Dynamics AX Licensing Updates

Changes to Dynamics AX licensing: the May 2016 Licensing Guide confirms that a Standard Acceptance Testing Instance is now provided for the life of the tenant, rather than just three months – see page 9.

There are also details of exactly what Power BI licences will be included with Platform Update 1: the Enterprise SL will include a Power BI Pro licence, and all SLs will include the Power BI Embedded licence which means that all users will be able to access the Power BI reports embedded within the Dynamics AX application – also page 9.

Find the updated guide here: http://bit.ly/1WSj4jt.

Additions to the April 2016 Product Terms

There are a couple of additions to the April 2016 Product Terms document: some add-ons for Dynamics AX and some USLs for Cloud App Security. Read on for the detail!

Dynamics AX – that’s Dynamics built on and for Azure – was made available in March 2016 and now we’ve got some extra licensing options. If you’re a Dynamics AX 2012 R3 on-premises customer and you have existing licences with active Software Assurance then you can now purchase For SA USLs to add on access to the cloud service. There’s a table on page 55 which lists the qualifying licences and the eligible For SA USLs you can purchase.

Cloud App Security, based on Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Adallom, helps IT and security teams gain deeper visibility and enhanced protection for cloud applications. How’s it licensed? Page 53 confirms it’s with a User Subscription Licence, and if you want more information and an intro to how it works, then head over to the Microsoft Cyber Trust Blog: http://bit.ly/23H7Fqq.

Dynamics AX

Dynamics AX Public Cloud is available – in normal English that’s Dynamics AX built on and for Microsoft Azure as a cloud ERP service. This site (http://bit.ly/1Rfz2fL) gives you an overview of the licensing options – it’s USLs (as you’d expect) and DSLs (as you might not) and for the USLs there are different levels available dependent on what the user needs to do.

For those who love an overview there’s a useful Quick Reference Guide available on this site, and for those made of sterner stuff there’s a full 28-page Licensing, Pricing and Support Guide.

Changes to Fail-over Rights

These rights are an SA benefit for Dynamics AX Server and SQL Server allowing customers to run passive fail-over instances of the product without additional licences.

Previously, the fail-over instances had to be on a separate OSE on the licensed server or on a different server dedicated to the customer’s use.

New wording added to the December 2015 Product Terms on page 82 confirms that this right is now extended to qualifying shared servers as part of the Licence Mobility through Software Assurance benefit.