Microsoft Azure Archives

Migrating to Azure with Confidence

Migrating to a cloud-based hosting platform can boost your organization’s computing infrastructure. It can improve efficiency, save time, and reduce costs. Microsoft Azure stands out for its service quality, security, reliability, and global reach. Like many other businesses, both large and small, you're ready to make the move. Understanding the Challenge However, migrating to the cloud requires significant organizational change. To fully leverage Azure, you must understand its unique attributes and keep them in mind throughout the migration process. Tools and Services to Simplify Migration Microsoft offers robust tools and services to ease and simplify migration. As a Microsoft partner, Red Level brings extensive experience helping clients shift to the Azure platform. We’ll ensure you use the right tools to make your cloud journey as smooth and effortless as possible. Think Ahead: Planning Eases Migration Effective planning and preparation are key to a smooth cloud migration. This is where Red ...

Red Level2024-08-30T14:12:00+00:00

Digital Transformation and What it Really Means for Business

It's impossible to pick up a business magazine or read an IT blog without seeing "Digital Transformation" in the headlines. And while it's garnering a lot of ink and pixels, many professionals aren't quite sure what this means for their business. When we need technology answers, we go right to Mike Balatzis. He's Red Level's Microsoft Solutions Manager and besides being a nice guy with a big brain, he talks in plain English so even the non-geeks can understand. We peppered him with a few questions about Digital Transformation and what it really means for business owners and executives. Here's the scoop. What is the Digital Transformation? In simple terms, every business is a Digital Business and the importance of technology as a driver for business value has never been greater. This is especially important when there is an outage or another business impact. Everyone wants the ability to connect ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:32+00:00

Azure Information Protection

How do you ensure your organization's confidential documents are accessible by approved eyes only? Fear not. Azure Active Information Protection can be your trusted friend to ensure that the sensitive data is well protected when appropriate groups or policies are set up and implemented. Specifically, Azure Information Protection, which is data loss prevention (DLP) for documents can be utilized to secure your confidential data. This blog provides a high-level overview of the DLP solution for Microsoft Azure. There are some different ways to start leveraging the platform and protecting your sensitive documents. Labels Place appropriate labels on your documents - you can have these labels applied by the users as they're editing documents Using client application and plugins into the office applications to apply labels when editing documents Customize your labels to control access to the documents by department or personnel. Create visual marking on the documents, such as header, ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:33+00:00

Azure Active Directory Identity Management

Microsoft Office 365 is widely used in many organizations. If you are an administrator for your Office 365, you are likely to be familiar with the Admin Center to look at user accounts and monitor activities. But do you know all the account activities were pulled in from Azure Active Directory in the cloud and are only displayed in the admin center? If you've got Dynamics, Exchange, SharePoint, or any of the Microsoft software that is in the Cloud, it's going to be using Azure Active Directory as its Identity Manager in the back end. There are a couple different approaches to manage identity in Azure Active Directory. Identity Sharing- As an admin, you may be familiar with creating Active Directory trust to different organizations, so you can authenticate across organizations or different servers across organizations. However, you don't have that ability with Azure Active Directory. In Azure AD, it's called ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:34+00:00

Save Money and Time in Your Journey To The Cloud

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Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:36+00:00

What’s The “Power” in Microsoft’s Power BI (Business Intelligence)?

There's been tons of buzz the last few years' about big data and cloud collaboration. How can you, as a business owner, analyst or data interpreter, determine what data is good or bad for effective analytics and reporting? Let's take it a step further, how can you make usable, actionable data available throughout an organization, enable opportunities for new services, and gain vital insights from fragmented and under-analyzed data? This is the 'Power' in Microsoft's Power BI! Before we dig deeper, what is Microsoft's Power BI? Microsoft Power BI, or “business intelligence,” is an impactful cloud-based tool that transforms a company’s data into rich visuals for its employees to collect and organize so they can focus on what matters to them: getting access to the right information, spotting important trends, and reaching important milestones. One way to look at Power BI is Microsoft Excel on steroids. Once the raw data is loaded ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:37+00:00

Red Letter IT Newsletter – June 2018

There's nothing like jumping right into a summer heat wave! With sunblock, beaches, parks, and vacations, let's take a look at these 5 quick but important IT stories you should know about: MICROSOFT 365 BUSINESS - BETTER WORKFLOWS & PROCESSES: Detroit Wallpaper Engaged with Red Level to Implement Powerful Tools to Consolidate and Simplify Everything from Finanical Data to Sales Presentations "I would say that we have probably reclaimed at least 10–15 percent of our budget by preventing waste through timely collaboration." (Andi Kubacki, Co-Founder, Detroit Wallpaper) TECH NEWS: Save Money & Time in Your Journey to The Cloud Learn how reserve instances, automation, auto shut down features, and more can give you smart strategies for better security, performance, and cost savings. BLOG: Red Level Expands Datacenter Presence = More Flexibility, Choices, Power, & Protection Datacenter capacity doubled in Grand Rapids for expanded services and advanced solutions like added redundancy and data security. ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:37+00:00

The Redmond Channel Partner Top 200: We’ll Feel At Home Here

Most of us are familiar with that special feeling that comes from time to time when you know you’re performing professionally at the top of your game. It’s beyond the sense of simply knowing you’re doing a good job – it’s the sense of hitting a home run, and being confident that you could immediately go out and do it again. That’s how I’m feeling about our Red Level team these days. Some recent news we received from Redmond Channel Partner, Microsoft’s knowledge-sharing site for Microsoft solution providers, is one of the main reasons why. We recently announced that Red Level had been named to Redmond Channel Partner’s “Top 200 Solution Providers” list, an annual index of the top 200 Microsoft solution providers in the USA. It probably sounds like “inside baseball” to anyone outside the IT field, but from our standpoint it’s pretty significant: The listing served as a ...

David King2023-02-16T16:01:44+00:00

Don’t Be Afraid of the Cloud

I’m an old-school network guy. My career has been built meticulously architecting datacenters with the latest offerings on SANs, switches, servers, firewalls, and threat remediation. I read all of the articles that talked about how the cloud was the future and how it would change the landscape forever. In no way did I accept that any cloud offering would meet my high standards of performance or security. Then by virtue of a changing career path, I was afforded the time to learn the real truth about a concept I had completely dismissed. And as it turns out, it’s actually the most incredible platform that I was never able to architect myself. Microsoft has bridged the gap between my beloved on-premises network operations center and the cloud with rock solid hybrid solutions. This cleanses the palate for guys like me who needed to gain the trust of the technology as it ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:47+00:00