Here in the UK the clocks have gone back so it's getting dark earlier, it's raining all the time, and no-one can put the heating on (!) - but at least we've got loads of Microsoft news to keep us warm! 🤣
Microsoft have again been busy - we've got the new cloud licensing in the Product Terms, new Teams SKUs, new Intune SKUs, new Azure Hybrid Benefits, Azure Savings Plans and more (including Defender for DevOps)! I've updated my Power Pages post to include the pricing and licensing info for that too.
The numbers for the first quarter of Microsoft's new Financial Year are out and overall revenue has increased to just over $50 billion for the July/August/September 2022. While that is an increase of 11%, net income dropped 14% (to $17.6 billion) - at least in part due to the rise in energy costs.
Azure grew 35% in Q1 which, while still excellent, is a slowdown from previous quarters where - not too long ago - growth was over 50%. Satya Nadella spoke very highly of Power Platform, Viva, and Teams - all areas that are doing well now and have a lot of growth potential ahead of them.
More details and numbers here.
Cloud licensing changes are finally here
The cloud licensing changes have been added into the Product Terms, giving formal parameters for what has - and hasn't - changed and how the new options such as the Flexible Virtualisation Benefit can be used. There is also a new licensing guide that helps give more colour to some of these areas too.
Lots of new options available for us all to get used to (and lots of slides/documents to update!) and also some points of confusion to consider - such as whether the new benefits apply to Microsoft 365 Apps for example.
More info here.
Microsoft Azure Savings Plans
Microsoft have introduced a new way to save in Azure with Savings Plans - committing on an hourly basis to earn discounts on your cloud spend. It's very similar to the AWS offering of the same name which should make it easier for partners and customers to get their heads around!
My blog post goes into more details about how you can buy the new savings plans and also how to set the scope within your environment here.
Microsoft expand Azure Hybrid Benefits
Microsoft have added 2 new areas to the Azure Hybrid Benefit:
Azure Stack HCI
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Azure Stack HCI is only for Enterprise Agreement customers with Windows Server Datacenter and, via "alternative" rights, enables organisations to deploy Microsoft's hybrid layer without additional outlay. It's a good indication of Microsoft's focus on Stack HCI and one I can imagine many infrastructure teams being interested in.
Azure Kubernetes Service is available for Windows Server Standard and Datacenter, including via CSP subscriptions. It allows you to use 1 virtual core of AKS per Windows Server core as an "additive" right. Again, this addition indicates that Microsoft are serious about increasing containers use via AKS and in hybrid environments.
Microsoft have announced Teams Premium, which will be an add-on SKU giving organisations a host of new features to boost their Teams usage and experiences including:
Meeting guides
Custom branding
Intelligent recap
Live translated captions
Advanced security options
Enhanced webinar features
Intelligent Recap is the one I'm most keen on - it uses AI to assign actions to owners and to divide recordings into chapters based on who you work closely with and when your name was mentioned. These will make meetings much more productive and worthwhile, even if you aren't able to attend live.
Pricing is expected to be $10 pupm and General Availability will be February 2023.
More info and links here.
Microsoft Intune is back
October Ignite saw Microsoft "(re)introduce" Intune which confused me as I didn't really think it had gone away but hey 🤷♀️ The upcoming "Intune Premium Suite" will include a range of endpoint management features and signals that Intune is, once again, the primary brand for such things.
It was a more active Product Terms in October with the long awaited cloud licensing changes being added as well as Viva Sales, "SharePoint Advanced Management Plan 1", and "Workload Identities".
