Why Microsoft 365 Business Premium Is the Most Underrated Cybersecurity Tool for SMEs
For most Microsoft 365 Business Premium is known and used primarily as emails, teams and office apps built for team productivity and simplistic access to great tools. However, Microsoft 365 business premium brings an added layer of security features that are of great benefit to many SMEs. It brings productivity, identity protection, device management, endpoint security, phishing protection and data security all into one Microsoft environment. For an SME, this can be particularly valuable as you wouldn’t want a collection of completely separate tools protecting your accounts, laptops, mobile, email and company data, instead Microsoft 365 offers one central barrier.
We’ve put together some of our top reasons why Microsoft 365 Business Premium should be on your radar when considering entry level enterprise-grade protection.
It protects the identity, not just the device
As cyber threats grow, modern security is no longer just about installing antivirus on a laptop, it’s main focus is to protect the person signing in and their identity.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes identity and access management through Microsoft Entra ID, alongside tools such as multi-factor authentication and conditional access. These provide additional layers of protection around how users access company applications and information.
For SMEs embracing remote and hybrid working, this means security can follow the user rather than stopping at the office door.
Microsoft defender brings endpoint security into the package
The laptops and devices employees use every day are another important part of the security picture. Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Microsoft Defender for business, bringing endpoint protection into the same Microsoft environment businesses are already using for productivity.
Rather than viewing Microsoft solely as the home of Outlook, Teams, Work and Excel, Business Premium allows SMEs to combine everyday productivity with protection against threats targeting their devices.
In other words, the Microsoft license you use to help your teamwork could also form part of the security toolkit protecting that work.
It helps protect the place attackers frequently target: email
Email will always remain an important area for businesses to protect against cyber threats. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 that’s included within Microsoft 365 Business Premium, provides protection against phishing, malicious URLs, business email compromise and malicious attachments.
Features such as Safe Links can check URLs, while Safe Attachments can analyse suspicious files before users open them. Anti-phishing capabilities can also help identity impersonation and targeted attacks.
Your employees still have an important role to play in spotting something suspicious, but the aim is to put technology around them too, rather than relying entirely on someone recognising every convincing phishing attempt.
Intune tackles the device-management problem
The modern workplace isn’t limited to a desk in an office. Employees might access company information from laptops, mobiles and other devices across multiple locations.
Microsoft Intune gives businesses a central way to manage devices and applications, helping organisations apply consistent security and compliance requirements across their environment.
For an SME, this can make managing a growing or hybrid workforce much simpler while helping ensure company information isn’t only protected when somebody is working from the office.
Your office may no longer have four walls, so your approach to security shouldn’t either.
It adds protection around company data
Ultimately, cyber security isn’t just about protecting laptops, accounts or emails. It’s about protecting the information behind them.
Customer details, contracts, financial information, HR records and commercially sensitive documents all have value to a business, which makes protecting them an essential part of any cyber security strategy.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium brings data security capabilities into the wider Microsoft environment alongside identity, email, endpoint and device protection.
This allows businesses to look at security more holistically, considering not only who is accessing information and which device they’re using, but also how sensitive company information itself is protected.
The integration is arguably its biggest strength
Individually, each tool has an important role to play. But arguably the biggest advantage of Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the way several different areas of security can work within one Microsoft ecosystem.
Think of it as different layers of protection:
- Microsoft Entra ID helps manage identity and access.
- Microsoft Intune helps manage devices and applications.
- Microsoft Defender for Business provides endpoint protection.
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365 adds protection against email-based threats.
- Microsoft Purview provides data security capabilities.
- Microsoft 365 provides the productivity environment employees already use.
For smaller businesses without large internal IT and cyber security teams, bringing these areas together can help make security easier to manage.
This is why Business Premium shouldn’t simply be viewed as a better version of Office.
It can become one of the foundations on which an SME builds its wider cyber security strategy.
Why Microsoft 365 is often overlooked?
Microsoft 365 is very much still viewed primarily as a productivity platform. It’s Outlook for emails, Teams for communication, and Work, Excel and Powerpoint for everyday work.
Because of that, it can be easy to overlook the security capabilities sitting behind those familiar applications.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium brings productivity and security together within one environment, covering areas such as identity and access management, device management, endpoint protection, phishing protection and data security.
This creates an important question for SMEs: Are you making full use of the technology you’re already paying for?
Rather than continually adding separate security products, businesses should first understand what is already available within their Microsoft environment and whether those capabilities have been properly configured and deployed.
Once completed if you still have gaps where security products are needed then you can start to widen your search for appropriate tools.
How do you get the most from Microsoft 365 Business Premium?
The real value of Microsoft 365 Business Premium comes from understanding what’s available and making sure those tools are being used effectively.
For an SME, that could mean looking at areas including:
- How employee identities and access are being protected
- Whether devices accessing company information are properly managed
- How endpoints are protected against cyber threats
- What protection is in place against phishing and malicious emails
- How sensitive business information is being protected
Microsoft 365 Business Premium brings capabilities across these areas together through Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender for Business, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft Purview.
This is where having the right technology partner becomes valuable. At The One Point, we can help businesses understand their existing Microsoft environment, identify where security could be strengthened and make better use of the technology available to them.
Start by asking yourself – “Are we getting everything we can from Microsoft 365?”