Category Archives: Uncategorized

SA is now available in the MPSA

Today – 1 September 2014 – Software Assurance is available in Microsoft’s new MPSA agreement.

If you want to get up to speed with the MPSA then invest a mere seven and a half minutes in our mini training video: http://bit.ly/Vx8oZa.

SQL 2014 Virtualisation Licensing Guide: June 2014

This SQL 2014 Virtualisation Licensing Guide is a good read: it’s got sections on licensing individual VMs, Licence Mobility, and unlimited virtualisation, as well as clarification of the rules around hyper-threading, and a great table in the appendix which shows the virtualisation licensing rules for past versions of SQL Server.

Get the guide here and enjoy: http://bit.ly/1tcNCNr.

SQL 2014 Licensing Guide: April 2014

A jolly useful 31 pages of SQL Licensing Loveliness. This is a great guide which has been updated for SQL 2014 and includes useful sections on licensing Parallel Data Warehouse, the anomalies of SQL Enterprise Server/CAL, as well as being updated for the cloud.

There are all the other sections you would expect and you can find the guide here: http://bit.ly/VNVI0L

July 2014 update to the Perpetual License Transfer Form

The Perpetual License Transfer form is updated for July 2014. The previous verson was October 2013 and there aren’t massive changes in this version. Here are the additions:

page 2 – the Customer must provide the Transferee with sufficient documentation to understand the licensing rights;

page 3 – Customers may not transfer Volume Licence Keys;

page 3 – as well as stopping using the software the Customer must also uninstall it;

page 5 – a Part Number column is added to the transfer table.

You can download the latest version of the form here: http://bit.ly/1h2CptX.

Video: Where does the MPSA fit in?

Introducing our new “Coffee Break” series – some short videos on Microsoft licensing.

Our first one is entitled “Where does the MPSA fit in?” and you can access it here: http://bit.ly/Vx8oZa

Program Licensing Guides

We’ve extended our collection of Microsoft Licensing Guides to include those for Program Licensing too.

Check them out here: http://bit.ly/MSlicensingguides

MCP 70-671 and 70-672 Sample Exams

Over 600 of our sample exams for the MCP 70-671 and 70-672 certifications have been taken worldwide. If you’re preparing for these exams, then you can access these free resources here and take them as many times as you like: http://bit.ly/1svmmIn. Let us know when they help you to pass the real thing!

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

Most of the changes to the Product List this month concern Azure and Online Services, with just some new server licences for AX 2012 R3 representing the changes to on-premises software.

Azure Services

  • From 1st August 2014 Azure is available to be purchased through Open and Open Value agreements and the Product List is updated accordingly with relevant information on pages 45/46. If you need more information and some resources then search for Azure on this blog
  • There are new sections added for Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery (see page 46) and what’s notable about these consumption-based services is that customers must make an initial purchase of the service rather than using any existing Azure Monetary Commitment funds. However, the existing Monetary Commitment MAY be applied to any usage that exceeds the initial quantity ordered. Find out more about Azure Backup here (http://bit.ly/1B5QPAH) and Azure Site Recovery here (http://bit.ly/1kTogBN)

New “From SA” USLs

  • There are three new “From SA” USLs added. What are these? I hear you cry! Well, they’re aimed at customers who have active SA on fully paid licences who want to transition to an Online Service – perhaps they have Core CAL and want to go to E1, for example. The three new USLs are for E1, E3 and E4 and there’s an eligibility table on page 55. Three other things to note: these USLs are cheaper than a full E1, E3 or E4 USL; you do need a Bridge CAL too; and you can only purchase them at EA Anniversary or Renewal
  • There has been a similar SKU for Office Professional Plus before – the Office 365 ProPlus SA Transition USL and this is now renamed to the Office 365 ProPlus From SA USL with details on page 52

Dynamics AX 2012 R3

  • There are a couple of new server products: Store Server and Standard Commerce Server Core. They’re listed on page 17 of the Product List, but for more information see the July 2014 PUR overview on this blog
  • There are some interesting Upgrade Rights added for customers who have active SA on AX 2012 licences. They’re detailed on page 18 and you’ll see why I said they’re “interesting” – for example, 1 AX 2012 Server licence plus 3 Enterprise Device CALs gives you 4 Standard Commerce Server Core licences…

Planning Services

  • Some Planning Services have been “Office 365-ified”, so customers may now use certain Planning Services engagements to plan for an Office 365 deployment. Page 67 shows that Desktop Deployment Planning Services, SharePoint Deployment Planning Services, and Lync & Exchange Deployment Planning Services have been adjusted to include this

Enterprise Strategy Engagements

And finally, in the words of the Product List itself: “An update has been made to the Enterprise Strategy Program Overview section” and you’ll see that the section starting on page 79 has been re-worked

Azure in Open Licensing Calculator

There’s a brand new Azure in Open Licensing Calculator. If you’re a partner and you want to help your customers to estimate the amount of Azure credit they’re going to need, then this is worth a look.

Get it here: http://bit.ly/1AU4z1k.