Author Archives: Louise Ulrick

Windows 365 Frontline Shared Mode

Microsoft announce that there’s a new Shared Mode for Windows 365 Frontline which is now in public preview. The original mode, now called Dedicated Mode, is aimed at users with staggered working hours. It allows you to provision personalised Cloud PCs for up to three users for each Windows 365 Frontline licence as long as those Cloud PCs are used non-concurrently. The new mode is for when you want to provision a single Cloud PC which lots of people need to use for short periods on an ad hoc basis, perhaps for a specific task. Only one person can use the Cloud PC at a time, and when they sign out all user data is deleted.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3CL02aW, the Learn documentation here: https://bit.ly/4fWXKnu, and a Microsoft Mechanics video here: https://bit.ly/3UZNsey.

SQL databases in Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft announce that there’s a new member of the Fabric workload family – SQL databases. They consume the same Fabric Capacity Units as the other Fabric workloads, with storage and backups billed separately. However, you can use SQL database in Fabric for free until 1 January, 2025 when compute and data storage charges begin, with backup billing starting on 1 February, 2025.

Find the announcement with an overview of notable features here: https://bit.ly/3Z0iq7n.

Windows 365 Link

Microsoft announce that Windows 365 Link is in public preview. This is a purpose-built Cloud PC device that’s designed to connect to Windows 365 in a fast and secure way. It’s built by Microsoft and will be available in April 2025 at a cost of $349. It will work with Windows 365 Enterprise, Frontline and Business editions.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4eMkS7u, the Learn documentation here: https://bit.ly/3APLhDg, and a Microsoft Mechanics video here: https://bit.ly/3CNH8jG.

Azure Local

Microsoft introduce Azure Local for customers to run Azure services on their own infrastructure. It’s enabled by Azure Arc and provides cloud-connected capabilities at a customer’s distributed locations. Think of it as the evolution of Azure Stack and, indeed, Azure Stack HCI has already been renamed to Azure Local.

There’s no change to the pricing or licensing for Azure Stack HCI customers, they’ll just get new Azure Local features as they’re available. At this time Azure Stack Hub and Azure Stack Edge remain, but there are “lower-spec hardware” and “disconnected operations” solutions in preview in Azure Local which will be the Azure Localisation of these Azure Stack components in due course.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4eCWKUr .

Windows 10 ESUs

Microsoft announce details of their Windows 10 Extended Security Updates program. Windows 10 reaches end of support on October 14, 2025 at which point 3 years of ESUs will be available for commercial and education customers.

They’ll cost $61 per device for commercial customers (https://bit.ly/3ArI2So) and $1 per device for education customers (https://bit.ly/3YTPL52), with prices doubling for year 2 and again for year 3. Customers running Windows 10 in Azure Virtual Desktop will be entitled to free ESUs.

In addition, there’s a new ESU program for consumers (https://bit.ly/4htLXi6) which is a 1-year option costing $30 per device.

Windows Server and System Center 2025

Windows Server and System Center 2025 were made generally available by Microsoft on November 1, 2024. This is a useful article (https://bit.ly/3CaBgAO) which gives more information on the new features of Windows Server 2025 including the fact that hotpatching (installing security updates without a reboot) will be available as a monthly subscription for Windows Server 2025 Standard and Datacenter editions.

Find out more about the public preview of Windows Server Hotpatch here: https://bit.ly/40AX1Eb.

Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents

There are updated (November 2024) Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents with some small changes such as the addition of some Frontline Worker licences to match the Product Terms availability.

These useful documents tell you which of the (many) different components are included in which Office 365/Microsoft 365 plan, and there’s a table for SMB customers (https://bit.ly/3UBTGkm), and one for Enterprise customers (https://bit.ly/40xW2o4), and still more for specialist US customers – one for GCC (https://bit.ly/3NWbF1o), one for GCC High (https://bit.ly/3NVRgcy) and the final one for DoD (https://bit.ly/3NUrw0f).

And, if you’re a partner, there’s exciting news – we’ve found the Excel version of these files again! Drop us an email on info@licensingschool.co.uk from your work email address and we’ll send it on.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (November 2024) Dynamics 265 Licensing Guide which has updates in three areas.

First of all, Customer Voice is added back on to the price list as a standalone product – find details on page 17.

Secondly, there are some changes to the Business Performance Management Capabilities table on page 22 showing rights for Operations-Activity and Team Members licensed users.

And finally, there are some amendments for Dynamics 365 Contact Center Voice specifying that included Intelligent Voicebot minutes are to be used with a bot authored with Copilot Studio, and that any generative AI capabilities need separate capacity purchased via a Copilot Studio licence.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/4edEIrY.

Outsourcing Software Management brief

There’s an updated (October 2024) Outsourcing Software Management brief from Microsoft. It adds two questions to its FAQ section: Can you take your Windows Server licences to AWS (no), and: Can you take Windows Server licences acquired before October 2019 to AWS dedicated server offerings (yes). There is, as you might expect, a lot more detail in the answers that are given in the brief.

Find this updated document here: https://bit.ly/3Z0R8PD.