System Center Configuration Manager is now Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager

Microsoft Endpoint Manager is the name for all of Microsoft’s endpoint management solutions, and includes System Center Configuration Manager and Microsoft Intune. The benefit of Microsoft Endpoint Manager is that it makes it easier for organisations to concurrently manage Windows 10 devices with both Configuration Manager and Microsoft Intune, a configuration called co-management. Bringing everything up to date, the July 2020 Product Terms updates the name of System Center Configuration Manager to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

In terms of co-management licensing, organisations don’t have to buy both Configuration Manager and Intune licences: if they are licensed for Configuration Manager then they are automatically licensed for Intune for co-managing Windows PCs, and if they are licensed for Intune, then they are also automatically licensed for Configuration Manager for co-managing Windows PCs. There are some management scenarios which aren’t covered with the co-management rights and this article has some useful instances of when you would also need a full Intune licence when you have a Configuration Manager licence, for example: https://bit.ly/2WIZieT.

There’s a name change but there aren’t changes to the licensing of Configuration Manager. As a recap, there’s a current branch and long-term servicing branch (LTSB) for Configuration Manager, with the current branch providing an active servicing model as you would expect. Customers who have active Software Assurance or a subscription to EMS E3 (for example) may use this branch. Configuration Manager must always be purchased with Software Assurance through a Volume Licensing agreement and the LTSB is intended for customers who have perpetual licence rights to Configuration Manager but have let the SA expire. This is a useful article if you want to learn more about branches and licensing: https://bit.ly/3hpw0JX.

And finally, there’s a Microsoft Endpoint Manager FAQ document which you may find useful here: https://bit.ly/32JtVog.

5-year Reservation available for the Azure HBv2 virtual machine

Microsoft announce that a 5-year Reservation is now available for the Azure HBv2 virtual machine. The existing 1 and 3-year Reservations give an estimated 25% and 50% saving on the compute costs of the VM, and the new 5-year Reservation increases savings to approximately 67%.

The announcement (https://bit.ly/32EWfI9) states that terms and conditions are mostly the same as for all other types of Reserved Instances, and page 54 of the July 2020 Product Terms confirms that the early termination fee for a 5-year Reservation is 35%, rather than the usual 12%.

Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (June 2020) Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality Licensing Guide, with the most significant change being amendments for the discontinuation of the Dynamics 365 Layout application. Find the updated guide here: https://bit.ly/D365MixRLGJune2020 and information on Dynamics 365 Layout here: https://bit.ly/D365LayoutBLOG.

Discontinuation of Dynamics 365 Layout

Microsoft announce that Dynamics 365 Layout will be discontinued as a separate application and will not be offered to new customers after 1 June, 2020. Current customers will be able to use the application until 31 December, 2021 or when their current subscription ends, whichever is earlier. Core Layout capabilities will be integrated into the Dynamics 365 Guides product.

See the announcement here and suggestions on where to get assistance if you’re an existing customer: https://bit.ly/2YooZ4n.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (June 2020) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. There are only small changes with the most interesting ones being clarification that Team Members do not have admin rights, and that Human Resources Self Service use rights are only included for Team Members when the Human Resources application is licensed.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/D365LGJune2020

Azure Dedicated Hosts now support additional VM types

Microsoft announce that Azure Dedicated Hosts now support M-series and NV v3 and v4-series virtual machines so that customers can run memory-intensive and graphics-intensive applications.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/2XYnuK3, and the main Azure Dedicated Host page here: http://bit.ly/2KkxB6m which details the full range of VMs supported and has some useful configuration examples.

Licensing desktop applications with RDS – Licensing Brief

There’s an updated (April 2020) Licensing Brief detailing how to license the desktop applications with RDS. The main change is to include the October 2019 changes to the licensing terms for Outsourcing Software Management which affect customers choosing to host Office applications on a dedicated server.

Find this updated Licensing Brief here: https://bit.ly/RDSVLBrApr2020

June 2020 Product Terms updates for Dynamics 365

There’s extra information added for Dynamics 365 on pages 65/66 in the June 2020 Product Terms document. First of all there’s a new Dual Use Rights table detailing the rights of Dynamics 365 SLs to access on-premises servers, and then there are a couple of tables which specify the purchasing minimums for academic and commercial programs.

Download the latest Product Terms document here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.

Office software Licensing Brief

There’s an updated (April 2020) Office software licensing brief. The main changes are to update for the changes to the licensing terms for Outsourcing Software Management in October 2019, and to remove references to Office Home & Student 2013 RT.