Microsoft 365 Business Premium in the GCC High: Affordable Compliance?
There’s BIG news for contractors across the US defense supply chain – Microsoft has announced that Microsoft 365 Business Premium is now available in the GCC High. This affordable license could be a game-changer for small and mid-sized federal government contractors facing CMMC compliance requirements. But there are a few caveats.
In a blog post that dropped on November 3rd, Microsoft announced that a commercially available and super-popular product called Business Premium was being added to the GCC High product catalog. Obviously, organizations want to have secure and compliant systems, but small businesses have long been frustrated with the expensive GCC High product pricing compared with commercial Microsoft 365. The Business Premium bundle could be a HUGE help here.
Today, we’re going to break down what the Business Premium license offers and highlight additional licensing you may want to layer on top of Business Premium to enhance your security and compliance. Let’s jump in.
If you’re not familiar with the Microsoft 365 Business Premium license, prepared to be amazed. It’s designed for organizations with under 500 seats, offering a cost-effective way for organizations to potentially meet CMMC compliance requirements without sacrificing productivity or blowing your IT budget.
Here are some highlights:
· A 50 gigabyte exchange mailbox
· 1 Terabyte of Onedrive personal storage
· 1 Terabyte of pooled sharepoint storage plus 10 gigabytes extra per licensed user
· Communication and collaboration in Microsoft Teams
· Access to full-blown, local Microsoft apps like outlook, word and excel installable on up to 5 machines
· Defender for Office 365 plan 1 for extra email security
· Intune plan 1 for endpoint management
· Azure information protection to protect your data with encryption and labeling tools
· Microsoft Entra plan 1 so you can create powerful conditional access policies.
· And much more!
But there still may be some security holes for defense contractors facing CMMC compliance deadlines.
That’s where the Microsoft 365 E5 Security add on comes in. This product “levels up” your Business Premium investment to almost match what’s included in the powerful but expensive Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft’s top-tier enterprise plan.
Now you can strengthen your security posture with Microsoft Entra Plan 2, Microsoft Defender for Identity, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.
Extending your capabilities beyond business premium with the e5 security add on is great, but there are important limitations and caveats you should consider with this licensing stack.
First, you really should work with a certified CMMC compliance consultant to confirm that the Business Premium license plus the E5 security add on will meet your CMMC requirements. It’s possible there are other licenses you’ll need to fill any gaps you have.
Next, Business Premium in the GCC High is brand spankin’ new. It’s possible the GCC High flavor of this license will have fewer features than the commercial version. We’ve seen some conflicting information about the name of the E5 security add on (is it E5 security or Defender suite for Business?) and whether Defender for Endpoint plan 2 is included or needs to be added on.
Are you good with being a Guinea pig for this new license stack?
Are you ok with the “small” 50 gbs exchange mailbox compared to the unlimited capacity of the Microsoft 365 E5? Is 1 TBs of personal Onedrive space per user enough?
This release is huge because it democratizes access to secure, compliant productivity tools. For years, smaller contractors had to choose between expensive enterprise licenses or risk non-compliance. Now, Business Premium for GCC High coupled with Microsoft E5 Security add on could bridge that gap and save organization between 40-50% against the Microsoft E5.
Want to give Business Premium a try or learn more about LiftOff’s GCC High licensing program? Check us out at liftoffonline.com.