Monthly Archives: September 2014

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

I do like to find a theme in the updates to the Product List but I’m stumped this month – there’s a host of Quite Interesting changes but no real theme to them, so here they are – in all of their smorgasbord glory…

Shared Computer Activation

  • Technically, Office 365 ProPlus has been updated from 1 September 2014 to enable it to run in an RDS environment, whereas previously customers had to use Office Professional Plus 2013 software to enable this scenario. There are a couple of interesting licensing changes with this, the first being that if Office 365 ProPlus is indeed deployed in an RDS scenario with Shared Computer Activation it no longer counts as 1 of a user’s 5 installations. And the second is that Office 365 ProPlus can be deployed either on a dedicated physical hardware server or using Azure Platform Services
  • The full wording is on page 51 where it’s also confirmed that these rules apply for Visio Pro for Office 365 and Project Pro for Office 365. If you’re interested in knowing how the Shared Computer Activation works technically then this TechNet article is a good resource: http://bit.ly/1s9EOX4

MPSA Licensing Manual

  • Software Assurance was added to the MPSA starting on 1 September 2014 and it’s confirmed on page 62 that the rules governing SA in the MPSA are detailed in the MPSA Licensing Manual rather than in the Product List. You can get this useful document here: http://bit.ly/1s4V5yE

From SA USLs

  • The From SA USLs were new last month so see August’s Product List entry if you want an introduction to these SKUs. What’s new this month is that Subscription EA customers are also eligible for these transition licences. This is slightly bizarre since the From SA USLs are for customers who have fully paid up licences, but there’s a new rule for the subscription world that states that you’re eligible for these licences if the qualifying Subscription Licence was purchased at least three years prior to the purchase of the From SA USL. See page 54 for the full wording

Azure in the Server and Cloud Enrolment

  • A customer can sign an Azure-only SCE or have it as an additional service in, for example, an SCE that was signed with the SQL component. There’s wording added to page 43 that states that as part of the SCE, customers who have not ordered Microsoft Azure Services as part of their SCE will receive an activation email from Microsoft inviting them to provision Azure under their enrolment without a Monetary Commitment. There’s then further wording on page 44 that confirms that these customers will be invoiced quarterly for their consumption of the Azure services

Azure Active Directory Basic USL

  • This is the only new product added this month so worth a mention purely on those grounds, and it joins its more sophisticated elder brother Azure Active Directory Premium

Simplified Licence Management for Azure AD Premium and EMS

Microsoft announce a preview for group-based licence management to simplify the assignment of user licences for Azure AD Premium and the Enterprise Mobility Suite.

IT administrators can now assign a security group and Azure AD will automatically assign licences to all the members of the group. If a user is subsequently added to, or removed from the group, a licence will be automatically assigned or removed as appropriate.

Read the full blog post here: http://bit.ly/ZcSwOg.

CRM 2015 Announced

Microsoft announce that Dynamics CRM 2015, as well as updates to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamics Marketing services, will be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2014.

CRM Online is now also available in 17 Latin America markets, bringing the total to 65 markets worldwide.

Read the full press release here: http://bit.ly/ZF554Y.

September 2014 MPSA Licensing Manual

There’s a new (September 2014) MPSA Licensing Manual which has been updated for SA.

Customers buying SA through the MPSA are governed by this document rather than the Product List (page 7) and there are pages of the rules you’d expect on how the benefits are calculated.

Most noteworthy, Planning Services, Training Vouchers, and 24×7 Problem Resolution Support are now ALL calculated on a points-based system and you can find the detail on page 8.

Get this updated guide here: http://bit.ly/1s4V5yE.

Get Licensing Ready exams: MPSA now included

The GLR Elves have been busy… Get Licensing Ready is a popular licensing exam site from Microsoft and it’s just been updated with amendments to exams in both the SMB and LORG tracks.

The “Online Services and SPLA” exam has been retired and there’s no longer a requirement to take SMB exams in the LORG track and vice versa.

Most notable though is the inclusion of an MPSA track which consists of three modules, the first of which has also been added to the MLSS LORG level. If you need a new certificate to hang on your office wall then head over to http://getlicensingready.com as quick as you can.

Microsoft’s new Volume Licensing Exam: 74-678

September 2014 sees Microsoft introduce a new Volume Licensing exam for the first time in over 5 years. Exam 74-678 is aimed at licensing professionals who sell licensing solutions to large organisations, and replaces exam 70-672. The sister exam (70-671 – for SMB organisations) doesn’t look like it’s being refreshed at this point.

The official exam page is here: http://bit.ly/1vWByya but what can you expect from this brand new exam? As before, you need knowledge in four key areas so let’s take a look at those.

The first area is the products and their licensing which, we’re told, will account for between 30 and 35% of the questions in the exam. One of the discussion points in the past was actually what versions of the products you needed to know about. Here we see quite a comprehensive list of products with their specific versions. Hurrah! It seems bang up to date including, for example, Windows 8.1, and has all the products you’d expect (Windows Server and System Center 2012 R2, SQL Server 2014, Lync, Exchange and SharePoint 2013, Office 2013) – except perhaps Dynamics CRM 2013 which is tagged on the end of the list. There’s also a much higher emphasis on the Online Services products and you’re going to have to know about Office 365, Intune, CRM Online, as well as Microsoft Azure. There’s also a list of the documentation you need to know about – the PUR and the Product List for example.

Then there’s a section on the licensing programs – again 30 to 35% of questions – where you’ll need to recommend the right licensing program for a customer based on some criteria which are given. Select Plus and EAs are listed, as is the new Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA). Interesting! It doesn’t specifically call out the Server and Cloud Enrolment but given that the wording before the lists throughout is “include but not limited to” I think we can assume it’s in, given its importance to Microsoft. As usual, you’re also going to need to know the specific benefits of Volume Licensing over OEM or FPP licences.

Next up is a section on Software Assurance benefits where we can expect 15 to 20% of questions to be focussed. There are some benefits called out – Licence Mobility for example – but again, I think you should assume that you need a knowledge of what each benefit is, and how it meets customer needs, as you did before.

Finally, a section that’s always included the things that I personally find least interesting like licence activation, and SA benefit activation, and you can expect 10 to 15% of questions to cover these areas.

Our website will soon go live with the resources that we’re producing to help you study for, and pass, this exam. Exciting times!

Office 365 ProPlus: Shared Computer Activation

Native RDS support for Office 365 ProPlus has arrived and that means a slight change to the licensing.

Previously, Office 365 ProPlus couldn’t be deployed to users’ devices using RDS and there was a note in the Product List which allowed customers to use Office Professional Plus 2013 software to enable this scenario, which counted as 1 of the 5 allowed installations.

From 1 September 2014 there’s something called Shared Computer Activation – now, Office 365 ProPlus CAN be installed in an RDS environment, and this no longer counts against the 5 installations.

See page 51 of the September 2014 Product List, this Microsoft blog: http://bit.ly/ZfxoXr and TechNet article: http://bit.ly/1s9EOX4