Office 365 A1 for Facility

[rlculver]

Hi,

 

I am helping a school improve there email security.

 

Currently they are using Office 365 A1 for Facility. Would you recommending upgrading to Microsoft 365 A3 or A5 ?

 

They have sufficient firewalls and anti virus software in place already. Just getting my hand around if they need to upgrade to include some of the Threat Protection built into O365 for email security ?

 

You may say it is better to use the security features built into the A1 package, such as implementing rules etc .

 

Please advise.

 

Thanks

[Oaktech]

We're still using the A1 and it's been pretty good for us. The thing I would always recomend, if you haven't, is lowering the spam level to something much more restrictive and then enabling the quarantine digest email as that seems to catch everything very nasty and most phishing.

[rlculver]

Thanks for the reply.

 

That sounds good. Looking at all the features included with A3 & A5, i wonder how many schools actually make sure of these features !!!

 

Do you have any good information resources which would be helpful to me in implementing some of the features ? Thanks

[RLR]

Sorry to go off topic but is Intune included in A1? I see mixed answers when searching online. We're mainly google based but might look into going to intune for our windows devices.

[Oaktech]

Thanks for the reply.

 

That sounds good. Looking at all the features included with A3 & A5, i wonder how many schools actually make sure of these features !!!

 

Do you have any good information resources which would be helpful to me in implementing some of the features ? Thanks

 

I've only been using the MS documentation, which whilst it is like wading through treacle to find the relevant information once you find it, is comprehensive.

 

The only features I've found that I might want to upgrade for is to enable the use of an OAuth token rather than the FIDO/App for MFA due to the issues with staff getting mobiles out in class to log on and to enhance the Azure drill-down/reporting features.

 

The Intune thing is confusing - I'm pretty sure it is *not* included, I can't find an admin centre for it, but that there is a very limited mobile device management that allows certain things like enforcing a passcode and remote wipe.

[jtotheb]

Sorry to go off topic but is Intune included in A1? I see mixed answers when searching online. We're mainly google based but might look into going to intune for our windows devices.

 

No, it doesn't come with any of the Office 365 Plans. It does come with Microsoft 365 A3 and above, as a standalone product, or bundled with EMS A3 and above.

[psydii]

We have Microsoft A5 and use a lot of the features, particularly around what is now called Defender. It is a fully cross platform security system.

 

It is very powerful, supporting us with safeguarding and GDPR compliance, Microsoft Information Protection, retention policies and Advanced eDiscovery is where I spend most of my time at the moment.

We also use: Teams Conferencing, Booking, Phone System, PowerBI Pro, My Analytics (was Cortana, and is now Viva), AIP (now MIP), Advanced Auditing, ATA/Defender for Identity, Cloud App Security, Defender for Endpoint, and the Server CALS.

 

Slightly out of date now I think, but here is a good start on the differences:

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-365-platform-service-description/microsoft-365-education

 

GDPR, a near miss on ransomware and then the risk of a pandemic made the case for us. The Safeguarding team have been very happy with the level of detail we can drill into when needed.

[Planehazza]

We're in the process of A1 to A3 licensing. We went for it primarily for things like SSPR, Intune. Other features like Bookings look like they might be useful