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Licensing Cloud App Security
I have a question regarding licenses in Office 365 and especially the special services Microsoft offers (for example Office 365 Cloud App Security). Do I need to license only users who use the C...
Like some features in Office 365, and many features in Azure Active Directory or the Enterprise Mobility+Security suite of services, you need to license every user that will benefit from the use of the services. It's a common misconception that you only need to license administrators for Office 365 E5 to cover the use of this functionality, but that is not the case.
There are, unfortunately, no technical gates in the product to assist you with license compliance or to prevent non-compliance.
Thanks Wes, this is a great help. Is there a Microsoft document that explains this requirement, when you have a mixed E5 E3 licensing situation. It's something I've not been able to find.
Intermingling Office editions like that is, unfortunately, not well documented, and not something Microsoft does much to point out. At my employer, (Directions on Microsoft), we’ve written extensively on the topic of intermingling EMS and Office editions like this, and have had several reviews by and conversations with, Microsoft. In the case of AAD, it’s easy. They say “anyone who benefits from...”, which basically means if you turn on tenancy-wide features, everyone benefits, and you owe licensing for everyone. Office isn’t as straightforward, but all we’ve been able to extract says it works the same - and effectively all of the security features in Office 365 E5 are tenancy-wide - so if they’re on, licensing is required for everyone.