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Glück & Kanja provide holistic security for productivity solutions

Helping global companies make the leap from on-premises to cloud

One of the world’s leading providers of transportation and logistics services had a logistical problem of its own—one common to many businesses. The company had 350 on-premises active directories spread across hundreds of subsidiaries worldwide. They knew they needed to consolidate all those directories—but how?

Glück & Kanja, a German consulting company with a strong focus on security, had the solution, but it was not the typical lengthy and costly on-premises consolidation. Instead, Glück & Kanja moved the customer’s infrastructure directly to Microsoft Entra ID, using Microsoft Intune to manage and moderate the clients.

The customer can now deploy cloud workstations in every branch office around the world, without adding expensive infrastructure to the branches. Plus, the migration took only six months—not the years that some consolidation projects require. Along with saving time and money for the customer, the migration to Azure helped the company improve data security with the help of Microsoft Information Protection, which protects cloud documents.

“Today, we are really changing the way companies work with the infrastructure in establishing a 100 percent cloud technology. We are trying to get rid of every on-premise area.”

— Christian Kanja, Founder, Glück & Kanja

Driving growth with future workplace solution

Glück & Kanja has been a Microsoft partner for more than 20 years. The company has evolved from focusing on enterprise computing with Microsoft Windows NT and Exchange servers to today operating as a leading cloud and communications partner that was named the 2017 Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Partner of the Year.

Glück & Kanja convinced the Microsoft jury by developing an innovative blueprint for a future-proof IT infrastructure they call The Future Workplace. The blueprint helps companies pursue a “100 percent cloud” strategy—rapidly transforming their entire IT infrastructure to the cloud with the help of Microsoft technologies including Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security, Microsoft Entra ID, and Microsoft Intune.

Michael Breither, head of sales for Glück & Kanja, describes The Future Workplace as “the future of the infrastructure and the productivity workspace ecosystem for global companies and their productivity workers.” On top of deploying Microsoft productivity solutions, Breither says The Future Workplace uses the full suite of Microsoft 365 formerly known as Secure Productive Enterprise (SPE) E5 solutions and products such as Azure Information Protection, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection to give customers the security they need “on all their different devices and operating systems and in all of their branches.”

Close relationship with Microsoft builds success

Having a close relationship with Microsoft has been important to Glück & Kanja from the beginning, and they have worked hard to develop that relationship with everyone from Microsoft sales teams to product teams to engineers.

Glück & Kanja works closely with Microsoft product teams to understand exactly what is in every product, as well as what is coming next. That is especially critical with cloud technologies, which are evolving extremely quickly. With the help of the product teams, Glück & Kanja is able to stay ahead of the curve and provide expert advice and assistance to customers.

Glück & Kanja has also worked with Microsoft to understand all the features and benefits of the Microsoft security stack, which has been helpful in convincing customers that it is safe to move to the cloud.

“There is a lot of discussion around security and I think with EMS we have the chance to address those topics. I really see Microsoft in a good position on discussions about data privacy, especially for European needs.”

— Karsten Kleinschmidt, Senior Cloud Architect, Glück & Kanja

Cloud opportunities are increasing

Glück & Kanja focuses its sales efforts on multinational companies based in Germany that are interested in pursuing a 100 percent cloud strategy—and there are a lot of those companies.

In fact, CEO Christian Kanja says, “We have so many appointments at the moment, talking with customers about providing their Windows clients with enterprise mobility and security stack on top—customers are really, really interested in learning more about the opportunities they might have with the cloud approach.”

The opportunity is only expected to grow, as even more businesses recognize that secure and efficient cloud solutions are available. Kanja describes a “huge” market opportunity, with all types of businesses hungry to learn more about how they can effectively move to the cloud with Microsoft technologies.

Download the full case study for even more information!