Bringing clarity to cloud collaboration: A new governance advantage for SA organisations

South African organisations are adopting cloud collaboration tools faster than ever. Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint and Power Platform have become the backbone of everyday work, underpinning communication, document management and digital workflows across every sector.

But as collaboration accelerates, so do the risks.

Over the past two years, South Africa has experienced a sharp increase in cyber incidents, including attacks on public-sector systems, regional government environments and Microsoft 365 tenants. Many of these incidents had one thing in common: gaps in governance. Weak permissions, poorly enforced data policies, insufficient backup practices and a lack of visibility into who can access what information left organisations vulnerable long before an attacker arrived.

In this environment, improving governance, strengthening compliance, and ensuring reliable recovery readiness have become fundamental to the health of modern IT environments. And while Microsoft 365 provides a strong, secure foundation, it cannot, and was never designed to, replace the specialised tools and structured governance models required at enterprise scale.

This is where AvePoint, delivered through Cloud On Demand, enters the picture.

While AvePoint is a global leader in Microsoft 365 governance and data protection, what makes this offering particularly powerful in South Africa is how it is delivered through Cloud On Demand.

Cloud On Demand is not a traditional distributor. It is the sole distributor of AvePoint in South Africa and an enablement engine built specifically for the partner ecosystem.

Activation, not just access

Partners receive go-to-market support, co-branded campaigns, and hands-on assistance that helps them position and sell AvePoint effectively.

Local expertise rooted in African realities

From connectivity constraints to compliance complexities, Cloud On Demand understands the operational challenges MSPs face and helps them navigate those with confidence.

Real people, real support

This partnership is not portal-only. It is human-led, with accessible sales and technical teams who work alongside partners.

A curated cloud portfolio

AvePoint joins a focused set of cloud and security offerings that solve real problems for SMBs, enterprises and government environments.

A clearer path to service differentiation

MSPs can extend their Microsoft 365 offering with governance, compliance and recovery capabilities that directly address top customer concerns.

Through Cloud On Demand, AvePoint becomes more than a tool, it becomes a market opportunity.

As cyber incidents continue to rise, resilience depends on more than security technology.

It depends on governance maturity and the ability to:

• Enforce consistent policies
• Understand where sensitive data resides
• Recover quickly from attacks or mistakes
• Meet regulatory expectations
• Provide a safe operating environment for collaboration

AvePoint, delivered by Cloud On Demand, gives MSPs and IT teams the automation and visibility they need to achieve this in Microsoft 365 environments.

And for businesses already committed to Microsoft 365, it offers a way to mature their governance posture without disrupting the tools employees use every day.

Microsoft 365 provides powerful collaboration and built-in security, but organisations increasingly need additional layers of control and automation as their environments grow in size and complexity. The challenge is not Microsoft, it’s the scale, pace and decentralised nature of collaboration today.

AvePoint complements Microsoft 365 with capabilities designed specifically for modern governance, including:

• Automated backup and granular restore for M365, Teams, SharePoint and more
• POPIA-aligned compliance monitoring and policy enforcement
• Controls that reduce oversharing and permission drift
• Governance automation that scales across thousands of sites, teams and users
• Reporting that provides visibility and confidence during audits
• Accelerated recovery during cyber incidents or accidental data loss

In short: AvePoint makes Microsoft 365 smarter, safer and easier to manage at scale, without changing the platform organisations already rely on.

The rapid growth of cloud collaboration is creating new governance challenges for South African organisations:

1. Data sprawl is accelerating

Teams, chats, channels, documents and apps multiply quickly. Without automation, organisations lose track of where data lives.

2. Permissions drift over time

Short-term sharing often becomes long-term exposure. Inadequate governance leads to accidental overexposure of sensitive data.

3. Backup is still widely misunderstood

Many businesses still assume Microsoft provides complete, long-term backup. It doesn’t and ransomware exploits this misconception.

4. Compliance expectations are rising

POPIA and sector-specific requirements demand consistent, auditable governance. Manual processes cannot keep up.

5. MSPs carry more responsibility

Customers expect MSPs to manage productivity, security, compliance and recovery, often without the tools needed to meet those expectations efficiently.

Without structured governance, the risk is not only cyber attack. It is operational strain, inconsistent service delivery and a growing gap between IT teams and the business outcomes they are expected to support. 

For South African organisations, the combination of AvePoint’s global platform and Cloud On Demand’s local enablement provides a practical, scalable pathway to stronger governance, better compliance and improved resilience.

In a market where the volume of collaboration data is soaring and cyber risks continue to escalate, this partnership arrives at exactly the right time.

To learn how Cloud On Demand can enable your organisation or your customers with AvePoint governance and resilience solutions, please visit https://www.cloudondemand.co.za/avepoint/#AvePointLead