Category Archives: Uncategorized

Microsoft endpoint management updates

Microsoft announce two updates for endpoint management.

Firstly, Microsoft Intune will now be the name of the endpoint management family with the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager no longer being used. Going forward, Microsoft will refer to cloud management as Microsoft Intune and on-premises management as Microsoft Configuration Manager. You can read the full article here: https://bit.ly/3gjrIbQ.

Secondly, there will be a new suite of advanced endpoint management solutions available from March 2023 for customers who have Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 or any other plan which includes a licence for Microsoft Intune. You can read the full article and find out more about the capabilities that will be included in the suite here: https://bit.ly/3TeaTOb.

Azure Hybrid Benefit for AKS

Microsoft announce that there will be a new benefit for customers who have Windows Server licenses with active SA or bought as Software Subscriptions through CSP. This is an extension to the Azure Hybrid Benefit and will allow customers to use the Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) on Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI at no extra cost.

You can find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3S4ldHf, and this page has a great diagram explaining all the different flavours of the Azure Hybrid Benefit and how they might work together: https://bit.ly/3Te7A9G.

New Microsoft Viva offerings

Microsoft announce two new apps for Viva.

Firstly, there will be Viva Pulse to empower leaders to seek regular and confidential feedback about their team’s experience, which will sit alongside company-wide engagement tools like Glint, which itself will come to Viva next year.

Secondly, there will be Viva Amplify to help leaders to get their message across and energise their people. Both of these apps will be included within the existing Viva Suite when they’re available.

Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3Twys4E, and find out more about the new apps and other new functionality in the “Viva Innovation Brochure” here: https://bit.ly/3MFc3Qg.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (October 2022) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. The main change is for the inclusion of Viva Sales in Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Premium licences – see our blog for more information on Viva Sales: https://bit.ly/3Dfl93j.

Other changes include confirmation that Sales Professional users are not entitled to use the Sales Hub application (page 25) and a simplification of the “Microsoft Relationship Sales solution Plus” name to “Microsoft Relationship Sales” (page 60).

Get this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3UYisKa.

General Availability of Teams Phone Mobile

Microsoft announce the General Availability of Teams Phone Mobile, previously known as Operator Connect Mobile, which gives users a single, business-provided number for Teams and their mobile phone.

From a licensing perspective users will need to be licensed for Teams Phone and will also need to have the $0 Teams Phone Mobile Add-on licence assigned to them.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3yO1aGi.

Availability of Microsoft eCDN

Microsoft announce that Microsoft eCDN is available from 1 September, 2022. eCDN stands for Enterprise Content Delivery Network and the product is designed to enhance live video streaming across an organisation.

It’s a WebRT-based solution that leverages peer-to-peer streaming technology so that rather than every viewer of a video stream pulling the video from the original source, they can also source the video stream from other viewers within the same local network. This alleviates the overall load on the corporate network for company-wide training and global events.

Licensing-wise, it’s a User Subscription License costing $0.50 per user per month with the recommendation being that all users in a tenant are licensed for optimal experience.

Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3CzC0fu.

Changes to Teams Rooms licensing

Microsoft update the licensing for Teams Rooms from 1 September, 2022. Previously there were Teams Rooms Standard and Teams Rooms Premium licences costing $15 and $50 per device per month respectively, with the biggest difference between the SKUs being the Microsoft managed services element.

Now there’s a choice of Teams Rooms Basic or Teams Rooms Pro. Teams Rooms Basic is a free SKU, with a basic set of features, which customers can use for up to 25 devices. Teams Rooms Pro is $40 per room per month with the whole feature set including support for Teams Panels and dual screens. Note also that the Microsoft managed services element is being removed to enable partners to provide complete services around meeting room management, supported by AI services.

For more details, and links to further information, this Microsoft blog post is a great place to start: https://bit.ly/3BjtJeS. If you want a summary of the latest Teams Rooms hardware innovation, then this is a useful page: https://bit.ly/3CKVKwW, and there’s a note at the bottom indicating that there’ll be a further Teams Shared Device licence in a few months to cover certain use cases on Teams Displays and Teams Panels.

Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure Stack HCI

Microsoft introduce a new benefit for customers with Windows Server Datacenter licences with SA purchased through an Enterprise Agreement. It’s an extension to the Azure Hybrid Benefit and waives the fees for the Azure Stack HCI host service and Windows Server guest subscriptions, as long as all physical cores of the Azure Stack HCI cluster are licensed with Windows Server Datacenter Core licences.

You can find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3S4ldHf, and this is a good place to find out more, such as how the benefit is activated: https://bit.ly/3yOX54F.