There’s an updated (December 2019) Power Platform Licensing Guide. The main update is for the newly available Microsoft Power Virtual Agents – see our blog for an overview of the product and how it’s licensed: http://bit.ly/2rKcow9.
Other updates include the introduction of a Power Apps per App plan student licence, and name changes for PowerApps and Flow to Power Apps and Power Automate. Find this guide here: http://bit.ly/PowAppsLGDec2019.
Microsoft announce the preview of Azure spot virtual machines. Azure Spot VMs let you access unused Azure compute capacity at large discounts compared to pay-as-you-go prices. These VMs are evicted when Azure no longer has available compute capacity and must reallocate its resources. At that point, the VM is deallocated and no additional VM-related changes are incurred, but other resources, such as disk or network, continue to run and accrue charges.
Ideal workloads for Azure Spot VMs include:
Azure Spot VMs are created in the same way as regular VMs, but a flag is set at the time of creation, designating it as a Spot VM. At this point in the preview the pricing is fixed for a Spot VM, but in the future the pricing will vary based on capacity for a particular VM in a particular region. You’ll be able to choose your eviction terms: when Azure needs the capacity, or when the variable pricing reaches a maximum price that you have set.
As a comparison of pricing, for an Fsv2 VM, the pay-as-you-go price per hour is $0.163, while the Spot price is $0.065 per hour, with 1-year and 3-year Reserved Instances at $0.142 and $0.1227 per hour respectively.
Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/36O659J and there’s a useful FAQ at the bottom of this page: http://bit.ly/2tsxXBO.
Microsoft announce the General Availability of Microsoft Power Virtual Agents. This offering allows the creation of chatbots using a guided, no-code graphical interface, which can be further enhanced by building custom workflows with Power Automate, or by using the Microsoft Bot Framework for more complex scenarios.
From a licensing perspective, it’s licensed per tenant at a cost of $1,000 for 2,000 chatbot sessions a month, with an add-on available for a further 1,000 sessions at $450 per month. In addition, there’s a 60-day trial available. Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/2qLkMe6.
The set of features that make up Azure Cost Management is constantly evolving and you can find the latest news from the ACM team here: http://bit.ly/38xdT13.
If you’re newer to ACM then there are some new videos: a shorter one here: http://bit.ly/2PjyRZH and a more detailed one here: http://bit.ly/34kPHvs.
There’s an updated (December 2019) Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality Licensing Guide. There aren’t major changes, just the renaming of PowerApps and Flow to Power Apps and Power Automate, and you can find this guide here: http://bit.ly/MixRealDecLG2019.
Microsoft announce some changes to Dynamics 365 Talent. Firstly, they’re rebranding “Talent” to “Human Resources” and that will be effective from 1 February, 2020. Secondly, the Talent Attract and Onboard apps are being retired on 1 February, 2022. They’re intending to align future investments with the solutions offered by LinkedIn, and suggest that existing Talent Attract/Onboard customers may want to transition to LinkedIn Talent Hub.
Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/2PJueXN and more detail on retirement timescales for Talent Attract/Onboard here: http://bit.ly/2sjqrZx.
There’s an updated (December 2019) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. It includes confirmation that users licensed with Sales Professional may use Marketing Campaigns and Lists, and that while users with Team Members licences have access to the Dynamics 365 Mobile app, they don’t have access to offline capabilities. And finally, the Power Platform family completes its round of name changes with PowerApps going to Power Apps, and Flow to Power Automate.
Find the updated guide here: http://bit.ly/D365LGDec2019.
There’s a slightly updated SQL Server 2019 Licensing Guide with some minor corrections and the inclusion of CSP as a purchasing channel. Find the guide here: http://bit.ly/SQL2019LGNov-2.
Microsoft announce that Azure Dedicated Host is generally available. Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/352d920 and a reminder of the licensing on our blog: http://bit.ly/2OJ5Nwx.
Microsoft introduced Microsoft 365 Business Voice in November 2019 for the UK and Canada, with plans for global availability in 2020. This is a single Add-on licence which includes access to Phone System, Audio Conferencing, and a Domestic Calling Plan, and can be added to an Office 365 plan (Business Essentials, Business Premium, A1, E1, A3, E3) or a Microsoft 365 plan (Business, A3, E3). It’s limited to up to 300 users in an organisation, and the price per month is £12.00 per user.
Find the original announcement here: http://bit.ly/2Yt80gU and a useful overview page here: http://bit.ly/2Yw4LoR.