Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS)

The Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite offers two tiers of bundles that include several Microsoft hosted services for managing devices and users, protecting information, and detecting threats. It provides a less expensive alternative for licensing multiple services than separate User Subscription Licenses (User SLs), and it includes rights to some on-premises software that interoperates with EMS services. The suite may be attractive to customers who want to take advantage of Microsoft’s hosted identity and device management technologies. However, doing so will require adjusting to more frequent updates of the services and any on-premises software they integrate with.

EMS E3 and E5 are the third pillar of the Microsoft 365 suite of services, alongside Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E5, and Windows Enterprise E3 and E5.

Service Overview

The services in EMS largely parallel existing Microsoft on-premises server products for identity management, systems management, and information classification and protection. The hosted services and on-premises products can often interoperate to some degree. However, EMS is increasingly Microsoft’s focus of investment in this space, and the services included in it regularly receive updates and new features first, and often exclusively.