close
close
Your Network of Tomorrow
Your Network of Tomorrow
Plan your path toward a faster, more secure, and more resilient network designed for the applications and users that you support.
          Experience Netskope
          Get Hands-on With the Netskope Platform
          Here's your chance to experience the Netskope One single-cloud platform first-hand. Sign up for self-paced, hands-on labs, join us for monthly live product demos, take a free test drive of Netskope Private Access, or join us for a live, instructor-led workshops.
            A Leader in SSE. Now a Leader in Single-Vendor SASE.
            A Leader in SSE. Now a Leader in Single-Vendor SASE.
            Netskope debuts as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Single-Vendor SASE
              Securing Generative AI for Dummies
              Securing Generative AI for Dummies
              Learn how your organization can balance the innovative potential of generative AI with robust data security practices.
                Modern data loss prevention (DLP) for Dummies eBook
                Modern Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Dummies
                Get tips and tricks for transitioning to a cloud-delivered DLP.
                  Modern SD-WAN for SASE Dummies Book
                  Modern SD-WAN for SASE Dummies
                  Stop playing catch up with your networking architecture
                    Understanding where the risk lies
                    Advanced Analytics transforms the way security operations teams apply data-driven insights to implement better policies. With Advanced Analytics, you can identify trends, zero in on areas of concern and use the data to take action.
                        The 6 Most Compelling Use Cases for Complete Legacy VPN Replacement
                        The 6 Most Compelling Use Cases for Complete Legacy VPN Replacement
                        Netskope One Private Access is the only solution that allows you to retire your VPN for good.
                          Colgate-Palmolive Safeguards its "Intellectual Property” with Smart and Adaptable Data Protection
                          Colgate-Palmolive Safeguards its "Intellectual Property” with Smart and Adaptable Data Protection
                            Netskope GovCloud
                            Netskope achieves FedRAMP High Authorization
                            Choose Netskope GovCloud to accelerate your agency’s transformation.
                              Let's Do Great Things Together
                              Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.
                                Netskope solutions
                                Netskope Cloud Exchange
                                Netskope Cloud Exchange (CE) provides customers with powerful integration tools to leverage investments across their security posture.
                                  Netskope Technical Support
                                  Netskope Technical Support
                                  Our qualified support engineers are located worldwide and have diverse backgrounds in cloud security, networking, virtualization, content delivery, and software development, ensuring timely and quality technical assistance
                                    Netskope video
                                    Netskope Training
                                    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert. We are here to help you secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications.

                                      Office 365 Apps Eclipse Their Google Counterparts in Enterprise Usage

                                      Feb 24 2016
                                      Tags
                                      Cloud Best Practices
                                      Cloud Security
                                      Netskope Cloud Report
                                      Office 365 Security
                                      Tools and Tips

                                      Yesterday we released our Cloud Report, in which we share cloud security findings based on millions of users across hundreds of enterprises. While the headline of the report is about cloud malware, there’s another finding that really jumped out at us as we were crunching the data for the report – the sheer growth in enterprise usage of the Office 365 suite! Microsoft 365 Outlook.com and Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive for Business took the second and third spots, respectively, in our top 20 most-used apps list. For the first time since we’ve been publishing this report, those apps have surpassed their Google counterparts, Gmail and Google Drive. They have also eaten the lunch of their freemium counterparts in the Microsoft Live suite. This is huge for enterprises and obviously huge for Microsoft’s cloud profitability.

                                      Let’s look at Microsoft’s dominance in our top 20 list. No fewer than seven apps made the list, including Office 365 Outlook.com at #2, Office 365 OneDrive for Business at #3, Skype at #10, Live OneDrive at #15, Live Outlook at #16, Office 365 Yammer at #17, and Office 365 Lync at #19. In our dataset, we noticed that not only are more enterprises adopting Office 365, but more users within enterprises are adopting the suite, which increases Microsoft’s consumption – or sustained usage – within the enterprise. Over the past year, usage per enterprise of OneDrive for Business and Office 365 Outlook.com have both grown several hundred percent according to our data. We also noticed that, besides taking market share from other vendors, the Office 365 apps (especially OneDrive and Outlook.com) are also taking share from the Microsoft Live suite, the freemium version. This tells us that Microsoft’s up-sell strategy is working and their conversion program is paying off. We think it’s also good news for enterprises, as they’re better able to consolidate usage onto their sanctioned apps.

                                      It does have implications for Office 365 security, however. Microsoft Office 365 apps are highly rated in the Netskope Cloud Confidence Index and have most of the critical features required by enterprises. That said, many organizations need to govern usage within the suite to ensure they are meeting their security and compliance regimens. This is where a cloud access security broker can come in handy. In the shared responsibility model in the cloud, in which the vendors are responsible for making their apps secure, but enterprises are responsible for how their employees use the apps, a CASB can enforce policies like “least privilege” for admins (e.g., the Exchange admin is separate from the SharePoint one), user access by device type or classification (e.g., users on BYOD devices aren’t only given web-based access and can’t download, but users on corporate ones have full access), and activity by user, group, or organizational unit (e.g., users in the “insiders” AD group are not able to share content outside of the company from OneDrive without a written justification).

                                      There is also the question of the Office 365 ecosystem, which is growing rapidly alongside the suite. In our data, we see many of the popular apps that integrate with Office 365 – apps like RingCentral, Smartsheet, and TeamViewer – posting triple-digit growth numbers over the past year. Our data show that for every anchor tenant app, there are 20-30 ecosystem apps per enterprise. Ecosystem apps integrate – and share data back and forth – with the anchor tenant app, which can be a double-edged sword: While it increases the value for enterprise users (because they can do more with the tools they have), it also puts corporate data at risk if IT isn’t enforcing similar policies in the ecosystem apps as they are in the sanctioned Office 365 suite. We notice that, while Office 365 is usually a sanctioned app, its ecosystem apps are often unsanctioned, which means that more often than not, IT doesn’t even know about them, much less enforce policies in them.

                                      Enterprises are definitely benefiting from Office 365’s growth and popularity, but they also need to be aware of the shared responsibility model in front of them, not just for the apps in Office 365, but also for its ecosystem.

                                      How are you enforcing your security policies in Office 365 and its ecosystem?

                                      Stay informed!

                                      Subscribe for the latest from the Netskope Blog