Microsoft 365 Business Premium: New Add-ons Elevate Security and Compliance for SMBs
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats, often with limited IT resources and budgets. Recognizing this gap, Microsoft announced in October 2025 three new add-ons for Microsoft 365 Business Premium, designed to provide enterprise-grade security and compliance at an affordable price.
These new packages, the Microsoft Defender Suite and the Microsoft Purview Suite, represent a significant shift, allowing SMBs to defend against complex attacks and meet strict regulatory requirements without the need to purchase more expensive Enterprise licenses.
Microsoft Defender Suite for Business Premium: End-to-End Security
For $10 per user/month, this add-on offers an end-to-end security layer that covers identity, devices, email, and cloud applications.
Key Components:
- Microsoft Entra ID P2: Offers advanced identity protection and governance features, such as risk-based Conditional Access, which blocks identity attacks in real time through behavioral analysis.
- Microsoft Defender for Identity: Provides visibility into your identity landscape, with posture recommendations and robust detections that automatically correlate with Defender XDR.
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2: Includes market-leading EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), attack surface reduction, and advanced threat hunting.
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P2: Provides phishing attack simulations to train employees, automated response capabilities, and post-breach investigations.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps: Allows you to identify and manage "shadow IT," protect against attacks on SaaS applications, and control interactions with generative AI applications.
Microsoft Purview Suite for Business Premium: Governance and Data Protection
Also for $10 per user/month, the Purview Suite focuses on data protection, insider risk management, and compliance.
Key Components:
- Purview Insider Risk Management: Uses behavioral analytics to detect risky activities, such as an employee downloading a large volume of files before leaving the company.
- Purview Information Protection & Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Classifies and labels sensitive data, ensuring that protections (such as encryption) follow the data wherever it goes and prevents the accidental sharing of confidential information.
- Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI: A crucial new feature that provides visibility into how AI (including Copilot) interacts with sensitive data, detecting oversharing and risky prompts.
- Purview eDiscovery (Premium) & Audit (Premium): Essential tools for internal investigations, legal holds, and forensic audits, providing detailed logs and a simplified investigation workflow.
The Best of Both Worlds: The Complete Bundle
For truly comprehensive protection, Microsoft offers a package that combines both suites for $15 per user/month. This option represents a savings of up to 68% compared to purchasing the products separately, making enterprise-grade security more accessible than ever for SMBs.
| Add-on | Price | Key Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Defender Suite | $10/user/month | Identity, Endpoint, Email, Cloud Apps Security |
| Purview Suite | $10/user/month | Data Protection, Compliance, Insider Risk |
| Complete Bundle | $15/user/month | All Features (68% savings) |
Conclusion
With these new add-ons, Microsoft is democratizing access to state-of-the-art security and compliance tools. SMBs no longer have to make a compromise between budget and security. By integrating these capabilities into Microsoft 365 Business Premium, organizations can build a robust security posture, protect their most sensitive data, and prepare for the challenges of an ever-evolving threat landscape, including the new risks associated with artificial intelligence.