Office 365 is a large, diverse environment that is comprised of many platforms, services and products. This includes SharePoint Online, Teams, Azure, Exchange and many more. It can be overwhelming to know how to manage and administer all of them properly especially if you are first starting out. Furthermore, you may have requirements for auditing, security and compliance that you need to adhere to. Our Office 365 consulting team always gets asked about all the great admin features Office 365 has to offer. Here is our list of the most important top 10 Office 365 admin portal URLs.
Office 365 Admin Center
The Office 365 Admin Center is the main administrative launching pad most administrators refer to in Office 365. It contains the ability to manage licenses, users and company-wide settings.
Office 365 Security & Compliance Center
As of now, Office 365 has 2 links to Security and Compliance within the Office 365 Admin Center that go to the same exact link. The Office 365 Security & Compliance Center allows you to setup data loss prevention (DLP) policies, information governance policies, administer threat management, conduct auditing and much more.
Office 365 Auditing
https://protection.office.com/unifiedauditlog
Office 365 auditing is part of the Office 365 Security & Compliance Center, but it is so important that it is worth calling out on its own. The auditing center is arguable the most important Office 365 admin portal URL. The auditing functionality spans all of Office 365. It allows you to monitor numerous events, including the most requested events of log ins, content sharing and content deletion. Additionally, you can also setup alerts on certain events so when they transpire, you can act. Common alerts are:
- Detect Malware in File
- Created Access Request
- Shared File, Folder or Site
- User logged in
- Deleted file
Here is a sampling of what can be audited in Office 365:
Azure Active Directory
Azure Active Directory is the back end, holistic management of IDs within Office 365. It not only controls access for users, but the supporting applications that can, and cannot, be used within Office 365. Additionally, if you cannot find what you are looking for in terms of managing uses in the Office 365 Admin Center, chances are it can be found here.
Azure Portal
Azure Portal is the back end to all things in Office 365. You need true technical experience to navigate your way through this admin center. However, if you really want to see the power of Office 365, go to this admin center. Here you can setup virtual machines, databases, AI, networking solutions and almost everything else you can think of that is technology related. You should be especially careful in this admin center as it is easy to add resources that can cost your company more money. This includes additional databases and serves that can range from a few dollars a months to thousands of dollars.
Exchange Admin Center
https://admin.cloud.microsoft/exchange
Email is such an important part of all companies it is worth calling out the Exchange Admin Center. It is here that you can manage all users, groups, mailboxes and mail flow for the entire organization. You can also find aspects around threat management and compliance, which mostly take you over to the Security & Compliance Center.
SharePoint Admin Center
https://admin.microsoft.com/sharepoint?page=home&modern=true
The SharePoint Online admin center is one of the most in depth administration areas in Office 365. It controls how storage is used for files throughout Office 365. Additionally, it has many privacy features such as sharing control and external access. Also, there are some elements of OneDrive administration within the SharePoint admin center so you may need to come here depending what you are looking for. Finally, there are some intricate user profile settings that determine what information is displayed as well as if users can update these settings. We recommend being careful in this area!
Office 365 Compliance Center
https://compliance.microsoft.com/
This is a new admin center within Office 365, but has a large impact and potential. Within this Office 365 admin portal, you can find most major compliance standards such as ISO, HIPAA and NIST. Also, you can create a plan, monitor the implementation status and assigned the implementation and testing to a person. Additionally, you can add data labels to classify Office 365 content based on your business needs.
Office 365 Security Center
https://security.microsoft.com
The Office 365 Security Center is best known for its Secure Score. The Secure Score give your company security recommendations based on the features and functionality available in Office 365. It is recommended that you visit this site once a month especially as Microsoft is constantly evaluating and making improvements to this center and how security is managed. Also you can schedule Office 365 reports to be sent to you or a team when certain events transpire.
Endpoint / Device Management (Intune)
https://devicemanagement.microsoft.com/
Bring your own device (BYOD) is becoming more and more popular for companies. Working from home or working remotely can save companies thousands, if not millions, of dollars from money saved on rent, devices and everything needed to support that infrastructure. Additionally, even if a company isn’t using BYOD, they may be issuing their own company mobile devices. This is where device management becomes very important. Finally, you can create policies based on IP addresses, specific device types and much more for monitoring, security and compliance.
Bonus: Cloud App Security
https://portal.cloudappsecurity.com/
Cloud App security requires a license to use it, but it is very powerful. The Cloud App Security center contains some of the elements found in the Security and Compliance center and improves it by providing deeper insights into the data as well as more recommendations across thousands of apps. Similar to the Security and Compliance, Cloud App Security is focused on securing your Office 365 environment across all platforms and tools.
Bonus: Teams Admin Center
https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/
Microsoft Teams is the fastest growing app within Office 365. Microsoft has invested heavily in this technology and is constantly updating the features of this application. The Microsoft Teams admin center has also grow a lot in the last few years. Also, it is worth checking out all the features available in this center once a month due to all the changes being implemented. Furthermore, some of the most notable features of the Microsoft Teams admin center are:
- Managing all Microsoft Teams
- Managing Microsoft Teams Policies
- Configuring Organization Settings for Microsoft Teams
- Seeing Usage Reports for Microsoft Teams
- Managing Meeting and Phones for Microsoft Teams
Bonus: All Office 365 Admin Centers
https://admin.microsoft.com/AdminPortal/Home#/alladmincenters
As a final bonus, there is a way to see all the admin centers that Microsoft has office deemed. Overall their list does not include half the links shown above and that is the main reason this article was written. Similarly, there are many flavors of administration in Office 365; some of which you need to look around to find. Also the link above does contain other admin centers such as Power BI, Search, Stream and Power Apps. Hope you find all these Office 365 admin portal URLs useful!
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