Mednax Improves Enterprise Hybrid Microsoft 365 Security and Admin Efficiency

Overview

Key Capabilities:

  • True hybrid management with a single web portal that manages both Active Directory and Office 365
  • Secure delegation with strict access controls to service desk and junior administrators
  • Simultaneously provision, manage or deprovision Active Directory and Office 365 user accounts
  • Visibility, assignment and ongoing enforcement of Office 365 licenses
  • Visibility and understanding of standard user account details across a hybrid Microsoft environment

The Results:

  • Improved security by reducing who has powerful native administrative permissions
  • Moved tedious administrative tasks from senior administrators to the service desk
  • Reduced or eliminated majority of additional work related to hybrid operations
  • Gained control over Microsoft license management to the end-user level

“We also considered how we could empower other groups within Mednax, such as the security team and the help desk, and keep individuals from going directly into AD to make changes that cause security issues. After research, we found that Cayosoft was the best solution for us.” — Donald Donais, Enterprise Collaboration Manager at Mednax

Cayosoft Administrator for True Hybrid Management

Introduction

MEDNAX, Inc. is a national health solutions partner comprised of the nation’s leading providers of physician services.

After the company had moved much of its environment to the Microsoft cloud, they were struggling to securely and efficiently manage distribution groups, shared mailboxes, Office 365 licenses and more. While most of the organization is cloud-only, on-premises Active Directory (AD) remains, and Mednax plans to continue operating a hybrid Microsoft environment.

The IT Business Challenge

After moving to a hybrid Microsoft Office 365 environment, the IT team at Mednax began looking for a management solution to help the organization securely manage the environment.

“We moved to Office 365 from an archaic platform, and a lot of junk got moved with the migration, like all users, all groups and built-in users and groups. We were still managing all of that junk and began to look for a way to dynamically manage this hybrid environment.”

“We also considered how we could empower other groups within Mednax, such as the security team and the help desk, and keep individuals from going directly into AD to make changes that cause security issues,” said Donald Donais, Enterprise Collaboration Manager at Mednax. “Ultimately we did not want to have our techs logging into Active Directory to make changes. Having the tool to act as the go between helps with security and gives us an additional level of change control. After research, we found that Cayosoft was the best solution for us.”

Finding A Solution - Cayosoft Administrator

The Mednax team has improved security and increased efficiency of hybrid user management with Cayosoft Administrator.

“We appreciate being able to do overall user management from one spot. Cayosoft Administrator is taking the place of access to AD, access to Office 365 and sometimes access to Azure AD – that 2-3 areas I’d have to go to – and now I can see it all and manage it all in one place.”

Mednax uses Cayosoft Administrator for numerous daily administrative tasks.

“New users get provisioned through Cayosoft Administrator and they are automatically given a license,” said Donais. “We have a rule run daily for this. We also use Administrator for creating dynamic groups, shared mailboxes, security groups, providing reports and more.”

Cayosoft Administrator enables Mednax to securely delegate day-to-day tasks to administrators and the service desk without granting them native permissions. This reduces the likelihood of insider threats and eliminates the need to grant excess privileges that may natively require global admin status.

“Today, all of our support people are using Cayosoft,” said Donais. “For example, they use Cayosoft all the time for license management. If a user needs an upgrade, say they are moving from web only to web plus desktop, the service desk can do it, and they don’t have to manually go into AD or the Office 365 Admin Console.”

“I also find Cayosoft Administrator useful for providing visibility and understanding standard user account details. I can throw a report together, for example, to help me understand who has what licenses, down to the division level and end user level. We also run reports to see if we are low on specific licenses, it will let us know so that we can get more reserved.”

And Mednax continues to find ways to streamline their Microsoft Management.

“We are currently dabbling in self service for owners, so that group owners can manage their own groups, and we can tie that into compliance certification reviews with attestations. We’re rolling that out to all BU stakeholders who are owners for a particular group.”

“Cayosoft Administrator is our one-stop shop for anything we need to do with a particular user, from provisioning to mailboxes to licenses,” said Donais. “There is a major ROI in having it. Our two engineers and myself don’t have to rush around for every request because Cayosoft enabled us to offload that administration from senior IT staff to the service desk and other day-to-day administrators.”

Learn More about Cayosoft

Cayosoft offers the only comprehensive solution enabling IT Admins to securely manage, continuously monitor for changes, and immediate recover their Microsoft platforms, including on-premises Active Directory, Azure AD, and Office 365, from one unified platform. To learn more about Cayosoft’s solutions visit, our Product pages.

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