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A year after it finished being “rented” for four years (2012-2016) by temporary owner Dell Inc., Quest Software is back under private ownership evolving its own set of systems management and security software tools.
The Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based company on July 11 announced the availability of Quest On Demand, a new, cloud-hosted software-as-a-service suite designed to make life easier for IT admins as they manage and secure Microsoft Office 365 and Azure Active Directory workloads.
The first release of Quest On Demand includes tools that back up and recover files for Azure AD and Office 365 users, attributes, groups and group membership. It also enables secure access to Microsoft Exchange Online and Skype for Business Online features through automated policy management, the company said.
On Demand, the first SaaS platform from the Quest Microsoft Platform Management business, is automated and designed to handle any size workload. As with all SaaS applications, users don’t have to install/configure on-premises software nor manage the rollout of updates.
Designed to Increase Office 365 Productivity
According to Microsoft’s most recent quarterly report, revenue growth for Office 365 commercial is up 45 percent, part of a major trend by enterprise to move workloads from on-premises systems to the cloud. This growth is driving an organizational shift to find ways to not only better manage workloads in Office 365 environments but also understand how the business can take advantage of the productivity platforms Office 365 has to offer.
Quest is taking a new approach to address this with On Demand. The platform has interconnected SaaS-based modules that help admins manage and maintain control of what users can access and how they use cloud resources–whether they are internal or federated users.
The first packages available with Quest On Demand include:
Quest On Demand Recovery for Azure AD helps enterprises securely back up and recover users, attributes, groups and group membership in Azure AD and Office 365 environments with zero impact to the business. Difference reporting enables not only view granular changes between backups and live Azure AD but also allows users to select exactly what they want to restore–a capability not available with native tools.
Quest On Demand Policy Management for Skype for Business Online and Exchange Online helps enterprises set, enforce and restrict Exchange Online and Skype for Business Online policies from a central location. This provides a way to ensure that cloud resources comply with ever-changing business and regulatory policies. With Policy Management for Exchange Online, organizations can set policies for ActiveSync (mobile), mail retention, OWA, file sharing and address book – and increase control over mobile usage.
New Commitment to SaaS
Quest On Demand represents a significant investment in SaaS for the newly independent Quest organization. The company said it plans to expand the On Demand platform to deliver tools that enable full, multi-tenant lifecycle management of Azure AD and Office 365 environments, including migration, audit and license management. This is in addition to the recovery and policy management features now available in the first release.
Quest On Demand is available now. For more information, including a trial download, go here.