As a business we had various challenges from moving a legacy on-premises Exchange email system into a hosted Office365 environment, and the replacement and upgrading of old LAN servers. With the help, support and efforts of Circle Cloud we are now in a position where our system & infrastructure is simpler, cleaner and more resilient.

Our Office365 system offers the users guaranteed uptime, accessible from any place and device, whilst its management facilities make it easier to monitor and control. Circle Cloud also created an environment where we have reduced our physical server footprint from 3 down to 1 by using MS Hyper-V and virtual servers.

The commitment to quality and care by Circle Cloud, provided the management team with assurances.

I have been impressed with the knowledge and care taken to listen and resolve issues. Having a support and infrastructure team with knowledge and willingness to help is a big bonus for any enterprise. I would whole-heartedly recommend them.”

Urfan Durrani, IT Manager

“Furthermore, they have also offered great advice and help on licensing to ensure costs are kept to a minimum.”

Mark Pendlebury. IT Manager. Cosatto Ltd’

“Broker Insights were working with another IT management partner at the time we engaged with Circle Cloud. Because of the nature of the information we deal with, we wanted a third-party audit to ensure we were meeting all the relevant security best practices. Circle Cloud’s specialism in M365 security made them a perfect choice. The audit they carried out was extremely thorough, but it was the remediation guidance that set it apart. It was detailed enough for us to pass straight to our incumbent IT provider at the time, who were able to action the guidance to improve our security position”

“Waterton Academy Trust adopted a singular Office 365 tenancy in early 2021 to provide email provision for the trust’s 15 education provisions and in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, responded to its necessity to provide remote learning platforms through the use of Microsoft Teams. Building on from this, the next phase in maximising from Microsoft cloud technologies is to adopt Azure in full, moving away from the traditional on premise server platforms and managing devices via Endpoint/Azure AD. Waterton Academy Trust explored prominent IT Cloud service providers with a view to commission a robust report on our current security position and provide a bespoke architecture model aligned to our central IT strategies. Circle Cloud’s offer of Office 365 security audits catered for every aspect of the brief, however it excelled in the way it was delivered to us as a customer. The added value area of mapping out detailed next steps alongside flagged areas was highly valued and demonstrated their unique ethos of being able to provide an external sound board/advisory presence and where needed, action change by their internal staff as a commissioned service. Prior to commissioning Circle Cloud, we had a number of detailed meetings to fully explore what our intended outcomes needed to look like. This enabled Circle Cloud staff to propose a considered proposal which at every stage was highly accurate, respectful and wrote with both technical and nontechnical audiences in mind. Post commission we received a bespoke report on our security position along with next steps, clarity on areas of good practice and a concise technical model to support our next phases in cloud adoption. Based on the experience we had from Circle Cloud, including value for money, the accuracy and attentiveness from staff, we have now adopted the company as our external consultant for Microsoft cloud technologies.”

Ian Burns – IT Services Manager – Waterton Academy Trust

Cloud to Cloud migrations, as well as On Premise to Cloud migrations.

In November 2021 Circle Cloud were engaged after a shortlisting process, for a time sensitive tenant to tenant domain migration following a business separation each tenant being wholly separate to the other.

An existing tenant with multiple domains required assessment, to enable some domains to migrate to a new tenant.

Several companies were contacted and their tools assessed, but none could provide a ‘one stop shop’. Some could move the User accounts and exchange data, others Microsoft Teams and SharePoint data etc.

We required the copying/movement of multiple shared mailboxes, user accounts with Office 365 mailboxes (and associated Onedrive), Microsoft Teams and associated Sharepoint sites with Sharepoint data and assigned user permissions.

No element could be migrated without the other, and all required movement together.

All required confirmation of migration prior to source deletion. With regards to data content – approx. 3tb.

New tenant required the same configuration (or better) as the source, without the creation of new unforeseen security risks.

The expectation was that end users would see no visible difference with regards to experience or content, with the exception of a new temporary password and new MFA registration process.

Circle Cloud were able to achieve the exercise out of hours over the Christmas break 2021, with users starting the new year of 2022 on fresh MDM Endpoint devices, unaware of the data migration.

Circle Cloud audited the new tenant following the successful migration to ensure all current security recommendations were in place and any potential improvements adopted.

John Painter, IT Systems & Development Manager