Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure Reservations

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced some updates to the Microsoft Azure Reservations. Firstly, there are new Reservations available for Azure Databricks (1 and 3-year) and Azure App Service (3-year) which both give around 40% savings compared to Pay-As-You-Go pricing. And there are some new features: Microsoft Azure Reservations now support the ability to automatically renew Reservations. Also, customers can now choose to assign Reservations to a Resource Group within a Subscription rather than to the whole Subscription. Reservations can now be purchased using REST APIs. Organizations rely on their Enterprise Agreement (EA) usage data to reconcile invoices, track usage, and charge back internally. Microsoft now added more details to the EA usage data to make the reservation reporting easier.

For the official Microsoft announcement with further details, please visit: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/6-ways-were-making-azure-reservations-even-more-powerful/#usagedata.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host preview available

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced the preview of Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host, a new Azure service that enables customers to run Linux and Windows virtual machines on single-tenant physical servers. Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host provides physical servers that host one or more Azure virtual machines. Your server is dedicated to your organization and workloads – capacity is not shared with other customers. This host-level isolation helps address compliance requirements. As you provision the host, you gain visibility into and control over the server infrastructure, and you determine the host’s maintenance policies.

Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host is charged at the host level regardless of the number of Azure Virtual Machines (VM) you run on the host. Software licenses are billed separately from compute resources at a VM level based on usage. If you’re eligible, you can use Azure Hybrid Benefit for additional savings.

For further information on the Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host, please find the official announcement here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-azure-dedicated-host/ and more information on the pricing here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-machines/dedicated-host/.

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Software Assurance, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Windows Server

Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit for Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host

Gold Microsoft Partner

According to the August 2019 Microsoft Product Terms, Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit now includes options for the Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host. The main aspects of Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server and SQL Server remain unchanged. Here’s a summary of the rules for both Windows Server and SQL Server.

What does this benefit offer for Windows Server on Azure Dedicated Host?

Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server on Azure Dedicated Host can be used in three ways:

  • Standard edition: Customers with Windows Server Standard edition are entitled to 2 instances, similar to how Azure Hybrid Benefit applies to Windows Server on Azure Virtual Machines (VM) on shared servers. Each 2-processor license or each set of 16-core licenses are entitled to two instances of up to 8 cores, or one instance of up to 16 cores. The Azure Hybrid Benefit for Standard Edition licenses must be used either on-premises or in Azure although customers get 180 days of concurrent use rights while they are migrating their servers. Continue reading Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit for Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host →
Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Online Services, Microsoft Software Assurance

Microsoft dedicated hosted cloud services updates to licensing

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced that starting October 1st, 2019 there will be an update to the licensing of dedicated hosted cloud services. Currently, there aren’t any specific rules for dedicated cloud services in place. In the scenario of dedicated hosted cloud services, currently the same rules as for on-premises servers apply. The existing terms say, that as long as the hardware is dedicated to a customer, the customer can use his own licenses to license dedicated hardware in hosted cloud services. There is no requirement for Software Assurance or any other sort of eligibility criteria. The rights for licenses acquired before October 1st, 2019 remain unchanged.

Licenses purchased after October 1st, 2019 will underlay new rules when used with dedicated hardware from the following hosting organizations defined as “Listed Providers”: Microsoft, Alibaba, Amazon, and Google. Basically, you’ll now need Software Assurance on your licenses. The License Mobility benefit is updated to include both multi-tenant and dedicated services from these providers, and the Azure Hybrid Benefit is updated to include deployment to the newly announced Azure Dedicated Host.

For the Microsoft announcement, where you can also download an extended FAQ document on the bottom of the page, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/updated-licensing-rights-for-dedicated-cloud.

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Data Warehouse Reserved Capacity available

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft Azure Reservations are a way of pre-paying for an Azure resource over a one or three-year term to get the most cost-effective pricing. The Reservations family continues to grow: it started with Reserved Instances, a way of pre-paying for Azure virtual machine base compute, and was extended with Reserved Capacity, a way of pre-paying for Azure SQL Database compute capacity. In 2018, Software Reservations for SUSE Linux software and Reserved Capacity for Azure Cosmos DB throughput were added to the family.

Now the family also includes Microsoft SQL Data Warehouse Reserved Capacity. Microsoft SQL Data Warehouse Reserved Capacity allows customers to buy compute Data Warehouse Units (cDWU) with either 1-year or 3-year options for discounts of up to 65%. Reserved Capacity can be shared by multiple warehouses in the same region and there are exchange and cancel options available if business needs change. Additionally, there are new RedHat Enterprise Linux Software Plans where the rules are stricter in terms of exchanging and cancelling, but discounts of up to 18% are still available.

For further information on Microsoft SQL Data Warehouse Reserved Capacity, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-sql-data-warehouse-reserved-capacity-and-software-plans-now-generally-available/.

The following link gives you an overview of Reservations and if you expand the “Buy a reservation” link at the left you can get details on the current five members of the Reservations family: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/billing/billing-save-compute-costs-reservations.

Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud

Microsoft and Oracle interconnect Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud

Microsoft and Oracle

Microsoft and Oracle announced a cloud interoperability partnership enabling customers to migrate and run mission-critical enterprise workloads across Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud. Enterprises can now seamlessly connect Azure services, like Analytics and AI, to Oracle Cloud services, like Autonomous Database. By enabling customers to run one part of a workload within Azure and another part of the same workload within the Oracle Cloud, the partnership delivers a highly optimized, best-of-both-clouds experience. Taken together, Azure and Oracle Cloud offer customers a one-stop shop for all the cloud services and applications they need to run their entire business.

For more information on this interoperability partnership, please find the both announcements here:

https://news.microsoft.com/2019/06/05/microsoft-and-oracle-to-interconnect-microsoft-azure-and-oracle-cloud/

https://www.oracle.com/corporate/pressrelease/microsoft-and-oracle-to-interconnect-microsoft-azure-and-oracle-cloud-060519.html.

 

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure Data Centers open in Africa

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced the availability of two new Azure data centers in Africa – Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Currently only the Azure services are available, and Office 365 is coming in the third quarter of 2019 and Dynamics 365 in the fourth quarter. For further information on the Microsoft Azure Data Centers opening in Africa, please visit: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-opens-first-datacenters-in-africa-with-general-availability-of-microsoft-azure/.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure DevOps Server 2019 available

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced the availability of Microsoft Azure DevOps Server 2019, previously called Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. There are no changes to the licensing of this version, and you can buy Server and Client Access License (CAL) licenses through a Volume Licensing agreement. Alternatively, Visual Studio standard subscriptions include rights to the Server license and one User CAL, and all users licensed for Azure DevOps Services have CAL rights too.

Azure DevOps Server 2019 brings the power of Azure DevOps into your dedicated environment. You choose when to apply updates, and you can install them into any datacenter or into sovereign clouds.

For further information about Microsoft Azure DevOps Server, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/now-available-azure-devops-server-2019/.

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Products and Services Agreement, Microsoft Worldwide Government Partner

Microsoft Identity and Threat Protection available

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced the availability of the Microsoft Identity & Threat Protection license, which includes the following products:

  • Microsoft Cloud App Security,
  • Azure Active Directory Plan 2,
  • Azure Advanced Threat Protection,
  • Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection and
  • Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection Plan 2 (Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection + Office 365 Threat Intelligence).

Available in the licensing programs according to the categories.

For more information about Microsoft Identity and Threat Protection, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/01/02/introducing-new-advanced-security-and-compliance-offerings-for-microsoft-365/.

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Products and Services Agreement, Microsoft Worldwide Government Partner

Microsoft Information Protection & Compliance available

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced the availability of the Microsoft Information Protection & Compliance license, which includes the following products:

  • Azure Information Protection P2 and
  • Office 365 Advanced Compliance (Advanced eDiscovery, Advanced Data Governance, Customer Key, and Privileged Access Management).

Available in the licensing programs according to the categories.

For more information about Microsoft Information Protection & Compliance, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/01/02/introducing-new-advanced-security-and-compliance-offerings-for-microsoft-365/.