Blog & Guides
Practical cybersecurity articles, step-by-step guides, and quick-reference cheat sheets — from Active Directory hardening to Microsoft 365 and zero trust. Written by someone who's done the work. No hype, no fluff.
4 results for “licensing” · Clear
Which Microsoft 365 Plan Do I Actually Need for My Business? Basic vs Standard vs Premium in 2026
Microsoft 365 Business Basic covers email, Teams and web apps; Business Standard adds the desktop Office suite; Business Premium adds the security and device-management layer most small businesses are missing — Entra ID P1, Intune, Defender for Business and Defender for Office 365. With the July 2026 price increase now in effect and new capabilities rolling into every tier, here is what each plan actually includes, what it costs, and a decision framework for picking the right one — including when to skip the Business plans entirely and go enterprise.
Windows 10 ESU Extended to October 2027: What Changed, What It Costs, and How to Decide
Microsoft has quietly extended the Windows 10 consumer Extended Security Updates program by a full year — coverage now runs through 12 October 2027, and enrollment stays open until the program ends. But the business ESU terms have not changed: Year 2 starts in October 2026 at $122 per device, and late joiners must buy Year 1 retroactively. Here is exactly what changed, what it costs for home users and organisations, the free paths most admins overlook, and a decision framework for the October deadline.
Copilot Cowork and Work IQ: Requirements, Cost, Use Cases and Setup for Microsoft 365 Admins
Copilot Cowork is Microsoft's agentic layer in Microsoft 365 Copilot — it sends emails, builds documents, schedules meetings and runs multi-step tasks with your approval — while Work IQ is the intelligence layer that grounds Copilot and agents in your tenant's data. This guide covers what each one does, the licensing and tenant requirements, how Copilot Credit billing works, real use cases, and step-by-step setup for admins and users.
Microsoft 365 E3 vs E5 vs E7: A Practitioner's Guide to Choosing the Right License in 2026
Microsoft 365 E3 covers core productivity and baseline security, E5 adds the advanced security, compliance and voice stack, and the new E7 'Frontier Suite' bundles E5 with Copilot, Agent 365 and the Entra Suite for AI-driven work. This guide breaks down what each tier includes, what it costs, and how to decide which one your organisation actually needs.