Power Platform Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (January 2023) Power Platform Licensing Guide. The main changes are for the addition of Managed Environments (see our blog post here for more information: http://bit.ly/3kJID9V) and the new Hosted RPA Add-on licence (see our blog post here for more information on that: http://bit.ly/3DhqTsE).

Grab your copy of the updated Licensing Guide here: http://bit.ly/3Hwf3gT.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (January 2023) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. There are a couple of minor clarifications (see the Change Log on page 62), and the addition of Managed Environments throughout. Managed Environments were generally available in October 2022 (http://bit.ly/3WwzXRr) and enable IT administrators greater visibility and more control of apps and flows in an environment. Of licensing-worthy note is that when Managed Environments is activated in a specific environment, all Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages usage in that environment requires standalone licenses.

You can find out more about Managed Environments here: http://bit.ly/3iQ9QqA and grab the updated Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/3WQvMRn.

Microsoft 365 Basic

Microsoft announce that the OneDrive Standalone plan will become Microsoft 365 Basic on 30 January, 2023 and will include the same 100GB of cloud storage as well as ad-free and secure email with Outlook. Existing customers will automatically be transitioned at the end of January and advanced security features will also be added later in 2023.

Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3H9Z4nx.

Windows 8.1 End of Support

Microsoft remind us that Windows 8.1 reached End of Support on 10 January, 2023 at which point software updates are no longer provided. It’s also worth noting that Microsoft will not be offering Extended Security Updates for Windows 8.1.

Find a useful article with a whole host of FAQs and links to further information here: https://bit.ly/3GvzpFn.

SQL Server 2022 is generally available

Microsoft announce that SQL Server 2022 is generally available. Volume Licensing customers can download it immediately, and customers purchasing via CSP, OEM, and SPLA will be able to begin purchasing SQL Server 2022 in January 2023. This announcement article (http://bit.ly/3GmU8ww) gives lots of detail on the new features, as well as introducing a new PAYG purchasing model for SQL Server. The new licensing model is enabled by Azure Arc, and allows customers using either Standard or Enterprise edition to pay only when they use SQL Server.

Find out more about how it all works in this article: http://bit.ly/3Arq2UP.