I'm in the process of upgrading 1000 users from E3 licenses with E5 security to full Microsoft E5 licenses. My plan is to use Active Directory groups for the transition. I intend to assign the same AD group that currently has the E3 licenses to the E5 licenses first, before removing the old E3 licenses. Does this sound like a solid approach? I want to ensure there's no disruption for users during this transition. Also, I'm curious about any standout features of the E5 license, since this is my first experience with it after mostly using E3 with E5 security before. Thanks!
3 Answers
I did a small test rollout of E5 for around 50 users and then switched things up for about 40,000 users all at once, and it went smoothly. We kept E3 licenses active for a little while to make sure the E5 assignment was fully processed before removing the E3 licenses.
E5 definitely has a lot of cool features. I'm a big fan of the Privileged Identity Management (PIM) feature, which allows for time-sensitive access control to resources. It's been a real game-changer!
From my experience, it's best to keep things straightforward when changing licenses. I recommend using a new group for the E5 rollout to control the transition better and ensure a smooth user experience. After you’ve successfully moved most users over, you can create another group to test additional features you want to explore. Just a heads up—if a user is assigned licenses through different groups, they only receive one license, but will get all the service plans linked with that license. It's all about managing those groups effectively!
Wait, they combine? We were told that adding users to groups for multiple licenses caused issues with auto-assigning. We prefer creating separate groups for each license combination and moving users between them.