Category Archives: Uncategorized

Private Azure Marketplace

Microsoft announce the general availability of the Private Azure Marketplace.

This tenant level feature is built on top of the Azure Marketplace and enables an administrator to add apps from the Azure Marketplace into the Private Azure Marketplace that comply with their organisation’s policies and standards, thus making it easy for users to deploy these pre-approved apps within the organisation. Note that Microsoft apps are automatically added to the Private Azure Marketplace.

Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/30sADwz, and instructions on setting up the Private Azure Marketplace here: https://bit.ly/2J4wUjb.

Office LTSC

Microsoft announce that a commercial preview of Office LTSC, the next perpetual release of Office, will be available in April 2021.

This release of Office will align with Windows 10 LTSC for use in specific, limited scenarios, and will be supported for five years. It will be released in the second half of 2021 and there will be a 10% price increase. Microsoft confirm that there will be another release in the future too.

There are also plans to release Office 2021 for personal and small business users later in the year, and there are no plans for a price increase for these products.

Find the announcement article here: http://bit.ly/3aKyTEC.

Power Automate Desktop

Microsoft announce that Power Automate Desktop is now available to Windows 10 users at no additional cost.

It’s a free download and enables users to automate tasks by recording actions such as mouse and keyboard clicks across multiple applications, and then replaying them when needed. Users who then want to share flows across an organisation and to take advantage of additional capabilities will need to be licensed with a Power Automate with Attended RPA user licence.

This currently costs $40 per user per month, but there’s a promotion beginning on 1 April, 2021 where the licence (as long as a minimum of 5,000 are purchased) will only cost $15 per user per month until 30 September, 2021.

Find the announcement with links to download Power Automate Desktop and to access further information, here: http://bit.ly/2PLXLE7.

Universal Print is generally available

Microsoft announce that Universal Print is generally available.

This is a software-as-a-service printing solution that runs entirely on Microsoft Azure and eliminates the need to maintain traditional on-premises print servers or install printer drivers.

Customers with Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5, or Microsoft 365 F3, E3, E5 or Business Premium licences are already licensed for Universal Print, or there are standalone Universal Print licences available.

Each licence includes 5 print jobs per month which are pooled at the tenant level, and if additional capacity is needed there are Add-ons available providing a further 500 print jobs per month.

Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/30hyRy6, and a useful page on the licensing here: http://bit.ly/38kUiD0.

Power BI Premium per User

Microsoft announce that Power BI Premium per User will become generally available on 2 April, 2021.

There will be a standalone licence costing $20 per user per month, or an Add-on for users already licensed with a Power BI Pro or Office 365/Microsoft 365 E5 licence costing $10 per user per month.

Find the announcement article, which also details Power BI Premium features and capabilities, here: http://bit.ly/3rm1B4E, and a useful FAQ on the Power BI Premium per User licence here: https://bit.ly/3j1YNWc.

Microsoft 365 plan comparison document

There’s an updated (March 2021) Microsoft 365 plan comparison document, which is great for seeing which components are included in the different Microsoft 365 offerings.

The document also includes the new pricing for Microsoft 365 F1 (now $2.25 from a previous price of $4 per user per month) and Microsoft F3 (now $8 rather than $10).

Find this updated document here: https://bit.ly/2LG4gqi.

Windows Server 2022

Microsoft announce that Windows Server 2022 is now in preview. It will be the next release in the Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) and will be generally available later this year. Organisations wanting to try out the new Windows Server 2022 preview can either download it, or try it out on Azure.

Find the announcement, with download links, here: http://bit.ly/3rsbo9q.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (February 2021) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide.

There are a couple of products removed (Customer Service Insights and the Virtual Agent for Customer Service) since they’re not available as standalone products any more, a name change (IoT Intelligence becomes Sensor Data Intelligence Add-in) and a couple of corrections.

Find the updated Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/3jdEgin, and refer to the Change Log on page 56 for detail on the changes.

Extension of Audio Conferencing promotions

In September 2020, Microsoft announced two promotions which entitle Enterprise Agreement and CSP customers to free Audio Conferencing licences. The changes listed on the Product Terms site for 1 February 2021 (http://bit.ly/3prduoo) confirm that these promotions are now extended to 30 June, 2021 from the previous end-date of 31 March, 2021.

Find the original announcement with details of the promotions here: https://bit.ly/33NIFkN.