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 think you've made the best option.

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

Other plans like Business Standard and E5 have their benefits, but we discover that thinking about Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3 provides business the very best bundle of features that are vital for any organization.

In this post, we will cover the differences between Business Premium and Microsoft's very first enterprise offering. You might discover that neither offering is for you, selecting the less expensive Business Standard strategy, or the immersive E5 strategy.

Keep in mind, for the purposes of this post, all recommendations to "E3" specify to Microsoft 365 E3. This strategy is different from the tradition E3 offering, called "Microsoft Office E3."

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

What is Microsoft 365?

A design portraying Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3

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

M365 comes packaged in numerous different plans for house, service, and business. With differing rates and functions, Microsoft provides you choices for what package fits your situation the best.

What is Azure cloud?

Graphic illustrating numerous computers sending out information approximately the Microsoft Azure cloud, an essential part of Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. E3 Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform that was launched in 2010, resolving issues consisting of storage, computation, and analysis of information through virtualization.

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

Cloud services enable organizations to lower their overhead by suppressing storage costs, while also centralizing information for much better file sharing, and bolstering backup and catastrophe recovery 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.

Company Premium costs $20 per user monthly and comes with a 50 GB mailbox storage limitation and a 1 TB storage limitation in OneDrive. Just 300 Business Premium licenses can be assigned to a business before it need to begin purchasing business plans.

What is E3?

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

E3 expenses $32/user/month and comes with unlimited mailbox and OneDrive storage. There is no cap to the number of company users can be on E3 strategies. It likewise comes with a few of the leading security functions available.

Why Business Premium and E3?-- Microsoft Intune

A graphic showing connected gadgets to Microsoft Intune

ITSG spotlights Business Premium and E3 as favored M365 plans due to the fact that they provide so many functions that make your cloud experience better.

The crucial feature that makes these strategies elite is Microsoft Intune, which manages gain access to for mobile devices, consisting of mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.

It likewise enables managers to set additional security measures on non-company gadgets and limits on what remote workers can gain access to.

So why does that make Intune a gamechanger?

Anybody who has actually had to set up a brand-new computer or smart device has likely had to spend 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, Intune permits you to hit the ground running without squandered time.

Matched together with Azure Active Directory, Intune eliminates the need 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 conserves money and time that you can assign in other places.

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

Furthermore, with Azure sync, you can marry your on-premise and cloud servers to create a hybrid setup, the ultimate choice for your IT.

Why Business Premium and E3?-- What else?

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

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

Both Business Premium and E3 feature Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, which are essential features that protect your company from losing information that is crucial to any legal proceedings. Organization Premium may run into storage concerns if Litigation Hold is used to freeze too much information.

Security

The real worth you get with E3's price increase 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 full variation of Azure Active Directory.

E3 also includes the ability to encrypt emails with the click of a button. This ensures that delicate info is opened by the intended receiving celebration, who must visit with a Microsoft or company account.

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

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

Let's quickly discuss just what you get with these features.

The headliner here is ATA, which is a tool that analyzes the traffic can be found in and out of your network, identifying the habits of entities within your company. By learning the behavior of users and other parties accessing your information, ATA can accurately identify and notify you in the case that anything is suspicious.

Credential guard utilizes virtualized security to keep login qualifications hidden from all software application, other than for programs that require them. This extra security stores information in a separated area to decrease the chances of credential theft.

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

Speaking of user mistake, Windows Information Protection avoids the unexpected leak of data by workers through email, social media, and comparable apps. WIP notifies users that their action will share or disclose work details before the action is validated. This protection becomes more essential as employees remain remote.

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

All these features are looped with the complete variation of Azure Active Directory, where you can keep an eye on and govern your business's entire cloud environment. The complete variation permits 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 e-mail filter that determines harmful links and attachments prior to they enter your environment. Defender also identifies malicious files and links in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Defender suffices to secure your business total and is a good first step in protecting your cloud. If you desire the most security Microsoft can provide, that will require among their enterprise strategies.

E3 and its sophisticated security functions enable companies to thoroughly balance which employees have access to perform which tasks, developing a streamlined, safe cloud environment.

Whatever else

If you are not as stressed over your security, consider a few moved here of the other functions of E3 that you might miss out on with Business Premium.

One big perk of E3 is the capability to access the Microsoft Office suite by means of a remote desktop, suggesting you can deploy its efficiency apps to shared computer systems in your company.

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

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

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

E3 even more strengthens your compliance with data loss prevention (DLP). If your business manages