What Exchange Online Does
Exchange Online delivers email, calendaring, and contact management through the cloud. It supports various mailbox plans, offering different storage capacities and feature sets. Retention policies allow for long-term storage of email data for legal or regulatory purposes. Archiving functionality provides a separate storage location for older emails, reducing mailbox size and improving performance. Exchange Online Protection (EOP) provides a baseline of spam and malware filtering.
Exchange Online in Australian Tenants Today
Many AU mid-market organisations use Exchange Online as part of their Microsoft 365 subscriptions. A common upgrade path from EOP-only is to implement Microsoft Defender for Office 365 for enhanced threat protection, aligning with the ACSC Essential Eight. Mailbox export capabilities are crucial for legal hold requirements and responding to discovery requests. Organisations must carefully consider the Privacy Act 2024 and OAIC guidance when handling email content, particularly regarding consent and data minimisation. The Communications Compliance + Insider Risk add-on provides further controls over sensitive data and user behaviour.