InfoPath is at the end of its, er, path. Microsoft announce that InfoPath 2013 will be the last release of the desktop client and the InfoPath Forms Services in SharePoint Server 2013 is the last release of that technology. Both will be supported until 2023 and Microsoft expect to make announcements on the future of Office forms at the SharePoint Conference later this year. Read the full blog post here: http://bit.ly/1kfnAoa
Microsoft Announce Project Lite
Microsoft announce Project Lite which will be available on 1 May 2014. It’s a cloud offering designed for project team members to do things such as updating tasks and entering timesheet information and will be priced at $7 per user/month, as an alternative to the full-blown Project Online which is currently $33 per user/month. http://bit.ly/N0FRIj
The Online Services Use Rights (OLSUR) – what sort of questions can it answer for you?
The Online Services Use Rights document has been around a while but it’s this month that it’s really come of age with the bulk of the use rights for the Online Services products being moved exclusively to it from the PUR. So, given that you probably don’t want to read this tome from start to finish, when’s it going to be handy for you in your licensing life? Here are ten questions that I think it’ll answer for you:
1. Can Online Services be used for an evaluation period?
No. Licences must be acquired to use Online Services for evaluation purposes – with the exception of Forefront Online Protection for Exchange. (Pages 8/18)
2. Does the 90 day rule apply to re-assigning USLs and DSLs?
Yes, with the usual exceptions of covering a user’s absence or the unavailability of a device that is out of service. (Page 9)
3. Does an Office 365 ProPlus USL allow use in an RDS scenario?
Yes. One of a user’s five activations may be used on a network server with the Remote Desktop Services role enabled. (Page 14)
4. How many smartphone devices can a user with an Office 365 ProPlus or E3/E4 USL use Office Mobile on?
Up to five. (Page 13)
5. Does an Office 365 ProPlus USL include Commercial Use Rights for Office Home and Student 2013 RT?
Yes. (Page 14)
6. Can a user licensed with a Project Pro or Visio Pro for Office 365 USL use the software on a device that has been activated by another user under a different USL?
Yes. (Page 14)
7. Project Online requires the use of SharePoint Online Plan 2 – does this need to be acquired separately?
No. SharePoint Online Plan 2 is commissioned as part of the Project Online service and, as you’d expect, may only be used to support Project Online. (Page 23)
8. Do users licensed with Lync Online Plan 1 USLs need further licences to attend a web conference?
No. (Page 19)
9. If a Windows Intune with Windows Desktop Operating System licence has been bought out, may it be transferred to another device?
No. (Page 9)
10. Can the Windows Intune with Windows Desktop Operating System licence be used in a Windows To Go deployment?
Yes. (Page 32)
Overview of the Changes to the January 2014 Volume Licensing Product Use Rights
It’s Online Services and SA benefits that share the headlines as the key changes in the PUR this quarter. For Online Services the big news is that ALL of the use rights for these products have been moved into the Online Services Use Rights document. This is known as the OLSUR (how DO you say that?) and we’ll focus on the useful information you can find there in a later blog post.
As far as SA benefits go, let’s start with the Extended Rights that have been added to the Remote Desktop Services CAL, detailed on page 69 onwards. These new rights apply to the User CAL only and essentially allow organisations with SA on an RDS CAL to access session-based desktops running on a third party’s shared servers – either through a “Licence Mobility through Software Assurance Partner” or making use of Windows Azure Platform Services. There’s confirmation that access is still allowed to an organisation’s own servers, and a very specific note that these rights do NOT allow access to VDI desktops running on the third party’s shared servers. Customers need to complete and submit a Licence Mobility Validation form to designate their third party of choice and there are instructions for this process too.
There’s a name change for another benefit – “Cold” Disaster Recovery Rights are now just Disaster Recovery Rights on page 70. Previous wording specified that the server must be turned off except for testing, patch management and disaster recovery. Now the emphasis is on when the Disaster Recovery server (or OSE) can run – DR testing for a week every 90 days, while the production server being recovered is down, and during the transfer to the DR server.
And the final change is around some wording in the Licence Mobility through Software Assurance section on page 70 onwards. There’s black and white clarification added that if you’re using System Center on your own servers to manage OSEs running in a third party’s shared servers or running System Center there to manage your own servers, then you absolutely need active SA on your Server Management Licences.
And, just for completeness, we say our final goodbyes to the GeoSynth and Vexcel products, as well as Expression Encoder Pro 4 and Groove Server 2010, and references to Team Foundation Service are updated to Visual Studio Online.
Microsoft detail their strategy for the Online Services Use Rights document
If you’ve looked at the January 2014 Product Use Rights document then you could be wondering where you now find information on products such as Yammer or Windows Intune or Office 365. The Online Services Use Rights (OLSUR) document of course. Microsoft have now consolidated all the use rights for the Online Services into this document, and they give you a high level overview of their strategy in this article: http://bit.ly/1d1lzmo.
For a more detailed insight into what you can find in this document look out for a future blog post from us.
Overview of the Changes to the January 2014 Volume Licensing Product List
If you look at the official changes in the January 2014 Product List you’d think there wasn’t much new this month, but read on for some interesting additions that go unadvertised…
Microsoft Products and Services Agreement
- Let’s start with the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement. There’s been a lot of speculation about Microsoft’s Next Generation Volume Licensing initiative and this month the MPSA edges its way cautiously into the Product List. There’s not a lot, granted, but on pages 49/50 there’s advice to refer to Select Plus to find out what products you can buy under the MPSA, as well as confirmation that Office 365, CRM Online, Windows Intune and Yammer can all be purchased under the MPSA and are worth 1 point each. There’s also reference to an MPSA Licensing Manual which is worth a read: bit.ly/1a2TH1r
Office 365 Add-on USLs acquire access rights to Windows Server 2012
- This is an interesting one; page 107 tells us that a licensed user of an Add-on User SL has access rights equivalent to the base Windows Server 2012 CAL, and may access standard functionality of Windows Server 2012 from any non-Qualified device. It’s a nice added touch of flexibility for anyone using the Add-ons with device-licensed CAL Suites
Office 365 through Open
- We’ve talked a lot about more and more Office 365 plans becoming available through Open and the dizzy heights are reached with a new section in the Product List on page 59. There’s confirmation that Office 365 is sold through Open, Open Value and Open Value Subscription programs as a one year upfront payment method, as well as the fact that the subscription period starts at the time of the product key activation and not the time of order
- There’s also a new section on page 46 on the Open Value Offer. If you’re not familiar with this, customers who have an active Open Value/OVS agreement with an organisation-wide commitment for Office Professional Plus and/or a CAL Suite qualify for a reduced price on certain Office 365 SKUs
There are some names changes:
- The longest named product (ever?) – the Windows Azure Active Directory Rights Management USL – is renamed to the more manageable Microsoft Rights Management USL
- The Cold Backups SA benefit changes to simply “Backup for Disaster Recovery” and you can see changes to the wording for this benefit on page 70 of the January Product Use Rights document
We lose some products:
- It’s confirmed on page 146 that Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 will be the final version of the product. Customers with active SA on UAG server licences on 1 December 2013 get a grant of one Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard licence, and existing customers can add new server instances, users and devices without any requirement to order additional licences
- Expression Encoder Pro 4 is removed, furthering Microsoft’s aim of unifying the Expression and Visual Studio brands. While Expression Encoder Pro 4 isn’t available for sale anymore, there’s a free version (Expression Encoder 4) available for download and it looks as if we’ll see Windows Azure Media Services providing new and improved functionality. More information here: http://bit.ly/KQxeyo
There are some changes to a couple of products’ use rights:
- The buyout rights for Open Value Subscription customers with Small Business Server 2011 are amended, allowing customers to buy out an SBS 2011 CAL Suite or a Core CAL Suite (rather than Windows Server/Exchange CALs). And it’s a similar change for customers with the Premium Add-on Suite, where they’re now allowed to buy out the SBS 2011 Premium Add-on CAL Suite or a SQL Server CAL (rather than a Windows Server/SQL CAL)
- In the December 2013 Product List (and Visual Studio 2013 Licensing brief) it’s stated that a Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 with MSDN subscriber is entitled to one management server licence for Visual Studio Deployment 2013 Standard, but that text is now removed
And the new promotions are all around Visual Studio 2013 this month:
- There are three new promotions running from 1 January 2014 to 30 June 2014 – do check for availability in your specific geographic region
- The first two are linked to the Server and Cloud Enrolment offering a 30% discount on either a step up from Visual Studio Professional to Premium, or Visual Studio Premium to Ultimate
- The third is again a 30% discount, this time for both of the new Visual Studio 2013 Release Management products – Visual Studio Deployment Standard and Datacenter editions
Our posts are in the top 3 of Microsoft’s Volume Licensing blog!
We’re jolly proud that Louise’s posts on Microsoft’s Volume Licensing blog were in the top 3 viewed last year! Check out the other posts in the top 3 (Office Web Apps Server and the MPSA) and find Louise’s articles on licensing VDI, VDA, SQL Server and Windows/Office. http://bit.ly/1cXFV4x
Microsoft Products and Services Agreement Licensing Manual
New Microsoft Products and Services Agreement Licensing Manual; probably the best, no-frills overview of the new MPSA, so worth a read. If you know your Select Plus licensing, start with that in mind as you read about Purchasing Accounts (affiliates), Price Levels (as Select Plus), Points (all Online Services at 1 point across Applications or Servers pool), and Price Level Adjustments (as Select Plus). Significant changes include the all-powerful Microsoft Volume Licensing Center that allows the usual licence management but adds ordering and allocation of Online Services too.
Information on Microsoft’s Next Generation Volume Licensing Initiative
A late Christmas present! – Lots of information from Microsoft about their Next Generation Volume Licensing initiative. If you read just one of the documents, go for the “Learn more about the MPSA” one. Otherwise here’s the summary:
Microsoft are at the start of their journey to revamp the Volume Licensing programs, and the new Microsoft Products and Services Agreement currently allows Select Plus-esque purchases with two key differences
- both on-premise and Online Services can be purchased (and both count towards the points in a pool), and
- you can’t buy SA just yet.
Forefront UAG approaches End Of Life
The Forefront lineup continues to dwindle and now it’s Forefront UAG that’s soon to be End Of Life… Microsoft made the announcement on their Server and Tools Blog, where key takeaways are:
- Forefront UAG will be removed from price lists on 1 July 2014
- Customers with active SA on a Forefront UAG Server licence will receive a Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard licence, and
- Any customers with active SA on UAG at 1 December 2013 may add new UAG server instances, users and devices without ordering additional licences.
The full article is here: http://bit.ly/1dxYXwb