Microsoft announce Windows 365 Cloud PC, which will securely stream the whole Windows experience, including apps and data, to any device. Windows 365 will be available from 2 August, 2021 and be licensed via per user per month pricing, with a choice of two editions: Business and Enterprise.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3kfTg1Q.
Microsoft announce that a lightweight version of the Visio web app will start to become available to users licensed with Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, Office 365 E1/E3/E5/F3, Microsoft 365 F3/E3/E5, and Microsoft 365 Apps for business/enterprise licences.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3xCwrcl.
Microsoft announce some changes to Power Apps licensing and pricing, effective from 1 October, 2021.
Firstly, the Power Apps Per User plan is reduced from $40 to $20 per user per month, and the Per App plan is reduced from $10 to $5 per user per month. The Per App plan also changes from licensing a user to access 2 apps and 1 portal in a single environment, to licensing a single app or portal.
There are also additional tiers available for customers buying large numbers of Power Apps Portals Logins, and the promotional offers reducing the Per User plan to $12 a month (5,000 licence minimum) and the Per App plan to $3 a month (200 licence minimum) are extended until the end of September 2021.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/2T8tuS1.
Microsoft announce Windows 11, available later in 2021. There aren’t any licensing implications – if your PC will support Windows 11 then it’s a free upgrade. However, there are changes to the servicing and support schedules.
Security updates remain on a monthly cadence, but feature updates will be delivered just once a year in the second half of the year. In terms of support, Home and Pro editions will receive 24 months of support from the General Availability date, and Enterprise edition will be supported for 36 months.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3eaECF1, and servicing and support information here: https://bit.ly/3AWKZ8X.
Visual Studio administrators assign Visual Studio subscriptions to users so that they can take advantage of all the benefits associated with a subscription. There’s a handy guide for administrators with lots of links to useful training and documentation resources which you can find here: https://bit.ly/3wzq6OA.
Microsoft acquired Cloudyn in July 2017 and have spent the last four years integrating much of the Cloudyn capabilities into the Azure Cost Management tools. Cloudyn will now retire on 30 June, 2021.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3zF3g9Y.
Microsoft announce the availability of Scheduler, a new Microsoft 365 service to make scheduling meetings easier and faster. Users can now ask Cortana in their own words to schedule a meeting whether that’s with internal attendees, external people, or a mixture of both. Meeting organizers need to be licensed with a Scheduler licence which is priced at $10 per user per month and requires one of a whole host of qualifying licences – essentially Exchange Online Plan 1 or any plan which includes it.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/35CH0zJ, and the Product Terms page with the list of qualifying licences here: https://bit.ly/2OFt7vB.
Microsoft announce that Windows Virtual Desktop is now Azure Virtual Desktop. There are a whole host of new features in preview, as well as a new licensing option. Historically, users licensed with Microsoft 365 E3/E5/F3/Business Premium or Windows 10 E3/E5 or Windows 10 VDA E3/E5 licenses have rights to the service for virtual desktops and apps. Now, there’s a per user option for external users which is a monthly per user price of $5.50 for apps, or $10 for apps + desktops, with a no-cost promotional period from 14 July, 2021 to 31 December, 2021.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3v4aa56.
There’s an updated (June 2021) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. The update is mainly a few clarifications/additions around security roles and default capacities, and “Call Intelligence” is rebranded to “Conversation Intelligence”. The Change Log on page 59 has the full details, and you can find the guide itself here: https://bit.ly/3uXqKDN.
There’s an updated (June 2021) Power Platform Licensing Guide.
There are just two minor updates, the first being that the availability of the Power Apps Portals login Tier 3 Add-on is no longer just restricted to CSP, and secondly, Process Advisor is added.
Process Advisor helps organisations decide which parts of their processes it would be best to automate, and it’s licensed via a Power Automate per User licence – you can find out more about Process Advisor here: https://bit.ly/3g1GotB, and the updated Power Platform Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/2Rv0KSx.