Office 365 isn't the complete productivity solution it should be, IT boss claims

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Microsoft may be continually honing and refining Office 365, but according to one IT expert, the cloud-based suite still needs some serious work, as it isn't the all-in-one solution it should be.

Nick Iannou, who is head of IT at Ratcliffe Groves Partnership, as well as a blogger and author with considerable expertise in the field of the cloud, said at a recent cloud conference that Office 365 simply comes up short in terms of its overall functionality, and that he needed to run four other services alongside the productivity suite "just to get it to do what you think it does".

Iannou noted that for one thing, the SLA (service level agreement) doesn't cover spam, so if you want protection from being bombarded by junk emails, and a spam filter that actually works, you have to pay for it.

As V3.co.uk reports, he observed that he also had to pay to archive data for compliance purposes, and that furthermore: "If you want detailed reporting, you need something else. People sign up with a credit card and think it all works and it's done. But that's not the reality."

Not so advanced

Iannou also warned that Microsoft's Advanced Threat Protection – a paid-for security add-on for Office 365 which aims to keep users safe from malicious attachments and URLs, defending against malware that has only just appeared on the scene – isn't as sophisticated as the name would suggest, and called it 'slightly better threat detection'.

He revealed that he found two flaws in the system, and added: "I'm basically paying to test something … that's not good enough."

Iannou has been complaining for some time now that Advanced Threat Protection is effectively a beta product which shouldn't be charged for – he was penning articles on this subject a year ago. Evidently he still remains unimpressed.

Meanwhile, Microsoft did recently make a move to bolster trust in Office 365, bolting on a new Service Assurance Dashboard that provides full details of privacy, security and compliance controls.

Another recent change to the cloud-based suite is the addition of guest access for Office 365 Groups, which allows people outside of your company to join a group. This functionality is currently being rolled out.

• Despite this expert's opinion, Office 365 is becoming more and more popular