Microsoft 365 Company Premium vs E3, and One Powerful Tool in Both That Will Revolutionize Your IT

Microsoft 365 Organization Premium vs E3, and One Powerful Tool in Both That Will Revolutionize Your IT

You've decided upon Microsoft 365 and the Azure cloud for your company. Congratulations. We think you've made the best choice.

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Now that you've chosen M365, it is time to pick a strategy. While there are many to pick from, IT Support Guys normally manages M365's Business Premium and E3 (enterprise) offerings.

Other strategies like Business Standard and E5 have their benefits, but we discover that considering Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3 provides companies the very best plan of functions that are vital for any company.

In this post, we will cover the distinctions between Business Premium and Microsoft's first enterprise offering. You may find that neither offering is for you, opting for the less expensive Business Standard strategy, or the immersive E5 plan.

Remember, for the purposes of this post, all recommendations to "E3" are specific to Microsoft 365 E3. This strategy is various from the tradition E3 offering, known as "Microsoft Office E3."

If you have a question about any of these plans or wish to consult our tech specialists on which M365 plan will move your organization furthest forward, get on a call with us as soon as possible.

What is Microsoft 365?

A design portraying Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3

Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's membership efficiency suite that can connect all of your favorite Microsoft Office applications together with first-rate cloud abilities and air-tight security.

M365 comes packaged in many various prepare for house, organization, and business. With varying prices and functions, Microsoft provides you alternatives for what plan fits your circumstance the best.

What is Azure cloud?

Graphic highlighting multiple computers sending data up to the Microsoft Azure cloud, an essential element of Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. E3 Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform that was launched in 2010, resolving problems including storage, calculation, and analysis of data through virtualization.

Azure offers options like Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

Cloud services enable organizations to reduce their overhead by suppressing storage costs, while likewise centralizing information for better file sharing, and bolstering backup and disaster recovery efforts.

What is Business Premium?

Microsoft 365 Business Premium is M365's leading offering for small to medium-sized businesses, an upgrade on its Business Basic and Business Standard offerings.

Company Premium costs $20 per user monthly and includes a 50 GB mailbox storage limit and a 1 TB storage limit in OneDrive. Only 300 Business Premium licenses can be assigned to a business before it need to start purchasing enterprise plans.

What is E3?

Microsoft 365 E3 is M365's preliminary enterprise plan, can be found in as the second-most loaded strategy feature-wise behind E5.

E3 expenses $32/user/month and features endless mailbox and OneDrive storage. There is no cap to the number of company users can be on E3 plans. It also includes a few of the leading security features readily available.

Why Business Premium and E3?-- Microsoft Intune

A graphic showing connected gadgets to Microsoft Intune

ITSG highlights Business Premium and E3 as favored M365 plans since they offer numerous functions that make your cloud experience much better.

The essential function that makes these strategies elite is Microsoft Intune, which manages access for mobile devices, consisting of smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers.

It also enables supervisors to set additional security steps on non-company devices and limitations on what remote workers can access.

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Why does that make Intune a gamechanger?

Anybody who has actually had to set up a new computer or smartphone has likely had to invest hours customizing their settings, restoring files, and keeping in mind passwords.

Those days are in the past with Intune, which allows you to develop a default image for implementation. When you set up a new computer, Intune enables you to hit the ground running without lost time.

Combined together with Azure Active Directory, Intune gets rid of the need to run your own server.

With top-shelf identity management and endpoint management in the cloud, Intune and Azure AD makes on-premise identity and endpoint management redundant.

Without any hassle and no server, Intune saves time and money that you can designate elsewhere.

If you already have a server, Intune and Azure AD are still suitable with your environment.

Furthermore, with Azure sync, you can wed https://pastelink.net/1x5uzpz5 your on-premise and cloud servers to create a hybrid setup, the supreme choice for your IT.

Why Business Premium and E3?-- What else?

Beyond Intune, there are other features readily available in both Business Premium and E3 that make them stand above the less-expensive strategies.

Both strategies feature Microsoft's best-in-class communication center, Teams, in addition to SharePoint Online and Planner.

Both Business Premium and E3 feature Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, which are very important functions that secure your service from losing data that is crucial to any legal procedures. Although, Business Premium may encounter storage problems if Litigation Hold is used to freeze excessive data.

Security

The real value you get with E3's cost boost is its additional security functions, which are extensive. E3 comes with Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA), Credential Guard, App Locker, Windows Information Protection (WIP), and the complete variation of Azure Active Directory.

E3 likewise features the ability to encrypt e-mails with the click of a button. This makes sure that delicate information is opened by the intended receiving party, who need to visit with a Microsoft or company account.

A screenshot of Outlook in Microsoft 365 E3, with how to place file encryption on an email.

Company Premium just includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (previously called Advanced Threat Protection).

Let's rapidly review simply what you get with these functions.

The headliner here is ATA, which is a tool that examines the traffic coming in and out of your network, detecting the behavior of entities within your company. By finding out the habits of users and other parties accessing your data, ATA can accurately identify and notify you in the case that anything is suspicious.

Credential guard utilizes virtualized security to keep login credentials concealed from all software application, except for programs that need them. This extra security stores information in a separated location to decrease the chances of credential theft.

AppLocker permits managers to manage which files and applications that users have access to, including executable files and installer files. This secures you internally, as user mistake is a leading reason for cybersecurity breaches.

Speaking of user error, Windows Information Protection avoids the accidental leakage of information by staff members through email, social media, and similar apps. WIP informs users that their action will share or reveal work info prior to the action is confirmed. This security ends up being more important as staff members stay remote.

Furthermore, with WIP, services can protect an archive after an employee leaves, while still deactivating their license.

All these features are tied together with the full version of Azure Active Directory, where you can monitor and govern your company's entire cloud environment. The complete version permits additional functions like group gain access to management, advanced security reports, multi-factor authentication with conditional access, and more.

Organization Premium's Microsoft Defender is a cloud-based e-mail filter that determines destructive links and attachments before they enter your environment. Protector also identifies harmful files and links in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Defender is enough to secure your business total and is a great initial step in protecting your cloud. If you desire the most defense Microsoft can use, that will require among their business plans.

E3 and its sophisticated security features enable organizations to carefully balance which employees have access to carry out which jobs, producing a streamlined, safe cloud environment.

Everything else

If you are not as fretted about your security, think about some of the other functions of E3 that you may lose out on with Business Premium.

One big perk of E3 is the ability to access the Microsoft Office suite via a remote desktop, meaning you can deploy its productivity apps to shared computers in your business.

The ability to trigger shared computers from another location likewise features E3. With remote desktop services, every user on your shared computer system can continue to work on their files.

Also special to enterprise strategies is Azure rights management, which secures data that is shared externally. When safeguarded files are emailed to another business, the protection remains on the file.

Like Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, Azure rights management is imperative for compliance and may be needed.

E3 further solidifies your compliance with information loss avoidance (DLP). If your organization manages delicate, proprietary, or customer information, DLP can identify and safeguard it from being shared. Utilizing "deep content analysis" and data-matching through keywords, DLP will show a pop-up notification that warns users before sharing flagged data.

Other enterprise-only functions consist of Excel PowerPivot, and PowerQuery, along with Infopath, an application for distributing and submitting electronic forms. In-place archiving for Exchange is also restricted to enterprise.

These are simply some of the extra features of E3, with more that are currently present, and more that will be added in time. If you think any of these features might be something you need, make sure to connect to ITSG before deciding.

Conclusion

Microsoft 365 Business Premium gives your business whatever it requires to operate and grow. That's why we suggest it to all our customers.

Safety and security are a must for modern-day business, however, and if your service is managing delicate information or has strict compliance regulations-- E3 might be your finest choice. Making this option may not be a simple job. If you are a service larger than 300 staff members, it may be a choice that is made for you.