The May 2020 Product Terms is updated for the retirement of the Windows Thin PC SA benefit corresponding to the end of support for Windows 7. Find the relevant text on page 6 and download the latest Product Terms document here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Azure Cost Management: enhanced budget capabilities
Microsoft announce that budget evaluations in Azure Cost Management now include Reservations and Marketplace purchases rather than just usage information.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/2KWjqDW, some examples on how you might implement the new features here: https://bit.ly/2WgjUtO, and a tutorial on creating budgets here: https://bit.ly/2Whw8lU.
Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection
Originally called Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection and known mainly as being the difference between Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and E5, Microsoft Defender ATP is now ready (from a licensing perspective) to provide an Endpoint Protection Platform for both client and server devices. If you’re new to Microsoft Defender ATP then this is a good overview video (https://bit.ly/2ynwvmP) to give you a flavour of the protection, detection and response capabilities.
And so to the licensing, starting with client devices. Microsoft Defender ATP is still included in Windows 10 Enterprise E5, the Windows 10 Enterprise E3 to E5 Step-up licence, as well as Microsoft 365 E5 Security, and Microsoft 365 E5 User SLs. What’s more recent is that there’s now also a standalone User SL available which can be purchased to protect Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Pro devices, as well as Mac devices. It’s available in the EA and through CSP, and covers the licensed user for up to 5 devices for about $5 per user per month.
From a server perspective, there’s another new licence – MDATP for Servers – which protects a server VM for, again, about $5 per VM per month. Customers wishing to buy this licence to protect servers must meet some minimum requirements first – they must have a minimum of 50 client MDATP licences, which can be any combination of the licences mentioned above. Microsoft recommend MDATP for Servers as a solution likely to appeal to customers with on-premises virtual machines, and continue to recommend Azure Security Center Standard as the preferred solution for VMs running in Azure. This is around $15 per VM per month and includes all of the Microsoft Defender ATP capability as well as a whole host of additional Azure services.
The May 2020 Product Terms has the relevant licensing rules if you want to check them out on pages 46 (client) and 75 (server). Get the latest Product Terms documents here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.
Microsoft 365 Compliance changes
Microsoft 365 Compliance has been a cost-effective way of acquiring Office 365 Advanced Compliance and Azure Information Protection Premium Plan 2 at a cost of $10 per user per month, but from 1 April, 2020 there are changes.
The two Microsoft 365 Compliance components (themselves collections of services) are retired, and replaced with three “mini suites” which repackage the existing Compliance offerings into different groups and add some new functionality too. The three new mini suites are: eDiscovery and Audit, Information Protection and Governance, and Insider Risk Management, priced at $7 per user per month for Information Protection and Governance and $6 per user per month for the other two. Microsoft 365 Compliance remains the way to access the services of all three mini suites at $10 per user per month.
These suites can be added on to a Microsoft 365 E3 licence (as you would perhaps expect), but also to a whole host of other licences, and page 60 of the April 2020 Product Terms document lists the various prerequisites.
The compliance offerings are typically tenant-level services and the licensing guidance for tenant-level services is updated here: https://bit.ly/35gbdUv where you’ll also find a useful Compliance Licensing Comparison document detailing which services are licensed by which EMS, Office 365 or Microsoft 365 plan. This document is available as a PDF document (https://bit.ly/3aoaQbc) or Excel file (https://bit.ly/2zCCK6C).
Azure DevOps Services billing FAQs
If you’ve got a question about how the Azure DevOps Services are billed then this FAQ is worth a read: https://bit.ly/2RvUDKt. There’s also a section on multi-organisation billing which was recently announced here: https://bit.ly/2yNdPwM, and enables businesses with more than one Azure DevOps organisation to pay for each user once for all organisations under the same billing Azure Subscription.
Dynamics 365 Business Central Licensing Guide
There’s an updated (April 2020) Dynamics 365 Business Central Licensing Guide.
The main change is the inclusion of the Sales and Customer Service Professional Attach licences that may be acquired and assigned to either Business Central Essentials or Premium users. Find this detailed on pages 2 and 13. As usual there’s a full Change Log on page 14.
Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/D365BCLGApr2020
Expansion of FastTrack for Azure
Microsoft announce that FastTrack for Azure is now available through the Middle East and Africa from 18 March, 2020 (https://bit.ly/3edU5Tn) and through Central and Eastern Europe from 31 March, 2020 (https://bit.ly/2K9djff).
There’s now availability through all Azure regions with just a few exceptions that you can find detailed here: https://bit.ly/2K9djff.
Find out more about FastTrack for Azure here: http://bit.ly/2kriyNO.
Power Apps Licensing Guide
There’s an updated (April 2020) Power Apps Licensing Guide primarily updated for the availability of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) SKUs on pages 11 and 12. There’s a detailed Change Log on page 24, and you can find this updated guide here: ttps://bit.ly/PowAppsLGApr2020
April 2020 Online Services Terms updates
The very useful table on the last page of the Online Services Terms document which shows you which components are included in which Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plans is updated for April 2020.
The main changes are for the revised Firstline Worker plans with Office 365 F1 renamed to Office 365 F3, Microsoft 365 F1 renamed to Microsoft 365 F3, and the new Microsoft 365 F1 added. OneDrive for Business Plans 1 and 2 are added while some other components are removed, including the now discontinued Azure Information Protection Plan 2.
Find the Online Services Terms documents here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.
Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide
There’s an updated (April 2020) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide with three main changes.
Firstly, there’s extra detail added to the Team Members use rights table on pages 32/33.
Then there’s a new Dynamics 365 IoT Intelligence Scenario section on pages 18/19 detailing the licensing for this new capability – the ability, for example, for a manufacturing system to detect machine failures through IoT signals and to generate an alert.
Finally, the Base and Attach SKU table is updated on page 56 for the ability to use Sales/Customer Service Professional Attach licences with Business Central Base licences. As usual there’s a full change log on page 57.
Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/D365LGApr2020