Azure consumption services were made available through the Open programs from 1 August 2014 where you buy a $100 (or equivalent) token upfront to consume services against.
This Azure in Open FAQ contains some interesting facts:
Find the full FAQ here: http://bit.ly/1HdqBwY.
The Home Use Program marketing site is updated for Office 2016. This is where you’ll find presentations to learn about HUP whether you’re a user, executive or Benefits Administrator, and also where you can download marketing materials such as flyers, newsletters and web banners to help you promote HUP in your organisation.
Find this useful site here – http://bit.ly/1WgyuZi – and choose your language and country at the right hand side.
There’s an updated CRM Server 2015 Licensing Guide for October 2015 with three sections added.
The first is on Licence Mobility with confirmation (as usual) that you need SA on CALs as well as the Server licences to use VL licences on a partner-hosted infrastructure or Azure.
The second section is Azure-specific and states that CRM Online users may also access CRM Server running on Azure.
And finally there’s an Additional Software section which explains that a Marketing Connector and Reporting Extensions are provided as part of a CRM Server licensed solution.
We’ve put all the Microsoft Licensing Guides here: bit.ly/MSlicensingguides
The feature updates for Office 365 ProPlus are managed in a similar (but not quite the same) way as for Windows 10.
There’s a Current Branch and Current Branch for Business, but no Long Term Servicing Branch – if you want a static version of Office then you’ll need to deploy Office Professional Plus 2016.
There is, however, a First Release for Current Branch for Business to give organisations a chance to evaluate the CBB build before deployment.
There are some good explanations and diagrams in this TechNet article – it’s definitely worth a look: http://bit.ly/1Ov0l8Q.
The Home Use Program FAQ site is updated for Office 2016.
Of note:
Find the full FAQ here: http://bit.ly/1GCAXWM.
There are two updated Volume Licensing Briefs for October 2015: “Licensing Office 365 ProPlus in VL” and “Licensing Microsoft Office Software in VL”.
There are no major changes, the documents are just updated for the removal of the Office Multi Language Pack as an SA benefit – it’s now included with the licence, and the possibilities of Shared Computer Activation – including running Office 365 ProPlus in Azure.
Get the briefs here: http://bit.ly/MSvlbriefs.
Microsoft announce some interesting things about using Windows VL licences on Azure…
Firstly, if you have Windows Server licences with SA then you’ll be able to procure an Azure virtual machine without Windows Server and then upload your own Windows Server VM image which will be licensed by that existing VL licence.
And secondly, if you license Windows 10 by user then you’ll be able to run Windows 10 Current Branch for Business on Azure.
What’s more, there are plans to allow customers to take their Windows licences to other cloud providers too. And the timing of this? – “soon”.
Read the full FAQ here: http://bit.ly/1jeqDj6.
Microsoft announced in January 2014 that InfoPath 2013 would be the last version of this product (http://bit.ly/1kfnAoa).
The October 2015 Product Terms confirms on page 6 that InfoPath 2013 will be included with licences for Office Professional Plus 2016.
If you’ve got Office 2016, are you allowed to install a subset of the applications?
This Microsoft article (http://bit.ly/1OQrDXg – see question 6) confirms that the ability to install individual applications is not available with Office 2016.
OneNote licences are being discontinued; page 6 of the October 2015 Product Terms documents confirms that commercial customers may acquire rights to use OneNote with the purchase of an Office Professional Plus 2016 licence.