Microsoft has introduced two add-on plans for corporate customers currently relying on the not-all-of-the-kitchen-sink Microsoft 365 E3 subscription.
The new deals: “Identity & Threat Protection” and “Information Protection & Compliance.” They will be available for purchase as of Feb. 1.
Although Microsoft didn’t say it in so many words, both will be aimed at businesses already subscribing to the $34 per-user per-month Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 plan.
Exactly, said Wes Miller of Directions on Microsoft. “My inclination is that [these new offers are] a packaging tool for E3 customers who are only interested in the security side of E5 or the compliance side of E5,” Miller said.Is TikTok a threat to enterprise security?https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.426.0_en.html#goog_1774922844Volume 0%
Miller was talking about the Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 plan, a $59 per-user per-month subscription that includes the security and compliance components slated to sell as stand-alone supplements for E3 customers.
Microsoft 365, aka M365, is the umbrella term for the relatively recent subscription – first launched in 2017 – that wraps Windows 10, Office 365 and a suite of management tools into a single package. M365 comes in several SKUs (stock-keeping units), including M365 Enterprise, Business, Education, Nonprofit, Government and F1. That last is a less-expensive bundle meant for what Microsoft calls “frontline” workers, those who ring up sales, take calls or spend their shifts on factory floors or in the field.
Microsoft has implicitly designated M365 as the foundational cornerstone of its client-side software-as-a-service strategy. “The sales motion is really about Microsoft 365,” argued Amy Hood, Microsoft’s CFO, in answering a question posed during the last earnings call with Wall Street.
