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

So, you've decided upon Microsoft 365 and the Azure cloud for your company. Congratulations. We believe you've made the ideal option.

Now that you've chosen M365, it is time to choose a plan. While there are lots of to pick from, IT Support Guys generally manages M365's Business Premium and E3 (business) 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 bundle of features that are important for any organization.

In this post, we will cover the distinctions between Business Premium and Microsoft's first business offering. You might find that neither offering is for you, going with the less costly Business Standard strategy, or the immersive E5 plan.

Keep in mind, for the functions of this post, all referrals to "E3" are specific to Microsoft 365 E3. This plan is various from the legacy E3 offering, referred to as "Microsoft Office E3."

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

What is Microsoft 365?

A style illustrating Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3

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

M365 comes packaged in many various plans for house, organization, and enterprise. With varying costs and features, Microsoft gives you choices for what bundle fits your scenario the best.

What is Azure cloud?

Graphic showing multiple computer systems sending out information as much as the Microsoft Azure cloud, a key component of Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. E3 Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform that was launched in 2010, resolving issues consisting of storage, calculation, 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 companies to reduce their overhead by suppressing storage costs, while also centralizing information for much better file sharing, and boosting backup and disaster healing efforts.

What is Business Premium?

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

Company Premium costs $20 per user monthly and comes with a 50 GB mail box storage limit and a 1 TB storage limitation in OneDrive. Just 300 Business Premium licenses can be designated to a company before it must start acquiring enterprise plans.

What is E3?

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

E3 costs $32/user/month and includes limitless mail box and OneDrive storage. There is no cap to the number of business users can be on E3 plans. It also features a few of the top security functions available.

Why Business Premium and E3?-- Microsoft Intune

A graphic revealing connected gadgets to Microsoft Intune

ITSG spotlights Business Premium and E3 as preferred M365 strategies because they offer a lot of functions that make your cloud experience better.

The crucial function that makes these strategies elite is Microsoft Intune, which controls gain access to for mobile phones, consisting of smart devices, tablets, and laptop computers.

It also allows managers to set extra security procedures on non-company gadgets and limits on what remote employees can access.

So why does that make Intune a gamechanger?

Anybody who has actually had to establish a new computer or smartphone has likely had to invest hours personalizing their settings, bring back files, and keeping in mind passwords.

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

Combined 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 ADVERTISEMENT makes on-premise identity and endpoint management redundant.

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

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

Furthermore, with Azure sync, you can wed your on-premise and cloud servers to produce a hybrid setup, the ultimate 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 include Microsoft's best-in-class communication hub, Teams, along with SharePoint Online and Planner.

Both Business Premium and E3 feature Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, which are important functions that secure your service from losing data that is critical to any legal proceedings. Business Premium may run into storage concerns if Litigation Hold is utilized to freeze too much information.

Security

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

E3 likewise includes the capability to secure emails with the click of a button. This makes sure that delicate info is opened by the desired getting celebration, who should log in with a Microsoft or company account.

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

Business Premium only includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (previously called Advanced Threat Protection).

Let's quickly review simply what you get with these features.

The headliner here is ATA, which is a tool that examines the traffic coming in and out of your network, identifying the behavior of entities within your company. By learning the habits of users and other parties accessing your data, ATA can properly spot and inform you in the event that anything is suspicious.

Credential guard uses virtualized security to keep login qualifications hidden from all software application, except for programs that need them. This extra security stores data in a separated location to reduce the possibilities of credential theft.

AppLocker enables supervisors to control which files and applications that users have access to, consisting of executable files and installer files. This secures you internally, as user error is a leading cause of cybersecurity breaches.

Mentioning user error, Windows Information Protection avoids the accidental leak of information by workers through e-mail, social networks, and similar apps. WIP notifies users that their action will share or disclose work info before the action is confirmed. This protection becomes more crucial as employees remain remote.

In addition, with WIP, businesses can maintain an archive after a worker leaves, while still deactivating their license.

All these functions are tied together with the full variation of Azure Active Directory, where you can keep an eye on and govern your business's whole cloud environment. The complete version allows for extra features like group access management, advanced security reports, multi-factor authentication with conditional access, and more.

Company Premium's Microsoft Defender is a cloud-based email filter that determines destructive links and attachments prior to they enter your environment. Defender likewise determines malicious files and links in SharePoint, OneDrive, and find more information Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Defender is enough to secure your business general and is an excellent first step in securing your cloud. If you desire the most protection Microsoft can use, that will need one of their business strategies.

E3 and its advanced security features permit organizations to carefully balance which workers have access to carry out which tasks, creating a structured, safe cloud environment.

Whatever else

If you are not as stressed over your security, consider some of the other features of E3 that you may lose out on with Business Premium.

One huge perk of E3 is the ability to access the Microsoft Office suite through a remote desktop, suggesting you can release its productivity apps to shared computers in your company.

The capability to activate shared computers remotely also comes with E3. With remote desktop services, every user on your shared computer system can continue to deal with their files.

Special to enterprise strategies is Azure rights management, which secures data that is shared externally. When safeguarded files are emailed to another company, the security stays on the file.

Like Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, Azure rights management is vital for compliance and might be needed.

E3 further solidifies your compliance with data loss prevention (DLP). If your service handles delicate, exclusive, or customer information, DLP can recognize and secure it from being shared. Utilizing "deep material analysis"