Wes SpencerCo-Founder, Empath · Co-Founder of Empath | Recovering Cybersecurity Guy| Keynote Speaker | 2020 Cyber Educator of the Year | Building the MSP Workforce Operating System

The Invisible Doors For an #msp: Understanding Asset Inventory in Microsoft 365

15 Sept 2025 · 1 min

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In this brief presentation, Wes Spencer uses a warehouse‑and‑doors analogy to illustrate why Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and security decision‑makers must maintain a complete, up‑to‑date asset inventory for Microsoft 365. He argues that without knowing every entry point—what doors are locked, who can open them, and what policies govern access—security teams are effectively asked to guard a massive warehouse blindfolded. The speaker stresses that rational decision‑makers would never accept such a plan, highlighting the critical need for visibility, access‑control policies, and continuous monitoring of M365 assets to protect valuable data.

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So here, picture this in your mind is, you know, we're trying to get our clients to understand, if you think about it as like a complete asset inventory, including what's in Microsoft 365, is like, if we don't have that, it's like trying to guard a warehouse without knowing where all the doors are. And that's impossible, right? So I have this valuable warehouse with even more valuable assets in it. Could you imagine we say to a security guard, "Hey, your job is to go guard this monstrous thing, but I have no idea where the points of entry are. I don't know what doors are locked and unlocked. I don't know," when people are accessing them and the right people and the wrong people. We don't even have policy to know if that person should be accessing this warehouse or not. What rational decision maker would say, yeah, that's great, that sounds like a good plan of action, especially given the value of the assets that are in there? No one would say that's a good idea.