One integrated IT security system, not a siloed patchwork.

Often, when I talk with IT managers, they have multiple third-party services handling their IT security management. Some they implemented, some they inherited.

• The EDR/antivirus is in one system.
• The endpoints are managed in another.
• Identities are managed through local Windows Server Active Directory domain controllers for the on-premises systems, Entra ID for the cloud services, and multiple other identities in the business applications they use.
• They typically have Microsoft 365 Business Premium, but they aren't using all the powerful security management features inside it, while paying for separate licenses that are redundant.

Some of these systems connect to each other, but they aren't one integrated system, and they don't share what they see. Each one has its own logins.

Now they want to bring AI into the company. An AI strategy starts with an AI policy. In that policy, we define the security foundation that keeps the company's data and its customers' data safe as users work with AI. If that security is a patchwork, AI inherits every gap, which limits the safety of the whole AI strategy.

Here's what we do. Microsoft Entra ID is the foundation: your users' identities and the registered devices they connect from. It's your real firewall and the gateway to your system. Everything else builds on it.

We use those same identities with single sign-on to connect your third-party business applications, so one identity turns access on and off for all of them. Entra Private Access (with E7, or as an add-on) then secures those connections from each user's computer and devices. While you still have on-premises systems and domain controllers, Entra ID is kept in sync with your local Windows Server Active Directory, and everything is managed through Entra ID.

Intune manages and deploys every device. Defender scans email, files, and endpoints. Purview secures your data, keeps it under your control, and, with E5 or the Purview Suite, protects it from insider threats. All of it is one integrated system that shares its signals with Microsoft Defender XDR. Defender XDR makes the decisions about users, devices, and threats across the whole system, instead of each tool working alone. It can disable a user, force a password reset, isolate individual devices or groups of devices that are unsafe because of direct or suspected threats, and block a user who is doing risky things with data.

Most of our clients get all of this in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, for companies up to 300 users. Add the Defender and Purview suites to bring E5-level security into Business Premium, or go to E5 or E7 for the top of Microsoft's security. Frontline workers on tablets, smartphones, or kiosks are on Microsoft 365 F3. The chart below shows exactly what each includes.

And here's the bigger picture: with that foundation, Copilot gives each person answers from their email, files, chats, and business applications, and only what they're allowed to see. With E7, you also get Copilot and Agent 365, which gives every AI agent its own identity and only the access it needs, keeps a registry of every agent in your company, and lets you control who can create agents and block risky ones.