Microsoft announce that Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is generally available in the current Azure portal – and thus also available through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.
Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/1TWXqWO and this is a splendid article if you want to know more about how ASR works in CSP: http://bit.ly/1XwocbA.
Microsoft announce a free Azure Support upgrade for EA customers.
It’s available for new or existing customers who have Azure Services on their EA and gives them an upgrade to an Azure Support Plan between 1 May 2016 and 30 June 2017 for 12 months.
The details from Microsoft are split across these two pages: http://bit.ly/1XZCUpL and http://bit.ly/1TBVG5k but we’ve consolidated it into the table below:
Take a customer who has not purchased any Azure Support (the first row) – if he’s made a Monetary Commitment of less than $100,000 then he’s upgraded to an Azure Standard Support Plan, but if he spends more than $10,000 a month on Azure Services for 3 consecutive months or he does make a Monetary Commitment of at least $100,000 then he’s upgraded to Professional Direct Support.
You can see the options for the existing Standard Support customer – he’s automatically upgraded to Professional Direct Support but with the higher spend will also get 6 App Consulting Services sessions. And the existing Professional Direct Support customer receives either 6 or 12 App Consulting Services sessions dependent on his spend on Azure Services.
List prices are $300/month for Standard and $1,000/month for Professional Direct Support (http://bit.ly/1rHFmY4) and Microsoft say that the upgraded support will be enabled automatically by September 2016.
You can find the fine print on this offer and a description of App Consulting Services here: http://bit.ly/1TBVG5k.
There’s a new offer for MSDN subscribers who want to run dev and test workloads in Azure.
Essentially you set up an MSDN Dev/Test Subscription in your EA or MPSA and then you get special rates on certain services (such as virtual machines) and the usual EA/MPSA rates on other ones. Even better, it’s all managed through the usual Azure Enterprise Portal.
Note that this is completely unrelated to the Azure credit that MSDN subscribers also get, and if a customer doesn’t have an EA/MPSA then there is a similar MSDN Dev/Test offer on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Find full details here: http://bit.ly/1VDYthQ.
If you’re a Cloud Solution Provider partner selling Azure then this Getting Started guide from Microsoft is worth a look.
There’s useful information on the Azure admin portals, the relationship between tenants, subscriptions and services, and how to use the various parts of the Partner Center.
You’ll also find links to useful resources and how to get help from Microsoft.
Get the guide here: http://bit.ly/1KUBdbF.
Microsoft release more information on the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit – here are the highlights from the FAQ:
Find the full FAQ here: http://bit.ly/1jeqDj6.
This new white paper is aimed at Service Providers giving them an overview of the different licensing options they have if they want to offer services based on Azure Site Recovery to their customers.
It’s a useful reference document with a list of related terms and a generous 28 FAQs.
Find the document here: http://bit.ly/1RhZpFD.
From 1 February 2016, organisations with Windows Server licenses with SA can make use of the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit.
Called “HUB” for short, this brand new benefit means that you can procure an Azure virtual machine without Windows Server and can then assign an existing Windows Server licence to it.
Even more interestingly, if you have Datacenter licences then they can be assigned to on-premises AND Azure virtual machines, while you need to make the choice of either on-premises OR Azure virtual machines for Standard. A single Processor-based licence will allow you to use Windows Server on up to 16 cores in Azure.
Get the full wording on page 50 of the February 2016 Product Terms.
There’s now an extra option available for purchasing Azure Multi-Factor Authentication and it’s added to the January 2016 Product Terms document (page 53) as a user-licensed product available through Volume Licensing programs. The other options are to pay for it out of Azure Monetary Commitment on either a consumption basis per 10 authentications or on a per user basis with an unlimited number of authentications allowed per month. This page is a good resource: http://bit.ly/1JUVugq.
Back in November 2015 we announced Licensing School ONLINE where we wanted to run proper training courses online. I say “proper” – our goal was to not just offer you presentations, but rather to run fully interactive training sessions that keep you engaged and interested, and end up being a great learning experience.
We started with our SAM MCP preparation course and the feedback was spontaneously fabulous with attendees giving rave reviews. So, we’ve extended our range of courses to include “Buying and Licensing Azure Services” and an online 74-678 Exam Preparation course. Let me explain how this second one will work!
If you do this course with us in-person then it’s an intensive (and fun!) full day, but we wanted a different approach for an online session. So we’ve split the content into three 2-hour sessions and we’ll be running those sessions at different times. There’s “Microsoft Products and their Licensing”, “The Microsoft Volume Licensing Programs” and “SA, Tools, and Exam Tips”. You can attend whichever sessions you want to – they all stand alone, but you’ll get a discount if you sign up for all 3, of course. The first sessions run in early February 2016 – you can find out the exact dates and times below. Costs are £55/$79 per person per session or £125/$189 for all 3 – simply use the discount code ALLMODULES when you book on the SA session and you’ll be charged just £15/$22 for this module.
We’ve got further dates for the SAM MCP 70-673 Exam Preparation course too. This is a 2.5 hour session where you’ll receive a workbook to download and complete, as well as 14 days of unlimited support from the trainer via email to assist you with your exam preparation. The next dates are 21 and 22 January 2016 and it’s £65/$99 per person. Register here: http://bit.ly/70-673LSO.
And our third online offering is “Buying and Licensing Azure Services” where we’ll teach you everything you need to know about how these slightly mysterious services are licensed and then acquired through the various licensing programs – all of them being slightly different of course! This is a one hour session and the next dates are at the end of January costing £25/$39 per person. Register here: http://bit.ly/AzureLSO.
There will, of course, be further sessions available in the near future. If you’ve got a tricky topic you think would make a good session then email us at info@licensingschool.co.uk and we’ll add it to our list!
Microsoft announce plans to deliver commercial cloud services from data centres in multiple cities within the UK, with Azure and Office 365 available in late 2016 and Dynamics CRM Online shortly afterwards.
The Microsoft Cloud will also be available in Germany during the second half of 2016 where access to customer data will be controlled by a Data Trustee under German Law.
See the announcement here: http://bit.ly/20UNcuf.