If you’re an Independent Software Vendor and you want to provide your own software as a hosted service then one option for doing this is to use the “Self-Hosted Applications” use right available for many products under a Volume Licensing agreement.
There’s a change to this right – previously any solution had to be on dedicated hardware, now page 6 of the February 2016 Product Terms confirms that shared servers are a new delivery option.
This new white paper is aimed at Service Providers giving them an overview of the different licensing options they have if they want to offer services based on Azure Site Recovery to their customers.
It’s a useful reference document with a list of related terms and a generous 28 FAQs.
Find the document here: http://bit.ly/1RhZpFD.
In the past, if you wanted to rent out PCs with Windows and Office installed, then you needed to acquire additional Rental Rights licences through a Volume Licensing agreement.
No more! Starting from 1 February 2016, these rights are granted with certain licences as long as you agree to the terms in the “Agreement for Leasing or Renting Certain Microsoft Software Products” document.
Essentially, acquire Windows licences through OEM, MPSA, Select Plus or Open, and Office licences through MPSA, Select Plus or Open, and you’re good to go. This site is useful and has a link to the agreement document: http://bit.ly/208VIm4.
With the introduction of Online Services in the EA, customers were able to transition to Online Services from their on-premises licenses.
The term “transition” was a reserved word for situations where a customer, in effect, converted their SA licenses into Online Services USLs.
Customers were initially allowed to use special transition licences mid-way through a year which led to some extraordinarily tricky licensing scenarios, and then From SA USLs were introduced which could only be used at Anniversary, with Add-ons being used mid-way through a year – much simpler!
Transitions are now officially at the end of the line; the term was removed from the EA agreement last year, and now it’s gone from the February 2016 Product Terms too.
The Microsoft VL Newsletter for January 2016 is released, with a focus on Windows 10.
There’s a reminder of the Windows 10 offerings available through Volume Licensing programs as well as links to the (very good) Licensing Guide, a useful Deployment Guide, and a Windows SA per User at-a-glance two-pager.
Read the archives and sign up for future issues here: http://bit.ly/1SPW0N8.
End of life for Roaming Rights!
The February 2016 Product Terms confirms that Roaming Rights are to be retired. These rights are often used to allow the primary user of a device licensed for Windows with SA to access a VDI desktop on a third party-owned device used off the customer’s premises. Page 43 confirms that customers with active SA for Windows Enterprise or VDA retain Roaming Rights until the end of their agreement or 31 January 2017 – whichever one comes later.
Mrs Lime (for those of you who know and love her) will be finding out costs for a Windows SA per User Add-on USL.
There’s new wording added to the February 2016 Product Terms that allows EA customers to reattach SA to licenses. Yes, really!
If the customer transitioned to an Online Service or purchased a From SA USL instead of renewing their SA, then they can reattach SA to a license at anniversary or renewal without purchasing a new license. They need to order SA for the remainder of the enrolment term, and of course they can’t buy SA for more licenses than they had originally.
Read the full terms on page 72 of the February 2016 Product Terms.
Microsoft announce that the minimum requirements for both the subscription and perpetual flavours of the Enterprise Agreement will go from 250 users/devices to 500 from 1st July 2016.
The recommendation for smaller customers is to buy through the MPSA or CSP, but existing customers CAN renew their EA by extending it for an additional 36-month term if they want to – even after 1st July.
Read the full Microsoft blog post here: http://bit.ly/1Klwhfg
From 1 February 2016, organisations with Windows Server licenses with SA can make use of the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit.
Called “HUB” for short, this brand new benefit means that you can procure an Azure virtual machine without Windows Server and can then assign an existing Windows Server licence to it.
Even more interestingly, if you have Datacenter licences then they can be assigned to on-premises AND Azure virtual machines, while you need to make the choice of either on-premises OR Azure virtual machines for Standard. A single Processor-based licence will allow you to use Windows Server on up to 16 cores in Azure.
Get the full wording on page 50 of the February 2016 Product Terms.
There were some changes to Visual Studio licensing in November 2015 and the Licensing Guide is updated to reflect the two main changes: Visual Studio Online is renamed Visual Studio Team Services, and there are now monthly and annual subscriptions available for Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise – the guide does a good job of detailing which MSDN benefits you get with these new subscriptions.
Read our summary of the changes to the licensing here: http://wp.me/p3K5IZ-iF and download the new guide in the Developer Tools section of our Licensing Guides emporium here: http://bit.ly/MSlicensingguides.