Cloudy with a chance of Licensing
Latest news on Microsoft licensing, Cloud, and AI
A few changes for January 2024 – further expansion of the Frontline SKU lineup and Copilot makes its way to the world of education.
The final Product Terms update for 2023 is here:
Power Virtual Agents replaced with Copilot Studio
ClipChamp SKUs added:
ClipChamp Std standalone USL
ClipChamp Premium standalone USL
ClipChamp Premium add-on* license for M365 E3/E5/BS/BP
*ClipChamp (Std) added to M365 E3/E5/BS/BP
Update to terms around add-on USLs being purchased on same agreement. It now says “Add-on User SLs, as specified in the Add-ons section of each respective product section,”
New Failover rights for Azure SQL database = “One geo-secondary specifically for disaster recovery purposes“
It has also been spotted that M365 Business Standard and Business Premium have been removed from the license prerequisites for Copilot for Microsoft 365:
Is this a temporary removal to prevent confusion as it is isn’t currently available for those licenses…or is it a sign that M365 Copilot won’t be available for SMB customers? I feel it’s the former but you never know!
The Office 365 “no Teams” EEA SKUs have been added
Azure AD rebranded to Microsoft Entra ID
Universal Print per user added
Microsoft Defender for IoT – EIoT Device License – add-on added
Bit of Viva name tweaking, we now have:
Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities
Microsoft Viva Workplace Analytics and Employee Feedback
The Copilot Copyright Commitment is added
New Copilot/Generative AI relation terms including:
“Customer may not…try to gain unauthorized access to or disrupt any service, device, data, account or network, including by intentionally evading or disrupting restrictions in Metaprompts”
Not much happening in May, this month we saw:
Products in the Core Services lists will store data at rest in the same geo as the service is deployed, part of Microsoft’s data privacy practices.
It’s the Microsoft Product Terms updates for April 2023 and, to paraphrase Puff Daddy and the Bad Boy Family…it’s all about Windows Server baby!
Some key changes that help to harmonise licensing across different platforms, which is a benefit for all of us involved!
Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server changes:
No longer need to allocate 16 licenses as a minimum
No longer have to assign stacked licenses in groups of 8
Confirms minimum of 8 core licenses for AHB VM
Licensing Win Svr by individual virtual OSE:
No longer need to allocate 16 licenses as a minimum
CSP customers with Standard licenses can use Datacenter images as guests when licensing by virtual OSE – but must follow Standard edition use rights
CSP-Hoster:
Customers do not need Windows Server CALs or External Connector licenses when accessing “server software acquired from, fulfilled, and hosted by a Cloud Solution Provider-Hoster”.
Clarification to the Online Services “Acceptable Use Policy” that crypto-mining is prohibited without Microsoft’s prior approval. I wonder when they will give permission for this?!
DevOps Server 2022 added
A clarification notice around Microsoft’s communication services, relating to taxes and relations to 3rd-party services.
This month we’ve 2 new M365 data related SKUs:
M365 Advanced Data Residency
M365 Cross-tenant User Data Migration
There is also the removal of:
Microsoft Threat Experts
SharePoint Advanced Management Plan 1
The SharePoint SKU was only added last month but there was very little info available, so it seems likely it was added in error. Let’s see if/when it reappears.
A nice addition – Azure Active Directory Basic now allows unlimited SSO (Single Sign On) – the previous limit was 10 apps so à really significant change.
There is a 50% off promo for Defender for Endpoint on EA from Nov 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023
Most of the focus is on the changes that Microsoft have made to cloud and virtualisation licensing for Windows Server, Windows 11, Office and more – you can check out my analysis of that here – but there are other changes this month too.
Three new products are added:
I cover this in more depth here but it is now in the Product Terms and there’s a clause that organisations must use a Viva Sales connector to link it to their CRM…so no 3rd-party or in-house connectors.
I’ve not seen any info about this and am still looking for details – let me know if you have any info!
Again, no info about these yet. Looking at Microsoft Learn/Docs, workload identities are “applications, service principals, and managed identities” but I’m not sure how this relates to the new SKU.
There was also:
The removal of Intune for EDU (device) from MCA
Windows 11 Home to Pro availability expanded to Central and South America
After a bit of a wait for Redmond to publish, the latest update is here. Not surprisingly, given the time of year, there’s nothing major – mainly just a bit of tidying up this month:
Added/updated terms for:
Windows AutoPatch
MCA cancellations
Azure Limited Access Services
Removed old references for:
Business Voice
GitHub Learning Lab for Organizations
Office 365 Add-ons
Change to show 3.5K AI Builder Credits are included per SharePoint Syntex license
Academic plans added to Cloud for Non-profit qualifying licenses
Some new M365 F5 Security bundles made available – further expanding what’s possible for protecting frontline workers.
Microsoft Sustainability Manager added. This is what we’ve been calling Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability…it seems that will be now an umbrella term and Sustainability Manager will come under that.
Clarification that the SQL Server Enterprise SA benefit of running Power BI Server applies in a fail over OSE too
Tidying up of various clauses and terms.
No mention of the major changes they announced for cloud BYOL rules around Windows Server, Windows desktop, and Office.
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 