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Updated Visual Studio 2013 Licensing Guide
There’s a new (July 2014) version of the Visual Studio 2013 Licensing Guide. No major changes – firstly, it’s updated for SQL 2014 throughout, both in the examples used and the fact that it’s now SQL 2014 that can be used as the VS Team Foundation Server database. Then there’s a new CAL waiver when VSTFS is accessed through a pooled connection from another integration application or service. As it says in the guide: “This removes licensing friction from integrating TFS with LOB applications like customer ticketing solutions and other ALM solutions.”
Download it here: http://bit.ly/1hkf7gn.
Overview of the Changes to the July 2014 Volume Licensing Product Use Rights
There’s no one particular product that stands out this month for grabbing the lion’s share of the changes – they’re distributed over several products, so I’ve taken the liberty of listing them here in the order that I personally find them most interesting – it’s a perk of the job you know!
Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard and Datacenter – pages 25/27
- Office 365 E3 and E4 (A3/A4 and G3/G4 too) lose the rights to access Rights Management Services in Windows Server
- The Enterprise Mobility Suite USL is added as a qualifying CAL for this service
Project Server – page 35
- It’s confirmed that a Project Lite USL is included as a qualifying CAL for Project Server
SQL 2014 Enterprise Server – page 37
- That jolly useful section that detailed the idiosyncrasies of this licence has been removed and you’re now directed to the April 2014 PUR
Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Store Server – pages 33/34
- This is a new kid on the block for August 2014. It’s licensed with the Server/CAL model and the CALs are the same as those used with the AX 2012 R3 Server product
Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Standard Commerce Server Core – pages 43/44
- Best friends with the new Store Server licence above, this licence joins the select family of Core licences where the licensing rules that you’re familiar with apply
- The Retail and eCommerce Licensing Guide from Microsoft show how these products are used together to license various key scenarios: http://bit.ly/1oiTFgF
Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 – page 31
- Normally, a Forefront product would (frankly) be guaranteed bottom place on my list for interest, but I do think it’s interesting that certain new USLs have been added to FIM’s list of qualifying CALs. It seems like the Enterprise Mobility Suite is the new golden child of Microsoft licensing since that makes the list, as does the Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium USL
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 – page 38
- This product now includes rights to SQL Server 2014
- Another CAL exception is added to the list as it’s confirmed that a CAL is not required when Visual Studio Team Foundation Server is accessed through a pooled connection from another integrated application or service
Office 365 E3 for Nonprofits USLs – page 32 for example
- The list of qualifying CALs for the server products are updated to include the E3 SKU for Nonprofits. So, for example, it’s confirmed that this USL gives access to the functionality allowed by the Lync Standard and Enterprise CALs
Licensing Resources for Dynamics AX 2012 R3
There’s an updated (May 2014) Licensing Guide for Dynamics AX 2012 R3. As well as the updates you’d expect which cover the (slight) changes in R3 licensing, there are new sections added for:
- licensing Companion Apps
- running AX 2012 R3 on Azure
- the License Sizing Estimator tool (to estimate the configuration of different types of CALs that an organisation will need)
- licensing guidance for specific industries covering warehouse and transportation management, retail and e-commerce, and public sector.
Get the guide here: http://bit.ly/1nHIbCq.
Two new members of the Dynamics AX 2012 R3 family are added to the July 2014 Product Use Rights document: the Store Server licence and the Standard Commerce Server Core licence. If you’re curious about the scenarios where these licences are needed (and who wouldn’t be) then the Retail and eCommerce Licensing Guide from Microsoft is a good read as it covers the licensing requirements for traditional brick and mortar stores, Mobile POS, and eCommerce scenarios. Get the guide here: http://bit.ly/1oiTFgF.
Our MCP Exam Prep Guides
Our MCP Exam Prep Guides are now available in both print and Kindle versions on Amazon.
If you need to pass your 70-671 (http://amzn.to/1rOnDeI) or 70-672 (http://amzn.to/1nT2EWt) exams then these books may be just what you need.
Re-issued July 2014 PUR
Note that the July 2014 Product Use Rights document was re-issued in early July, so if you downloaded it on the 1st, make sure you get the latest version.
Overview of the Changes to the July 2014 Volume Licensing Product List
There aren’t a huge number of changes this month to the Product List, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to take a closer look at a couple of the products which have been removed, and to report on what’s succeeded them and how you now acquire the equivalent services.
The first to go is Forefront Online Protection for Exchange which we’ve affectionately (?) called FOPE in the past. There’s a TechNet article (http://bit.ly/1nI6Kz2) which confirms that Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is the latest version of FOPE. You can acquire a standalone User Subscription Licence for about $1 a month (http://bit.ly/1kgEl44), or page 13 of the July 2014 Product List confirms that an Enterprise CAL Suite licence with active SA includes rights to EOP.
Exchange Hosted Encryption also leaves us. This msdn page (http://bit.ly/1qFm0Ad) tells us that Office 365 Message Encryption is the new version of EHE, and an announcement on the Office Blog (http://bit.ly/1nJ8AkI) gives details on how you get rights to this message encryption service.
And this brings me to another change to be aware of this month: the service that started off as “Windows Azure Active Directory Rights Management” has had a few name changes, and this month it’s more simply known as “Microsoft Rights Management” and a User Subscription Licence for this service will give you access to Office 365 Message Encryption. However, don’t forget the new and shiny Enterprise Mobility Suite, since that’s another way to acquire rights to Microsoft Rights Management too (http://bit.ly/1mQcAK9).
Finally, there are a couple of products added – the Support offerings for Microsoft Dynamics Marketing and Microsoft Social Listening. This link in the Product List (http://bit.ly/1rJonQO) is worth a look if you need to know more about these support options.
Azure through Open: Training Calls
Microsoft Azure is available through the Open Volume Licensing programs from 1st August 2014. If you’re interested in knowing more about how it will all work, then there are some Microsoft calls for both customers and partners on 13th August 2014
For more details and to register: http://bit.ly/1pyHjhO.
MPSA: Some Key Dates
So, the retirement of Select Plus has been announced (Microsoft post – http://bit.ly/1k5EWp7) and MPSA is set to take over as the licensing program of choice for customers with 250 PCs who need a transactional agreement.
Today (July 2014) Software Assurance isn’t available in the MPSA but that’s all about to change and it WILL be available from 1 September 2014 (Microsoft post – http://bit.ly/1yLT61N).
This slide from WPC shows some other key milestones on the roadmap with Government and Academic offerings arriving in the March 2015 timeframe and Enterprise offerings sometime in Q1 of FY16.
Select Plus Retirement
Update from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference: Select Plus is to be retired.
Key dates: 1 July 2015 – Select Plus is no longer available for new agreements, and 1 July 2016 – no new purchases can be made on existing Select Plus agreements after the next agreement anniversary