Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 availability

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 365 App

Microsoft introduce the Microsoft 365 App which will replace Office.com (starting in November 2022), as well as the Office mobile app and the Office app for Windows (starting in January 2023). The “traditional” perpetual licences for Office 2021 stay branded as Office at this time.

For more information, take a look at the FAQs here: https://bit.ly/3ThafiM.

Office 2021 personal editions available

Office Home & Student 2021 and Office Home & Business 2021 are now available. These are the perpetually licensed editions of the next version of Office, priced at $149.99 and $249.99 respectively.

The Home & Business edition includes everything in the Home & Student edition as well as Outlook for the PC/Mac and commercial use rights. Unlike their Office LTSC 2021 business counterparts, these editions include Teams and some collaboration tools too.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3ArUlbr.

General Availability of perpetual software licences in CSP

Microsoft announce the General Availability of perpetual software licences in CSP from 21 January 2021.

Commercial customers can now buy licences for a range of on-premises products through any CSP partner. This was previously only available for selected partners in some geographies, and additionally both the range of products and geographies are extended with this launch – if you’re interested in what’s been added, there’s a useful document here: https://bit.ly/3oehDLx, and the announcement itself is here: http://bit.ly/3iOCunF.

The Product Terms document is also updated with an additional CSP column to show availability of the on-premises products through this channel.

Open soon to be Closed

Microsoft announce that customers won’t be able to make new purchases through an Open agreement after 31 December, 2021. So, what does that mean for existing customers?

Licences with no Software Assurance

  • Licences purchased through an Open agreement are perpetual and customers can continue to use these licences with no changes. New licences without SA can now be purchased through partners via the Cloud Solution Provider program

Licenses with Software Assurance

  • Existing SA benefits continue to be available until the end of existing agreements with no changes, and then SA can be renewed into a new or existing Open Value agreement

Subscriptions for Online Services

  • Existing subscriptions for services such as Office 365 can be renewed into a new or existing Open Value agreement or through CSP. If customers have purchased subscriptions in an Open agreement and not activated them, then they can still be activated without the need for any active agreements

Azure services

  • Pre-paid tokens are used to pay for Azure consumption services in the Open and Open Value agreements. A new Open Value non-Company Wide agreement can be signed by customers to purchase more tokens to power their existing Azure deployments without the need for any technical migrations

Read the announcement article for customers here: https://bit.ly/3jlRNDL and, if you’re a partner, find more useful information for you here: https://bit.ly/3jlVx8h.

Microsoft productivity servers: the future

Microsoft announce that the next versions of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Skype for Business Server, and Project Server will be available in the second half of 2021.

What will be different is that they will only be available with the purchase of a subscription licence which will entitle organisations to support, product updates, and security patches.

There will also be a new perpetual release of Office for Windows and Mac in the same timeframe.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3j8SrEy.

From SA User SL rights

An attractive option for EA customers moving to Microsoft 365 E3/E5 is to buy the From SA User SL. As long as you have active SA on all of the desktop components you’re eligible for this cheaper licence.

If you have perpetual licences you retain the rights to use the desktop products at the last version (or any earlier version) when you transitioned.

The standard use rights of the From SA User SL don’t include the rights to install any newer version of the Office Professional Plus product, and for the last few years there’s been an exception that DOES allow this.

However, text in the October 2018 Product Terms (page 55) states that this benefit comes to an end for new or renewing customers on 1 January, 2019.

Download the Product Terms every month here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.