Most organizations interested in Microsoft 365 as an introduction to cloud-based networking, either as a new deployment or an addition to a traditional on-premises network, will opt for one of the Microsoft 365 Business options or one of the Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscriptions described in the following sections. In addition, there are specialized versions of Microsoft 365 designed for educational and governmental environments.
Microsoft 365 Business
Intended for small- and medium-sized businesses with up to 300 users, the Microsoft 365 Business product comes in three subscription levels: Basic, Standard, and Premium. All three include the standard Office productivity applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 cloud services: Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and OneDrive. The differences between the levels, other than the prices, are as follows:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic Includes only the web and mobile versions of the productivity applications
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard Includes all Business Basic features plus downloadable desktop versions of the productivity applications, plus desktop versions of Access and Publisher
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium Includes all Business Standard features, plus Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 1 and the advanced security capabilities of Microsoft Intune and the suite of Microsoft Defender applications
Note Microsoft 365 Business for Nonprofits
In addition to the commercial Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium subscriptions, Microsoft offers full-featured versions at all three levels for qualified nonprofit organizations at special prices.
Microsoft 365 Business is a comprehensive package for organizations that do not maintain a full-time IT staff, which is the case with many small businesses. Deploying Microsoft 365 workstations is largely automated, and the package includes the Microsoft 365 admin center, which provides a unified interface for the setup and management of identities and devices.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Windows Autopilot, which streamlines the deployment of new Windows workstations or upgrading existing ones. For computers with an earlier version of Windows installed, Microsoft 365 provides an upgrade to Windows 11. In addition to Autopilot, Microsoft 365 includes device management settings in Azure Active Directory that can automatically apply policies to newly deployed workstations, including those for functions like the following:
- Activation of the Microsoft 365 subscription
- Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 updates
- Automated installation of Microsoft 365 productivity applications on Windows 11
- Control of the device’s screen when the system is idle
- Access control to Microsoft Store apps
- Access control to Cortana
- Access control to Windows tips and advertisements from Microsoft
Another priority of Microsoft 365 Business Premium is to provide security in areas where small businesses often fall short, as shown in Figure 4-1. The suite of security functions and services included in the product protects all the primary areas of a business network: identities, with multifactor authentication; devices, with management capabilities for on-premises and mobile devices; applications, with usage restrictions; email, with threat detection and data loss prevention; and documents, with classification, encryption, and access control.
FIGURE 4-1 Security functions in Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business allows up to 300 user subscriptions in one tenancy, but this does not mean an organization’s network is limited to 300 users. Every user on the network does not need a Microsoft 365 Business license, although only the license-holders can utilize the cloud services included with the product. It is also possible to combine license types in a single tenancy, meaning if an organization running Microsoft 365 Business expands to more than 300 users, more users can be added with Microsoft 365 Enterprise licenses without upgrading the original 300 Business users.