Cloud Services
Moving to Microsoft 365 was supposed to make things simpler. So why are you still paying for licenses assigned to people who left last year, still not sure MFA covers everyone, and still assuming someone — Microsoft, maybe? — is backing it all up?
A cloud environment is only as good as its management. Pinnacle IT’s cloud team runs your Microsoft 365 tenant the way it should be run: secured, right-sized, backed up, and ready for whatever you adopt next — including AI.
Employee onboarding and offboarding
Nothing exposes sloppy IT like a hire or a departure. A new employee who can’t work on day one costs you productivity and makes a bad first impression. A departed employee whose access lingers for weeks is a security incident waiting for a reason.
We handle user moves, adds, and changes same-day: accounts, licenses, devices, and group memberships provisioned before the new hire sits down and access revoked at a fixed minute when someone leaves. For sensitive departures, we coordinate with HR and legal to have access cut at an agreed time, mailbox and files preserved, devices collected, and evidence intact.
Learn more about onboarding & offboarding services →
Licensing and renewals
In almost every tenant we review, we find the same things: paid licenses assigned to departed employees, the wrong subscription tiers, overlapping tools with separate renewal dates, and security features that are already paid for but never turned on.
We map every license to a person, a department, and a stated need, then audit it quarterly against headcount. Renewals stop being a surprise, and your per-user cost becomes a number you can actually budget. Often, the savings we find cover a meaningful part of our fee.
Learn more about licensing & renewals management →
Cloud security: MFA, Conditional Access, and DLP
In a cloud-first organization, identity is the new perimeter — most breaches now start with a stolen login, not malware. We enforce multi-factor authentication and conditional access across your tenant, apply least-privilege access so people can reach what they need and nothing more, and configure data loss prevention (DLP) so sensitive information — patient records, client files, controlled data — can’t quietly leave your organization by email, share link, or AI prompt. → /cloud/cloud-security
Learn more about cloud security →
Who backs up your Microsoft 365 data?
Not Microsoft — at least, not the way most people assume. Under Microsoft’s shared responsibility model, Microsoft guarantees the service stays up. Protecting your data against deletion, ransomware, and malicious insiders is your responsibility. We provide automated SaaS backup for mail, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams, with retention policies and restore testing — so “it’s in the cloud” actually means “it’s safe."
Learn more about cloud backups →
Cloud migrations, without the chaos
Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. On-premises Exchange to the cloud. Tenant-to-tenant consolidation after a merger. Our team plans the migration, moves and validates the data, confirms every user has what they need, and hands off a documented environment, with cutovers scheduled so your team barely notices.
Learn more about cloud migrations →
Thinking about Copilot or other AI tools? Start here.
AI tools inherit your permissions. If your Microsoft 365 tenant has excessive access, stale accounts, and no DLP, an AI rollout hands every one of those problems a faster engine. The same controls we manage every day — identity, permissions, data governance — are exactly what determines whether AI is safe to adopt. Our AI Readiness Assessment scores your environment and gives you the roadmap.
Learn more about our AI Readiness Assessment →
What we look for in a Microsoft 365 tenant review
- Licenses still assigned to employees who left — and tiers that don’t match how people actually work
- MFA gaps and missing conditional access policies
- Global administrator accounts that shouldn’t be
- Security features included in your current licensing but never enabled
- No SaaS backup — and no tested restore path for mail or files
- Sharing settings that let sensitive data travel further than anyone intended
A tenant review takes little of your time and usually pays for itself in the first finding.
When did someone last audit your tenant?
Schedule a free evaluation and we’ll review your licensing, security settings, and backup posture, and show you exactly what we find.
Cloud Services FAQs
Does Microsoft back up my Microsoft 365 data?
Microsoft keeps the service running and provides limited, short-term recovery options but under its shared responsibility model, protecting your data from deletion, ransomware, and account compromise is your job, not Microsoft’s. A third-party SaaS backup with retention and tested restores closes that gap.
Can you reduce our Microsoft 365 costs?
Usually, yes. Most tenants we review carry licenses for departed employees, oversized tiers, or duplicate tools. We right-size licensing quarterly against actual headcount and usage. Just as often, we find you’re already paying for security capabilities that simply need to be turned on — value you already own.
How fast can you onboard or offboard an employee?
Same day. Onboarding is provisioned before the new hire starts; offboarding revokes access at a fixed time you choose, with mailbox and files preserved. For high-risk departures we coordinate timing with HR and legal.
What licenses should our organization be on?
For most organizations of 20–300 users, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the right baseline. It bundles the security stack (Defender, Intune device management, conditional access) that cheaper tiers strip out and that you’d otherwise buy separately for more. Government organizations may need GCC licensing; we’ll tell you honestly when compliance requires it and when it doesn’t.
Do you support hybrid environments with on-premises servers?
Yes. Many of our clients run hybrid — cloud productivity with on-premises servers or line-of-business systems. We manage both sides and the identity layer that connects them. Learn more about our Network & Infrastructure management services.