Microsoft Visual Studio

Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 generally available

Effective November 8, 2021, Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 is generally available.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 is an integrated development environment (IDE) and is used in order to develop programs, websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps.

Visual Studio 2022 is the first 64-bit release of Visual Studio and can now take full advantage of modern hardware in order to reliably scale to larger, more complex projects.

It offers features such as:

  • IntelliCode as a powerful set of automatic code completion tools that understand your code context
  • CodeLens as a means to easily find important insights, like what changes have been made, what those changes did, and whether you’ve run unit testing on your method
  • Live Share for real-time collaboration sessions, speeding up your team’s edit and debugging cycles
  • Integrated debugging
  • Cloud integration.

There are three editions available: Community as a free download, Professional and Enterprise.

For the announcement of the general availability of Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, please visit: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-2022-now-available/.

For more details on various Microsoft Visual Studio products, please visit: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/.

For more information on Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, please visit: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/.

Please contact us for more information and to request a quote.

Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, Microsoft Get Genuine Windows Agreement

Microsoft Get Genuine Windows Agreement through CSP

Effective December 1, 2021, Microsoft Get Genuine Windows Agreement (GGWA) offers are available for small and medium-sized organizations through SCHNEIDER IT MANAGEMENT as your Cloud Solution Provider (CSP).

GGWA legalization solutions assist customers in converting non-genuine Windows operating systems to legitimate versions and remaining compliant. The goal of GGWA is strictly to help a customer resolve a mis-licensing situation.

Customers can acquire GGWA licenses for the full version of the Windows desktop operating system for devices that require proper Windows licenses. Because GGWA licenses are full licenses for Windows, they don’t have a qualifying operating system (QOS) requirement.

GGWA licenses are available only as a one-time purchase, where all units must be placed under a single order. GGWA licenses cannot be assigned to devices without a QOS, if such devices are obtained after the customer’s order.

GGWA should be purchased by customers under any of the following scenarios:

  • Purchased PCs without an Operating System (OS) preinstalled
  • PCs with a Windows Home edition preinstalled which is not a Qualifying Operating System (QOS) for Windows Enterprise
  • Installed Windows software using leaked or stolen Volume License Keys (VLK)
  • Downloaded software online or from an unknown or counterfeit source.

For more information on how to tell whether your Microsoft software and hardware are genuine, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/howtotell.

Please contact us for more information and to request a quote.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Privacy Management

Effective October 19, 2021, Privacy Management for Microsoft 365 is generally available.

This product helps organizations to safeguard the personal data they hold, and to make it easier to respond to subject rights requests – when individuals ask to see the specific pieces of data an organization has collected about them.

Privacy Management offers means to:

  • Proactively identify and protect against privacy risks such as data hoarding, data transfers, and data oversharing
  • Gain visibility into the storage and movement of personal data
  • Empower information workers to make smart decisions about handling this data
  • Enable users to effectively manage data and take steps to comply with evolving privacy regulations
  • Manage subject rights requests at scale.

Privacy Management is available as an addition to organizations with Office 365 A1/E1/A3/E3/A5/E5 and Microsoft 365 A3/E3/A5/E5 subscriptions.

Users benefit by the ability for organizations to gain visibility into the private data in their environment, proactively identify and protect against privacy risks, and manage subject rights requests (commonly known as ‘data subject requests’) at scale.

With Privacy Management – Subject Rights Requests have a fixed price per request. These requests are available in packs of 1, 10 or 100 and are active for 12 months after purchase.

For the announcement, please visit: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/announcing-general-availability-of-privacy-management-for/ba-p/2857777.

For more information on Privacy Management for Microsoft 365 as a tenant-level service, please visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/microsoft-365-service-descriptions/microsoft-365-tenantlevel-services-licensing-guidance/microsoft-365-security-compliance-licensing-guidance#privacy-management.

For more details on Privacy Management for Microsoft 365, please visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy/solutions/privacymanagement/privacy-management.

Microsoft PowerApps

Microsoft Power Apps pay-as-you-go available

Effective November 2, 2021, pay-as-you-go pricing is available for Microsoft Power Apps. Customers now have the option to purchase the Power Apps per App plan with an Azure Subscription.

The Power Apps per App pay-as-you-go plan introduces the flexibility for customers to pay for Power Apps based on usage – covering authenticated users of internal apps and portals. Pay-as-you-go allows you to share a Power Apps app with any user in your organization and then only pay if and when they use that app. Charges are incurred against a Microsoft Azure Subscription based on the number of unique apps or portals a user runs each month.

This new plan includes access to Microsoft Dataverse capacity, premium connectors and other components necessary to run a premium application on the platform. These capabilities and entitlements are applied to each environment where pay-as-you-go billing is enabled and are not granted for each monthly active user. For scenarios requiring additional Dataverse capacity beyond the monthly entitlement or Power Platform request limits, overage in the environment will also be billed to the Azure Subscription.

Common use cases are:

  • Widely distributed apps: Use the pay-as-you-go plan for apps that need to be shared with a large user base with infrequent and/or unpredictable use.
  • Establish usage patterns: Understand adoption patterns for new apps to determine whether prepaid licenses make financial sense for your business.
  • Flexible purchasing: Use an Azure Subscription for Power Apps to reduce license procurement overhead and consolidate with other service purchases. This is especially helpful if you already have an Azure Subscription that you use for other Microsoft services.

For the announcement, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/power-apps-pay-as-you-go-pricing.

For details on the pay-as-you-go plan for Microsoft Power Apps, please visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/pay-as-you-go-overview

For more information on Microsoft Azure, please visit: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/.

Please contact us for more information and to request a quote.

Microsoft Open License, Microsoft Windows Server

Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Standard & CALs price increase

Effective October 19, 2021, Microsoft is increasing the price of Windows Server 2022 Standard edition and Windows Server 2022 Client Access Licenses (CALs) by 10%.

Windows Server 2022 Datacenter edition pricing will remain the same.

Windows Server 2022 is available as perpetual software through SCHNEIDER IT MANAGEMENT as your Cloud Solution Provider (CSP).

Microsoft won’t be launching Windows Server 2022 in the Open License program which will be discontinued on December 31, 2021.

Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Enterprise Subscription Agreement (EAS) customers are price protected until the end of the agreement term.

For a brief overview on Windows Server 2022 pricing, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/pricing.

Please contact us for more information and to request a quote.

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Professional Direct Support available

Effective November 1, 2021, Microsoft Professional Direct Support expands to the Microsoft 365 portfolio of products, and is now available for Microsoft Dynamics 365, in addition to Microsoft Power Platform.

Professional Direct Support provides proactive advisory services, faster response times, and escalation management for business-critical incidents. It includes one-hour response times for your technical support calls and exclusive access to a dedicated team of ProDirect Delivery Managers to manage your support experience, provide advisory services, onboarding assistance, upgrade & release readiness.

Note, that there is a minimum purchase number of 20 Professional Direct Support licenses.

For an informational sheet on Microsoft Professional Direct Support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, please visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=2175520&clcid=0x409.

For more details on Microsoft Dynamics 365 support options, please visit: https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/support/.

Please contact us for more information and to request a quote.

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat Perpetual Upgrade Plan end-of-sale

Effective December 1, 2021, there will be no new purchases of Adobe Acrobat perpetual licenses in the upgrade plan.

Effective February 1, 2022, Adobe will no longer offer Upgrade Plan for Acrobat in the Transactional Licensing Program (TLP) and Cumulative Licensing Program (CLP). Customers with existing Acrobat Upgrade Plans will continue to receive any applicable upgrades that Adobe makes generally available during the term of their Upgrade Plan. Only Acrobat perpetual (Pro and Standard) are being removed from the upgrade plan at this time. Other products that still offer an upgrade plan will continue to be available.

Upgrade licenses are bought to move to the next version of a perpetual product. If a new version of Acrobat perpetual were released, Acrobat 2020 customers would buy the upgrade license to upgrade to the latest version. The upgrade license policy allows for a perpetual customer to upgrade from one version back. For example, Acrobat 2017 customers are eligible to purchase an upgrade SKU to Acrobat 2020. Previous versions of Acrobat are not eligible to buy upgrade SKUs.

Currently, there are no plans for a new version of Acrobat perpetual beyond Acrobat 2020.

All customers with active upgrade plans on January 31, 2022 are eligible for reduced subscription pricing available through SCHNEIDER IT MANAGEMENT, which unlocks all the services value of Acrobat including mobile, collaboration and Microsoft integrations.

For an FAQ on the end-of-sale of Adobe Acrobat Perpetual Upgrade Plan, please visit: https://helpx.adobe.com/ee/acrobat/kb/removing-acrobat-perpetual-from-upgrade-plan.html.

Microsoft Viva, Promotions

Microsoft Viva Suite available

Effective November 2, 2021, Microsoft Viva Suite is generally available. It contains Viva Connections for company culture and communications, Viva Learning for employee skilling and growth, Viva Topics for organization and discovery of knowledge and expertise, and Viva Insights to improve employee productivity and wellbeing.

With this new product, Microsoft announced new capabilities and partnerships for each module and a centralized IT admin experience.

The Microsoft Viva suite offers an integrated Employee Experience Platform (EXP) that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights into the flow of work.

From November 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022, The suite comes at a promotional price, which is 25% less than purchasing the modules individually and includes the new Microsoft Ally.io module next year at no additional cost.

To be eligible for Microsoft Viva, it requires a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 E1/A1/G1/E3/A3/G3/E5/A5/G5, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium, or Exchange Online Plan 1 or Plan 2 license.

For the announcement of Microsoft Viva Suite, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/11/02/microsoft-viva-is-now-generally-available-to-help-transform-your-hybrid-work-experience/.

For an FAQ, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva/buy?activetab=pivot:faqtab.

For more information on Microsoft Viva, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva?rtc=1.

Please contact us for more information and to request a quote.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Microsoft Cloud App Security rebranded to Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Effective November 1, 2021, Microsoft Cloud App Security is being rebranded to Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a comprehensive solution for security and compliance teams enabling users in the organization, local and remote, to safely adopt business applications without compromising productivity. It uses the traffic information collected by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint about the cloud apps and services being accessed from IT-managed Windows devices. The integration with Defender for Endpoint does not require any additional deployment and works out of the box.

By unifying Microsoft Cloud Apps Security to the Defender name, Microsoft intends to reflect the integrated security capabilities across identities, endpoints, applications, email, IoT, infrastructure, and cloud platforms.

For the announcement, please visit: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/announcing-microsoft-defender-for-cloud-apps/ba-p/2835842.

For more information on the integration of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, please visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-app-security/mde-integration.

For more information on the recent renaming of Microsoft security services, please visit the Microsoft Ignite Security blog: https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/11/02/protect-your-business-with-microsoft-securitys-comprehensive-protection/.

Please contact us for more information and to request a quote.

Microsoft SharePoint Server

Microsoft SharePoint and Project Server Subscription Edition available

Effective November 1, 2021, Microsoft Project Server Subscription Edition and SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, the next versions of the on-premises Project Server and SharePoint Server, are available. Both Server Subscription Editions require active Software Assurance (SA) to access and use.

Project Server runs as a service application under SharePoint Server. It is included as part of the SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, though it is licensed separately.

Microsoft is advising to start reviewing the requirements and features that are coming with the SharePoint Subscription Edition release. Among those features are: Support for Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server Core; support for OpenID Connect (OIDC) 1.0; an enhanced People Picker for authentication; support for TLS 1.3 and strong TLS encryption by default.

For a list of new features and updates to existing features in the SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, please visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/what-s-new/new-and-improved-features-in-sharepoint-server-subscription-edition.

For new features and updates in the Project Server Subscription Edition, please visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/project/new-features-capabilities-project-server-subscription-edition.

Please contact us for more information and to request a quote.