The Modern Workplace is a term that was coined by Microsoft (more here) to describe their vision of a virtual workplace where people can participate fully in a work day from anywhere and that facilitates collaboration, devices and services being provisioned on-demand, and a secure way of working. In a Microsoft world, the Modern Workplace includes:
- Unified endpoint management (Endpoint Manager, oka Intune)
- Security (Windows Defender, Mobility and Security, Azure AD, Security and Compliance Centre)
- Teams (Microsoft Teams, Teams Calling)
In my mind though, I think of a modern workplace as something more like complete modern ecosystem, that also includes goodies like:
- Workloads in Azure or AWS, with apps published via Azure Virtual Desktop
- Utilising Office 365, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365 fully
- Cloud printing using Universal Print (and integrated with something like PaperCut to enable secure print release)
- Integrating MS Teams with 3cx
Our goal is to design, deliver and support a clean and simple architecture by applying the following design principles (in order of importance):
- Making the most of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem
- Alternatively using AWS for cloud workloads where there is a distinct benefit
- Using open source solutions (where they are fit for purpose) to provide flexibility, greater control and to lower cost.
- Using 3rd party solutions or custom development (both as a last resort)
