Global Micro, South Africa's most experienced cloud provider with more than 30 years of experience, is set to open physical offices in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

These offices make Microsoft licensing and compliance easier across Europe and the United States. The company is uniquely positioned to help organisations deal with the challenges around compliance in the EU and US. 

''It has become clear that there is significant demand for assistance to meet the compliance demands of GDPR and NIS 2 by the EU region, particularly with the EU parliament vowing to strengthen GDPR enforcement earlier this year.

Our M365 Security and Compliance offering covers all the 34 technical controls for ISO 27001 Information Security, upon which GDPR is based," explains JJ Milner, the Managing Director of Global Micro.

Furthermore, Global Micro can provide the US and European markets with an end-to-end service to achieve ISO 27001 certification as well as ensure GDPR and NIS2 compliance.

The company already has a solid reputation with customers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and its solutions have been thoroughly tested. They are highly regarded by 1,200 customers in the region. It has further enabled its customers to attain considerably better security than the norm, a key metric in the EU's strict regulations.

''The effectiveness of our unique approach to managed services is evidenced by the success of our customers who enjoy far higher levels of security. While the average Microsoft Secure Score is 44/100, our customers have an average score of 75/100," he adds.

The expansion of Global Micro's physical presence globally will enable the company to provide Microsoft licensing to customers in all European countries, in accordance with European Union laws, as well as across the United Kingdom and the United States.

The official launch has been a year in the making. This is due to the complexities of meeting the legislative and governance requirements for Microsoft, UK, EU and US, explains Milner.

The new offices will be able to draw upon the company's full staff complement, from its back office, project management and consulting services to sales and always-available technical support teams.

A key benefit that the company will bring is a more effective approach to delivering and maintaining secure and compliant environments.

Milner explains that its services are delivered as managed code, which allows for standardised, consistent and auditable change management.

This approach creates a feedback loop across its 1200 managed customers, allows it to update its code base and releases improvements to all its customers.

The opening of the offices is also intended to help customers take full advantage of Microsoft's push into artificial intelligence (AI) via its Copilot offering in its Microsoft 365 software suite.

''While AI can open up exciting new capabilities for businesses, it can also expose hidden vulnerabilities in a company's security and compliance measures,'' says Milner.

Companies, therefore, must be able to use the technology securely and ensure that all their security settings are aligned across their users, devices, networks, applications and the entirety of their infrastructure.

With more than 2,500 different security settings and constantly changing regulations that companies must adhere to, that is no small feat. It is a challenge that the Global Micro office will enable its European customers to meet without needing to retain a large security team. 

These offices are set to be the first physical points of presence that mark Global Micro's global expansion.

''We are committed to establishing office locations where our customers need a physical presence. The next one will likely be in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in due course,'' concludes Milner.