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Boo! 👻

The end of October - can you believe it?!

Microsoft's latest financial results are out and they're, again, pretty impressive with over $45 billion revenue and PowerApps showing growth of over 200%!

On another note - I saw earlier this month that, following Slack's complaint about Teams, the EU are asking several other potential Teams rivals about possible harm being caused by Microsoft's product bundling.

See all the rest of the news below.

Have a good weekend and a good Halloween (if that's your thing!) 🎃

Cheers
Rich

ps: Remember you can check out previous newsletters here if you want to catch up on anything you may have missed.

Unified Support - contents & pricing

Microsoft Unified Support has been a contentious issue since its introduction, mainly due to it increasing bills. Additionally, a lack of clear information has always made it difficult for customers to get an understanding of what is available and the different options available etc.
Microsoft have now added a good amount of info to the Product Terms so I've used that, as some other resources, to take a look at the different options and - where possible - how the pricing is calculated.

Check it out here.

Microsoft Viva Insights

With Microsoft Viva Insights SKUs being added to the Product Terms, I've taken a look at what it is and how it is licensed - including license pre-requisites, costs, and the new concept of Insights Capacity Credits.

More info here.

Microsoft Product Terms - October 2021

Microsoft Viva Insights and Viva Insights Capacity SKUs were added to the Product Terms, as were 2 new Privacy Management SKUs focused on "Risk" and "Subject Rights Requests".
Microsoft also added a bunch of information about their various support offerings, making this more easily accessible than before.
More info here.

Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL changes

Microsoft have introduced "scope-level management" for SQL Server Azure Hybrid Benefit - making it easier to work with, and apply, your entitlements across a subscription or billing account. It also introduces "Normalised Core Licenses" as a way to more easily calculate the number of entitlements your on-prem licenses give you in Azure.

More info here.

Microsoft Financial Results Q1 FY22

Another excellent showing from Microsoft - revenue up 22% and operating income up 27% year on year.

There was double digit growth from Office 365 Commercial (23%), Dynamics 365 (48%), and LinkedIn (42%) while Azure continued its run of growing by 50%. PowerApps grew by 202% which, even though that will be from a small base, is still pretty impressive!

More info on monthly users, Windows, EMS, Microsoft hiring and more here.

Microsoft make more aquisitions

Two more organisations have been added to the Microsoft portfolio in October 2021 - Clear Software and Ally.io.

The first will expand Power Platform capabilities to interact with Oracle & SAP systems - and also expand the potential for 3rd-party licensing issues no doubt! - and the second will be added to the fledgling Microsoft Viva line-up, focusing on Objectives and Key Results (OKR).
Neither deal has had the amount revealed but they both signify Microsoft's intent to keep growing these areas of their business - I expect to see more throughout FY22.

More info on the acquisitions here.