Microsoft 365 E5: Increasingly All or Nothing

• Customers should proceed carefully if they are only licensing segments of the E5 security stack, or not licensing all users, to avoid large licensing surprises later. 
• Licensing security components of the Microsoft 365 E5 suite on an à la carte basis or for part of an organization is becoming more challenging.
• Microsoft 365 Defender, Conditional Access, and Application Guard for Office are all examples of scenarios where buying piecemeal is no longer possible.

The Microsoft 365 E5 security services—those included in the E5 Security sub-suite—offer endpoint detection and response, enhanced sign-in security, and user identity protection. Customers might want to purchase individual E5 security services to fill in gaps in their current security software or buy services only for users in specific roles, departments, or business units to limit costs. However, purchasing individual services is becoming increasingly difficult as Microsoft intertwines services to implement features that are not available in any stand-alone security service subscription. Furthermore, buying for specific users puts customers at license compliance risk, because licensing enforcement is either not available or not consistently applied.