E3 vs E5 from a security perspective: Unified XDR/SIEM

Question

Hi, A customer with E5 wants to downgrade to E3. Currently, he has XDR services (All Defenders) and Sentinel. Will he lose any services during the downgrade process?

Answer 1

@Riadh Zehani
Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Q&A. From above description I could understand that your customer is planning to downgrade from E3 to E5 and currently using XDR, you are looking for advise on the impact of downgrade. Please do correct me if this is not the case by responding in the comments.

As per Microsoft Defender XDR prerequisites only following licenses gives you access to Microsoft Defender XDR features via the Microsoft Defender portal without additional cost:

• Microsoft 365 E5 or A5
• Microsoft 365 E3 with the Microsoft 365 E5 Security add-on
• Microsoft 365 E3 with the Enterprise Mobility + Security E5 add-on
• Microsoft 365 A3 with the Microsoft 365 A5 Security add-on
• Windows 10 Enterprise E5 or A5
• Windows 11 Enterprise E5 or A5
• Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) E5 or A5
• Office 365 E5 or A5
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
• Microsoft Defender for Identity
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps or Cloud App Discovery
• Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (Plan 2)
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium
• Microsoft Defender for Business

So as per above requirements if you plan to downgrade to E3 then Microsoft 365 E5 Security add-on or Enterprise Mobility + Security E5 add-on would be needed to resume the XDR services and they would go to grace period followed by disabling the service.Modern-Work-Plan-Comparison-ENT-1-16-2024.pdf

PFA for validating the difference in services offered in E3 suite in comparison to E5.

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Thanks,

Akshay Kaushik