Microsoft 365 Company Premium vs E3, and One Powerful Tool in Both That Will Revolutionize Your IT
So, you've picked Microsoft 365 and the Azure cloud for your service. Congratulations. We think you've made the best 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 plans like Business Standard and E5 have their advantages, but we find that considering Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3 gives companies the best bundle of features that are crucial for any organization.
In this post, we will cover the differences between Business Premium and Microsoft's very first business offering. You might find that neither offering is for you, selecting the less costly Business Standard strategy, or the immersive E5 strategy.
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 want to consult our tech experts on which M365 plan will move your service furthest forward, get on a call with us as quickly as possible.

What is Microsoft 365?
A style portraying Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3
Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's membership productivity suite that can connect all of your favorite Microsoft Office applications together with world-class cloud capabilities and air-tight security.
M365 comes packaged in various various plans for house, business, and business. With varying rates and features, Microsoft offers you options for what package fits your circumstance the best.
What is Azure cloud?
Graphic showing several computer systems sending information approximately 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 including 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 permit services to minimize their overhead by suppressing storage expenses, while likewise centralizing data for better file sharing, and bolstering backup and catastrophe healing efforts.
What is Business Premium?
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is M365's leading offering for little to medium-sized businesses, an upgrade on its Business Basic and Business Standard offerings.
Business Premium costs $20 per user each month and comes with a 50 GB mailbox storage limit and a 1 TB storage limit in OneDrive. Only 300 Business Premium licenses can be assigned to a company prior to it should start purchasing business plans.
What is E3?
Microsoft 365 E3 is M365's initial enterprise plan, coming in as the second-most loaded plan feature-wise behind E5.
E3 costs $32/user/month and Click here for more info comes with limitless mailbox and OneDrive storage. There is no cap to the number of company users can be on E3 strategies. It also features some of the top security functions available.
Why Business Premium and E3?-- Microsoft Intune
A graphic revealing linked devices to Microsoft Intune
ITSG highlights Business Premium and E3 as favored M365 strategies due to the fact that they offer so many features that make your cloud experience better.The key feature that makes these plans elite is Microsoft Intune, which controls access for mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers.
It likewise permits supervisors to set additional security measures on non-company devices and limits on what remote workers can access.
So why does that make Intune a gamechanger?
Anybody who has had to establish a new computer or smart device has actually likely had to invest hours tailoring their settings, restoring files, and keeping in mind passwords.
Those days remain in the past with Intune, which allows you to create a default image for deployment. When you set up a new computer system, Intune allows you to strike the ground running without wasted time.Paired together with Azure Active Directory, Intune gets rid of 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.
Without any trouble and no server, Intune conserves money and time that you can designate somewhere else.If you currently have a server, Intune and Azure ADVERTISEMENT are still compatible with your environment.
Additionally, with Azure sync, you can wed your on-premise and cloud servers to create a hybrid setup, the ultimate alternative for your IT.
Why Business Premium and E3?-- What else?
Beyond Intune, there are other functions readily available in both Business Premium and E3 that make them stand above the less-expensive plans.
Both plans include Microsoft's best-in-class communication hub, Teams, in addition to SharePoint Online and Planner.Both Business Premium and E3 come with Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, which are very important features that secure your service from losing data that is important to any legal proceedings. Although, Business Premium might run into storage problems if Litigation Hold is used to freeze excessive information.
Security
The genuine 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 variation of Azure Active Directory.
E3 likewise features the capability to encrypt e-mails with the click of a button. This guarantees that delicate information is opened by the designated receiving party, who must log in with a Microsoft or company account.
A screenshot of Outlook in Microsoft 365 E3, with how to position encryption on an email.
Business Premium just includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (formerly known as Advanced Threat Protection).
Let's rapidly discuss just what you get with these functions.
The headliner here is ATA, which is a tool that evaluates the traffic being available in and out of your network, identifying the behavior of entities within your organization. By discovering the habits of users and other celebrations accessing your data, ATA can precisely identify and inform you in the case that anything is suspicious.Credential guard uses virtualized security to keep login qualifications hidden from all software, other than for programs that require them. This additional security stores data in an isolated location to minimize the possibilities of credential theft.
AppLocker permits supervisors 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 prevents the unintentional leakage of data by employees through e-mail, social networks, and similar apps. WIP alerts users that their action will share or divulge work info prior to the action is verified. This security ends up being more crucial as staff members remain remote.
Furthermore, with WIP, services can preserve an archive after a staff member leaves, while still deactivating their license.All these features are tied together with the complete variation of Azure Active Directory, where you can keep an eye on and govern your company's entire cloud environment. The full variation permits extra features like group access management, advanced security reports, multi-factor authentication with conditional gain access to, and more.
Organization Premium's Microsoft Defender is a cloud-based e-mail filter that determines destructive links and accessories prior to they enter your environment. Defender likewise identifies destructive files and links in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Defender is enough to protect your business total and is a great primary step in protecting your cloud. If you desire the most security Microsoft can provide, that will require one of their enterprise strategies.
E3 and its innovative security functions permit companies to carefully balance which staff members have access to perform which jobs, developing a streamlined, safe cloud environment.
Everything else
If you are not as stressed over your security, consider a few of the other functions of E3 that you might miss out on with Business Premium.
One huge perk of E3 is the capability to access the Microsoft Office suite through a remote desktop, suggesting you can deploy its performance apps to shared computers in your business.The ability to trigger shared computers remotely also includes E3. With remote desktop services, every user on your shared computer system can continue to work on their files.
Also exclusive to enterprise strategies is Azure rights management, which secures information that is shared externally. When secured files are emailed to another business, the defense remains on the file.
Like Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, Azure rights management is important for compliance and might be needed.
E3 further solidifies your compliance with data loss avoidance (DLP). If your organization handles delicate, exclusive, or consumer information, DLP can identify and secure it from being shared. Utilizing "deep material analysis" and data-matching through keywords, DLP will display a pop-up alert that cautions users before sharing flagged information.
Other enterprise-only functions include Excel PowerPivot, and PowerQuery, as well as Infopath, an application for distributing and submitting electronic types. In-place archiving for Exchange is likewise limited to business.
These are simply a few of the extra features of E3, with more that are presently present, and more that will be included in time. If you believe any of these functions may be something you need, make certain to reach out to ITSG before choosing.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 Business Premium provides your business everything it requires to operate and grow. That's why we recommend it to all our customers.
Safety and security are a need to for contemporary business, however, and if your service is managing delicate data or has stringent compliance guidelines-- E3 may be your best option. Making this option might not be a simple task. If you are a business larger than 300 employees, it may be a choice that is produced you.