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

Most of the changes to the Product List this month concern Azure and Online Services, with just some new server licences for AX 2012 R3 representing the changes to on-premises software.

Azure Services

  • From 1st August 2014 Azure is available to be purchased through Open and Open Value agreements and the Product List is updated accordingly with relevant information on pages 45/46. If you need more information and some resources then search for Azure on this blog
  • There are new sections added for Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery (see page 46) and what’s notable about these consumption-based services is that customers must make an initial purchase of the service rather than using any existing Azure Monetary Commitment funds. However, the existing Monetary Commitment MAY be applied to any usage that exceeds the initial quantity ordered. Find out more about Azure Backup here (http://bit.ly/1B5QPAH) and Azure Site Recovery here (http://bit.ly/1kTogBN)

New “From SA” USLs

  • There are three new “From SA” USLs added. What are these? I hear you cry! Well, they’re aimed at customers who have active SA on fully paid licences who want to transition to an Online Service – perhaps they have Core CAL and want to go to E1, for example. The three new USLs are for E1, E3 and E4 and there’s an eligibility table on page 55. Three other things to note: these USLs are cheaper than a full E1, E3 or E4 USL; you do need a Bridge CAL too; and you can only purchase them at EA Anniversary or Renewal
  • There has been a similar SKU for Office Professional Plus before – the Office 365 ProPlus SA Transition USL and this is now renamed to the Office 365 ProPlus From SA USL with details on page 52

Dynamics AX 2012 R3

  • There are a couple of new server products: Store Server and Standard Commerce Server Core. They’re listed on page 17 of the Product List, but for more information see the July 2014 PUR overview on this blog
  • There are some interesting Upgrade Rights added for customers who have active SA on AX 2012 licences. They’re detailed on page 18 and you’ll see why I said they’re “interesting” – for example, 1 AX 2012 Server licence plus 3 Enterprise Device CALs gives you 4 Standard Commerce Server Core licences…

Planning Services

  • Some Planning Services have been “Office 365-ified”, so customers may now use certain Planning Services engagements to plan for an Office 365 deployment. Page 67 shows that Desktop Deployment Planning Services, SharePoint Deployment Planning Services, and Lync & Exchange Deployment Planning Services have been adjusted to include this

Enterprise Strategy Engagements

And finally, in the words of the Product List itself: “An update has been made to the Enterprise Strategy Program Overview section” and you’ll see that the section starting on page 79 has been re-worked