Cloud and Microsoft 365 management is the ongoing administration, optimisation, and security of an organisation's cloud infrastructure and Microsoft 365 tenant. This covers user provisioning, SharePoint and Teams configuration, email security, cloud migration, and licence management — ensuring businesses extract full value from their Microsoft investment while maintaining compliance and data protection.
Microsoft 365 is the productivity backbone for most Australian businesses, but many organisations only scratch the surface of what is possible. Peer 2 Peer IT helps you unlock the full potential of your Microsoft investment through expert configuration, optimisation, and ongoing management tailored to Sydney SMEs.
Our Microsoft 365 services cover the complete lifecycle—from initial migration and setup through daily administration and strategic enhancement. We configure your tenant for security and compliance, optimise licence allocation to reduce costs, and ensure your teams can collaborate effectively using SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive. Every engagement begins with a tenant health assessment that identifies security gaps, licensing waste, and configuration opportunities most organisations miss.
Microsoft 365 tenant hardening is one of the most impactful services we provide. Default M365 configurations leave significant security gaps—external sharing enabled everywhere, legacy authentication protocols active, no Conditional Access policies, and minimal data loss prevention. We implement a comprehensive security baseline that includes enforcing multi-factor authentication for all users, configuring Conditional Access policies that control how and where your data is accessed, enabling Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to protect against phishing and malware, setting up data loss prevention (DLP) policies to prevent sensitive information from leaving your organisation, and implementing sensitivity labels for document classification. These controls align with the Australian Cyber Security Centre's Essential Eight maturity model, particularly the application control, MFA, and restrict administrative privileges strategies—part of our broader
Licence optimisation is where many organisations waste significant budget. We frequently find businesses paying for Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 licences across their entire workforce when only a subset of users need those capabilities. A 50-person organisation might save $15,000-30,000 annually by right-sizing licences—providing Business Basic to front-line staff, Business Premium to knowledge workers, and E5 only to users who genuinely require advanced compliance and analytics features. We conduct detailed licence audits, map features to actual usage patterns, and recommend the most cost-effective licensing mix without compromising security or productivity.
SharePoint Online architecture deserves careful planning, yet most organisations allow it to grow organically—resulting in sprawling site collections, inconsistent permissions, and documents that nobody can find. We design SharePoint environments with clear information architecture: department sites, project hubs, and document libraries structured around how your teams actually work. Metadata, retention policies, and search configuration ensure that critical business documents are findable, governed, and protected throughout their lifecycle.
Microsoft Teams governance is equally important. Without clear policies, Teams channels proliferate, naming conventions break down, and sensitive conversations happen in public channels. We establish Teams governance frameworks that balance collaboration freedom with organisational control—including naming conventions, creation policies, guest access controls, and lifecycle management for inactive teams. Our adoption programmes help organisations move beyond basic chat and video calls into using Teams as a genuine collaboration hub with integrated workflows, approvals, and task management.
Implementing Conditional Access and Zero Trust principles within Microsoft 365 is essential for organisations with remote or hybrid workforces. Rather than trusting any device on the corporate network, Zero Trust verifies every access request based on user identity, device health, location, and risk level. We configure Conditional Access policies that require compliant devices for corporate data access, block sign-ins from high-risk locations, enforce session timeouts for sensitive applications, and require step-up authentication for administrative actions. This approach ensures your data remains protected whether staff work from the Sydney CBD office, a home office in the Blue Mountains, or a client site in Melbourne.
Backup strategy is an area where many organisations have a dangerous blind spot. Microsoft provides service availability—not data protection. Native retention policies offer limited protection against accidental deletion, but they do not protect against ransomware encryption, malicious insider deletion, or regulatory holds that require point-in-time recovery. We implement dedicated third-party backup solutions that protect Exchange mailboxes, OneDrive files, SharePoint sites, and Teams data with configurable retention periods and granular restore capabilities. Regular restore testing ensures your backups actually work when needed.
For businesses transitioning from on-premises infrastructure, we support both hybrid and cloud-only deployment models. Hybrid environments—with Active Directory synchronised to Azure AD and some workloads remaining on-premises—suit organisations with legacy applications or regulatory constraints. Cloud-only deployments eliminate on-premises infrastructure entirely, reducing maintenance overhead and enabling a fully mobile workforce. We assess your specific requirements, application dependencies, and compliance obligations to recommend the right model and manage the migration without disrupting your operations. Our managed IT services provide ongoing support for your cloud environment after migration.
Authoritative Resources
Many organisations believe managing Microsoft 365 internally saves money. After all, Microsoft provides the platform—how hard can administration be? The reality is that M365 is a complex ecosystem with hundreds of configuration options, constantly evolving security features, and licensing structures that change regularly. Self-managed tenants consistently show higher costs and greater security exposure than professionally managed environments.
The most common issue we encounter in self-managed M365 tenants is security misconfiguration. Default settings leave external sharing wide open, legacy authentication enabled, and no Conditional Access policies in place. These gaps are not theoretical risks—they are the exact configurations that attackers exploit in business email compromise (BEC) attacks, which cost Australian businesses millions annually. A managed M365 service implements and maintains security baselines that self-managed organisations rarely achieve.
Licence waste is another hidden cost. Without regular auditing, organisations accumulate unused licences for departed employees, over-provision premium licences to users who only need basic email, and miss opportunities to consolidate overlapping subscriptions. Our clients typically save 15-30% on their Microsoft licensing spend after our initial optimisation—savings that recur every year.
Feature adoption also suffers without proactive management. Microsoft releases hundreds of new features annually across its M365 suite, but self-managed organisations rarely adopt them. Features like Power Automate workflows, SharePoint document management, Planner for task tracking, and Bookings for appointment scheduling could replace standalone tools your organisation already pays for—if someone identifies and configures them. Our managed service proactively evaluates new features and rolls out those relevant to your workflows.
| Feature | Self-Managed M365 | Managed by Peer 2 Peer IT |
|---|---|---|
| Security Configuration | Default settings (often insecure) | Hardened with Conditional Access, MFA, DLP policies |
| Licence Optimisation | Often over-licensed | Right-sized licences, saving 15-30% on costs |
| Backup & Recovery | Relies on Microsoft retention (limited) | Dedicated third-party backup with point-in-time recovery |
| Issue Resolution | DIY troubleshooting or ad-hoc support | Direct access to certified M365 engineers |
| Feature Adoption | New features often missed | Proactive rollout of relevant new features |
| Compliance Posture | Unknown or ad-hoc | Documented Essential Eight alignment |
Legal Firm
Challenge: A 40-person Sydney law practice was paying for Microsoft 365 E5 licences across all staff despite most employees only using email and Word.
Outcome: Peer 2 Peer IT conducted a licence audit, right-sized to a mix of Business Basic, Business Premium, and E5 (for partners only)—saving $22,000 annually while improving security posture with Conditional Access policies.
Accounting Practice
Challenge: An accounting firm with three offices had no unified SharePoint structure, with client documents scattered across personal OneDrive accounts and local drives.
Outcome: Designed and migrated to a structured SharePoint environment with client-centric document libraries, retention policies, and search configuration—reducing document retrieval time by 60% and establishing audit-ready governance.
Healthcare Group
Challenge: A multi-site medical practice needed to enable secure telehealth and remote access for practitioners while meeting healthcare data sovereignty requirements.
Outcome: Implemented Microsoft Teams for telehealth with Conditional Access policies restricting access to compliant devices, deployed Intune for mobile device management, and configured Azure-hosted data to remain within Australian regions.
Certified Microsoft Expertise
Our team holds current Microsoft certifications across M365, Azure, and security. We stay ahead of platform changes so your environment benefits from best practices—not last year's configuration.
Security-First Configuration
Every M365 tenant we manage is hardened with Conditional Access, MFA, DLP, and Defender policies aligned to the Essential Eight framework. Your data is protected by design, not afterthought.
Licence Cost Optimisation
We audit and right-size your Microsoft licensing annually, ensuring you only pay for what you use. Most clients save 15-30% on their first optimisation—savings that compound every renewal cycle.
Proactive Feature Adoption
Microsoft releases hundreds of new features each year. We evaluate, test, and deploy the ones that benefit your workflows—helping you get more value from the platform you already pay for.
Connect your key business applications
Protect your cloud data properly
Help your teams use their tools more effectively
Day-to-day management of your Microsoft environment
Move from ageing on-premises systems to modern cloud