5 Security Tools You Can Retire if You Have Microsoft E5

Published 28/10/25 under:

Many organisations are still paying for multiple security tools they no longer need.

It’s understandable. Security stacks have been built over years of different vendors and renewals. But if you’ve invested in the Microsoft E5 licence SKU, the chances are you already own the capabilities to replace several third-party tools.

E5 isn’t just about licences or consolidation. It’s about combining your security posture under a single, integrated platform.

Here are five tools we often see customers retire when they move to E5.

1. Endpoint Protection Platforms

Replace with: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Many still run legacy antivirus or endpoint detection products alongside E5. In most cases, that’s unnecessary. Defender for Endpoint provides real-time threat detection, behavioural analytics, and automated remediation at the device level.

It also integrates directly with Intune, giving you a single view of compliance, configuration and risk. In short, you can protect, detect and respond from one place — no third-party console required.

2. Email Security Gateways

Replace with: Microsoft Defender for Office 365

If you’re still routing email through an external filtering service, you’re duplicating protection. Defender for Office 365 provides phishing and malware protection natively within Exchange Online.

The benefit is context. Microsoft can correlate threat signals across the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem, not just your email. That means faster detection and a more complete view of what’s happening across identities, endpoints and cloud apps.

3. Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

Replace with: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Traditional CASB solutions gave visibility of cloud app usage but were often siloed. Defender for Cloud Apps goes further by connecting directly into Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Entra, giving you deep insight into app risk, data movement and user behaviour.

You can set conditional access policies, block risky applications, and automatically protect data without relying on another third-party agent.

4. Identity and Access Management Tools

Replace with: Microsoft Entra ID Premium (previously Azure AD)

E5 includes Entra ID Premium, which brings advanced identity governance, conditional access and risk-based sign-in protection.

Many organisations use separate tools for MFA or privileged access management. With E5, these are built in and continuously updated by Microsoft’s global security team. The result is a simplified, more secure authentication process across your environment.

5. SIEM and Threat Analytics Tools

Replace with: Microsoft Sentinel

Sentinel provides cloud-native SIEM and SOAR capabilities that scale with your business. It ingests signals from Microsoft products and third-party sources, giving you centralised analytics and automation without the overhead of maintaining infrastructure.

For many E5 customers, this has replaced older on-premise or subscription-heavy SIEM platforms, saving cost and simplifying incident response.

When combined with a Managed SOC service, Sentinel becomes a powerful always-on defence layer, correlating activity across your Microsoft ecosystem and responding to threats in near real time.

Simplification and Visibility

Retiring third-party tools isn’t just about saving money. It’s about having fewer moving parts, clearer visibility, and stronger integration between your security layers. The Microsoft 365 E5 suite provides a unified view across identity, device, data and threat intelligence – all tied together by a single data lake and analytics engine. Of course, every organisation is different. In some cases, specialist tools may still add value. But in most, E5 can replace at least three to five standalone products without compromising protection.

But the real impact comes when it’s actively managed. Working with a specialist Microsoft partner that delivers a Managed Security Service, including SOC operations, proactive threat hunting and continuous policy optimisation, ensures that E5’s capabilities are used to their full potential.

If you’re unsure where to start, we help customers perform a security audit, mapping what you’re currently using against what’s already covered in your Microsoft investment.

Get in touch today!