Category: Microsoft 365

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Microsoft Office 365 update changes


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Microsoft are changing the Office 365 update models again!

1) They’re introducing the “Monthly Enterprise Channel” – for orgs who want new features each month but with “added predictability, insights and control”…although the insight and control elements won’t be available until later in the year.

This was available as of May 12th, 2020.

2) June 9th sees name changes for the update channels (old name –> new name):

  • Insider –> Beta Channel
  • Monthly Channel (Targeted) –> Current Channel (Preview)
  • Monthly Channel –> Current Channel
  • Monthly Enterprise Channel *new addition*
  • Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) –> Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)
  • Semi-Annual Channel –> Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel

3) June 9th will also see the default update model for Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise (aka Office 365 ProPlus) on NEW tenants switch to Current Channel, rather than Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel. Existing tenants won’t change.

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Microsoft Product Terms – March 2020


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A pretty quiet March from Microsoft again – the main changes being:

VDA add-on for M365 E3/E5 added

Updated Windows 10 use rights for Microsoft 365 F1*. It can now use prior versions, access VDI, and use KMS activation.

Number of O365 licenses required for Multi-Geo Capabilities reduced from 500 to 250.

*It was called Microsoft F1 at the time but they have subsequently announced this product will be renamed to Microsoft 365 F3, and a new F1 will be introduced as well.

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Microsoft 365 changes in March


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Microsoft have announced a few big changes in March 2020 around:

Microsoft 365 F1 & F3 – a new SKU and a name change

Per-device licensing for Office 365 ProPlus

Name changes to certain Office 365 products

I’ve gone into detail on all 3 here – https://www.itassetmanagement.net/2020/03/31/microsoft-365-changes-march-2020/

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Per-device licensing for Office 365 Pro Plus


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Microsoft have finally announced per-device licensing of Office 365 Pro Plus* for commercial organisations – following its introduction to the education EES agreement last year. Coming, like a Hollywood blockbuster, in “summer 2020” – this is something that some organisations have been waiting on for a LONG time – particularly in verticals such as retail and manufacturing.

How to use it

As ever, there are conditions to its availability:

  • Only available as an add-on license
  • Only available via EA/EAS
  • Device must be Windows 10 – version 1803 or later
  • Office Pro Plus must be version 1907 or later
  • Device must be Azure Active Directory (AD) or hybrid AD joined

and there are various steps that need to be taken to enable it, including group policy changes.

I’ve long said that Microsoft would do this one day as a big portion of their customers wanted it and a sizeable chunk of potential cloud business was being blocked. If you’re a Microsoft customer who’s been holding out on moving to the cloud, expect a call from your friendly neighbourhood partner soon 😊

You can read further and get more details on the various technical pre-requisites here – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/device-based-licensing

*As per this MS post here, Office 365 Pro Plus is now renamed “Microsoft 365 Apps” 🙄

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Microsoft Project gets a refresh


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Microsoft are making changes to the “Project experience” to make it easier to use. They say this new Project is “designed to be both simple and powerful, so anyone can get started quickly and take control of any project right away”, with a more intuitive user interface – certainly something Project could do with in my opinion! Not surprisingly, there’s a fair amount of integration with Teams and Power BI.

As part of this, there are new/changed product names too. Project Online Professional is now Project Plan 3, while Project Online Premium is Project Plan 5. Added to the lineup is Project Plan 1 – an entry level SKU which doesn’t include many of the features nor a desktop client. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, Plan 1 means for the future of Planner.

Project Plan 1 features – https://products.office.com/en-gb/project/compare-microsoft-project-management-software

You can see Microsoft’s announcement here, and check out the features and pricing for the Project Plans here.

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Microsoft Product Terms: November 2019


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I’ve taken a look at some of the highlights of this month’s Microsoft Product Terms document.

Big news is SQL Server 2019 is here – with a new SKU type and expanded fail-over rights.

We now have “SQL Server Big Data Node (BDN)” – available in 2-core packs via EA & EES. Requires a “master node” of SQL Std/Ent core with SA and includes certain SA rights.

Each SQL Server Ent Core license with SA gives 8 BDN licenses and each SQL Server Std Core license with SA gives 1 BDN license, when assigned to a “master node”.

The updated fail-over info is there too, but I’ll look at that properly in a separate article.

New language that M365 & O365 F1 licenses can only be assigned to users without a dedicated device.

“A Dedicated Device is a computing device used for work with a 10.1” screen or larger, used by the user more than 60% of the user’s total work time during any 90-day period”

F1 licenses are aimed at users who tend not have a device – drivers, nurses, warehouse staff etc. but I know some organisations are looking at them as a way to license traditional office workers and reduce costs. This new language looks to prevent that.

The new Project Plan 1, 3, and 5 licenses are added – only available via CSP. Plan 1 not available in France or South Korea for some reason. 🤔

Terms have been added to cover Azure Spot offers. <– Interestingly, I haven’t seen Microsoft use this term themselves until now. They have referred to them as “low-priority VMs” in Azure, with Spot being a term used by Amazon AWS.

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Microsoft Product Terms: October 2017


Microsoft have introduced a number of changes in the October 2017 Product Terms document – let’s take a look.

SQL Server 2017

Linux

SQL Server 2017 has been released, and the big thing is its support for Linux.

Microsoft point out page 29 of the Product Terms that “SQL Server Licenses are platform agnostic” and can be used on “Windows or Linux platforms”.

Machine Learning Server

The Product Terms also states that only customers with SQL Server Enterprise + SA may use updates to “Machine Learning Server for Windows or Linux” that are released after October 2017.

Additionally, for each SQL Server Enterprise core license with active SA, customers may run “Machine Learning Server for Hadoop” on up to 5 (five) servers.

What is “Machine Learning Server” you ask? Good question! It was “Microsoft R Server” and now, with the 9.2 release, it becomes “Machine Learning Server”.

For more info – head to this Microsoft blog.

R Server

The various flavours of “R Server” are being retired and so there are transition plans in place for those organisations with Software Assurance.

R Server for Hadoop

For each 1 (one) R Server for Hadoop license with active SA, you may renew SA for 2 (two) x SQL Server Enterprise Core Licenses.

R Server for Linux

For each 2 (two) R Server for Linux licenses with active SA, you may renew SA for 2 (two) x SQL Server Enterprise Core Licenses.

R Server for Teradata DB

For each 1 (one) R Server for Teradata license, you may renew SA for 6 (six) x SQL Server Enterprise Core Licenses.

SQL Server for Linux Promotion

On page 95, we see there is a promo running from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018 where:

“Microsoft will offer a Linux-specific subscription license for SQL Server 2017”

and, unlike the regular license this promo offering will:

“allow use of SQL Server on the Linux platform only”.

I can currently only assume that this promo offering will be cheaper than the license that offers dual platform rights, but let’s see!

Microsoft 365 F1

This is a new offering, aimed at those “Firstline” (formerly Kiosk) workers, for whom Office 365 F1 (formerly K1) was intended. Microsoft are now looking to extended the features and benefits of Windows 10 and EMS to these workers too – hence an F1 version of the recently renamed Microsoft 365 bundle license.

There are a couple of key things to note:

“The Windows component of Microsoft 365 F1 operates as an Online Service” and does NOT have rights to:

  • Prior versions
  • Different language versions
  • Different platform versions
  • Lower editions of Windows (including LTSB)

Nor does it grant rights to access or use “virtualized instances of Windows”.

A Microsoft 365 F1 USL DOES grant access to Windows Servers, but is not a “CAL Equivalent License” for any other product.

A “step-up” from Office 365 F1 to Microsoft 365 F1 is available.

 

Visio Online licensing

There have been changes to the licensing here. We can see on page 5 of the Product Terms that:

Visio Pro for Office 365

has been removed and replaced by:

Visio Online Plan 1 & Plan 2

There doesn’t appear to be any further public info on what the plans contain etc. but, as it appears, I’ll be sure to post.

Exchange Online Inactive Mailboxes

A new license has been added to the Exchange Online product line – the “Exchange Online Inactive Mailbox” SKU.

The product name is fairly self-explanatory as this license is required when licensing inactive mailboxes. Again, when there is more public information, I will update with the ins & outs.

UPDATE: Microsoft have confirmed that this change WILL NOT be taking place currently. Although the SKU has been added to the Product Terms, it is not active.

Skype for Business Online Renaming

We get confirmation this month of the Skype for Business Online name changes:

Skype for Business Online PSTN Calling = Calling Plan

Skype for Business Online PSTN Conferencing = Audio Conferencing

Skype for Business Online PSTN Consumption = Communication Credits

Skype for Business Online Cloud PBX = Phone System

Education

We see that Microsoft 365 (the bundle of Windows 10 Enterprise, Office 365 & Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS)) A3 & A5 have been added to the product line-up.

There have also been changes to the Student Use Benefits:

Student Use Benefit

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