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