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

You've chosen upon Microsoft 365 and the Azure cloud for your organization. Congratulations. We believe you've made the right choice.

Now that you've selected M365, it is time to select a plan. While there are many to pick from, IT Support Guys typically manages M365's Business Premium and E3 (business) offerings.

Other strategies like Business Standard and E5 have their benefits, however we find that thinking about Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3 provides business the very best bundle of functions that are essential for any organization.

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

Keep in mind, for the purposes of this post, all references to "E3" are specific to Microsoft 365 E3. This plan is different from the legacy E3 offering, called "Microsoft Office E3."

If you have a question about any of these plans or want to consult our tech professionals on which M365 bundle will move your company outermost forward, get on a call with us as quickly as possible.

What is Microsoft 365?

A style depicting Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3

Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's subscription productivity suite that can tie all of your favorite Microsoft Office applications together with world-class cloud abilities and air-tight security.

M365 comes packaged in numerous various prepare for house, company, and business. With varying costs and functions, Microsoft offers you alternatives for what bundle fits your situation the best.

What is Azure cloud?

Graphic highlighting several computer systems sending out data up to the Microsoft Azure cloud, a key component of Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. E3 Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform that was released in 2010, fixing issues consisting of storage, computation, and analysis of data through virtualization.

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

Cloud services permit organizations to reduce their overhead by reducing storage costs, while likewise centralizing data for better file sharing, and reinforcing backup and catastrophe healing efforts.

What is Business Premium?

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

Service Premium costs $20 per user each month and features a 50 GB mailbox storage limit and a 1 TB storage limitation in OneDrive. Just 300 Business Premium licenses can be designated to a business before it should start buying business plans.

What is E3?

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

E3 expenses $32/user/month and includes unrestricted mail box and OneDrive storage. There is no cap to how many business users can be on E3 plans. It also features some of the top security features offered.

Why Business Premium and E3?-- Microsoft Intune

A graphic showing linked devices to Microsoft Intune

ITSG highlights Business Premium and E3 as preferred M365 strategies since they provide numerous features that make your cloud experience better.

The essential feature that makes these strategies elite is Microsoft Intune, which manages access for mobile devices, consisting of smart devices, tablets, and laptops.

It likewise permits managers to set additional security procedures on non-company gadgets and limitations on what remote workers can access.

So why does that make Intune a gamechanger?

Anybody who has actually needed to set up a brand-new computer or smartphone has likely had to spend hours customizing their settings, bring back files, and remembering passwords.

Those days remain in the past with Intune, which enables you to create a default image for implementation. When you set up a brand-new computer, Intune enables you to strike the ground running without squandered time.

Paired together with Azure Active Directory, Intune removes the requirement 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.

With no hassle and no server, Intune saves money and time that you can allocate in other places.

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

In addition, with Azure sync, you can marry your on-premise and cloud servers to develop a hybrid setup, the supreme alternative for your IT.

Why Business Premium and E3?-- What else?

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

Both strategies come with Microsoft's best-in-class interaction center, Teams, along with SharePoint Online and Planner.

Both Business Premium and E3 include Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, which are important features that safeguard your business from losing information that is critical to any legal proceedings. Although, Business Premium may run into storage issues if Litigation Hold is utilized to freeze too much data.

Security

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

E3 likewise features the capability to encrypt e-mails with the click of a button. This ensures that delicate info is opened by the desired getting party, who need to log in with a Microsoft or service account.

A screenshot of Outlook in Microsoft 365 E3, with how to position file encryption on an e-mail.

Service Premium only features Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (previously known as Advanced Threat Protection).

Let's quickly 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 habits of entities within your company. By finding out the habits of it support gold coast users and other parties accessing your information, ATA can accurately spot and signal you in the case that anything is suspicious.

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

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

Speaking of user error, Windows Information Protection prevents the unexpected leakage of information by employees through email, social media, and comparable apps. WIP informs users that their action will share or reveal work details before the action is verified. This security becomes more vital as staff members remain remote.

Additionally, with WIP, services can preserve an archive after a worker leaves, while still deactivating their license.

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

Company Premium's Microsoft Defender is a cloud-based email filter that identifies harmful links and accessories prior to they enter your environment. Protector also recognizes destructive files and links in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Defender is enough to protect your business general and is an excellent initial step in protecting your cloud. If you want the most protection Microsoft can use, that will need among their enterprise plans.

E3 and its advanced security functions enable organizations to carefully stabilize which employees have access to carry out which tasks, developing a structured, safe cloud environment.

Everything else

If you are not as worried about your security, think about a few of the other features of E3 that you might lose out on with Business Premium.

One big perk of E3 is the capability to access the Microsoft Office suite through a remote desktop, indicating you can deploy its performance apps to shared computer systems in your business.

The ability to trigger shared computer systems remotely likewise includes E3. With remote desktop services, every user on your shared computer can continue to deal with their files.

Unique to business strategies is Azure rights management, which safeguards information that is shared externally. When safeguarded files are emailed to another business, the security remains on the file.

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

E3 further strengthens your compliance with data loss prevention (DLP). If your service deals with sensitive, proprietary, or customer data, DLP can determine and protect it from being shared. Using "deep