The Record - Issue 20: Spring 2021

60 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om I NT E R V I EW T he past year has been filled with changes. How has the MDS technology strategy changed when assisting your clients? Our customers come to us looking for more comprehensive solutions and they want them to be cost effective. They are not simply looking for point products but an entire suite of tools to help their users stay productive while continu- ing to meet their security requirements just as if their workforce were stationed in an office set- ting. For MDS, we have focused on providing guidance and implementations that do not just look at the individual technology but instead treat the solution holistically. From your experience, how has moving to a work-from-home model changed the way your clients interact and work together? One of the biggest changes is the focus on col- laboration solutions, the need for a way to get a quick answer to a question or even have some face-to-face time with their teams. Plus, the familiarity with video calls and screen sharing in people’s personal lives means we have seen accelerated adoption of solutions like Microsoft Teams and less reliance on using traditional email for communication and document shar- ing. But most importantly, these activities should be done securely. Microsoft Teams has revolutionised the way people work. Why is this platform recom- mended by MDS so heavily? Teams is a really great solution that can provide so much for an organisation: communication via chat and video calls, document creation and collaboration, meeting and scheduling tools, app integrations, it can even serve as a whole phone system if you need it to! It is a cloud- based solution that is available on multiple desktop and mobile platforms all while having security not just wrapped around it but woven through it. With all those benefits and capabil- ities, it almost becomes hard to come up with reasons for why we would not recommend it to most organisations. A work-from-home model cannot be success- ful without security being front of mind. How does MDS secure users in a remote world? MDS takes a comprehensive approach to tack- ling the issue of security for an organisation’s users and data. It starts with identity and access management and concepts like multi-factor authentication and risk-based conditional access, but it certainly does not end there. We will also work with our customers to better manage and secure their devices, assist with data protection and data governance via poli- cies in solutions like Cloud App Security and Azure Information Protection, and even help users get better at identifying potentially mali- cious messages via security awareness cam- paigns. The goal is to keep the organisation productive while minimising risk. Jason Hribar, senior cybersecurity consultant at Maureen Data Systems (MDS), shares how the firm ensures the security of remote working environments for its diverse customer base Securing the world of remote working BY E L LY YAT E S - ROB E R T S “The goal is to keep the organisation productive while minimising risk”