Tag Archives: Power BI

Power BI Premium

Microsoft announce Power BI Premium, a new member of the Power BI family joining Power BI Desktop and Power BI Pro. So, what’s new? Well, today, Power BI Desktop is free and it’s aimed at personal use, while Power BI Pro costs $9.99 per user per month and enables collaboration. Under the current licensing, if an organisation has a few users who publish reports and many users who consume them, then everyone needs to be licensed with a Power BI Pro licence.

Power BI Premium will be generally available late in the second quarter of 2017 and will be licensed by capacity. This means that a Power BI Pro licence will still be required for users publishing reports, but consumers will no longer need to be licensed if their organisation is covered by Power BI Premium. And how does the capacity licensing work? Well, it’s by node and luckily there’s a calculator available to work out just how many nodes you’re likely to need based on your estimated number of Pro, frequent and occasional users. Find the calculator here: http://bit.ly/2qTdPlG.

But what’s a node?! A server? An end-user endpoint? No. Properly called capacity nodes, they’re just a way of purchasing a certain number of virtual cores, memory and bandwidth, dedicated to a customer, that will be sufficient to power the required BI system. At launch, there will be three sizes – inspiringly called P1, P2 and P3 which, for example, give access to 8, 16 and 32 virtual cores. There’s a Microsoft Power BI Premium Whitepaper which gives you some more information on this and you can find it in the “Other” section of the “Application Servers” area in our Licensing Guides emporium at: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.

But that’s not the end of the story. There’s also an option for customers who want a hybrid solution and that’s possible with the new Power BI Report Server. When you purchase Power BI Premium you can use the same number of cores that you’ve purchased in the cloud with Power BI Report Server on-premises.

Find the Power BI Premium announcement here: http://bit.ly/2pXo1wt.

Power BI Embedded Generally Available

Microsoft announce that Power BI Embedded is generally available. Be aware that this is a cousin rather than a brother of the Power BI service licensed with Power BI User Subscription Licences.

Power BI Embedded is an Azure consumption service (charged as users interact with reports) and intended for ISVs who embed dashboards in applications for third party use.

The Microsoft announcement is here: http://bit.ly/29QIRXi and this Azure pricing page has some useful FAQs: http://bit.ly/2ahlAyP.

Dynamics AX Licensing Updates

Changes to Dynamics AX licensing: the May 2016 Licensing Guide confirms that a Standard Acceptance Testing Instance is now provided for the life of the tenant, rather than just three months – see page 9.

There are also details of exactly what Power BI licences will be included with Platform Update 1: the Enterprise SL will include a Power BI Pro licence, and all SLs will include the Power BI Embedded licence which means that all users will be able to access the Power BI reports embedded within the Dynamics AX application – also page 9.

Find the updated guide here: http://bit.ly/1WSj4jt.

Additions to CRM Online Licences

Microsoft announce new ways for customers to acquire Office 365, Power BI and CRM Online.

Firstly, there will be a CRM Online Professional Add-on to Office 365 E3, E5 and Business Premium, which will cost $50 per user per month.

Then we can also expect to see a new, low-cost Employee Self-Service licence for CRM Online.

You can find the announcement, along with information on the new features of CRM 2016, here: http://bit.ly/1GTderi.

Power BI Generally Available

Power BI is generally available from 24 July 2015 with just two licences available – a light “Power BI” which is free, and “Power BI Pro” which is $9.99 per user per month and includes the full set of features.

Some useful links: the announcement (http://bit.ly/1SaTYu1), details on the plans (http://bit.ly/1tPRiGA), and a useful FAQ including licence transitions (http://bit.ly/16fXTQh).

CRM Pricing and Licensing Updates

Updates on CRM pricing and licensing: promotional pricing for buying CRM Online Professional, Office 365 E3 and PowerBI together is extended until the end of September 2015, after that CRM Online Professional will be available at a discount for Office 365 customers, and CRM Server 2015 is now certified for deployment on Azure if you have Software Assurance.

Read the full article here: bit.ly/1MlRntb.

Power BI Licensing

It’s all change for Power BI and its licensing. Changes are announced for a new Power BI which has a new user experience and new features. It’s currently in preview with no confirmation of General Availability yet, and you can read all about what’s new here: http://bit.ly/168mYfa.

Licensing wise, today there’s a Power BI Add-on for E3/E4 and a standalone Power BI licence, and a new Power BI Pro licence will replace both of these options. Pricing will be $9.99 per user/month and there will be a free version too (Power BI) which will, of course, have a lighter set of features. This link has a table of the features: http://bit.ly/1tPRiGA.

In the interim, pricing is reduced for the two existing plans from 9th February 2015 with the Add-on down from $20 to $9.99 and the standalone plan down from $40 to $17.99, all detailed on this page: http://bit.ly/1yZGotv.

And what about existing customers? From a features perspective, all customers will transition to the new user experience as soon as it’s available. In terms of the licensing, customers who licensed Power BI through MOSP will apparently receive a message through their admin console explaining how their account will be impacted with the lower price. For EA customers, they will transition to the new SKU and new price at anniversary. These details are all at this page: http://bit.ly/16fXTQh.

Overview of the Changes to the February 2014 Volume Licensing Product List

Power BI for Office 365 USLs

  • Power BI makes its long-awaited debut and it’s now available as a co-terminous subscription through all the Volume Licensing programs except poor old Select Plus which doesn’t offer any Online Services. More interestingly perhaps, a Power BI USL also gives access to SQL Server 2012 Standard and Business Intelligence editions as an alternative to a SQL 2012 CAL – see pages 36/37 of the January 2014 PUR

Office 365 Add-on USLs through Open

  • The Open Value Offer has now morphed into the Office 365 Add-ons where customers who have made an enterprise-wide commitment can add Office 365 services at a reduced price. Pages 105/106 show a very useful table where you can see the qualifying agreements (Open Value Company Wide or OVS), the Qualifying Licences (Core CAL Suite/Enterprise CAL Suite/Office Professional Plus 2013), the available Add-ons (E1, E3, Midsize Business) and the combinations thereof that are allowed

Server and Cloud Enrolment

  • You may know that customers purchasing eligible products under ECI or EAP received double points towards Planning Services and it’s confirmed on page 67 that this does NOT apply to SCE, and products will receive exactly the same points allocations as other programs

System Center Advisor

  • As of January 2013 System Center Advisor became a free service where SA was no longer required for customers wanting to use it – this is the month that it’s removed from the SA section of the Product List. See the original announcement here:  http://bit.ly/1j1xGWQ

CRM Online USLs for SA

  • The USLs available for CRM Online for customers who have CRM 2013 CALs with SA aren’t new, but there’s a good table added on page 153 showing the Qualifying CALs and what USLs for SA are available