Q. If I wish to use Azure Rights Management (Azure RMS) from Outlook, do I need the Azure RMS Connector deployed in my organization?
A. If you are using Outlook with on-premises Exchange and you still want to leverage Azure Rights Management (Azure RMS) to send/open protected emails, then you do not need the Azure RMS Connector deployed to your organization.
You would need the Azure RMS Connector deployed if you wanted the rights management integrated directly with Exchange.
For example if you needed:
- Outlook Web Access (OWA) to work with protected emails
- Transports rules to protect email
- Integrate RMS with Exchange to enable Exchange to open protected emails for anti-malware scanning
Note that what you need is to deploy the Azure RMS Sharing application.
You should still deploy the Azure RMS Sharing application -- even though technically it is not required when using Outlook 2013* -- because of the following:
- Enable sharing with mobile devices
- Use document tracking/revocation
- Protect non-office files
- Using the RMS Sharing application can also be updated frequently enabling new features to be deployed much faster
* However, it's mandatory for Outlook 2010, to enable Azure RMS integration.
