Microsoft Licensing Updates for September 2024

Product Terms Updates

Frontline Worker products

Microsoft added more Frontline Worker products, namely 10-year Audit Log Retention, Defender Vulnerability Management, Entra Internet Access, Entra Private Access, Python in Excel and Secure Access Essentials, to the availability table and the prerequisites have been added to the License Prerequisites table.

  • 10-year audit log retention FLW requires an F5 Compliance or F5 eDiscovery & Audit license
  • Defender Vulnerability Management FLW requires F5 Security, F5 Security & Compliance or Defender for Endpoint P2 license
  • The above mentioned Entra FLW products and Secure Access Essentials FLW require an M365 F1 or F3 license
  • Python in Excel requires M365 E3/E5, O365 E3/E5, M365 Apps for Enterprise/Business or an M365 Business Standard or Business Premium license

Azure

A support clause added to the Extended Security Updates (ESU) language. This clarifies that unless you have Unified Support, Partner Premier Support or Pay-per-incident support, you won’t get any support for ESU licenses.

The support you can get under ESU coverage is about:

  1. Deployment, installation and activation of ESU keys, licenses and updates
  2. Bugs/regressions introduced with the installation of a security update
  3. Troubleshooting service and assistance to resolve known and documented issues related to the underlying operating systems.

This clause has also been added to the Software Assurance page as well, for clarification reasons.

Online Services Glossary

An update to the Online Services Glossary for the Reduction Eligible definition. This definition was updated to make expressly clear that a Enterprise Subscription Enrollment allows you to report a reduction in licenses in accordance with the terms of the Enrollment contract.

Other Updates

Modern Work Plan

There is an updated Modern Work Plan comparison document that you can read here. While I hope that the M365maps.com website will receive an update soon, for the moment it seems out of date. My advise is to use the Microsoft official documentation for this instead. While the table/info Microsoft provides is more difficult to decipher, it provides up to date information, so have a look!

GitHub

GitHub Enterprise Cloud and GitHub Advanced Security can now be bought under the MCA-E and CSP contract directly through your Azure contract. This was not possible before, but now this metered model will make it easier to sign your users up to these GitHub services.

Many organizations were still using credit cards to pay for this, but this is no longer necessary. It is a full user license, so when you purchase it, your license will be aligned to the entire months’ usage (see here).

M365 E3 in CSP

Three-year subscription terms for Microsoft 365 E3 subscriptions in CSP available for selected markets. If you’re in ASEAN, LATAM, India or the Middle-East, Africa and Central Asia, you can now leverage triennial subscription terms in CSP for M365 E3.

This is available as annual payment or prepayment. From September 1st, 2024, until June 30th, 2025, enjoy a 10% discount on this product when you purchase between 100 and 2,400 licenses.

Dynamics 365

Friendly reminder: Effective October 1st, Dynamics 365 prices will increase by 10-17%, as announced earlier this year. With the price hike just around the corner, it’s wise to finalize any ongoing Dynamics 365 procurement discussions with Microsoft before the end of September to secure the current rates.

Copilot for M365 promotion

Introducing the “Getting Started with Copilot” promotion: From September 1st to December 31st, 2024, new Microsoft 365 Copilot customers can enjoy a 15% discount on orders ranging from 10 to 300 users.

This promotion is exclusively for net-new clients, but if you’re not currently purchasing Copilot through CSP, you can still take advantage of this offer by starting new subscriptions. Please note that adding to existing licenses won’t qualify for the discount. Need help getting started? Reach out to us!