Microsoft 365 Security Baseline From Augmentt Shows ‘They Know How To Partner’

SaaS security startup Augmentt recently debuted useful new baselining capabilities, a solution provider partner tells CRN.

The recent debut of new Microsoft 365 security baselining capabilities from SaaS security vendor Augmentt demonstrates how focused the startup is on meeting the needs of its partners, according to an MSP executive.

Founded in 2020, Kanata, Ontario-based Augmentt offers a centralized SaaS security platform built for MSPs to deliver managed security services around the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration apps, including Outlook and Teams. In February, the company rolled out new capabilities that provide ready-to-use baselines for securing the use of Microsoft 365.

The baselines allow an MSP to standardize all of their customers on a set of premade security settings, said Derik Belair, co-founder and CEO at Augmentt.

“As an MSP, the key is standardization. If you're doing one-off work for customers, it's very difficult to scale,” Belair said.

“In our space, I don't know that there's any other company that's doing security baselines for Microsoft,” he said. “And it's what MSPs have been looking for.”

The Microsoft 365 security baselines are available across all of the startup’s products, according to Belair. That includes the company’s SaaS security management platform, Augmentt Secure, as well as the Augmentt Engage user management tool and its “shadow IT” discovery offering, Augmentt Discover.

Key baselines that the company is providing to MSPs and their customers include premade settings for multifactor authentication (MFA). This can include stricter MFA requirements for administrators than for non-admin users, as well as variable MFA enforcement requirements depending on whether the user is in the office or remote, Belair said.

George Smith, head of community and strategic partnerships at Augmentt, said that baselining is crucial for MSPs, which increasingly recognize that “Microsoft isn't secure out of the box.”

However, for MSPs to customize security settings on a tenant-by-tenant basis is a massive lift, Smith said.

“Having a sort of magic button that lets you roll out some of these key policies across all of your clients — it's going to be a huge time saver,” he said.

One MSP partner of Augmentt applauded the debut of the new baselining capabilities at the company. Rob Fallows, president of TeamLogic IT Phoenix, said the new tools are on his company’s roadmap for capabilities to potentially deploy.

“There are companies that come around every now and then that make you go, ‘Hey, they really get it. They know how to partner. They know how to work together,’” Fallows said.

“They're just very customer focused,” he added. “They ask us often about new products, new solutions. They ask for ideas on how to improve the existing solutions. I just really enjoy working with them.”

Belair said the new baselining capabilities have indeed been developed using input from Augmentt’s MSP partners.

“We’re constantly probing our MSPs for, ‘What should be in this baseline, what should the minimum requirements be?’” he said. “But we also allow you to customize it. Some of our bigger MSPs will create these custom baselines that are unique to customers or unique to industries.”

Ultimately, MSPs are looking “to bring all their customers and all their environments up to a certain security bar, and want to be told if it ever drifts,” Belair said. “That’s what most MSPs want.”