Tag Archives: Azure Services

Overview of the Changes to the June 2015 Volume Licensing Product List

If you look at page 10 of the June 2015 Product List you’ll find that there are no changes listed for this month. So, we had to dig a bit deeper to find the (admittedly extraordinarily minor!) changes:

  • First of all, the Planning Services which used to include Lync Server and now include Skype for Business Server are indeed updated to be “Skype for Business and Exchange Deployment Planning Services (S&EDPS)” on page 68
  • Then there are some changes to the Microsoft Azure Services section on pages 41/42 with a slight amendment to the definition of “Consumption Rates” and the inclusion of MPSA as a qualifying agreement to set pricing for the Server pool and thus the Azure services in an EA
  • And finally, there’s wording added on page 58 for the purchase eligibility of the Office 365 From SA User SLs. This clarifies that EA customers who licensed Office 365 before 1 August 2014 may indeed also purchase From SA USLs at renewal for any additional Office 365 users that they added during their Enrolment term

MSDN Benefits

This is a nice article on 10 of the MSDN benefits including rights to deploy to Azure, perpetual use rights, Azure credit, Visual Studio Online, and Store and Office 365 Developer Accounts. Find it here: http://bit.ly/1LQ1Av2.

Microsoft Azure – Licensing Tips

Don’t be overlicensed in Azure! This Microsoft blog post gives some good tips about Azure licensing and it’s worth a read to make sure you’re not overlicensed: http://bit.ly/1HxOFtD.

Announcement of Microsoft Operations Management Suite

Microsoft announce the Microsoft Operations Management Suite which manages Windows and Linux workloads across a Windows Server datacenter, as well as Azure, Amazon Web Services, OpenStack and VMWare environments.

The Suite services are available separately charged as Azure consumption services, and an Add-on will be available for System Center Standard or Datacenter in July 2015 at an annual price.

See the announcement here: http://bit.ly/1HbQBgF and the pricing information here: http://bit.ly/1ErXNz6.

Azure Marketplace

Microsoft announce that Azure Marketplace is now available to more EA customers.

Azure Marketplace is a set of over 3,000 offerings (from both Microsoft and partners) that are ready to deploy in Azure, and previously it was only customers who had a direct EA with Microsoft or purchased their Azure services through the web portal that were able to buy these solutions. Now, however, indirect EA customers are included.

Note that these services are billed quarterly in arrears for all customers and cannot be paid for out of a Monetary Commitment.

Get the full story and a useful FAQ here: http://bit.ly/1Eq58D1.

General Availability of Azure RemoteApp

Today (11 December 2014) sees the General Availability of Microsoft Azure RemoteApp. This service delivers Windows applications from the Azure cloud and is licensed with a choice of two USLs – Basic for lightweight LOB applications (data entry, for example) or Standard for productivity applications (Office, for example). 40 hours are included in the starting price ($10 and $15) and any overage is billed hourly up to a capped price of 80 hours ($17 and $23) and after that there are no more charges.

See this Microsoft page for full details and some very useful FAQs: http://bit.ly/1slel6c.

Licensing IBM software on Azure Virtual Machines

Certain IBM software is now available to run on Azure virtual machines and it’s licensed either with a Bring Your Own Licence (BYOL) or Bring Your Own Software and Licence (BYOSL) model, depending on whether you’ll be installing and configuring the software yourself (BYOSL) or using a Microsoft VM with the software provided (BYOL). This site from IBM is a useful resource if you need to know more: http://ibm.co/1xhcaH8.

Simplified Licence Management for Azure AD Premium and EMS

Microsoft announce a preview for group-based licence management to simplify the assignment of user licences for Azure AD Premium and the Enterprise Mobility Suite.

IT administrators can now assign a security group and Azure AD will automatically assign licences to all the members of the group. If a user is subsequently added to, or removed from the group, a licence will be automatically assigned or removed as appropriate.

Read the full blog post here: http://bit.ly/ZcSwOg.

Azure in Open Licensing Calculator

There’s a brand new Azure in Open Licensing Calculator. If you’re a partner and you want to help your customers to estimate the amount of Azure credit they’re going to need, then this is worth a look.

Get it here: http://bit.ly/1AU4z1k.

Azure through Open: Training Calls

Microsoft Azure is available through the Open Volume Licensing programs from 1st August 2014. If you’re interested in knowing more about how it will all work, then there are some Microsoft calls for both customers and partners on 13th August 2014

For more details and to register: http://bit.ly/1pyHjhO.