Microsoft 365 Business 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 business. Congratulations. We believe you've made the right choice.
Now that you've chosen M365, it is time to select a plan. While there are lots of to select from, IT Support Guys generally manages M365's Business Premium and E3 (enterprise) offerings.
Other plans like Business Standard and E5 have their benefits, however we find that considering Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3 offers companies the very best package of functions that are vital for any company.
In this post, we will cover the differences in between Business Premium and Microsoft's first enterprise offering. You may discover that neither offering is for you, opting for the more economical Business Standard plan, or the immersive E5 plan.
Keep in mind, for the purposes of this post, all recommendations to "E3" are specific to Microsoft 365 E3. This strategy is various from the legacy E3 offering, called "Microsoft Office E3."If you have a concern about any of these plans or wish to consult our tech experts on which M365 package will move your business outermost 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 membership productivity suite that can connect all of your preferred Microsoft Office applications together with first-rate cloud capabilities and air-tight security.
M365 comes packaged in various various plans for home, organization, and business. With varying rates and features, Microsoft provides you options for what plan fits your scenario the very best.
What is Azure cloud?
Graphic illustrating numerous computers sending 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 released in 2010, solving problems consisting of storage, calculation, and analysis of data 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 businesses to lower their overhead by suppressing storage expenses, 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 top offering for small to medium-sized organizations, an upgrade on its Business Basic and Business Standard offerings.
Service Premium costs $20 per user each month and comes with a 50 GB mail box storage limitation and a 1 TB storage limit in OneDrive. Only 300 Business Premium licenses can be appointed to a company before it must begin purchasing business strategies.
What is E3?
Microsoft 365 E3 is M365's preliminary business plan, can be found in as the second-most crammed plan feature-wise behind E5.
E3 costs $32/user/month and features unrestricted mailbox and OneDrive storage. There is no cap to the number of business users can be on E3 plans. It likewise features some of the top security features readily available.
Why Business Premium and E3?-- Microsoft Intune
A graphic revealing linked devices to Microsoft Intune

The essential feature that makes these strategies elite is Microsoft Intune, which manages access for mobile phones, including mobile phones, tablets, and laptop computers.
It likewise allows managers to set extra security measures on non-company gadgets and limitations on what remote employees can access.
So why does that make Intune a gamechanger?
Anybody who has needed to establish a brand-new computer or smart device has actually likely needed to spend hours tailoring their settings, restoring files, and keeping in mind passwords.
Those days remain in the past with Intune, which allows you to develop a default image for implementation. When you established a new computer, Intune enables you to hit the ground running without squandered 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.
With no inconvenience and no server, Intune saves time and money 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 wed your on-premise and cloud servers to produce a hybrid setup, the supreme choice for your IT.
Why Business Premium and E3?-- What else?
Beyond Intune, there are other functions available in both Business Premium and E3 that make them stand above the less-expensive strategies.
Both strategies come with Microsoft's best-in-class communication center, Teams, as well as SharePoint Online and Planner.Both Business Premium and E3 include Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, which are essential functions that protect your company from losing information that is crucial to any legal proceedings. Although, Business Premium might face storage problems if Litigation Hold is used to freeze excessive information.
Security
The real worth you get with E3's price increase is its extra security features, which are expansive. E3 includes Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA), Credential Guard, App Locker, Windows Information Protection (WIP), and the full version of Azure Active Directory.
E3 likewise features the capability to encrypt emails with the click of a button. This guarantees that delicate details is opened by the desired receiving celebration, who should log in with a Microsoft or organization 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 rapidly discuss simply what you get with these features.
The headliner here is ATA, which is a tool that evaluates the traffic being available in and out of your network, detecting the behavior of entities within your company. By finding out the habits of users and other celebrations accessing your data, ATA can properly detect and notify you in the case that anything is suspicious.Credential guard uses virtualized security to keep login qualifications hidden from all software application, other than for programs that require them. This additional security stores data in an managed it support isolated area to reduce the opportunities of credential theft.
AppLocker enables managers to manage 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 reason for cybersecurity breaches.
Speaking of user mistake, Windows Information Protection prevents the unintentional leakage of data by workers through e-mail, social networks, and similar apps. WIP alerts users that their action will share or disclose work details before the action is validated. This defense ends up being more vital as staff members remain remote.
Additionally, with WIP, businesses can protect an archive after an employee leaves, while still deactivating their license.All these features are looped with the complete version of Azure Active Directory, where you can keep track of and govern your business's whole cloud environment. The complete variation enables extra features like group gain access to management, advanced security reports, multi-factor authentication with conditional access, and more.
Service Premium's Microsoft Defender is a cloud-based email filter that determines destructive links and accessories prior to they enter your environment. Defender also recognizes malicious files and links in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Defender suffices to safeguard your service overall and is a great initial step in protecting your cloud. If you want the most defense Microsoft can use, that will need one of their enterprise strategies.
E3 and its advanced security features enable organizations to carefully balance which employees have access to carry out which tasks, developing a streamlined, safe cloud environment.
Whatever else
If you are not as worried about your security, think about some of the other functions of E3 that you may miss out on with Business Premium.
One big perk of E3 is the ability to access the Microsoft Office suite via a remote desktop, indicating you can release its efficiency apps to shared computers in your business.

The capability to trigger shared computers from another location also features E3. With remote desktop services, every user on your shared computer system can continue to deal with their files.
Also exclusive to business plans is Azure rights management, which protects data that is shared externally. When protected files are emailed to another company, the defense remains on the file.
Like Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, Azure rights management is imperative for compliance and may be required.
E3 even more strengthens your compliance with information loss prevention (DLP). If your company manages delicate, proprietary, or client data, DLP can recognize and safeguard it from being shared. Using "deep content analysis" and data-matching through keywords, DLP will display a pop-up notification that alerts users before sharing flagged information.
Other enterprise-only features consist of Excel PowerPivot, and PowerQuery, as well as Infopath, an application for dispersing and submitting electronic forms. In-place archiving for Exchange is likewise restricted to enterprise.
These are just a few of the additional features of E3, with more that are currently present, and more that will be included over time. If you think any of these features may be something you require, make certain to reach out to ITSG prior to deciding.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 Business Premium provides your organization whatever it requires to run and grow. That's why we suggest it to all our clients.
Safety and security are a need to for contemporary business, nevertheless, and if your company is handling delicate data or has rigid compliance guidelines-- E3 might be your best choice. Making this option might not be a simple job. If you are a business bigger than 300 staff members, it may be a choice that is made for you.