Business Premium is the most security-complete Microsoft 365 plan for SMBs — but most businesses only use the email and Office apps. Here's what you're paying for and what an MSP makes sure you're using.
Key takeaways
- 1Microsoft Defender for Business — enterprise-grade endpoint detection and response (EDR)
- 2Microsoft Intune — full mobile device and application management (MDM/MAM)
- 3Microsoft Entra ID P1 — Conditional Access and Identity Protection
- 4Azure Information Protection P1 — classify and protect sensitive documents
- 5Microsoft Purview — compliance, audit logs, and retention policies
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is one of the best-value IT products available to small and medium businesses. For a single per-user monthly licence, you get the full Office app suite, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams — and a complete security stack that would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to assemble separately a decade ago.
What Business Premium includes
Most people know about the productivity side: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive. But the security layer is where Business Premium earns its price:
- Microsoft Defender for Business — enterprise-grade endpoint detection and response (EDR)
- Microsoft Intune — full mobile device and application management (MDM/MAM)
- Microsoft Entra ID P1 — Conditional Access and Identity Protection
- Azure Information Protection P1 — classify and protect sensitive documents
- Microsoft Purview — compliance, audit logs, and retention policies
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 — anti-phishing, safe links, safe attachments
The problem: most of it never gets turned on
Without a managed service provider, the typical Business Premium tenant looks like this: email works, Teams is used for meetings, and maybe OneDrive is set up for a few users. Defender is in its default state (better than nothing, but nowhere near its capability). Intune has no devices enrolled. Conditional Access has no policies. The security stack that Microsoft invested billions to build sits idle.
What an MSP does differently
An MSP like Optimyze deploys Business Premium as a complete system. Conditional Access policies are configured to block risky sign-ins. Every device is enrolled in Intune and must meet compliance standards before accessing company data. Defender for Business is tuned with attack surface reduction rules and vulnerability management. The entire security posture is monitored 24/7.
The licence cost is the same whether you use 20% or 100% of what it offers. The difference is whether you're actually protected.
