Monthly Microsoft License Update July 2024
Welcome to the July 2024 instalment of the Microsoft Product Terms Update from the Version 1 Microsoft License Consulting Team. Each month, Microsoft releases license changes on their product terms — this month sees a variety of updates to both product terms and supporting license briefs. Learn more about these changes in this blog or by watching this short YouTube video below.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft has added Entra Suite, Private Access, Internet Access, and Secure Access Essentials to Availability Tables and Prerequisite Tables. The Microsoft 365 Availability table has grown extensively this month with the addition of the above Entra Services. These services will require additional licensing as they’re not included in any M365 suites e.g. the prerequisites for licensing the Entra Suite and Access Services include Entra ID P1, Microsoft 365 E3/A3, EMS E3/A3 and Microsoft 365 Business Premium. No pricing available yet but no doubt, expected soon.
Windows 365
Launch of W365 Cross Region Disaster Recovery (DR) Add-on to the EES, EAEAS, MCA, and MOSA programs. This product is to protect Cloud PCs and data against regional outages. When the service is enabled during an outage, temporary cloud PCs are created in an alternative geographic region, in order to maintain continuity and productivity. You don’t need to purchase add-ons for all Cloud PCs as you can choose how many of the Cloud PCs DR add-ons you require.
Dataverse Database Capacity
This applies to Dynamics 365 subscriptions and also Power Platform and introduces a second tier of pricing for Dataverse Database Capacity.
Dataverse Database storage is essentially the tables upon which Dynamics and Power Platform sits within a customer’s tenant. For each tenant an initial Dataverse Database storage allocation is provided by default when a qualifying subscription is first added, for example Dynamics 365 provides a pooled allocation of 20GB with additional 250MB of pooled storage allocation for each licensed user. Additional Dataverse Database Capacity is available in 1GB increments for a cost per month and previously there was no tiered pricing based on volume.
There is now a new Tier 2 price per GB for additional capacity added over 1000GB per month at approx. $30 per GB for an annual commitment. This is very much designed to benefit enterprise organisations as the Tier 1 pricing is approximately $40 per GB per month.
Dynamics 365 Contact Centre
Also in the July changes is the addition of Dynamics 365 Contact Centre to the Availability and Prerequisites Table. This is quite exciting as it’s a brand new Dynamics product with the tag line
‘a Microsoft Copilot-first contact centre solution that delivers generative AI to every customer engagement channel’.
This provides, as it says in it’s title, full native Contact Centre capabilities and functionality directly within the Microsoft stack.
There are several 3rd party Contact Centre services that seamlessly integrate with Dynamics but this is a Microsoft product that is a comprehensive CCaaS product that includes:
· voice and digital engagement channels
· unified routing
· digital and voice self-service
· agent-assisted service
· customer history and engagement data
· supervisor and service leader tools.
This is available as a standalone product for approx $110 per user per month or as part of a new Dynamics 365 Customer Service Premium SKU which combines Customer Service Enterprise and Contact Centre at approx $195 per user per month.
This enables customers to deploy on its own or integrate with Dynamics 365 or 3rd party CRMs.
Azure AI Content Safety
Azure AI Content Safety is a service provided by Microsoft Azure designed to help organisations ensure that their online platforms remain safe and compliant by detecting and moderating harmful or inappropriate content. In the July product term changes, Microsoft has updated its privacy & security terms by adding Azure AI Content Safety to Core Online Services.
Microsoft has been shuttering Cortana services since late 2023, therefore it’s no surprise that it’s now been removed from the Microsoft privacy security terms
Cortana
With the resurgence of chatbots, thanks to the arrival of OpenAI, it was no surprise that Microsoft started to shutter Cortana in 2023. As a consequence of these retirements, we see the removal of Cortana from Microsoft privacy security terms this month.
Azure Fixed Pricing Update — Microsoft may offer lower prices to a Customer (or a Customer’s reseller) for individual Microsoft Azure Services during a Customer’s Enrolment term on a permanent or temporary (promotional) basis. In this months’ term update, Microsoft has added a Clarification whereby they state that “Fixed pricing does not apply to promotions and previews.”
Price Harmonisation
Microsoft has a 6-month schedule for aligning pricing in local currencies against changes to the US Dollar. They have announced there will be no price harmonisation changes at the next 6-month date of September 2024.
As Microsoft license experts, we can help you demystify these and any other product changes and clarify what this could mean for your license position. If you have any questions relating to this or any other Microsoft licensing matter, please go to our website or contact us.
About the Author:
Karl is a Principal Licensing Consultant at Version 1, providing global Microsoft license expertise to organisations and ensuring customers get the best value from their Microsoft assets.
