Category Archives: Uncategorized

Azure Reserved Instances and Server Subscriptions

Microsoft announce that Reserved Instances are immediately available through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and that Server Subscriptions will be available in the near future. These two offerings will be perfect partners since they will allow customers to enjoy the very best prices for virtual machines running in Azure.

Reserved Instances are a way for customers to pay for the compute part of a virtual machine and Server Subscriptions for Windows Server and SQL Server will enable customers to acquire a subscription for the software to run in their virtual machines. Both offerings are paid for upfront for a 1 or 3-year term, and used together may enable customers to save up to 80% compared to the price of an equivalent virtual machine paid for on a consumption basis.

There are plenty of resources available if you want to find out more and this page (http://bit.ly/2jYx23P) includes links to an FAQ, an overview presentation, a webinar and a sales sheet. It’s definitely worth a look!

Understanding Reserved Instance Pre-Payment

If you’re running full-time virtual machines in Azure then pre-paying for the compute power via an Azure Reserved Instance is a good way of saving money. The pre-paid amount is automatically applied to your running virtual machines and if you want to find out more about how this (apparently magic) process works, then this article is worth a read: http://bit.ly/2HKvLsA.

Dynamics 365 Business Central Licensing Guide

There’s a brand new (March 2018) Dynamics 365 Business Central Licensing Guide covering the licensing of this new ERP solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Use it to find out about the different licence types (Essential, Premium and Team Members), licensing external users (included in the internal users’ licence rights), and whether users are allowed access to on-premises servers (they’re not). Find the guide at the bottom of the Dynamics 365 section in our Licensing Guides emporium: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s a new (March 2018) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide covering the licensing of the online versions of the products and incorporating the new Sales Professional User SL and how the new Dynamics 365 for Marketing app is licensed.

From a Dynamics 365 for Sales perspective the new Sales Professional User SL gives access to a subset of the functionality that the Enterprise User SL does, and pages 10/11 give an overview comparison between the two licences while a new Appendix C on page 34 expands on this. It’s also worth knowing that the Sales Enterprise and Sales Professional application modules may not be deployed on the same instance, but may be deployed on the same tenant, and pages 9/10 elaborate on this with some useful diagrams and tables.

You’ll find detail about Dynamics 365 for Marketing on page 10 where it’s explained that this new app is licensed per organisation and is based on the number of contacts in the Customer Engagement database. You can license Dynamics 365 for Marketing as a standalone app or as an add-on to either the Customer Engagement Plan or one of the Customer Engagement apps. In all cases you get an entitlement of 10,000 contacts, and can buy additional contacts in increments of 5,000 if required. The Customer Engagement Plan Applications Use Rights table in Appendix B on page 28 has been updated to include the Marketing app too.

Other changes in this licensing guide include the addition of some useful tables: find additional services and software on page 20, and default instance and infrastructure capability for the Customer Engagement apps on page 22, and for the Unified Operations Plan apps on page 23.

As usual, this guide is added to our ever-growing collection of Microsoft Licensing Guides hosted here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.

Dynamics 365 for Marketing

Dynamics 365 for Marketing is available. If you want an overview of what this new application does, then this page is useful, with both an overview video and further written detail and pictures: http://bit.ly/2EvrzJQ. From a licensing perspective, it’s licensed across an organisation as a standalone application for $1,500 per month for up to 10,000 contacts, or as an add-on to the Customer Engagement Plan or one of the Customer Engagement apps for $750 per month. An additional 5,000 contacts can be added for $250 per month. Find the pricing details here: http://bit.ly/2JuuNRF.

Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional User SLs

A new Professional User SL is available for Dynamics 365 for Sales users who need to focus on sales execution activities such as lead and opportunity management, and managing products, price lists, quotes, and orders. The existing Enterprise User SL is still available and adds additional functionality such as Social Engagement and Gamification. The Professional User SL is $65 per user per month compared to the $95 Enterprise User SL, and you can find a detailed comparison of the plans here: http://bit.ly/2IB02Js.

Microsoft Imagine Guide

The Microsoft Imagine program gives students access to developer tools at no cost. If you want an overview of the available subscriptions and how to enrol, renew or access a subscription, then there’s a “Microsoft Imagine Guide for Academic Volume Licensing Customers” which could be useful.

Find it in the Volume Licensing Programs section of our Licensing Guides emporium: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.

Azure Services Available in CSP

Not all Azure services are yet available in CSP and if you want to check exact availability then here’s a useful article to peruse: http://bit.ly/2q8aTmy. It covers availability of the general Azure services, as well as what can be purchased through the Visual Studio Marketplace and charged to a CSP account, and which Azure Marketplace items are available in CSP Subscriptions.

Qualified Educational User Definition Document

There’s an updated (March 2018) Qualified Educational User Definition document. CSP is now included as an eligible program for certain educational users and, given the new Microsoft licensing options for charities, charitable organisations are no longer eligible to buy through the academic programs. These documents vary by region so make sure that you download the right document for your geography here: http://bit.ly/2G9TUHl.