News

Microsoft Readying New 'Secure Productive Enterprise' Licensing

• By Kurt Mackie
• July 08, 2016

Microsoft this week took the wraps off a new upper-tier software licensing offering for organizations called "Secure Productive Enterprise."

Expected to arrive sometime in Q4 of this year, the new licensing combines current licensing offerings, including "Office 365, Windows 10 Enterprise, and the Enterprise Mobility + Security suite," with the aim that organizations can better "empower their employees," according to Julia White, general manager of the Microsoft Cloud Platform, in an announcement.

White explained that Enterprise Mobility + Security "is the new name for what previously was the Enterprise Mobility Suite." CEO Satya Nadella had introduced the Enterprise Mobility Suite about two years ago. That suite combines the rights to use Windows Azure Active Directory Premium for identity management, Intune for mobility management and Azure Rights Management Services for file access protection.

Secure Productive Enterprise will replace Microsoft's current Enterprise Cloud Suite licensing offering and it will add "more value," White promised.

Secure Productive Enterprise Perks
Here are all of the licensed products that will be available with the Secure Productive Enterprise offering when it's available, according to White:

• Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (detects end-point breaches)
• Microsoft Cloud App Security (checks the security of SaaS apps)
• Azure Information Protection (checks for inappropriate information disclosures)
• Office 365 Advanced Security Management (offers a dashboard view)
• Office 365 Delve Analytics (a dashboard tool for overseeing Microsoft's Delve collaboration service)
• Skype for Business PSTN Conferencing and Cloud PBX capabilities (facilitating conferencing and voice-over-IP calls)
• Microsoft Power BI (for data visualizations)
• Office 365 Advanced e-Discovery (for finding about information use within an organization)

The new Secure Productive Enterprise licensing bundle will have two product options, "E3" and "E5." The E3 option is the former Enterprise Cloud Suite offering. The E5 option will be new and available "later this calendar year." Here's the breakdown of the two options from White's announcement:

The Windows 10 Enterprise E5 offering under the E5 option will include Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, White indicated.

Name Changes
Microsoft often changes the names of its products, and the unveiling of the Secure Productive Enterprise product seems to have triggered a fresh bout of it. White said that Microsoft was "standardizing" its licensing packaging for "Office 365, Windows 10 Enterprise and the Enterprise Mobility + Security suite," which all will get E3 and E5 options.

Here's a recap of the coming product name changes:

• Windows 10 Enterprise E3 will replace the Windows 10 Enterprise product name
• Azure Information Protection replaces the Azure Rights Management plus Secure Islands acquisition combination
• Enterprise Mobility + Security will replace the Enterprise Mobility Suite, but Microsoft uses the same "EMS" abbreviation for the renamed product

Even though those product names are changing, nothing substantial changes for Microsoft's current customers, according to a blog post by Andrew Conway, senior directory of EMS product marketing.

Conway outlined a few other licensing product changes that will be arriving. He specifically noted that Enterprise Mobility + Security E5 "will be available in Q4 calendar year in line with the new Secure Productive Enterprise plans announced today."

Here's what's in the Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) E5 and E3 plans, according to Conway:

Azure Active Directory Premium will get Premium 1 (P1) and Premium 2 (P2) options. P1 is the current offering. P2 will add Identity Protection and Privileged Identity Management services, and will be "generally available in Q3 2016," according to Conway.

Azure Information Protection also will have Premium 1 (P1) and Premium 2 (P2) options. P1 is the current Azure Rights Management Premium offering, with general availability happening in "Q4 2016." P2 will add "automatic classification" to the P1 option, Conway indicated.