This defense-affiliated educational institution supports roughly 300 Microsoft 365 users with a two-person IT team. Its user base includes senior military officers and officials from multiple member nations. Strong access governance is therefore essential for protecting sensitive communications across the institution’s Microsoft 365 environment.
The institution’s two-person IT team was responsible for Microsoft 365 administration, helpdesk support, onboarding, offboarding, and day-to-day access changes across a highly sensitive environment. With a user base that includes senior military personnel and officials from member nations, gaps in access governance could create serious security, confidentiality, and compliance risks.
The team handled much of this work manually, increasing the risk of delays, missed steps, and outdated permissions. Former users could retain access for too long, role changes could leave permissions misaligned across systems, and sensitive information could remain accessible to people who no longer required it.
The team also lacked the automated controls needed to enforce least privilege or establish a single view of access across the environment.
The institution was managing access across several separate Microsoft 365 admin environments. Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, and Entra ID each had their own administrative interfaces and permissions models. This required the two-person team to piece together a user’s access state across multiple systems, all while attempting to keep pace with day-to-day support demands.
Native controls also left administrators with visibility and management rights beyond their scope of responsibility. Without a more precise way to scope operator access, the institution couldn’t consistently enforce least privilege across the IT team itself.
For an institution handling sensitive multinational defense communications, those broad administrative permissions created a serious security and access control concern.
The team needed a way to automate access changes, improve visibility, and ensure each administrator could see and manage only the users, data, and resources their role required.
The institution deployed CoreView to bring automation, centralized visibility, and tighter operator controls to its Microsoft 365 environment.
Onboarding, offboarding, and role changes are now handled through automated, repeatable workflows. A unified management interface gives administrators a single view across the tenant, with no need to move between separate Microsoft 365 admin centers.
The institution upgraded to CoreView’s Enterprise package after seeing the additional governance capabilities available through CoreView Virtual Tenants and scoped operator access. The institution can now define the scope of access available to each administrator.
As a result, least-privilege controls now extend to the IT team itself. Administrators are scoped to their individual functions, so an operator responsible for one part of the organization is unable to view or act on another.
CoreView has made Microsoft 365 administration more consistent and easier to both oversee and control for this defense-affiliated institution’s small IT team.
The core benefits have included:
Together, these changes have given the institution a more reliable way to govern access across a sensitive Microsoft 365 environment.
CoreView addressed several requirements that native Microsoft 365 tools could not meet cleanly: automating lifecycle processes, centralizing access visibility, and enforcing least privilege for administrators. This combination of outcomes creates a more reliable access governance model, helping the institution protect sensitive information shared across a multinational defense user base.
