Cloudy with a chance of Licensing
Latest news and updates on Microsoft licensing & cloud
Not much happening in May, this month we saw:
Products in the Core Services lists will store data at rest in the same geo as the service is deployed, part of Microsoft’s data privacy practices.
Windows 365 Frontline is a new licensing option for Microsoft’s Cloud PC offering, aimed at “Frontline” workers who don’t need constant access to their own PC. This can be scenarios such as:
Each W365 Frontline license allows 3 Cloud PCs virtual machines to be provisioned, but they cannot be used concurrently. The maximum active number of Frontline VMs allowed is equal to the number of licenses you’ve purchased i.e. you’ve bought 20 licenses which enables 60 VMs…but only 20 can be in use at any one time.
W365 Frontline introduces the concept of concurrent licensing – rather than licensing ever shift worker, you instead buy enough licenses to cover the maximum number of desktops active at any one time. For example, 300 users who work in 3 shifts of 100 users = 100 licenses needed.
From a management perspective, the licenses will not show as assigned to users (as they are applied at the tenant level) so you will need to use the W365 utilization report to see how many licenses are being used.
Learn more here – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365/enterprise/introduction-windows-365-frontline and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/04/06/windows-365-offers-flexibility-from-the-office-or-home-to-the-frontline/
It’s been a while since there’s been much to say about the good old VLSC (Volume Licensing Service Center) – it’s been ticking along for years – but there is an update now. Many of its volume licensing features are being moved to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (MAC), this includes:
Note the latter two will both be found under “Contracts” in the M365 Admin Center.
This means customers will have one place to manage their VL and Subscription licenses…will the MPSA Business Center be merged too?
You can see more info from Microsoft here.
This month we’ve 2 new M365 data related SKUs:
M365 Advanced Data Residency
M365 Cross-tenant User Data Migration
There is also the removal of:
Microsoft Threat Experts
SharePoint Advanced Management Plan 1
The SharePoint SKU was only added last month but there was very little info available, so it seems likely it was added in error. Let’s see if/when it reappears.
A nice addition – Azure Active Directory Basic now allows unlimited SSO (Single Sign On) – the previous limit was 10 apps so à really significant change.
There is a 50% off promo for Defender for Endpoint on EA from Nov 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023
Let’s take a look at Microsoft’s financial results for the first quarter of FY23.
Looking at the individual divisions we see:
Overall revenue up 9% to $16.5 billion and within that:
Overall revenue was up 20% to $20.3 billion and within that:
Still a good increase but noticeably slowing down from previous quarters. Microsoft note that cloud margins are down primarily due to increased energy bills.
Overall revenue decreased slightly to $13.3 billion and within that:
“Teams is becoming a ubiquitous platform for business process.”
and shared that the number of enterprise users running 3rd party/custom apps has increased 60% year over year.
“we are going to optimize for long-term customer loyalty by proactively helping them optimize [Azure] spend“
This follows on from what he said last quarter (and also matches what AWS recently said) that helping customers waste less will ultimately help them spend more.
See all the info, slides, and transcripts here.
Microsoft, somewhat confusingly, “introduced” Intune at Ignite 2022…despite it having existed for what – at least a decade at this point?! It’s more of a Jay-Z style “allow me to re-introduce myself” as it seems Microsoft have decided to make Intune the primary brand for endpoint management going forwards…say goodbye to Microsoft Endpoint Management (MEM) as part of this.
The new suite will include:
as well as more features to be announced in 2023.
The add-on license will be available for Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and any licenses that include Intune and will, not surprisingly, be cheaper than buying all the individual components separately. This is another example of where organisations licensed with M365 E5 must still acquire additional licenses – something I know many are not happy with.
Further Reading
See more details on the features here.
Announced at Ignite 2022, Microsoft have introduced a Teams Premium add-on SKU – giving more benefits to organisations as hybrid working becomes more common and continues to evolve. Given the huge success of Teams, and how integral it has become to so many organisations, it makes sense that Microsoft will look to monetize this with a focus on hybrid features. These new options include:
This gives a set of pre-built options for different types of meetings i.e. client calls, brainstorming, help desk calls etc. that will set the length and best practices.
Again, the option to have customised meeting lobbies appears as well as custom backgrounds and together modes.
This sounds like it could genuinely be a game changer.
It will use AI to pick out action items and assign owners during meetings and then create recordings which show key events such as where your name was mentioned or when a screen was shared – making it easier, and faster, to cover what you missed. It will also highlight speakers based on who you work most closely with, so you can skip through the transcripts to find relevant sections more easily.
This is very cool for international companies and partnerships. An organiser having Teams Premium will mean all attendees get live captions in one of 40 languages.
New options around the security of meetings and recordings include watermarking and, for E5 customers, the ability to use Purview Information Protection sensitivity labels.
Appointment management
Teams Premium will offer advanced Virtual Appointments with better end to end management, text reminders, appointment access without the Teams app, a dashboard to see appointment overviews, and analytics. See more here.
There are also some new features that help enhance the Teams webinar offering – something I’m particularly interested in. These include:
Teams Premium also gives control over which speakers, videos etc. attendees can see – which can be very useful when you have multiple presenters at once.
Pricing is currently expected to be $10 per user per month. The Preview will begin in December 2022 and General Availability with be February 2023, although intelligent recap features will be “first half of 2023”.
Most of the focus is on the changes that Microsoft have made to cloud and virtualisation licensing for Windows Server, Windows 11, Office and more – you can check out my analysis of that here – but there are other changes this month too.
Three new products are added:
I cover this in more depth here but it is now in the Product Terms and there’s a clause that organisations must use a Viva Sales connector to link it to their CRM…so no 3rd-party or in-house connectors.
I’ve not seen any info about this and am still looking for details – let me know if you have any info!
Again, no info about these yet. Looking at Microsoft Learn/Docs, workload identities are “applications, service principals, and managed identities” but I’m not sure how this relates to the new SKU.
There was also:
The removal of Intune for EDU (device) from MCA
Windows 11 Home to Pro availability expanded to Central and South America
Microsoft first announced these changes in May 2022 and, after an update in September, we’ve now got the majority of the info in the October 2022 Product Terms document. Let’s take a look at what’s changed and what it means for us all.
First things first, the Listed Providers:
are not included in any of these changes.
This is in the “Universal license terms for all Software” which means it applies to all products under this category. There are 3 new elements within this clause:
The Microsoft wording:
“Customers with subscription licenses or Licenses with active Software Assurance (including CALs) may use licensed copies of the software on devices, including shared Servers, that are under the day-to-day management and control of Authorized Outsourcers.”
This is similar to the existing “License Mobility through Software Assurance” benefit but doesn’t have the requirement to use an “Authorized Mobility Partner” -rather, you can use any “Authorized Outsourcer” partner…which is any partner that isn’t a Listed Provider.
While much of the focus here is on Windows Server, this new benefit applies to other products such as SQL Server too.
The Microsoft wording:
“Customers with subscription licenses or Licenses with active Software Assurance (including CALs) may access their licensed copies of software that is provided by a Cloud Solution Provider-Hoster and installed on that partner’s devices.”
The Microsoft wording:
“Customers may use licensed copies of the software on devices that are under the day-to-day management and control of Authorized Outsourcers, provided all such devices are and remain fully dedicated to Customer’s use.”
As I say, these apply to all Microsoft Software products and, as we’ll see, individual products may have their own additional terms.
You are now able to license individual Windows Server virtual machines rather than licensing the underlying physical hardware. As expected, there are a few rules you need to follow:
Customers with per-user licenses for Windows 11:
install Windows 10 Creators Update or later in an Azure VM or a server that meets the requirements in the “Outsourcing Software Management” clause. The QMTH language has been removed from this section too, opening this up to the wider pool of Authorized Outsourcers.
Reading the terms, it appears that the restriction on local virtualisation with CSP licenses has been removed too – bringing them even closer to parity with volume licenses. The language now states that customers can install Windows in a VM running on their Azure or “a server” – which I read as including their own servers as well as those of an authorized outsourcer.
For Office/Project/Visio, the word “dedicated” has been removed from the terms which means hosting on shared servers is now possible:
“Remote use of the software running on a Server is permitted for any user from a Licensed Device”
There have been changes to the use rights for the Windows component of Microsoft 365 too. The previous language was:
“rights to access and use remote virtualized instances of Windows only apply to Licensed Users that are the Primary User of a device licensed with a Qualifying Operating System.”
While it now says:
“Licensed Users may only run Windows Enterprise locally on devices with a Qualifying Operating System.”
Removing the primary user requirement to access remote virtual instances. Microsoft say:
“Essentially, when licensed as part of Microsoft 365, the requirement to use VDA rights for remote access from desktops without Qualifying Operating Systems no longer applies“
There is also a change for Microsoft 365 F3 to loosen the remote virtualisation restriction. The previous clause:
“rights to access and use virtualized instances of Windows only apply to Licensed Users of a shared device with a Qualifying Operating System“
has been removed.
There is definitely some further clarification needed here. Microsoft released a new licensing guide “Using software products under the Flexible Virtualization Benefit” this month and that document states that the Flexible Virtualisation Benefit applies to Microsoft 365 Apps (formerly Office 365 Pro Plus).
“With the introduction of the Flexible Virtualization Benefit, customers’ options for using Microsoft 365 Apps…outside their own data centers are expanded to include any Authorized Outsourcer’s shared servers“
However, I can’t find language which clearly states this in the current Product Terms, so for now I’d advise not to get too carried away! I expect we’ll see an update to the Product Terms soon to add that language in – but I’ll update either way once we see something from Microsoft.
This is all pretty exciting for a licensing fan like myself – lots of new language and terms and things to check and understand. Also lots of training presentations to update!
For customers though, I’m not sure how much impact this will really have. Yes, it enables organisations to work with a much larger pool of potential hosting providers…but, in my experience at least, most orgs that are struggling want to work with Amazon AWS…and they’re not included in these changes as they’re a Listed Provider. I’m keen to see what real world impact these changes have and who wins (and loses) from it all.
PS: I’m still processing all this new info so will update with corrections as/if needed!
New Flexible Virtualisation Benefit licensing guide
The September Product Terms revealed that Microsoft have replaced Teams Rooms Standard & Premium with Teams Rooms Basic & Pro, and we now have more information on feature differences and licensing.
This is the free entry level license, included with certified Teams Devices and available via the Microsoft 365 Amin Center (not via resellers etc.). It is limited to 25 licensed devices within an organisation, if devices are needed they must be covered with Pro licenses. Furthermore, it is limited to 1 device per room with the same resource account – if 2 or more devices are needed, this again requires a Pro license.
You’ll notice below that Basic does not include a Teams Phone license, preventing the room from making/receiving PSTN calls.
These are $40 per device per month and offer a much wider range of features than the Basic license.
It seems Microsoft have removed access to in-person engineers as part of the management features offered, with the Docs page stating “Microsoft Service engineers will no longer serve as intermediaries to incident response starting October 1, 2022“.
Teams Rooms Basic is missing many of the features that were present in Teams Room Standard which means organisations may find themselves having to move from the $15 per month Standard license to the $40 per month Pro license at renewal – a significant increase. Equally, although probably much less likely, some organisations could drop from Standard ($15) to Basic ($0) and save money each month.
This link here gives a detailed comparison of the differences between Basic & Pro in various different use areas. I would recommend also comparing the new functionality to your existing licenses to identify if you’ll need the Pro option going forwards.
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 