First and foremost, I hope that you are well and staying safe during this novel COVID-19 virus pandemic.
Like me, you are more than likely at home under a state of “shelter in place” and/or observing “social isolation” as best you can. In doing so, your home and work life may be experiencing some chaos as well. Fortunately, we have video-teleconferencing software to aid us in remaining connected during these difficult times, and the most noticeable software that we are seeing either in the news or in advertisements are Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
Both Microsoft Teams and Zoom provide its end users with the ability to communicate and collaborate over voice, video, and chat in real-time and apart from some vendor-specific feature set, on its face, both tools seemingly offer you the same experience… seemingly. But does it really offer you the same experience? I would argue that if your expectations stop at just having a video, voice, chat experience… then ‘yes’, it does. If, however your expectations are to have a secure, PII (Personally Identifiable Information) regulated observed and maintained experience, they differ. Spoiler Alert! Zoom has been in the news recently plagued by privacy and security issues and the term “Zoombombing” became a household term. Zoombombing put simply is where an uninvited guest enters into said Zoom meeting to cause disruption. If Zoombombing was the extent of the problem faced, that would be one thing, but in addition to that there were other elements of end users’ data being directed to Facebook by way of their use of Facebook Software Developers Kit (SDK). Without going into each aspect individually, the repercussions have been swift with corporations, local municipalities, state and federal government putting out advisories to halt Zoom’s use. If both software, Microsoft Teams and Zoom on its face provides the same capabilities, then why does Microsoft Teams not face the same issues? Well, let’s unpack that.
Reach out to us.
Microsoft, as in most of its products and services offerings, is backed by the security of Active Directory [On Premises: Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS); Cloud: Azure Active Directory (AAD)] which provides enterprise wide Authentication and Authorization. Simply put, it checks ‘who you are’ and ‘what are you permitted to do’ and Microsoft Teams is no exception. In my opinion also, Microsoft has always built its software with an eye towards the enterprise customer base and it’s only recently (in technology terms) that its focus has blended both consumer and enterprise at scale. Now, I can could go on and on lamenting Zoom’s failures, but I do commend them on the swift action they took in addressing and resolving in most part the concerns of their user base. The reason I wanted to put my opinions on the matter in play is centered around the fact that Microsoft Teams supports more than 90 regulatory standards and laws which though not exhaustive, includes Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), HIPAA, and GDPR to name a few. You also won’t find advertisements served (at least at the time of this writing) in Microsoft Teams meetings, as well as participant attention, is also not tracked.
I am telling our clients and prospective clients to use Microsoft Teams for their corporate environment. Do I believe that Zoom has its place? Yes certainly, but faced with a decision for our corporate clients, I don’t think that is the place for its current build. Are there things in Zoom I wish would be in Microsoft Teams? Again, yes certainly, most notable is the ability to show more than four (4) participants video at a time, however I won’t put my security and privacy at risk for that feature. With this spotlight on Zoom, it’s my hope that they can only get better from this, but in the meantime… consider using Microsoft Teams for your video teleconferencing needs.
UPDATE [April 14, 2020]: How timely, I was happy to see today when I entered into a Microsoft Teams meeting that I had the ability to have multiple virtual desktops. I also am very excited to see what the new 3 by 3 or 9 concurrent video screens will look like when it hits my tenant.
[May 20, 2020]: Great news! Microsoft is increasing the number of participants who can be viewed simultaneously on the Teams meeting stage from 4 to 9. The layout will adapt based on the user bandwidth and alter the number of videos shown to ensure high video and audio quality. This feature has started to roll out to tenants worldwide and we have already seen it in our Withum tenant. If you don’t see it yet, with all the excitement around this 1st virtual Microsoft Build conference, stay tuned as its it’s coming. For the latest on what’s new in Teams, click here.
Digital and Technology Transformation
