There’s an updated (June 2016) Volume Licensing Brief for Windows Intune. There aren’t major changes to the document – just an update to the EA minimums moving from 250 to 500 users/devices, but if you want an overview of Intune licensing it’s worth a read through.
Find it, as usual, with all of the other Microsoft Licensing Guides here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
Microsoft announce that Power BI Embedded is generally available. Be aware that this is a cousin rather than a brother of the Power BI service licensed with Power BI User Subscription Licences.
Power BI Embedded is an Azure consumption service (charged as users interact with reports) and intended for ISVs who embed dashboards in applications for third party use.
The Microsoft announcement is here: http://bit.ly/29QIRXi and this Azure pricing page has some useful FAQs: http://bit.ly/2ahlAyP.
Microsoft give some more detail on the Secure Productive Enterprise plans which will replace the Enterprise Cloud Suite.
Firstly, there’s news that licensed users will be allowed one on-premises install of Office Professional Plus, and then there’s confirmation that SPE E3 and E5 will be available through the EA and MPSA at launch in the fourth quarter of 2016, and then later through CSP too.
Read the full announcement here: http://bit.ly/2aaKDR7.
There’s an updated (May 2016) Licensing FAQ for Windows Server and System Center 2016. The last version published by Microsoft was in December 2015 and there are some interesting new things documented that are worth a look.
First of all, there’s some further information about how the transition from Processor-based to Core licences will work: essentially it won’t affect SA customers until renewal, at which point there will be grants of a minimum of 16 Core licences for each Processor-based licence. If customers need more Core licences to cover their existing hardware, then they need to inventory their environment and the additional licences will be granted. See page 3 for details.
There’s also an example on pages 3 and 4 of how an existing Enterprise Agreement customer would proceed with trueing up more Datacenter licences after the launch of Windows Server 2016. You’ll need to read the detail, but essentially it’s all dependent on the renewal date of the agreement. Along similar lines, there’s a new question on page 6 which details that early commitment for a renewal is an option if a customer wants to lock in Processor-based licences for a further agreement term.
And finally, page 6 gives us some more detail on the editions that we can expect. First of all, we learn that Windows Server Foundation and Essential editions will be merged into a single product – Windows Server 2016 Essentials, and that its licensing will continue to be processor-based. Then there will just be a single product for MultiPoint Server – Windows Server 2016 MultiPoint Premium Server, which will be available through Academic Licensing Programs only and not through Open, OEM or retail channels. Interestingly, if required, corporate customers can use the MultiPoint Premium Server role that will be available in Standard and Datacenter editions as long as they also acquire non-Academic Windows Server and RDS CALs.
As usual, find this guide along with all of its Licensing Guide friends here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
There’s an updated Volume Licensing Reference Guide from Microsoft which, as usual, you can find here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
What’s new? Well, the main changes are updates for the Enterprise Agreement minimums changing to 500 PCs/users and the ongoing retirement of Select Plus.
Microsoft announce that Office 365 Education plans are now available via the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. Find the full announcement here: http://bit.ly/2a5fi1R.
The July 2016 Hosting and Cloud Service Provider Newsletter is out. There are three main items of licensing interest: firstly there’s a reminder that while the Core Factor table is no longer required to calculate licences for SQL Server 2016, it does still apply to SQL Server 2012/2014 as well as BizTalk Server 2013 R2 and Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Standard Commerce Server.
There’s also a reminder to take the new Cloud Portability module in GLR, and a link to the SPLA Quarterly Update Licensing webinar: http://bit.ly/2aktmUG.
Sign up for this free monthly newsletter here: http://bit.ly/1iVEvxV.
Microsoft announce that Windows 10 Enterprise E3 will be available through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program in autumn 2016. This means that customers will be able to buy a subscription to Windows 10 as part of a managed service with pricing at $7 a month.
Find Microsoft’s full blog post here: http://bit.ly/29FKuUc.
There’s an updated Windows Server 2016 Licensing Datasheet from Microsoft. There are some interesting clarifications which you may not have come across before.
Firstly, there’s confirmation that when licensing with Standard edition rather just adding single licences for further virtual machines you need to completely license all of the physical cores again (see page 3).
Then there’s a list of the editions we can expect (page 2) which includes Essentials, MultiPoint Premium Server, Storage Server and Hyper-V Server, and shows the licensing models that will prevail – Core-based for Standard and Datacenter, but Processor-based for the rest.
There’s also a bit more clarification about the process and timings for the processor to core licensing changes (page 4) and then the two available servicing branches are covered on page 5, with Server with Desktop Experience/Server Core on the Long Term Servicing Branch and Nano Server on the Current Branch for Business – which will require SA.
As usual, find the guide in our extensive store of Licensing Guides here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
There’s more news from Microsoft on Windows Server 2016 with, first of all, confirmation that it will be on the October 2016 price list.
Next, we learn that there will be two branches: Long Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) and the Current Branch for Business (CBB). Customers will opt into one of these branches depending on the installation option they choose: Server with Desktop Experience and Server Core will be on LTSB, and Nano Server will be on CBB.
It’s expected that there will be two or three updates per year for Nano Server and there will be a requirement to have Software Assurance for this option.
Read the full article from Microsoft here: http://bit.ly/29FHtrB.