Author Archives: licensingschool

Overview of the Changes to the January 2014 Volume Licensing Product Use Rights

It’s Online Services and SA benefits that share the headlines as the key changes in the PUR this quarter. For Online Services the big news is that ALL of the use rights for these products have been moved into the Online Services Use Rights document. This is known as the OLSUR (how DO you say that?) and we’ll focus on the useful information you can find there in a later blog post.

As far as SA benefits go, let’s start with the Extended Rights that have been added to the Remote Desktop Services CAL, detailed on page 69 onwards. These new rights apply to the User CAL only and essentially allow organisations with SA on an RDS CAL to access session-based desktops running on a third party’s shared servers – either through a “Licence Mobility through Software Assurance Partner” or making use of Windows Azure Platform Services. There’s confirmation that access is still allowed to an organisation’s own servers, and a very specific note that these rights do NOT allow access to VDI desktops running on the third party’s shared servers. Customers need to complete and submit a Licence Mobility Validation form to designate their third party of choice and there are instructions for this process too.

There’s a name change for another benefit – “Cold” Disaster Recovery Rights are now just Disaster Recovery Rights on page 70. Previous wording specified that the server must be turned off except for testing, patch management and disaster recovery. Now the emphasis is on when the Disaster Recovery server (or OSE) can run – DR testing for a week every 90 days, while the production server being recovered is down, and during the transfer to the DR server.

And the final change is around some wording in the Licence Mobility through Software Assurance section on page 70 onwards. There’s black and white clarification added that if you’re using System Center on your own servers to manage OSEs running in a third party’s shared servers or running System Center there to manage your own servers, then you absolutely need active SA on your Server Management Licences.

And, just for completeness, we say our final goodbyes to the GeoSynth and Vexcel products, as well as Expression Encoder Pro 4 and Groove Server 2010, and references to Team Foundation Service are updated to Visual Studio Online.

Microsoft detail their strategy for the Online Services Use Rights document

If you’ve looked at the January 2014 Product Use Rights document then you could be wondering where you now find information on products such as Yammer or Windows Intune or Office 365. The Online Services Use Rights (OLSUR) document of course. Microsoft have now consolidated all the use rights for the Online Services into this document, and they give you a high level overview of their strategy in this article: http://bit.ly/1d1lzmo.

For a more detailed insight into what you can find in this document look out for a future blog post from us.

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

If you look at the official changes in the January 2014 Product List you’d think there wasn’t much new this month, but read on for some interesting additions that go unadvertised…

Microsoft Products and Services Agreement

  • Let’s start with the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement. There’s been a lot of speculation about Microsoft’s Next Generation Volume Licensing initiative and this month the MPSA edges its way cautiously into the Product List. There’s not a lot, granted, but on pages 49/50 there’s advice to refer to Select Plus to find out what products you can buy under the MPSA, as well as confirmation that Office 365, CRM Online, Windows Intune and Yammer can all be purchased under the MPSA and are worth 1 point each. There’s also reference to an MPSA Licensing Manual which is worth a read: bit.ly/1a2TH1r

Office 365 Add-on USLs acquire access rights to Windows Server 2012

  • This is an interesting one; page 107 tells us that a licensed user of an Add-on User SL has access rights equivalent to the base Windows Server 2012 CAL, and may access standard functionality of Windows Server 2012 from any non-Qualified device. It’s a nice added touch of flexibility for anyone using the Add-ons with device-licensed CAL Suites

Office 365 through Open

  • We’ve talked a lot about more and more Office 365 plans becoming available through Open and the dizzy heights are reached with a new section in the Product List on page 59. There’s confirmation that Office 365 is sold through Open, Open Value and Open Value Subscription programs as a one year upfront payment method, as well as the fact that the subscription period starts at the time of the product key activation and not the time of order
  • There’s also a new section on page 46 on the Open Value Offer. If you’re not familiar with this, customers who have an active Open Value/OVS agreement with an organisation-wide commitment for Office Professional Plus and/or a CAL Suite qualify for a reduced price on certain Office 365 SKUs

There are some names changes:

  • The longest named product (ever?) – the Windows Azure Active Directory Rights Management USL – is renamed to the more manageable Microsoft Rights Management USL
  • The Cold Backups SA benefit changes to simply “Backup for Disaster Recovery” and you can see changes to the wording for this benefit on page 70 of the January Product Use Rights document

We lose some products:

  • It’s confirmed on page 146 that Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 will be the final version of the product. Customers with active SA on UAG server licences on 1 December 2013 get a grant of one Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard licence, and existing customers can add new server instances, users and devices without any requirement to order additional licences
  • Expression Encoder Pro 4 is removed, furthering Microsoft’s aim of unifying the Expression and Visual Studio brands. While Expression Encoder Pro 4 isn’t available for sale anymore, there’s a free version (Expression Encoder 4) available for download and it looks as if we’ll see Windows Azure Media Services providing new and improved functionality. More information here: http://bit.ly/KQxeyo

There are some changes to a couple of products’ use rights:

  • The buyout rights for Open Value Subscription customers with Small Business Server 2011 are amended, allowing customers to buy out an SBS 2011 CAL Suite or a Core CAL Suite (rather than Windows Server/Exchange CALs). And it’s a similar change for customers with the Premium Add-on Suite, where they’re now allowed to buy out the SBS 2011 Premium Add-on CAL Suite or a SQL Server CAL (rather than a Windows Server/SQL CAL)
  • In the December 2013 Product List (and Visual Studio 2013 Licensing brief) it’s stated that a Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 with MSDN subscriber is entitled to one management server licence for Visual Studio Deployment 2013 Standard, but that text is now removed

And the new promotions are all around Visual Studio 2013 this month:

  • There are three new promotions running from 1 January 2014 to 30 June 2014 – do check for availability in your specific geographic region
  • The first two are linked to the Server and Cloud Enrolment offering a 30% discount on either a step up from Visual Studio Professional to Premium, or Visual Studio Premium to Ultimate
  • The third is again a 30% discount, this time for both of the new Visual Studio 2013 Release Management products – Visual Studio Deployment Standard and Datacenter editions

Microsoft Products and Services Agreement Licensing Manual

New Microsoft Products and Services Agreement Licensing Manual; probably the best, no-frills overview of the new MPSA, so worth a read. If you know your Select Plus licensing, start with that in mind as you read about Purchasing Accounts (affiliates), Price Levels (as Select Plus), Points (all Online Services at 1 point across Applications or Servers pool), and Price Level Adjustments (as Select Plus). Significant changes include the all-powerful Microsoft Volume Licensing Center that allows the usual licence management but adds ordering and allocation of Online Services too.

bit.ly/1a2TH1r

Information on Microsoft’s Next Generation Volume Licensing Initiative

A late Christmas present! – Lots of information from Microsoft about their Next Generation Volume Licensing initiative. If you read just one of the documents, go for the “Learn more about the MPSA” one. Otherwise here’s the summary:

Microsoft are at the start of their journey to revamp the Volume Licensing programs, and the new Microsoft Products and Services Agreement currently allows Select Plus-esque purchases with two key differences

  • both on-premise and Online Services can be purchased (and both count towards the points in a pool), and
  • you can’t buy SA just yet.

bit.ly/1a84Z88

Forefront UAG approaches End Of Life

The Forefront lineup continues to dwindle and now it’s Forefront UAG that’s soon to be End Of Life… Microsoft made the announcement on their Server and Tools Blog, where key takeaways are:

  • Forefront UAG will be removed from price lists on 1 July 2014
  • Customers with active SA on a Forefront UAG Server licence will receive a Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard licence, and
  • Any customers with active SA on UAG at 1 December 2013 may add new UAG server instances, users and devices without ordering additional licences.

The full article is here: http://bit.ly/1dxYXwb

Office 365 Switch Plans Wizard now supports switching between service families

If you’re given the wrong Office 365 plan for Christmas all is now not lost! The Switch Plans Wizard adds the capability to switch Office 365 plans across service families, so Small Business subscribers can switch to both Midsize and Enterprise plans, and Midsize Business subscribers can now switch to the Enterprise plans. Some of the restrictions remain: if you have more than 300 users you can’t use the Wizard; it’s still only for MOSA customers rather than customers who’ve purchased through Open; and any unsupported Wizardly switches must still be carried out manually. http://bit.ly/1exMwWl

Microsoft Webcast on Windows Embedded and its Licensing

Are you, like I was, completely out-of-date on your Windows Embedded licensing knowledge? It became available through VL programs on 1st July 2013 and if you’re not up to speed yet, this Microsoft webcast is half an hour well spent. Use it to find out about: Functionality – Embedded is now full Windows with EXTRA industry functionality (anyone else’s jaw drop?!); VL rules – similar to full Windows with upgrade licences requiring a qualifying OS, and adding SA within 90 days; SKUs/availability – useful slides show a SKU description, and channel and VL program availability. http://bit.ly/1hWs95r

Microsoft Webcast on Azure and its Licensing

Really rather good Microsoft webcast on Azure and its licensing. Useful takeaways:

  • pricing comparison (the Azure list price will always be the same as Amazon Web Services, and the Azure EA price will always be lower);
  • how to purchase Azure in an EA (make an upfront payment, pay any additional usage either annually – for up to 50% overage – or quarterly for more than that);
  • how existing EA customers are impacted (overage penalties go away immediately, existing quarterly payments remain in place with annual payments starting at renewal).

This webcast was originally aimed at Enterprise customers in the US and the licensing portion starts at 13:49 but I’d recommend the whole thing if you want to get a handle on the positioning of Azure too. http://bit.ly/19lQ5uq