Microsoft Entra Suite

Microsoft announce that the Microsoft Entra Suite is generally available. This solution brings together identity and network access so that you can secure employee access to any cloud or on-premises application or resource from any location whilst all the time enforcing least privileged access. Microsoft Entra Suite costs $12 per user per month and can be assigned to any user already licensed with Entra ID Plan 1 – or any plan (like Microsoft 365 E3) that includes it. There’s also an Add-on available for users already licensed with Entra ID Plan 2.

Find the announcement here (with a list of the suite components): https://bit.ly/4fa2iY1, pricing information here: https://bit.ly/46dHcUU, and the Product Terms information here: https://bit.ly/2OFt7vB.

Microsoft 365 plan comparison document

There’s an April 2023 version of the popular Microsoft 365 plan comparison document showing you the different components in all of the Enterprise and Frontline Worker plans and the Add-on licences that are available. This time it’s updated for new offerings such as Intune Plan 2 and the Intune Suite. Find this useful document here: https://bit.ly/2LG4gqi.

Microsoft 365 Compliance changes

Microsoft 365 Compliance has been a cost-effective way of acquiring Office 365 Advanced Compliance and Azure Information Protection Premium Plan 2 at a cost of $10 per user per month, but from 1 April, 2020 there are changes.

The two Microsoft 365 Compliance components (themselves collections of services) are retired, and replaced with three “mini suites” which repackage the existing Compliance offerings into different groups and add some new functionality too. The three new mini suites are: eDiscovery and Audit, Information Protection and Governance, and Insider Risk Management, priced at $7 per user per month for Information Protection and Governance and $6 per user per month for the other two. Microsoft 365 Compliance remains the way to access the services of all three mini suites at $10 per user per month.

These suites can be added on to a Microsoft 365 E3 licence (as you would perhaps expect), but also to a whole host of other licences, and page 60 of the April 2020 Product Terms document lists the various prerequisites.

The compliance offerings are typically tenant-level services and the licensing guidance for tenant-level services is updated here: https://bit.ly/35gbdUv where you’ll also find a useful Compliance Licensing Comparison document detailing which services are licensed by which EMS, Office 365 or Microsoft 365 plan. This document is available as a PDF document (https://bit.ly/3aoaQbc) or Excel file (https://bit.ly/2zCCK6C).

Discontinuation of Azure Information Protection Plan 2

Azure Information Protection Plan 2 is being discontinued as a standalone offering. Page 6 of the April 2020 Product Terms document confirms that existing customers will continue to have access to the service for the term of their Subscription, and customers with true-up rights will continue to have the option to true-up for the term of their Enrolment. Find the Product Terms documents here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.