SA Benefits for SCE Subscription Licences

A Server and Cloud Enrolment requires commitment across your installed base of a particular product – SQL Server for example. If you haven’t got SA to renew, then you need to buy licences with Software Assurance for all of your servers – which can, of course, be expensive.

An alternative is to buy Subscription licences. But, do you get the same SA benefits for those Subscription licences as you do for the L&SA purchases? You do, and there’s new confirmation in the November 2015 Product Terms document – see page 31 for example.

VL Brief: Baseline licences in SCE

There’s a new (April 2015) Volume Licensing Brief to give assistance in determining baseline licences in the Server and Cloud Enrolment.

The main part of the brief gives a recap of the rules but it’s the FAQ section that’s probably most interesting where it covers SQL Embedded, licences for old development tools with or without MSDN, and OEM and ISV licences.

If the SCE is your thing then this brief is worth a read and you can find it here: http://bit.ly/1yPCEl2.

The Future of PSA12

UK government – the future of PSA12. Microsoft announce that PSA12 will expire in April 2015, and that a new Transition Agreement has been signed to preserve some of the existing discounts for public sector customers who choose to make a transformation to cloud services, with some extra discounts for ECS and SCE.

Read the full announcement here: http://bit.ly/1b2KBsH.

SCE Partner Resource Kit from Microsoft

Server and Cloud Enrolment Partner Resource Kit available from Microsoft: http://bit.ly/1bKOrWD.

Updated in December 2013, this is your one stop shop for SCE resources: there are six videolettes to watch, an assessment to do (pass it in all 10 languages as a stretch target), as well as both customer and partner flavours of the SCE Program Guide, SCE FAQs and Datasheet.

Finally, if your job is explaining SCE to customers, there’s a Customer Presentation too.

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

Overview of the Changes to the November 2013 Volume Licensing Product List

This month it’s the new Server and Cloud Enrolment (SCE) that’s firmly in the spotlight. As a reminder, this new enrolment replaces the Enrolment for Application Platform (EAP) and Enrolment for Core Infrastructure (ECI) and is aimed at customers who are happy to commit to Software Assurance across their estate on products such as SQL Server or the Core Infrastructure Server (CIS) Suites which license Windows Server and System Center.

  • Products Available: There’s a new SCE column added to those very useful tables at the beginning of the document – you know, the ones that tell you what products are available through which programs etc. In this sparkly new SCE column you’ll find details of the SCE products that require enterprise-wide commitment marked with “STP” (Server and Tools Product) or “C” (core infrastructure product), and available additional products marked as “A”
  • Minimum Requirements: There’s a useful section added to page 43 which shows the minimum initial order requirements for SCE. Previously, this sort of information has only been available in the Enrolment documentation so it’s good to have it more accessible here
  • Subscription Licence Minimums: There are new subscription licences available through SCE, and page 49 confirms the exact set of licences that are eligible for reduction at anniversary after an initial 12 month term
  • Program Benefits: Section 7 of the document on page 63 adds “Program Benefits” to its title and this is where you’ll find details of the SCE benefit that allows you to use System Center to manage up to 10 VOSE instances within Windows Azure for each Core Infrastructure Server Suite licence enrolled in the SCE
  • Renewing EAP Customers: There’s confirmation on page 61 that EAP customers who previously deferred buying licences by buying the SAPriorL SKUs must buyout their licences before they can renew SA
  • Promotions: There are some interesting promotions associated with SCE too. On page 38 you’ll find details of the “Windows Azure Adoption Acceleration” promotion which offers additional monetary commitment credit to customers who are prepared to commit to an upfront monetary commitment, with three bands starting at a commitment of $50K. And also on this page is the “FY14 Jumpstart Server & Cloud Enrolment” which offers a 15% discount on Core Infrastructure Server Datacenter Suite L&SA and SA. Both of these promotions run from 1 November 2013 to 30 June 2014

In other mainstream product news this month:

  • Windows Server and System Center are perhaps more interesting for noting what’s been taken out. As you’d expect, all the references to the product names have been “R2-ified” but the raft of information that’s been available showing all the SA upgrade path information for both products has been removed and now just refers you back to the October 2013 Product List
  • There’s some useful information for Windows too:
    • Again, the version has changed throughout to 8.1, and on page 120 there’s confirmation that VL customers with expired SA on Windows 8 Pro may move to Windows 8.1 Pro, but not Windows 8.1 Enterprise
    • Page 120 informs us that Windows Enterprise Sideloading licences for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 may be used interchangeably, so devices licensed for Windows 8 Enterprise Sideloading that have been upgraded to Windows 8.1 don’t need to be separately re-licensed
    • There’s some expanded information on Sideloading with Windows Embedded on page 116, and details of how customers can enrol in Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro Software Assurance on page 118
  • The rules for acquiring Windows Azure Services have changed – the detail is on page 57 onwards but I’ll explain it all in a separate blog post very soon!

And, finally, those very niche bits and pieces that have changed – let me know if YOU’RE the person who was glad to know the following:

  • The number of licensed desktops for eligibility to participate in the Enterprise Source Licensing Program has increased from 1,500 to 10,000
  • Details of the Enterprise Strategy Program Offerings have been reworked and clarified

More Flexibility in Purchasing Windows Azure through an EA

Announcement from Microsoft regarding more flexibility in purchasing Windows Azure through the EA: “On Nov 1, Microsoft will offer Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers access to discounted Windows Azure prices, regardless of upfront commitment, without overuse penalties and with the flexibility of annual payments.” Read the full press release here: http://bit.ly/1e5qNRy