Microsoft give some more detail on the Secure Productive Enterprise plans which will replace the Enterprise Cloud Suite.
Firstly, there’s news that licensed users will be allowed one on-premises install of Office Professional Plus, and then there’s confirmation that SPE E3 and E5 will be available through the EA and MPSA at launch in the fourth quarter of 2016, and then later through CSP too.
Read the full announcement here: http://bit.ly/2aaKDR7.
It’s all change! Firstly, Microsoft announce that Windows 10 Enterprise will be renamed to Windows 10 Enterprise E3, and that Windows 10 Enterprise E5 will be introduced which includes Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection.
Then, Enterprise Mobility Suite will be renamed Enterprise Mobility + Security and, again, there will be E3 and E5 flavours of this.
There’s a good diagram here (http://bit.ly/29Cc0Er) which shows you the components of both of these editions.
And finally, the Enterprise Cloud Suite will be called Secure Productive Enterprise E3/E5 containing the relevant Office 365, EM+S and Windows 10 Enterprise plans.
Find the Microsoft announcement here: http://bit.ly/29ur3we.
Microsoft announce that there are two big updates for the MPSA from 1st September 2015, with the addition of:
ECS was previously only available via the Enterprise Agreement (EA) and includes Office 365 E3, the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) and Windows per User, as well as a number of other services– see more info here http://bit.ly/13umyz1.
The second addition enables MPSA customers to order one, two, or three-year subscriptions for certain Online Services with price protection for all incremental orders.
The Microsoft WWLP blog post is here http://bit.ly/1F9uB61
Customers can now buy Azure consumption services through the MPSA paying for what they use quarterly in arrears, rather than making an upfront monetary commitment as EA customers do.
Later in the year, on 1st September, customers will also be able to buy the Enterprise Cloud Suite (currently only available through the EA) and to purchase certain Online Services subscriptions in one, two or three year durations – all with price protection.
Get the background in this Microsoft blog post: http://bit.ly/1V2eThL.
Microsoft announce the September changes to the MPSA at the Worldwide Partner Conference: ECS arrives, and there are new multi-year Online Services subscriptions.
Government SKUs are available for the Enterprise Cloud Suite and Project/Visio for Office 365 in the May 2015 Product List. ECS is also available within the US Government Community Cloud program and the Product List is updated to show more clearly which services are available under this program – look out for a “UC” cell identifier.
If you want to know more about the GCC program and Office 365 features that are specific to this program, then this is a good resource: http://bit.ly/1JB3RsF.
Microsoft’s May 2015 Volume Licensing Newsletter is out with links to a live session on the MPSA on 20 May 2015 (http://bit.ly/1QE7PG2) and on-demand sessions for ECS and the SCE.
Read the newsletter and/or subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1IiziJC.
UK government – the future of PSA12. Microsoft announce that PSA12 will expire in April 2015, and that a new Transition Agreement has been signed to preserve some of the existing discounts for public sector customers who choose to make a transformation to cloud services, with some extra discounts for ECS and SCE.
Read the full announcement here: http://bit.ly/1b2KBsH.
There’s a new exception added to the March 2015 Product List for customers who have more users than devices and want to transition from device licences to Online Services via From SA USLs.
Typically they can only purchase From SA USLs up to the number of qualifying underlying licences, but this new one-time exception allows the customer to purchase more From SA USLs – as long as they purchase a From SA USL for all users of all licensed Qualified Devices. See pages 34, 45, 47 and 58.
The “Licensing Windows and Office for Use on a Mac” Volume Licensing Brief is updated for December 2015 to include Windows SA per User and VDA per User licensing.
There’s a new question added which sums up the changes: “Can a user licensed with Windows Software Assurance per User or Windows VDA per User access Windows Enterprise on or from a Mac?”
The answer – yes, through a VDI environment, or installed locally if the Mac is licensed with Windows 7/8/8.1 Pro. Get the document here: http://bit.ly/Hkv3BM.