Glossary

ARM: Azure Resource Manager.

Artificial Intelligence: A system such as Copilot which can learn from data and perform tasks like problem solving, speech recognition, and decision making using models and algorithms. Learn about licensing Copilot here.

Azure Plan: A New Commerce Experience offering, providing partners access to Azure services at Pay-As-You-Go rates under the Microsoft Customer Agreement. It allows multiple Subscriptions within a single Azure Plan, streamlining the order process. Learn about licensing Azure consumption services here.

Azure Resource Manager (ARM): A management service for deploying, managing, and organizing Azure resources. Learn about licensing Azure Resource Groups here.

Azure Savings Plan for Compute: A purchase option that lets you commit to an hourly spend on eligible Azure compute services for a 1- or 3-year term, providing discounted hourly rates with any unused funds forfeited. Learn about licensing Azure Savings Plan for Compute here.

Azure Savings Plan for Databases: A purchase option that lets you commit to an hourly spend on eligible Azure database services for a 1-year term, providing discounted hourly rates with any unused funds forfeited. Learn about licensing Azure Savings Plan for Databases here.

Clipchamp: An intelligent enterprise video experience in Microsoft 365 that enables users to create, record, upload, discover, share, and manage video content.

Copilot Chat: A chat interface for Microsoft 365 that offers text and image generation, data analysis, and optional Agent creation for Entra ID users with eligible licenses. Learn about licensing Copilot Chat here.

Cortana: The precursor to Copilot.

Evergreen agreement: A contract, such as the Microsoft Customer Agreement, that remains active unless one party cancels it. Learn about the Microsoft Customer Agreement here.

Internet Explorer: The precursor to Microsoft Edge.

M365 Copilot (Basic): A label shown to users in Copilot Chat who don’t have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, indicating they receive Standard access with lower speed and availability compared to M365 Copilot (Premium). Learn about licensing Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

M365 Copilot (Premium): A label shown to users in Copilot Chat who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, indicating they receive Priority access with improved speed and availability compared to M365 Copilot (Basic). Learn about licensing Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Microsoft 365 app: The previous name of the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

Microsoft 365 Copilot app: An AI-focused productivity app integrating Microsoft 365 tools for chat, content creation, file search, and access to applications like Word and Excel. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 Copilot here.

Microsoft 365 Local: A private cloud solution enabling on-premises deployment of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Skype for Business Server on customer-owned Azure Local infrastructure, providing data sovereignty, compliance, and Azure management tools.

Microsoft To Do: A task management application that integrates with Outlook to help users organize tasks, plan daily activities, and collaborate.

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business: The Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, and Publisher apps, targeted at SMB customers with a maximum of 300 users. Learn about licensing the Microsoft 365 Apps here.

Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise: The Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, and Publisher apps, targeted at Enterprise customers with no user limit. Learn about licensing the Microsoft 365 Apps here.

MSN Messenger: The previous name of Windows Live Messenger.

Teams Webinars: Structured online events in Teams where presenters share ideas or provide training to attendees with limited audio and video permissions. Learn about licensing Teams Webinars here.

Windows 10: A previous Microsoft client operating system released in 2015. It replaced Windows 8.1 and is the precursor to Windows 11.

Windows 7: A previous Microsoft client operating system released in 2009. It replaced Windows Vista and is the precursor to Windows 8.

Windows 8.1: A previous Microsoft client operating system released in 2013. It replaced Windows 8 and is the precursor to Windows 10.

Windows 8: A previous Microsoft client operating system released in 2012. It replaced Windows 7 and is the precursor to Windows 8.1.

Windows Live Messenger: Previously known as MSN Messenger. A precursor to modern instant messaging apps like Skype and, ultimately, Teams.

Windows Movie Maker: The precursor to Clipchamp.

Windows Vista: A previous Microsoft client operating system released in 2007. It replaced Windows XP and is the precursor to Windows 7.

Windows XP: A previous Microsoft client operating system released in 2001. It replaced Windows Millennium Edition and Windows 2000 and is the precursor to Windows Vista.

WordPad: A word processor application, retired in favor of Notepad and Word.

Wunderlist: The precursor to Microsoft To Do.

Windows 11: Microsoft’s client operating system. It was released in 2021, replacing Windows 10. Learn about licensing Windows 11 by device and by user.

Azure Savings Plans: A way of making a duration-based commitment to Azure compute or database services running in any Azure datacenter to get attractive pricing. Learn about Azure Savings Plans here.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): A technology that enables calls over the internet, transmitting voice as digital data, and replacing traditional landlines. Learn about licensing Teams Calling here.

VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol.

IP telephony: Another term for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Private Branch Exchange (PBX): A private telephone network that allows a company to manage internal and external call switching and routing. While it once required physical hardware, modern systems are cloud-based using services like Teams Phone Standard. Learn about licensing Teams Calling here.

ACU: See Agent Commit Units.

Agent Commit Units (ACUs): The currency consumed by the Agent Pre-Purchase Plan. It provides tiers of discounted, prepaid credits used to cover Microsoft Foundry, Copilot Studio, Fabric, and GitHub Copilot services. Learn about licensing the Agent Pre-Purchase Plan here.

ACUs: Agent Commit Units.

Commit Unit (CU): The unit of purchase for a Pre-Purchase Plan.

Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE): An engineer who works directly with customers, helping them to use Microsoft’s technology to solve real-world problems.

Microsoft Agent Factory: A program designed for customers that want to rapidly scale AI adoption in their organization. It combines the Agent Pre-Purchase Plan, Forward Deployed Engineers, and tailored role-based AI training.

Spot Placement Score: A feature designed to help customers evaluate the likelihood of successful Azure Spot virtual machine deployments. Learn about the licensing of Azure Spot virtual machines here.

Agent Pre-Purchase Plan: A way of buying Agent Commit Units which can be used to pay for Microsoft Foundry, Copilot Studio, Fabric, or GitHub Copilot services. This is a cheaper way of paying for services, but you must pay upfront, and unused Agent Commit Units expire after a year. Learn about the Agent Pre-Purchase Plan here.

Exchange Admin Center (EAC): A portal for Exchange administrators to manage mailboxes and carry out tasks such as setting up archiving and deletion policies. Learn how shared mailboxes and archiving are licensed in Exchange Online.

Office Web Apps: A previous name of the Microsoft 365 Web Apps.

Office Online: A previous name of the Microsoft 365 Web Apps.

Office for the Web: A previous name of the Microsoft 365 Web Apps.

Microsoft 365 Web Apps: A browser-based version of the Microsoft 365 Apps that allows you to create, edit, and share documents in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint without installing any software. Microsoft sometimes refer to this as Microsoft 365 for the Web.

Office 365 Core eDiscovery: The previous name of Purview eDiscovery (Standard).

Purview eDiscovery (Standard): A compliance solution allowing organizations to create specific cases, assign dedicated managers, and place legal holds on mailboxes and sites to preserve evidence. Learn about licensing for security and compliance here.

Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery: The previous name of Purview eDiscovery (Premium).

Purview eDiscovery (Premium): An advanced compliance solution providing all capabilities found in Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard) plus advanced features like custodian management, legal hold notifications, and predictive coding models. Learn about licensing for security and compliance here.

Azure Purview: Alongside Microsoft 365 Compliance, a precursor to Purview.

Microsoft 365 Compliance: Alongside Azure Purview, a precursor to Purview.

Proxy Server: A gateway that manages and secures internet traffic for a local network. The precursor to ISA Server.

ISA Server: Internet Security and Acceleration Server. A multi-functional gateway that acts as an enterprise firewall, web proxy, and VPN to protect and speed up a local network. The precursor to Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG).

Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG): Microsoft’s final enterprise firewall and web proxy designed to protect corporate networks from internet threats. Now retired, with no Microsoft support as of April 14, 2020.

InfoPath: Software to create and fill out electronic forms for gathering data and automating business workflows. Now retired, with no Microsoft support as of July 14, 2026. A precursor to both Power Apps and Forms, depending on required functionality.

Forms: A web-based tool included with many Microsoft 365 licenses, used to create custom surveys, quizzes, and polls to collect data and view real-time results. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for SMB customers here and Enterprise customers here.

FrontPage: An HTML editor and website administration tool that allows users to create websites visually without needing to write manual code. The precursor to Expression Web.

Expression Web: An HTML editor and web design tool designed to create websites using a visual interface and advanced CSS support. It was retired in 2012, with no Microsoft support as of July 14, 2020.

Auto-Archiving: A feature in Exchange Online that automatically archives the oldest items in your mailbox after it reaches 96% of its quota. Learn about licensing Exchange Online here.

FWYN (Find What You Need): A tool to quickly filter and search our entire back catalogue of Licensing School training sessions by your area of interest. Find What You Need here.

Licensing Guides Gallery: A Licensing School tool to quickly search and filter through our entire collection of Licensing Guides, Whitepapers, and Datasheets. Access the tool here.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR): A 24/7 service such as Microsoft Defender Experts where a third-party team provides threat hunting and incident response using technologies such as EDR, NDR, and SIEM on behalf of an organization. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender Experts here.

Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR): A managed service such as the Microsoft Defender Experts Suite that combines an XDR platform with a 24/7 expert team to monitor and respond to threats across endpoints, networks, and cloud services. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender Experts Suite here.

MDR: Managed Detection and Response.

Microsoft Defender Experts Suite: A Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR) service that connects companies with Microsoft’s own security teams to address their cybersecurity needs. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender Experts Suite here.

MXDR: Managed Extended Detection and Response.

NDR: Network Detection and Response.

Network Detection and Response (NDR): A technology that analyzes network traffic to detect behaviors like lateral movement, providing visibility where EDR agents can’t be deployed – such as on unmanaged IoT and OT devices. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for IoT here.

Office 365/Microsoft 365 Plan Picker: A Licensing School tool to help configure and select the most suitable Office 365/Microsoft 365 options. Access the tool here.

Partner Center Announcements Archive: A Licensing School tool to search through an archive of useful Partner Center Announcements dating back to 2022. Access the tool here.

SQL Server Calculator: A Licensing School tool with interactive elements to calculate the correct licensing option and quantities required for an on-premises SQL Server deployment. Access the tool here. Learn about licensing SQL Server on-premises and in Azure virtual machines.

SQL Server: Microsoft’s enterprise database solution. Learn about licensing SQL Server on-premises and in Azure virtual machines.

Teams Admin Center: A central place for an admin to create, edit, archive, monitor, and configure all teams in their organization. Learn about licensing Teams here.

The Frontier Worker Suite: An alternative name for Microsoft 365 E7. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 E7 here.

Microsoft 365 E7: A license that builds on all the features in Microsoft 365 E5 by adding Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Entra Suite, and Microsoft Agent 365. Also known as The Frontier Worker Suite. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 E7 here.

Copilot Cowork: A feature in Microsoft 365 Copilot that allows you to delegate complex multi-step tasks by having Copilot independently plan and execute workflows in the background. It works across your Microsoft 365 data using Work IQ, while providing you with full control of the process. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 Copilot here.

Microsoft Entra ID Governance External Identities: The previous name of Microsoft Entra ID Governance for Guests.

Microsoft Entra ID Governance for Guests: A cloud-based identity solution that allows you to securely manage, customize, and control how customers, partners, and guests sign in to your applications. Learn about licensing Entra ID Governance here.

Additional Products: A license type in Volume Licensing agreements that can be ordered at any quantity, in contrast to Enterprise Products that have an enterprise-wide commitment. Learn about Additional Products in the Enterprise Enrollment, the Open Value Organization-Wide, and the Open Value Subscription agreement.

Glomo: A made-up term resulting from Licensing School’s favorite tongue twister: the Global Promo Readiness Guide.

Global Promo Readiness Guide: A Microsoft-produced PDF guide for partners outlining most current ongoing product promotions. We compile ALL current and expired promotions in our Promotions Playground.

CPU: Central Processing Unit.

Central Processing Unit (CPU): Also known as a processor, this is the primary component of a computer or server that acts as its "brain", processing data to perform all system tasks.

Processor: Also known as a Central Processing Unit, this is the primary component of a computer or server that acts as its "brain", processing data to perform all system tasks.

Core: The individual processing units inside a processor, or Central Processing Unit (CPU). Certain Microsoft products can be licensed based on their core count. Learn about Core licenses in Windows Server 2025 and SQL Server 2025.

Work IQ: The intelligence system that connects Microsoft 365 Copilot to an organization’s internal data, such as emails, chats, and documents. By grounding Copilot in specific work history, it can provide more tailored and relevant assistance rather than only information from the web. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 Copilot here.

Lifecycle Policies: Support schedules that outline exactly when Microsoft support for security and feature updates will stop for a product. Learn about Lifecycle Policies here.

Fixed Lifecycle Policy: A traditional support schedule (typically for on-premises software) with a defined End of Support date established at launch, usually spanning 10 years. Learn about Lifecycle Policies here.

Mainstream Support: The first phase of a Fixed Lifecycle Policy where Microsoft provide both security updates and new feature updates for a minimum of five years. Learn about Lifecycle Policies here.

Extended Support: The second phase of a Fixed Lifecycle Policy where Microsoft provide security updates but discontinue all feature updates. Learn about Lifecycle Policies here.

Modern Lifecycle Policy: An ongoing support schedule for cloud services and continuously updated products. Learn about Lifecycle Policies here.

Buy-out: An option at the end of some subscription agreements that allows a customer to purchase perpetual rights to the software they have been using. Learn about the buy-out option in the Open Value Subscription agreement here, and the Enterprise Subscription Enrollment here.

Distributor: Another term for an Indirect Provider who purchases cloud services directly from Microsoft and resells them to Indirect Resellers, typically providing billing, support, and technical infrastructure.

Enterprise Products: A license type in certain Volume Licensing agreements that has an enterprise-wide commitment, often offered at a discounted rate based on the standardization requirements. Learn about enterprise-wide commitments in the Enterprise Enrollment, and the Open Value Organization-Wide agreement.

Indirect Provider: Another term for a Distributor who purchases cloud services directly from Microsoft and resells them to Indirect Resellers, typically providing billing, support, and technical infrastructure.

Indirect Reseller: A partner who sells cloud services purchased from a Distributor, rather than directly from Microsoft.

Office 365 Business Essentials: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Business Basic.

Office 365 Business Premium: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Business Standard.

Microsoft 365 Business: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for SMB customers here.

MFA: Multi-Factor Authentication.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): A security method in Microsoft Entra ID that requires a user to provide two or more verification factors to gain access to a resource. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft Entra ID here.

Multi-Tenant: An architecture where a single instance of a software application serves multiple customers (tenants), common in SaaS environments. Learn about licensing SPLA here.

vCPU: Virtual Central Processing Unit.

Virtual Central Processing Unit (vCPU): A share of a physical CPU that is assigned to a virtual machine.

Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM): The previous family name for Microsoft’s endpoint management solutions, used until October 2022. Learn about licensing Microsoft Intune here.

End of Support: A date indicating when security updates or feature updates will no longer be available for a product. Learn about the types of End of Support as part of Microsoft’s Lifecycle Policies here.

End of Life: A product status indicating discontinuation through any purchasing method, either as a new purchase or a renewal.

End of Sale: A product status indicating availability is restricted to existing customers only, and no longer available to new customers.

End of Service: A product status indicating full retirement, with existing licenses on protected contracts no longer available.

EOL: End of Life.

SSO: Single Sign-On.

Single Sign-On (SSO): An authentication method that allows users to log in with a single set of credentials to multiple independent software systems.

Sales Force Automation (SFA): Software that automates repetitive, manual tasks in the sales process. Dynamics 365 Sales is Microsoft’s Sales Force Automation solution. Learn about licensing Dynamics 365 Sales here.

SFA: Sales Force Automation.

Exchange Web Services (EWS): A legacy Microsoft API that allows software applications to access and interact with Exchange mailboxes. Learn about the licensing of Exchange Web Services here.

Dataverse MCP Server: The implementation of MCP inside Dataverse that helps AI tools talk directly to Dataverse data in a safe and structured way, without writing code or building custom connectors.

MCP: Model Context Protocol.

Model Context Protocol (MCP): The standard that defines how AI tools can understand a system’s data model, rules, and actions.

Promotions Playground: A Licensing School resource that summarises both current and expired Microsoft promotions all in one place. Search for a product or filter by category to quickly view headlines of each offer at a glance. Access the tool here.

Insiders Channel: A Visual Studio 2026 Update Channel which gives developers early access to upcoming features. Learn about licensing Visual Studio 2026 here.

Stable Channel: A Visual Studio 2026 Update Channel which gives users validated, production-ready features every month. Learn about licensing Visual Studio 2026 here.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic: A license that provides access to basic Online Services for up to 300 users. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for SMB customers here.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium: A license that provides access to the Microsoft 365 Apps, basic Online Services, Windows 11 Pro, and security and management tools for up to 300 users. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for SMB customers here.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard: A license that provides access to the Microsoft 365 Apps, and basic Online Services for up to 300 users. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for SMB customers here.

Microsoft 365 E3: A license that provides access to the Microsoft 365 Apps, basic and advanced Online Services, Windows 11 Enterprise E3, and EMS E3. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for Enterprise customers here.

Microsoft 365 E5: A license that provides access to the Microsoft 365 Apps, basic and advanced Online Services, Windows 11 Enterprise E5, and EMS E5. It builds on Microsoft 365 E3 by adding voice capabilities, as well as advanced security, compliance, and analytics features. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for Enterprise customers here.

Office 365 E1: A license that provides access to basic Online Services. Learn about licensing Office 365 here.

Office 365 E3: A license that provides access to the Microsoft 365 Apps, and basic and advanced Online Services. Learn about licensing Office 365 here.

Office 365 E5: A license that provides access to the Microsoft 365 Apps , and basic and advanced Online Services, building on Office 365 E3 by adding voice, security, and analytics features. Learn about licensing Office 365 here.

Copilot Credits Capacity Pack: A license which entitles you to 25,000 Copilot Credits every month. Learn about the Copilot Credits Capacity Pack here.

Copilot Credits Pre-Purchase Plan: A way of buying Copilot Credits at advantageous pricing, but you must pay upfront, and unused Copilot Credits expire after a year. Learn about the Copilot Credits Pre-Purchase Plan here.

Foundry Control Plane: A unified management interface that provides visibility, governance, and control for AI Agents, models, and tools across an enterprise.

Microsoft Agent 365: A control plane for AI Agents, helping businesses to deploy, organize, and govern AI Agents securely. It’s a standalone license but also included in Microsoft 365 E7. Learn about licensing Microsoft Agent 365 here.

Microsoft Security Store: A site to discover, buy, and deploy security solutions and Agents that work with Microsoft Security products.

Multicloud Universal Credits: An initiative from Oracle offering a flexible, cross-cloud consumption model, enabling you to quickly and easily buy Oracle Database and OCI services across the cloud of your choice – AWS, GCP, Azure, and OCI.

Pre-Purchase Plan (PPP): A type of Azure Reservation where you buy Commit Units to get advantageous pricing for a particular Azure service. Unused Commit Units expire after a year.

24x7 Problem Resolution Support: A Software Assurance benefit offering web-based or phone support to solve problems relating to Microsoft products. It was retired by Microsoft in 2023. Learn about Software Assurance here.

Microsoft Foundry: Microsoft’s platform for developing AI applications and Agents at scale. Learn about licensing Microsoft Foundry here.

PTU: Provisioned Throughput Unit.

AAD: Azure Active Directory.

AAU: Azure Agent Unit.

ACD: Azure Commitment Discount.

ACS: Azure Communication Services.

Active Directory: Microsoft’s on-premises identity and access management service.

Active Directory Rights Management Services: AD RMS can be used to protect documents using information rights management (IRM) which allows a user to attach access permissions to a particular document which can prevent it from being opened, forwarded or printed by unauthorized people, for example. Learn about licensing Active Directory Rights Management Services here.

AD: Active Directory.

Additive CAL: A CAL that must be used in conjunction with a Base CAL. Learn about the licensing of Additive CALs for Windows Server RDS and Windows Server AD RMS.

Add-on licenses: A license for which there is a prerequisite, where you need a qualifying license to be eligible to purchase it. Learn about Add-on licenses here.

Advanced Communications: The precursor to Teams Premium.

Advanced Threat Analytics: Security technology which uses machine learning to learn what’s normal behavior for users and devices so that it can identify suspicious behavior which may indicate a malicious attack. Learn about licensing Advanced Threat Analytics here.

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP): See Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, or Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection.

AD RMS: Active Directory Rights Management Services.

Advisor: See Azure Advisor.

Affiliate: A legal entity buying under another organization’s Volume Licensing agreement. Learn about affiliates for the Enterprise Agreement, MPSA, and the Open Programs.

Agent Builder: A tool for users licensed with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to create Agents using a “lite” version of Copilot Studio. Previously known as Copilot Studio Lite. Learn about licensing Copilot Studio here.

AHB: Azure Hybrid Benefit.

AHUB: Azure Hybrid Use Benefit – the original name for the Azure Hybrid Benefit.

AI: Artificial Intelligence.

AI Builder: A tool to help you to create intelligent apps that can learn from data and make decisions. Learn about the licensing of AI Builder here.

AKS: Azure Kubernetes Service.

AMR: Azure Managed Redis.

AOBO: Admin On Behalf Of.

APP: App Protection Policies.

ASC: Azure Security Center.

ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): A regional grouping of states in Southeast Asia.

ATA: Advanced Threat Analytics.

ATP: Advanced Threat Protection.

Attach licenses: In a Dynamics 365 solution, a user is licensed for the first app with a Base license, and for subsequent apps with Attach licenses. Learn about Base and Attach licenses for the CRM apps and for the ERP apps.

Audio Conferencing: Functionality that enables users to dial into Teams meetings from a mobile or landline phone. Learn about licensing Audio Conferencing here.

Authorized Mobility partner: A partner who can receive licenses which are eligible for the License Mobility through SA benefit. Learn about licensing with Authorized Mobility partners here.

Authorized Outsourcer: Any hosting partner that is not one of the Listed Providers, and is not using a Listed Provider as a Data Center Provider. Learn about licensing with Authorized Outsourcers here.

AVD: Azure Virtual Desktop.

AVS: Azure VMware Solution.

AWS: Amazon Web Services. Amazon is classed as a Listed Provider by Microsoft, and you can learn about licensing for Listed Providers here.

AX 2012 R3 Server: The precursor to Dynamics 365 for Operations Server.

Azure: Microsoft’s cloud services. Learn about the licensing of Azure here, and how to buy it through CSP, the EA, the Open programs, and the MCA-E.

Azure Active Directory: The previous name of Microsoft Entra ID.

Azure AD: Azure Active Directory.

Azure Advanced Threat Protection: The previous name of Microsoft Defender for Identity.

Azure Advisor: A tool that analyzes Azure resource configuration and usage telemetry and then recommends solutions that can help a customer improve (among other things) the cost effectiveness of the Azure resources. Learn more about the Azure Advisor here.

Azure Agent Unit (AAU): A standard way to measure and bill the work done by Azure-hosted autonomous Agents, like the Azure SRE Agent.

Azure AI Foundry: The previous name of Microsoft Foundry.

Azure Arc: Extends the Azure platform to manage resources beyond Azure itself, allowing you to manage and govern resources across data centers, at the edge, and in multicloud environments. Learn about Azure Arc ESUs for Windows Server 2012/R2, SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014.

Azure ATP: Azure Advanced Threat Protection.

Azure Calculator: See Azure Pricing Calculator.

Azure Communication Services (ACS): An Azure consumption service for organizations that need a solution to handle high-volume email traffic.

Azure consumption services: The majority of the Azure services are sold on a consumption basis where customers pay in arrears for the services they have used. Learn about the licensing of the consumption services here.

Azure Cost Management: The previous name of Microsoft Cost Management.

Azure Data Box: A Microsoft storage device that customers can use to move large amounts of data to Azure. Learn about the licensing of Azure Data Box here.

Azure Data Box Edge: The previous name of Azure Stack Edge.

Azure Dedicated Host: An Azure service that provides physical servers, able to host one or more Azure virtual machines for Windows or Linux, which are dedicated to a single organization and their workloads. Learn about the licensing of Azure Dedicated Host here.

Azure Defender: Along with Azure Security Center, this was rebranded as Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

Azure Defender for IoT: The previous name of Microsoft Defender for IoT.

Azure DevOps: The online Application Lifecycle Management solution part of the developer tools. Learn about licensing Azure DevOps here.

Azure DevOps Server: The on-premises Application Lifecycle Management solution part of the developer tools. Learn about licensing Azure DevOps Server here.

Azure Enterprise Portal: When Azure was first made available in the Enterprise Agreement customers used the Azure Enterprise Portal to track usage and spend of the Azure consumption services. Learn more about the Azure Enterprise Portal here.

Azure Hybrid Benefit: benefit that allows customers to take eligible licenses to Azure. Learn about the Azure Hybrid Benefit with Windows Server and SQL Server.

Azure Hybrid Use Benefit: The original name for the Azure Hybrid Benefit.

Azure Local: The evolution of the Azure Stack solutions, enabled by Azure Arc. Azure Stack HCI was renamed to Azure Local – learn about its licensing here.

Azure Management Group: A collection of a specific group of Azure Subscriptions. Learn more about Azure Management Groups here.

Azure Management Portal: The portal at https://portal.azure.com/ used by technical staff to set up resources such as virtual machines, and by financial users to track usage and spend. Learn more here.

Azure Marketplace: Where Microsoft and partners sell solutions that are built on Azure. Learn more about licensing via Azure Marketplace here.

Azure Prepayment: An upfront payment for Azure services. As the consumption services are used, the relevant amount is decremented from this Azure Prepayment amount each month. Learn about Azure Prepayment in an Enterprise Enrollment and the Open programs.

Azure Pricing Calculator: A tool to help customers to estimate the cost of a solution based on the Azure services. Learn more here.

Azure quotas: Many Azure services have quotas, which are maximums for the resources that may be created within a Subscription. Learn about Azure quotas here.

Azure Reservation: A Reservation is a way of making a duration-based commitment to one of the Azure services to get attractive pricing. Learn more about how Azure Reservations generally work here, and find specific information on Reservations for Azure Dedicated Host, Reserved Instances, Azure SQL Reserved Capacity, and SUSE Linux Software Plans.

Azure Resource Group: A group of resources within an Azure Subscription. Learn more about Azure Resource Groups here.

Azure Security Center (ASC): Along with Azure Defender this was rebranded as Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

Azure Sentinel: The previous name of Microsoft Sentinel.

Azure SRE Agent: An AI tool designed to streamline incident response, improve service uptime, and cut operational costs. It enhances incident and infrastructure management in Azure, allowing site reliability engineers (SRE) to concentrate on higher-value tasks.

Azure Spot virtual machine: A type of virtual machine which takes advantage of special pricing when Microsoft has spare capacity for a particular virtual machine type. Learn more about licensing Azure Spot virtual machines here.

Azure SQL: The term Microsoft uses to group together the options that customers have for running SQL Server in Azure. Learn about licensing SQL Server virtual machines (IaaS solutions) and licensing SQL Server PaaS solutions.

Azure Stack: The previous name of Azure Stack Hub. See also Azure Stack solutions.

Azure Stack Edge: A solution that enables customers to run edge-computing workloads on an Azure managed appliance. Learn about the licensing of Azure Stack Edge here.

Azure Stack HCI: A hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) cluster solution that hosts virtualized Windows and Linux workloads and their storage. It was renamed to Azure Local – learn about its licensing here.

Azure Stack Hub: Sold as an integrated hardware system, with software preinstalled on validated hardware. It includes a (small) subset of the Azure services giving customers an autonomous cloud that they can run completely or partially disconnected from the internet and the public cloud. Learn about the licensing of Azure Stack Hub here.

Azure Stack solutions: Solutions that enable customers to extend the Azure services and capabilities to their own environments, whether that’s a data center, an edge location, or a remote office. There are three members of the Azure Stack family: learn about licensing Azure Stack Edge, Azure Stack HCI (renamed to Azure Local), and Azure Stack Hub.

Azure Storage Mover: A fully managed migration service to migrate files and folders from an on-premises infrastructure or AWS S3 buckets to Azure Storage.

Azure Subscriptions: Containers to which resources are assigned as they are created. Learn about the structure of an Azure Subscription here.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD): A service in Azure that allows customers to take advantage of a secure remote virtual desktop and app experience, enabling them to deliver virtual desktops to their users or to stream the Office applications. Learn about licensing Azure Virtual Desktop here.

Azure VMware Solution (AVS): An Azure service that enables customers to run their VMware workloads natively in Azure. Learn about licensing Extended Security Updates in AVS for Windows Server and SQL Server.

Base CAL: A CAL that an Additive CAL must always be purchased with. Learn about the licensing of Windows Server 2025 Base CALs here.

Base licenses: In a Dynamics 365 solution, a user is licensed for the first app with a Base license, and for subsequent apps with Attach licenses. Learn about Base and Attach licenses for the CRM apps and for the ERP apps.

BCDR: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery.

BEC: Base Enterprise Commitment.

BI: Business Intelligence.

Bing Chat: The previous name of Copilot without commercial data protection.

Bing Chat Enterprise: The previous name of Copilot with commercial data protection.

Bing Image Creator: The previous name of Microsoft Designer.

BizChat: See Business Chat.

BizTalk Server: Software that enables companies to automate business processes using adapters which can communicate with and connect the different software systems used in an enterprise. Learn about licensing BizTalk Server here.

Bridge CAL: A special type of CAL first introduced in 2011 to help Enterprise Agreement customers maintain their enterprise-wide commitment to the Core CAL Suite and Enterprise CAL Suite as they moved to the cloud.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): When employees use their own devices at work, often with an organizational virtual desktop. Learn about licensing virtual desktops here.

Bring Your Own License (BYOL): When organizations use their licenses with partners’ hardware or on Azure. Learn about the different BYOL licensing models: Azure Hybrid Benefit, Flexible Virtualization Benefit, and License Mobility through Software Assurance.

Business Chat (BizChat): The Microsoft 365 Copilot chat interface that provides answers from both the web and Microsoft Graph. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 Copilot here.

Business Cloud: The previous name of GitHub Enterprise Cloud online service. Learn about licensing GitHub Enterprise here.

BYOD: Bring Your Own Device.

BYOL: Bring Your Own License.

BYOPC: Bring Your Own PC.

BYOS: Bring Your Own Subscription.

CA: Conditional Access.

CACD: Common Area Communications Device.

CAL: Client Access License.

CAL equivalent license: A user Subscription License for an Online Services product that also includes rights to access licensed on-premises servers. Learn about CAL equivalent licenses for Office 365, Microsoft 365 and EMS.

CAL Suite: A convenient and cost-effective way of buying CALs. Learn about the licensing of the Core CAL Suite and the Enterprise CAL Suite.

Calling Plan: A way of paying for calling minutes which enable users to call phone numbers outside their organization, essentially making Microsoft their telecoms provider. Learn more about licensing Calling Plans here.

CAP: Common Area Phone.

Capacity Reservation Group (CRG): A collection of Capacity Reservations.

Capacity Reservations: A way of reserving virtual machine capacity in a particular Azure data center. Learn more about licensing with Capacity Reservations here.

Capacity Unit (CU): The unit of purchase for Microsoft Fabric.

CASB: Cloud Access Security Broker.

CBB: Current Branch for Business.

CCaaS: Contact Center as a Service. Dynamics 365 Contact Center is Microsoft’s CCaaS solution; learn how to license it here.

CCCU: Copilot Credit Commit Unit.

CCS: Copilot Control System.

CDP: Customer Data Platform or Commercial Data Protection.

CDS: Common Data Service.

CIAM: Customer Identity and Access Management.

CIEM: Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management.

CIS suites: Core Infrastructure Server suites.

Client Access License (CAL): A license assigned to a user or device to allow access to the services of a server. Learn about CALs for Windows Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server and Exchange Server.

Client Management License (CML): A license assigned to a user or device to allow management by System Center. Learn about licensing with System Center CMLs here.

Client operating system: An operating system that runs on a client or desktop computer. Microsoft’s client operating system is Windows 11. Learn about licensing Windows 11 (Device) here and Windows 11 (User) here.

Cloud App Security: See Office 365 Cloud App Security.

Cloud flow: Digital Process Automation (DPA) in Power Automate enabling users to automate processes which are triggered either automatically, instantly, or via a schedule. Learn about licensing cloud flows in Power Automate here.

CloudKnox: The previous name of Microsoft Entra Permissions Management.

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP): A solution that protects cloud-based applications from various cyber threats and vulnerabilities. Microsoft’s CNAPP is Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Learn about the licensing here.

Cloud PBX: The previous name of Phone System.

Cloud PC: A Windows desktop that runs in the cloud. Learn about licensing Windows 365 here.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM): Technology that provides visibility into the security state of an organization’s assets and workloads, and provides hardening guidance to help them efficiently and effectively improve their security posture. Learn about licensing Microsoft’s Cloud Security Posture Management solution here.

Cloud Solution Provider program: A program designed to enable partners to sell licenses for Microsoft products, along with their own services, to customers. Learn about CSP and on-premises software, Online Services (legacy/NCE) and Azure.

Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP): A solution that provides advanced threat protection capabilities across cloud workloads. Microsoft’s CWPP is delivered as part of Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Learn about the licensing here.

Cloudyn: The precursor to Azure Cost Management, retired on June 30, 2021.

CML: Client Management License.

CML equivalent license: A user Subscription License for an Online Services product that also include rights to access licensed on-premises servers. Learn about CML equivalent licenses for Microsoft 365 and EMS here.

CMMC: Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification.

CNAPP: Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform.

Commercial Data Protection (CDP): The previous name of Enterprise Data Protection.

Common Area Communications Device (CACD): A Teams device placed in a shared space that anyone can use without logging in. Examples include Common Area Phones, Teams Displays, and Teams Panels. Learn about licensing Teams devices here.

Common Area Phone: A phone used by any user in a shared space, and the previous name of the Teams Shared Devices license.

Common Data Service (CDS): The previous name of Dataverse.

Communication Credits: A method for paying for calling minutes used in various scenarios, including toll-free calls on Teams meeting invites or when the monthly minute capacity from a Calling Plan is exhausted. Learn about licensing Communication Credits here.

Companion Subscription License (CSL): A license that was available to allow users using a Windows 8 licensed device to access a VDI desktop on additional devices. Learn about VDI licensing with Windows 11 here.

Computer Use: A capability that enables AI Agents to interact with websites and desktop apps by clicking buttons, selecting menus, and typing into fields on the screen.

Computer-Using Agents (CUA): AI Agents that make use of the Computer Use capabilities.

Configuration Manager: See Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

Constrained core virtual machine: Special virtual machines available in Azure where the virtual core count is constrained; this reduces the cost of the software licensing, while maintaining the same memory, storage, and I/O bandwidth. Learn about licensing constrained core virtual machines here.

Container: An alternative environment to running products in a virtual machine. Learn about licensing Windows Server and SQL Server for containers.

Conversation Intelligence: Part of the Dynamics 365 Sales Insights capabilities.

Copilot: Microsoft’s AI assistant which helps users to (for example) find information, ask questions, and generate new content through a chat-based interface. Learn about licensing Copilot here.

Copilot Agents: A way of adding new knowledge and skills to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 Copilot here.

Copilot Control System (CCS): The tools that enable organizations to secure, manage, and analyze Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat, Copilot Studio, and Agents.

Copilot Credits: The unit of consumption for Copilot Agents (previously called messages). Learn about Copilot Credits consumption here.

Copilot Credits Calculator: A Licensing School tool to help estimate which purchasing option is most suitable for a customer’s predicted usage of Copilot Credits. Access the tool here.

Copilot for Finance: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance.

Copilot for Microsoft 365: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Copilot for Sales: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales.

Copilot for Security: The previous name of Security Copilot.

Copilot for Service: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service.

Copilot in Azure: An AI assistant accessed from the Azure Management Portal designed to help users answer questions, complete tasks, and discover and utilize Azure services. Learn about the licensing here.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service: An AI assistant included in eligible Dynamics 365 Customer Service licenses. Learn about licensing Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service here.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales: An AI assistant included in eligible Dynamics 365 Sales licenses. Learn about licensing Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales here.

Copilot Lab: The previous name of Copilot Prompt Gallery.

Copilot Pages: A place for users to collaborate with each other and Copilot. Learn about licensing Copilot here.

Copilot Pro: See Microsoft Copilot Pro.

Copilot Prompt Gallery: A set of resources to help you get started with Copilot.

Copilot Service workspace: The evolution of the Customer Service workspace app for Dynamics 365 Customer Service users. Learn about the licensing of Copilot Service workspace here.

Copilot Studio: A low-code tool for building standalone copilots and customizing Microsoft 365 Copilot. Learn about the licensing of Copilot Studio here.

Copilot Studio in Microsoft 365 Copilot: The original name of Agent Builder, before it was known as Copilot Studio Lite.

Copilot Studio Lite: The previous name of Agent Builder.

Copilot Studio in Microsoft 365 Copilot: Not a product, but the name for the use rights included in a Microsoft 365 Copilot license that allow you to customize Microsoft 365 Copilot using Copilot Studio. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 Copilot here.

Copilot Vision on Windows: An AI feature that you can enable in Windows on an ad hoc basis to see what you see and talk to you about it.

Copilot with commercial data protection: Use of Copilot where both user and organizational data is protected. Learn about licensing Copilot with commercial data protection here.

Copilot with Graph-grounded chat: The previous name of Business Chat (BizChat).

Copilot without commercial data protection: Use of Copilot without protection of user and organizational data. Learn about licensing Copilot with commercial data protection here.

Core CAL Suite: A way of buying six useful CALs together. Learn about the licensing of the Core CAL Suite here.

Core Infrastructure Server (CIS) suites: A way of buying licenses for both Windows Server 2025 and System Center 2025, available in Standard and Datacenter editions. Learn about Core Infrastructure Server suites licensing here.

Coterminous: When multiple subscriptions or terms align, reaching the end/renewal date at the same time.

Covered Suites: A set of licenses that include Teams, in contrast to the (no Teams) Suites They are Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Office 365 E1, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, and Microsoft 365 E7.

CPC: Cloud PC.

CRG: Capacity Reservation Group.

CRM: Customer Relationship Management.

CRM Online: The precursor to the Dynamics 365 CRM apps.

CRM Server 2016: The precursor to Dynamics 365 Server.

CSH: Customer Service Hub.

CSL: Companion Subscription License.

CSP: Cloud Solution Provider program.

CSP-H program: CSP-Hoster program.

CSP-Hoster (CSP-H) program: A program to enable hosting partners to build and manage solutions based on Microsoft software. Learn about licensing CSP-Hoster solutions here.

CSPM: Cloud Security Posture Management.

CSR: Customer Service Representative.

CU: Capacity Unit or Commit Unit.

CUA: Computer-Using Agents.

Current Branch: A release cadence which provides feature updates several times a year. Learn about the Current Branch for System Center.

Customer Data Platform (CDP): A solution that collects, unifies, and organizes customer data from multiple sources to create a comprehensive view of a customer in order for marketeers to deliver more personalized and effective interactions. Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data is Microsoft’s CDP product, and you can learn about the licensing here.

Customer Engagement Plan: See Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Plan.

Customer Insights – Data: Microsoft’s CDP solution and part of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights here.

Customer Insights – Journey: Microsoft’s marketing automation solution and part of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights here.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Technology used to manage interactions with customers and potential customers. The Dynamics 365 CRM apps give users working in different functional areas of the business software specific to their roles.

Customer Service Hub: An app available to use in a desktop browser or on a mobile device for managing knowledge articles and case management in Dynamics 365 Customer Service. Learn about the licensing of Customer Service Hub here.

Customer Service Insights: Functionality in the Dynamics 365 Customer Service solution that gives agents and customer service managers (for example) insights into customer satisfaction-boosting analytics. Learn about the licensing of Customer Service Insights here.

Customer Service Representative (CSR): The human (as opposed to an AI Agent) that uses Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Contact Center solutions.

Customer Service workspace: The evolution of the Customer Service Hub app for Dynamics 365 Customer Service users. Learn about the licensing of the Customer Service workspace app here.

CustomerSource: A retired SA benefit giving self-help resources for Dynamics users. Learn about CustomerSource here.

CVM: Confidential Virtual Machine.

CWPP: Cloud Workload Protection Platform.

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC): A U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) program designed to ensure that defense contractors and subcontractors meet specific cybersecurity standards when handling sensitive government information. It became a formal requirement in DoD contracts starting November 10, 2025.

D365: Dynamics 365.

DAC: Dragon Admin Center.

DAG: Data Access Governance.

Data Center Provider: An organization that provides infrastructure services to another hosting partner. Learn about the different deployment options that customers have here.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Technology that enforces compliance requirements for sensitive data. Learn about licensing Data Loss Prevention here.

Data Protection Manager (DPM): A Microsoft backup and recovery solution, part of the System Center management products. Learn about Data Protection Manager licensing here.

Dataverse: Where you securely store and manage data that’s used by the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform products. Learn about Dataverse capacity licensing here.

DCA: Desktop Companion Application.

DCP: Data Center Provider

Dedicated hardware: Hardware that is dedicated to the use of a single customer. Learn about licensing dedicated hardware for Windows Server, SQL Server and other server applications.

Defender: See Microsoft Defender.

Designer in Copilot: See Microsoft Designer.

Desktop Companion Application (DCA): Part of the Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Dynamics 365 Contact Center solution that ensures that Customer Service Representatives can continue customer conversations without interruption during web application issues.

Desktop flow: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Power Automate enabling users to automate repetitive desktop processes. Learn about licensing desktop flows in Power Automate here.

Developer tools: Microsoft’s developer tools include Visual Studio, Azure DevOps, GitHub and Dev Box. Learn about the licensing of all the developer tools here.

Device CAL: A CAL assigned to a device to allow access to the services of a server. Learn about Windows Server Device CALs.

DevOps: The combination of development and IT operations to enhance collaboration, automate processes, and improve software delivery. See Azure DevOps.

DevOps Server: See Azure DevOps Server.

DevSecOps: The integration of security practices into DevOps, ensuring continuous security throughout the software development lifecycle. Microsoft Defender for Cloud unifies DevSecOps for an organization. Learn about the licensing here.

Dev/Test pricing: Special pricing for Azure services which are only used for Dev/Test workloads. Learn about Dev/Test pricing here.

Dev/Test Subscriptions: An Azure Subscription used for Dev/Test workloads with discounted rates on some of the Azure services. Learn about Dev/Test Subscriptions here.

Digital Process Automation (DPA): In the context of Power Automate, the facility to create cloud flows to automate processes which are triggered either automatically, instantly, or via a schedule. Learn about licensing cloud flows in Power Automate here.

DLP: Data Loss Prevention.

Document Processing for Microsoft 365: An AI-powered content management system for use with SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams. This was previously known as SharePoint Syntex, Microsoft Syntex, and SharePoint Premium.

Down-edition rights: Rights allowing you to install a lower edition of a product. Learn about down-edition rights for Windows Server 2025, SQL Server 2022 and Office LTSC 2024.

Downgrade rights: Rights allowing you to install an earlier version of a product. Learn about downgrade rights for Windows Server 2025, SQL Server 2022 and Office LTSC 2024.

DPA: Digital Process Automation.

DPL: Dynamics Price List.

DPM: Data Protection Manager.

DR: Disaster Recovery.

Dragon Admin Center (DAC): Learn about the licensing of Dragon Copilot here.

Dragon Copilot: An AI assistant for physicians and nurses. Learn about the licensing of Dragon Copilot here.

DSPM: Data Security Posture Management.

Dual access rights: Rights granted with a user Subscription License for an Online Services product that allows users to access licensed on-premises servers. Learn about dual access rights for Office 365, Microsoft 365 and EMS.

Dynamics 365: A collection of CRM and ERP applications. Learn about licensing the Dynamics 365 CRM apps and ERP apps.

Dynamics 365 Business Central: An online ERP solution aimed at smaller businesses helping them to automate and streamline their business processes. Learn about licensing Dynamics 365 Business Central here.

Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises: An on-premises ERP solution aimed at smaller businesses helping them to automate and streamline their business processes. Learn about licensing Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises here.

Dynamics 365 Commerce: One of the Dynamics 365 ERP apps to license, for example, users who work in the headquarters of a retail operation. Learn about licensing Dynamics 365 Commerce here.

Dynamics 365 Contact Center: Microsoft’s Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution that unifies voice, chat, and digital channels to enhance the customer service experience. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Contact Center here.

Dynamics 365 CRM apps: Sales, Customer Service and Field Service apps.

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Plan: The former way of buying licenses for the Dynamics 365 Sales, Field Service, Customer Service, and Project Service Automation apps. This was retired by Microsoft in October 2019. Learn about the licensing of the Dynamics 365 CRM apps here.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights: Microsoft’s Customer Data Platform (CDP) and marketing automation solution. Learn about the licensing here.

Dynamics 365 Customer Service: One of the Dynamics 365 CRM apps to license, for example, a Customer Service Rep managing cases. Learn more about licensing Dynamics 365 Customer Service here.

Dynamics 365 Customer Voice: Part of the Dynamics 365 CRM apps solutions enabling you to capture and analyze customer feedback. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Customer Voice here.

Dynamics 365 Electronic Invoicing: Enables organizations to create, process, and exchange invoices digitally. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Electronic Invoicing here.

Dynamics 365 ERP apps: Commerce, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Project Operations and Human Resources apps. Learn about the licensing of the ERP apps here.

Dynamics 365 Field Service: One of the Dynamics 365 CRM apps to license, for example, a Field Technician managing site repairs and updating work orders. Learn more about licensing Dynamics 365 Field Service here.

Dynamics 365 Finance: One of the Dynamics 365 ERP apps to help organizations efficiently manage their financial processes: financial reporting, budgeting, and tax management, for example. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Finance here.

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations: The precursor to the Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management apps. This was retired by Microsoft in October 2019. Learn more about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection: Helps customers to block fraudulent activity with a set of three protection and prevention capabilities: Account Protection, Purchase Protection, and Loss Prevention. Learn about Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection licensing here.

Dynamics 365 Guides: A mixed-reality application that provides users with on-the-job guidance via holographic instructions. HoloLens-wearing users see instruction cards showing what needs to be done, and where, helping them to carry out new or unfamiliar tasks. Learn about licensing Dynamics 365 Guides here.

Dynamics 365 Human Resources: One of the Dynamics 365 ERP apps to license, for example, an HR professional or a recruiter. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Human Resources here.

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management: A standalone service designed to enhance the order fulfilment process for customers from when an order is placed to the point of delivery. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management here.

Dynamics 365 for Operations Server: An on-premises solution providing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) functionality, enabling organizations to manage processes and departments within and across the entire organization. Learn about licensing Dynamics 365 for Operations Server here.

Dynamics 365 Marketing: The previous name of Journeys app in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. Learn about licensing Dynamics 365 Customer Insights here.

Dynamics 365 Plan: A single license for all of the Dynamics 365 functionality, retired by Microsoft in October 2019, which combined the Customer Engagement Plan and the Unified Operations Plan. Learn more about licensing the Dynamics 365 CRM apps and ERP apps.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations: One of the Dynamics 365 ERP apps to license, for example, project managers, project assistants and project accountants responsible for accelerating project delivery in an organization. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Project Operations here.

Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation: The precursor to Dynamics 365 Project Operations.

Dynamics 365 Remote Assist: A mixed-reality application which enables users to get on-the-job help from experts. The user wears a HoloLens and contacts an expert for help via a Teams video call. The expert can see everything the user sees and can provide assistance by holographically drawing and annotating whatever the user is working on. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Remote Assist here.

Dynamics 365 Retail: The precursor to Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Dynamics 365 Sales: One of the Dynamics 365 CRM apps to license, for example, a Territory Sales Manager managing sales pipelines and closing deals. Learn more about licensing Dynamics 365 Sales here.

Dynamics 365 Sales Insights: Part of the Dynamics 365 Sales solution that helps sellers to build stronger relationships with their customers and to stay on top of their deals with real-time AI-based insights. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Sales Insights here.

Dynamics 365 Sales Premium: A single license for Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Sales Insights. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Sales Premium here.

Dynamics 365 Server: An on-premises solution providing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality, enabling organizations to get a holistic view about what’s happening across their customers. Learn about Dynamics 365 Server licensing here.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management: One of the Dynamics 365 ERP apps to license, for example, users in operations roles at manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. Learn more about licensing Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management here.

Dynamics 365 Talent: The precursor to Dynamics 365 Human Resources

Dynamics 365 Unified Operations Plan: The former way of buying licenses for the Finance and Operations, Retail, and Talent apps. This was retired by Microsoft in October 2019. Learn about the licensing of the ERP apps here.

Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Server: The precursor to Dynamics 365 for Operations Server.

EA: Enterprise Agreement.

EAC: Exchange Admin Center.

EASM: External Attack Surface Management.

eCDN: Enterprise Content Delivery Network.

ECS: Enterprise Cloud Suite.

Edition: A way of differentiating between different sets of functionalities that are included in a product – Windows Server 2025 Standard does not include as many features as Windows Server 2025 Datacenter, for example. Learn about licensing editions here.

EDP: Enterprise Data Protection.

EDR: Endpoint Detection and Response.

EIoT: Enterprise IoT.

EMS: Enterprise Mobility and Security or Enterprise Mobility Suite.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): Technology that continuously monitors and analyzes activities on endpoints (like computers, mobile devices, and servers) to detect and respond to potential threats. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint here.

Enterprise Agreement (EA): An agreement aimed at larger customers who have more than 500 devices or users. Learn about licensing with an EA here.

Enterprise CAL Suite: A way of buying 12 useful CALs together. Learn about the licensing of the Enterprise CAL Suite here.

Enterprise Cloud Suite: The original name of Microsoft 365 Enterprise, before it was called Secure Productive Enterprise.

Enterprise Data Protection (EDP): The name given to the protection of the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat by users logged in with an Entra ID.

Enterprise Desktop: In an Enterprise/Enterprise Subscription enrollment, this is the name for the enterprise-wide commitment a customer has made to Windows, Office and the Enterprise CAL Suite. Learn about licensing the Enterprise Desktop here.

Enterprise Enrollment: One of three enrollments signed under an Enterprise Agreement, where customers make an enterprise-wide commitment to the desktop products. Learn about buying on-premises products, Online Services, and Azure through an Enterprise Enrollment.

Enterprise IoT (EIoT) devices: Devices such as printers, smart TVs and conferencing systems which you’d find along with regular laptops and mobile devices on an enterprise network. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft Defender for EIoT devices here.

Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS): A suite of technologies that manages and secures access to corporate servers and data by users using a variety of mobile devices. Learn about licensing EMS here.

Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS): The previous name of Enterprise Mobility and Security.

Enterprise Resource Planning: Technology that enables an organization to manage processes and departments within and across the entire organization. The Dynamics 365 ERP apps give users working in different functional areas of the business software specific to their roles.

Enterprise Subscription Enrollment: One of three enrollments signed under an Enterprise Agreement, where customers make an enterprise-wide commitment to the desktop products with subscription licenses. Learn about buying on-premises products, Online Services, and Azure through an Enterprise Subscription Enrollment.

Enterprise-wide commitment: A requirement in some licensing agreements that requires a customer to license a product for every device or user in their organization. Learn about enterprise-wide commitments in the Enterprise Enrollment, and the Open Value Organization-Wide agreement.

Entra: See Microsoft Entra.

Entra ID: See Microsoft Entra ID.

EOA: Exchange Online Archiving.

EOP: Exchange Online Protection.

ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning.

ESD: Electronic Software Download.

ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance. Three key areas to indicate how sustainable and ethically responsible an organization is. See Microsoft Sustainability Manager.

EST: Extended Service Term.

ESU: Extended Security Updates.

Exchange Online: Microsoft’s hosted email solution. Learn about licensing Exchange Online here.

Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) for Exchange Online: A cloud-based archive for users with mailboxes in Exchange Online. Learn about licensing Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Online here.

Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) for Exchange Server: A cloud-based archive for users with primary mailboxes in Exchange Server 2016/2019. Learn about licensing Exchange Online Archiving for Exchange Server here.

Exchange Online Protection (EOP): A cloud-based filtering services that protects an organization against spam, malware, phishing, and other email threats. Learn about licensing Exchange Online Protection here.

Exchange Online Voice Mail Service: A Software Assurance benefit for Exchange Server. Learn about the Exchange Online Voice Mail Service benefit here.

Exchange Server: The Microsoft email server. Learn about licensing Exchange Server here.

EXO: Exchange Online.

EXP: Employee Experience Platform.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR): A unified platform to detect, investigate, and respond to threats across endpoints, identities, email, cloud applications, and cloud infrastructure. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender XDR here.

Extended Security Updates: Licenses that provide support for up to three years after the end-of-support date. Learn about Extended Security Updates for Windows Server, SQL Server, Azure Dedicated Host, and with the Flexible Virtualization Benefit.

Extended Service Term (EST): An option that allows an expired subscription to keep running with continued service, billed at an uplifted rate.

External Connector License: A single license that allows an unlimited number of external users to access a server. Learn about Windows Server External Connector licenses.

External user: An external user is someone who isn’t an employee of the organization buying the licenses but does need to access an internal solution. Learn about external users for Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, the Dynamics 365 CRM apps, and the Dynamics 365 ERP apps.

EWS: Exchange Web Services.

Fabric: A platform that allows users to get, create, share, and visualize data using various tools. Power BI is now a component of Microsoft Fabric. Learn about licensing Power BI here.

Fabric (free): The most basic user license for Power BI. Learn about Power BI user licenses here.

Fabric SKU Estimator: A tool that helps customers to identify the appropriate Fabric Capacity Unit SKU for their needs, based on their data requirements, usage patterns, and workload combinations.

FEP: ForeFront Endpoint Protection.

Field Service Contractor: A license which is part of the Dynamics 365 Field Service solution which is assigned to a technician for them to be able to (for example) view and update work orders on the go. Learn about the licensing here.

Field Service Mobile app: An app which is part of the Dynamics 365 Field Service solution enabling a technician to (for example) view and update work orders on the go. Learn about the licensing here.

Finance Agents: Microsoft is currently mid-way through changing the name of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance to Finance Agents.

Firstline Workers: The previous name of Frontline Workers.

Flexible Virtualization Benefit: A benefit that allows customers to take eligible licenses to the shared hardware of Authorized Outsourcers. Learn about licensing with the Flexible Virtualization Benefit here.

FOCUS: FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification.

ForeFront Endpoint Protection (FEP): The precursor to System Center Endpoint Protection.

Forms Pro: See Microsoft Forms Pro.

FPP: Full Packaged Product.

From SA licenses: Special-priced licenses that customers with active Software Assurance have been able to purchase as they move to the cloud. Find general information about From SA licenses, and specific information for Office 365, Microsoft 365, and EMS.

Frontier program: An early access program that lets companies with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses try new Copilot features and Agents, while they’re still being developed.

Frontline Workers: Someone who does need technology in their role but doesn’t spend all day sitting in front of a PC creating PowerPoint presentations or Excel spreadsheets. Examples include doctors, people working in hospitality and retail, or in manufacturing. Learn about licensing Frontline Workers here.

Full Packaged Product (FPP): A license included within a boxed product, purchased from retailers.

FVB: Flexible Virtualization Benefit.

GA: General Availability/Generally Available.

GCC: Government Community Cloud.

GCCH: Government Community Cloud High.

GCP: Google Cloud Platform. Google is classed as a Listed Provider by Microsoft, and you can learn about licensing for Listed Providers here.

GDAP: Granular Delegated Administrator Privileges.

General Availability Channel: Annual feature releases for Windows 11. Learn more here.

Generative AI: Artificial intelligence that creates new and original content in response to user prompts. Copilot uses generative AI. Learn about licensing Copilot here.

Get Licensing Ready: A great Microsoft resource with lots of modules to help you learn the basics of Microsoft licensing, which was retired by Microsoft in December 2024. Our Licensing Scholar program is a splendid alternative which offers free exams and training. You can find the exams here.

GHAS: GitHub Advanced Security.

GHE: GitHub Enterprise.

GHEC: GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

GHES: GitHub Enterprise Server.

GitHub: A platform for developers to collaborate on projects, manage code, and track changes. Learn about GitHub licensing here.

GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS): A suite of security features designed to help developers identify and fix vulnerabilities in their code. Learn about licensing GitHub Advanced Security here.

GitHub Copilot: A tool that assists developers in writing code by offering suggestions – either via autocomplete as coding is taking place, or by responding with code to a natural language request. Learn about licensing GitHub Copilot here.

GitHub Enterprise (GHE): A license for GitHub that provides additional security, compliance and deployment options compared to the free version. Learn about licensing GitHub Enterprise here.

GitHub Enterprise Cloud (GHEC): The cloud-based version of GitHub Enterprise, hosted on GitHub’s servers. Learn about licensing GitHub Enterprise Cloud here.

GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES): The self-hosted version of GitHub Enterprise, installed on-premises or in a private cloud. Learn about licensing GitHub Enterprise Server here.

Global Secure Access: Microsoft’s term to refer to both Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Microsoft Entra Private Access.

GLR: Get Licensing Ready.

Graduated pricing: For some Azure services, such as storage, there is graduated pricing available, which means that the more of a service you use each month, the cheaper the unit price becomes. Learn about licensing the Azure consumption services here.

Granular Delegated Administrator Privileges (GDAP): A security feature in Microsoft Partner Center that grants partners least-privileged, time-bound access to customer workloads. Customers must explicitly approve this granular access, which helps address security concerns and meet regulatory needs for reduced partner permissions.

HA: High Availability.

HAM: Hardware Asset Management.

Home Use Program (HUP): The previous name of Workplace Discount Program.

Hosting partner: A name for a third-party organization that customers use to handle their IT infrastructure, including hardware, IT services, and software. Learn about the different deployment options that customers have here.

Hotpatching: A way of installing updates that doesn’t require a reboot after installation. Learn about licensing hotpatching for Windows Server and Windows 11.

HUP: Home Use Program.

HT: Hyper-Threading.

Hybrid Use Benefit: See Azure Hybrid Benefit.

IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service.

IAM: Identity and Access Management.

IDaaS: Identity as a Service.

IDE: Integrated Development Environment.

Identity as a Service (IDaaS): Microsoft Entra ID is Microsoft’s IDaaS solution. Learn about licensing Microsoft Entra ID here.

Independent Software Vendor (ISV): In the Microsoft context, an organization that builds applications that integrate with Microsoft products such as Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365.

Information Rights Management (IRM): Technology which allows a user to attach access permissions to a particular document which can prevent it from being opened, forwarded or printed by unauthorized people, for example. Learn about licensing Active Directory Rights Management Services here.

Instance size flexibility: A feature available for Azure virtual machines where a Reserved Instance can automatically be applied to a different virtual machine of the same family if a customer’s needs change. Learn about instance size flexibility here.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE): The application that a developer uses to create, debug, test, and deploy apps. Visual Studio is Microsoft’s IDE. Learn about licensing Visual Studio via Standard and Cloud subscriptions.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR): Technology that allows telephone users to interact with a computer-operated phone system using voice commands or keypad inputs. Learn about the licensing of Dynamics 365 Contact Center here.

Intune: Microsoft’s cloud-based endpoint management solution incorporating mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM). Learn about the licensing of Intune here.

Intune Advanced Analytics: An Intune add-on license or included as part of the Intune Suite that provides insights into device health and performance, a timeline of changes to devices with the ability to query device state and configuration and resolve device-based issues. Learn about licensing Intune Advanced Analytics here.

Intune Cloud PKI: A cloud-based service that manages certificates for Intune-managed devices, handling issuance, renewal, and revocation, all without the need for on-premises servers or hardware. Purchased as an Intune add-on license or included as part of the Intune Suite. Learn about licensing Intune Cloud PKI here.

Intune Endpoint Privilege Management: An Intune add-on license or included as part of the Intune Suite that enables users to run as standard users (without admin rights) while performing tasks that require elevated privileges as needed, such as app installations and driver updates . Learn about licensing Intune Endpoint Privilege Management here.

Intune Enterprise App Management: An Intune add-on license or included as part of the Intune Suite that simplifies app management, enabling users to install and update apps from an Enterprise App Catalog, which can contain Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications. Learn about licensing Intune Enterprise App Management here.

Intune Remote Help: A cloud-based service that enables an organization’s support staff to remotely connect to a user’s device. Purchased as a Microsoft Intune add-on or included as part of the Intune Suite. Learn about licensing Intune Remote Help here.

Intune Suite: A collection of advanced endpoint management products. Learn about licensing the Intune Suite here.

IoT: Internet of Things.

IRM: Information Rights Management.

ISV: Independent Software Vendor.

ITAM: IT Asset Management.

ITDM: IT Decision Maker.

IVR: Interactive Voice Response.

LAR: Large Account Reseller.

Large Account Reseller (LAR): The previous name of a Licensing Solutions Partner (LSP).

Large Language Model (LLM): A type of artificial intelligence that can understand and generate human language. LLMs are used in various applications such as Copilot. Learn about the licensing of Copilot here.

LATAM: Latin America.

Latin America (LATAM): Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in Central and South America, plus the Caribbean.

Lead Status SKU: A SKU not on the public Enterprise Agreement price list but which can be transacted by talking to a Microsoft person.

License Mobility across Server Farms: A Software Assurance benefit that relaxes the 90-day license reassignment rule so that virtual machines may move freely around a server farm and the server licenses may be reassigned as required. Learn about License Mobility across Server Farms with SQL Server.

License Mobility through SA: A Software Assurance benefit that allows customers to use their eligible server application licenses on Authorized Mobility partner’s hardware. Learn about the License Mobility through SA benefit here.

Licensed user: A term Microsoft use to refer to the single person to whom a User Subscription License has been assigned.

Licensing Guides: Microsoft produce a whole host of splendid Licensing Guides. Find them here.

Licensing Solutions Partner (LSP): A partner authorized by Microsoft to sell Enterprise Agreements.

Like local: A term used by Microsoft to refer to an experience in which the user feels like they’re working on a local machine, even though they are using a desktop in the cloud. Learn about licensing Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Enterprise: Part of the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution.

Listed Provider: Alibaba, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Learn about licensing with Listed Providers here.

LLM: Large Language Model

Long-Term Servicing Branch: The previous name of Long-Term Servicing Channel.

Long-Term Servicing Channel: A servicing channel which provides new releases of software every two to three years. Learn about the Long-Term Servicing Channel for Windows Server, System Center, Windows 11, Office, and Visio.

LRU: Least Recently Used.

LSP: Licensing Solutions Partner.

LTSB: Long-Term Servicing Branch.

LTSC: Long-Term Servicing Channel.

Lync Online: The previous name of Skype for Business Online.

Lync Server: The previous name of Skype for Business Server.

M365: Microsoft 365.

MAC: Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

MACC: Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment.

Machine Learning Server: Tools for analyzing data at scale, retired by Microsoft on July 1, 2022.

MAK: Multiple Activation Key.

MAM: Mobile Application Management.

Managed Meeting Rooms: The precursor to the Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium license.

Management Group: See Azure Management Group.

Marketing: See Dynamics 365 Marketing.

Marketplace: See Azure Marketplace.

MAU: Monthly Active Users.

MBC: Microsoft Business Center.

MCA: Microsoft Customer Agreement.

MCA-E: See Microsoft Customer Agreement for enterprise.

MCAS: Microsoft Cloud App Security.

MCC: Microsoft Connected Cache.

MCS: Microsoft Copilot Studio.

MDATP: Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection.

MDB: Microsoft Defender for Business.

MDC: Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

MDCCU: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Commit Units.

MDE: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

MDM: Mobile Device Management.

MDOP: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.

MDTI: Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence.

Meeting Room: The previous name of Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard.

ME-ID: Microsoft Entra ID.

MEM: Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

MEPM: Microsoft Entra Permissions Management.

Microsoft 365: A collection of productivity tools such as the Microsoft 365 Apps and SharePoint Online and Exchange Online.

Microsoft 365 Admin Center: A portal (https://admin.microsoft.com/) used to carry out a variety of administrative tasks such as setting up users, and then purchasing and assigning licenses to them, as well as managing billing activities, and carrying out tasks historically performed in the now retired VLSC portal.

Microsoft 365 Advanced Audit: The previous name of Microsoft Purview Audit (Premium).

Microsoft 365 Apps: The Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher apps, available as Microsoft 365 Apps for Business and Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise plans. Find out more about licensing Microsoft 365 Apps for Business and Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise.

Microsoft 365 Backup: Technology that enables you to backup SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, and Exchange mailboxes.

Microsoft 365 Copilot: An Add-on license giving eligible users the rights to Microsoft 365 Copilot in a wide range of Microsoft apps. The license also includes rights to customize Microsoft 365 Copilot via Copilot Agents. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft 365 Copilot here.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Business: A lower-priced SMB variant of Microsoft 365 Copilot, for up to 300 users. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft 365 Copilot Business here.

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance: An AI assistant for finance professionals that connects to Dynamics 365 Finance and offers AI- based productivity gains in Outlook and Excel. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance here.

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales: An Add-on license providing an AI assistant for salespeople that connects to a sales solution in order to bring AI-generated insights into productivity applications such as Outlook, Teams, and Word. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales here.

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service: An Add-on license providing an AI assistant that integrates with Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Salesforce and uses AI to help customer service agents work more efficiently by bringing AI-generated insights into productivity applications such as Outlook and Teams. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service here.

Microsoft 365 Defender: A term Microsoft use to refer to various security products designed to protect different aspects of the Microsoft 365 environment: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 Defender here.

Microsoft Defender Suite: An Add-on license providing a comprehensive suite of advanced security solutions designed to protect organizations from sophisticated threats. This was previously known as Microsoft 365 E5 Security. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender Suite here.

Microsoft 365 E3 – Unattended license: A special license allowing a bot to run repetitive tasks in a Windows client or Office app without user intervention. Learn about Microsoft 365 E3 – Unattended licensing here.

Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance: The previous name of Microsoft Purview Suite.

Microsoft 365 E5 Security: The previous name of Microsoft Defender Suite.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise: A single license for a collection of products: Windows 11 Enterprise, Office 365 and EMS. Find out more about licensing Microsoft 365 Enterprise here.

Microsoft 365 F5 Compliance: The previous name of Microsoft Purview Suite FLW.

Microsoft 365 F5 Security: The previous name of Microsoft Defender Suite FLW.

Microsoft 365 F5 Security and Compliance: The previous name of Microsoft Defender and Purview Suite FLW.

Microsoft 365 Family: A consumer license for up to 6 users. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for consumers here.

Microsoft 365 Premium: A consumer license combining Microsoft 365 Family with Copilot Pro. Learn about licensing Microsoft 365 for consumers here.

Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC): A contractual commitment that a customer makes directly with Microsoft to spend a certain amount on Azure services over a particular term. Learn about the MACC in the EA and MCA-E.

Microsoft Business Center (MBC): The portal used by MPSA customers to manage their licenses, download software, access Volume License Keys, and to manage Software Assurance benefits.

Microsoft Cloud Agreement: The CSP precursor to the Microsoft Customer Agreement.

Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS): The previous name of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.

Microsoft Configuration Manager: See Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

Microsoft Copilot Pro: A license giving eligible users the rights to Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Learn about licensing Microsoft Copilot Pro here.

Microsoft Cost Management: A set of tools in the Azure Management Portal to help customers to gain visibility into their costs and optimize their spend on Azure services and Online Services. Learn more here.

Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA): A single licensing agreement governing a customer’s purchases. Learn more about the Microsoft Customer Agreement here.

Microsoft Customer Agreement for enterprise (MCA-E): A larger, more strategic customer signs the Microsoft Customer Agreement and buys direct from Microsoft. Learn about the basics and how to buy Azure services through the MCA-E.

Microsoft Defender: The family name for Microsoft’s security solutions designed to protect devices, identities, and data from various threats. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender products here.

Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (MDATP): The previous name of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

Microsoft Defender ATP: Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection.

Microsoft Defender for Business: An endpoint protection solution designed to help small and medium-sized businesses protect their Windows 10/11 or MacOS client devices and Windows or Linux server devices from ransomware, malware, phishing, and other threats. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for Business for clients and servers.

Microsoft Defender for Business Servers: A license for Windows and Linux servers onboarded to Microsoft Defender for Business to protect them from ransomware, malware, phishing and other threats. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for Business Servers here.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud (MDC): A solution to protect cloud-based applications from various cyber threats and vulnerabilities which works across Azure, AWS, GCP, and on-premises environments. Learn about the licensing for Microsoft Defender for Cloud here.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps: A security solution to discover and manage which cloud apps users are using. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps here.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Commit Units (MDCCU): The unit of purchase for a Microsoft Defender for Cloud Pre-Purchase Plan.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Pre-Purchase Plan: A type of Azure Reservation which enables you to purchase Microsoft Defender for Cloud Commit Units to save money on your Defender for Cloud spend. Learn how the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Pre-Purchase Plan works here.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: An endpoint protection solution designed to help organizations prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to threats targeting Windows 10/11 or MacOS client devices and Windows or Linux server devices. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint here.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Servers: An endpoint protection solution designed to help organizations prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to threats targeting Windows or Linux servers. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Servers here.

Microsoft Defender for Identity: A product that helps security professionals manage identity risk and spot identity-based cyberattacks. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for Identity here.

Microsoft Defender for IoT: An endpoint protection solution for Enterprise IoT (EIoT) devices and Operational Technology (OT) devices. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender for IoT here.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: A security product to protect email and collaboration tools (Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive) by, for example, scanning file attachments and checking links. Learn about licensing Defender for Office 365 here.

Microsoft Defender and Purview Suite FLW: An Add-on license specifically for Frontline Workers, combining the security and compliance suites: Microsoft Defender Suite FLW and Microsoft Purview Suite FLW. This was previously known as Microsoft 365 F5 Security and Compliance. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender and Purview Suite FLW here.

Microsoft Defender and Purview Suite for Business Premium: An Add-on license specifically for SMB users, combining the security and compliance suites: Microsoft Defender Suite for Business Premium and Microsoft Purview Suite for Business Premium. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender and Purview Suite for Business Premium here.

Microsoft Defender Suite: An Add-on license providing a comprehensive suite of advanced security solutions designed to protect organizations from sophisticated threats. This was previously known as Microsoft 365 E5 Security. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender Suite here.

Microsoft Defender Suite FLW: An Add-on license specifically for Frontline Workers, providing a comprehensive suite of advanced security solutions designed to protect organizations from sophisticated threats. This was previously known as Microsoft 365 F5 Security. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender Suite FLW here.

Microsoft Defender Suite for Business Premium: An Add-on license specifically for SMB users, providing a comprehensive suite of advanced security solutions designed to protect smaller organizations from sophisticated threats. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Defender Suite for Business Premium here.

Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence (MDTI): A platform that gathers and analyzes threat data from various sources so that customers can spot and deal with potential security risks. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence here.

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management: A product which helps IT professionals to identify, assess, remediate, and track their organization’s biggest vulnerabilities across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and network devices. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management here.

Microsoft Defender XDR: An extended detection and response (XDR) solution which provides a unified platform to detect, investigate, and respond to threats across endpoints, identities, email, cloud applications, and cloud infrastructure. Learn about licensing Microsoft Defender XDR here.

Microsoft Designer: A graphic design and image editing app powered by AI. Learn about licensing Microsoft Designer here.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP): A suite of desktop management tools. Learn about MDOP licensing here.

Microsoft Dev Box: A cloud-based workstation optimized for developers. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft Dev Box here.

Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN): A set of Microsoft resources for developers, now integrated into other sites such as Microsoft Learn.

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager: An IT management solution to manage PCs and servers. Learn about licensing Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager here.

Microsoft Entra: The family name for Microsoft’s unified identity and network access solutions. Learn about licensing Microsoft Entra here.

Microsoft Entra ID: Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service, previously known as Azure Active Directory. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft Entra ID here.

Microsoft Entra ID Governance: An identity governance solution to help organizations strengthen security and more easily meet compliance and regulatory requirements. Learn about licensing Microsoft Entra ID Governance here.

Microsoft Entra Internet Access: Part of Microsoft Entra which delivers secure access to internet and SaaS apps.

Microsoft Entra Private Access: Part of Microsoft Entra which delivers secure access to private apps in the cloud and on-premises.

Microsoft Entra Suite: A suite of tools that bring together identity and network access so that you can secure employee access to any cloud or on-premises application or resource from any location, whilst all the time enforcing least privileged access. Learn about the licensing of the Microsoft Entra Suite here.

Microsoft Fabric: A platform that allows users to get, create, share, and visualize data using various tools. Power BI is now a component of Microsoft Fabric. Learn about licensing Power BI here.

Microsoft Flow: The previous name of Power Automate.

Microsoft Forms Pro: The previous name of Dynamics 365 Customer Voice.

Microsoft Graph: A slightly mysterious thing (an API) that provides access to data stored across Microsoft 365 services so that developers can build custom apps for an organization. Microsoft Graph grounds Microsoft 365 Copilot with an organization’s productivity data to improve the relevancy and depth of responses.

Microsoft Information Governance: The previous name of Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management.

Microsoft Intune: The family name for Microsoft’s endpoint management solution combining Intune and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft Intune here.

Microsoft Loop: An app that enables teams of people to work together in real time. Projects can be organized in Loop Workspaces consisting of, for example, Loop pages and/or Microsoft 365 documents. For collaboration convenience a single item on a Loop page can be made into a Loop component and shared for real-time editing in a variety of apps.

Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement (MOSA): The original agreement for customers to purchase Online Services such as Office 365.

Microsoft Online Subscription Program (MOSP): The original program for customers to purchase Online Services such as Office 365, under the terms of MOSA.

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM): The previous name of System Center Operations Manager. Learn about licensing the System Center server products here.

Microsoft Places: Technology based on Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot to help users have a better experience when working from the office.

Microsoft Planner: Microsoft’s basic work-management/project management app. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft Planner here.

Microsoft Priva: The family name for Microsoft’s privacy solutions. Learn about licensing Microsoft Priva here.

Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA): A licensing agreement aimed at the larger customer who has more than 250 users or devices. Learn about the basics of the MPSA, and how to buy on-premises products and the Online Services.

Microsoft Purview: Microsoft’s unified data governance and compliance and risk management solution. Learn about licensing Microsoft Purview here.

Microsoft Purview Suite: An Add-on license providing a robust set of compliance solutions in Microsoft 365 that helps organizations manage risks, respond to regulatory requirements, and ensure data governance and privacy across their digital environment. This was previously known as Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Purview Suite here.

Microsoft Purview Suite FLW: An Add-on license specifically for Frontline Workers, providing a robust set of compliance solutions in Microsoft 365 that helps organizations manage risks, respond to regulatory requirements, and ensure data governance and privacy across their digital environment. This was previously known as Microsoft 365 F5 Compliance. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Purview Suite FLW here.

Microsoft Purview Suite for Business Premium: An Add-on license specifically for SMB users, providing a robust set of compliance solutions in Microsoft 365 that helps smaller organizations manage risks, respond to regulatory requirements, and ensure data governance and privacy across their digital environment. Learn about licensing the Microsoft Purview Suite for Business Premium here.

Microsoft R Server: The previous name of Machine Learning Server.

Microsoft Relationship Sales: A single license for Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced Plus. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft Relationship Sales here.

Microsoft Relationship Sales Solution Plus: The previous name of Microsoft Relationship Sales.

Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC): A Microsoft team focusing on responding to, and mitigating security threats across Microsoft’s products. Learn about their role in rating security vulnerabilities for Windows Server and SQL Server which affect the cadence of ESUs.

Microsoft Sentinel: Microsoft’s SecOps platform that provides a single solution for SIEM and SOAR capabilities. Learn about the licensing of Microsoft Sentinel here.

Microsoft Sustainability Manager (MSM): A product that helps organizations to track and manage their environmental impact.

Microsoft Syntex: A previous name of Document Processing for Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR): Shared workspaces with dedicated Microsoft certified devices for video, audio, and content sharing. Learn about Microsoft Teams Rooms licensing here.

Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic: A free license for basic Microsoft Teams Rooms scenarios. Learn about licensing Microsoft Teams Rooms here.

Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium: A legacy Microsoft Teams Rooms license. Learn about the legacy licensing or the current licensing of Microsoft Teams Rooms.

Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro: A license for full-featured Microsoft Teams Rooms scenarios with a central management capability. Learn about licensing Microsoft Teams Rooms here.

Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard: A legacy Microsoft Teams Rooms license. Learn about the legacy licensing or the current licensing of Microsoft Teams Rooms.

Microsoft Threat Protection: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Defender.

MIP: Microsoft Purview Information Protection.

ML: Management License. See Server Management License and Client Management License.

Mobile Application Management (MAM): The process of securing, controlling and managing mobile applications to ensure compliance and data protection, delivered in the Microsoft world by Intune. Learn about licensing Intune here.

Mobile Device Management (MDM): The process of securing, monitoring, and managing mobile devices to protect corporate data and ensure compliance, delivered in the Microsoft world by Intune. Learn about licensing Intune here.

MOM: Microsoft Operations Manager.

Monetary Commitment: The previous name of Azure Prepayment.

Monthly Active Users (MAU): The count of unique users with authentication activity within a calendar month.

Monthly Subscription Unit: A name given to the special type of subscription licenses that can meet the commitment required for a Server and Cloud Enrollment. Learn about licensing MSUs for the Application Platform and Core Infrastructure components.

MOSA: Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement.

MOSP: Microsoft Online Subscription Program.

MPSA: Microsoft Products and Services Agreement.

MRS: Microsoft Relationship Sales.

MRU: Most Recently Used.

MSDN: Microsoft Developer Network.

MSDN Platforms: One of the Visual Studio 2022 Standard subscriptions. Learn about the licensing of MSDN Platforms here.

MSM: Microsoft Sustainability Manager.

MSRC: Microsoft Security Response Center.

MSU: Monthly Subscription Unit.

MTR: Microsoft Teams Rooms.

Multiple Activation Key (MAK): A single key that allows organizations to activate multiple installations of Microsoft software.

Multiplexing: The use of hardware or software to pool connections, or reduce the number of devices or users that directly access or use SQL Server. Learn about licensing multiplexing scenarios with SQL Server.

Multi-threading: In licensing terms, when a physical core supports a number of virtual cores, or several physical cores support a single virtual core. Learn about licensing multi-threading scenarios with SQL Server.

NC: Normalized Core.

NC2: Nutanix Cloud Cluster

NCE: New Commerce Experience.

NCE – Customer Led: A term Microsoft sometimes use for a customer who is buying via the Microsoft website and who has accepted the terms of the Microsoft Customer Agreement.

NCE – Partner Led: A term Microsoft sometimes use for a customer who is buying via a CSP partner and who has accepted the terms of the Microsoft Customer Agreement.

NCL: Normalized Core License. See Normalized Core.

New Commerce Experience: Microsoft’s updated commerce system for purchasing licenses, governed by the Microsoft Customer Agreement.

New Version rights: Rights to use a newer version of a product released during the term of an agreement. Learn more about New Version rights here.

NFP: not-for-profit.

NHI: Non-Human Identity.

Non-Human Identity (NHI): An identity in your infrastructure that needs to be protected and managed but doesn’t relate to a human – something like an AI Agent, for example.

Normalized Core (NC)/Normalized Core License (NCL): A way of counting SQL Server Standard and Enterprise Core licenses so that you know how many vCores you can cover when running SQL Server in Azure. Learn about licensing using Normalized Cores in PaaS solutions here and with the Centrally Managed Azure Hybrid Benefit here.

(no Teams) Suites: A set of licenses that don’t include Teams, in contrast to the Covered Suites. They are Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Office 365 E1, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, and Microsoft 365 E7.

O365: Office 365.

O365 ATP: Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection.

Objectives and Key Results (OKR): A goal-setting framework that helps organizations define and track goals.

OCI: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

OCS: Office Communications Server.

On-Demand Capacity Reservation (ODCR): See Capacity Reservation.

ODB: OneDrive for Business.

ODCR: On-Demand Capacity Reservation.

OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer.

Office 365: A set of plans for the Online Services such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and the Microsoft 365 Apps. Learn about licensing the Office 365 plans here.

Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection: The previous name of Microsoft Defender for Office 365.

Office 365 ATP: Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection.

Office 365 Business: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Apps for Business.

Office 365 Cloud App Security: A subset of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps that provides enhanced visibility and control for Office 365. Learn about the licensing for Office 365 Cloud App Security here.

Office 365 E1 Plus: A flavor of Office 365 E1 which adds additional security and management features to Office 365 E1. Learn about licensing Office 365 E1 Plus here.

Office 365 ProPlus: The previous name of Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise.

Office Communications Server (OCS): The previous name of Lync Server.

Office LTSC 2024: The Microsoft suite of desktop productivity tools and a cost-effective way for organizations to license all of these products. Learn about licensing Office LTSC 2024 here.

Office Online Server (OOS): A server product that allows organizations to provide web-based versions of Office without requiring desktop application installations. Learn about the licensing of Office Online Server here.

OKR: Objectives and Key Results.

OLP: Open License Program.

OLS: Online Services.

OneDrive: A cloud storage service that allows individuals and organizations to store, sync, and share files across devices. This was previously known as OneDrive for Business, a name change that could be confusing because it now shares its name with the consumer offering. Learn about the licensing of OneDrive here.

OneDrive for Business (ODB): The previous name of OneDrive, a name change that could be confusing because it now shares its name with the consumer offering.

OneLake: A single, organizational data lake used with Fabric capacities. Learn about licensing Power BI, one of the Fabric components, here.

Online Services: In the Microsoft world, hosted services running on Microsoft’s servers, such as Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.

On-premises use rights: A right included in an Online Services license that allows a user to access a licensed on-premises server. Find out more about on-premises use rights for Office 365, Microsoft 365, and EMS.

OOBE: Out-Of-Box-Experience.

OOS: Office Online Server.

Open License program (OLP): A Volume Licensing agreement aimed at smaller customers which was retired in December 2021. Learn how customers transition their licenses for on-premises products, Online Services and Azure to other agreements.

Open Value non Organization-Wide agreement: A Volume Licensing agreement aimed at smaller customers which does not require a customer to commit to any product organization-wide. Learn about the basics of the Open Value non Organization-Wide agreement, and how on-premises products, Online Services and Azure are purchased through this agreement.

Open Value Organization-Wide agreement: A Volume Licensing agreement aimed at smaller customers which requires a customer to commit to certain products across their organization. Learn about the basics of the Open Value Organization-Wide agreement, and how on-premises products, Online Services and Azure are purchased through this agreement.

Open Value Subscription (OVS) agreement: A Volume Licensing agreement aimed at smaller customers based on subscription licenses and a requirement to commit to certain products organization-wide. Learn about the basics of the Open Value Subscription agreement, and how on-premises products, Online Services and Azure are purchased through this agreement.

Operating system (OS): The main software that manages all the hardware and other software on a computer. Examples include Windows Server and Windows 11. Learn about licensing Windows Server 2025 here, Windows 11 (Device) here and Windows 11 (User) here.

OS: Operating system.

OSE: Operating System Environment.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM): In the Microsoft world, a company that manufactures PCs with products such as the Windows operating system preinstalled. Learn about licensing Windows 11 Pro acquired through the OEM channel here.

OT: Operational Technology.

Outsourcer: A name for a third-party organization that customers use to handle their IT infrastructure, including hardware, IT services, and software. Learn about licensing with Authorized Outsourcers here.

OVS: Open Value Subscription agreement.

P3: Pre-Purchase Plan.

PaaS: Platform as a Service.

Partner Center: The portal used by transacting CSP partners.

PAYG: Pay-As-You-Go.

PBI: Power BI.

PBIE: Power BI Embedded.

PBIRS: Power BI Report Server.

PBX: Private Branch Exchange.

Perpetual license: A license a customer owns forever.

Phone System: The previous name of Teams Phone Standard.

Physical Operating System Environment (POSE): When an operating system, such as Windows Server 2025 or Windows 11, runs directly on a computer’s hardware. Learn about licensing Windows Server 2025 and Windows 11.

PIM: Privileged Identity Management.

Planner: See Microsoft Planner.

Planning Services: A Software Assurance benefit retired by Microsoft in 2021.

POSE: Physical Operating System Environment.

Power Apps: A product that enables users of all technical abilities to create apps for an organization so that they can improve efficiency by perhaps taking time out of a process or creating an app to replace a paper-based process. Learn about licensing Power Apps here.

Power Apps Basic: Not a product, the name for the use rights for Power Apps included in certain Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licenses. Learn more about this here.

Power Apps Portals: The precursor to Power Pages.

Power Automate: A business process and workflow automation tool which enables users to automate repetitive tasks without coding. Learn about licensing Power Automate here.

Power Automate Basic: Not a product, the name for the use rights for Power Automate included in certain Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licenses. Learn more about this here.

Power Automate Desktop: The product used to create desktop flows in Power Automate. Learn about licensing desktop flows in Power Automate here.

Power BI: A business analytics service that enables users to create data visualizations and gain insights. It converts data from different sources to build interactive dashboards and business intelligence reports. Learn about licensing Power BI here.

Power BI Desktop: A free tool for users to connect to data sources and transform that data into visualizations. Learn about licensing Power BI Desktop as part of the Power BI solution here.

Power BI Embedded: A flavor of Power BI aimed at developers or ISVs who are building apps and want to embed visuals into those apps without having to build an analytics solution from scratch. Learn about licensing Power BI Embedded apps here.

Power BI Embedded Analytics: Embedded publishing solutions delivered by Power BI Embedded and Power BI Premium. Learn about licensing Power BI Embedded Analytics here.

Power BI (free): The previous name of Fabric (free).

Power BI Mobile: Apps to view Power BI content on mobile devices. Learn about licensing Power BI Mobile here.

Power BI Premium: An advanced flavor of Power BI offering advanced features and dedicated capacity. Learn about licensing Power BI Premium capacity here.

Power BI Pro: A license for the Power BI service which allows users to create and share content. Learn about licensing Power BI Pro here.

Power BI Report Builder: A tool for creating paginated reports to share in the Power BI service. Learn about licensing Power BI here.

Power BI Report Server (PBIRS): An on-premises server product that enables licensed Power BI Pro users to publish Power BI reports and distribute them across the organization. Learn about licensing Power BI Report Server here.

Power BI service: A SaaS offering, now a component of Microsoft Fabric, that enables users to create data visualizations and gain insights. It converts data from different sources to build interactive dashboards and business intelligence reports. Learn about licensing Power BI here.

Power Pages: A low-code web development solution that allows users to rapidly design, configure, and publish websites that work across web browsers and devices. Learn about licensing Power Pages here.

Power Platform: A collection of Microsoft tools that make it easy for users to create business solutions with little or no code. Power Platform includes: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Pages, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio.

Power Virtual Agents (PVA): The precursor to Copilot Studio.

PPAC: Power Platform Admin Center.

PPP: Pre-Purchase Plan.

PPU: A term used by the Power BI team to refer to the Power BI Premium Per User license. Learn about licensing Power BI here.

Primary User: A term Microsoft use to refer to a user who uses a licensed device more than 50% of the time in any 90-day period.

Priva: See Microsoft Priva.

Private Preview: A product or feature in development that only invited customers can try before it’s officially released, as opposed to Public Preview.

Productivity Suite: A SAL, available in SPLA, providing a suite of licenses for access to productivity servers. Learn about licensing the Productivity Suite here.

Project Service Automation: See Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation.

Product Terms: Until February 2021 Microsoft released monthly Product Terms and Online Services Terms documents which, together, gave detail on the licensing of its products. From March 2021, however, these documents are replaced by the Product Terms website.

Project 2024: The desktop product aimed at project managers either working on their own using Standard edition, or as part of a Project Server project management solution. Learn about the licensing of Project 2024 here.

Project Server: A project management server solution that allows project managers, key stakeholders, and other team members to collaborate on a project. Learn about the licensing of Project Server SE and Project Server 2019.

PSA: Project Service Automation.

PSF: Product Selection Form.

PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network.

PSTN Calling Plan: The previous name of Calling Plan.

PSTN Conferencing: The previous name of Audio Conferencing.

Product Use Rights: The precursor to the Product Terms.

Professional Desktop: In an Enterprise/Enterprise Subscription enrollment, this is the name for the enterprise-wide commitment a customer has made to Windows, Office and the Core CAL Suite. Learn about licensing the Professional Desktop here.

ptpm: per tenant per month. An abbreviation Microsoft use when talking about the cost of a tenant license per month.

Public Preview: A product or feature in development that anyone can try before it’s officially released, as opposed to Private Preview.

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN): The world’s telephone networks that carry calls from a landline or a mobile/cell phone. Learn about licensing Teams Calling here.

PUR: Product Use Rights

Purchasing Accounts: Specific to the MPSA, allowing an organization to structure themselves as they want when purchasing their licenses. Learn about Purchasing Accounts with on-premises products and Online Services.

Purview: See Microsoft Purview.

PVA: Power Virtual Agents.

Python in Excel: Enables users to access the power of Python analytics directly from Excel: you type Python code into a cell, the Python calculations run in the Microsoft cloud, and the results are returned to the worksheet. Learn about licensing Python in Excel here.

Qualified Device: Any device that can run Windows Pro locally in a physical or virtual operating system environment or one that’s used to access a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Customers must count and license all of their Qualified Devices when they have a Volume Licensing agreement with an enterprise-wide commitment. Learn about enterprise-wide commitments in the Enterprise Enrollment, and the Open Value Organization-Wide agreement.

Qualified User: Anyone who uses a Qualified Device.

Qualifying Operating System (QOS): An underlying Windows client operating system that may be “upgraded” to a higher edition of Windows, serving as a prerequisite license when buying Windows Enterprise or Pro licenses through Volume Licensing agreements or CSP. Learn more about Qualifying Operating Systems for Windows here.

QMTH partner: Qualified Multi-Tenant Hosting partner.

QOS: Qualifying Operating System.

Quotas (Azure): Many Azure services have quotas, which are maximums for the resources that may be created within a Subscription. Learn more about Quotas here.

RAC: Restricted Access Control.

RBAC: Role Based Access Control.

RBC: Role-based Copilot.

RC: Release Candidate.

RDS: Remote Desktop Services.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL): A subscription-based distribution of Linux used for deploying and managing enterprise workloads.

Relaxed reassignment rules: Introduced by Microsoft in October 2022 to, in effect, allow licenses to follow virtual machines around a server farm as required. Learn about relaxed reassignment rules with Windows Server.

Release to web (RTW): A way of making software available for release via the internet rather than physical media.

Remote Desktop Services (RDS): A service of Windows Server that enables users to remotely access applications and desktop environments. Learn about the licensing of Remote Desktop Services here.

Reservation: See Azure Reservation.

Reserved Capacity: A type of Azure Reservation which gives cost savings on the compute part of an Azure SQL solution. Learn more about licensing with Reserved Capacity here.

Reserved Instance: A type of Azure Reservation which gives cost savings on the compute part of a virtual machine. Learn more about licensing with Reserved Instances here.

Resource Group: See Azure Resource Group.

Resource Scheduling Optimization: Part of the Dynamics 365 Field Service solution which automatically schedules jobs to the people, equipment, and facilities best equipped to complete them. Learn more about licensing Resource Scheduling Optimization here.

RHEL: Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

RI: Reserved Instance.

RMS: See Active Directory Rights Management Services.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): In the context of Power Automate, the facility to create a desktop flow to automate repetitive desktop processes. Learn about licensing desktop flows in Power Automate here.

ROI: Return on Investment.

Role Based Access Control (RBAC): Technology that helps you to manage who has access to which Resources in an Azure Subscription and what they can do with those Resources. Learn about RBAC in Azure Subscriptions here.

Role-based Copilot (RBC): A Copilot aimed at a specific job role such as Copilot for Sales or Copilot for Service. Learn about licensing Copilot for Sales or Copilot for Service.

RPA: Robotic Process Automation.

RPO: Restore Point Objective.

RTO: Restore Time Objective.

RTW: Release to web.

RU: Request Unit.

SA: Software Assurance.

SaaS: Software as a Service.

SAC: Semi-Annual Channel.

SAL: Subscriber Access License.

Sales Copilot: Previously known as Viva Sales, Sales Copilot is standard Copilot functionality that is part of a Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise or Sales Premium license. Learn about the licensing of Sales Copilot here.

Sales Hub: An app which is part of the Dynamics 365 Sales solution and enables users to access Sales Insights capabilities. Learn about the licensing of Sales Hub here.

Sales Insights: See Dynamics 365 Sales Insights.

SAM: Software Asset Management or Software Assurance Membership.

Savings Plans: See Azure Savings Plans.

SCA: Shared Computer Activation.

SCCM: System Center Configuration Manager.

SCE: Server and Cloud Enrollment.

SCEP: System Center Endpoint Protection.

SCM: Supply Chain Management.

SCU: Security Compute Unit.

SDC: Software Development Company.

SE: Subscription Edition. The latest version of products such as Project Server and SharePoint Server.

SecOps: Security Operations. Integrates IT security and operations to improve an organization’s security posture. See Microsoft Sentinel.

Secure Productive Enterprise (SPE): The previous name of Microsoft 365 Enterprise.

Security Capacity Unit (SCU): A term sometimes mistakenly used instead of Security Compute Unit (SCU).

Security Compute Unit (SCU): The term for Azure compute power to run Security Copilot workloads. Learn about licensing Security Copilot here.

Security Copilot: An AI-powered security solution that helps increase the efficiency and capabilities of security professionals. Learn about the licensing of Security Copilot here.

Security Exposure Management: A security solution that provides a unified view of security posture across company assets and workloads.

Security posture: The overall strength and effectiveness of an organization’s cybersecurity measures. See Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM).

Seeded capacity: A term used by Microsoft up until August 2024 to indicate capacity for other products included in some Dynamics 365 licenses. Learn about included entitlements here.

Select Plus: A licensing agreement aimed at the larger customer who has more than 250 users or devices. Learn about the basics of the Select Plus agreement, and how to buy on-premises products.

SEM: Security Event Management. See SIEM.

Semi-Annual Channel: Previous update channel for Windows 10, now replaced by the General Availability Channel for Windows 11. Also a previous update channel for Windows Server which was retired in 2022, and System Center which was retired in 2019. Learn about Servicing Channels for Windows Server and System Center.

Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE): one of three enrollments signed under an Enterprise Agreement, where customers make a commitment to the server products, or to Azure. Learn about how to license the server products and Azure through an SCE.

Server farm: A collection of servers. Learn about licensing Windows Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Server and Exchange Server in server farms.

Server Management License (Server ML): The license used for the server products of System Center. Learn about the licensing of System Center 2022 server products here.

Server Operating System: An operating system that runs on a server computer. Microsoft’s server operating system is Windows Server. Learn about licensing Windows Server 2025 here.

Server Subscriptions: See Software Subscriptions.

Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA): A purchasing program that allows Service Providers called SPLA partners, to become licensees for a range of Microsoft products for use by their end customers. Learn more about license deployment options here.

Services Provider Use Rights (SPUR): Terms that governs the use rights for Service Providers and their end customers for Microsoft products acquired through the Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program. Until October 2021 the SPUR was released periodically as a document but is now published at this website.

Shared Computer Activation (SCA): Used when a user is licensed for Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise, for example, and needs to log in with their usual credentials and use the apps on a shared device. Learn about Shared Computer Activation for the Microsoft 365 Apps and Visio Online.

SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM): Technology that helps simplify data governance, with features to reduce content sprawl, control content oversharing, and manage site lifecycles.

SharePoint Online: A cloud-based service that helps organizations share and manage content, knowledge, and applications.

SharePoint Premium: A previous name of Document Processing for Microsoft 365.

SharePoint Syntex: A previous name of Document Processing for Microsoft 365.

SharePoint Server: A content management, workflow automation, and collaboration portal, which also allows a single infrastructure for internet, intranet and extranet sites. Learn about the licensing of SharePoint Server SE and SharePoint Server 2019.

SLES: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

SIEM: Security Information and Event Management. A solution that combines Security Information Management (SIM) and Security Event Management (SEM) to detect, analyze, and respond to security threats in real-time. See Microsoft Sentinel.

SIM: Security Information Management. See SIEM.

SKU: Stock Keeping Unit.

Skype for Business Online: An online solution for instant messaging, presence information, web conferencing, and enterprise telephony. This was retired in favour of Teams in August 2021. Learn about the licensing of Teams here.

Skype for Business Server: A server solution for instant messaging, presence information, web conferencing, and enterprise telephony. Learn about the licensing for Skype for Business Server 2019 here.

Skype for Business Plus CAL Add-on for Microsoft 365 E3: This User SL is designed for customers who are moving to the cloud and have purchased Microsoft 365 E3 licenses for their users, but still need to maintain an on-premises Skype for Business solution for enterprise telephony. Learn more about this license here.

SLA: Service Level Agreement.

SLES: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB): A designation given to an organization size for Microsoft software solutions usually targeting up to 300 users.

SMB: Small and Medium-sized Business.

SMT: Simultaneous Multi-Threading.

SOAR: Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response. A set of services and tools that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness in managing cybersecurity threats. See Microsoft Sentinel.

SOC: Security Operations Center. A centralized team monitoring, detecting, and responding to cybersecurity threats.

Software as a Service (SaaS): Software applications hosted by a service provider and accessed by users over the internet via a web browser. Power BI is an example of a SaaS application.

Software Asset Management: The discipline of managing and optimizing the purchase, deployment, maintenance, utilization, and disposal of software applications within an organization to reduce cost and risk.

Software Assurance: An extra fee customers can pay when they purchase licenses in a Volume Licensing agreement. This typically entitles them to a whole host of benefits giving them more flexibility in deploying their software. Learn more about Software Assurance here.

Software Assurance Membership: A term used to describe the situation when an MPSA customer has purchased Software Assurance for all licenses in a particular pool. Learn about Software Assurance benefits in the MPSA here.

Software Development Company (SDC): An organization that designs and builds software applications and solutions.

Software Subscriptions: A 1- or 3-year subscription license acquired through CSP. Learn about Software Subscriptions for Windows Server, SQL Server and System Center.

SPE: Secure Productive Enterprise.

SPLA: Services Provider License Agreement.

SPLA partner: A partner who provides software services to customers via the SPLA program.

SPM: Security Posture Management.

SPO: SharePoint Online.

Spot virtual machine: See Azure Spot virtual machine.

SPUR: Services Provider Use Rights.

SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS): A component of SQL Server that enables advanced data modelling for Business Intelligence solutions. Learn about licensing SSAS here.

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS): A component of SQL Server for building data integration and data transformation solutions. Learn about licensing SSIS here.

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS): A comprehensive integrated environment for managing any SQL infrastructure, from SQL Server to Azure SQL Database. It offers tools for querying, designing, and administering databases, improving developer and administrator efficiency.

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS): A component of SQL Server for creating, deploying, and managing paginated reports. Learn about licensing SSRS here.

SRE: Site Reliability Engineer.

SSAS: SQL Server Analysis Services.

SSIS: SQL Server Integration Services.

SSMS: SQL Server Management Studio.

SSP: Scale Solution Provider.

SSRS: SQL Server Reporting Services.

Step-up licenses: Used when a customer has purchased a lower edition of an Online Service but then wants to make use of a higher edition. Find out more general information about step-up licenses here, and specific information for Office 365, Microsoft 365, and EMS.

Subscriptions (Azure): Containers to which resources are assigned as they are created. Learn about the structure of an Azure Subscription here.

Subscription Edition (SE): The latest version of products such as Project Server and SharePoint Server.

Supply Chain Management (SCM): See Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

System Center: A suite of management tools for both desktop and server solutions. Learn about the licensing of System Center for servers and clients.

System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM): The previous name of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP): An antimalware and endpoint protection product that is part of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager. Learn about licensing Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager here.

TAC: Teams Admin Center.

TCO: Total Cost of Ownership.

Team Explorer: A component of Visual Studio for connecting to the Azure DevOps service or Azure DevOps Server.

Team Explorer Everywhere (TEE): A tool to connect to Azure DevOps Server from an Eclipse-based environment.

Team Foundation Server (TFS): The previous name of Azure DevOps Server.

Team Members license: A license for users who need light access to the Dynamics 365 tools. Learn about the licensing of Team Members for the CRM apps, the ERP apps, and Business Central.

Teams: A unified app for real-time communication and collaboration that combines chat, meetings, video conferences, file sharing, and integration with third-party applications. It’s available as a standalone license or included with some Office 365/Microsoft 365 plans. Learn about licensing Teams here.

Teams Display: A category of all-in-one dedicated Teams devices, useful for hot-desking environments. Learn about the licensing of Teams Displays here.

Teams Free: The name Microsoft give to the free Teams experience that replaces the original consumer Skype client.

Teams Live Events: A way of broadcasting video and meeting content to large online audiences using Teams. The precursor to Teams Town Halls.

Teams Panel: A small screen outside a shared space from which you can check availability and reserve the space. Learn about the licensing of Teams Panels here.

Teams Phone: Microsoft’s cloud PBX service. Learn about Teams Calling here.

Teams Phone Standard: A license for Microsoft’s cloud PBX service where you bring your own calling plan working with a third-party provider. Learn about the licensing of Teams Phone Standard here.

Teams Phone with Calling Plan: A license for Microsoft’s cloud PBX service which includes calling minutes provided by Microsoft. Learn about the licensing of Teams Phone with Calling Plan here.

Teams Premium: An Add-on license to a base Teams license giving advanced meeting and webinar features. Learn about licensing Teams Premium here.

Teams Rooms: See Microsoft Teams Rooms.

Teams Shared Devices: A license for devices shared by multiple users such as phones in a reception area, or a Teams Panel. Learn about using the Teams Shared Devices license here.

Teams Town Halls: A way of broadcasting video and meeting content to large online audiences using Teams. Learn about licensing Teams Town Halls here.

TEE: Team Explorer Everywhere.

Tenant External Recipient Rate Limit (TERRL): The number of emails that may be sent via Exchange Online in a 24-hour rolling window.

Tenant-level services: An Online Service that when it’s purchased for any user in the tenant is activated in part or in full for all users in the tenant. Find out more about licensing tenant-level services here.

Terminal Services: The previous name of Remote Desktop Services.

TERRL: Tenant External Recipient Rate Limit.

Text-To-Speech: An Azure service that turns written text into spoken words using synthesized speech – the artificial production of human speech using computer algorithms. Learn about the licensing of Azure consumption services here.

TFS: Team Foundation Server.

TI: Threat Intelligence.

TOU: Terms Of Use.

Training Vouchers: A Software Assurance benefit retired by Microsoft in 2021.

True down: The process of reducing the number of licenses or subscription quantities in a Volume Licensing agreement, typically at the time of anniversary or renewal. Learn about True Down orders in the Enterprise Subscription Enrollment here.

True up: The process of increasing the number of licenses or subscription quantities in a Volume Licensing agreement, typically at the time of anniversary or renewal. Learn about True Up orders in the Enterprise Agreement here.

TSI: Tech for Social Impact.

TTS: Text-To-Speech.

UEBA: User and Entity Behavior Analytics.

UEM: Unified Endpoint Management.

Unified Operations Plan: See Dynamics 365 Unified Operations Plan.

Unified Service Desk (USD): Part of the Dynamics 365 Customer Service solution which enables organizations to quickly build applications for call centers so that agents can get a unified view of customer data. Learn about the licensing of Unified Service Desk here.

Update Channels: The cadence of feature and non-security updates for products. Find out more about the update channels for the Microsoft 365 Apps, Microsoft Project, and Visio Online.

Up-To-Date discount (UTD): A discount in the OVS program for customers who have existing licenses for one of the Enterprise Products. Learn about the Up-To-Date discount in OVS here.

USD: Unified Service Desk.

User SL: User Subscription License.

UTD: Up-To-Date discount.

User Subscription License: A non-perpetual license assigned to a single, named user, typically for an Online Services product. Learn about licensing the Online Services here.

vCore size flexibility: A feature available for Reserved Capacity which enables customers to scale up or down. Learn about vCore size flexibility here.

VDA: Virtual Desktop Access.

VDI: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

VECD: Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop.

Virtual Desktop Access (VDA): A license to allow access to a Windows virtual desktop from a device which does not have a Qualifying Operating System. Learn about licensing virtual desktops here.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI): A technology solution that hosts desktops on a central server allowing users to remotely access their virtual desktops from any device. Learn about licensing on-premises VDI solutions with Windows 11 device and Windows 11 user licenses, or cloud solutions with Azure Virtual Desktop or Windows 365.

Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD): The previous name of Virtual Desktop Access (VDA).

Virtual machine (VM): A software-based imitation of a physical computer which runs an operating system and applications like a physical computer, but within a software environment. Learn about licensing Windows Server and SQL Server in virtual machines.

Virtual Operating System Environment (VOSE): When an operating system, such as Windows Server or Windows 11, runs inside a virtual machine, rather than directly on physical hardware. Learn about licensing Windows Server and SQL Server in virtual machines.

Visio: A tool for creating business diagrams. Learn about the licensing of Visio LTSC 2024 and Visio Online.

Visual Studio: Microsoft’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) tool. Learn about the licensing of Visual Studio Cloud subscriptions and Standard subscriptions.

Visual Studio Code: Microsoft’s free, lightweight code editor for developers.

Visual Studio Marketplace: A portal where you can purchase Visual Studio Cloud subscriptions. Learn more about licensing Visual Studio Cloud subscriptions here.

Visual Studio Team Explorer: A component of Visual Studio for connecting to the Azure DevOps service or Azure DevOps Server.

Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere: A tool to connect to Azure DevOps Server from an Eclipse-based environment.

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server: The previous name of Azure DevOps Server.

Viva: Microsoft’s Employee Experience Platform (EXP) solution, designed to improve the overall employee experience with an integrated set of modules which enhance employee engagement, productivity, and well-being. Learn about licensing the Viva modules here.

Viva Amplify: A campaign management and publishing tool within Teams to help leaders and corporate communicators get their message across and energize their people. Learn about licensing Viva Amplify here.

Viva Connections: A product that consolidates personalized corporate news, conversations, information, tasks, and useful resources for employees into a single hub within Teams. Learn about licensing Viva Connections here.

Viva Employee Communications and Communities: A suite of Viva employee experience products comprising Viva Connections, Viva Engage and Viva Amplify. Learn about licensing Viva Employee Communications and Communities here.

Viva Engage: An enterprise social platform that connects employees and fosters engagement within organizations. Viva Engage replaces and was built on the foundation of Yammer Communities. Learn about licensing Viva Engage here.

Viva Glint: A company-wide survey tool for measuring employee satisfaction and well-being capturing feedback from across the enterprise. Learn about licensing Viva Glint here.

Viva Goals: A Microsoft Teams or web app that enables business goal setting promoting employee alignment with business priorities via the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework. It was retired on December 31, 2025. Learn about licensing Viva Goals here.

Viva Insights: A product for improving employee productivity and wellbeing that helps manage their time for breaks, focused work, and learning. Core features originate from Microsoft MyAnalytics and Workplace Analytics. Learn about licensing Viva Insights here.

Viva Learning: A product that enables employees to access training and knowledge base modules all in one place within Teams, aggregated from various sources including Microsoft Learn, third parties and an organization’s own content. Learn about licensing Viva Learning here.

Viva Pulse: A survey tool for managers to quickly gather insights and ad-hoc feedback from their direct reports or specific business units to gauge worker productivity and sentiment. Learn about licensing Viva Pulse here.

Viva Sales: The previous name of Sales Copilot.

Viva Suite: A plan that comprises Viva Connections, Viva Engage, Viva Amplify, Viva Insights, Viva Glint, Viva Pulse, Viva Goals and Viva Learning, offering a significant discount compared to buying each module individually. Learn about licensing the Viva Suite here.

Viva Topics: A product that applies AI to organize and structure knowledge within an organization’s Microsoft 365 environment into topic pages. This module is being deprecated and will be retired in February 2025.

Viva Workplace Analytics and Employee Feedback: A suite of Viva employee experience products comprising Viva Insights, Viva Glint and Viva Pulse. Learn about licensing Viva Workplace Analytics and Employee Feedback here.

VLK: Volume License Key.

VLSC: Volume Licensing Service Center.

VM: Virtual machine.

Volume Licensing agreement: Terms and conditions that set out how an organization can efficiently and cost-effectively purchase licenses for multiple users and computers. Today there are five Volume Licensing agreements aimed at commercial customers: Open Value (Organization-Wide or non Organization-Wide), Open Value Subscription, the Enterprise Agreement, MPSA, and Select Plus.

Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC): The original portal for customers with a Volume Licensing agreement to, for example, download software and manage SA benefits. Retired by Microsoft in April 2024 in favor of the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

VOSE: Virtual Operating System Environment.

W365: Windows 365.

WDP: Workplace Discount Program.

Web Direct: A term Microsoft sometimes use for a customer who is buying via the Microsoft website and who has accepted the terms of the MOSA.

Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC 2024: The Long-Term Servicing Channel edition of Windows for which there is a new release every two or three years. Learn about the licensing of Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC 2024 here.

Windows 365: Microsoft’s Cloud PC solution providing users with their own personal Windows desktop running in the cloud. Learn about the licensing of Windows 365 here.

Windows 365 Boot: Allows administrators to configure Windows 11 physical devices so that users avoid signing in to their physical device and sign in directly to their Windows 365 Cloud PC on the physical device. Learn about the licensing of Windows 365 here.

Windows 365 Cloud Apps: Allows administrators to give users access to specific apps delivered from the cloud instead of a full Cloud PC. Learn about the licensing of Windows 365 here.

Windows 365 Cross Region Disaster Recovery: An add-on product for Windows 365 that protects against regional outages by creating a temporary copy of users’ Cloud PCs in another geographic region. Learn about the licensing of Windows 365 for disaster recovery here.

Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus: An add-on product for Windows 365 Enterprise that protects against regional outages by creating a temporary copy of users’ Cloud PCs in another geographic region. Learn about the licensing of Windows 365 for disaster recovery here.

Windows 365 Link: A Cloud PC device purpose-built by Microsoft to connect in a speedy and secure way to Windows 365. Learn about licensing Windows 365 Link here.

Windows 365 Reserve: A business continuity solution that provides licensed users with instant access to a temporary, pre-configured Cloud PC when their primary device becomes unavailable. Learn about the licensing of Windows 365 for disaster recovery here.

Windows 365 Switch: A facility that allows users to switch between their Windows 365 Cloud PC and their physical device using the Windows 11 Task View. Learn about the licensing of Windows 365 here.

Windows Azure: The original name of Azure.

Windows Backup for Organizations: Technology that enables you to backup and restore Windows 10 or Windows 11 settings if you’re reimaging or resetting a device.

Windows Hybrid Benefit: A licensing benefit that reduces the cost of a Windows 365 Business license, available to customers who have devices running Windows 10/11 Pro. Learn more about the Windows Hybrid Benefit here.

Windows Multipoint Server: A flavor of Windows Server that multiple users can access, each having their own unique Windows session, managed via MultiPoint Services. Originally for educational institutions, it supports multiple monitors, keyboard and mouse peripherals. Learn about the licensing of Windows Server here.

Windows Server: Microsoft’s server operating system. Learn about the licensing of Windows Server on-premises and in virtual machines.

Windows Server: Azure edition: An edition of Windows Server optimized to run on Azure. Learn about the licensing of Windows Server: Azure edition here.

Windows To Go (WTG): A deployment option for Windows on a USB drive, retired by Microsoft in 2020.

Windows Update Client Policies: A service that keeps Windows client devices up to date with the latest security updates and Windows features.

Windows Update for Business: The previous name of Windows Update Client Policies.

Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD): The previous name of Azure Virtual Desktop.

Work at Home licenses: : A license to allow users to install software on their home devices. Learn about Work at Home licenses here.

Workplace Discount Program (WDP): Rights to purchase licenses for use at home. Learn about the Workplace Discount Program for Office 2024, Project 2024, Visio 2024 and Microsoft 365 Enterprise. The Workplace Discount Program was previously known as the Home Use Program.

WTG: Windows To Go.

WVD: Windows Virtual Desktop.

XDR: Extended Detection and Response.

Yammer: The previous name of Viva Engage.