Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s a new (October 2018) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide which reflects the changes introduced with the Fall Update. There are changes to Team Members rights, Marketing contacts, and the minimum number of licences required for the included Dynamics 365 portal, and some new SKUs: Customer Service Professional, Microsoft Relationship Sales Solution/Solution Plus, Unified Order Operations – Order Lines, and Talent Comprehensive Hiring.

Find the guide here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides, and refer to page 1 for a summary table of changes.

New Applications for Dynamics 365

Microsoft announce new AI and mixed reality business applications for Dynamics 365. The next major release to the Dynamics products will be available on 1 October, 2018 and will include a new class of AI applications to help customers with decision making and to enable them to take informed actions. The new AI apps will be available for Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service and Market Insights. Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Layout, mixed reality applications that use Microsoft HoloLens, will also be available in the same timeframe. Find the announcement and watch some videos of these new products in action here: http://bit.ly/2O0KRzC.

SQL Server in Azure: IaaS or PaaS?

The Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server allows you to choose where you use a SQL Server licence: either on-premises or in Azure. Not only that, you’re allowed to choose between an Azure virtual machine (IaaS) or the Azure SQL Database service (PaaS). This article is useful if you’re interested in an overview of the business motivations for choosing one Azure option over another: http://bit.ly/SQLOptions. Customers are eligible for the Azure Hybrid Benefit by having active Software Assurance on their licences or buying a Server Subscription.

Microsoft Stream Licensing

Microsoft Stream – a cloud-based enterprise video service – is available as a Plan 1 User SL ($3 per month) or Plan 2 ($5 per month). This page (http://bit.ly/2phNAqx) is useful for comparing the features of the two plans, but many Office 365 plans already include rights to Stream, the exact details of which are shown here: http://bit.ly/2ox1TXB. This page also explains how Stream storage works: each tenant receives 500 GB of storage and an additional 0.5 GB per licensed user, with the exception of Office 365 F1 users. Further Stream storage is available as an Add-on licence.

Changes to Azure Meter Names

Microsoft announce changes to the Azure meter names to make them more consistent and easier to understand. This page (http://bit.ly/2x9ShH9) gives some examples of old and new naming conventions for virtual machines, and you can also download a detailed spreadsheet that contains all meters and their before/after attribute values. This list will be refreshed each month until all changes are implemented by the first week of October 2018.

Office Connectivity Support for Office 365 Services

Microsoft announce that Office 2016 will continue to be able to connect to Office 365 services through October 2023. The previous support policy mandated that after 13 October, 2020 customers would be required to have either Office 365 ProPlus or Office 2019 to connect to these services. Find the announcement towards the bottom of this page: http://bit.ly/2N3kqty.

Support for Office 365 ProPlus on Windows

Microsoft announce some extensions to the support for Office 365 ProPlus on various versions of Windows:

  • Office 365 ProPlus will be supported on Windows 8.1 through January 2023, which is the end of support date for Windows 8.1
  • Office 365 ProPlus will be supported on Windows 7 through January 2023 if the customer has purchased Windows 7 Enterprise Security Updates (see our blog post: http://bit.ly/2N1uwuM)
  • Office 365 ProPlus will be supported on Windows Server 2016 until October 2025

Find the announcement towards the bottom of this page: http://bit.ly/2N3kqty.

Windows Server 2019 Essentials

Microsoft announce that there will be a Windows Server 2019 Essentials edition, released later this year along with the Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2019. There are no changes to the licensing (it’s a single Server licence that includes access for up to 25 users/50 devices) and it will be supported as a Long Term Servicing Channel release. In addition, Microsoft state the strong possibility that this could be the last version of Windows Server Essentials. Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/2wWprZO.