Forum Discussion
Microsoft 365 Now Can Buy Mix Plan Over 300 Lic ?
Hi namlovely2011 ,
here the ref links:
Terms - https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/terms/en-US/productoffering/Microsoft365/MCA
M365 FAQ - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-frequently-asked-questions
If this (or someone else's) reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.
Hi Jo_Soap
I've seen a Tenant provision 300 Business Premium + 300 Business Standard + 290 Business Basic all on NCE after that date. What gives? I am awaiting a response from the Business Planning team to get a unified response, so that everyone has the same compliance requirements and purchasing requirements. Please stand by and thank you for your patience.
Also perhaps Microsoft should better clarify, as the term "user subscription" throws us off if not read carefully. In NCE terms a "subscription" is only 1 (i.e. Business Premium NCE COM MTH) in which there are up to 300 licenses. But I gather "user subscription" refers to the "licenses". I've escalated the context of the NCE Handbook. I'll update everyone on this post asap. Sorry for any inconvenience and/or delays in this understanding. Please stand by and thank you for your patience.
One other thing that is unclear, what is Microsoft's official stance on mixing 300 Business Premium Licenses with M365 Enterprise E3 Licenses?
This is a great question, so it would be helpful if you created a new post this these two M365 E3 questions.
In the meantime, M365 Business plans (including Premium) can be combined with other subscriptions:
Microsoft 365 Business Premium frequently asked questions | Microsoft Learn
Because the former has Defender for Business while the latter has Defender for Endpoint P1. Is this still compliant?
M365 Business Premium includes everything in M365 Business Standard, plus Microsoft Defender for Business.
M365 Enterprise is designed for large organizations, but it can also be used for medium-sized and small businesses. Also, you can have Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Business, or another Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscription to the same account.
I was also told that security algorithms change as one progresses to Enterprise Plan, so should a business go from 300 x Business Premium to 0 x Business Premium + 301 x M365 E3, or should they stick to 300 x Business Premium + 1 x M365 E3? Is it really still compliant to mix that?
The Offer Matrix should be used to determine which offers a particular SKU may be upgraded to:
Regards,
Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge
"M365 Enterprise is designed for large organizations, but it can also be used for medium-sized and small businesses. Also, you can have Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Business, or another Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscription to the same account."
I am quite surprised by that. One would have assumed you need to align the same Defender for Endpoint Product in some shape or form (either by SKU or add-on) Tenant wide as the security portal, as far as I'm aware, won't be able to distinguish endpoint protection and extended capabilities. But okay.
So then there's really no reason to bump all 300 x Business Premium users to E3 once they reach Enterprise scale, unless there's other features in E3 one requires.
The information in my reply about Defender and Endpoint was taken from the following websites:
What is Microsoft Defender for Business? | Microsoft Learn
Microsoft 365 Business Premium frequently asked questions | Microsoft Learn
If after reviewing the information you have additional questions, please let me know.
Otherwise, if this reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.
Regards,
Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge
namlovely2011 Jo_Soap ClaudioStallone DRMichiel JenyM
Hello All,
Thank you all for your patience and understanding.
As an update, the business planning team confirmed that the response that I provided in my 2nd snapshot is the CELA approved statement.
This statement was taken from pg.62 of the NCE Handbook under " Licensing compliance":
It looks like "users" & "licenses" are used interchangeably and mean the same in this case.
Microsoft reserves the right to a tenant limit of 300 provisioned licenses across the Business family of plans.
If this reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.
Regards,Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge
Thank you.
So, to summarize on the Business License limits, it looks like Microsoft do not want us to provision more than 300 licenses collectively across all Business subscriptions. Meaning one should not have 200 Business Premium and 200 Business Standard (= 400 total = not compliant). However, in the current FAQ and screenshots in previous posts "17.2 - License Compliance" it appears Microsoft is still allowing this as an exception for now, though this may change (Warning to all). That clears that.
Then to summarize the mixed Defender for Business/Endpoint issue between Business Premium and M365 Enterprise... my understanding at the moment is nowhere does Microsoft explicitly state you cannot have a mix of Defender for Business and Defender for Endpoint P1 on the same Tenant, irrespective of which of these two Defender products you have enabled Tenant-Wide. Microsoft does state they "recommend" moving to Defender for Endpoint when you exceed over 300 devices (As DfB is designed for less than 300) but that's about all I can find:https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-business/mdb-faq?view=o365-worldwide
Where it gets trickier is if you decide to enable Defender for Endpoint P2 on your Tenant, then it seems you absolutely cannot have Defender for Business licensed devices. The devices must all be licensed with P2 or you can license and configure a mixed mode between P1 and P2 if you don't mind the headache of tagging:https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-business/mdb-manage-subscription?view=o365-worldwide
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/defender-endpoint-subscription-settings?view=o365-worldwide&tabs=mixed
If someone can confirm my understanding of the Defender limitations above when mixing Business/Enterprise that would be great.
And just remember kids, if you're using Conditional Access or Identity Protection or Defender for Office P2 you have to either license adequately and align things further or configure exclusions. Basically, if you provision just one M365 E5 on a Tenant that has other bundles (BP, E3) without add-ons aligning to the E5 modules then be prepared for a lot of compliance or configuration shenanigans it seems. But this is a bit more off topic 🙂