Monthly Archives: February 2014

Licensing Oracle software on Azure Virtual Machines

Useful page on licensing Oracle under Azure explains the two models available:

  • “Licence-Included” (pay a per hour rate for the Oracle software) or
  • “Bring-Your-Own-Licence” (apply an existing Oracle licence to an Azure-based VM).

Deployment governs the licensing model:

  • If you choose a Linux or Windows Server VM where Oracle has been pre-installed from the Windows Azure Gallery, it’s a BYOL model for the Linux machine and an LI model for the Windows one. Alternatively,
  • If you deploy a Windows or Linux VM and install Oracle software yourself then both are BYOL.

http://bit.ly/1bNWFgQ

SCE Partner Resource Kit from Microsoft

Server and Cloud Enrolment Partner Resource Kit available from Microsoft: http://bit.ly/1bKOrWD.

Updated in December 2013, this is your one stop shop for SCE resources: there are six videolettes to watch, an assessment to do (pass it in all 10 languages as a stretch target), as well as both customer and partner flavours of the SCE Program Guide, SCE FAQs and Datasheet.

Finally, if your job is explaining SCE to customers, there’s a Customer Presentation too.

Reimaging Rights: article on Microsoft’s VL Blog

Reimaging Rights: a useful article on Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Blog covering the top questions on this.

In summary:

  • Do you need SA (no)
  • Can you use downgrade and down-edition rights (yes)
  • How do Open customers get media and keys (purchase 1 licence) and
  • Can you reimage using OEM/Retail media and keys (no)

The full post is here: http://bit.ly/1gLxDNZ

Overview of the Changes to the February 2014 Volume Licensing Product List

Power BI for Office 365 USLs

  • Power BI makes its long-awaited debut and it’s now available as a co-terminous subscription through all the Volume Licensing programs except poor old Select Plus which doesn’t offer any Online Services. More interestingly perhaps, a Power BI USL also gives access to SQL Server 2012 Standard and Business Intelligence editions as an alternative to a SQL 2012 CAL – see pages 36/37 of the January 2014 PUR

Office 365 Add-on USLs through Open

  • The Open Value Offer has now morphed into the Office 365 Add-ons where customers who have made an enterprise-wide commitment can add Office 365 services at a reduced price. Pages 105/106 show a very useful table where you can see the qualifying agreements (Open Value Company Wide or OVS), the Qualifying Licences (Core CAL Suite/Enterprise CAL Suite/Office Professional Plus 2013), the available Add-ons (E1, E3, Midsize Business) and the combinations thereof that are allowed

Server and Cloud Enrolment

  • You may know that customers purchasing eligible products under ECI or EAP received double points towards Planning Services and it’s confirmed on page 67 that this does NOT apply to SCE, and products will receive exactly the same points allocations as other programs

System Center Advisor

  • As of January 2013 System Center Advisor became a free service where SA was no longer required for customers wanting to use it – this is the month that it’s removed from the SA section of the Product List. See the original announcement here:  http://bit.ly/1j1xGWQ

CRM Online USLs for SA

  • The USLs available for CRM Online for customers who have CRM 2013 CALs with SA aren’t new, but there’s a good table added on page 153 showing the Qualifying CALs and what USLs for SA are available

Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Pricing and Licensing Changes

Microsoft give further details for the pricing and licensing of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. Key takeaways:

  • no change to the fundamental Server / CAL model that’s used
  • the existing four CALs will still be available with some price changes (up AND down), and
  • new capabilities are added to the Server licence with a corresponding increase in price.

Read the full post here: http://bit.ly/NplwN0

InfoPath 2013 will be the last release

InfoPath is at the end of its, er, path. Microsoft announce that InfoPath 2013 will be the last release of the desktop client and the InfoPath Forms Services in SharePoint Server 2013 is the last release of that technology. Both will be supported until 2023 and Microsoft expect to make announcements on the future of Office forms at the SharePoint Conference later this year. Read the full blog post here: http://bit.ly/1kfnAoa

Microsoft Announce Project Lite

Microsoft announce Project Lite which will be available on 1 May 2014. It’s a cloud offering designed for project team members to do things such as updating tasks and entering timesheet information and will be priced at $7 per user/month, as an alternative to the full-blown Project Online which is currently $33 per user/month. http://bit.ly/N0FRIj