How Microsoft just redrew the security map for 25–300 user organisations — and why Codestone is building the routes through it.
The security world quietly shifted this year.
Microsoft’s new Defender and Purview add-ons for Business Premium offer something the SMB market has never had: E5-grade Zero Trust capability for a price that doesn’t detonate the IT budget.
For $15 per user per month, smaller organisations can now reach the same identity protection, data governance, and threat defence that larger enterprises have relied on for years. The long-standing divide between “starter security” and “enterprise security” has collapsed.
From Codestone’s vantage point, this is one of the most significant changes to the Microsoft ecosystem since the arrival of Business Premium itself.
The $15 Turning Point: E5 Security Without the E5 Price
Until now, SMBs sat in an uncomfortable gap. Basic licensing offered limited protection, while the full E5 stack was priced and designed for enterprises with large security teams. Many smaller organisations either lived with the gaps or stitched together a patchwork of point solutions.
Microsoft has now re-packaged critical E5-level capabilities into two modular suites that sit on top of Business Premium:
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Defender Suite for advanced threat protection
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Purview Suite for data governance and compliance
Together, they introduce:
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Conditional Access and identity risk scoring through Entra ID P2
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Full EDR, attack surface reduction and automated response through Defender for Endpoint Plan 2
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SaaS application control and generative AI oversight through Defender for Cloud Apps
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Advanced data classification, DLP, Insider Risk Management and rich audit trails through Purview
This is real Zero Trust architecture, not a marketing gloss. And it lands in reach of 25–300 user organisations for the cost of a few sandwiches per month.
What This Means for SMBs Adopting Copilot
With the rush toward Copilot, many organisations are discovering that their licensing choices can quietly open the door to governance gaps.
Cheaper routes — Business Basic or Business Standard with Copilot added — may enable AI features, but they leave the underlying environment wide open. Over-permissioned data, weak identity controls and uncontrolled sharing become magnified when AI agents can reach everything the user can reach.
It creates what we call governance debt: the invisible risk and future remediation cost created by skipping foundational security.
A Business Premium + Defender + Purview baseline (roughly £55–£67 per user per month depending on regional pricing) is increasingly the minimum viable configuration for responsible Copilot deployment.
Anything less invites risk, rework and expensive “fix it later” programmes.
Codestone’s Perspective: The Blueprint and the Outcome
Microsoft has provided a powerful foundation. But strong foundations still require design, structure and ongoing care.
This is where Codestone steps in.
1. Zero Trust Blueprints for SMB Organisations
We design and implement Zero Trust-aligned architecture for organisations under 300 users. Not as a theoretical model, but as a practical operating environment built around:
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Entra identity governance
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Conditional access frameworks
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Endpoint hardening
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Purview-driven data controls
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Cloud app risk management
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AI-safe collaboration patterns
2. A Managed Security Outcome, Not a Pile of Tools
The new Microsoft add-ons are excellent — but they are not self-running. Signals need interpreting. Policies need tuning. Alerts need action. Users need onboarding and guardrails.
Codestone’s managed security wrap turns the Microsoft stack into a fully operated security service:
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Continuous monitoring
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Threat investigation
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Policy optimisation
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Compliance alignment
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AI-ready data governance
You don’t buy features. You buy outcomes.
3. Copilot Readiness and Governance Debt assessments
We quantify the risks inside your current environment, map the cost of leaving governance debt unaddressed, and outline the most efficient route to secure AI adoption. These assessments help avoid the common mistake of choosing licensing based on price rather than long-term total cost of ownership.
Why “cheap Copilot” Becomes Expensive
Business Basic + Copilot or Business Standard + Copilot looks attractive on paper. But these setups lack:
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Entra ID P2 risk evaluation
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Device compliance enforcement
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SaaS app governance
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Sensitivity labels that persist across content
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Insider risk analytics
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Forensic audit depth
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Enterprise-grade DLP
Without these, Copilot behaves like an enthusiastic librarian in a building with no locked doors. It dutifully fetches whatever it can access — including data that never should have been available to the user or the AI agent. Cleanup later is slow and costly.
Business Premium + Defender + Purview is the new “sensible default.” It avoids governance debt by setting the right boundaries before Copilot enters the environment.
A New Security Economy for SMBs
For years, the SMB security market has been limited by cost, complexity and fragmented tools. Microsoft’s new add-ons flatten those barriers. The economics of Zero Trust have changed, and the organisations that modernise their security architecture early will feel the benefits across:
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Regulatory readiness
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AI productivity
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Reduced breach exposure
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Lower multi-vendor overhead
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Faster incident response
The organisations that delay will pay more to catch up.
Codestone’s role is to ensure SMBs can adopt this new stack confidently, safely and without operational strain — pairing Microsoft’s technology shift with the governance, design and service layer that makes it genuinely effective.
Speak to one of our experts today!
