How do they compare?
Business Premium gives you real security tools — Defender for Business, Defender for Office 365, Entra ID, Intune. What it doesn't give you is a team watching them around the clock. EntraGuard runs the stack you already pay for and puts a 24/7 SOC alongside the IT team you already have.
30 minutes · nothing to install · you keep the assessment either way
You already own more than you're using
Defender for Business, Defender for Office 365, Entra ID Conditional Access, and Intune are real, capable tools included in the plan you're probably already paying $22–32/user/month for. Microsoft's own guidance is candid about the rest: "your organization is still responsible for configuration, policy design, monitoring, and ongoing management."
There's no included 24/7 human SOC. Microsoft's actual managed offering (Defender Experts for XDR) is a separate, enterprise-priced add-on with no clear path for a sub-300-seat business. The tools generate findings — someone still has to read and act on them.
Defender for Business can automatically isolate a device or suspend an account — a genuine capability — but only for specific high-confidence scenarios like ransomware or business email compromise. Everything outside that narrow playbook is alert-only.
Attack Simulation Training — phishing simulations, employee reporting, remediation training — requires Defender for Office 365 Plan 2. It is not part of the Business Premium base bundle.
Business Premium includes only a limited slice of Purview Compliance Manager — no control mapping to specific frameworks (HIPAA, NIST, etc.) and no workflow. Microsoft's own documentation states Secure Score and Compliance Manager scores are not proof of compliance with any regulation.
Three reasons to add EntraGuard on top of Business Premium
Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview all feed one shared view instead of four separate consoles your team has to check individually. Add a capability — dark-web monitoring, awareness training, compliance evidence — and you add a module, not a new tool to learn.
Every EntraGuard engagement runs a specialist team who correlates and responds to what Defender for Business and Defender for Office 365 flag, around the clock — not an enterprise add-on you have to go find and buy separately.
You don't need a dedicated analyst reading Secure Score every morning. EntraGuard's team investigates what it means, closes the loop, and hands your board one posture number.
You own more security tooling than you're using — we'll show you exactly what's being watched, and what isn't, in about 30 minutes.
Every layer Business Premium leaves for your team to watch
Each layer of your security and compliance program, run by the same specialist team, on the same screen you already trust.
Microsoft 365, Entra ID, assets, and controls — unified into one operating view. Command is the operating core every engagement runs on, so nobody's toggling between the Defender portal, the Entra admin center, Intune, and Purview to answer one question. Business Premium hands you all four consoles and leaves your team to stitch the picture together itself.
Signals get correlated, not just logged. When something needs a response — a risky sign-in, a compromised endpoint — Detect flags it and our specialists contain it, before it becomes an incident. Business Premium's own automated containment only fires for a narrow set of high-confidence scenarios like ransomware or BEC — everything else sits in the console as an alert, waiting on your team.
Technical noise becomes one number your board can use. Insight scores your posture continuously and prioritizes what to fix next, in language executives and auditors both accept. Secure Score is a real signal inside Business Premium, but Microsoft's own guidance calls it a work queue, not a complete security program — it doesn't fold in email, training, or compliance posture the way Insight does.
Entra ID access, governed from day one. Deeper MFA and privilege governance — like risk-based sign-in, which needs Entra ID P2 on the Microsoft side — is a module you add when you're ready for it.
Endpoint, email, and patch — specialist-run. Business Premium licenses the Defender and Intune tools already — Protect is the team that operates them and adds what the base bundle stops short of, like dark-web monitoring and ongoing phishing simulations.
Audit-ready, continuously. Business Premium's Compliance Manager gives you a partial score — Microsoft's own documentation says it isn't proof of compliance with any regulation.
A full SOC, on call. 24/7 monitoring, investigation, and response — purchased separately, same tier as Fractional CISO.
Business Premium is already strong on baseline EDR, email, and patch — that's why Protect and Identity sit in the supporting tier above rather than featured. Command, Detect, and Insight are featured because they're the starkest, most citable gaps against this specific plan. Full Managed Security Operations is a separately-purchased managed service, kept distinct from the six-product portfolio.
From EntraGuard clients
"Within thirty days, EntraGuard had rolled out an impressive security program that immediately identified and remediated active vulnerabilities and threats."Noah R. — COO, Staffing & Recruiting Firm
"We have been a happy client since 2009. HIPAA was a breeze — the requirements actually fall short of the policies and protection we already had in place, thanks to them."Glen B. — President, NY-area Medical Practices
"EntraGuard has significantly improved our cybersecurity program. Our compliance efforts are now stronger, with more effective management of cybersecurity."James C. — CFO, NY-area Publishing Company
EntraGuard + Microsoft 365 Business Premium, 2026
This isn't rip-and-replace — EntraGuard runs on top of the Microsoft 365 you already own. Rows are the jobs a security program actually has to do. Where a capability is a modular add-on for EntraGuard too, it's marked as such — not claimed as automatically included.
| Capability | EntraGuard | M365 Business Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Next-gen antivirus & EDR | ProtectModular, specialist-operated | Included — Defender for Business |
| 24/7 managed threat hunting & response | DetectBaseline core; full SOC-grade service is separate | Not included — self-managed by design1 |
| Threats contained, not just alerted | Default once Detect is active | Automated containment, narrow scope only2 |
| Identity threat protection | IdentityEntra ID core; deeper governance is an add-on | Conditional Access only — Entra ID P13 |
| Email security | ProtectModular | Included — Defender for O365 P1 |
| Patch & device management | ProtectModular | Included — Intune Plan 1 |
| Dark-web credential monitoring | ProtectModular | Not included at this tier |
| Security-awareness training | ProtectModular, measured | Add-on only — Defender for O365 P2 required4 |
| Continuous compliance evidence | ComplyModular | Read-only score, no framework mapping5 |
| Single posture score | InsightCore — reflects what's connected | Secure Score exists, not board/audit-grade6 |
| A team running it for you | Specialist operation, not self-service | DIY by design |
| One vendor, one bill | Yes — one relationship as you add modules | One bill, but full coverage needs Microsoft add-ons |
1 — Microsoft's managed offering, Defender Experts for XDR, is a separate, enterprise-priced service with no clear path for a sub-300-seat business — Business Premium's own tools are self-managed by design. 2 — Automatic attack disruption covers specific high-confidence scenarios (ransomware, BEC, adversary-in-the-middle), not general-purpose response. 3 — Entra ID P1 (included in Business Premium) covers Conditional Access policy. Risk-based sign-in detection requires Entra ID P2, a separate license. 4 — Attack Simulation Training requires Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 / E5-tier licensing, not included in the base Business Premium bundle. 5 — Business Premium includes a limited slice of Purview Compliance Manager — no control mapping to specific frameworks (HIPAA, NIST, etc.) and no workflow. 6 — Microsoft's own documentation states Secure Score "is not a complete security program," and that Secure Score and Compliance Manager scores are not proof of compliance with any regulation. Figures reflect Microsoft's public licensing and pricing pages, checked July 2026. Microsoft's SMB pricing and packaging changed twice in the six months before this research — confirm current price and feature scope directly with Microsoft or a partner before publishing. Named products are the property of Microsoft Corporation and are shown to illustrate coverage, not a vendor-run benchmark. EntraGuard is built around Microsoft 365 and Entra, not a replacement for them.
Questions, answered
The watch never sleeps
Give us thirty minutes and we'll show you your own posture — gaps, wins, and the two or three things worth fixing first. You keep the assessment either way.