What if we told you that your company could do away with on-premises servers for just $8 per employee, per month? That may be true for companies that already use Microsoft 365.

Depending on your requirements, renting a server will probably set you back some hundred dollars each month. A server may have cost thousands of dollars, but upkeep still costs hundreds.

The timing is now more than ever to completely move to the cloud.

That is, switching to the cloud will lead to monthly cost savings. Yet, those care costs fall short of fully recouping the actual cost of switching to the cloud.

Organizations can improve their cybersecurity using Microsoft Endpoint Management, enhance onboarding, and cut downtime for repetitive operations. Intune and Autopilot are two tools that help with this.

For companies adopting Microsoft 365, Microsoft Endpoint Manager is the first step toward a hybrid cloud. Ideally, your company will soon make a full transition to the cloud.

What is Microsoft Endpoint Manager?

Endpoint Manager, which combines Endpoint Configuration Manager and Microsoft Intune, is Microsoft’s unified device-management platform with a focus on endpoint security and “intelligent cloud actions.”

As a result of Intune’s success, Microsoft integrated it into a new platform. Endpoint Management aids businesses in securing and utilizing their cloud. Manage users, apps, and devices in a single location after deployment.

Configuration Manager and Intune are the two consoles that make up the platform. The former looks after clients and infrastructure that are on-site. The cloud-native management of software and devices is handled by Intune.

What is Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager?

The on-premises device management platform from Microsoft is called Endpoint Configuration Manager. Configuration Manager aids in the internal application, update, and full image deployment for on-premises devices and servers.

By automating boring activities, Configuration Manager enables businesses to maximize the use of their infrastructure and software. Active Directory is also used to improve organizational security through user management.

Configuration Manager abstracts hours of customization and restoration by producing a preset image to deploy to new devices. You are prepared to use a new device as soon as you set it up.

What is Microsoft Intune?

The mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) platform from Microsoft is called Intune. Unlike Configuration Manager’s emphasis on an on-premises deployment, Intune is a cloud-based management platform.

Access control for mobile devices like laptops and smartphones is made easier with the aid of Intune. This helps in limiting which personnel has access to what data. You can add additional security safeguards to non-company-owned devices using Intune.

Intune deploys full images to new devices, much like Configuration Manager does. Since it uses the cloud, devices may be accessed remotely and efficiently.

With identity and endpoint control through the cloud, Intune also adds more security. Businesses don’t need to employ an on-premises server because of its interaction with Azure Active Directory.

Organizations can combine their on-premises servers with the Azure cloud by using Azure sync. The ideal situation would result in a hybrid cloud.

What is Intune company portal?

Employees of companies that use Endpoint Management can securely access company resources through the Microsoft Intune company portal app.

Office apps, email, and OneDrive may all be accessed through the app by users whose company accounts have been enrolled in Intune. The enterprise portal can be used for single sign-on (SSO), which improves security across all apps.

How to enroll a device in Intune

Use a company account to go into the company portal and enroll a device in Intune. The portal will lead you through configuring your device and connecting to your company after you’ve signed in.

Co-Management with Endpoint Configuration Manager and Intune

Organizations may co-manage their environment with Configuration Manager and Intune to make the most of Endpoint Manager.

However, the only advantage of using simply Intune is the capacity for conventional operating system deployment. Wiping a device and loading the OS through a disk are both functions of Configuration Manager.

Organizations lose advanced security features like Advanced Threat Prevention and risk-based access management without Intune (ATP). Moreover, auto-provisioning through autopilot is impossible with Configuration Manager.

What are the benefits of Microsoft Endpoint Manager?

The use of Microsoft Endpoint Manager has many overall advantages. They will only discuss how it helps avoid the need for servers in this post.

Endpoint Security

First, Endpoint Manager helps with endpoint security all around the whole. Your most sensitive data or applications are only accessible to those who need them thanks to Conditional Access App Control via Azure Active Directory.

Conditional access controls can be configured for devices that access your cloud, as well as the apps that exist there.

Endpoint Manager can now enforce security policies, install your standard compliance standards, and impose access restrictions on vulnerable or non-corporately owned devices by registering devices with Azure AD.

Endpoint Manager products assist you in making sure that registered devices adhere to security standards. Only devices that are compliant, linked to your domain, and managed by Intune should be given access to the cloud.

When available, Intune will also roll out security upgrades to your devices. Your devices will instantly receive an update after a vulnerability has been fixed. There is no time to lose while fixes for known vulnerabilities are available.

Companies that purchase E3 licenses for access to Endpoint Manager also receive ATP.

Zero-Touch Deployment

With Intune and Autopilot, Endpoint Manager can automatically upload programs and settings to both new and existing devices. Zero-Touch Deployment is the term used for this.

As an example, let’s say your company hires a new remote worker. You are delivering a computer to their home office, but in order for it to be legal, your company regulations must be installed on it.

As soon as the device is registered with your cloud and Endpoint Manager, your settings using Intune and Autopilot go into effect. Even pre-shipment may be included in that.

As a result, there is no need to mail the device to your main office or IT team for configuration before sending it to the newly hired employee. All of the stuff is taken care of by Autopilot, so your new employee is prepared to work from day one.

Central Control Management

You can manage everything inside your cloud thanks to Endpoint Manager, which keeps everything in one location. Your wireless networks are managed.

Using Intune, you may add a profile to a group of users in your business, include settings that connect directly to your preferred Wi-Fi network, and then distribute built-in Wi-Fi settings to joined devices.

In this way, you can never be concerned about users connecting to a weak network. Only the ones you have created or selected.

How Endpoint Manager Takes You to the Cloud Exclusively

So, Endpoint Manager’s advantages are evident. But how can you access a magical, serverless place with those features?

Users who are already using Microsoft 365 for your business can access both your on-premises server and the cloud together.

User profiles that are managed by M365 are kept on Azure. These profiles are collected from the cloud and delivered to your server for your on-premise endpoints.

If you have distant users or individuals who are using personal devices, this could become a problem.

You are most likely using a virtual private network for remote user security (VPN). The cloud profile password will need to be updated if a remote user leaves for home and forgets it.

Unfortunately, they will also need to sign into the VPN with the same profile to sync it with the on-premises server they are trying to connect to.

The passwords for accessing the VPN and for changing the VPN password will not be the same, which means that if you forget the former, you’ll still need to remember it to update the latter. Additionally, changing your VPN password should only require an internet connection, not an internet connection and access to the VPN.

Endpoint Manager allows your devices to connect to your cloud environment through Azure AD, instead of requiring your profiles to first join M365 in the cloud and then sync with an on-premise server.

Because the device is registered in the cloud, any changes made to it are immediately updated and deployed back to the device. There’s no need for a separate server to serve information to the device since everything is already managed through Azure. As a result, there’s no need for a VPN to facilitate user-related changes.

By configuring policies in Endpoint Manager, information exchange is consistently secured, and the risk of data being sent to a compromised machine is eliminated.

For just $8 per user per month, you can shift your devices from the on-premises server to the cloud, leaving the server in the past where it belongs.

 

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Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com

It is important for your organization to license the first 300 users under the Business Premium plan if you plan to use Microsoft 365. This particular plan offers exceptional cybersecurity features that cannot be found in any other M365 license, providing significant cost savings and peace of mind.

The surge in remote work has resulted in various gaps in organizational cybersecurity. However, despite these challenges, the trend of remote work is anticipated to continue growing without any signs of slowing down.

In the current scenario, ensuring the security of your organization’s perimeter is no longer enough. You need to strengthen the security measures for every remote employee, including their endpoint devices, other devices they use, and the data stored on each device, as well as the employees themselves.

The most efficient way to ensure protection is to have a robust defense system as close to the data as possible. This involves having top-notch security measures at the application layer, which starts with your cloud.

It is highly probable that your cloud and its functions are the most heavily utilized technology in your organization. Therefore, it is crucial to acknowledge that it should also be the most secure and well-protected.

Microsoft 365 is a collection of applications that utilize the Azure cloud technology developed by Microsoft. This suite of applications is available in various plans tailored to meet the needs of home, business, and enterprise users, each offering different levels of pricing and features.

To illustrate, Microsoft 365 provides business plans such as Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium, whereas enterprise plans include E1, E3, and E5. In addition, Microsoft has an Apps for a Business plan that offers its standard Office applications. These plans are available at different price points based on a per-user, per-month (user/month) fee structure with an annual subscription.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium Pricing

At the time of writing this post, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is priced at $22 per user per month. This fee has been recently increased from the previous rate of $20.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium Features

Microsoft 365 Business Premium offers excellent value for money, with several distinct features that set it apart. Although it may not have as many features as the high-end E5 plan, Business Premium is priced at only 39% of an E5 license.

Moreover, the features available in Business Premium are superior to those found in the lower-tier Business Standard plan and even outdo those in the higher-tier E3 plan, as we will delve into further.

To start with, Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes a comprehensive suite of productivity applications, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint Online, Planner, and Teams, among others. One of the standout features in Business Premium is Microsoft Intune, which is also available in M365 E3 and is a personal favorite of ours.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium also offers a 50 GB mailbox storage limit in Outlook, along with a 1 TB storage limit in OneDrive. Additionally, it includes Azure Information Protection, which encompasses Microsoft Purview Email Encryption.

Above all, Microsoft 365 Business Premium stands out for its advanced built-in cybersecurity features, which are not available in the adjacent plans. Let’s take a closer look at them:

Microsoft 365 Business Premium Security Features

With Microsoft 365 Business Premium, users can benefit from enterprise-level protection for both their data and themselves. This level of protection is not available in most other M365 plans, including the E3 plan, which is specifically designed for enterprises.

The majority of these features are included in both Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 (previously known as Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection) and Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 (previously known as Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection). Both of these defenders are integrated into Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

To begin with, Microsoft 365 Business Premium incorporates additional anti-phishing measures, such as user and domain impersonation intelligence, along with unusual character and sender alerts.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium also includes Safe Links and Attachments, a feature that checks potentially malicious data by subjecting it to a virtual environment. These capabilities provide coverage for Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams under Defender for O365 Plan 1.

All of these alerts are consolidated into real-time reporting that enables you to monitor the security of your environment.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. Business Standard

When compared to Business Premium, Microsoft 365 Business Standard is simply a standard offering. Although the applications are available for use, they lack the advanced protection that Business Premium offers.

Business Standard doesn’t offer the security features that are typically expected by businesses as a standard.

Plan	M365 Business Premium	M365 Business Standard
Price per user, per month	$22	$12.50
User limit	300	300
Outlook storage	50 GB	50 GB
OneDrive storage	1 TB	1 TB
Teams	Yes	Yes
SharePoint	Yes	Yes
Intune	Yes	No
eDiscovery	Yes	No
Azure AD	Yes	No
Anti-Phishing	Yes	No
Real-Time Reports	Yes	No
Safe Attachments	Yes	No
Safe Links	Yes	No
Single Sign-On (SSO)	Yes	No
Endpoint Analytics	Yes	No
Conditional Access	Yes	No
Multi-Factor Authentication	Yes	No

Business Standard will save you money but should cost you a lot of peace of mind because it costs $9.50 per user less per month than BP.

Keep in mind that it would take about 131 years to recoup the money you save with Business Standard at the average cost of a data breach ($4.24 million, per IBM).

Microsoft 365 Business Premium vs. E3

The seatbelts should function if you paid extra for a decent automobile, right?

Unfortunately, upgrading from Microsoft 365 Business Premium to Microsoft 365 E3 does not work like that (Not to be mistaken for Microsoft OFFICE 365 E3).

Only standard anti-phishing technologies, such as spoof intelligence, are included with E3. The remaining security measures are disregarded.

E3 license holders must acquire extra licenses for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 ($2/mo) and Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 ($5/mo) in order to receive the same security capabilities as BP.

The price for a fully defended E3 license is just under twice as much as BP when combined with E3’s standard $36 per user/month fee.

Plan	M365 Business Premium	M365 E3
Price per user, per month	$22	$36
User limit	300	Unlimited
Outlook storage	50 GB	100 GB
OneDrive storage	1 TB	Unlimited
Teams	Yes	Yes
SharePoint	Yes	Yes
Intune	Yes	Yes
Endpoint Configuration Manager	No	Yes
Litigation Hold	Yes	Yes
eDiscovery	Yes	Yes
Credential Guard	No	Yes
App Locker	No	Yes
Azure AD	Yes	Yes
Azure AD Premium	No	Yes
Anti-Phishing	Yes	No
Real-Time Reports	Yes	No
Safe Attachments	Yes	No
Safe Links	Yes	No

As you can see, E3 offers some advantages, such as access to Azure Rights Management in the premium edition of Azure AD. The on-premises version of Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, is also included in E3.

Defender for Endpoint Plan 1, which contains Block At First Sight, Endpoint Defender for Mac, Improved ASR, Tamper Protection, and Web Content Filtering, is included with E3 in terms of security. All are already included in Business Premium via Defender Antivirus, with the exception of Defender for Mac and Web Content Filtering.

Why is Business Premium the best option?

For small businesses with up to 300 employees, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the best choice, to put it simply. Unfortunately, E3 and its required add-ons are the sole choices for every additional employee at 301 employees and above.

Business Premium offers the required security capabilities that are not present in either Business Standard or E3 for organizations with less than 300 users to license.

Businesses that need to license more than 300 users should do so by assigning Business Premium licenses to the first 300 users and additional enterprise licenses to those who want the extra capabilities.

 

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Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com