July Bytes are an Award Winning Microsoft Partner

Transcription

1 July Bytes are an Award Winning Microsoft Partner Licensing changes Windows, MDOP, ECS and EMS 2 Licensing changes Bridge CAL, System Center, Azure 3 Licensing changes How to benefit your organisation 3 Per User Price Increase approx.13% 4 New! Introducing Advance Threats Analytics (ATA) 5 Select Plus is retiring. Hello MPSA 6 Windows 10, WaaS and per user Licensing 7 Operations Management Suite, MDM for O365, Forefront Identity Manager 8 Windows Server 2003 EOL what now? 9 tellmemore@

2 Licensing Changes 01 Aug Licensing Changes Overview Windows Software Assurance will now include MDOP (see below) Enterprise Cloud Suite will now include ATA (see page 5) and MDOP Advanced Threat Analytics will be added to the Enterprise CAL suite Bridge CALs will only be sold as a subscription and on a per user basis System Center Client Management Suite will be removed from the Enterprise CAL suite but will be available separately User CAL prices increase 13% with additional value of a per user license Windows Software Assurance (SA) & Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP). Windows SA will now include MDOP Existing Windows SA customers will not receive automatic rights to MDOP 11% price increase on Windows Enterprise with SA in line with Windows Enterprise + MDOP today MDOP will still be available to purchase as a standalone SKU Enterprise Cloud Suite (ECS). ECS will now be bigger and better and will include both ATA and MDOP ATA will be available to all existing/new/renewing customers for all ECS SKUs, MDOP will be available only to new and renewing customers ECS Pricing will increase 5% for the Full USL and 3% for the From SA USL Add-on pricing will go up for add-on to Core CAL by 7-10% but down by 11% for the per user add-on to ECAL Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) Advanced Threat Analytics will now be included within EMS for existing, new and renewing customers) with pricing increasing in line with this addition EMS Add-on to Core CAL going up by 27% EMS Full USL going up by 15% 2 tellmemore@

3 Changes Licensing Changes Licensing Bridge CAL simplification from 1st August 01 Aug Bridge CALs will only be sold as a subscription and only on a per user basis, in line with the Online Services model Subscription Bridge CALs will be sold at From SA and New subscription price points for existing Bridge CAL SA and new customers, respectively Prices will reflect Software Assurance Investment Customers can flex up and down on an annual basis ATA will be included within the ECAL Bridge from 1st August The Per User price increases directly affect Bridge CALs SQL Server and Dynamics CRM user based CALs are not affected by these changes System Center Client Management Suite (SC CMS). From 1st August, SC CMS is being removed from the ECAL suite but will continue to be available. EA customers who already have SC CMS rights prior to 1/8/15 will maintain rights. Customers with active Software Assurance will have rights to any product updates that release during the agreement term. Removal of CMS from the ECAL suite does not imply that its an End-of-Life for either CMS or the rest of the System Center ecosystem of products. CMS will continue to receive updates and will be available outside of the ECAL. Azure Rights Management Services rebrand and new features Azure Rights Management Services (ARMS) will be renamed ARMS Premium ARMS Premium will include the new Document Tracking which is not part of Office 365 New functionality will be available to EMS customers when released ARMS Premium will also be available as a standalone SKU There is No Price Change Existing Enterprise Agreement customers will not be affected by many of the price changes during the term of their existing agreement as pricing is locked for the three year term, however this pricing locking only occurs if the products have been previously purchased. If customers are considering adding any of the products affected by the changes outlined within this newsletter, or are approaching the renewal date of an agreement, then it is our recommendation that you speak to one of our licensing experts as soon as possible to analyse the impact of a potential early purchase. Customers who purchase through the more transactional type agreements such as the MPSA and Select Plus agreements may want to consider making purchases before the price changes take effect on the 1st August. 3 tellmemore@

4 Per User Price Increase approx. 13% 01 Aug As Microsoft move towards a user centric, mobile-first, cloud-first world it has announced that from 1st August on-premises User CAL pricing will increase by approximately 13%. Microsoft tell us that continued investments to support multi-device, cross-platform productivity scenarios has increased the number of ways in which users access on-premises servers that are licensed with CAL Suites. You will continue to have the option to license CAL Suites with the choice of per- user or perdevice, and device CALs will see no change in pricing. Similarly, those that purchase the Enterprise Cloud Suite, will not be affected by the User CAL price increase, as per-user licensing is already incorporated into cost of the suite. Things to note 1. If you have licensed the Core CAL or Enterprise CAL suites within an Enterprise Agreement you will not be affected during the agreement term. 2. This price increase is across most on-premises CALs when licensed Per User There are ways in which you can license access to your onpremises server software whilst avoiding the price increase. Cloud suites such as Office 365 Enterprise, the Enterprise Mobility Suite and the Enterprise Cloud Suite provide dual access to both online services and on-premises server software. In many cases this will not only avoid an increase in cost but may result in a gain of additional enterprise functionality whilst moving to a user centric licensing model. Intelligent Licensing With over 80 Microsoft Certified Professionals, we are the UKs leading Software Licensing specialist with unrivalled expertise and sales of Microsoft and their increasing cloud based solutions. If you would like to request a 15 minute call to evaluate your current licensing posi1on and future needs simply contact us, our details are below. 4 tellmemore@

5 Advanced Threat Analytics 01 Aug What is ATA from Microsoft? It is a machine learning-based technology that links to an organisation s Windows Server Active Directory, profiles the people and machines accessing it, and therefore learns what constitutes a normal behaviour. It then scans the system for known attacks and learns what constitutes abnormal behaviour. Using this information, it then automatically detects attacks or suspicious behaviour and takes appropriate measures to protect the organisation. Effectively, this is similar to personal credit card protection which triggers an alert when a customer uses it while travelling to a new city, or like a computer s anti-virus system that alerts customers on suspicious activity. Licensing ATA ATA is an on-premises software product Licensed as Client Management Licenses (CML) per user or per operating system environment (OSE) Use rights included in user & device ECAL suites and EMS/ECS starting 1st August Non-ECAL/EMS/ECS customers can purchase ATA standalone 5 tellmemore@

6 Select Plus Is Retiring. Hello MPSA 01 July FAQs. Answered. What Happens When Select Plus retires? On 1st July, Microsoft will no longer offer new commercial Select Plus agreements. The options are as follows: 1. Select Plus customers can migrate to the MPSA and maintain their current Select Plus price level 2. Existing Select Plus customers can continue to make purchases and renew Software Assurance through their Select Plus agreement for one year after this date 3. As of 1st July 2016, commercial customers will no longer be able to renew Software Assurance through Select Plus agreements, or make new purchases through their existing Select Plus agreements after the next agreement anniversary What happens to my Select Plus purchases? You will continue to have full rights and access to all software and Software Assurance that were acquired through Select Plus. What is the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA)? The MPSA is a new foundational master agreement that consolidates common terms and conditions from standard Microsoft Volume Licensing Agreements into a single agreement. How is the MPSA different from Select Plus? The main difference is that you can also purchase Microsoft Online Services and work with Bytes even if you are with another partner. How do I move to MPSA? Select Plus customers can sign a Microsoft Products and Services Agreement with the help of Bytes, using their existing Select Plus price level to determine their price level through the MPSA. They then stop purchasing through the Select Plus agreement and begin purchasing through the new agreement. 6

7 Windows 10, WaaS and Per User Licensing Windows 10 Free Upgrade Microsoft are pleased to announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available on the 29th July to customers running Windows 7 Pro, Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year. This is more than a onetime upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, they will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device at no cost. Windows as a Service Microsoft is introducing a new approach for business customers, which Microsoft is referring to as the Current Branch for Business. By putting devices on the Current branch for Business, enterprises will be able to receive feature updates after their quality and application compatibility has been assessed in the consumer market, while continuing to receive security updates on a regular basis. This gives IT departments time to start validating updates in their environments the day changes are shipped broadly to consumers. With Windows as a Service you could think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet. Business users Current Branch for Business Watch this space! License Windows on a per user basis You can now license Windows Enterprise on a per user basis through the new Windows Software Assurance per User and Windows Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) per User licensing options. These new options put your users at the centre of your Windows licensing solution, giving you flexibility to decide how to deploy and use Windows across devices and simplify Windows licensing and management. Licensing on a per user basis allows your users to use Windows across all of their devices, regardless of who owns the device. You get the flexibility to deliver Windows Enterprise across devices through local install, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or Windows To Go. You also gain the simplicity of counting users instead of counting all of their devices supporting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scenarios without the need to track every device and license. tellmemore@ 7

8 Operations Management Suite Microsoft have announced the launch of Microsoft Operations Management Suite which manages Windows and Linux workloads across a Windows Server Datacenter, as well as Azure, Amazon Web Services, Open Stack and VMWare environments to manage Hybrid environments. The Suite services are available separately charged as Azure consumption services, and an Add-on will be available for System Center Standard or Datacenter in July at an annual price. For a limited time, from 1st July, Microsoft will offer a 40% discount on Microsoft Operations Management Suite Add-on Standard and Datacenter. This offer will be available to customers via Enterprise 6 and Enterprise Subscription programs and includes Corporate, Government, and Academic customers. MDM generally available for Office 365 commercial plans With MDM for Office 365, you can manage access to Office 365 data across a diverse range of phones and tablets, including ios, Android and Windows Phone devices. And the built-in MDM features are included at no additional cost in all Office 365 commercial plans, including Business, Enterprise, EDU and Government plans. Forefront Identity Manager Discontinuation Reminder! Effective 1st April, Forefront Identity Manager s licensing model changed from Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) Server and FIM CAL, to a Windows Server Additive CAL (and correspondingly, FIM External Connector is changing to a Windows Server Additive External Connector), meaning that the FIM Server is no longer sold as a separate license, but instead Windows Server licenses now allow customers to install the FIM Server software. Hence, from the 1st May price list, the FIM Server SKUs has been discontinued, while the FIM CAL and FIM External Connector SKUs will remain. 8 tellmemore@

9 Windows Server 2003 EOL 14 July With support for Windows Server 2003 ending on 14th July, if you are still to migrate your legacy IT estate we can help. Protect Your Infrastructure Now Your options include Microsoft Extended Support or other security solutions including Symantec Data Center Security: Server Advanced, which can prove to offer the same level of protection at a significantly reduced cost. Longer Term Migration We can still help you to understand the risks and migration options available to you. Bytes Migrate will help to identify all the potential licensing and technical options, including the cloud, in order to uncover cost savings, efficiency gains and ensure your project runs smoothly and on time. Ensuring Migration Success Bytes takes a robust and proven approach to the management and delivery of migration projects. Working with customer teams and industry specialists we can design a tailored IT architecture that is right for your business today and in the future. Our tool set and consultancy ensures your project is undertaken in the most optimal and cost effect way possible, and after a successful migration of your Windows Server 2003 estate and associated software applications, there are options for on-going monitoring and management. If you are yet to Protect or Migrate your Legacy IT Estate call us today! 9 tellmemore@