What are the Key Features of a Microsoft Surface Device?

When is a computer more than a computer? Many people assume that any old computer can meet their business' needs, but this isn't always the case. There are times where a company needs computers, tablets, and other devices to act as collaboration tools or to empower their mobile business strategy.

What is Microsoft Surface?

Surface is the brand name for a variety of computing devices manufactured by Microsoft. These devices include the Surface Go, Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, Surface Book, Surface Studio, and Surface Hub (with new variations of each being released periodically). These devices each fill a different need for businesses, so different employees can have access to the tools they need to excel.

The Microsoft Surface family of products offers a variety of features to help empower businesses to make their remote workers more effective while increasing security, collaboration, and enterprise mobility.

Here are some Microsoft Surface features—and what they mean for your business:

Microsoft Surface for Business

Mobility

Modern businesses need strong enterprise mobility to remain competitive. Being able to allow employees to work remotely can help:

Deepen your talent pool by recruiting people who live outside of your office's commuting range;
Improve employee engagement by letting your people work from home to skip the stress and expense of the morning commute; and
Reduce expenses for maintaining an office by minimizing floor space, utility consumption, and maintenance services.

One of the key Microsoft Surface features that enables business mobility is the LTE connectivity of the Surface Pro and the Surface Go. Using this LTE connection feature on select Surface devices, your remote workers can connect with your business-critical data and applications from virtually anywhere they could get a cell phone signal. This can be priceless for a mobile business strategy to be effective.

On top of being able to connect from virtually anywhere, the Surface Pro and Surface Go each have a small form factor that makes them easy to carry around wherever your employees need to travel—making them both excellent mobile business tools.

Collaboration

To be productive, your teams need to be able to work together effectively. Without the right collaboration tools, your people will likely find it hard to work together even when they're in the same office—let alone when you have one or more remote workers on the payroll.

Microsoft Surface collaboration tools give your employees the resources they need to effectively work together regardless of whether they're in the office or working remotely. Two Microsoft Surface features that enable business collaboration include:

Surface's Office 365 Integration. Every Microsoft Surface device is built to work with Office 365 out of the box. This suite of software provides a comprehensive range of productivity and collaboration tools—such as Word, Yammer, and SharePoint. These tools make it easy to create and share important documents for presentations and general team collaboration.
Microsoft Teams Integration. In addition to Office 365, Surface devices like the Pro, Go, and Hub are built around the use of Microsoft Teams. Teams itself integrates with Office 365 to allow team members to edit documents live in real time. Additionally, team-specific chat channels can be created to let team members easily share priority notifications.

When combined with the LTE connectivity of the Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Go, these two features provide unparalleled enterprise mobility for businesses—allowing your remote workers to easily collaborate on important projects from virtually anywhere.

The benefit for your business is that having these collaboration tools makes it easy for your employees to work together regardless of the distances that separate them. This empowers your people to be more effective and efficient at work—bolstering productivity and making your company more competitive.

Microsoft Business Security

In any enterprise, business security is a constant concern. A data breach could cost millions (around $3.86 million, according to Ponemon) as your business works to restore damaged systems, prevent future breaches, and provide reparations and security to any affected customers. Needless to say, security breaches should be avoided whenever possible.

There are a few key Microsoft Surface features that actively contribute to the security of these devices. Some of these features include:

Data Encryption on the Teams Platform. Microsoft Teams automatically provides encryption for data at rest and data in flight. This makes it harder for attackers to actually use any data they happen to get their hands on, improving your overall business security.
Secure Connections with LTE Data. One of the biggest risks with remote workers is when they use unsecured public Wi-Fi networks to connect to your business' apps. Attackers could hijack the connection to conduct a "man in the middle" (MITM) attack and steal data such as the employee's login information. LTE connections eliminate this risk by bypassing the need for free public Wi-Fi connections entirely.
Built-in Security Features for Surface Devices. Microsoft Surface security features include a built-in firewall, anti-malware software, and automatic security updates. These features all help keep Microsoft Surface devices secure—though employees using Surface devices in the field still need to exercise basic caution to prevent physical loss.

If these built-in business security features prevented just one data breach, they'd save your business millions of dollars in expenses and lost reputation.