When it comes to collecting cloud attachments for Microsoft 365, you need an E5 license to do so. However, there’s a “but” to that statement.
This was a topic that Brett Burney, Kelly Twigger and I just discussed (among the many) in the EDRM webinar sponsored by Nextpoint (which had a record turnout for EDRM as their biggest webinar ever!) regarding navigating the eDiscovery challenges of linked files. In the webinar (available here for on-demand viewing) we discussed everything from what to call them to the technical challenges associated with them to current case law where they’ve been discussed.
When discussing current technical capabilities, I discussed how M365 and Purview have added what they call a “cloud attachment” collection feature in the past few months which will not only collect the document, but it will even collect the contemporaneous version of the document, assuming you’ve set up the system through the compliance module to retain those documents. In fact, you could even collect all the versions of the document if you wanted to (at least as I understand it).
One of the potential downsides people have talked about is that you need an E5 license of M365 to use the cloud collection feature, which is true. Now, here’s the “but” to that statement. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a full E5 license – there are various sub-levels of E5 licensing you can add.
To add the capabilities that you would need for cloud collection, you can add a Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance license as an add-on subscription to your licensing plan instead for $12 per month per user. That can save as much as $26 per user per month for small business plans and $9 per user per month for Enterprise plans. Here’s how it can work:
Example licensing scenario for a Small Business Plan (300 or fewer users):
- Business Basic: $6.00/month
- E3 EMS: $10.60/month
- Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance: $12.00/month
TOTAL: $28.60/month (versus $54.75 for E5) – a savings of $26.15 per user per month!
Example licensing scenario for an Enterprise Plan (300+ users):
- E3 License: $33.75/month
- Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance: $12.00/month
TOTAL: $45.75/month (versus $54.75 for E5) – a savings of $9.00 per user per month!
While the $9 per user per month doesn’t sound significant, for an organization of 50k users, an E3 license PLUS a Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance license could save an organization as much as $5 million per year over a full E5 license! That’s significant!
There’s also licensing for Frontline workers (those who need minimal functionality) where the Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance license is even less – only $9 per month per user. Here is how that looks:
- F3 License: $8.00/month
- Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance: $9.00/month
TOTAL: $17.00/month (versus $54.75 for E5) – a savings of $37.75 per user per month!
Of course, keep in mind that Microsoft frequently changes its pricing plans, so this is how it currently works today per my discussion with John Collins of Lighthouse (thanks, John!), but it could change at any time. Also, with a partial E5 license, you’re giving up security and other productivity related benefits of the full E5 license as well. The key is to investigate all your pricing options to pick the plan that’s right for your organization. So, yes, you need an E5 license to collect cloud attachments – but it doesn’t have to be a full E5 license.
So, what do you think? Have you used Microsoft Purview’s cloud collection capability yet? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
Image created using GPT-4o’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robot watching electronic files fall from a cloud”.
Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.
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Doug – thank you for referencing our discussion. Bringing this type of detail and nuance to your audience is a great service to all. There is a lot of misinformation, half-truths, and misrepresentation in the market around what Microsoft 365 can and cannot do. There is a prominent eDiscovery “expert” who has served as a special master that has claimed that M365’s eDiscovery tools don’t support Boolean searching, which is patently false. A simple search of Microsoft’s freely available online documentation would reveal that Boolean searching is supported, and has been since 2011 when the platform was first introduced as Office 365. This is not to say that M365’s tools are without issues or challenges or limitations – however, sweeping statements that are not based on actual documentation AND – this is critical – testing – are a disservice to all.
Thanks for sharing the nuances of 365 licencing, it is challenging to navigate that road efficiently.
We see a lot of small customer with E3 licences upgrading the relevant custodians to an E5 just for the collection (for better export functionality). Would this forbid the option to export a contemporaneous cloud attachment, or is the setting you recommended to activate in your article unrelated to the type of licence?
[…] As discussed previously on this blog, you can collect the shared version, the most recent version, or all versions of cloud attachments with M365. However, you still need an eDiscovery Premium (E5) license to do so (though it doesn’t have to be a full E5 license). […]