Tag Archives: Azure Services

CRM 2015 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated CRM Server 2015 Licensing Guide for October 2015 with three sections added.

The first is on Licence Mobility with confirmation (as usual) that you need SA on CALs as well as the Server licences to use VL licences on a partner-hosted infrastructure or Azure.

The second section is Azure-specific and states that CRM Online users may also access CRM Server running on Azure.

And finally there’s an Additional Software section which explains that a Marketing Connector and Reporting Extensions are provided as part of a CRM Server licensed solution.

We’ve put all the Microsoft Licensing Guides here: bit.ly/MSlicensingguides

August 2015 MPSA Licensing Manual

The MPSA Licensing Manual is updated for some of the key changes that have happened recently.

This August 2015 document includes text on page 4 that confirms that there are no minimums when purchasing Azure consumption services through the MPSA, and there’s an extremely useful paragraph at the top of page 6 that details how the new multi-year duration options work.

Essentially, certain Online Services are available to order up to the second or third Purchasing Account Anniversary and subsequent orders of the same service need to align to the original multi-year order, but are eligible for best price protection too.

Get the document here: http://bit.ly/1QfuR3U.

Licensing Office with RemoteApp

If you want to share Office applications from the cloud then there’s a good article from Microsoft that explains how you need to license this scenario.

Essentially you need an Office 365 ProPlus subscription and an Azure RemoteApp USL – note that a traditional Office Professional Plus 2016 licence isn’t an option.

The article also covers notions such as shared computer activation, Visio and Project, and an overview of how you get started with Office 365 and Azure RemoteApp. It’s definitely worth a read – find it here: http://bit.ly/1MpF6lB.

Microsoft Azure Cost Estimator tool

The Microsoft Azure Cost Estimator tool is updated for July 2015. This is a nice tool for helping you to estimate the cost of running an environment in Microsoft Azure. You can scan your on-premises environment to create an estimate or create a completely customised scenario.

Download the tool here: http://bit.ly/1MjzWs5.

June 2015 License Verification Form

The License Verification Form is used to record which server application licences with SA have been assigned to Azure virtual machines or to Service Provider’s shared hardware.

The latest form is dated June 2015 and has been updated for Skype for Business: http://bit.ly/1E6vPsV.

If you want to learn more about the whole licence verification process then this customer guide is a useful resource: http://bit.ly/1o9hNAQ.

Latest MPSA Updates

Customers can now buy Azure consumption services through the MPSA paying for what they use quarterly in arrears, rather than making an upfront monetary commitment as EA customers do.

Later in the year, on 1st September, customers will also be able to buy the Enterprise Cloud Suite (currently only available through the EA) and to purchase certain Online Services subscriptions in one, two or three year durations – all with price protection.

Get the background in this Microsoft blog post: http://bit.ly/1V2eThL.

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.