What’s the Difference Between Azure P1 VS. P2?
It can be difficult to distinguish different tiers of service. You might be interested in Azure Active Directory, for instance. But when presented with the choice between Azure Active Directory Premium P1 vs. P2, how can you find out which one is right for you?
The truth is, there are a lot of versions of Azure Active Directory, and which version you need depends almost entirely on the infrastructure of your business. If there’s one thing that can be confusing about Microsoft Azure and the Office 365 suite, it can be finding exactly what you need to purchase, what is optional and how much it’s going to cost. If you go at it alone, you can end up with features you don’t need and expenses that aren’t necessary.
Let’s take a look at the general pricing for Azure Active Directory, the versions of Azure Active Directory available, and the differences between Azure AD Premium P1 vs. P2.
Other Versions of Azure
First, before we discuss the premium versions of Azure, you should know that there are other versions of Azure.
Azure AD Free still includes basic and important features such as pass-through cloud authentication. But it only supports up to 500,000 directory objects, which is a limitation most mid-sized businesses will run up against. Azure AD Free is recommended for small businesses. After the Azure AD Free tier, there’s the Azure AD Office 365 tier.
Essentially, Azure AD is already included in Office 365, so it depends on what tier of Office 365 you purchase. Most organizations are going to purchase Office 365 and receive Azure AD with it.
After that comes the premium tier. The premium tier of Azure AD used to be a single tier but was separated into P1 and P2. This is where the confusion lies; those who have previously looked into Azure AD Premium may not be aware of the differences between Azure Active Directory Premium P1 vs. P2.
Companies can experiment with the free or less costly versions of Azure before they choose to update. But many large enterprises are naturally going to want a premium version of Azure Directory because it improves upon identity management and consequently access management.
Azure Active Directory Plan 1 VS. Plan 2
Premium 1 has no charge for the first 50,000 users and then a $0.00325 charge per monthly active user. Features added in Premium 1 include:
- Custom banned passwords,
- Self-service passwords,
- Group access management,
- Advanced security and usage reports,
- Dynamic groups,
- Azure Information Protection integration,
- SharePoint limited access,
- Terms of Use,
- and Microsoft Cloud App Security Integration.
Azure Active Directory Premium P1 has an advanced set of features that are perfect for larger organizations and organizations that want to do more automated self-administration. The price of Premium 1 is $6 a month, which would be on top of any other subscription fees for Office 365.
Comparing Azure Active Directory P1 vs P2, Premium 2 has no charge for the first 50,000 users and then costs $0.01625 per monthly active user. Premium 2 has all the features of Premium 1 but also identity protection and identity governance. Identity protection includes:
- vulnerabilities and risky accounts detection,
- risky events integration,
- risk-based conditional access policies.
Further, identity governance features include privileged identity management, access reviews and entitlement management. Azure AD Premium 2 costs $9 per user. Users that are particularly interested in better identity protection and risk management may want Premium 2.
Do You Need Azure AD P1 or P2?
If you have Office 365, you already have a variant of Azure Active Directory. But you may be wondering if you’d be better off with Premium 1 or Premium 2.
It really depends on your organization’s size and needs. Many smaller organizations are going to be able to use the free version of Azure Active Directory. It may not be necessary (or even desirable) to upgrade to Azure Premium. Furthermore, most people will get the features they need through Office 365 and the included tier of Azure.
But those who want to better manage their risks, security and identities may want to get the premium versions of Azure instead. The costs are relatively low on a per user basis. Further, organizations with a lot of users are going to find this choice more significant. Organizations that have only a dozen or two users may not find the cost differential between Azure AD P1 or P2 significant enough to really be an important decision.
Are you not sure whether you need to get Azure AD P1 or P2?
Contact us at Red River. We can take a look at your organization’s unique needs to determine the best path for you. When it comes to technology, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer or solution. There are only answers that are tailored to your company’s unique risks and challenges.
