In the era of AI and autonomous agents, the attack surface moves faster than human reflexes. Microsoft just made a pivotal move for SMBs (1–300 seat orgs): Defender Suite and Purview Suite as add-ons to Microsoft 365 Business Premium. This closes the loop across identity, endpoint, email, SaaS, and (critically) data – with guardrails that understand AI workflows and agent-to-app behavior.

♨️ What’s new (high level):

🔹 Defender Suite → identity protection & governance (Entra ID P2), advanced endpoint detection & response (Defender for Endpoint P2), phishing & collaboration defense (Defender for Office 365 P2), and SaaS security (Defender for Cloud Apps).
🔹 Purview Suite → insider risk, information protection & auto-labeling, DLP, message encryption, Customer Key, comms compliance, DSPM for AI (Copilot & third-party AI oversight), records & lifecycle, eDiscovery (Premium), and audit (Premium).
🔹 Licensing → each suite is $10USD/user/month; there’s also a combined Defender+Purview option at $15USD/user/month. Available now as add-ons; total seats across add-ons are limited to 300 per customer.

🤔 How I’d deploy on Day 1 (a nano guide):

🔹 Identity with risk as the control plane. Let real-time risk change access – so compromised sessions don’t become Monday incidents.
🔹 EDR everywhere, narrative over noise. Unify alerts into incidents; hunt once across identities, devices, and mail. Sleep better.
🔹 Make email a sensor. Simulations + automated investigation sharpen human judgment and shrink MTTR.
🔹 Tame SaaS and agents. See shadow apps, risky OAuth consents, and AI add-ins before they tap sensitive data.
🔹 Labels that travel. Data-aware policies follow the file – across Teams, SharePoint, email, devices, and AI prompts.

✍ Background Info: On October 1, 2025, Microsoft has renamed its Microsoft 365 E5 mini-suites. Microsoft 365 E5 Security has become the Microsoft Defender Suite, and Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance has become the Microsoft Purview Suite.

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