Microsoft Azure Customer Solution VL Brief

There’s an updated (April 2022) Microsoft Azure Customer Solution VL Brief. This is a useful document detailing the rules for ISVs when creating customer solutions built on Azure: essentially, ISVs should purchase the Azure services through an EA or (and this is the addition to this new document version) direct from Microsoft via the Microsoft Customer Agreement. Partners intending to just resell the Azure services should use the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.

Find this updated document here: https://bit.ly/39sdBgW.

Open soon to be Closed

Microsoft announce that customers won’t be able to make new purchases through an Open agreement after 31 December, 2021. So, what does that mean for existing customers?

Licences with no Software Assurance

  • Licences purchased through an Open agreement are perpetual and customers can continue to use these licences with no changes. New licences without SA can now be purchased through partners via the Cloud Solution Provider program

Licenses with Software Assurance

  • Existing SA benefits continue to be available until the end of existing agreements with no changes, and then SA can be renewed into a new or existing Open Value agreement

Subscriptions for Online Services

  • Existing subscriptions for services such as Office 365 can be renewed into a new or existing Open Value agreement or through CSP. If customers have purchased subscriptions in an Open agreement and not activated them, then they can still be activated without the need for any active agreements

Azure services

  • Pre-paid tokens are used to pay for Azure consumption services in the Open and Open Value agreements. A new Open Value non-Company Wide agreement can be signed by customers to purchase more tokens to power their existing Azure deployments without the need for any technical migrations

Read the announcement article for customers here: https://bit.ly/3jlRNDL and, if you’re a partner, find more useful information for you here: https://bit.ly/3jlVx8h.

Extended Security Updates for Windows 7 to be available in CSP

Microsoft announce that Extended Security Updates for Windows 7 will be available to purchase through the CSP program from 1 December, 2019. Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/35gkQ57, and the latest FAQ in the Desktop section of our Licensing Guides emporium: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.

Cloud Solution Provider Program

The Cloud Solution Provider program allows partners to provide a complete managed cloud solution for their customers. The program is growing – Azure and CRM Online have recently been added and the program itself is available in 131 markets.

If you want to find out more about CSP there’s an extremely comprehensive FAQ site here (http://bit.ly/1Unlh1V) with over 230 questions covering the products, contracts and billing, and available admin tools.