rouse and his Howard Research and …
Schedule a Policy to Automate the Password Reset Process
Password security is paramount. Along with 2-step verification, a regularly changed password is one of the most important aspects of a secure Google Apps account. Wouldn’t it be nice if …
Enhancing Email Security: Stop Sender Fraud with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
We all hate spam, but when it puts your organization’s data at risk, it becomes more than just a passing nuisance. Stop spoofers by implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
12 Vital Answers to Cloud IT and Google Apps Security Questions
Going beyond the out-of-the-box security built into the tools you use is essential, especially for core cloud applications. Explore how you can better secure your environment with these best practices.
Prevent People from Downloading, Copying or Printing Your Drive Files
Preventing viewers from downloading a Google Drive file has been a highly requested feature for a long time now. We are happy to report: The wait is finally over. Not only …
Highlights from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Keynote Address
The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2015 kicked off this morning with the Vision Keynote address, delivered by Satya Nadella and other key figures from Microsoft. The conference kicks off Microsoft’s fiscal …
Office 365 Now Offers New Activity Logging and Reporting Capabilities
Last week the Office 365 team announced some new capabilities that will give customers more visibility into content and activities in their tenants, “including the Office 365 activity report, comprehensive …
Evaluating Auditing, DLP, and Compliance for Google Apps
Interested in learning more? Check out our Introduction to Google Drive Security Data loss due to improperly shared documents is a major risk for organizations using Google Drive. However, …
How to Delete Office 365 Groups Without Members
If your Office 365 tenant includes security groups without members, it can create confusion about which groups are relevant, which groups to use for which purpose, and so on. You …
July Release Notes: BetterCloud for Office 365 Adds Account Settings and Email Customizations, Mailbox Forwarding Alerts
We just released another set of new features and updates to BetterCloud for Office 365, our newest product that’s currently in beta (try it free here). Here’s a summary of …
Google Apps vs Office 365: Comparing the Usage, Adoption, and Effectiveness of Cloud IT’s Power Players
The Office 365 vs. Google Apps story is just beginning. The data we’ve collected will help provide insights into where the platforms–and their customers–stand today.
Delegate Access to a User’s Inbox Without Compromising Their Password
You should never give out your Gmail password to anyone. But sometimes it is necessary for a G Suite user to access another user’s inbox, for example, if an executive needs to …
12 Office 365 Updates You Might’ve Missed in June
1. Exchange Online Threat Protection came out of preview and is now available to purchase through the Microsoft Online Subscription Program. It protects against unknown malware and viruses using the …
How to Hide Private Info in a Shared Google Doc
You don’t have to be an international spy to want to keep some aspects of a document private. Google’s native sharing settings are only capable of sharing an entire Doc or …
15 Ways to Maximize Your Productivity with Google Drive
Even if you use Google Drive every day, there are likely a few tricks you haven’t mastered. Here are 15 great ways to kick your productivity into a higher gear.
4 Steps to Ensure Your Office 365 Account Hasn’t Been Compromised
If you’ve ever had your Office 365 account compromised, you know the sinking feeling that comes with realizing it: spam being sent in your name, unusual profile changes, mail forwarding that …
10 Steps to Foolproof User Deprovisioning in Office 365
Deprovisioning users correctly is essential to the security of your organization. This step-by-step guide to Office 365 deprovisioning shows you how to do it right.
Third-party Applications and the Impact on Google Drive Security
Interested in learning more? Check out our Introduction to Google Drive Security By nature, third-party applications pose a significant security risk. Although Google takes great pains to secure Google Drive, …
Find Irregular or Unusual Sign In Activity in Your Office 365 Tenant
Office 365 admins are responsible for a wide range of security-related issues in their O365 tenants, including tracking and reporting on irregular or unusual sign in activity. Monitoring this type of …
Prevent Third Party Apps From Accessing User Data in Office 365
While recent developments with the Office 365 API have opened up the possibilities for other applications to integrate with O365, admins may wish to limit their users from third party …
5 Things You Should Know About Your Office 365 Tenant
Over the last six months, our team has spoken with hundreds of IT admins about the key problems they face when managing their Office 365 tenants. While Microsoft offers customers a multitude of management solutions, the customers we’ve spoken to as part of our BetterCloud for Office 365 Beta Advisor program have made one problem clear — they desperately want better visibility into their environment, but they lack the time or the tools needed to get that critical information.
View or Edit a DLP Policy in the Office 365 Admin Center
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in Office 365 continues to evolve and expand as the platform matures. We’ve covered some of the upcoming improvements (New Data Loss Prevention capabilities in Office 365), …
7 Things Every School IT Department Should Do Before Next School Year
Summer is almost here and, along with the enthusiastic sounds of students heading off for summer vacation, you need to prepare your Google Apps domain for the upcoming school year. …
A Look Back at gCON 360°
gCON, the world’s largest online event series for Google Apps customers, hosted gCON 360 April 27-29, bringing together thousands of Google Apps users from around the world through Google’s Hangouts …
The Best Office 365 Sessions From Microsoft Ignite 2015
Ignite 2015 is over, but luckily Microsoft’s Channel 9 has cataloged a comprehensive set of videos of the Ignite sessions. Here are some of our favorites that focus on Office 365: …
10 Chrome Extensions That Make Your Life Easier
If you’re one of the millions of people who use Chrome, then you’ve come to the right place. These 10 Chrome Extensions will change the way you work online.
Endpoint Devices and the Impact on Google Drive Security
Interested in learning more? Check out our Introduction to Google Drive Security Although Google Drive is primarily a browser-based application, there are several mobile and desktop applications that can lead …
15 Free Google Apps Training Sessions
Google Apps admins shouldn’t pass on this jam-packed educational resource. We’ve collected 15 great educational videos that you don’t want to miss.
Case Study: Why ABC Companies Replaced CloudLock with BetterCloud
A privately-held and family-owned business, ABC Companies is the leading provider of motorcoaches and transit equipment sales and services. With 11 locations throughout North America, the company has experienced tremendous …
3 Productivity and Security Tools that Make Office 365 Even Better
Lately, Microsoft has opened up their business in a significant way, with a more flexible and collaborative approach than ever before. This means that third-party developers have been able to …
The Complete Guide to 2-Step Verification
For Google Apps users, 2-step verification is a cornerstone of strong security. Check out our simple step-by-step guide for both Google Apps IT admins and end users.
New Office 365 API for Security and Compliance Monitoring
Today Microsoft announced the new Office 365 Management Activity API. The API will be released in a private preview this summer (sign up here), with some partners already developing security and compliance …
Microsoft Announces New Activity Feeds at RSA; BetterCloud for Office 365 Expands to Offer Security and Compliance Tools
Earlier this month, we announced the public beta release of BetterCloud for Office 365, our newest product offering and the first solution of its kind for the Microsoft cloud platform. …
Lync Online is Now Skype for Business
Today, the Office team announced in a blog post: A few weeks ago, we announced the technical preview of the Skype for Business client, and today, we’re thrilled to announce …
Does Your Business Need Exchange Online Advanced Threat Protection?
Office Blogs reported today that a new security feature is available in Office 365: Exchange Online Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). While the existing Exchange Online Protection (EOP) service already protects against spam, …
Announcing BetterCloud for Office 365: Building a Microsoft Business as a Premier Google ISV
We’re excited to announce the public beta release of BetterCloud for Office 365. We are adding functionality rapidly and working closely with customers to shape our roadmap. If you are …
How to Combat Password Phishing for Google Drive Access
Interested in learning more? Check out our Introduction to Google Drive Security One of the most common methods for gaining access to a Google Apps account is via phishing for …
How We Built the Best Google Drive Compliance Engine
Google Drive is an incredible toolset. It provides your organization and users with the means to collaborate in real-time, on any document, from any location, on any device. What this …
Mobile Device Management Rolls Out in Office 365
Beginning this week, mobile device management (MDM) capabilities are rolling out to Office 365 commercial plans. Now, Office 365 admins can manage their users’ mobile device activity, i.e. wiping documents …
What a $25 Million Investment Means for BetterCloud’s Vision to Power Cloud IT
So far, 2015 is shaping up to be an eventful year for BetterCloud. In less than 3 months, we’ve announced a new product for Office 365, rebranded the company, and …
Control Which Add-ons Your End Users Install
Third party Add-ons can be a great way for both administrators and end users to get more out of Google Apps. Unfortunately, they can also pose a security risk if …
Evaluating Born-in-the-Cloud DLP Solutions: Is Proxy- or API-Based Right for You?
If you’re an IT admin at a sizeable organization, there’s a good chance you need to comply with a data security standard like PCI, HIPAA, FISMA, FERPA, or SOX. From …
4 Tips for Making Professional Looking Google Docs
Google Docs has evolved from a simple collaborative text editor to a full-fledged word processing system. In fact, Google Docs’ collaboration, formatting and security capabilities now rival that of Microsoft …
How to Achieve 98% Satisfaction While Supporting Thousands of Customers
As with any business, BetterCloud’s success depends on getting and keeping customers. You might have the best development, marketing, and sales teams on the planet, but none of that will matter if …
Complete Guide to Google Drive Sharing
There are many ways to share Google Drive files. With this guide, you’ll learn the ins and outs of sharing permissions, gaining the knowledge you need to keep data secure.
If You’re Not Doing Acceptance Test-Driven Development, You’re Not Really Agile
This article is based on a webinar from our VP of QA, Adam Satterfield, hosted by QASymphony. You can watch it here. Last week, BetterCloud completed a truly epic release: new …
Our Chief Strategy Officer Talks Cloud Vision, Millennials, and Siberian Huskies
When it comes to mastery of the enterprise IT landscape, few people can touch Michael Tweddle. In 18 years as a systems analyst, sales consultant, and technical team leader, he’s …
Welcome to the New BetterCloud
Today’s an important day at BetterCloud—the beginning of a new chapter in the company’s history. Several changes went into effect earlier today that impact everything from the names of our …
Enable or Disable Multi-factor Authentication for Office 365 Users
Azure Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365 allows you to secure your users’ access for no additional cost. Most often, multi-factor authentication is configured to require users to sign in with …
Introduction to Google Drive Security
The thought of storing sensitive documents in Google Drive may be daunting, but when done correctly IT can keep data secure and deliver massive bottom-line benefits.
FleetPride – A BetterCloud Case Study
Founded in 1999, FleetPride is the largest independent distributor of aftermarket heavy-duty truck and trailer parts with more than 256 locations in 45 states across the US. Employees: 3,400 Founded: …
3 Steps You Must Take in Google Apps When an Employee Goes Rogue
We all hope for peace and tranquility in both home life and work life, but unfortunately that is not always the case. And when a professional relationship comes to a …
Event: NYC February Google Apps Meetup
When: February 3rd, 6pm Where: BetterCloud office, 14th floor, 330 7th Avenue, New York Insider threats are growing. State privacy laws are getting stricter. And your company’s information is a …
Shadow IT: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…
If you’re an IT administrator, take a moment to think like Linda from Legal. Sure, Linda uses your mandated tools. If you’re in a traditional IT environment that could mean …
5 Things a G Suite Admin Should Do When an Employee Leaves Your Company
G Suite admins are heavily involved in user lifecycle management and should ensure they have their processes nailed down for properly deleting a G Suite user from the company domain. Below are 5 important things all admins should consider before deleting a G Suite user.
12 Google Apps Updates You Might Have Missed During September
September was one of the busiest months in recent memory in terms of Google Apps updates, with one of our favorite tools (Forms) receiving a huge overhaul. Plenty of other …
How to Get to the Cloud in 5 Easy Steps
Yesterday, Google Executive Chairman +Eric Schmidt posted some great tips on the Official Google Enterprise Blog for getting your organization to the cloud. If you’ve already moved your organization to Google …
Chromebook Management
Chrome devices can be a great solution for the computer hardware needs of many organizations. In addition to their speed, security, and cost-effectiveness, it is simple for administrators to have …
Chromebook Deployment
With their speed, simplicity, security and standardization, Chromebooks are a great choice for the computing needs of many organizations. For organizations that decide to switch to Chromebooks, the deployment process …
Google Drive vs File Server
Google Drive is a file system of user-owned files / folders that are mapped in a web-like structure to other user accounts via Google’s sharing permissions. Unlike a traditional file …
How to Enable API Access for Google Apps
The Google Apps Marketplace is the first place we recommend Admins to when looking to enhance their Google Apps experience. Whether it’s an admin tool, or just a general productivity …
4 Steps to Migrating Data and Employing Additional Tools
You’ve already been through the Google Apps Setup Wizard, understand what data will be able to migrate, and recognize the differences between your legacy system and Google Apps—now you need …
Mobile Management
Once you have deployed mobile devices for your organization (see our Mobile Deployment page for deployment help), managing mobile device settings is the natural next step. To edit settings for …
4 Tools to Beef Up Your Google Security
We talk a lot about getting the most out of Gmail and Google Apps, but there are some other things you should keep in mind. To make sure your sensitive …
Mobile Deployment
Deployment Step #1 – Determine Mobile IT Strategy In this first step of mobile deployment, you should decide what types of mobile devices your organization will support. While Android devices …
Introduction to the Google Apps Control Panel for Google Apps Admins
In part one, I talked about some of my favorite support resources that can help a Google Apps Admin. In this article, we will discuss the settings in the Control …
Gmail Security Tip – Sign Out of All Other Sessions
The convenience of logging into Gmail from any web browser with an internet connection is a great feature, but if you’re not diligent about logging out of your Gmail account …