Apparently, they’ve changed the Cloud for Healthcare licensing model from per-user to per-tenant. The “User Subscription License” option has been replaced but none of the other terms have been changed, so it still refers to add-on SLs etc. and doesn’t mention that it’s per-tenant anywhere other than the change summary. It makes sense as the other clouds are per-tenant…but we need all the info!
Microsoft Endpoint Manager Remote Help add-on has been added. Eligible pre-requisites are Microsoft 365 E3/E5/F1/F3, Enterprise Mobility + Security E3/E5, and Microsoft Intune.
System Center 2022 has been added.
“Dynamics 365 Customer Voice and Digital Messaging” added.
Windows 11 Pro (per Device) is now available via CSP.
Microsoft Bookings added to Student Use Benefit for O365 A3 & A5.
Back in May 2020, Microsoft announced Cloud for Healthcare – their first vertical specific cloud offering and it launched in October that year. Microsoft Cloud for Retail was announced in January 2021 and now, following Ignite 2021, they have announced three more:
Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services
Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing
Microsoft Cloud for Non-profit
Why ?
One of the great benefits of public cloud – the ability to pick and choose from an almost endless array of options and combine them in a seemingly infinite number of combinations – can also be a huge weakness. For some industries, it’s more important to have an “Out of the Box” offering that does what they need and, most importantly these days, be super secure while it’s doing it.
Plugging various different cloud services together is often where security gaps start to appear – a slight misconfiguration here, a forgotten port there – and that can means certain industries are less enamoured with the cloud. Equally, from a portfolio perspective, knowing which different products do exactly what you need and which ones can be combined to help you achieve your goals can be perplexing and overwhelming.
These pre-built cloud packages for different verticals aim to address both of those issues as well as introducing brand new features aimed at vertical specific issues.
Microsoft Cloud for Retail
A combination of Microsoft products including Azure, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Teams, Bing, Advertising among others, this is largely driven by changes brought about by COVID-19 and the (even greater) shift to online shopping. It focuses on areas of importance to Retail such as:
This combines products including Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Azure, and Power Platform in a solution designed to comply with regulatory and compliance frameworks in what is a highly regulated industry. It offers functionality in key areas including:
This vertical offering combines Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, AI, HoloLens and more to address manufacturing specific needs such as:
This combines Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Azure, Power Platform, and LinkedIn to help charities better connect with their supporters and volunteers, make better decisions, and reach their goals faster.
There’s not as much info available for this offering yet but you can see more here and register for a webinar to learn more about this offering on March 30th here.
Microsoft have introduced their first vertical specific cloud offering – Cloud for Healthcare. Currently in public preview, the stated aims of this are to:
Enhance patient engagement
Empower health team collaboration
Improve insights
and, considering the current Coronavirus situation, focusing first on healthcare makes sense. They highlight that over 1,600 “COVID-19 bots” have gone live since March across 23 countries and we’ve already seen a huge rise in Azure usage during the last couple of months. The offering will span Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and more.
What’s next?
I look forward to seeing which other verticals are next to receive their own cloud and also, over the long term, if we start to see features and licensing differences between them. As cloud goes from being presented as one monolithic thing that everyone uses to separate, discrete offerings tailored to different industries, it will be much easier to introduce commercial differences. I imagine we’ll see some more about these at Microsoft Inspire in July.
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 