We have no server room. Can we still claim Essential Eight progress?

Yes. For most of the Eight, Entra, Intune, Defender and proper M365 backup are the control plane. The work is configuring and running them properly across every location, including when there is no LAN.

Is this a one-off gap assessment?

We can start with a gap view. The point of the page is an operated baseline: controls that stay in place, get reviewed, and produce evidence when the board or insurer asks again.

How does this differ from a generic cyber project?

Generic projects often end in a report. We are a security-first MSP. The same engineers who set Conditional Access and Intune compliance also support your users Australia-wide from Surry Hills.

Do you require everyone to be on company-owned laptops?

Company-owned and Intune-managed is the cleanest path. BYOD can work with clear compliance and selective wipe rules. We will say so if your mix is too loose for the maturity you want to claim.

What about staff who never visit Sydney?

That is normal for us. Policies, patching, wipe and support are remote-native. On-site is available for Sydney when you need it; everyone else is designed to work without a van.

Internacious • Essential Eight

Remote & Multi-Site Teams

Essential Eight when your team is located across states with no office

If half your people work from home and the rest sit in co-work type locations in different cities, you do not have a traditional perimeter. There is no office firewall story that covers a laptop on home Wi-Fi in Brisbane while the finance folder lives in SharePoint in Sydney.

Boards and insurers still ask whether you are doing the Essential Eight. That question does not go away because you went remote. Internacious runs Essential Eight assessments as an operated baseline on Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Intune and Defender, for teams whose "network" is identity and devices rather than a rack in a central office.

Essential Eight mapped to remote and multi-site work

Operated baseline you keep running

Evidence you can hand over to boards and insurers

Call (02) 8313 0464 Email [email protected]

Talk to a senior engineer about your real setup

Who it's for

Australian organisations of about 5–75 people whose staff work across states, home offices and more than one site. Professional services, NFP and health teams, construction and architecture firms with site plus office patterns, and any Microsoft 365 business that has outgrown "we turned on MFA once."

You already know identity and devices are the perimeter. You need someone who will operate Essential Eight there. Quoting a firewall for an office network you do not have will not help.

Essential Eight mapped to how remote and multi-site teams work

Essential Eight control	How we operate it without an office network
Application control	Intune allow/deny and hardening where it is practical for your seat count.
Patch applications	Intune + Defender update rings; third-party apps in scope, not only Windows Update
Microsoft Office macros	Baseline policies that block casual macro risk while allowing the few exceptions your company needs
User application hardening	Browser and Office hardening pushed through Intune so home and office devices get the same story
Restrict administrative privileges	Least privilege in Entra; separate admin accounts; Conditional Access on privileged roles
Patch operating systems	Compliance policies that block access when a device falls behind
Multi-factor authentication	MFA as default, with phishing-resistant options where your risk and tooling support them
Regular backups	Third-party backup for Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams. Microsoft retention does not replace a proper backup product

Operated baseline you keep running

We assess against the Eight in language a board or insurer can read.
We prioritise the gaps that matter for remote and multi-site risk: identity, device compliance, privilege, patching, backup.
We implement in your existing Microsoft stack and keep the controls running: reviews, exceptions, drift, and evidence when someone asks again next quarter.
Helpdesk and managed IT stay on the same team that owns the security baseline. Dale and senior engineers answer when the conversation is serious.

Evidence you can hand over

Clear current state vs target for each control that applies to your environment.
Notes on what is enforced in Entra / Intune / Defender / backup, and what is accepted risk.
Language aimed at directors, auditors and cyber insurers, written without vendor brochure fluff.

Frequently Asked Questions

Talk to a senior engineer about your real setup

If your board or insurer is asking about Essential Eight and your people are not on one office network, talk to a senior engineer about your real setup.

Call (02) 8313 0464 Email [email protected]

No lock-in. Bring your current M365 / Intune state and the questions you are getting from the board.