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Category Archives: Office 365

Dyreport for Dynamics No More

For those partners that were hosting Dynamics will no longer receive revenue recognition for SPLA or ISV programs FY 19. Is this another move to Dynamics 365 Online?

“The reason for this change was driven by cost consideration and the manual nature of this process” says a Microsoft source. “Very few partners will be impacted by the removal of Dynamics in SPLA.”

I guess on one hand, Dynamics has always been a complex solution to license. Dynamics partners demanded licensing resources from their SPLA Reseller, SPLA Reseller demanded Dynamics resources from Microsoft, ultimately leaving the SPLA partner weeks without an answer. On the other hand, is this just a motive to migrate to Dynamics 365?

If incentives are dropping in one program but offered in another, I would argue the answer to that question is yes. Microsoft does not pay for something they don’t want to promote. “This is frustrating. If we no longer have the ability to report our SPLA, why report it at all” says one SPLA Dynamics partner who asked to be named anonymously. If you license SPLA, you are still required to report it to your SPLA Reseller. That part is not changing. What is changing is the second usage report Dynamics would send to Microsoft for revenue recognition.

What do you do? If you can’t beat them join them and offer Dynamics through CSP? Maybe, but if you already have a datacenter and customized solutions built on Dynamics, CSP is not always the answer.

New developments are always being introduced. If you have a question, utilize our forum.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

Licensing Office Online for External Users

11 Aug

What happens if you have end customers who want to use Office Online for external users (non-employees of your organization). Is that SPLA? In this article, we will break down Office Online through three programs – SPLA, Volume Licensing, and CSP.

SPLA

If you are hosting Office for another organization SPLA definitely fits. As an example, if you provide DaaS to your customers who are also licensed for Office, they can access Office Online. In this model, you license SharePoint (requirement for Office Online) Office by user, RDS per user, and Windows + SQL Server. Very expensive to simply offer a customer the ability to view and edit documents online.

Volume Licensing and Office 365

Office Online was added as a Software Assurance benefit for Office in 2016. End customer’s who simply want to view documents can download it directly from the Volume Licensing Services Center (VLSC). End customers that require document creation, edit/save functionality will be required to have an on-premises Office license with Software Assurance or an Office 365 ProPlus subscription. Any customer that purchased an Office 2016 suite through Volume Licensing before August 1, 2016 will not require SA through August 1, 2019. After August 1, 2019 they must buy SA for any on-premise Office licenses.

According to the Product Terms (May 2016) “If Customer has a License for Office 365 Pro Plus, then Customer may use Office Online services. Each of Customer’s Licensed Users of Office 365 Pro Plus may access Office Online services for viewing and editing documents, as long as they are also licensed for SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business.” It’s the last sentence that stings. In other words, you want Office Online? Better buy Office 365 E3.

Office Online for CSP

The same rules apply. In this scenario, the hosting company could sell Office 365 E3 through CSP program to their end users. In CSP, the end customer is paying month – month and paying for support.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

Details of the Qualified Multitenant Addendum

03 Aug

There’s been a lot of talk as of late about the new QMTH addendum. I’ve written a couple of articles on the topic here In this article, we will summarize what is written in the addendum so there’s no surprises. I listed some (not all) of terms and conditions to ensure you are up to speed on the latest developments.

CSP Membership – You (or affiliates) must be a Direct CSP partner. This means you cannot leverage an Indirect CSP partner for this program. In other words, if you receive CSP licensing from Ingram Micro or SherWeb (as an example) your partnership with those distributors/partner does not qualify for QMTH. Your organization must be CSP Direct authorized, not your partner.
Must meet the system requirements – System Requirements can be found here
Have an active SPLA agreement.
Reporting Requirements – You will always need to report underlying licenses in SPLA. Those underlying licenses could be any software to deploy a VDI solution – (Windows Server and RDS). In addition, you must report (by the last calendar day of each month) the Windows 10/O365 licenses deployed. This is manual, meaning you will send an email to the QMTH alias for submission. Once automated reporting is available, you must enable Microsoft’s automated reporting tool. Microsoft will use the tool to collect your customer’s organization ID and tenant ID as well as the total number of users accessing the software.
As the provider, you must report to your SPLA Reseller the program administrative fee. If you are currently in the SCA program, you will be familiar with this SKU.
As the provider, you must make all education materials publicly available. You cannot just sign up for CSP, the education material should be like what’s on the QMH website.
For each per user subscription to Windows 10 Enterprise, the end-user can only access up to four (4) instances of Windows 10 either on Azure or you, the QMTH hoster. This is like the SCA program in which the end user has five (5) instances of Office Pro Plus, Windows 10 works the same way.

Listed above is a summary. I encourage you to reach out to your Microsoft rep for additional information. I am happy to review it further, it’s a new program with pluses and minuses. Be sure to understand the minuses first 🙂

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

VDI Under SPLA? Maybe it’s possible after all – Multitenant Hosting Rights for Windows 10

12 Jul

Good news for those who have customers who want you to host Windows 10 in your shared cloud environment – they might now have that as an option. Microsoft recently announced “Multitenant Hosting Rights for Windows 10. You can read the announcement here

We also created a new website called MSCloudlicensing to help SPLA and CSP partners understand the different program options and use rights available to them. The new website is www.mscloudlicensing.com it’s designed to be a collaborative platform that includes a forum to ask and answer licensing questions, document library, and licensing articles. Check it out, it’s free.

What is it?

Allows customers who purchased qualified Windows 10 licenses the ability transfer those licenses over to a Qualified Multi-Tenant Hoster shared datacenter environment.

Why is this important?

For years SPLA partners have asked for VDI in SPLA. Although this is not technically VDI in SPLA, is does provide an avenue to implement a virtual desktop session from your shared server environment. At the end of the day, it gives your end customers deployment options.

Can I still license Windows Desktop in SPLA?

No. Windows desktop licenses were removed last year. You can read/download the lease agreement that outlines the details here

What are the requirements?

To no surprise, the SPLA partner must be CSP Tier 1 authorized. They must also sign the Qualified Multitenant Hoster addendum and have an active SPLA with Microsoft. To get the QMH (another Microsoft acronym) you can contact info@splalicensing.com or your Microsoft Reseller.

What happens if I offer dedicated environments? Do I still need the addendum?

No. If it is 100% dedicated (isolated hardware) you can always transfer end customer licenses over to your datacenter environment. Whenever it is shared – VM or hardware, you must consider SPLA or in this case the QMH addendum)

When is it available?

Program will be available August 1, 2017 for VL and September 6, 2017 to transact in CSP.

Can I bundle my customers Office solution they purchased as well as Windows 10 to offer a complete VDI experience?

Yes. This is a great way to bundle different desktop applications.

Conclusion

If you provide IaaS to your customers, this is definitely something you should consider. Any time you can offer your customers the ability to leverage existing investments the better. Azure is not going away. In fact, you don’t have to be QMTH authorized to leverage Azure as your datacenter provider. Please review the announcement, there will be a lot more information on this in the coming days. I will also write out several scenarios to make this more simple. As always, you can email me at info@splalciensing.com

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

2 Comments

Posted by MS Licensing on July 12, 2017 in Office 365

Tags: Amazon Web Services, AWS, Azure, Cloud Solution Program, CSP, CSP Direct, CSP Tier 1, IaaS, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Cloud, microsoft CSP, Microsoft SPLA, MS Hosting, Multienant Hosting Rights, QMH Addendum, QMTH, Service Provider License Agreement, shared computer activation, Windows 10

Office Under Office 365 and Shared Environments…Can we do it or not?

25 Jan

There’s a rumor that Microsoft will allow a service provider the ability to host Office licenses under Office 365 in a shared cloud environment. Is the rumor true? Yes, it’s true. But with everything in the world of licensing there’s always a catch.

For those that have read my blog for a while know that this blog is not a news source, but an education source. I don’t care about late breaking news, I just want you to get the licensing right, the information right, and be profitable.

So what does Office under Office 365 really mean? Some time ago, Microsoft created a use right titled “Shared Computer Activation” For those playing at home this is code for installing end user Office license from O365 in a shared cloud infrastructure similar to license mobility. In the past, this was only available in Azure. (imagine that). Fast forward to today and Microsoft is opening it up to the service provider channel as well. Good news for you, and even better news for Microsoft. If you would like to use this use right (SCA) you must meet the following criteria:

You must be authorized for Cloud Solution Provider Program (CSP Tier 1). Thats why it’s good news for Microsoft.
You must be managed by a Microsoft hosting team member.
You must be an authorized SCA partner. (Licensing Addendum)

If you don’t know if you are managed, let me know – I can see if you are. Typically this is for SPLA partners that report not only high SPLA revenue (although not necessarily), but are also strategic in marketing activities with Microsoft. If you are international, let me know and we can look into getting US authorized as well. You can email me at info@splalicensing.com to learn more. I also have a cool powerpoint. (well, about as cool as powerpoint’s can go). Although a bit out dated, here is a good overview as well on SCA: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn782860(v=office.15).aspx

Last, I sit on a licensing panel and would love to review the different use cases for this program. Let me know how you may/may not benefit from Shared Computer Activation and we can voice our collective opinion to Microsoft. info@splalicensing.com

There’s also a big change for rental PC’s. Little teaser for an upcoming blog post.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

3 Comments

Posted by MS Licensing on January 25, 2016 in Office 365

Tags: Cloud, CSP Direct, CSP Indirect, CSP Tier 1, Hosting, Microsoft addendum, Microsoft Cloud, microsoft CSP, Microsoft Hosting, Microsoft SPLA, Office 365, Office 365 E3, RDS, SCA, shared computer activation

Is No News Bad News?

10 Oct

It’s the fall season here in the United States – the leaves are changing, weather is FINALLY getting cooler, and it’s time for our friends in Redmond, WA to make an update. In this article, I will highlight some upcoming changes (or lack thereof) to SPLA.

Last week I was in San Francisco visiting with the resellers and Microsoft to discuss SPLA and other initiatives. The good news? There are no major licensing changes. Bad news? There are no major licensing changes.

Why is that bad news? Well, I was hoping Microsoft would announce Office mobility rights. I really think this is a miss with Microsoft. It would encourage your end customers to invest in Office with Software Assurance and offer a more complete desktop as a service solution. Do you agree?

Here’s my take. I believe Microsoft will allow your end customers to invest in Office via Office 365. Wow, there’s a surprise right? But I do believe Microsoft will allow your end customer to take (1) of the (5) installs allowed under Office 365 and transfer it to your datacenter. In doing so, you would be allowed to offer a shared infrastructure, dedicated VM (Similar to License Mobility). This is my opinion, but something I think they would entertain. I don’t think they will offer regular Office (outside of O365)to be transferred over in this capacity without dedicating the infrastructure. Why? To encourage Office 365 sales of course! Again, just my opinion. And NO, you cannot do this today in a shared environment.

So what about Windows Desktop (Windows 10)? Will this ever have mobility rights? I am guessing not. What about in Windows Azure? Perhaps. Going back to my point about Office, by allowing Windows 10 in Azure would encourage Azure sales. Maybe this will happen sooner than later. Check out this article by my friends at ZDNET Get ready hoster’s, there might not be a licensing change, but change is definitely on the horizon.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

2 Comments

Posted by MS Licensing on October 10, 2015 in Azure, License Mobility, Office 365

Office 365 and SPLA – It’s all about Office

06 Dec

The #1 post (by volume) on this blog site is “Office 365 Under SPLA.” (It’s probably what brought you to this article in the first place). For those that read this blog regularly, can you guess #2? Ok…you give up. If you would’ve guessed “Office Needs Mobility Rights” you would have been correct. Can I conclude in my scientific analysis that Office is at the top of everyone’s mind in the hosting industry?

Who remember’s BPOS? Remember that beauty? I used to manage BPOS several years ago. BPOS consisted of Exchange Online, OCS (that’s right…OCS not Lync) and SharePoint online. It was bundled as a package and sold to smaller companies (originally). It was a big deal. For “x” amount of dollars you would get a 5GB mailbox! Google caught on, raised the bar to 10GB mailbox, than 20 and the cloud race still continues today. Mailbox size and price was what everyone talked about. I remember it well. Than Microsoft threw the cloud world a curve ball. “What would happen if we offer Office as a subscription model and call it Office 365” Things started to change pretty quickly. Office as a subscription? “But wait…let’s allow Office to be installed on not one device, but 5! Now the cloud world is really spinning.” What’s next?

Let’s don’t forget about our friend Azure. Who could forget about him? Azure is growing rapidly (talk about a generality but remember I am SPLA Man, not Gartner) and adding new features such as Linux VM’s, ability to purchase using your Enterprise Agreement, and the biggest news of all….ability to install a copy of Office from Office 365. Wait! What?!!!

Let’s take a step back and look at what Office means for the SPLA community. You want to host Office? Here’s what you need. Windows + RDS+Office. There you have it.

Here’s what you can’t do – Under no circumstance can you have your end customer purchase Office under Office 365 and install it in your shared cloud. Don’t argue with me here…you can’t do it. You are probably thinking…well, that’s ok, i will dedicate a VM. Ahhhh….there we go again. Dedicated a customer owned license on a VM. What did I just describe?

Dedicate a VM +shared hardware = License Mobility. What does not have license mobility rights? Office.

Now back to Azure. You might be thinking that Azure is a shared cloud. It is. How can they do it but I can’t? Well, they developed Office and they developed Azure. They can make up the rules to their own game. Check out the online services terms page 22

What happens if you purchase your own Azure agreement to host your SaaS offering for your clients? It doesn’t matter. A hoster leveraging Azure for their offering would not be able to accept end-user Office 365 Office licenses.

So is it all doom and gloom? Not by a long shot. When there’s confusion, when your competitors spend more time worrying about what they can’t do instead of focusing on growing their business, consider that an opportunity. I’ve written 70+ articles on SPLA. It’s not going away and neither are you. I just think you (the service provider) need to get creative. Price is always an issue. Office is an issue today, but it will be something else tomorrow. Again, don’t focus on what you can’t do, it’s time to start thinking about what you can do.

I am going to write another article in which I provide a real world example on how I was able to save a service provider money It’s not revolutionary, but it proves that if your not working with someone who looks at your usage report regularly and makes suggestions to reduce costs, you are missing out. Sounds kind of like a salesman, but I think you will find the article helpful. I can’t change the rules of SPLA, but I can make recommendations in the way you think about your business. It’s time to reconsider our licensing strategy. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here’s a cool glimpse into the future.

Future of Office

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

6 Comments

Posted by MS Licensing on December 6, 2014 in Azure, Office 365

Tags: Azure, License Mobility, Office, Office 365

Office…good, bad, ugly.

27 Oct

One of the biggest roadblocks hoster’s have is around Office. Want to provide a integrated SharePoint solution? Must include Office. Have an application that reports back through Excel? Must use Office. Want to provide users the ability to create, edit, and view a Word document? Must include Office. In this article I focus on what’s happening around Office including the good, the bad, and possibly the ugly.

Let’s start with the ugly and bad. I hate bad news, so let’s get this out of the way. I think the ugly is Office under Office 365. Surprise! We all know about installing on up to 5 devices and installing on RDS right/shared computer activation..right? You can learn more about it here http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2014/09/03/office-365-shared-computer-activation.aspx

Pay attention to what is happening with Azure. There’s a lot of changes in the way in which Office will be deployed in this environment. More to come.

So there’s the ugly. The bad is just the overall cost of deploying Office in a shared environment. Office is expensive. You not only have to report Office, but RDS and Windows as well and with currently no option for mobility, service providers have few options. Remember, if you are providing Office remotely, your RDS licenses should match. Last, if you think using Office Web apps is a good alternative you may have to think again. To fully use Office Web Apps a copy of Office must also be licensed.

Here’s some good links around this topic including RDS, Azure and Office 365, as well as my own blog post “SPLA and Office 365”

Azure and RDS – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn782858(v=office.15).aspx

Overview of Azure/Office 365 from my friends at Code Magazine http://www.codemag.com/Article/1108021

SPLA and Office 365 https://splalicensing.com/category/office-365/

Now it’s time for the good. Did you know you know you can report the Office components instead of the entire suite? Did you know Office is a user based license which means if not all users need Office Pro, by all means do not report all users with Office Pro. SPLA Man needs Office Pro but SPLA Girl only needs the features of Office Standard, make sure to report us accordingly. Here is a good link that compares the features within Office as well as the features of Office Pro and Office 365.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/buy/compare-microsoft-office-products-FX102898564.aspx

There’s a lot of information to digest in these links. To summarize my point, you must get creative and you must pay attention to updates (especially Office 365) Your customers will ask.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

4 Comments

Posted by MS Licensing on October 27, 2014 in Office 365

Tags: Azure, Cloud Solution Program, CSP, CSP Direct, CSP Tier 1, hosting office, Microsoft Cloud, Microsoft Hosting, Microsoft Licensing, Office 2013, Office 365, Office Pro, Office Professional, Office Web Apps, RDS, shared computer activation, spla

Office needs mobility rights

13 Dec

The number one post on splalicensing.com is “Office 365 under SPLA” To date over 20,000 users have read it, several have commented on it, and many more are still asking – what am I missing and why can’t I offer “SPLA Office” in the same fashion as Office 365?

Microsoft recently announced mobility rights for Remote Desktop Services (RDS). I wrote about it here I think that’s a great move by Microsoft as it provides more flexibility for both service providers and consumers. In my opinion, we need Office mobility rights, and we needed it yesterday.

Think about your environment and the licensing restrictions around Office. To legally deploy Office for a customer that has Office 365, you as a service provider would need to have your customer purchase 1 volume licensing copy of Office, install it on your server, and for each user for Office 365, they must allocate one of the five licenses (Office 365 allows 5 installations of Office on 5 devices per user) to access Office remotely. The Office bits on Office 365 has issues with installing it on server. Thus, the reason for a volume license copy of Office. (at least that’s my experience in the past, maybe that’s changed now) Doesn’t sound too bad. Five devices is a lot anyways, and now with RDS mobility rights, the service provider can use the end customers RDS licenses (if they have software assurance). YES!!!!

Ahh…but what about Office? Does Office have mobility rights? The answer is….no. Although the service provider can have customer RDS mobility rights, since Office is installed, the entire environment has to be dedicated. Yes, that includes the hardware and the VM. That’s the issue I struggle with and I am sure many of you do too. Why offer RDS mobility rights but not Office? This would solve some of the issues between Office 365 and the service provider community. Office is expensive for SPLA’s, let’s allow end customers to leverage their existing volume licensing agreements to purchase it and allow service providers to host it in a shared hardware/ dedicated VM using mobility rights? Think of how many users would purchase Office under Office 365 if they did this? Or if they didn’t purchase Office 365, they would at least need to purchase Office with Software Assurance. Think of how many service providers would push volume licensing on behalf of Microsoft and the resellers if they allowed this? Either way Microsoft, service providers, and more importantly the end customer would win.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

19 Comments

Posted by MS Licensing on December 13, 2013 in License Mobility, Office 365

Tags: Microsoft, Mobility rights, Office, Office 365, spla, spla licensing, Virtualization, VM

SPLA Licensing

Category Archives: Office 365

Dyreport for Dynamics No More

Top 5 CSP Questions….Answered!

Is No News Bad News?

Office 365 and SPLA – It’s all about Office

Office needs mobility rights

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