Microsoft 365 Service 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 service. Congratulations. We believe you've made the right choice.

Other plans like Business Standard and E5 have their benefits, however we discover that thinking about Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3 provides business the best plan of functions that are vital for any company.
In this post, we will cover the differences in between Business Premium and Microsoft's first business offering. You might discover that neither offering is for you, choosing the more economical Business Standard strategy, or the immersive E5 strategy.
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, referred to as "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 company outermost 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 subscription productivity suite that can connect all of your favorite Microsoft Office applications together with first-rate cloud capabilities and air-tight security.
M365 comes packaged in numerous different plans for house, company, and business. With differing prices and features, Microsoft provides you choices for what plan fits your scenario the best.
What is Azure cloud?
Graphic showing https://www.tumblr.com/eclecticdelusionbasement/737041517466763264/6-tips-to-consider-when-moving-to-the-cloud several computer systems sending data up to the Microsoft Azure cloud, an essential element of Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. E3 Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform that was launched in 2010, resolving issues including storage, calculation, and analysis of information through virtualization.
Azure offers solutions like Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS).Cloud services permit organizations to minimize their overhead by suppressing storage expenses, while also centralizing information for better file sharing, and strengthening backup and disaster healing efforts.
What is Business Premium?
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is M365's top offering for small to medium-sized companies, an upgrade on its Business Basic and Business Standard offerings.
Company 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 business prior to it need to begin purchasing enterprise plans.
What is E3?
Microsoft 365 E3 is M365's initial enterprise plan, coming in as the second-most crammed strategy 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 comes with some of the leading security functions readily available.
Why Business Premium and E3?-- Microsoft Intune
A graphic showing linked devices to Microsoft Intune
ITSG highlights Business Premium and E3 as preferred M365 plans due to the fact that they provide so many features that make your cloud experience much better.The crucial feature that makes these plans elite is Microsoft Intune, which controls access for mobile phones, including smart devices, tablets, and laptop computers.
It also allows supervisors to set extra security measures on non-company gadgets and limitations on what remote employees can gain access to.
Why does that make Intune a gamechanger?
Anyone who has had to establish a brand-new computer system or smart device has likely had to invest hours tailoring their settings, bring back files, and remembering passwords.
Those days remain in the past with Intune, which allows you to create a default image for release. When you set up a brand-new computer system, Intune allows you to strike the ground running without squandered time.Paired together with Azure Active Directory, Intune eliminates 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 conserves time and money that you can designate elsewhere.If you already have a server, Intune and Azure ADVERTISEMENT are still suitable with your environment.
Additionally, with Azure sync, you can wed 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 features 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 interaction hub, Teams, in addition to SharePoint Online and Planner.Both Business Premium and E3 feature Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, which are essential functions that secure your company from losing data that is crucial to any legal procedures. Business Premium might run into storage concerns if Litigation Hold is used to freeze too much data.
Security
The genuine value you get with E3's price boost is its extra security functions, which are extensive. 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 comes with the capability to secure emails with the click of a button. This ensures that sensitive information is opened by the intended receiving party, who need to log in with a Microsoft or service account.
A screenshot of Outlook in Microsoft 365 E3, with how to place encryption on an e-mail.
Organization Premium only comes with 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 evaluates the traffic being available in and out of your network, diagnosing the habits of entities within your organization. By discovering the behavior of users and other parties accessing your information, ATA can precisely discover and inform you in the case that anything is suspicious.Credential guard uses virtualized security to keep login credentials concealed from all software, except for programs that require them. This additional security stores information in an isolated location to reduce the possibilities of credential theft.
AppLocker permits 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 cause of cybersecurity breaches.
Speaking of user error, Windows Information Protection avoids the unintentional leak of data by staff members through e-mail, social media, and similar apps. WIP notifies users that their action will share or reveal work information before the action is verified. This security becomes more vital as staff members remain remote.
In addition, with WIP, businesses can protect an archive after a staff member leaves, while still deactivating their license.All these features are tied together with the full version of Azure Active Directory, where you can keep an eye on and govern your business's entire cloud environment. The complete version allows for additional functions like group access management, advanced security reports, multi-factor authentication with conditional gain access to, and more.
Service Premium's Microsoft Defender is a cloud-based email filter that identifies malicious links and attachments prior to they enter your environment. Defender likewise identifies harmful files and links in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Defender suffices to secure your service overall and is a great primary step in protecting your cloud. If you desire the most defense Microsoft can use, that will require one of their enterprise plans.
E3 and its sophisticated security functions allow companies to thoroughly balance which staff members have access to perform which tasks, creating a structured, safe cloud environment.
Everything else
If you are not as fretted about your security, consider a few of the other features of E3 that you might lose out on with Business Premium.
One big perk of E3 is the ability to access the Microsoft Office suite through a remote desktop, indicating you can deploy its performance apps to shared computer systems in your company.The capability to trigger shared computer systems remotely also includes E3. With remote desktop services, every user on your shared computer system can continue to deal with their files.
Unique to business plans is Azure rights management, which safeguards information that is shared externally. When protected files are emailed to another business, the security stays on the file.
Like Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, Azure rights management is vital for compliance and may be required.
E3 further strengthens your compliance with information loss prevention (DLP). If your organization manages delicate, proprietary, or customer data, DLP can determine and protect it from being shared. Utilizing "deep content analysis" and data-matching through keywords, DLP will display a pop-up alert that alerts users before sharing flagged information.
Other enterprise-only features consist of Excel PowerPivot, and PowerQuery, along with Infopath, an application for dispersing and sending electronic forms. In-place archiving for Exchange is also restricted to enterprise.
These are simply a few of the additional functions of E3, with more that are presently present, and more that will be included over time. If you think any of these functions may be something you need, make certain to reach out to ITSG before choosing.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 Business Premium gives your service whatever it needs to operate and grow. That's why we suggest it to all our clients.
Security and security are a need to for modern-day business, however, and if your organization is dealing with delicate data or has stringent compliance guidelines-- E3 may be your best option. Making this choice might not be a simple task. If you are an organization bigger than 300 employees, it may be a decision that is made for you.