Category: Microsoft

This category is for anything Microsoft related-so you’ll probably find that msot posts end up in here!

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Office for iPad


 

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BOOM – it’s here…Word, Excel & PowerPoint FOR THE IPAD!

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Office for iPad uses a “Freemium” model. It is free to download the app, free to view and present with – to create and/or edit, you will need an Office 365 subscription.

The differences between free & paid are:

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Q: What Office 365 subscription plans include Office for iPad?

A:

  • Office 365 Home
  • Office 365 Small Business Premium
  • Office 365 Midsize Business
  • Office 365 E3 and E4 (Enterprise and Government)
  • Office 365 Education A3 and A4
  • Office 365 ProPlus
  • Office 365 University

The new Office 365 Personal will also qualify when it becomes available later this spring.

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Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite Rumour


Rumours abound that Microsoft are set to make 2 announcements at tomorrow’s (27/03/14) web conference:

1) Office for iPad

2) Enterprise Mobility Suite

Office for iPad is a big one, that’s been talked about for a long while, and is a tricky thing to consider. On one hand, there are millions of people with iPads who will surely buy Office – bringing in significant revenue to Redmond. On the other hand, does Office on iPad weaken the Windows tablet message somewhat?

I don’t think it does, Office isn’t the only benefit of a Windows tablet – but I can see it being a question MS will need to address.

The second point is a newer rumour – the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS). According to ZDNet, this will be a bundle of:

  • Windows Intune
  • Azure Active Directory Premium (a new offering)
  • Azure Rights Management Services

This would enable organizations to easily manage 1000’s of devices – Windows, Windows RT, Windows Phone as well as iOS & Android – with features such as self service password reset, group management and more.

Source – ZDnet: http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-to-unveil-enterprise-mobility-suite-alongside-office-for-ipad-7000027717/

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SQL 2014 Release Date


Microsoft have announced that SQL Server 2014 has been RTM’d (Released To Manufacturing) and will be generally available from April 1st.

SQL 2014 brings a host of new and improved features, particularly around Business Intelligence and Cloud computing.

  • In-memory transaction processing (In-Memory OLTP), speeds up an already very fast experience by delivering speed improvement of up to 30x.
  • Customers do not have to rewrite their application or deploy new servers. We approached in-memory columnstore the same way – it is built into SQL Server.
  • Customers can easily and securely backup and recover on-premises SQL Server databases using Windows Azure
  • SQL Server 2014’s AlwaysOn technology was not just improved for this release, it was built to enroll Windows Azure virtual machines running SQL Server into a customers’ disaster recovery solution.

You can read more about this release here:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2014/03/18/sql-server-2014-released-to-manufacturers-will-be-generally-available-april-1.aspx?WT.mc_id=Blog_SQL_RTM_SQL14

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Windows 8.1 Enterprise Upgrade


One of the fundamentals of MS licensing has been changed. It’s always been the case that:

“the only way to get Windows Enterprise is to buy Pro + SA”

Well not anymore!

As of March 2014, there is a standalone Windows 8.1 Enterprise SKU available via Volume Licensing.

Why?

This means organizations who can’t/won’t enter into an agreement with Software Assurance can now benefit from things such as:

  • Direct Access
  • AppLocker
  • Windows To Go

and more

Other SA benefits are not effected so things such as:

  • New Version Rights
  • MDOP
  • Virtualization

etc. are still only available with SA.

What else has changed?

It is now ONLY possible to attached SA to the Enterprise Upgrade SKU.

This takes away one relatively common practise. Organizations would often buy machines with Windows Pro OEM and then attach Windows SA within 90 days. This is no longer possible as SA can be attached only to Enterprise – and that won’t come pre-loaded on machines.

If you bought the OEM devices before July 1st 2014, you still have the 90 days to purchase SA. Once that date passes, it will no longer be possible.

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Power BI General Availability


Business Intelligence is an ever growing area and I think it will continue to grow for quite some time. Taking note of the data you have, analysing it and making decisions based on it is becoming more and more prevalent – think what Billy Beane has been doing at the A’s for years, what Bill James does with the Red Sox, look at how Opta stats have become such a huge thing within premier league football…all these are examples of business intelligence.

The new way:

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I’m amazed at some of the things that are being done with Power Bi, especially combined with Excel 2013! The opportunity for organizations to become so much smarter with how and what they’re doing is huge – the fact that it’s cloud based so allows access from anywhere is a big deal, especially with the Windows 8 & RT apps AND HTML5 support.

It’s available now so pricing is in the pricefiles – to see some of the things you can do with Power BI, head over to:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/powerbi/default.aspx#fbid=rZ1xycdtZvO

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Windows Intune & Power BI coming to Open Licensing


In a very encouraging move, Microsoft have announced that, from April 1st 2014, customers will be able to purchase both Windows Intune through the Open licensing program.

Currently Intune is available only via the MS portal but will now sit alongside Office 365 (and soon Power BI too) on the regular pricelists.

See more here:

http://www.digitalwpc.com/Community/Perspectives/Pages/Windows-Intune-and-Power-BI-coming-to-Open-Volume-Licensing.aspx?fbid=-jjTmFnB-aO&mtag=mbar-twitter&mtag=mbar-linkedin#fbid=PVSRpLQGbVC

Hat tip to Licensing School for finding this.

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Cloud Platform Suite


This is a new licensing program that will be available on the January 2014 SPLA price list. It is aimed at Service Providers who run heterogenous environment – that is environments with a mix of Operating Systems such as Windows, Linux & Unix.

It is licensed in a “Host and Guest” model – the Host license covers the hardware and you will then purchase a Guest license for each Windows VM you wish to run.

Host SKU: Includes Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2, and Windows Azure Pack, host capabilities and rights to manage all guests

Guest SKU: Includes Windows Server 2012 R2 guest capabilities

For more info, check out my good friends over at Licensing School:

Permalink to Cloud Platform Suite

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Adding Azure to an Enterprise Agreement


It’s now easier than ever for customers to add Windows Azure to their Enterprise Agreement (EA).

You commit upfront to a monthly amount that you feel will cover all your needs, and that monetary commitment can be utilised in any way within Azure.

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Previously, you would receive great payment terms for your monetary commitment but – should you go over that amount (known as “overage”) – the extra usage would be charged at much higher rates. This effectively punished organizations who thought “wow, this Azure stuff is cool” – but no more, Overage is now charged at the same rates as the initial agreed amount. This makes increasing the usage of Azure a much more compelling proposition.

See Josh Waldo’s full post here:

http://www.digitalwpc.com/Community/Perspectives/Pages/Windows-Azure-added-to-Enterprise-Agreement-Use-it-to-power-your-solutions-.aspx?wt.mc_id=corp_mpn_tw_dwpc_joshwaldoazureagreement#fbid=7Lt8ur4Ygjd

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Office 365 Admin Access in Exchange Online


Office 365 Wave 15 (the current release) brought with it a new admin console, that consolidates and streamlines access to most requirements. That said, one of the common worries for IT managers is around loss of control when compared to administering their on-site infrastructure.

A great tip from @12knocksinna shows how to gain access to an extra level of features:

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To access this, simply fire up OWA and then change /OWA to /ECP in the URL an hey presto –  you’re in!

I’m sure I remember these features being available in the beta release of Wave 15 – anyone else?!

See Tony’s full blog about it her:

http://m.windowsitpro.com/blog/wave-15-office-365-admin-interface-unifies-applications-lacks-some-functionality

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PowerPoint Progression with Windows Phone


This is a great, nifty invention that’s just come out of Microsoft Research.

I quite like wandering around…out in town, at work and in general. When I’m presenting, I can’t really do it though, as I need to be close to my machine to click “next”…well no more!

Office Remote turns your Windows Phone 8 device into a remote control for your Office 2013 presentation apps  (Word, Excel & PowerPoint). I’ve just downloaded the bits and tested this out with my upcoming Cloud presentation – it took about 2 mins to setup and works perfectly. You need:

It shows the elapsed presenting time, clear forward/backwards buttons and even shows your speaker notes on your phone!

office remote

I’ll definitely be using this when I present at Old Trafford on Thursday 🙂

Other use scenarios include:

  • PowerPoint: Large, easily accessible buttons on the phone enable you to start a presentation, advance slides forward or backward, view thumbnails and jump to a particular slide, access speaker cues while viewing the presentation time and the progress of slides, and deliver accurate, non-shaky direction with the on-screen laser pointer.
  • Excel: Simple gestures enable jumping not just between spreadsheets and graphs, but also among any named objects. Spreadsheets can be changed with a mere finger swipe, and navigation is available through rows or columns. In addition, you can use PivotTables or filters and change zoom levels, all with an Office Remote-equipped phone.
  • Word: Zoom control is available in this application, as well, and Word docs can be scrolled by screen or by line.

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    You can see more about it here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/inside_microsoft_research/archive/2013/11/18/advance-your-presentation-with-your-phone.aspx

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