Is your network optimised for Microsoft 365?

Many companies are putting all their efforts into their internal network and making sure that their employees' Wi-Fi connection works as well as possible. But as data, files and services move to the cloud, we need to start thinking differently. For example, did you know that you can optimise your network for a better experience in Microsoft 365?

When we talk about the performance of the corporate network, we often assess the speed of the Wi-Fi connection, how efficiently clients communicate with each other or how long it takes to download files from their own server. Having a stable and fast connection for all employees is obviously important for them to do their work, but the connection to the cloud services they use is just as important. Before Microsoft released the Microsoft Office 365 Network Onboarding Test Tool, few people knew that you can actually optimize your network environment to work optimally with Microsoft cloud services.

Choose the fastest route for your data

In essence, optimisation is about making your data take the shortest possible path and eliminating obstacles along the way. Mail, Onedrive, Sharepoint, Teams. Microsoft now offers a wide range of services, all of which require a certain amount of bandwidth to work. To ensure fast access, Microsoft has a number of data centres around the world, but the road to get there isn't always smooth. If you type in "office.com", it's not impossible that your ISP will send you to a front door (Microsoft's entrances to Microsoft 365) in Egypt and then retrieve your data in Holland. Since your data needs to travel a long way, it takes an unnecessarily long time for it to arrive.

Many people may think of fast data traffic as important for phone and video calls in Teams, but optimisation affects everything from how quickly your computer syncs files to how quickly you can update your Outlook inbox.

Examples of actions that can give you a better Microsoft 365 experience

  • Configure your proxy server to prioritize and pass through traffic to Microsoft services.

When you visit a page, it is common for it to first be downloaded to the proxy server, which checks that it is secure. By designating Microsoft's front doors as secure, traffic is let through immediately.

  • Make sure the right gates are open

By opening the right ports, you can prioritise different types of traffic. One recommendation is to give voice and video streams in Microsoft services priority over Netflix viewing.

  • Check the DNS lookup to make sure you are at the right address

Your broadband provider has its own DNS serving customers, but since it's not configured to send your Microsoft traffic to the front door closest to your location, there's a risk that the data will have to travel unnecessarily long distances.

  • Set up geographic data storage at user level.

It is not only the services and the stored data that can be located in different parts of the world, but also the users themselves. If you have your Microsoft subscription in Sweden and set up a user account for an employee in China, the user's Onedrive or Sharepoint data will most likely be stored in the data centre closest to Sweden. In that case, it is a good idea to choose a different geographical location for that user's data storage.

Do the test every three months

The Microsoft Office 365 Network Onboarding Tool is an excellent tool for measuring how optimized your network is for Microsoft cloud services. After testing your environment, you'll not only get actionable recommendations, but also a percentage that shows in black and white how optimized your environment is. To help you evaluate your results, you'll also see how your company stacks up against others, both in the world and in your region. For a CDO or IT strategist, this is a golden opportunity to do a good optimisation job and get concrete numbers to show to the management team.

Once you've started your optimisation work, it's a good idea to keep running the test every three months to make sure there are no changes and that traffic can still move freely. Microsoft services are constantly evolving and changing, and if you test regularly, you won't have to worry about situations where some services suddenly stop working properly without you knowing why.

How much time you need to spend on the optimisation itself depends on what the numbers show. As we see it, the important thing is to start thinking outside the box when it comes to your network and put your resources where they will do the most good. Right now, that's in the cloud.

Want to learn more about how you can use Microsoft's testing tools to optimise your network for Microsoft 365? Contact us.

 

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