Posts

Posted on

Microsoft 365 Azure Sentinel promotion


Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

If you have eligible M365 licenses, you can receive a grant of up to 5MB per user per day for free data ingestion from certain sources. Microsoft say this will save $1,500 a month on a standard 3,500 user deployment.

The offer isn’t listed in the product terms but you can find more info here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/offers/sentinel-microsoft-365-offer/

Which licenses are eligible?

Customers licensed with the following on an Enterprise Agreement/Enterprise Agreement Subscription are eligible for the promo.

M365 E5 Security
Microsoft 365 E5 Security
Microsoft 365 E5 Security_USGOV_GCCHIGH
Microsoft 365 G5 Security GCC
Microsoft 365 G5 Security_USGOV_DOD
Microsoft 365 A5 Security for faculty
Microsoft 365 A5 Security for students
M365 E5
Microsoft 365 E5
Microsoft 365 E5_USGOV_GCCHIGH
Microsoft 365 GCC G5
Microsoft 365 G5_USGOV_DOD
Microsoft 365 A5 for faculty
Microsoft 365 A5 for students
M365 F5
Microsoft 365 F5 Security Add-on
Microsoft 365 F5 Security Add-on AR_USGOV_DOD
Microsoft 365 F5 Security Add-on AR_USGOV_GCCHIGH
Microsoft 365 F5 Security Add-on GCC
Microsoft 365 F5 Security + Compliance Add-on
Microsoft 365 F5 Security + Compliance Add-on AR (DOD)_USGOV_DOD
Microsoft 365 F5 Security + Compliance Add-on AR_USGOV_GCCHIGH
Microsoft 365 F5 Security + Compliance Add-on GCC

Additional SKUs include:

  • Microsoft 365 E5 Suite features
  • Microsoft 365 E5 with Calling Minutes
  • Microsoft 365 E5 without Audio Conferencing
  • Microsoft 365 A5 Suite features for faculty
  • Microsoft 365 A5 Suite features for students
  • Microsoft 365 A5 with Calling Minutes for Faculty
  • Microsoft 365 A5 with Calling Minutes for Students
  • Microsoft 365 A5 without Audio Conferencing for faculty
  • Microsoft 365 A5 without Audio Conferencing for students
  • Microsoft 365 G5 GCC Suite features
  • Microsoft 365 G5_USGOV_DOD
  • Microsoft 365 E5 Security for EMS E5
  • Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance for FLW

Which data sources are included?

You can use this grant to reduce costs when importing from:

  • Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) sign-in and audit logs
  • Microsoft Cloud App Security shadow IT discovery logs
  • Microsoft information protection logs
  • Microsoft 365 advanced hunting data

Posted on

New Microsoft SMB telephony SKU


Photo by Anthony Shkraba on Pexels.com

Microsoft have announced that they’re launching a new add-on SKU “Teams Phone with Calling Plan”, which will replace the SMB focused “Microsoft 365 Business Voice” SKU as well as adding some Enterprise capabilities.

It can be added onto:

  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic
  • Business Standard
  • Business Premium
  • Microsoft 365 F1, F3, E3, A3
  • Office 365 F3, E1, E3, A1, A3

What’s included

Microsoft have stated the new SKU will include:

“A phone system and a domestic calling plan. Domestic calling plan includes 3,000 minutes for the US and Canada, 1,200 minutes in other available markets.

Adding toll-free numbers and additional minutes can be paid per use through Communications Credits and an optional international calling plan that includes 600 minutes/user/month can be purchased as an add-on. 

Timeline

January 1, 2022

  • “Teams Phone with Calling Plan” SKU is available for purchase via partners.
  • Direct purchases via web will be available January 3 for US, UK, and CA and mid-January for all other markets where available.

March 1, 2022

  • Business Voice no longer available.
  • Customers who purchased Business Voice before this date will continue with their Business Voice subscription until its expiration date.

June 30, 2022

  • Last day to renew existing Business Voice licenses

See the Microsoft announcement here:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/small-and-medium-business-blog/teams-phone-with-calling-plan-available-in-33-markets-on-january/ba-p/2967643

Posted on

Microsoft PowerApps now include AI credits


Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Amongst the various elements of the Power Platform, Microsoft offer AI Builder credits. These are used whenever a creation needs to use the power of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence offerings – say for translating or scanning documents. Historically, these have been included with the Power Automate per User w/Attended RPA plan but an additional charge for all other Power Automate and PowerApps licenses.

However, according to a tweet* from Ryan Cunningham – the product lead for Microsoft PowerApps – they are now including AI Builder Credits with all per User and per App licenses…including those already purchased.

He also states that the API request limits are being increased from 5,000 per user per day to 40,000 per user per day.

*I know that tweets aren’t exactly the most legit of sources for licensing information and I will definitely be looking for this to be reflected in product documentation, licensing guides, and the Product Terms…but you’d hope it’s accurate!

Update December 9th, 2021

The new Power Platform licensing guide confirms the AI Builder additions:

Power Apps per App = 250 credits

Power Apps per User = 500 credits

Interestingly, there is a cap on accrued credits of 1,000,000…that equates to 4,000 Per App licenses or 2,000 Per User licenses and is worth $500 per month. This means large organisations will still find themselves spending money on AI Builder credits.

Posted on

Microsoft security name changes – November 2021


Photo by Nothing Ahead on Pexels.com

During their Ignite 2021 conference, Microsoft announced a range of name changes across their security portfolio – these are:

Old nameNew name
Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS)Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
Azure Security Center + Azure Defender Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Azure Defender for IoTMicrosoft Defender for IoT
Azure Defender for StorageMicrosoft Defender for Storage
Azure Sentinel Microsoft Sentinel

These are, I believe, all the changes but there may be some other “Azure –> Microsoft” changes that have taken place!

Whenever products change names, there’s the potential for confusion among partners and customers. While many of these are fairly straightforward, I can definitely see people getting confused between “Microsoft Defender for Cloud” and “Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps” 😂

Posted on

PowerApps Pay as you Go (PAYG) in Azure


Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Power Apps has always been licensed on a per user or per app basis but now it is also available under the Pay as you go (PAYG) model. Microsoft see this as a way to help organisations innovate faster with less wasted spend as it doesn’t require licenses to be allocated to specific users.

How it works

You connect the apps environment to an Azure subscription and then pay for usage via 3 meters:

Power Apps per app PAYG

Pay when a user runs an app – rather than the existing model of allocating licenses beforehand and seeing them consumed based on apps being shared rather than run.

An active user is someone who opens an app/portal at least once a month – usage by users licensed on a per user basis is not included. Cost is $10 per active user per app per month.

Here’s an example from Microsoft:

Example of three apps enabled for pay-as-you-go
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/pay-as-you-go-meters?tabs=image

Dataverse PAYG

These are split between:

  • Database storage
  • File storage
  • Log storage (only used if auditing is turned on)

and you get 1GB of database storage and 1Gb of log storage included with each linked environment.

Use over the free amount is charged at:

  • Database – $48 per GB per month
  • File – $2.40 per GB per month
  • Log – $12 per GB per month

Microsoft example:

Measured usage above per environment entitlements
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/pay-as-you-go-meters?tabs=image

Power Platform Requests PAYG

This is the new name for API calls and, as standard, you get 6.000 API calls per user per app per day – Microsoft believe this will be enough for most users. If it isn’t, any additional API calls are charged at $0.00004 per request per day.

Example from Microsoft:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/pay-as-you-go-meters?tabs=image

Note that the request example includes both Power Apps and Power Automate.

Where it makes sense, organisations can use both the per user and PAYG models simultaneously.

Cost Management

These new meters will be available within Azure Cost Management, meaning costs can be tracked, budgets can be set, and resources can be tagged. For some organisations, particularly those where FinOps is stronger than ITAM, this new approach may yield better results.

Further Reading

Microsoft announcement

Microsoft Docs

Posted on

Microsoft Product Terms: November 2021


Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

The November 2021 Microsoft Product Terms contains quite a few updates!

Microsoft Managed Desktop

As an offering, it’s been available for a while as a bit of a hidden secret almost but now it’s in the Product Terms.

Microsoft Viva

A few additions here:

  • Microsoft Viva
  • Viva Learning
  • Viva with Glint* add-on added

which rounds out the Viva line-up in the Product Terms (I think!):

*Glint is a 3rd-party product that sits in a similar, complementary area – see more here.

Defender products

Another addition to the Defender line up as:

“Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS)” is renamed to “Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps”

I’m not 100% sure I agree with this name change as I feel it downplays the capabilities of MCAS as a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) for a start.

Additionally, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 has been added (see more here) and the existing version renamed to Plan 2.

Following on from the above, a new product has appeared…

App Governance add-on for “Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps”

This is a “security & policy management” product for OAuth-enabled apps that access Microsoft 365 data via the Microsoft Graph and aims to help organisations govern, detect, and remediate 3rd-party access to corporate data in Microsoft 365.

The integration of app governance with Azure AD and Microsoft Cloud App Security.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/compliance/app-governance-manage-app-governance

See more from Microsoft on this here.

Power Apps

A new “Power Apps per User” 2000 seat minimum SKU has been added – clearly Microsoft are seeing/expecting large scale rollouts of PowerApps…especially after its 202% year-on-year growth in Q1!

Productivity Servers

It was revealed a while back that the next releases of the Productivity Servers (Exchange/SharePoint/Lync), as well as Project, would be subscription only and now some of them have arrived in the Product Terms.

Just Project and SharePoint have been added currently but I’d imagine the same rules will apply to the other products. They are now officially known as:

  • Project Server Subscription Edition
  • SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

and active Software Assurance (SA) is required to run the latest “Subscription edition”. However, should SA lapse, you receive perpetual rights to run the 2019 version.

Microsoft Clouds

Two previously announced Microsoft Cloud products:

“Financial Services”

“Nonprofit”

have been added, as add-ons, to the Product Terms. They can be added on top of the following licenses:

Financial Services

  • Microsoft 365 E3/E5
  • Microsoft Project
  • Power Apps/Power Automate/PowerBI
  • Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise
  • Dynamics 365 Digital Messaging
  • Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
  • Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise
  • Dynamics 365 Customer Voice

Non-Profit

  • Office 365 E3/E5
  • Microsoft 365 E3/E5
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator
  • Power Apps/Power Automate/Power BI
  • Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise
  • Dynamics 365 Marketing
  • Azure App Service

Non-Profit comes in 3 flavours:

  • Basic
  • Plan 1
    • Available to orgs with up to, and including, 250 total employees
  • Plan 2
    • Available to orgs with 251+ total employees

Posted on

Microsoft make more acquisitions: October 2021


Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Microsoft have made two acquisitions recently, both of which show where their focus lies when looking ahead.

Clear Software

Acquired for an undisclosed amount, Clear Software focus on business process solutions that integrate into Oracle and SAP systems. Microsoft have acquired them because their:

“API access and system knowledge will strengthen Microsoft Power Platform’s integration with outside systems and accelerate how customers leverage data and processes that reside beyond Microsoft first-party services”

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/powerplatform/2021/10/22/microsoft-acquires-clear-software-to-enhance-connectivity-to-systems-of-record/

Microsoft state this will make it easier for users to create Power Apps and Power Automate flows that connect into Oracle & SAP. This will make Power Platform even more attractive to citizen developers across the world and also increase the 3rd-party license non-compliance risks that organisations may face.

See the announcement here

Learn more about Clear Software here

Ally.io

Focused on Objectives and Key Results (OKR), Ally.io has been acquired by Microsoft to:

“revolutionize how organizations use technology to bring deeper connection to work, purpose and results in the hybrid world”

https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2021/10/07/microsoft-acquires-ally-io-to-improve-employee-experience-by-aligning-peoples-work-with-team-goals-and-company-mission/

and it will be used to power a new module within Microsoft Viva alongside Connection, Insights, Learning, and Topics. The new functionality will also be integrated through Office, Power BI, and the wider set of Microsoft 365 apps.

This is further proof that Microsoft see the Employee Experience (EXP) sector as a big new direction for them and that Viva will likely grow to be a key part of the Microsoft stack.

See the announcement here

Learn more about Ally.io

Posted on

Microsoft financial results Q1 FY22: Power Apps up 202%


Photo by Burst on Pexels.com

Microsoft’s latest financial results, those for Q1 FY22 (July – August 2021) are in and – as has been the case for the recent memory – they smashed it again.

Revenue for the quarter was $45.3 billion – a year-on-year increase of 22% and operating income was up 27% to $20.2 billion.

The overall “Microsoft Cloud” area broke $20 billion quarterly revenue for the first time with growth of 36% to reach $20.7 billion. However, Microsoft Cloud gross margin did drop slightly to a mere 71%!

During the earnings call, Satya Nadella said:

“Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy”

Which helps explain why the cloud, and technology like Power Platform, keeps growing…they’re helping level the playing field and help smaller organisations grow and compete.

Productivity & Business Processes

This division was up 22% to $15 billion for the quarter, driven by growth in various elements:

  • Office 365 Commercial was up 23%
  • LinkedIn was up 42%
  • Dynamics 365 was up 48%

This is strong growth in several key areas for Microsoft and they don’t believe it will slow down next quarter either.

Intelligent Cloud

Revenue here was $17 billion driven by Azure growth of 50%. The rise of Azure doesn’t seem to be slowing down!

More Personal Computing

Windows OEM was up 10%, despite the ongoing supply chain issues for PCs and laptops…but Surface was down 17%. This is perhaps due to the constraint issues impacting more on higher end devices at the moment.

Other areas of interest

There were various additional statements made during the earnings call including:

  • Power Platform reaches almost 20 million monthly active users (MAU) – up 76% year-on-year (YoY). Of that, Power Apps makes up 10 million MAU and grew 202% YoY…Nadella states it is in use within 91% of the Fortune 500.
  • Satya Nadella made several references to the size of organisations that are using products such as Power Platform and Teams – pointing out how many 10,000+ and 100,000+ user organisations are customers.
  • Microsoft now have over 650,000 customers using their security solutions. How many of those are using more than Defender in Windows 10 would be interesting to see…
  • Office Commercial licensing decreased by 13%, continuing Microsoft’s ongoing transition of their customer base from on-prem to cloud.
  • Enterprise Mobility + Security is now at 196 million seats.
  • Amy Hood revealed that Microsoft have increased headcount by 14% YoY, which is a pretty significant hiring drive.

Further Reading

Microsoft Results Press Release

Posted on

Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL: Centralised management


Photo by Skitterphoto on Pexels.com

Microsoft have introduced a new way to help organisations manage their SQL licenses when using Azure Hybrid Benefit – scope-level management.

Scope-level management

Rather than assigning Hybrid Benefit usage at an individual resource level, you tell the Azure portal how many SQL licenses w/SA you have and these are then auto-applied to SQL resources running in the subscription or billing account.

Both SQL Server Standard and Enterprise licenses can be used to off-set costs in Azure but the licenses are “worth” different amounts. In effect, this means that 1 x SQL Server Enterprise license is equivalent to 4 x SQL Server Standard licenses when applying them to Azure services.

Normalized Core Licenses (NCL)

The new concept of NCLs makes it easier to work out how many Azure vCores your on-premises licenses give you. Keeping track of the different licenses and what they equate to in Azure can be confusing so now, when using scope-level management:

1 x SQL Server Standard core license = 1 x NCL

1 x SQL Server Enterprise core license = 4 x NCLs

This means if you have, for example, 6 SQL Standard core licenses w/SA and 9 SQL Enterprise core licenses w/SA you will have 42 NCLs to use across Azure services.

Things to know

You can’t currently use this new centralized management option with:

  • Azure Data Factory – SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
  • Azure Dedicated Host

nor can you use it with Windows Server licenses.

Further Reading

What is centrally managed Azure Hybrid Benefit?

Centralised management FAQ

Posted on

Microsoft Product Terms: October 2021


Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

A couple of decent additions this month – new products across EXP (Employee Experience) and Security as well as (some) clarity around support offerings.

Viva new products

Microsoft Viva Insights & Viva Insights Capacity SKUs were added. Not only do we get a new product but we also get a new licensing piece to watch out for…the idea of additional capacity SKUs for Viva Insights analytics. I go into more depth here.

A growing security portfolio

2 x Privacy Management SKUs added – “Risk” and “Subject Rights Request”, furthering increasing Microsoft’s security position. It does, however, look like there was some confusion between “Office 365” and “Microsoft 365” for the pre-requisite licenses as they list “Microsoft 365 E1” which doesn’t exist…yet!

Support info

Microsoft have added a range of information about their support offerings including Unified Support and Premier Support, as well as some of the additional services that are available to purchase. Making this information publicly available will be a big benefit for customers and partners alike, as it hasn’t always been easy to know what was included etc.

You can see more about this in my post here.

One that nearly got away

A change that snuck past me initially in July is that Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise (formerly Office 365 ProPlus) is no longer classed as an “Enterprise Product” and is now an “Enterprise Online Service”. This means it is no longer required to be purchased enterprise-wide.

Website Powered by WordPress.com.