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Educational institutions manage large volumes of sensitive information about students—data that is both highly personal and increasingly vulnerable. In an era of AI-accelerated threats, sensitive information is a frequent target of cyberattacks, and education systems often need support to safeguard the information in complex, resource constrained school environments.

Increment, a pure-play Microsoft partner consultancy founded by former enterprise technology leaders, knows how to provide that security. The team, which operates in the Australia and New Zealand market, had already deeply adopted Microsoft technology within its own operations—including early rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot and end to end use of Dynamics 365 and Purview. Their Customer Zero approach and demonstrated expertise earned them the 2025 Partner of the Year Award for Data Security and Compliance.

The team’s disciplined use of Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program benefits, such as Microsoft Commerce Incentives (MCI) funding, positioned them to help education agencies rapidly reduce risk and build scalable data governance practices. And they started with the largest public school system in Australia, partnering closely with Microsoft to strengthen data security across multiple school systems.

Protecting millions of student identities amid growing threats

Public school systems in Australia are cumulatively responsible for millions of students, thousands of schools, and massive identity systems that must function reliably across distributed networks, diverse devices, and high daily data flow. And they must do this while fending off near-constant cyberattacks.

“Every day, these guys are getting attacked at levels that only banks see,” said Andre Herbst, Director of Growth and Partnerships for Increment.

At the same time, the education system was under pressure to modernize quickly. The volume of data they managed was massive: in Queensland alone, the fleet included tens of thousands of managed endpoints that required consistent policy enforcement. And with AI related risks rising, education agencies needed assurance that foundational data protections would support future adoption of generative AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot.

While many education departments had invested in Microsoft 365 A3 or A5 licensing, they needed a clear roadmap to activate the full breadth of built in security and compliance capabilities. They sought a scalable, repeatable approach that aligned technical controls with the realities of large, complex school systems—an approach that clarified roles, built internal capability, and established long term operating models. Without that structure, even well licensed environments could struggle to strengthen data protection or reduce risk.

In addition, these school systems required operational alignment across large, distributed environments. Sensitive information moved frequently between teachers, administrators, students, and caregivers, yet many of the agencies lacked consistent visibility into where that data resided or how it was being accessed across their systems. Responsibilities for data governance and information protection often did not naturally align with existing cybersecurity roles.

Success would require an approach grounded in real world operational experience, expertise across the Microsoft stack, and the ability to translate complex data security requirements into practical, sustainable programs for education environments.

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