Microsoft announce that Power BI Embedded is generally available. Be aware that this is a cousin rather than a brother of the Power BI service licensed with Power BI User Subscription Licences.
Power BI Embedded is an Azure consumption service (charged as users interact with reports) and intended for ISVs who embed dashboards in applications for third party use.
The Microsoft announcement is here: http://bit.ly/29QIRXi and this Azure pricing page has some useful FAQs: http://bit.ly/2ahlAyP.
If you want an overview of the different ways that you can run SQL Server on Azure virtual machines, and how they’re licensed, then this Microsoft FAQ page is worth a read through: http://bit.ly/28TwWoH.
Microsoft announce Azure Information Protection, a new service that builds on Azure Rights Management (Azure RMS).
General Availability is expected later this year, when Azure RMS customers will receive expanded capabillities.
We’re told that more information on how to buy Azure Information Protection will be available closer to General Availability.
Read the full announcement here: http://bit.ly/28UrDEd.
Microsoft announce a new set of Bring-Your-Own-Licence SQL + Windows virtual machine images in the Azure Gallery.
This means that you can use an image to easily provision a Windows VM with SQL Server, and then use existing Volume Licensing licences with Software Assurance to license the SQL part of the VM.
For more details and some useful pictures, see the Microsoft announcement here: http://bit.ly/1Uf54zu.
At the recent Citrix Synergy event it was announced that, later in 2016, Citrix will offer customers the ability to run Windows 10 in Azure!
This will be available to customers licensed with Windows SA per User and will give them the option to host their Windows 10 Enterprise Current Branch for Business images on Azure via the Citrix XenDesktop VDI solution.
As we get more concrete, specific information on the licensing rules and any restrictions around usage or deployment, we will keep you updated.
Check out the initial announcement here: http://bit.ly/1sLcoWY.
If you buy your Azure Services direct from the Microsoft website then you pay the advertised consumption prices, but if you’re prepared to make a 12-month upfront payment of at least $6,000 then you receive a 5% discount on these prices.
If this sounds fab, then you need to get your existing subscriptions to bill under the prepayment plan by following the instructions here: http://bit.ly/1s9piOy.
Check the prepayment option is the right one for you here: http://bit.ly/1TxYP9E.
The Microsoft data centres grow again: two data centres are now open in Canada offering Azure and Office 365 with data residency for business customers in Canada, and CRM Online available later this year in Q3. There are also plans for a new data centre region in Seoul, South Korea.
Find the Microsoft announcement here: http://bit.ly/1XLVxPZ and if you’re interested in where customer data is stored for Office 365 and CRM Online, then these interactive maps are worth a look: http://bit.ly/1YQuBwP.
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.