O365 Business Standard



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Microsoft 365 for business is a subscription service that lets you runyour organization in the cloud while Microsoft takes care of the IT foryou. Microsoft manages devices, protects against real-world threats, andprovides your organization with the latest in business software. Youcan sign up for a free trial subscription for Microsoft 365 BusinessStandard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, or Microsoft 365 Apps forbusiness and try it out for 30 days.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard (FormerlyOffice 365 Business Premium) $12.5/user/month –.

  • At $8.25 user/month, Microsoft 365 Apps for Business is a standard plan includes Microsoft Office applications along with OneDrive for Business. In addition to all the features of the above plans, Microsoft Business Standard has more advanced features priced at $12.50 user/month. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OFFICE 365 AND MICROSOFT 365?
  • Microsoft 365 was released in Aug 2017 as an bundle that combines the well known Office 365 with Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) features. Microsoft 365 comes in two flavors, Business or Enterprise and with 4 different plans between the two.

Note

You must use a credit card when you sign up for a free trial. At the end of your free trial period, your trial subscription is automatically converted to a paid subscription. Your credit card isn't billed until the end of the trial period.

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Important

Payment options for Office 365 operated by 21Vianet in ChinaInternational credit cards are not accepted. You can pay for your subscription by:

O365 business standard vs premium
  • Invoice
  • Online payment using Alipay or China UnionPayProof of payment will be provided in the form of Fapiaos. You can submit your Fapiao request to our Fapiao system about three (3) days after you have paid. For more information, see Apply for a Fapiao for Office 365 operated by 21Vianet.

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Before you begin

O365 business standard subscription

You don't need an existing Microsoft account to sign up for a freetrial. For all other procedures in this article, you must be a Global orBilling admin for your organization. For more information, see About admin roles.

Try a free trial subscription

Are you a new customer, and you don't already have an account withMicrosoft? Use these steps to create an account and sign up for a freetrial subscription of Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365Business Premium, or Microsoft 365 Apps for business.

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 Products site.
  2. Select the plan that you want to sign up for, such as Microsoft 365 Business Standard, scroll down the page, and select Try free for 1 month.
  3. On the next page, follow the steps to set up your account.
  4. The signup process may take several minutes to complete. After it's complete, you're ready to start the setup wizard for your subscription. For more information about setting up your subscription, see Next steps.

Buy a subscription from your free trial

At the end of your free trial period, your trial subscriptionautomatically converts to a paid subscription. The paid subscriptiondefaults to the plan you currently have. You can buy a different plan byfollowing the steps in Buy a different subscription.

If you want to buy your subscription before your trial is over, usethese steps:

  1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to the Billing > Your products page.
  2. On the Your products page, find the subscription that you want to buy.
  3. In the Licenses section, select Purchase subscription.
  4. Choose either a monthly or annual commitment for your subscription, then select Checkout.
  5. On the next page, verify the subscription, and select Checkout.
  6. On the next page, verify the Sold to address, the Billed to information, and Items in this order. If you need to make any changes, select Change next to the applicable section.
  7. When you're finished, select Accept agreement & place order.

Extend your trial

Do you need more time to try out the features of Microsoft 365 for business before buying? If your trial subscription is within 15 days of expiring and the trial hasn't been extended before then you can extend your trial for another 30 day period. You can only do this one time.

  1. In the admin center, go to the Billing > Your products page.
  2. On the Products tab, select the trial subscription that you want to extend.
  3. On the subscription details page, in the Subscriptions and payment settings section, select Extend end date.
  4. In the Extend end date pane, review the extension information, and if necessary, select a payment method. When you're finished, select Extend trial.

When you're ready to buy, see Buy your trial version.

Cancel your free trial subscription

If you decide to cancel your trial subscription before the free trialperiod ends, go to the Microsoft 365 admin center and turn off Recurring billing. The trial will automatically expire when your month ends, and your credit card won't be charged.

Try a different subscription

If you already have a Microsoft 365 for business subscription, you can use the Microsoft 365 admin center to try a different subscription.

When you add a subscription through the Microsoft 365 admin center, the newsubscription is associated with the same organization (domain namespace)as your existing subscription. This association makes it easier to move users inyour organization between subscriptions, or to assign them a license forthe additional products they need.

  1. In the admin center, go to the Billing > Purchase services page.
  2. On the Purchase services page, you see the plans that are available to your organization. Choose the Microsoft 365 plan that you want to try.
  3. On the next page, select Get free trial. The trial gives you 25 user licenses for a one-month term.
  4. Choose to receive a text or a call, enter your phone number, then choose Text me or Call me.
  5. Enter the verification code, then select Start your free trial.
  6. On the Check out page, select Try now.
  7. On the order receipt page, select Continue.

Buy a different subscription

If you already have a Microsoft 365 for business subscription, you can go through the Microsoft 365 admin center to buy a different subscription for your organization.

When you buy another subscription through the admin center, the newsubscription is associated with the same organization (domain namespace) as your existing subscription. This makes it easier to move usersin your organization between subscriptions or assign them a license forthe additional subscription they need.

  1. In the admin center, go to the Billing > Purchase services page.
  2. On the Purchase services page, select the plan that you want to buy, select Details, then select Buy.
  3. Enter the number of licenses that you need and choose whether to pay each month or for the whole year. Choose whether you want to automatically assign licenses to everyone who does not currently have a license. Then select Check out now.
  4. Review the pricing information and select Next.
  5. Provide your payment information, and then select Place order > Go to Admin Home.

Note

You must move users from your free trial subscription to the new subscription before your 90-day grace period ends after your trial subscription expires. By doing this, you keep your data, accounts, and configuration. Otherwise, that information is deleted.

Payment options

You can pay for your subscription by:

  • Invoice

  • Online payment using Alipay or China UnionPay

Proof of payment will be provided in the form of Fapiaos. You can submit your Fapiao request to our Fapiao system about three (3) days after you have paid. For more information, see Apply for a Fapiao for Office 365 operated by 21Vianet.

Next steps

If you have a new account and are setting up your first subscription,you can use the guided setup articles to help you get started.

If you already have a subscription and are adding a new subscription,you can move users to it. To learn how, see Move users to a different subscription.

Related content

Microsoft 365 for business training videos (trainingvideos)
Add users and assign licenses at the same time (article)
Assign licenses to users (article)
Upgrade to a different plan (article)
Buy or edit an add-on for Microsoft 365 for business (article)
Add storage space for your subscription

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This article compares encryption options in Microsoft 365 including Office 365 Message Encryption (OME), S/MIME, Information Rights Management (IRM), and introduces Transport Layer Security (TLS).

Microsoft 365 delivers multiple encryption options to help you meet your business needs for email security. This article presents three ways to encrypt email in Office 365. If you want to learn more about all security features in Office 365, visit the Office 365 Trust Center. This article introduces the three types of encryption available for Microsoft 365 administrators to help secure email in Office 365:

  • Office Message Encryption (OME).

  • Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME).

  • Information Rights Management (IRM).

Microsoft 365 Business Standard Features

How Microsoft 365 uses email encryption

Encryption is the process by which information is encoded so that only an authorized recipient can decode and consume the information. Microsoft 365 uses encryption in two ways: in the service, and as a customer control. In the service, encryption is used in Microsoft 365 by default; you don't have to configure anything. For example, Microsoft 365 uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the connection, or session, between two servers.

Here's how email encryption typically works:

O365 business standard mailbox size
  • A message is encrypted, or transformed from plain text into unreadable ciphertext, either on the sender's machine, or by a central server while the message is in transit.

  • The message remains in ciphertext while it's in transit in order to protect it from being read in case the message is intercepted.

  • Once the message is received by the recipient, the message is transformed back into readable plain text in one of two ways:

    • The recipient's machine uses a key to decrypt the message, or

    • A central server decrypts the message on behalf of the recipient, after validating the recipient's identity.

For more information on how Microsoft 365 secures communication between servers, such as between organizations within Microsoft 365 or between Microsoft 365 and a trusted business partner outside of Microsoft 365, see How Exchange Online uses TLS to secure email connections in Office 365.

Watch this video for an introduction to Encryption in Office 365.

Comparing email encryption options available in Office 365

Email encryption technology
What is it?Office 365 Message Encryption (OME) is a service built on Azure Rights Management (Azure RMS) that lets you send encrypted email to people inside or outside your organization, regardless of the destination email address (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook.com, etc.).
As an admin, you can set up transport rules that define the conditions for encryption. When a user sends a message that matches a rule, encryption is applied automatically.
To view encrypted messages, recipients can either get a one-time passcode, sign in with a Microsoft account, or sign in with a work or school account associated with Office 365. Recipients can also send encrypted replies. They don't need a Microsoft 365 subscription to view encrypted messages or send encrypted replies.
IRM is an encryption solution that also applies usage restrictions to email messages. It helps prevent sensitive information from being printed, forwarded, or copied by unauthorized people.
IRM capabilities in Microsoft 365 use Azure Rights Management (Azure RMS).
S/MIME is a certificate-based encryption solution that allows you to both encrypt and digitally sign a message. The message encryption helps ensure that only the intended recipient can open and read the message. A digital signature helps the recipient validate the identity of the sender.
Both digital signatures and message encryption are made possible through the use of unique digital certificates that contain the keys for verifying digital signatures and encrypting or decrypting messages.
To use S/MIME, you must have public keys on file for each recipient. Recipients have to maintain their own private keys, which must remain secure. If a recipient's private keys are compromised, the recipient needs to get a new private key and redistribute public keys to all potential senders.
What does it do?OME:
Encrypts messages sent to internal or external recipients.
Allows users to send encrypted messages to any email address, including Outlook.com, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail.
Allows you, as an admin, to customize the email viewing portal to reflect your organization's brand.
Microsoft securely manages and stores the keys, so you don't have to.
No special client side software is needed as long as the encrypted message (sent as an HTML attachment) can be opened in a browser.
IRM:
Uses encryption and usage restrictions to provide online and offline protection for email messages and attachments.
Gives you, as an admin, the ability to set up transport rules or Outlook protection rules to automatically apply IRM to select messages.
Lets users manually apply templates in Outlook or Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App).
S/MIME addresses sender authentication with digital signatures, and message confidentiality with encryption.
What does it not do?OME doesn't let you apply usage restrictions to messages. For example, you can't use it to stop a recipient from forwarding or printing an encrypted message.Some applications may not support IRM emails on all devices. For more information about these and other products that support IRM email, see Client device capabilities.S/MIME doesn't allow encrypted messages to be scanned for malware, spam, or policies.
Recommendations and example scenariosWe recommend using OME when you want to send sensitive business information to people outside your organization, whether they're consumers or other businesses. For example:
A bank employee sending credit card statements to customers
A doctor's office sending medical records to a patient
An attorney sending confidential legal information to another attorney
We recommend using IRM when you want to apply usage restrictions as well as encryption. For example:
A manager sending confidential details to her team about a new product applies the 'Do Not Forward' option.
An executive needs to share a bid proposal with another company, which includes an attachment from a partner who is using Office 365, and require both the email and the attachment to be protected.
We recommend using S/MIME when either your organization or the recipient's organization requires true peer-to-peer encryption.
S/MIME is most commonly used in the following scenarios:
Government agencies communicating with other government agencies
A business communicating with a government agency

What encryption options are available for my Microsoft 365 subscription?

For information about email encryption options for your Microsoft 365 subscription see the Exchange Online service description. Here, you can find information about the following encryption features:

  • Azure RMS, including both IRM capabilities and OME

  • S/MIME

  • TLS

  • Encryption of data at rest (through BitLocker)

You can also use third-party encryption tools with Microsoft 365, for example, PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). Microsoft 365 does not support PGP/MIME and you can only use PGP/Inline to send and receive PGP-encrypted emails.

What about encryption for data at rest?

O365 Business Standard

'Data at rest' refers to data that isn't actively in transit. In Microsoft 365, email data at rest is encrypted using BitLocker Drive Encryption. BitLocker encrypts the hard drives in Microsoft datacenters to provide enhanced protection against unauthorized access. To learn more, see BitLocker Overview.

More information about email encryption options

For more information about the email encryption options in this article as well as TLS, see these articles:

OME

IRM

S/MIME

Office 365 Business Standard

TLS