November 6, 2024
Zach Marks
x minute read
Upgrading Microsoft enterprise licensing from E3 to E5 or P1 to P2? Whether your company is upgrading or considering the move, you may be facing questions about how to leverage this shift for your security team's advantage. Platformizing is all the buzz in 2024, and Microsoft is often central to these efforts due to its wide range of capabilities across both E3 and E5 licenses. However, understanding how to best utilize features and capabilities from these licenses requires experts, time, and resources.
While E3 provides strong foundations, E5 offers advanced functionality helping customers on their journey to address sophisticated threats. The challenge lies in understanding the tangible value of having these advanced capabilities in place. What benefits would they offer? How could they reduce risk exposure, and by what measurable amount?
For example, upgrading to E5 can likely improve security, but realized value from doing so should be informed by the impact these features would have on reducing risk. To put it simply, the key to making the right decision with your Microsoft licensing lies in having the right data, and that requires context from other parts of your network.
A great starting point in understanding what license(s) make sense is to assess your existing capabilities to understand what risks are covered and where there are potential gaps. This approach not only puts you on the path to optimizing the existing Microsoft deployment but can also highlight areas where future upgrades may be beneficial. For organizations using a hybrid E3/E5 setup, understanding the nuances of what's included in each license and how they can be applied to your workforce is pivotal. While both licenses come with robust security features, tapping into their full value requires a true understanding of the environment as a whole.
For example, you may want to deploy the subset of E5 licenses that you have to users that are disproportionately attacked to help mitigate the risk they represent relative to the general population. This is only possible by looking at other data sources within the network. Making informed decisions like this requires more than just following best practices—it calls for deep insights into your environment to manage them effectively. A platform like Reach, which offers risk-based insights on how specific license features can mitigate threats, provides the crucial data needed to determine if upgrading licenses is the right choice.
For organizations looking to evaluate and potentially upgrade to E5, Reach offers a front row seat into the potential impact of the advanced security features included in the suite. Reach's platform ingests data to understand unique threats facing your environment and assesses your current security controls to identify where and how E5's capabilities - such as Threat Explorer in Microsoft Defender for O365 or Risk-Based Conditional Access - would make an impact. It translates attacks targeting your users into insights, showing you exactly how E5's enhanced features can reduce risks that might otherwise go unnoticed.
This data-driven approach allows security leaders to see the specific benefits of an E5 upgrade in their environment, giving them comfort when making a purchasing decision. Instead of upgrading based on general assumptions, Reach ensures that the decision to move to E5 is based on real, measurable security needs. This not only helps back the investment with data but also ensures that once the upgrade is made, the organization is set up to fully leverage the advanced tools included in the E5 license.
Choosing between Microsoft E3 and E5 licenses is not a decision to take lightly. Both offer strong security foundations, but understanding how these capabilities fit into your organization's specific threat landscape requires detailed insights. The key is to use data to make informed decisions about which license, or combination of licenses, is right for you. Reach provides that clarity by delivering deep insights into your current security posture, highlighting gaps that could be addressed with E5 features, and ensuring that all tools—whether E3 or E5—are used to their full potential. With Reach, organizations can confidently make decisions about whether an E5 upgrade makes sense, ensuring that every investment in security is both strategic and effective.
Reach is the first purpose-built platform that closes the gap between assessing your security posture and reducing your exposure through operational changes using configuration guides, workflows, and automation - all contextualized and prioritized to maximize the efficacy of your existing tech stack. To learn more, visit reach.security/try-reach.
