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 think you've made the right option.
Now that you've selected M365, it is time to pick a plan. While there are many to choose from, IT Support Guys normally handles M365's Business Premium and E3 (business) offerings.
Other strategies like Business Standard and E5 have their advantages, however we find that considering Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3 gives business the very best plan of features that are essential for any organization.
In this post, we will cover the distinctions in between Business Premium and Microsoft's first business offering. You may discover that neither offering is for you, choosing the less costly Business Standard plan, or the immersive E5 strategy.
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 tradition E3 offering, called "Microsoft Office E3."

If you have a question about any of these strategies or wish to consult our tech professionals on which M365 package will move your business outermost forward, get on a call with us as soon as possible.
What is Microsoft 365?
A design depicting Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs E3
Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's subscription performance 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 various different plans for home, company, and business. With varying prices and features, Microsoft gives you choices for what package fits your scenario the best.
What is Azure cloud?
Graphic illustrating numerous computer systems sending out data approximately the Microsoft Azure cloud, a crucial part of Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. E3 Azure is Microsoft's cloud computing platform that was released in 2010, solving issues including storage, computation, and analysis of data through virtualization.
Azure offers options like Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS).
Cloud services enable organizations to minimize their overhead by suppressing storage expenses, while likewise centralizing information for much better file sharing, and reinforcing backup and catastrophe recovery efforts.
What is Business Premium?
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is M365's top offering for small to medium-sized businesses, an upgrade on its Business Basic and Business Standard offerings.
Business Premium costs $20 per user per month and comes with a 50 GB mail box storage limitation and a 1 TB storage limitation in OneDrive. Only 300 Business Premium licenses can be designated to a business prior to it should begin acquiring business strategies.
What is E3?
Microsoft 365 E3 is M365's preliminary business strategy, can be found in as the second-most packed strategy feature-wise behind E5.
E3 expenses $32/user/month and comes with endless mail box and OneDrive storage. There is no cap to the number of company users can be on E3 plans. It also comes with a few of the leading security functions available.
Why Business Premium and E3?-- Microsoft Intune
A graphic revealing connected devices to Microsoft Intune
ITSG highlights Business Premium and E3 as preferred M365 plans because they supply many functions that make your cloud experience much better.
The essential function that makes these strategies elite is Microsoft Intune, which controls access for mobile phones, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
It also allows supervisors to set extra security measures on non-company devices and limits on what remote employees can access.
Why does that make Intune a gamechanger?
Anyone who has actually needed to set up a new computer or mobile phone has likely had to spend hours personalizing their settings, restoring files, and keeping in mind passwords.
Those days remain in the past with Intune, which permits you to produce a default image for implementation. When you set up a brand-new computer, Intune allows you to hit the ground running without squandered time.
Combined 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 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 AD are still compatible with your environment.
Additionally, with Azure sync, you can marry your on-premise and cloud servers to develop 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 include Microsoft's best-in-class interaction hub, Teams, along with SharePoint Online and Planner.
Both Business Premium and E3 come with Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, which are essential functions that safeguard your service from losing information that is vital to any legal proceedings. Although, Business Premium may face storage issues if Litigation Hold is utilized to freeze too much information.

Security
The real value you get with E3's rate boost is its additional security functions, which are expansive. E3 features 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 ability to secure emails with the click of a button. This guarantees that delicate information is opened by the designated getting celebration, who must visit with a Microsoft or business account.
A screenshot of Outlook in Microsoft 365 E3, with how to put file encryption on an email.
Service Premium just includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (formerly 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 analyzes the traffic being available in and out of your network, diagnosing the behavior of entities within your company. By finding out the habits of users and other parties accessing your data, ATA can properly detect and alert you in the case that anything is suspicious.
Credential guard utilizes virtualized security to keep login credentials concealed from all software, except for programs that need them. This additional security shops information in a separated location to managed it services gold coast decrease the chances of credential theft.
AppLocker allows supervisors to manage which files and applications that users have access to, consisting of executable files and installer files. This safeguards you internally, as user error is a leading cause of cybersecurity breaches.
Mentioning user error, Windows Information Protection avoids the accidental leakage of information by staff members through email, social networks, and similar apps. WIP notifies users that their action will share or disclose work information before the action is verified. This defense becomes more vital as employees stay remote.
Additionally, with WIP, services can preserve an archive after an employee leaves, while still deactivating their license.
All these functions are tied together with the complete version of Azure Active Directory, where you can keep track of and govern your company's whole cloud environment. The complete version enables additional functions like group gain access to management, advanced security reports, multi-factor authentication with conditional access, and more.
Organization Premium's Microsoft Defender is a cloud-based email filter that determines harmful links and attachments prior to they enter your environment. Defender also determines harmful files and links in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Defender is enough to protect your business overall and is a great primary step in securing your cloud. If you desire the most protection Microsoft can offer, that will require among their business plans.
E3 and its advanced security features allow organizations to thoroughly stabilize which workers have access to carry out which tasks, developing a structured, safe cloud environment.
Everything else
If you are not as stressed over your security, think about some of the other features of E3 that you may lose out on with Business Premium.
One big perk of E3 is the capability to access the Microsoft Office suite through a remote desktop, suggesting you can release its efficiency apps to shared computer systems in your business.
The ability to activate shared computer systems remotely also features E3. With remote desktop services, every user on your shared computer can continue to deal with their files.
Likewise unique to enterprise plans is Azure rights management, which protects data that is shared externally. When safeguarded files are emailed to another business, the protection stays on the file.
Like Litigation Hold and eDiscovery, Azure rights management is vital for compliance and may be needed.
E3 even more strengthens your compliance with data loss prevention (DLP). If your company manages delicate, proprietary, or client data, DLP can determine and protect it from being shared. Using "deep content analysis" and data-matching through keywords, DLP will display a pop-up notice that cautions users prior to sharing flagged information.
Other enterprise-only functions include Excel PowerPivot, and PowerQuery, in addition to Infopath, an application for dispersing and submitting electronic forms. In-place archiving for Exchange is also limited to enterprise.
These are just a few of the extra features of E3, with more that are currently present, and more that will be included with time. If you believe any of these functions might be something you require, ensure to connect to ITSG prior to deciding.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 Business Premium provides your service whatever it requires to run and grow. That's why we recommend it to all our clients.
Security and security are a must for contemporary companies, however, and if your organization is dealing with delicate data or has stringent compliance policies-- E3 may be your finest choice. Making this option might not be a simple task. If you are a business larger than 300 employees, it might be a choice that is made for you.