Microsoft 365 - IT Norwich Ltd

So, you are thinking of moving to Microsoft 365? Perhaps you already have it? It’s a very popular email and collaboration platform. Before you ask us to support you with Microsoft 365 services you should know what the implications are in terms of setup and ongoing management for this service.

Is Microsoft 365 right for your business?

Microsoft 365 is one of the most capable business platforms available, bringing together email, document collaboration, video calling, file storage, and security tools under a single subscription. For many businesses, it’s an excellent choice, but it should be an informed one.

It’s worth being clear from the outset: Microsoft 365 is not a plug-in-and-forget service. Setting it up correctly and keeping it running securely requires ongoing professional management. This page explains how we approach Microsoft 365 support, and what you can expect when you work with us.

New Tenant Setup

If your business is new to Microsoft 365, a new “Microsoft Tenant” is created – this is your organisation’s dedicated environment within Microsoft’s public cloud. Getting that environment set up correctly from day one matters enormously. Poor initial configuration is one of the most common causes of security incidents and ongoing problems down the line.

If you want to move to a Microsoft 365 platform we’ll manage the entire setup process on your behalf. Depending on your current setup, this can range from a straightforward migration for a small peer-to-peer network through to a significant project involving server infrastructure, device management, and user profile migration. We’ll scope this with you before work begins but note that for more complex environments, scoping work may be chargeable.

This is a one-off piece of work and separate from the ongoing management of the service you’ll need thereafter.

Existing Tenant Onboarding

If you already have Microsoft 365 in place and are looking for a new IT provider to take over its management, we are happy to help – but there are some important differences compared to setting up a new tenant from scratch.

Every Microsoft 365 tenant is unique. Over time, settings get changed, features get enabled or disabled, third-party applications get connected, and configurations drift away from recommended defaults. Sometimes this happens deliberately; often it happens gradually without anyone realising. When we take on an existing tenant we don’t know its history, and that means we need to find out exactly what we’re inheriting before we can take responsibility for it.

Before agreeing to manage an existing tenant, we’ll need to carry out a thorough audit of your current environment. This covers your security configuration, user accounts and permissions, licence assignments, email authentication records, and any third-party integrations in place. Please be aware that this audit is a chargeable piece of work: the time required will depend on the size and complexity of your environment.

In many cases the audit will reveal areas that need remediation before ongoing management can begin. We often see settings that fall below current security standards, configurations that need tidying up, or licences that need adjusting. Where this is the case we will present our findings clearly and agree a remediation plan with you before any further work proceeds. Remediation work is quoted separately.

Once the audit and remediation are complete, ongoing management continues in exactly the same way as for a new tenant.

Ongoing Tenant Management

Once your Microsoft 365 tenant has been set up (or we have completed the onboarding audit and remediation for an existing one) it needs to be actively managed. This is not optional: Microsoft 365 is a living platform that changes continuously, and without regular professional oversight your environment will gradually become less secure, less efficient, and harder to support.

To achieve this, we schedule dedicated Microsoft 365 maintenance as part of your Block Hours Agreement.

As part of our ongoing management we carry out scheduled maintenance tasks on a regular cycle, covering licence reviews, account housekeeping, and policy checks. We monitor your Microsoft Secure Score (a built-in measure of your tenant’s security posture) and act on anything that needs attention. We keep your email authentication records correct as your environment evolves, manage the lifecycle of user accounts as staff join, change roles, or leave, and track the continuous stream of platform changes that Microsoft releases so that nothing catches you or your users off guard.

Licence Overview

Microsoft 365 includes dozens of licence types. The following are the most commonly used for smaller organisations:

Licence Type	OneDrive	Exchange Mail Server	Teams & SharePoint	Desktop Applications	Entra / InTune Defender / Purview	Co Pilot Addon
Exchange Online Plan 1	Not Included	Included	Not Included	Not Included	Not Included	Not Included
Exchange Online Plan 2	Not Included	Included	Not Included	Not Included	Not Included	Not Included
365 Apps for Business	Included	Not Included	Not Included	Included	Not Included	Optional
365 Business Basic	Included	Included	Included	Not Included	Not Included	Optional
365 Business Standard	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not Included	Optional
365 Business Premium	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Optional

Desktop applications include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and Access. Note that Access has an uncertain long-term roadmap and Microsoft Publisher has now been discontinued. Web-based versions of the core applications are available on all licence types but have a more limited feature set than the desktop applications.

For organisations that already have on-premises servers and desktop applications in place, a full Microsoft 365 licence may be more than you need. Exchange Online is available as a stand-alone mailbox licence, providing cloud-hosted email, calendar, contacts, and webmail without the rest of the Microsoft 365 suite. This is a good fit for businesses that want to move their email to the cloud while keeping their existing infrastructure. Exchange Online comes in two tiers: Plan 1 includes a 50GB mailbox, while Plan 2 doubles this to 100GB and adds unlimited archiving, Litigation Hold, and data loss prevention features suited to organisations with compliance requirements.

From July 2026, Microsoft is increasing mailbox storage across Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium plans from 50GB to 100GB per user. Please note that this increase applies to the Business suite licences only and does not affect stand-alone Exchange Online Plan 1 or Plan 2 storage limits.

Pricing

We supply all Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online licences directly to our customers at Microsoft’s published RRP. We keep our subscription terms straightforward: your billing period always matches your commitment period, so there are no hidden strings.

You can choose to pay monthly, with no long-term commitment and the flexibility to adjust as your needs change, or annually, where you commit to and pay for a full year upfront typically the more cost-effective option for teams with a stable headcount.

Please note that Microsoft typically increases their prices twice a year and we do pass these on to you immediately.

MailAssure Option

Regardless of which Microsoft 365 licence you choose, we recommend adding MailAssure to your setup. MailAssure is a cloud-based email security service that sits in front of your Microsoft 365 mailboxes, adding an additional layer of protection and some important capabilities that Microsoft 365 does not provide on its own.

It filters all inbound and outbound email using collective threat intelligence, blocking spam, phishing, viruses, malware, and ransomware before they reach your mailboxes. Perhaps most importantly, it provides email continuity: if Microsoft 365 experiences an outage, MailAssure queues your incoming email for up to 14 days and gives your staff access to a webmail interface so they can keep working. It also provides long-term, fully searchable email archiving, stored independently of your Microsoft 365 environment.

Full details including pricing can be found on our N-Able Mail Assure page

Working With Us

When you ask us to provision (or onboard) and support Microsoft 365 , it will reflect everything discussed on this page. Depending on your situation, it may include a one-off fee for new tenant setup or an existing tenant audit, any remediation work identified during that audit. We’ll also tell you how this impacts your Block Hours Support Agreement as we’ll need to set up some extra scheduled maintenance.

Alternatives to Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is not the right fit for every organisation. It is a public cloud platform, it carries a per-user monthly cost, and (as this page makes clear) it requires ongoing professional management. If any of those factors give you pause, it is worth knowing that there are alternatives.

Zimbra

For organisations that need a reliable, professionally hosted email platform without the complexity or cost of Microsoft 365, Zimbra is worth considering. We have offered Zimbra mailbox hosting since the early days of IT Norwich Ltd and know the platform well. It provides email, calendaring, contacts, and webmail in a straightforward, stable package that is well suited to smaller organisations with modest collaboration needs. Unlike Microsoft 365, Zimbra can be hosted in a private cloud environment, giving you more control over where your mailbox data lives. You can find out more on our Zimbra Mailbox Hosting page.

Nextcloud with IMAP Mailbox Hosting

For organisations that want a private cloud collaboration platform without committing to Microsoft 365, we can combine our IMAP mailbox hosting with Nextcloud. Nextcloud provides file sharing, document editing, calendar, contacts, video calling, and more, running on privately managed infrastructure often at a fraction of the cost of Microsoft 365. Paired with a hosted IMAP mailbox, it covers the core needs of most smaller organisations in a straightforward, cost-effective way. It is a particularly good fit for charities, community organisations, and businesses with data sovereignty concerns. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss whether this combination is right for you.

A Note for Councils and Public Bodies

Organisations in the public sector, and councils in particular, should be aware that the UK Technology Code of Practice requires decision-makers to consider open-source alternatives and open standards when procuring technology. As Microsoft 365 is a closed-source platform, public bodies should satisfy themselves that it meets their obligations before committing. We are happy to advise on open-source alternatives that may be a better fit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Microsoft back up my data?

This is one of the most common misconceptions about Microsoft 365. The short answer is: not in the way most people assume.

Microsoft is responsible for keeping the platform running and ensures that its infrastructure is resilient. However, it does not provide a traditional backup of your data that you can restore from in the event of accidental deletion, a ransomware attack, or a malicious act by a member of staff. If an email is deleted – whether accidentally or deliberately – Microsoft’s ability to recover it is limited, and that window closes quickly.

Microsoft themselves recommend that customers use a third party backup solution for this reason. Without one, your emails, files, and Teams data are more exposed than most business owners realise.

We can advise you on appropriate backup solutions for your Microsoft 365 environment as part of your onboarding. This is something we would strongly encourage all customers to consider.

What is email authentication and why does it matter?

When your business sends an email, the receiving mail server has no way of knowing whether it genuinely came from you – unless your domain is configured with email authentication records. These are settings in your domain’s DNS that act as a form of digital verification, confirming that emails claiming to be from your domain were actually authorised to be sent.

The three main standards are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. SPF defines which servers are allowed to send email on your behalf. DKIM adds a digital signature to outgoing messages that receiving servers can verify. DMARC ties the two together and tells receiving servers what to do if a message fails those checks – for example, rejecting it or sending it to spam.

Without these records in place, your emails are more likely to be rejected or marked as junk, and your domain is more vulnerable to being spoofed meaning someone could send emails that appear to come from your business without your knowledge.

Setting these up correctly is part of our new tenant setup process, and keeping them correct as your environment changes is part of ongoing management.

What is the difference between public cloud and private cloud?

Microsoft 365 is a public cloud service, meaning it runs on Microsoft’s own servers and infrastructure – hosted in their data centres – rather than on servers you own or control. The underlying infrastructure is shared between millions of customers worldwide, though your data and configuration remain logically separate from everyone else’s.

A private cloud, by contrast, means software and data hosted on infrastructure that is dedicated solely to your organisation – either on your own premises or on a privately managed server. You have more direct control, and your data does not share infrastructure with other organisations.

The public cloud brings real advantages: no servers to maintain on site, automatic software updates, and access from anywhere. However, it also comes with a significant security consideration: platforms like Microsoft 365 are among the most attacked systems in the world. The sheer scale of Microsoft’s user base makes it an extraordinarily attractive target for hackers, and attacks are constant, sophisticated, and evolving. A poorly configured tenant is a vulnerability waiting to be exploited.

And just because Microsoft host the servers, the responsibility for how your environment is configured — your users, your security settings, your data — sits with you. Microsoft keeps the platform running; everything within your tenant is your responsibility. This is known as the shared responsibility model, and it is the primary reason why ongoing professional management is essential, not optional.