Microsoft announce General Availability of Project Server 2016.
As we’re coming to expect, this on-premises product is built from the same code used to deliver the cloud service, and it’s now a part of a SharePoint Server installation – although separate Project Server licences will naturally be required.
The Microsoft announcement is here: http://bit.ly/27cR5Oa.
Microsoft announce general availability of SharePoint Server 2016, and confirm that it’s derived from the same code used to deliver SharePoint Online.
What’s the future of the on-premises product? Well, innovations will (as you’d expect) be delivered to Office 365 first, but many will also be available via Feature Packs to SharePoint Server 2016 customers with Software Assurance.
The first Feature Pack will be available through the public update channel in 2017, and customers will have control over which features are enabled in their on-premises farms.
Full details are here: http://bit.ly/1XbKkIb.
Microsoft announce the release of Office Online Server, the successor to Office Web Apps Server 2013.
This product enables you to deliver browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote from your on-premises datacentre with the same functionality as Office Online.
Licensing-wise, any customer with a Volume Licensing agreement can download OOS from VLSC at no cost for view-only functionality. If you want create, edit and save functionality then you need an Office licence with active SA or an Office 365 ProPlus subscription. However, if you buy Office 2016 through Volume Licensing before 1 August 2016, then you won’t need SA until 1 August 2019.
Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/23tSr2y.
Microsoft announce that SQL Server 2016 will be generally available on 1 June, 2016.
There’s not much detail on any licensing changes – so far we just know that the editions are confirmed as Express, Standard, Enterprise, and Developer and so we say farewell to the Business Intelligence edition.
The announcement is here: http://bit.ly/24iTI29 and you can download a datasheet about the editions here: http://bit.ly/21qiTdT.
Microsoft announce a free Azure Support upgrade for EA customers.
It’s available for new or existing customers who have Azure Services on their EA and gives them an upgrade to an Azure Support Plan between 1 May 2016 and 30 June 2017 for 12 months.
The details from Microsoft are split across these two pages: http://bit.ly/1XZCUpL and http://bit.ly/1TBVG5k but we’ve consolidated it into the table below:
Take a customer who has not purchased any Azure Support (the first row) – if he’s made a Monetary Commitment of less than $100,000 then he’s upgraded to an Azure Standard Support Plan, but if he spends more than $10,000 a month on Azure Services for 3 consecutive months or he does make a Monetary Commitment of at least $100,000 then he’s upgraded to Professional Direct Support.
You can see the options for the existing Standard Support customer – he’s automatically upgraded to Professional Direct Support but with the higher spend will also get 6 App Consulting Services sessions. And the existing Professional Direct Support customer receives either 6 or 12 App Consulting Services sessions dependent on his spend on Azure Services.
List prices are $300/month for Standard and $1,000/month for Professional Direct Support (http://bit.ly/1rHFmY4) and Microsoft say that the upgraded support will be enabled automatically by September 2016.
You can find the fine print on this offer and a description of App Consulting Services here: http://bit.ly/1TBVG5k.
There’s an updated (February 2016) CRM Online Licensing Guide.
There are some additions for working with Dynamics AX: users licensed with a Dynamics AX Enterprise USL have the right to read CRM Online application data (page 6), and users licensed with a CRM Online Professional or Enterprise USL may read AX application data (page 8).
There’s also a new Voice of the Customer section (page 13) explaining what this functionality provides, as well as the CRM Online USLs required to use different parts of it.
Finally, there’s clarity added to the Add-ons section stating which USLs are eligible to have Add-ons added on.
Get this guide from the Dynamics section of our Licensing Guides emporium: http://bit.ly/MSlicensingguides.
There’s a new offer for MSDN subscribers who want to run dev and test workloads in Azure.
Essentially you set up an MSDN Dev/Test Subscription in your EA or MPSA and then you get special rates on certain services (such as virtual machines) and the usual EA/MPSA rates on other ones. Even better, it’s all managed through the usual Azure Enterprise Portal.
Note that this is completely unrelated to the Azure credit that MSDN subscribers also get, and if a customer doesn’t have an EA/MPSA then there is a similar MSDN Dev/Test offer on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Find full details here: http://bit.ly/1VDYthQ.
There are a couple of additions to the April 2016 Product Terms document: some add-ons for Dynamics AX and some USLs for Cloud App Security. Read on for the detail!
Dynamics AX – that’s Dynamics built on and for Azure – was made available in March 2016 and now we’ve got some extra licensing options. If you’re a Dynamics AX 2012 R3 on-premises customer and you have existing licences with active Software Assurance then you can now purchase For SA USLs to add on access to the cloud service. There’s a table on page 55 which lists the qualifying licences and the eligible For SA USLs you can purchase.
Cloud App Security, based on Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Adallom, helps IT and security teams gain deeper visibility and enhanced protection for cloud applications. How’s it licensed? Page 53 confirms it’s with a User Subscription Licence, and if you want more information and an intro to how it works, then head over to the Microsoft Cyber Trust Blog: http://bit.ly/23H7Fqq.
Good news! From 1 April 2016, SQL Server 2014 Developer Edition is a free download if you’re a Visual Studio Dev Essentials member.
As a reminder, the Developer Edition includes the full feature set of the Enterprise Edition and is for development and testing only, and not for production environments or even for use with production data.
Here’s the Microsoft announcement (http://bit.ly/1NxiU83) where you’ll also find confirmation that SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition will also be free when it’s released in the next few months.
The March 2016 Hosting and Cloud Service Provider newsletter is out.
There are a couple of topics of licensing interest: firstly, E5 is now a qualifying CAL for the Skype for Business Server Enterprise and Plus SALs for SA.
Then there’s a reminder to report only the products shown on the published SPUR – for example, a Service Provider who uses SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard should report SQL Server 2014 Standard Core licences.
Sign up for this free newsletter here: http://bit.ly/1iVEvxV.