Monthly Archives: November 2014

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

This month the major changes are with Azure Services and Software Assurance but there are a couple of smaller changes regarding Online Services too.

Microsoft Azure Services

  • There are two main ways of purchasing Azure Services – either by paying for consumption of a service which is generally paid upfront by a Monetary Commitment, or by purchasing a USL for a service. It’s been hard to work out which type of service is which in the Product List but there’s a new indicator which makes things much easier. If something is denoted as a “Plan” then it’s a separate licence rather than being paid for via the Monetary Commitment, and an example of this is the Enterprise Mobility Suite USL (page 45)
  • In addition, there are some services where you can’t use the Monetary Commitment for the initial order but you can use it if there is any overage of that service. Services that are eligible for this include the “MC Overage: Yes” tag and you’ll find it next to Microsoft Azure Backup for example (page 45)

Software Assurance

  • CustomerSource is confirmed as an SA benefit for Dynamics customers with either active SA or an Online Subscription. It gives rights to a secure site that allows customers to access productivity tools including unlimited training courses and self-support resources like the knowledge base (page 76)
  • There’s a slight change to the Home Use Program rights too: previously the wording stipulated that the software could be installed on one home computer and one portable device, now it’s on up to two devices which can be either 2 PCs or 2 Macs, depending on what’s been purchased (page 69)
  • There are some changes to the terms associated with System Center Global Service Monitor. Most interesting, perhaps, is confirmation that test result data is stored in the online service until a customer’s deployment of System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager collects the test results, and if they are not collected within seven days, they are deleted from the online service (page 75)
  • There are updates for MPSA generally through the SA section with frequent reminders that you should refer to the MPSA Licensing Manual for specific details on SA through MPSA. There’s also text added confirming that Step Up licences are not available through MPSA (page 76) and that MPSA customers should download E-Learning files from MVLC (page 69)

Online Services

  • There’s a note added on page 58 that SharePoint Online Plan 1 or 2 with Yammer subscriptions licensed through Open, Open Value, or Open Value Subscription agreements may be redeemed until 31 October, 2015 after which unredeemed subscriptions may be used for a product inclusive of those services
  • And finally, the change of name from “Windows Intune” to “Microsoft Intune” is effected throughout the Product List

Changes to the Office 365 Subscriptions

There have been a number of changes announced in recent weeks as to what’s included in various Office 365 subscriptions, so here’s the summary:

Office for the iPad

  • Back in March, Office for the iPad was announced and the free apps allowed viewing and presenting of documents whereas an Office 365 subscription was required for document creation and editing. In early November, the rules changed and the free apps now allow users to create and edit Office content while an Office 365 Subscription gives advanced editing and collaboration capabilities, and unlimited OneDrive storage. Check out the announcement here: http://bit.ly/1xxmi9Y

Office for the iPhone

  • Office for the iPhone was also announced in November with the same rules as for the iPad apps – so no Office 365 subscription required for creating and editing documents. Check this link for details (and pretty pictures of the new apps!): http://bit.ly/1vIcWwv

Outlook for the Mac

  • A brand new Outlook for the Mac was announced at the end of October with all of the enhancements you’d expect. What was perhaps less expected is that this new version is only available to Office 365 subscribers including commercial customers and those with Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal and Office 365 University subscriptions. The announcement is here: http://bit.ly/1tqUVMv

OneDrive for Business

  • At the end of October it was announced that all Office 365 subscribers across consumer, commercial and education plans would receive unlimited storage: http://bit.ly/1FmJFqZ
  • Office 365 ProPlus customers now also have access to OneDrive for Business with an initial allocation of 1 TB of storage per user which will be updated to unlimited storage in the near future. This announcement (http://bit.ly/1r8572b) explains how the rollout will work with existing Office 365 ProPlus customers getting access to OneDrive for Business before the end of January 2015, and new customers who subscribe after 1 December 2014 being automatically provisioned for OneDrive

SA Benefits: CustomerSource

CustomerSource is confirmed as an SA benefit for Dynamics customers with either active SA or an Online Subscription. And what is CustomerSource? In the words of the UK Dynamics site: “CustomerSource is a secure site that allows you to access job-tailored productivity tools including unlimited training courses and self-support resources like the knowledge base.”

That’ll be useful stuff to do with Dynamics products then. See page 76 of the November 2014 Product List.

Visual Studio Community 2013 Available

Visual Studio Community 2013 is a new collection of the Visual Studio Express SKUs. It’s free to download and is aimed at open source developers, startups, students, and hobbyists who can use it to do everything from desktop development to Store development to Azure and ASP.NET development.

Read the announcement and get news on other updates to Visual Studio here: http://bit.ly/1uHr0F2.

Licensing IBM software on Azure Virtual Machines

Certain IBM software is now available to run on Azure virtual machines and it’s licensed either with a Bring Your Own Licence (BYOL) or Bring Your Own Software and Licence (BYOSL) model, depending on whether you’ll be installing and configuring the software yourself (BYOSL) or using a Microsoft VM with the software provided (BYOL). This site from IBM is a useful resource if you need to know more: http://ibm.co/1xhcaH8.

Dual Access Rights for CRM Online

Microsoft announce that they are introducing on-premises use rights for CRM Online. Users with a CRM Online Professional or Enterprise USL will have Professional CAL rights, CRM Online Basic USLs will have Basic CAL rights, and CRM Online Essential will have Essential CAL rights – as you’d expect really!

See the announcement here: http://bit.ly/1tBAzzL and check out page 35 of the October 2014 PUR.

Enterprise Agreement Program Guide updated for Enterprise Cloud Suite

The Enterprise Agreement Program Guide has been updated to include the 1 December 2014 release of the Enterprise Cloud Suite.

This document has some useful information on how the Enterprise Cloud Suite offers an alternative user-licensed platform for the EA, and there are a couple of pages of ECS FAQs too.

Get the guide here: http://bit.ly/1j8qQli.

Windows 8.1 Licensing Guide updated for Per User Licensing

The Windows 8.1 Licensing Guide from Microsoft is updated for Windows per User. This is a veritable treasure trove of information! Use it to find out about the new Windows SA per User Add-on and Full USLs, as well as their VDA counterparts.

There’s information on the retirement of the Companion Subscription Licence and how MDOP now extends across multiple devices if Windows is licensed by user.

You’ll also find the downgrade rights for both device and user Windows VL licences, and a useful table showing the SKU availability by VL program. Get this great document here: http://bit.ly/19WbhCI.