Tag Archives: October 2023

Grace period for Azure Reservation exchanges

Microsoft announced in October 2022 that Azure compute Reservations purchased on or after 1 January, 2024 would no longer be able to be exchanged. Then, in October 2023, they announced that there would be a grace period giving customers until at least 1 July, 2024 to exchange their Reservations for Azure Dedicated Host, Azure App Services, and Reserved Instances. The latest announcement in May 2024 states that the grace period is now extended until further notice.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4bPH4gl, and a useful article with some example scenarios here: https://bit.ly/3MdGC0m.

Changes to Office/Microsoft 365 and Teams

In October 2023, Microsoft made changes to Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licences for customers in the EEA and Switzerland. Essentially, these changes removed Teams from certain suites for customers who had never purchased Office/Microsoft 365 before. You can get up to speed on that on our blog here.

Now, from 1April, 2024 those changes are extended to the rest of the world, described by Microsoft in an article here. In essence, the news is the same as for the EEA and Switzerland, so here’s the summary:

A customer outside the EEA and Switzerland who has not purchased Office 365 E1/E3/E5 or Microsoft 365 E3/E5 before 1 April, 2024 must now buy “(no Teams)” SKUs – which, as the names suggest, don’t include Teams. If the customer does want Teams, then they need to additionally purchase a separate Teams Enterprise User SL for their users. If they HAVE purchased any of the original licences before 1 April then they can add more licences and renew existing Subscriptions. Alternatively they can buy the new licences, and even mix and match them with the new licences if they want to.

For Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, customers in the affected regions will be able to choose the original offerings that include Teams or the new (no Teams) flavours. The same goes for Microsoft 365 F1/F3 and Office 365 F3.

This site, aimed at partners, has a lot of additional resources that might be useful.

Universal Print User SL

Microsoft added the Universal Print User SL to the October 2023 Product Terms, a licence for users who need to make use of the Azure-based software-as-a-service printing solution and who don’t have one of the licences that include Universal Print jobs (Microsoft 365 F3/E3/E5/Business Premium or Windows 11 Enterprise E3/E5). The standalone licence costs $4 per user per month and includes 5 print jobs, as do the Windows 11 Enterprise E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 F3 licences – the rest include 100 print jobs. There are then two Add-ons available for higher print volume – another 500 jobs cost $25 per month, and 10,000 jobs cost $300 per month, and you need to commit to the extra volume for a year.

There’s a good page on licensing Universal Print here: https://bit.ly/3Mzfbzd.

Azure Arc ESUs for DR and Dev/Test environments

Microsoft added text to the October 2023 Product Terms confirming that if a customer has enabled Extended Security Updates through Azure Arc they may use the updates on licensed Disaster Recovery servers and in Dev/Test environments.

Find the terms here: https://bit.ly/3Y6xsac, and note that the same rules apply for the traditional 1-year ESUs, the terms of which are here: https://bit.ly/46ldV8W.

Windows Server Annual Channel for Containers

Microsoft add use rights for the Windows Server Annual Channel for Containers to the October 2023 Product Terms. Customers are eligible to use this operating system if they have Windows Server Datacenter Core licences acquired either with Software Assurance or as Software Subscriptions and can expect a new release every 12 months, with support for 24 months.

You can find an announcement article here: https://bit.ly/48QwBzo, an overview of Windows Server servicing channels here: https://bit.ly/3ucQHFe, and the relevant Product Terms page here: https://bit.ly/3SBAhzE.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (October 2023) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. The main change is the removal of the Customer Voice standalone licence, although the allowance of Customer Voice responses remains for certain licences such as a Sales Enterprise User SL.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/46zq0b5.

Power Platform Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (October 2023) Power Platform Licensing Guide. The main change is clarification that a Power Automate bot is only licensed to be used in a single environment – if the same bot or process is deployed in a different environment, then an additional licence is required.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3LMGGUH.

Office/Microsoft 365 EEA offerings

Late in August 2023, Microsoft announced that there would be changes to the offerings available in the European Economic Area and Switzerland to address European competition concerns – you can read that article here: https://bit.ly/3Pfx0Ty. These offerings are now live in the October 2023 Product Terms, so here’s the summary…

A customer in these regions who has not purchased Office 365 E1/E3/E5 or Microsoft 365 E3/E5 before 1 October, 2023 must now buy “EEA (no Teams)” SKUs – which, as the names suggest, don’t include Teams. If the customer does want Teams, then they need to purchase a separate Teams EEA User SL for their users. If they have purchased any of these licences before 1 October then they can add more licences and renew existing Subscriptions.

For Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, customers in the affected regions will be able to choose the original offerings or new EEA flavours without Teams. The same goes for Microsoft 365 F1/F3 and Office 365 F3.

This site, aimed at partners, has information about pricing, and a useful FAQ document: https://bit.ly/3EDGHX4.

Azure Active Directory becomes Microsoft Entra ID

Microsoft announce that Azure Active Directory will be renamed to Microsoft Entra ID from 1 October, 2023.  There are no changes to any functionality or costs, and there’s no action for customers.

You can find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3Ddt9km, and this page has further useful information including some FAQs: https://bit.ly/43EgdPr.