Vodafone hits Microsoft Gold Security milestone

Vodafone New Zealand and its growing ICT practice has achieved Microsoft Gold Security competency.

The telecommunications company says the achievement reflects its deep technical experience in designing, engineering and implementing security programs for customers.

The accreditation highlights Vodafone's ongoing investment in keeping New Zealand businesses secure online, in an environment where cyberattacks are rapidly increasing in sophistication and threatening even the savviest targets.

Vodafone's New Zealand's head of ICT, Glenn Johnstone, says doing business online is tough enough without the rising worry of cyberattack.

"Vodafone partners with leading experts in this space to offer products that keep our customers safe, and we continually invest in developing and certifying our own expert staff to provide trusted guidance and simple to use solutions in the market," he says.

"I'm delighted Vodafone has been awarded Gold Security Competency from Microsoft for these efforts.

Vodafone is also helping customers protect themselves by showing them how to invest in their people, processes and technologies in a real-world cyberattack experience. A new initiative by Vodafone, Cyberwar Games, delivers a real-world attack experience in a safe and secure environment so they can help their customers map their future priorities and establish a modern cyber security roadmap.

With recent deliveries of security services to leading Government agencies, coupled with the recently achieved Gold Competency in Security, Vodafone is in prime position to deliver similar security services to other New Zealand organisations looking to leverage more of or continue to deepen their investment in Microsoft 365 E5 capabilities.

A key strength of Vodafone's approach addresses the complexity of large technology transformations and solutions such as Vodafone Managed Devices, which provides an end-to-end cloud-based device and application management solution. Using the Microsoft 365 platform and Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM), Vodafone deploy best-practice security and device configurations that help to ensure a user's device fleet stays secure and up-to-date while keeping everyone productive.

Microsoft NZ managing director Vanessa Sorenson says, "Our recent Microsoft Digital Defence Report highlighted a huge increase in both the number of cyber attacks and the sophistication of cybercriminals over the past year, at a time when more New Zealanders than ever are using digital platforms to work, connect and access services on a daily basis.

"That's why it's vital local partners like Vodafone invest in capabilities and solutions to keep customers safe," she says.

"We're thrilled that Vodafone is making it even easier for customers to protect their data and operations, which will give Kiwis the confidence to innovate and do more with technology so our whole society can benefit."