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30% organisations using Office 365 report ‘Poor’ governance readiness

Nearly one-third (30%) of Microsoft Office 365 users indicate that the overall state of governance readiness within their organisations is 'poor'. That's according to a survey conducted by Spanning Cloud Apps LLC and CollabTalk on security and compliance perceptions, and realities for Microsoft Office 365 users.

When asked to name their biggest security challenges, the leading causes for concern from survey respondents were shadow IT, referenced by 16 per cent of the sample, and lack of security training for all employees (also 16%). These were closely followed by 'lack of security policies and controls' (14%) and 'no monitoring solution specifically looking for data and security breaches' (13%).

In terms of compliance challenges, the most widely-cited by the sample was 'end-users don't classify data correctly and/or take required actions' (referenced by 38%). This was followed by 'content stored in legacy content systems' which was highlighted by 35 per cent and 'content spread across multiple workloads' (34%). More than one in ten (11%) ranked Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies and procedures among their biggest challenges in this area. 

Survey respondents were also asked whether they believed the current security and compliance features in Microsoft Office 365 were sufficient for their organisational requirements. 14 per cent believe that the current security protection is not sufficient while more than a fifth (22%) believe Office 365's compliance capabilities are not sufficient.

In general, the research team believes these concerns can be attributed to the education gap around Office 365 security and compliance capabilities rather than issues with the software itself.  

Matthew McDermott, Spanning's Principal technical marketing engineer, and a 13-time Microsoft Office Apps and Services MVP said, "the gap presented in this research is not from a lack of features, vision or direction from Microsoft; the gap comes from within organisations," said.  "Companies must invest in personnel and tools to ensure compliance and secure systems. It's not enough, with today's threat landscape, to be reactive. You need to be proactive in your approach to keeping your assets and customer data safe and secure."

To view the full survey report and learn more about the findings, visit https://spanning.com/resources/reports/organizational-security-compliance-practices-office-365/

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