Latest news on Microsoft licensing, Cloud, and AI
As is always the case in January, it was a quiet Product Terms with mainly just re-arranging and updating:
Various Privacy & Security terms were consolidated and a new Software Products table to the “Exceptions to the DPA” section was added.
The Microsoft 365 Cross-tenant User Data Migration option was made available for certain pre-requisite A SKUs.
Microsoft Copilot re-branding
Microsoft have announced that Viva Goals, their OKR tool, will be retired on December 31st, 2025 and that all new feature development ceased on December 4th, 2024.
The reason for this is that “overall adoption and usage of Viva Goals across the Viva Suite customer base hasn’t grown. Microsoft has been unable to reach the scale and impact needed to continue further investment“. This also means that Microsoft aren’t replacing Goals with another OKR tool so customers need to look at 3rd-party solution. If you email GoalsDecom@microsoft.com, Microsoft will offer help in that regard. The full FAQ page is here.
Microsoft say:
They are keen to point out that they are still committed to the rest of the Viva Suite and further development and investment will continue.
I was quite excited about the launch of Viva Goals as I think the OKR model makes a lot of sense for businesses and being able to integrate it into Teams etc. seemed powerful. I wonder whether the failure of Viva Goals is due to Microsoft’s technology or perhaps simply that the OKR methodology isn’t widespread enough for a dedicated tool to reach critical mass?
Not surprisingly, December was a quiet month.
On the 1st, Microsoft made some Azure updates:
and then on the 5th:
Microsoft announce a price DECREASE!
Yes, you read that right…
From February 1st, 2025 GBP pricing for “commercial cloud services” will drop by 5% to 6%.
Hopefully this will help reduce the impact of some of the recent pricing increases…
Unfortunately…those of you purchasing in Brazilian Real will see a 12% increase on both cloud and on-prem software.
Microsoft’s Get Licensing Ready (GLR) training platform is being shut down as of December 31st, 2024.
A mainstay of the Microsoft channel and pretty much every reseller salesperson’s introduction to the wonderful world of Microsoft licensing, GLR has been a trusty companion to many for decades. It has been around as long as I can remember (so at least 20 years) but it is now a casualty of Microsoft’s apparent lack of interest in licensing these days.
My post on LinkedIn has been one of the most liked, commented, and reposted for some time -showing the depth of affection for the platform…and also the concern that it’s going to get even more difficult for partners and customers to understand Microsoft licensing.
I haven’t done GLR for a few years but I plan to take them all again and get one last set of certificates for posterity’s sake.
More Microsoft price rises coming in 2025, following on from several over the last few years:
Monthly SKUs
All licenses on a pay-Monthly basis on CSP, MCA-E, and Buy Online will increase by 5% from April 1st, 2025. These include:
Microsoft 365
Office 365
Enterprise Mobility + Security
Windows 365
Dynamics 365
Power Platform (Inc. Power BI)
NOT included are Azure RIs, Savings Plans, Marketplace, Github.
Power BI
From April 1st, 2025 Power BI pricing is increasing by up to 40%:
Power BI Pro will be $14 (currently $9.99)
Power BI Premium Per User will be $24 (currently $20)
This won’t increase the price of E5.
Teams Phone
From April 1st, 2025 Teams Phone SKUs are increasing by up to 25%
Teams Phone Standard will be $10 (currently $8)
Teams Phone Frontline will be $5 (currently $4)
Calling plans are increasing too.
See the Microsoft post here – https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft_365blog/flexible-billing-for-microsoft-365-copilot-pricing-updates-for-annual-subscripti/4288536
So the rumours were true…kind of…to some degree.
Microsoft have announced changes to the Enterprise Agreement but, not unusually, it’s still all a bit unclear.
“Beginning January 1, 2025, a small percentage of cloud Enterprise Agreements (EA) in direct markets will no longer be eligible for renewal under the existing EA framework”
What exactly is a “cloud EA”?
Is it where there is only Azure? Only Azure and M365?
Why not all cloud EAs?
How is that defined?
What will be the alternative?
“For enterprise customers, the Microsoft Customer Agreement for enterprise (MCA-E, the digital evolution of the traditional EA), will provide the optimal, streamlined solution.”
This is direct from Microsoft but is, in many ways, a “bigger” version of CSP rather than a slightly different EA.
So, “evolution” is an interesting choice. That implies a continuation whereas I’d probably us the word “replacement”…
Microsoft will begin notifying impacted customers in Jan 2025 that they cannot renew into the EA.
The post also says:
“Partners will continue to earn incentives when transacting EA renewals”
So they’re not all disappearing…at least not yet!
This marks yet another shift and yet another step towards more licensing business going direct to Microsoft.
To balance this out, they have also announced thst Copilot for M365/Sales/Service will be available on a monthly billing basis from December 1st…but will be 5% more expensive.
As well, all current monthly SKUs will have a 5% price increase from April 2025 and Power BI is increasing. I’ll do a separate post on that shortly.
It is interesting that the final section of the Microsoft post is titled “Microsoft is a partner-led company”…
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch 😊
You can see the Microsoft post here:
After a delay of several hours where the website wasn’t working (one of the perils of this current format), we can now see the changes this month are:
This, taken from the Microsoft Learn page, is very odd:
Apparently, you can only use Windows Server PAYG if you install a retail copy of Windows Server 2025?!
We have also seen that there will be a 10% price increase for Windows Server 2025 & System Center 2025 from December 1st 2024 and then also for SPLA from January 1st, 2025.
The October 2024 Microsoft Product Terms are fairly quiet:
Self-Hosting & Disaster Recovery rights have been added to Windows Server & SQL Server subscription licenses under MCA.
Project is now “Planner & Project Plan 3/5”
GitHub Copilot Enterprise added
LTSC versions of Windows Enterprise and Office 2024 are added
Microsoft have introduced a new SKU: Office 365 E1 Plus. This contains the current E1 features and then adds:
It will be $20 per user per month or $17.75 without Teams. There is a minimum of 100 licenses and a maximum of 2,400.
Currently there is a promotion offering a 30% discount when purchased as an annual subscription.
This CSP only SKU is restricted to certain global regions:
LATAM, ASEAN, India and select markets in Central Asia, the Middle
East, and Africa
