Category Archives: Uncategorized

Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents

There are updated (June 2025) Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents with some small changes getting everything up to date: adding in a row for Microsoft Security Exposure Management, for example.

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/43CpQQk), one for Enterprise customers (https://bit.ly/45Cb4M4), and one for Education customers (https://bit.ly/4jxBG4j), and still more for specialist US customers – one for GCC (https://bit.ly/3FEFUcq), one for GCC High (https://bit.ly/3ZH8yAn) and the final one for DoD (https://bit.ly/4kHl3EV).

And, if you’re a partner, we do have a June 2025 Excel version of these files. Drop us an email on info@licensingschool.co.uk from your work email address and we’ll send it on.

Free SQL offers in Azure

Microsoft expand their free SQL offers in Azure. Back in February 2025 they launched the free Azure SQL Database offer which allows you to create up to 10 General Purpose databases in each of your Azure Subscriptions with the first 100,000 vCore seconds, 32 GB of data, and 32 GB of backup storage free per month for the lifetime of the Subscription. The new offer launched in May 2025 is for one Azure SQL Managed Instance in each of your Azure Subscriptions and gives you 720 vCore hours of compute and 64 GB of storage every month for 12 months.

Find the Azure SQL Database offer announcement here: https://bit.ly/4mW016N, and the Azure SQL Managed Instance offer announcement here: https://bit.ly/4l4T4id.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise licensing guidance document

There’s an updated (May 2025) Microsoft 365 Enterprise licensing guidance document from Microsoft. There aren’t major changes to the content – and that’s a shame. When it was last updated in February 2024, we highlighted the fact that there were too many errors and chunks of out-of-date information. As time has gone on, the information is even more out-of-date and, yes, there are more errors.

For those of us who nevertheless like a complete set of Microsoft’s documentation, find this guide here: https://bit.ly/4kFhwGG.

Microsoft 365 Apps and Windows 10 end of support​

Generally speaking, the Microsoft 365 Apps need to run on a supported operating system to receive security updates. However, Microsoft announce that they will continue to provide security updates for the Microsoft 365 Apps running on Windows 10 for three years after Windows 10 reaches end of support in October 2025.

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

Non-profit grant discontinuations​

Microsoft announce that the free Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Office 365 E1 licences will be discontinued for non-profit customers from 1 July, 2025. There’s a blog article here: https://bit.ly/4mrgyPY to help customers move to Microsoft 365 Business Basic, where the grant of 300 free licences remains, and there’s a partner FAQ here: https://bit.ly/4mqobpC.

Downgrade Rights licensing guidance

There’s an updated (April 2025) Downgrade Rights licensing guidance document from Microsoft. There aren’t major changes, it’s really just updated for the latest product versions – SharePoint Server 2019 is changed to Subscription Edition, for example.

Find this updated document here: https://bit.ly/4m2CQr4.

3-year Subscriptions in CSP

Microsoft announce the intention of making 3-year terms available for Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 in CSP from 1 June, 2025. These subscriptions will be available with Teams for existing customers, and without Teams for new or existing customers who’ll also be able to buy 3-year Teams Enterprise licences, if required. There will be a minimum requirement of 100 licences for all subscriptions. In addition, Microsoft 365 E5 Security and Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance are expected to be available from 1 July, 2025

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/439eSmw, and an FAQ for partners here: https://bit.ly/4ksYJ0Y.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (May 2025) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. The major changes are the addition of a whole host of security roles for the ERP products, and clarification as to when administrators need to be licensed. Text on page 3 confirms that users with the Power Platform Administrator or Dynamics 365 Administrator role in Entra don’t require a licence, and the System Administrator role in Dataverse and Finance and Operations doesn’t require a licence to configure and administer Dynamics 365 applications.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/44lAhtU.

Azure commitment discounts

Committing to an Azure service typically gives a discount, and today there are three options for a customer: Azure Savings Plans, Azure Reservations, and Azure Pre-Purchase Plans. They all behave in slightly different ways and this article from the Microsoft FinOps blog does a nice job of explaining how they work: https://bit.ly/45iTMU3.

Microsoft Project for the web retirement​

Microsoft announce the next stage in the journey to Planner – the retirement of Project for the web in August 2025.

The announcement is here: https://bit.ly/4k6FJFW, and there’s a comprehensive FAQ here: https://bit.ly/43zxg7d for details on all the twists and turns in the (quite complicated) journey.