Why the cloud matters for Cobb County offices
Anyone who drives the I-75 and I-285 interchange at rush hour understands why so many Cobb County employees now work from home a day or two each week. Sales staff cover the whole metro, clinicians move between locations and project managers spend their days on job sites. For all of that to work, email, files and business software have to be reachable from anywhere, safely, without a shaky VPN or a shared password taped under a keyboard. Microsoft 365, set up properly, is usually the backbone.
What we configure and manage
- Exchange Online. Mailboxes, shared inboxes for intake or billing, calendars and strong spam and phishing protection. We also set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for your domain. These make your address harder to spoof, and since 2024 the big email providers have tightened rules for senders who skip them.
- SharePoint and Teams. A clear library structure for each team, client or job, and access rights that mirror who really needs what. OneDrive holds personal working files. The old shared drive where everyone can see everything goes away.
- Identity and access. MFA for everyone, conditional access rules that block risky sign-ins, and legacy sign-in methods switched off.
- Intune device management. Laptops and phones enrolled so new machines set themselves up, company data stays encrypted and a lost device can be wiped from anywhere.
- Licensing. Plans matched to roles. Reviews regularly turn up unused premium seats, or cheap plans missing the security tools a firm actually needs.
- Teams meetings and calling. Chat and video for everyone and, where it suits, Teams Phone in place of an old PBX.
Special cases we see in Marietta
Defense suppliers. Firms that store or send Controlled Unclassified Information for Defense Department work often can't keep that data in a standard commercial Microsoft 365 tenant. Some move to Microsoft 365 GCC High, which is built for U.S. government requirements and costs more. Others keep controlled data in a separate, tightly limited enclave. We help you understand the choice and coordinate with licensing partners and specialists when GCC High is the answer.
Medical practices. Microsoft will sign a business associate agreement covering Microsoft 365 services, but the settings still matter. We turn on encryption, audit logging and data loss rules so patient information is protected and traceable.
Law and title offices. Client files need clear permissions, retention and a record of who opened what. SharePoint can handle a lot of that, and we connect it to the document and practice management software you already use.
Retiring the server in the closet
Plenty of Marietta businesses still lean on a machine purchased back when they had a fraction of today's staff. It stores files, user logins and perhaps an accounting or ERP database. A dead server halts the office. Shifting files and mail into Microsoft 365 takes away that weak link and makes the office building less critical to getting work done.
Not everything should move. Some estimating, ERP, practice management or engineering software still runs best on a server, either in your office or hosted in a data center. We review each application, check with the vendor and recommend what goes where. Then we migrate in stages, usually after hours, with a tested way back if something misbehaves.
Internet becomes the critical link
With files and phones in the cloud, your internet connection is now the thing that must stay up. Office parks around Windy Hill, Powers Ferry and Town Center usually offer more than one fiber or cable carrier. We choose a main circuit with you and, if an outage would be expensive, add a second carrier or a 5G failover link that switches over on its own.
Ongoing care
Microsoft changes features and default settings often. We track those changes, review your security score and sign-in alerts, handle new hires and departures and adjust licenses as you grow. A new employee gets a laptop that is ready on day one, with exactly the access their role needs.
Questions about microsoft 365 & cloud
Do defense suppliers need GCC High?
Not always. It depends on the data you handle and what your contracts require. Firms with Controlled Unclassified Information often need it or a separate enclave. We help you work out which applies.
Can you move us from Google Workspace?
Yes. We plan the move so email, calendars and files arrive intact, usually with a weekend cutover. If Google suits you better, we can support it instead.
