Office365 rebranded to Microsoft365

Most of you may already be aware that Office365 is the name Microsoft gave to its subscription based model when it was released back in 2011. In the intervening period, the world has seen a massive upsurge in cyber-attacks along with a huge increase in the appetite for remote working and multi device usage. In response to this, Microsoft has been compiling a vast array of powerful security tools under the umbrella name of Enterprise Mobility & Security (EM&S). In 2017, Microsoft identified an opportunity to bundle Office365 with some of the EM&S features along with Windows10 upgrade and this bundle was named Microsoft365. As they say in their own blog about this rebrand, it has come a long way since then.

So, what is changing?

Microsoft have decided to bring several of their most popular Office365 products under the Microsft365 product range.

  • Office 365 Business Essentials has changed to Microsoft 365 Business Basic.
  • Office 365 Business Premium has changed to Microsoft 365 Business Standard.
  • Microsoft 365 Business has changed to Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

All of the above subscriptions include Microsoft Exchange email functionality along with productivity and collaboration tools like Teams, OneDrive, Sharepoint, O365 groups. M365 Business standard includes a fully downloadable copy of MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint etc).

Microsoft365 Business Premium is the one with the selection of EM&S features, (some listed below*) so if it is bang for your buck you are after, this subscription has it all. 

  • Exchange Online Protection.
  • Key International Standards Compliance.
  • Advanced Threat Protection.
  • Remote Wipe of company data (with MS Intune).
  • Mobile Device Management.
  • Conditional Access.
  • Information Rights Management.
  • Standardised Security Policies across devices.
  • Email Encryption.

A lot of our clients have been upgrading to this license as it is only a small price upgrade for the additional security features that are included.

Don’t want to use Exchange Online or Outlook for Email?

If you have an alternative email set up and you do not wish to use Exchange online, the two subscriptions you would normally have availed of have been rebranded as follows.

  • Office 365 Business has changed to Microsoft 365 Apps for Business.
  • Office 365 ProPlus has changed to Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise.

This rebrand from Microsoft took effect from 21st April 2020 and is a name change only and there are no pricing or feature changes at this time. Whether you are a client of ours or not, feel free to contact any of our team and we would be happy to guide you to the right subscription for your business requirements.

(* Microsoft have been adding features to this license since it was first launched so this list is not exhaustive and is current at time of publishing this blog.)

Contact us for all enquiries email sales@intuity.ie