Tag Archives: Dynamics

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.

CRM Online Licensing Guide (Feb 2016)

There’s an updated (February 2016) CRM Online Licensing Guide.

There are some additions for working with Dynamics AX: users licensed with a Dynamics AX Enterprise USL have the right to read CRM Online application data (page 6), and users licensed with a CRM Online Professional or Enterprise USL may read AX application data (page 8).

There’s also a new Voice of the Customer section (page 13) explaining what this functionality provides, as well as the CRM Online USLs required to use different parts of it.

Finally, there’s clarity added to the Add-ons section stating which USLs are eligible to have Add-ons added on.

Get this guide from the Dynamics section of our Licensing Guides emporium: http://bit.ly/MSlicensingguides.

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.

Adxstudio, from Microsoft, Licensing Guide

Microsoft acquired Adxstudio towards the end of 2015 since the Adxstudio Portals are built natively on Dynamics CRM and make it easy for customers to extend CRM to the web (original announcement: http://bit.ly/1LZLxtC).

There’s now an Adxstudio, from Microsoft, Licensing Guide which shows the options both on-premises and hosted CRM customers have for licensing Adxstudio Portals. The bottom line – it’s not yet available through Microsoft Volume Licensing agreements.

For the full story, find the guide in our Dynamics Licensing Guides section: http://bit.ly/MSlicensingguides.

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.

Dynamics GP 2015 Licensing Guide

If you need a good introduction to the slightly surreal world of Dynamics GP 2015 licensing then this December 2014 guide is worth a read.

If you’re new to it all, hold on to your hats as you learn about licensing Solution Functionality with the Starter or Extended Packs, and licensing user access with Concurrent CALs, User CALs or User SALs.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, then head over to our Licensing Guides repository where you’ll find a guide for all Microsoft products – past and present –  https://bit.ly/MSlicensingguides.

Updates to SA Planning Services

A new SA benefit – Microsoft Dynamics Deployment Planning Services (DYDPS) – will be available from 8 December 2014.

Read the announcement here (http://bit.ly/1vawjNz) and get some resources if you’re a partner, or check out pages 68/69 of the December 2014 Product List for details of what’s included in this new category.

The Product List also lists many new engagements in existing categories – planning for migration to Hyper-V from VMware, or planning for an Enterprise Mobility implementation, for example.