Microsoft announce that from 1 June, 2023 the App Governance Add-on will be included in Microsoft 365 E5, E5 Security, or any other licence that includes Defender for Cloud Apps.
Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3o1bZ5G.
Author Archives: Louise Ulrick
Calculate EA Azure Savings Plan cost savings
There’s a useful article here to help EA customers to manually calculate the savings they’ve made from the purchase of Azure Savings Plans: https://bit.ly/3MCBmUU. Full instructions are given to download the amortised usage and charges file, prepare an Excel spreadsheet and then do some calculations to determine the savings.
Centrally managed Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server
Microsoft announce that the centrally managed Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server is now generally available. This allows customers to assign eligible licences to their SQL Server resources in Azure at a whole Subscription or Billing Profile level rather than to individual resources, making it much easier to manage.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3MKf3MN, and the useful Learn documentation here: https://bit.ly/3Olhk2f.
Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide
There’s an updated (May 2023) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide with just a couple of minor changes. Firstly, for Business Central, the maximum number of companies that may be contained in an environment is now limited to 300, and secondly, the Voice Channel User SL is added to the Default Subscription Capacity table on page 39, showing that each licence accrues 35 GB of Dataverse File capacity.
Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3B8v3St.
Microsoft 365 Business plan comparison document
There’s an updated (March 2023) version of the Microsoft 365 Business plan comparison document showing you the different components available in the three Microsoft 365 Business plans, as well as a comparison with Teams Essentials. Find this document here: https://bit.ly/3AfyRR8.
Teams Rooms licensing policy enforcement
Teams Rooms licensing changed in September 2022 with the introduction of Teams Rooms Basic and Teams Rooms Pro licences. At that time customers were also advised that from July 1, 2023 Teams Rooms devices must be licensed with device licences, rather than user licences. This reminder article (https://bit.ly/41DnI97 ) is a useful one, including as it does, tips for finding Teams Rooms devices with unsupported licences.
Requesting a Power Apps licence
Users trying to run a Power Apps app which requires a licence can now request a licence from their IT department directly from within the product. IT administrators can view licence requests in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and approve them as required.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3AepvVX, along with instructions for IT administrators here: https://bit.ly/3LbOCyV.
Defender for Endpoint mixed licensing scenarios
Microsoft announce that Defender for Endpoint now supports (in preview) a mix of Plan 1 and Plan 2 licences. Previously, in cases of multiple plans, the highest functional subscription would take precedence for a tenant. Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/43MaubA, and some examples of mixed licensing scenarios here: https://bit.ly/40hiyOw.
Windows 365 Frontline
Microsoft announce that Windows 365 Frontline is now in public preview. Windows 365 Enterprise and Business became available in August 2021, Windows 365 Government (for US Government) in October 2022, and now Windows 365 Frontline joins this family of cloud PCs.
Like the rest of the family, Windows 365 Frontline delivers a personalised Cloud PC (consisting of Windows, apps, data and settings) to users, but is aimed at shift workers in an organisation. Every licence purchased allows a business to create 3 Cloud PCs which, in effect, cover 3 employees in 8-hour shifts over a 24-hour period. Note that the number of people using a Windows 365 Frontline Cloud PC at any one time can be no greater than the number of licences purchased. So, if you have 3 shifts of 110, 90, and 100 workers you would need to purchase 110 Windows 365 Frontline licences which would allow you to deploy 330 Cloud PCs, of which 110 can be used at any time.
Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/3GySbMQ, a good overview video here: http://bit.ly/3mnfiTV, and join the public preview here: https://bit.ly/3nVu9VN.
Windows Server 2022 licensing changes
Microsoft have made a number of changes to Windows Server 2022 licensing, detailed in the April 2023 Product Terms.
First of all they’ve removed the requirement for a customer to have a minimum of 16 Windows Server Core licences in their estate before they can take advantage of licensing by virtual machine or use the Azure Hybrid Benefit. Secondly, there’s a change to the Azure Hybrid Benefit where Windows Server Core licences no longer have to be kept in groups of 8 when licensing a virtual machine with more than 8 cores – previously a 20-core virtual machine would have needed 24 licences (3×8), now it just needs 20.
Then there are changes to the rights when Windows Server licences are acquired as Software Subscriptions through CSP. If a customer has these licenses then they may use Standard licences with Windows Server Datacenter virtual machines. This right is available to them if they’re running their virtual machines in their own on-premises data centres, or with Authorized Outsourcers.
And finally there are changes when a CSP-Hoster partner sells Windows Server Software Subscription licences as part of a solution which they are hosting and managing for a customer. In this case, there’s no need for Windows Server CALs or External Connector licences, and the right to use Standard licences with Datacenter images also applies as above.