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Microsoft announce the end of Open Licensing


Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Microsoft Open Licensing is (almost) dead. The writing has been on the wall for so long it’s almost been designated a public artwork so this is no surprise but still…it’s a bit of a surprise. Open Licensing or MOLP/OLP has been the mainstay of Microsoft Volume Licensing for decades and the primary licensing vehicle for most SMBs and smaller organisations around the world.

What changed?

A few years ago though, Microsoft introduced the CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) program and it fast became the anointed one, with a huge amount of focus from Microsoft and it’s been clear for a long time that (part of) the eventual plan was to replace Open licensing.

When they stopped adding new products to the Open pricelist, that was a pretty big sign but the clearest indication the end was nigh was in July 2020. Microsoft announced that perpetual software like Office Standard, Exchange Server, Project Professional etc. was coming to CSP. So far, CSP has been all about subscription software so wasn’t an option for organisations who, for whatever reason, preferred to purchase their Microsoft outright; those customers stayed on Open licensing.

What’s happening?

Perpetual software via CSP is in limited availability at the moment with general availability slated for January 2021. Nothing changes on Open licensing until December 31, 2021 – so you can continue to buy & renew licenses, Software Assurance (SA), and Online Services throughout 2021. Come January 1, 2022, commercial* customers will no longer be able to buy or renew licenses or online services via Open licensing.

*The specific mention of “commercial” customers is interesting. From that, one can imply that non-profit and academic customers will not be impacted…at least not at the same time. It’s often the case that changes apply first for commercial customers.

Post Jan 1, 2022:

Software Assurance will continue until it’s expiration, even if that is beyond December 31, 2021.

Online Services tokens can still be assigned and used, even after December 31, 2021 – but it must be within 5 -years of purchase.

For new licenses without SA, the primary (for many, only) option will be to buy via CSP.

Software Assurance isn’t available via CSP so, if that’s a deal breaker, you’ll need to look at one of the two Open Value programs – either:

  • Open Value Perpetual (OVP) – Perpetual licenses + SA
  • Open Value Subscription (OVS) – Subscription licenses with SA benefits

If you purchase via Open Licensing, work with your partner to understand which program/s will best serve you in 2022 and what additional costs you may be facing. You can see Microsoft’s announcement here.

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Microsoft Teams customer promotions


To help drive adoption of Teams, Microsoft have announced a couple of customer promotions:

Audio Conferencing for free

For Enterprise Agreement customers, the offer is available immediately until January 21, 2021 and licenses are free until the end of your enrolment.

For purchases via partners and the web portal, you get the licenses free for 12 months. Offer starts October 1, 2020 and ends March 31, 2021 and isn’t available in China or India.

35% off Teams Advanced Communications

Available now for Enterprise Agreement customers (ends January 31, 2021) and “coming soon” if you buy via partners or the web portal. This is available worldwide.

See Microsoft’s post here.

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Microsoft and Nutanix hybrid cloud


Microsoft have announced a partnership with Nutanix to help organisations develop multi-cloud and hybrid cloud scenarios. Nutanix clusters will be added into Azure datacentres – extending on-premises Nutanix environments into the cloud:

https://www.nutanix.com/blog/hybrid-cloud-solutions-with-nutanix-and-microsoft-azure

Software and nodes will be paid for via “Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC)” or PAYG, as well as existing Nutanix licenses being portable into Azure. Azure Hybrid Benefits can be utilised on the “Nutanix Clusters on Azure” and Microsoft’s Extended Support Updates are available too. Additionally, via Azure ARC, various Azure services – including Kubernetes – can be run in on-premises Nutanix environments.

Microsoft are really working to extend Azure to as many organisations as possible – VMware on Azure, Azure Stack, Azure Arc, and now this. It seems very much the approach they took to Office software on mobile devices – if you allow people to use your service alongside those from competitors, you end up in a better position that forcing them choose one or the other.

The service is currently in public preview – more info is available here and you can sign up to the waiting list here.

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Microsoft Productivity Servers in 2021


What is the future for the on-premises versions of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Skype for Business Server aka the Productivity Servers? Microsoft’s move to the cloud is clear, successful, and accelerating so where does that leave organisations not yet ready to ditch their locally deployed servers? Will there be another release or are the current 2019 versions the end of the road?

More information has been revealed at Microsoft Ignite 2020, both in this Teams session “On Skype for Business? Design your path to Microsoft Teams” and this Exchange session- “Exchange – Here, There, and Everywhere“. There WILL be a new release (or a “vNext” as Microsoft call it) for:

  • Skype for Business Server
  • Exchange Server
  • SharePoint Server

available in the 2nd half of 2021 – so still around 12 months away at the time of writing.

Licensing change

These next releases will be on-premises but available only via a subscription model. Does this mean there will a change to the licensing model i.e. will they remove CALs etc. or is it just the same licenses and metrics but with no perpetual license option? I’m not sure yet but I’ll keep an eye out for more info.

Microsoft are treating this as an intermediate step for customers unwilling to move to Office 365. Once the CAPEX v OPEX argument is removed, I’m sure many orgs will find their move to the cloud speeds up significantly – which is a win for Microsoft.

There are plenty of technical improvements coming for all the products, as well as Exchange Online (including “+ addresses” like Gmail which is cool!) – the Ignite videos and the links below will give more info on those.

Further Reading

TomTalks blog

Petri article

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Microsoft Security name changes – September 2020


Image by 200 Degrees from Pixabay

Microsoft have always enjoyed a good name change and nowhere has this been more true than their rapidly growing security portfolio. You’ll be pleased to know the pace of change continues following Microsoft Ignite 2020!

What’s changed?

Old nameNew name
Microsoft Threat ProtectionMicrosoft 365 Defender
Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat ProtectionMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Office 365 Advanced Threat ProtectionMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Azure Advanced Threat ProtectionMicrosoft Defender for Identity
Azure Security Center Standard EditionAzure Defender for Servers
Azure Security Center for IoTAzure Defender for IoT
Advanced Threat Protection for SQLAzure Defender for SQL 

So gone are the various ATPs and Security Centers but now, like Marvel, we’ve got a bunch of Defenders to contend with!

There have also been a range of new features additions which will continue to strengthen Microsoft’s security offering including support for Amazon AWS and Google Cloud.

Further Reading

Microsoft SIEM & XDR features and name changes

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Microsoft Power BI Premium per-user


Image by nugroho dwi hartawan from Pixabay

Announced at Microsoft Ignite 2020, Power BI Premium has a new “per-user” licensing model. Previously available only via a “capacity” model, at a pretty high price point, this new licensing option will make it more cost effective for companies to get started.

The main reason I talk to people about Power BI Premium is licensing. With Power BI Pro, EVERY user consuming a dashboard need a Pro license – which can get pretty expensive pretty quickly. Power BI Premium per Capacity removes the need for each user to be licensed with Pro meaning, even with it’s high monthly cost, it can work out more cost-effective for heavy use cases.

While there have been feature differences between Pro & Premium, they’ve not been a reason for these conversations – now however, it looks as though that Microsoft hope that may change. This new licensing model makes it easier, and cheaper, for smaller orgs and teams of developers to access the high-end Power BI Premium features. Perhaps this is an effort to compete further with Salesforce Tableau et al.

Chart comparing the Premium features per user vs. capacity
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/answering-your-questions-around-the-new-power-bi-premium-per-user-license/?s=09

To access content in a “Premium per-user workspace”, each user must have a “Premium per-user” license so the licensing, in a nutshell is:

If you want to get access to the additional Premium features for named users, Premium per user (PPU) is the way to go.

If you want to allow unfettered access to dashboards without worrying about per user licensing, Premium per capacity is still the answer.

Getting access

Whilst in preview, Power BI Premium per-user will be free of charge. Regarding eventual pricing, Microsoft said in their announcement:

Premium per user will be uniquely affordable and highly competitive among individual user offerings in the industry.  Stay tuned for the official pricing announcement as we get closer to the GA timeframe.  I guarantee you won’t want to miss it.

You can sign up to be notified when the preview goes live here – https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-power-bi-premium-per-user.html?LCID=EN-US

The “further details” link below has a well moderated comments section which features several answers from Microsoft clarifying some of the common questions too.

Further Reading

Microsoft Announcement

Further details from Microsoft

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Microsoft Product Terms: September 2020


Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

Only a few additions again this month but a couple are pretty interesting.

Azure DevOps Server 2020 is added.

Dynamics 365 Sales Premium is added. This is a new SKU that combines the “Sales Enterprise” and “Sales Insight” licenses for £101.80 per user per month – a saving of £7.50 pupm. Naming wise – I’m not sure that having an “Enterprise” SKU inside a “Premium” SKU really makes sense tbh!

Azure SQL Edge is added. This is a new variant of SQL made for the cloud world with features including:

  • Support for ARM architecture
  • Built-in data streaming
  • Network bandwidth optimisation
  • Designed to run in containers

I’ve taken a look at it here.

Azure Stack Edge appears too – this is a physical device you keep on-premises, like a branch office or field location, to “filter, analyse, and transform your data before it moves to Azure”. Lose/damage one and it’s a $40,000 charge!

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Azure SQL Edge – what is it?


Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com

A new variant of SQL – Azure SQL Edge – is available in public preview and was added to the Product Terms in September 2020.

What is it?

This new flavour of SQL is made for the emerging, growing world of the cloud and edge computing – something of a focus for Microsoft over the last couple of years. Azure SQL Edge is based on SQL Server for Linux and, although it contains only a subset of the full functionality, it also includes features not found in SQL Server for Linux or Windows.

It supports both Intel and ARM processors and runs in containers, currently the only supported scenario is Docker hosts running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or 18.04 LTS. New features include built-in data streaming and in-database machine learning.

When would you use it?

Microsoft say it is aimed at “edge scenarios” – primarily Internet of Things (IoT) – and it allows data to be analysed and processed before it gets to the central infrastructure; this can lead to faster results and also reduced cloud and network bandwidth utilisation. This latter point is an often overlooked aspect of working with the cloud – more data moving around more places means more network usage and, in many cases, more cost too.

“You don’t need an army of database administrators to install and manage SQL Edge on all your edge devices”

As Azure SQL Edge is container-based, you can deploy it from one portal and then simply update the container as needed. If this is indeed the case, it will help with the “do more with less” approach that comes with cloud – where you can easily end up with many more servers and assets than on-premises, without a matching increase in head count!

Pricing

It’s in Public Preview at the moment, meaning it can be used at no cost (in areas where Azure IoT Edge is available) and more details on pricing and purchase model will be released once the preview is over.

*Update – Feb 2025*

Unfortunately, Azure SQL Edge is being retired by Microsoft as of September 30th, 2025.

Microsoft recommend migrating to:

  • SQL Server Express
  • SQL Server Standard
  • SQL Managed Instance enabled with Azure Arc

None of which are particularly similar to the Edge edition.

See the retirement notice here – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/updates?id=azure-sql-edge-retirement

Further Reading

Azure SQL Edge overview

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Microsoft and TikTok – really?


https://pixabay.com/photos/tiktok-social-media-app-tik-tok-5323005/

This whole Microsoft buying TikTok thing strikes me as very strange…I don’t see that it would be successful for anyone involved. The rumoured price tag of $30 – $50 billion means it’s not something you can take a punt on – even with Microsoft’s revenues and profits, that’s not a trifling sum of money!

Xbox aside, Microsoft don’t have a great track record when it comes to consumer products – Skype brand recognition seems to have dropped off massively since MS’s acquisition, Windows Phone (as awesome as it was!) never properly made it, and earlier in 2020, Microsoft shuttered “Mixer” – their game streaming platform – less than 4 years after acquiring it.

While it’s fair to say that Microsoft are now (again) considered a “cool” company, that’s a relative statement…being “cool” to 30+ year old people in tech roles who use LinkedIn is not the same as being “cool” to teenagers!

Any attempts to “Microsoft-ize” the platform would surely be the beginning of the end of TikTok’s success – causing the big users (and thus their millions of followers) to migrate to the next platform (i.e. Triller) and reducing the available data…which may be the focus of the purchase. Even if they let it run as a totally separate entity, I can’t help but wonder if just the fact it’s owned by Microsoft would be enough to put the core users off?!

Distractions

Another problem with this purchase would be the distraction it causes. Microsoft have done a great job under Satya Nadella of becoming a “true” Enterprise company – very focused on business, their customers, their goals, and their roadmap. Bringing TikTok into the organisation will distract pretty much every aspect of Microsoft:

Leadership – potentially opening them up to a whole world of scandals and issues around content, censorship, election interference, cyber-bullying, data breaches and more. Things which surely Microsoft would rather stay clear of?

Staff with new colleagues and new (or unclear) corporate strategy. Will they be side-lined for this new consumer focus? Will this affect their career path or budgets or bonuses etc.?

Customers – what does this mean for Microsoft’s strategy going forward? I’m sure some execs will start to wonder if it’s a good idea to bet their 10-year cloud strategy on the company that owns TikTok – are they the fully committed enterprise partner they want and need? Will they try and merge TikTok with Microsoft 365 and/or Dynamics 365?

I also think it will give so much ammunition to competitors like Amazon, Google, Oracle, Salesforce. They’ll be able to market to customers playing on the change in Microsoft’s direction, their lack of focus on business needs and enterprise customers, and the idea of having TikTok videos within business communications.

While data is massively important these days, and Microsoft will clearly have one eye on the future of tech and the company itself, I’m of the opinion that buying TikTok would be a mistake. Yes, they’d have access to many many millions of consumers…but would Microsoft really be able to make much use of them? I can’t see that direct advertising would work at all so one has to assume it’s more about data mining a la Facebook – I’d suggest that staying away from being tarred with that brush would serve Microsoft well in the long run.

Other options

Walmart have thrown their hat in the ring and are apparently looking to team up with Microsoft to purchase TikTok. This makes more sense than a solo Microsoft bid – US grocery retailers have been some of the leaders when it comes to mining and using consumer data with targeted vouchers/offers etc. This would give them a huge amount of extra data…for a new generation of consumers who, to a large degree, buy different things in different ways for different reasons than the generations before them.

Reports say that Walmart were already working with SoftBank to put a deal together but the US government pushed back due to a lack of cloud technology – hence the move to join with Microsoft.

Alternatively, Oracle are apparently also in the running to acquire TikTok. As much as I can’t really see it fitting into Microsoft, I definitely don’t see it fitting into Oracle. Again, I’m sure it comes down to access to data but I’m also sure that Oracle’s involvement would kill it even faster than Microsoft!

Who will eventually win out is unclear at the minute. The Trump administration has been oddly involved in this whole thing – in fact, they’re the reason it’s even happening – and that may influence the eventual new owner. Oracle have close relations with Trump – Safra Catz was on his transition team back in 2016 while Larry Ellison hosted (but didn’t attend) a fundraiser for Trump earlier in 2020.

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Microsoft Project & Visio self-serve


https://pixabay.com/photos/fountain-water-flow-wet-3412242/

Towards the end of 2019, Microsoft announced the ability for users to “self-serve” when it came to purchasing Power Platform licenses. This allowed users to buy licenses directly in the portal, circumventing central IT although, after much kerfuffle, Microsoft made it possible for organisations to turn off this feature.

Microsoft have now added Project & Visio Plan 1 & 3 licenses to the self-serve roster – clearly this is a purchasing channel they’re keen to continue exploring. In several areas, Microsoft appear to be slowly moving towards more direct sales models, a la Salesforce, and this is part of that approach – building up loyalty and customer stickiness among the users, regardless of what the overall company stance may be.

Find more info on how to allow/deny this capability here.

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