Become an undisputed Cloud Champion

The team have recently launched a 12-week step-by-step course to help partners start selling cloud solutions. I know there’s lots of information available to Microsoft partners to help them transition their business to the cloud, but it’s often hard to find. When you do come across things, it can be sometimes overwhelming the amount to consume.

This course will break down these resources into 12 bite size chunks. I will send an email out every Monday (with an unsubscribe link in each if it becomes too much) as well as a invitation to a webinar on the Thursday to delve deeper into the content.

Would love to hear your stories about your success, or if you have a great cloud customer story. Otherwise any feedback on what you think about the course would be great.

Sign up at www.microsoft.com/australia/cloudchampion.

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Partner Summit 2013 Cloud Resources

We have just completed our Australian tour for the 2013 Partner Summits.
During our Business Transformation Workshops, many partners asked for a summary of resources.

Using Office 365 in a Remote Desktop Environment

Update: October 2013

Microsoft Australia recently announced Office 365 Open Licensing will be launched in the first half of 2014.  This is exciting news for our partner community due to the additional licensing options becoming available. It also solves the much discussed limitation of Office 365 in a Remote Desktop or Terminal Services deployment.  In this post, the team would like provide some guidance on how this solution will work from a licensing perspective.

It is important to understand that the Product Use Rights (PUR) is only for customers as part of their Volume License Agreement (such as EA, Select or Open). It is not available for the Syndication license type via Telstra.

Updated 09/2013: Additional offerings in Office 365 Open (INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS – Product Use Rights (January 2013) – see note under Additional Terms, page 82):
1. Each user to whom you assign a User SL may activate the software for local or remote use on up to five concurrent OSEs.
2. The Licensed User may also use the software activated by another user under a different User SL.
3. Each user may also use one of the five activations on a network server with the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role enabled.
4. You may allow other users to remotely access the software solely to provide support services.

How it works:

  • A Volume Activation Office package is required to install on a Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer server with the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role enabled.
  • All Office 365 ProPlus packages use retail activation and because of that, they do not install on a server with the RDS role enabled or function if installed first on the server then the RDS role is enabled after the Office install. 
  • Office setup will detect the RDS role at install time and the apps will also detect the RDS role when launched post installation.
  • You must have a volume licensing agreement in order to install Office Pro Plus 2013 in the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) mode.

Please note:

  • This one license has to be part of the 5 minimum licenses in order to start a volume licensing agreement.  You will need RDS CALs  for each user, so attach a copy of Office Pro Plus 2013 to your order for the RDS CALs and Office 365.
  • Installing Office 365 ProPlus on a virtual machine (client or server without an RDS role enabled) is now permitted according to the updated PUR.
  • The virtual machine – as with a physical machine install – would be allocated to a primary user, meet Office 365 ProPlus system requirements and be able to connect to the Internet-based Office Licensing Service at least once every 30 days. In other words, we do not distinguish between a physical and virtual machine, as long as all requirements are met.

For Office 365 ProPlus standalone, Office 365 Midsize, and E3/E4,* users may use one of their 5 allocated installations via RDS with the Volume License edition of Office Professional Plus 2013. The organization will still need to procure 1 copy, appropriate key and necessary RDS licenses via Volume Licensing.  The exception only grants the use rights of Office Professional Plus 2013 via RDS to users with an Office 365 ProPlus license.

These are updates from the licensing terms prior to January 2013 for Office Professional Plus in Office 365, which did not allow for any form of virtualization to be used with Office desktop apps.

One key point is that it requires Office 365 ProPlus, which is available as a stand alone, or through some of the service offerings such as Office 365 Midsize, as well as, the E3 and E4 plans.  Please note that the Office 365 Small Business Premium offering is not eligible.  

Additional Information:

For more information, please read:

Since the launch of Office 365, we have received a number of questions around the licensing applicable when using Office 365 in a Remote Desktop environment.  Please allow us to clarify the licensing construct.

With this update of Office 365, Microsoft has addressed the need for customers to run Office 365 ProPlus in virtualized environments using a combination of technical improvements and licensing terms. Functionally, Office 365 ProPlus supports dedicated Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments, but does not work in other configurations including Remote Desktop Service (RDS) and Windows To Go scenarios.

For virtualization situations where Office 365 ProPlus does not work, Microsoft has created a licensing-based workaround that allows customers with an Enterprise Agreement to install Office Professional Plus under the terms and conditions of the Office 365 ProPlus license Product Use Rights (PUR).  This work-around, unfortunately, does not apply to Office 365 procured via syndication, as described within the Reseller User Rights (RUR).

The current user rights allow for the following:

Program

SKUs

VDI

RDS

EA

ProPlus, E3, E4

Yes

Supported using Professional Plus download

Syndication

Midsize Business, ProPlus, E3, E4

Yes

No

We have heard the feedback around the need for an Office 365 RDS solution for all our customers and even though we are not able to resolve this within our current systems and licensing constraints, we will advise if there is a change to the RUR sometime in the future.

Please see the appropriate solutions as recommended by Microsoft in the case of a Remote Desktop requirement:

A.         Customer requires Remote Desktop and has 250+ seats.  Microsoft recommend that the customer consider signing an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft, which will support the Volume Licensing work-around that is currently in place.  Please note that the M-SKU is not available on an Enterprise Agreement and will only allow for the E-SKU. 

B.         Customer requires Remote Desktop and has less than 250 seats.  Microsoft recommends that the customer purchase Office 365 E1/E2 SKU from Telstra and then purchase the required number of Office Pro licenses through your Volume License provider, as long as it is over 5 seats.

Both these options are available via Microsoft’s partner network.

Ready Cert Go

Our training team have announced new two-stage Exam Preparation Sessions to assist with Cloud Certification. This will hopefully help you pass the exams the first time.

Sarah will shortly announcing Intensive Exam Preparation sessions designed to help you pass exams with flying colours, beginning in early December 2013. Find out more.

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Server and Tools:
Register now >

  • Day 1 – Monday 4 November (2pm)
    Exam 70-247: Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud with System Center 2012
  • Day 2 – Tuesday 5 November (12pm)
    Exam 70-462: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases
  • Day 3 – Wednesday 6 November (12pm)
    Exam 70-410: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012
  • Day 4 – Thursday 7 November (12pm)
    Exam 70-688: Managing and Maintaining Windows 8
  • Day 5 – Friday 8 November (12pm)
    Exam 70-487: Developing Windows Azure and Web Services

Register now for the Server and Tools sessions >

Business Productivity:
Register now >

  • Day 1 – Monday 4 November (12pm)
    Exam 70-331: Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
  • Day 2 – Tuesday 5 November (2pm)
    Exam 70-337: Enterprise Voice & Online Services with Microsoft Lync Server 2013
  • Day 3 – Wednesday 6 November (2pm)
    Exam 70-341: Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013
  • Day 4 – Thursday 7 November (2pm)
    Exam 74-325: Administering Office 365 for Small Business
  • Day 5 – Friday 8 November (2pm)
    Exam 70-321: Deploying Office 365

Register now for the Business Productivity sessions >

Partner Summit Road Show 2013

The Partner team are about to embark on a 5 city road show to share the latest news with partners across  2 days.Day One will cover:

Day One Day Two
What’s new in Windows 8.1 Business Model Transformation Workshop – this half-day workshop is designed specifically for senior management teams of Microsoft Partners who want to understand how to design a profitable cloud practice and the next steps for your organisation to make this transition.
Selling devices with Windows 8 Device Day – this half-day session will take a deeper look at the opportunity for Microsoft Partners in the world of devices and apps. Whether you are selling devices, building apps or managing and securing devices for your customers.
What’s next for Office 365 Optional – Education Days (see below)
Product campaigns to help you market to your customers  
How to Sell – selecting the right licence type for your customers  

Mark these dates in your calendar and register today to secure your spot.  We look forward to seeing you there!

New this Year to Day two of Partner Summit “The Education Stream”

Education is increasingly a competitive and critical market for Microsoft and our partners, with key organisations seeing the long term value of winning the institution and seeding their brand through these schools to reach teachers, students and parents. The combination of the consumerisation of IT, technology adoption at younger ages, the accelerating desire for 1:1 computing and BYOD are requiring schools to take more innovative approaches to learning in the classroom.

If you focus on the Education Industry Mark these dates in your calendar and register today to secure your spot.