There’s an updated Volume Licensing Reference Guide from Microsoft which, as usual, you can find here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
What’s new? Well, the main changes are updates for the Enterprise Agreement minimums changing to 500 PCs/users and the ongoing retirement of Select Plus.
Microsoft announce that Office 365 Education plans are now available via the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. Find the full announcement here: http://bit.ly/2a5fi1R.
The July 2016 Hosting and Cloud Service Provider Newsletter is out. There are three main items of licensing interest: firstly there’s a reminder that while the Core Factor table is no longer required to calculate licences for SQL Server 2016, it does still apply to SQL Server 2012/2014 as well as BizTalk Server 2013 R2 and Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Standard Commerce Server.
There’s also a reminder to take the new Cloud Portability module in GLR, and a link to the SPLA Quarterly Update Licensing webinar: http://bit.ly/2aktmUG.
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Microsoft announce that Windows 10 Enterprise E3 will be available through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program in autumn 2016. This means that customers will be able to buy a subscription to Windows 10 as part of a managed service with pricing at $7 a month.
Find Microsoft’s full blog post here: http://bit.ly/29FKuUc.
There’s an updated Windows Server 2016 Licensing Datasheet from Microsoft. There are some interesting clarifications which you may not have come across before.
Firstly, there’s confirmation that when licensing with Standard edition rather just adding single licences for further virtual machines you need to completely license all of the physical cores again (see page 3).
Then there’s a list of the editions we can expect (page 2) which includes Essentials, MultiPoint Premium Server, Storage Server and Hyper-V Server, and shows the licensing models that will prevail – Core-based for Standard and Datacenter, but Processor-based for the rest.
There’s also a bit more clarification about the process and timings for the processor to core licensing changes (page 4) and then the two available servicing branches are covered on page 5, with Server with Desktop Experience/Server Core on the Long Term Servicing Branch and Nano Server on the Current Branch for Business – which will require SA.
As usual, find the guide in our extensive store of Licensing Guides here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
There’s more news from Microsoft on Windows Server 2016 with, first of all, confirmation that it will be on the October 2016 price list.
Next, we learn that there will be two branches: Long Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) and the Current Branch for Business (CBB). Customers will opt into one of these branches depending on the installation option they choose: Server with Desktop Experience and Server Core will be on LTSB, and Nano Server will be on CBB.
It’s expected that there will be two or three updates per year for Nano Server and there will be a requirement to have Software Assurance for this option.
Read the full article from Microsoft here: http://bit.ly/29FHtrB.
There’s an updated (June 2016) Enterprise Agreement Program Guide. The major amendment is for the change in the minimum number of users/devices from 250 to 500 which came into effect on 1 July 2016. There are also other additions for some new SA benefits such as the Hybrid Use Benefit.
As usual, you can find this guide in our Licensing Guides store here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
It’s all change! Firstly, Microsoft announce that Windows 10 Enterprise will be renamed to Windows 10 Enterprise E3, and that Windows 10 Enterprise E5 will be introduced which includes Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection.
Then, Enterprise Mobility Suite will be renamed Enterprise Mobility + Security and, again, there will be E3 and E5 flavours of this.
There’s a good diagram here (http://bit.ly/29Cc0Er) which shows you the components of both of these editions.
And finally, the Enterprise Cloud Suite will be called Secure Productive Enterprise E3/E5 containing the relevant Office 365, EM+S and Windows 10 Enterprise plans.
Find the Microsoft announcement here: http://bit.ly/29ur3we.
Microsoft announce the availability of Forms for Office 365 Education customers, allowing users to create quizzes for assessments or surveys.
From a licensing perspective, it’s included in the Office 365 Education and Office 365 Education E5 plans, and you can find full details here: http://bit.ly/29q9wte.
There’s a new (July 2016) Operations Management Suite Pricing and Licensing Datasheet which has full details about the new OMS Subscription. Previously, OMS was only available as an Add-on to existing System Center licences with SA, but the OMS Subscription gives you access to all the Azure services of OMS as well as all of the System Center components for use with 1 virtual machine.
Find the Datasheet in the Core Infrastructure section of our Licensing Guides store: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.