Microsoft announce the retirement of SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters. Existing users will be fully supported on the platform through February 2025 with the software maintained through SQL Server cumulative updates until that time.
There’s advice for replacement and migration options for customers here: https://bit.ly/35Xiblt, and you can find the retirement announcement here: https://bit.ly/3sMVUjl.
There’s an updated (February 2022) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide.
The Finance section is updated to include the default capacity of 20,000 AI Builder credits per tenant per month (see page 18), and there’s more detail added on pages 35 and 37 for the capabilities included in Guides and Remote Assist Device licences – see our blog (https://bit.ly/3C0vRIy) if these licences are new to you.
Find the February 2022 Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/3uEes6G.
If you’ve got an EA and you use Azure then you’ve managed Enrolments, Accounts, Departments and Subscriptions in the EA Enterprise Portal (ea.azure.com). There are better facilities for Azure Cost Management in the Azure Management Portal (portal.azure.com) and there’s a new set of videos to explain how you’d manage these elements as you move over to this portal.
Find them here: Managing Enrolments (https://bit.ly/3HVCi1I), Managing Accounts (https://bit.ly/3oPazIj), Managing Departments (https://bit.ly/3rUCQz6), and Managing Subscriptions (https://bit.ly/353SKyt).
Microsoft announce that Dynamics 365 Sales Insights capabilities are added to Sales Enterprise licences. It’s not the same capacity that you’d get with a full Sales Insights licence, but Sales Enterprise-licensed users can now make use of Business Card Scanning, Conversation Intelligence, Sales Accelerator, and Lead & Opportunity Scoring.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3sj4dmR, and find details of the capacity included and how it compares to a full Sales Insights licence on page 24 of the February 2022 Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. Get that guide here: https://bit.ly/3uEes6G.
Microsoft announce the public preview of Azure Cost Management anomaly detection. This alerts you to inconsistencies in spending across an Azure Subscription to help you to identify unexpected changes in cost.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3hfOfDL.
Microsoft announce that Microsoft Cloud for Retail is generally available. This is an add-on licence with a variety of qualifying licences required, which enable different capabilities to give retailers a holistic view of their consumers with AI helping them to better understand and elevate the consumer shopping experience. It’s a tenant-wide licence available through the EA at $20,000 per month, deployable from the UK, US, Australia, Canada or Singapore.
There’s a useful datasheet here: https://bit.ly/3HXOK0K and you can find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/36cmWYx.
There’s an updated (February 2022) Power Platform Licensing Guide. There aren’t major changes, just the rebranding of Power Apps and Power Automate Capacity Add-ons to Power Platform Requests Add-ons. You can find the updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3I1DTms.
Microsoft announced back in August 2021 that Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 would be available in a couple of different ways (see our blog: https://bit.ly/3LsJmF5).
Here’s the update: in November 2021 it was made available as a separate SKU for use on up to 5 devices for $3 per user per month – this is the announcement with a useful chart comparing it to Plan 2: https://bit.ly/3u4quG7. And the second part of the plan came together in January 2022 with Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 now being automatically included in Microsoft 365 E3 licences, and you can find that announcement here: https://bit.ly/33VsPbN.
Device licences are now available for Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist. As you’d expect, there are no limits on the number of users who may use a licensed device, and all users use a shared login rather than their own credentials. Note that the Guides device licence only allows a user to operate a guide, rather than to author one, but the Remote Assist user and device licences give access to the same functionality.
You can find details on the ins and outs of assigning Guides device licences here: https://bit.ly/3uBVJZD.
The Power BI team announce a new version of Power BI Report Server.
This product facilitates the distribution of interactive Power BI reports, traditionally within the boundaries of an organisation’s firewall. It’s not available to be purchased; the rights to install and use it are granted for customers who have active SA on SQL Server Enterprise Core licences, or Server Subscriptions for SQL Server Enterprise Core licences, or who have purchased Power BI Premium P SKUs.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3o0MRsd.