Licensing SQL Server on Linux

Microsoft announced in early March that SQL Server is to be available on Linux (http://bit.ly/1Y1LSlS) but how will it be licensed?

The answer’s easier than you might expect – if you buy a SQL Server licence then you’ll be able to use SQL Server on Windows Server or Linux.

Find this and some other useful SQL 2016 questions here: http://bit.ly/1RLZG2j.

SharePoint and Project Server 2016

Microsoft announce RTM of SharePoint Server 2016 and Project Server 2016, and expect availability in VLSC in early May.

Interestingly, Project Server will now be part of the SharePoint Server installation – but will still require its own licence of course.

Read the announcement here (http://bit.ly/1USnfKe) and find a link to the Project Server 2016 release notes too.

Dynamics AX

Dynamics AX Public Cloud is available – in normal English that’s Dynamics AX built on and for Microsoft Azure as a cloud ERP service. This site (http://bit.ly/1Rfz2fL) gives you an overview of the licensing options – it’s USLs (as you’d expect) and DSLs (as you might not) and for the USLs there are different levels available dependent on what the user needs to do.

For those who love an overview there’s a useful Quick Reference Guide available on this site, and for those made of sterner stuff there’s a full 28-page Licensing, Pricing and Support Guide.

March 2016 MPSA Licensing Manual

The major changes to this very useful document are the inclusion of the alternative ordering terms for both licences with Software Assurance and Online Services. How do these work? I’ve explained them below, but you can find the information on page 6 of the Manual if you’re interested in the official wording.

First of all, Software Assurance. We’re used to SA purchases aligning to the third Purchasing Account Anniversary and this has the benefit that all of your SA purchases in a single year will be due for renewal at the same time – which is nice and easy to manage of course. The alternative option now is to purchase a full 36 months of SA – which over time could potentially mean that you’ve got SA renewal payments to make every month. However, it’s an option if customers want it, and for both alternatives they can pay in full upfront, or upfront annually on the Purchasing Account Anniversary or the Order Anniversary.

And then there’s Online Services. In the beginning, these subscriptions were always aligned to the first Purchasing Account Anniversary and then renewals were for a full 12 months. Now this remains one option but you can also purchase a full 12 months at any time. If you buy more subscriptions for the same service within a Purchasing Account then it will align to the original order of the service.

But that’s not all because last year some of the Online Services were made available to be purchased for two or three years and these were always aligned to the second or third Purchasing Account Anniversaries. Again, this is still an option but you can also choose to purchase full 24 or 36 month subscriptions if that’s better for you. And the payment options? Well, it’s the same as the SA options – you can pay for the whole period upfront, or upfront annually on the Purchasing Account Anniversary or the Order Anniversary.

And that’s still not all! The other change to Online Services, which is documented in the Manual, is the introduction of short-term subscriptions. This is where you can buy anything from 1 to 11 months of a service with no alignment to a Purchasing Account Anniversary. With this option, subsequent orders of the same service DON’T have to align to the first order.

The other changes that the Manual contains are small in comparison: some customers will now be using the Microsoft Business Center (MBC) as their management portal rather than the Microsoft Volume Licensing Center (MVLC) and you’ll see that change on page 4. There are notes throughout that certain SA benefits (Planning Services, Training Vouchers, Problem Resolution Support, and Enhanced Hotfix Support) are not available for Academic Purchasing Accounts, and the final change is that the Office Multi-Language Pack is removed as an SA benefit since the rights to it are now included with the licence.

You can find this Manual in the Program Licensing Guides section in our Microsoft Licensing Guides emporium here: http://bit.ly/MSlicensingguides.

Adxstudio, from Microsoft, Licensing Guide

Microsoft acquired Adxstudio towards the end of 2015 since the Adxstudio Portals are built natively on Dynamics CRM and make it easy for customers to extend CRM to the web (original announcement: http://bit.ly/1LZLxtC).

There’s now an Adxstudio, from Microsoft, Licensing Guide which shows the options both on-premises and hosted CRM customers have for licensing Adxstudio Portals. The bottom line – it’s not yet available through Microsoft Volume Licensing agreements.

For the full story, find the guide in our Dynamics Licensing Guides section: http://bit.ly/MSlicensingguides.

Free SQL Server licences for migrating Oracle customers

Microsoft offer free licences for customers who want to move their Oracle databases to SQL Server.

The process? Organizations identify how many SQL Server Core licences they’ll need for the migration, sign a Server and Cloud Enrolment, pay Software Assurance only for the Core licences, and then prove that the migration has taken place.

Included in the offer there’s also free training and deployment assistance until 30 June, 2016.

See the full announcement and download the offer brochure here: http://bit.ly/1YOolWM.

MPSA: short-term subscriptions

Microsoft announce the availability of short-term subscriptions in the MPSA from March 2016.

This new option is available for selected Online Services (E1 and EMS among them) and allows customers to subscribe for one to eleven months.

This means that they don’t have to commit to a minimum of 12 months or even align to their Purchasing Account Anniversaries, making it a good choice for short-term projects or to cover seasonal variations.

Read the full Microsoft blog post here where there’s also a complete list of the eligible Online Services: http://bit.ly/1Uq7bOt.

Multi-Tenant Office 365 ProPlus

So, if customers have, say, Office 365 E3 licences acquired through an Enterprise Agreement, can Office 365 ProPlus be hosted on their Services Provider’s shared hardware and delivered to the customer through RDS? Mais oui!

This was a change that happened in January 2016 and as long as the Services Provider meets certain conditions required by Microsoft, all is well.

You can read all about this here: http://bit.ly/21BIYqW, or, if you’re a partner wanting to get involved, here’s a webcast to listen to: http://bit.ly/1QndX2M.

Getting Started with Azure in CSP

If you’re a Cloud Solution Provider partner selling Azure then this Getting Started guide from Microsoft is worth a look.

There’s useful information on the Azure admin portals, the relationship between tenants, subscriptions and services, and how to use the various parts of the Partner Center.

You’ll also find links to useful resources and how to get help from Microsoft.

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