Category Archives: Uncategorized

BizTalk Server 2020 will be the final version of BizTalk Server

Microsoft has announced that BizTalk Server 2020 is the final version of its long-running workload integration product. Azure Logic Apps is positioned as the successor, ultimately replacing the 25-year-old traditional solution. Part of Azure Integration Services, Logic Apps is a cloud-based platform that lets you automate workflows across different systems. It connects apps and data in the cloud or on-premises, offering elastic scaling, AI integration, and support for modern DevOps practices. The more specialised component of BizTalk Server, Host Integration Server, will be made available as its own separate product, with an upcoming version 2028 providing integration between Microsoft and IBM systems. Support for BizTalk Server will remain available until April 2030, giving customers time to plan their migration.

You can learn more about Logic Apps here: https://bit.ly/4jAIFeu and find the official announcement here: https://bit.ly/3Lx30Vg.

Modern Work Plan Comparison documents

The January 2026 Modern Work Plan Comparison documents are now available, with no major changes. There’s no Education comparison for January 2026 yet, but as always, the latest PDFs for Enterprise, SMB, US Government, and Education sectors can be accessed in our new, searchable Licensing Guides Gallery: https://bit.ly/GuidesGallery, exclusive to our subscribers. Non-subscribers can find them in the usual place here: https://bit.ly/4hn2hS2.

If you’re a partner looking for the Excel version, please email info@licensingschool.co.uk from your work email address and we’ll send it over.

Dynamics 365 licensing resources

There are updated (January 2026) Dynamics 365 licensing resources now available. The main change is the added licensing requirements for integrating Teams Phone directly into Dynamics 365 Contact Center to provide a simplified calling experience for reps. You can find this on page 14 of the guide, and there’s a useful article with more details here: https://bit.ly/4pqAF0Q.

Grab the Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/4jqmVlf, and the supplementary Licensing Deck here: https://bit.ly/4qE2rIq.

Copilot Studio Licensing Guide

There’s a new (January 2026) Copilot Studio Licensing Guide available. There are no major changes this month – there’s literally just a page number correction in the Change Log – but it’s always handy to have the latest guide, which you can grab here: https://bit.ly/4bkkVch.

Enrollment for Education Solutions Licensing Guide

We’ve recently uncovered an updated Enrollment for Education Solutions Licensing Guide, the first in seven years. Whilst always useful to have an update, sadly it’s not perfect, containing many outdated terms and references. A record of these quirks can be found on our Licensing Guides Cautionary Notes page: https://bit.ly/LSLVLGCN.

Find the guide here to add to your collection: https://bit.ly/4b2zjWP.

Power Platform Licensing Guide

Microsoft have released another version of the Power Platform Licensing Guide for December 2025 where a section on the Dataverse MCP Server has been added – the thing that means that AI tools can talk directly to Dataverse data. The updated guide is released to coincide with the start of charges (from 15 December, 2025) for the Dataverse MCP tools when accessed by AI Agents created outside of Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/4oY84jc or, if you’re subscriber, check out our new Licensing Guides Gallery here: https://bit.ly/GuidesGallery.

Local currency price adjustments

Microsoft announce local currency price adjustments for their Commercial Cloud services on February 1, 2026. This means an effective price reduction of between 7.2% and 13.5% for Online Services (not Azure), to align with global levels. The affected currencies are the Swiss Franc, Danish Krone, Euro, Norwegian Krone, and Swedish Krona.

You can find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4qbNxsr.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is now available in GCC-High

Microsoft announce that Microsoft 365 Copilot is now available in GCC-High. This follows availability for GCC in December 2024 and for DoD in August 2025. Federal agencies in GCC-High who purchase via the OneGov agreement with Microsoft announced in September 2025 can take advantage of significant discounts, including the opportunity for Microsoft 365 G5 users to use Microsoft 365 Copilot at no additional cost for up to 12 months.

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

Visual Studio 2026 Update Channels

Microsoft have made changes to the Update Channels for Visual Studio 2026. The new Insiders Channel replaces the long-standing Preview Channel as the way to give developers early access to upcoming features, and the Stable Channel gives access to validated, production-ready features every month. In addition, each year, in November, the product will update to the next annual version. So, for example, in November 2026 Visual Studio 2026 will update in place to Visual Studio 2027. At the same time, Microsoft will offer a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) edition for the prior annual release where you’ll get a static feature set for a year with security updates. Note that if you’re using Visual Studio 2026 Professional, you’ll need to purchase a new annual version each year.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3M14nM9.

Dragon Copilot licensing news

The Dragon Copilot portfolio expands with the December availability of the Dragon Copilot Nursing User SL for nurses in the US, and the news that a solution for radiologists is currently in preview.

You can find the nursing announcement here: https://bit.ly/4pz20yg, the radiologists announcement here: https://bit.ly/3XvZpcC, and the updated Dragon Copilot Licensing Guidance website here: https://bit.ly/48aRZSe.