Tag Archives: OLSUR

Overview of the Changes to the April 2014 Online Services Use Rights

CRM Online grabs the lion’s share of the changes to the April 2014 OLSUR so let’s look at that first of all:

  • April and May 2014 saw the launch of CRM Online Enterprise, Social Listening, and Dynamics Marketing, and so there are sections added for these new USLs on pages 14 and 15
  • As well as the individual USLs for Social Listening and Dynamics Marketing it’s confirmed that a CRM Online Enterprise USL also allows access to both services, and the CRM Online Professional USL allows access to the Social Listening service

And then there are a host of other updates:

  • OneDrive for Business: this is added as a product, and in related news, the SharePoint Online Extra Storage Add-on SL has a name change to the Office 365 Extra File Storage Add-on SL, and this 1GB of extra storage can also be applied to OneDrive for Business. See page 26
  • Office Web Applications: these are updated to “Office Online” and page 24 confirms that users licensed with Office 365 ProPlus USLs get access, as well as users of Office Professional Plus, Office Standard or Office for Mac Standard – as long as those licences have SA
  • Enterprise Mobility Suite: this new USL enters stage right and on page 29 we see that it allows access to the (also new) Windows Azure Active Directory Premium service and also, on page 35 to the (renamed) Azure Rights Management service
  • Yammer Enterprise: there’s confirmation on page 39 that access to this service is now included in the A2-A4 plans and also with the Office 365 Midsize Business USL
  • Office 365 ProPlus and Office 365 Small Business Premium: there’s wording added that confirms that the Office Mobile software may now be activated on up to five tablets as well as the existing five smartphones. See pages 16 and 23
  • Exchange Online Protection: the list of Office plans that give access to this service is expanded to include K1, and E1, E3 and E4 plans on page 20
  • Project Lite: this USL makes its debut on page 24
  • And it’s a final goodbye to Lync Online Plan 3 which is removed

The Online Services Use Rights (OLSUR) – what sort of questions can it answer for you?

The Online Services Use Rights document has been around a while but it’s this month that it’s really come of age with the bulk of the use rights for the Online Services products being moved exclusively to it from the PUR. So, given that you probably don’t want to read this tome from start to finish, when’s it going to be handy for you in your licensing life? Here are ten questions that I think it’ll answer for you:

1. Can Online Services be used for an evaluation period?
No. Licences must be acquired to use Online Services for evaluation purposes – with the exception of Forefront Online Protection for Exchange. (Pages 8/18)

2. Does the 90 day rule apply to re-assigning USLs and DSLs?
Yes, with the usual exceptions of covering a user’s absence or the unavailability of a device that is out of service. (Page 9)

3. Does an Office 365 ProPlus USL allow use in an RDS scenario?
Yes. One of a user’s five activations may be used on a network server with the Remote Desktop Services role enabled. (Page 14)

4. How many smartphone devices can a user with an Office 365 ProPlus or E3/E4 USL use Office Mobile on?
Up to five. (Page 13)

5. Does an Office 365 ProPlus USL include Commercial Use Rights for Office Home and Student 2013 RT?
Yes. (Page 14)

6. Can a user licensed with a Project Pro or Visio Pro for Office 365 USL use the software on a device that has been activated by another user under a different USL?
Yes. (Page 14)

7. Project Online requires the use of SharePoint Online Plan 2 – does this need to be acquired separately?
No. SharePoint Online Plan 2 is commissioned as part of the Project Online service and, as you’d expect, may only be used to support Project Online. (Page 23)

8. Do users licensed with Lync Online Plan 1 USLs need further licences to attend a web conference?
No. (Page 19)

9. If a Windows Intune with Windows Desktop Operating System licence has been bought out, may it be transferred to another device?
No. (Page 9)

10. Can the Windows Intune with Windows Desktop Operating System licence be used in a Windows To Go deployment?
Yes. (Page 32)

Overview of the Changes to the January 2014 Volume Licensing Product Use Rights

It’s Online Services and SA benefits that share the headlines as the key changes in the PUR this quarter. For Online Services the big news is that ALL of the use rights for these products have been moved into the Online Services Use Rights document. This is known as the OLSUR (how DO you say that?) and we’ll focus on the useful information you can find there in a later blog post.

As far as SA benefits go, let’s start with the Extended Rights that have been added to the Remote Desktop Services CAL, detailed on page 69 onwards. These new rights apply to the User CAL only and essentially allow organisations with SA on an RDS CAL to access session-based desktops running on a third party’s shared servers – either through a “Licence Mobility through Software Assurance Partner” or making use of Windows Azure Platform Services. There’s confirmation that access is still allowed to an organisation’s own servers, and a very specific note that these rights do NOT allow access to VDI desktops running on the third party’s shared servers. Customers need to complete and submit a Licence Mobility Validation form to designate their third party of choice and there are instructions for this process too.

There’s a name change for another benefit – “Cold” Disaster Recovery Rights are now just Disaster Recovery Rights on page 70. Previous wording specified that the server must be turned off except for testing, patch management and disaster recovery. Now the emphasis is on when the Disaster Recovery server (or OSE) can run – DR testing for a week every 90 days, while the production server being recovered is down, and during the transfer to the DR server.

And the final change is around some wording in the Licence Mobility through Software Assurance section on page 70 onwards. There’s black and white clarification added that if you’re using System Center on your own servers to manage OSEs running in a third party’s shared servers or running System Center there to manage your own servers, then you absolutely need active SA on your Server Management Licences.

And, just for completeness, we say our final goodbyes to the GeoSynth and Vexcel products, as well as Expression Encoder Pro 4 and Groove Server 2010, and references to Team Foundation Service are updated to Visual Studio Online.

Microsoft detail their strategy for the Online Services Use Rights document

If you’ve looked at the January 2014 Product Use Rights document then you could be wondering where you now find information on products such as Yammer or Windows Intune or Office 365. The Online Services Use Rights (OLSUR) document of course. Microsoft have now consolidated all the use rights for the Online Services into this document, and they give you a high level overview of their strategy in this article: http://bit.ly/1d1lzmo.

For a more detailed insight into what you can find in this document look out for a future blog post from us.