Historically, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 has only been available through the OEM channel, but from 1st August, 2023 customers will be able to purchase perpetual licences without SA through the MPSA and Select Plus agreements, as well as from their CSP partners.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/45nmIqV, and a note in the Product Terms here: https://bit.ly/3prduoo.
Microsoft’s December 2018 Licensing News article has three topics of interest covering Microsoft 365 licensing updates. Firstly, EA and MPSA customers can now take advantage of a single SKU for Microsoft 365 which means that they see a single item in their Admin Centers and License Summaries, rather than seeing Office 365, Windows and EMS as separate components.
Secondly, there’s details of Microsoft’s new Home Use Program offer. Historically, HUP has been a Software Assurance benefit where users of devices licensed with Office + SA could purchase Office for their home PCs at a heavily discounted price. That benefit still exists for Office 2019 but the article reveals that this will come to an end on 30 June, 2019.
The new HUP offer allows individuals to purchase Office 365 Home or Office 365 Personal annual subscriptions at a 30% discount. This is available to customers who have Office with Software Assurance but is also available to customers who qualify with a certain number of Office 365/Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 licences: 2,000 for commercial organisations, and 13,000 for education or charity institutions.
Now, this isn’t available worldwide yet and although you can see it’s live in most countries (see the UK site here, for example http://bit.ly/2B6guQG), the article states that China and Japan will have this benefit on 1 April, 2019, and if you check out the US site (http://bit.ly/2sOPW1Q) there’s a message telling you that the US launch will be in early 2019.
And finally, there’s an update on the dual use rights available when a customer has a Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 From SA licence. Currently there are special rights detailed in the Product Terms which allow customers to install “traditional” Office Professional Plus as well as Office 365 ProPlus. The article states that these rights will be removed from 1 August, 2019 so customers renewing agreements after that date will no longer be entitled to the special installation rights.
Find the December 2018 Licensing News article here: http://bit.ly/2R3bV2u.
There’s a brand new (May 2017) Windows Server 2016 Licensing Guide released by Microsoft. It’s a delicious 31 pages of licensing loveliness, but here are our highlights:
As usual, you can find this Licensing Guide with all of its Licensing Guide family and friends at: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
Microsoft announce the retirement of multi-year duration options for Online Services purchased through the MPSA.
This means that customers purchasing new licences for Online Services will pay upfront for a maximum of 12 months.
Existing customers aren’t affected if they already have multi-year subscriptions in place.
Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/2o7R1xO.
Microsoft announce that from 1 February 2017 new customers will not be able to buy Azure consumption services through the MPSA, but confirm that existing customers are unaffected.
Advice to partners is that they should recommend the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) channel for any new pay-as-you-go Azure customers going forward.
Read the blog post here: http://bit.ly/2j0dACN.
Got a question on the MPSA? This FAQ page may help (http://bit.ly/2cgCL14) with its useful information on purchasing through the MPSA, how pricing levels and points work, what duration options are available, and how to manage purchases.
The MPSA Licensing Manual is updated for August 2016 with the main change being that all of the rules governing SA benefits have been moved to the Product Terms document – see our blog post for details: http://bit.ly/2aUDKBq.
Other amendments include references to the new Microsoft Business Center portal (updated from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Center), confirmation that Azure services are billed quarterly in arrears (page 5), and that Step Ups and other licences for transitions are available through the MPSA (page 5).
Find the MPSA Licensing Manual here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.
The Software Assurance section in the August 2016 Product Terms document is updated.
The main change is that the rules governing SA benefits for the MPSA have been moved into the Product Terms from the MPSA Licensing Manual.
Previously, Training Vouchers could not be converted to Planning Services Days within the MPSA but that restriction is now lifted (page 74), although it’s still not possible to convert 24×7 Problem Resolution Support Incidents to Premier Problem Resolution Support hours in this agreement (page 78).
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.
Microsoft announce that “Enterprise Advantage” will be added to the MPSA in 2017.
Today, the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA) allows customers with 250 PCs+ to purchase traditional licences, with or without Software Assurance, and Online Services on a transactional basis.
Enterprise Advantage will add a way for customers to purchase on a committed basis with similar requirements to the existing Enterprise Agreement. This, of course, is significant since 1 July marked the change of the minimum requirements for the EA from 250 to 500 users/devices.
Find the Microsoft announcement here: http://bit.ly/29dVfMI.