Generally speaking, the Microsoft 365 Apps need to run on a supported operating system to receive security updates. However, Microsoft announce that they will continue to provide security updates for the Microsoft 365 Apps running on Windows 10 for three years after Windows 10 reaches end of support in October 2025.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3SKAMGE.
Microsoft announce that the free Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Office 365 E1 licences will be discontinued for non-profit customers from 1 July, 2025. There’s a blog article here: https://bit.ly/4mrgyPY to help customers move to Microsoft 365 Business Basic, where the grant of 300 free licences remains, and there’s a partner FAQ here: https://bit.ly/4mqobpC.
There’s an updated (April 2025) Downgrade Rights licensing guidance document from Microsoft. There aren’t major changes, it’s really just updated for the latest product versions – SharePoint Server 2019 is changed to Subscription Edition, for example.
Find this updated document here: https://bit.ly/4m2CQr4.
Microsoft announce the intention of making 3-year terms available for Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 in CSP from 1 June, 2025. These subscriptions will be available with Teams for existing customers, and without Teams for new or existing customers who’ll also be able to buy 3-year Teams Enterprise licences, if required. There will be a minimum requirement of 100 licences for all subscriptions. In addition, Microsoft 365 E5 Security and Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance are expected to be available from 1 July, 2025
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/439eSmw, and an FAQ for partners here: https://bit.ly/4ksYJ0Y.
There’s an updated (May 2025) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. The major changes are the addition of a whole host of security roles for the ERP products, and clarification as to when administrators need to be licensed. Text on page 3 confirms that users with the Power Platform Administrator or Dynamics 365 Administrator role in Entra don’t require a licence, and the System Administrator role in Dataverse and Finance and Operations doesn’t require a licence to configure and administer Dynamics 365 applications.
Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/44lAhtU.
Committing to an Azure service typically gives a discount, and today there are three options for a customer: Azure Savings Plans, Azure Reservations, and Azure Pre-Purchase Plans. They all behave in slightly different ways and this article from the Microsoft FinOps blog does a nice job of explaining how they work: https://bit.ly/45iTMU3.
Microsoft announce the next stage in the journey to Planner – the retirement of Project for the web in August 2025.
The announcement is here: https://bit.ly/4k6FJFW, and there’s a comprehensive FAQ here: https://bit.ly/43zxg7d for details on all the twists and turns in the (quite complicated) journey.
Microsoft announce that SQL Server 2025 is now in public preview. There’s not much news on the licensing, apart from the introduction of SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer Edition. The Developer Edition has long been based on SQL Server Enterprise and this new edition will enable developers to test their apps that will use Standard edition in production. It will continue to be a free edition for dev and test purposes.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/44NKcbU.
Microsoft announce that Copilot for Finance has been renamed to Finance Agents, with features like Data Reconciliation being renamed to the Financial Reconciliation Agent.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/43yDZyg.
There’s a change to the plans for the licence management features in the Dynamics 365 RP apps – see the original article on our blog to get up to speed: https://bit.ly/44VJg58. The new plans mean that users who don’t meet licensing requirements will get notifications from 1 September, 2025 and licences must be assigned in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center by 1 November, 2025 – moved out from 1 September, 2025.
Find the edited announcement here: https://bit.ly/446ehTx.