Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Enterprise Agreement

Microsoft Azure Monetary Commitment Overage Payments

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced changes to when customers are invoiced for overage on their Azure Monetary Commitment. Historically, this has been quarterly or annually, dependent on agreement type, which was changed to quarterly for all customer and agreement types in December 2017. Now all overage of new and renewing Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers will be charged at the end of each month. This change will not affect current enrollments before end of their term.

Affected programs:

  • Enterprise: Enterprise Agreement (EA), Enterprise Agreement Subscription (EAS) and Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE)
  • Academic: Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES)
  • Government

This will impact both Direct and Indirect EA customers.

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced the launch of the Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server. The Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server will allow customers to use their existing SQL Server licenses with active Software Assurance toward Azure SQL Database Managed Instance(s) and pay only for the underlying compute and storage.

To find out more about the Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server, please visit: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/migrate-your-databases-to-a-fully-managed-service-with-azure-sql-database-managed-instance/

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure Advanced Threat Protection available

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to help organizations detect advanced attacks in a hybrid environment. Microsoft Azure Advanced Threat Protection is available as a standalone User Subscription License (USL) and is also added to Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) E5 USLs.

For more information about Microsoft Azure Advanced Threat Protection, please visit: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/2018/03/01/introducing-azure-advanced-threat-protection-2/

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure Hybrid Benefit Savings Calculator

Gold Microsoft Partner

The Azure Hybrid Benefit allows customers with Windows Server licenses with Software Assurance (SA) to use those licenses in Azure to license a base virtual machine for Windows Server.

To identify the potential savings this benefit can offer, please find the Azure Hybrid Benefit Savings Calculator here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/hybrid-benefit/#ahub-calculator.

Please note that it still works on Processor-based licenses so if you’ve got Core licenses then divide the number of licenses by 16 when you input the number of existing licenses with SA.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure Monetary Commitment Changes

Gold Microsoft Partner

In December 2017, Microsoft introduced two changes to the way Azure Monetary Commitment works in an Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA).

Historically, Monetary Commitment was an amount paid upfront annually for the Azure consumption services which was decremented as services were used, with any unused Monetary Commitment being forfeited at the end of the year. This remains as an “Annually Prepaid Option” but now there’s a “Fully Prepaid Option” too. Under this option a customer pays for 36 months of Monetary Commitment upfront but the funds are available for the whole of the Enrolment term. This means there are also some changes in the minimum amount of Monetary Commitment required: € 3,035.88 under the Enterprise Enrolment and € 30,358.80 under the Server and Cloud Enrolment.

The second change is the removal of the Consumption Allowance: previously customers with a Direct EA could pay for any Azure overage at anniversary if they remained within the Consumption Allowance (50% of the original Monetary Commitment). Now all new and renewing EA customers will pay for overage on a quarterly basis.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Azure Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator in preview. This TCO Calculator allows you to evaluate potential cost savings if you migrate on-premises application workloads to Microsoft Azure. You specify the details of your existing infrastructure, various cost assumptions you want the tool to work with, and then you receive a report that shows on-premises costs compared to Microsoft Azure costs.

Find the Microsoft Azure TCO Calculator here: http://tco.microsoft.com/Home/Calculator.

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 License Management

Gold Microsoft Partner

Microsoft announces that Microsoft Azure Active Directory group-based license management for Office 365 is now in public preview. This will offer two new services: firstly, you can assign a license template to an Azure Active Directory security group and then as users join and leave the group, licenses are automatically assigned and removed. Secondly, you will be able to selectively disable components in product licenses so that you can do a phased roll-out of the services of Office 365 E5 for example.

Find the Microsoft announcement here: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/2017/02/22/announcing-the-public-preview-of-azure-ad-group-based-license-management-for-office-365-and-more/

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Cloud Germany Promotional Offer

Microsoft-Partner-Gold-Volume-Licensing-Gold-Software-Asset-Management

Microsoft announced the general availability of the first Azure services available from two new regions in Germany: Germany Central (Frankfurt) and Germany Northeast (Magdeburg). This marks the beginning of Microsoft cloud services available from local datacenters in Germany, and these two regions ensure business continuity, as well as meeting many customer data residency requirements.

Customers in the European Union and European Free Trade Association (EU/EFTA) can choose whether to continue using Microsoft Cloud Europe and United Kingdom regions or to separately purchase the services from German datacenters where access to their data will be controlled by a German data trustee under German law.

A new or renewing Enterprise Agreement (EA) customer who purchases at least 83 Azure Monetary Commitment units prior to December 31, 2016, will be eligible to receive a one-time Azure Monetary Commitment credit equal to up to 25 percent of the Azure Monetary Commitment the customer consumed during the first four months of the agreement term from Microsoft Cloud Germany.