Microsoft Monthly Newsletter: August 2023

Register for our next Microsoft Webinar: Demystifying Microsoft Licensing – Navigating the Essentials for Business Success

Join our monthly Microsoft Licensing webinar on September 13th hosted by our Senior Licensing Specialist, Ian Gerrard, as he unravels the complexities of Microsoft Licensing.

This webinar will equip you with the knowledge to make informed decisions about licensing options, optimise costs, and ensure compliance with Microsoft’s latest policies. Whether you’re a small business owner or an IT professional, this session promises to empower you with the latest insights needed to leverage Microsoft solutions effectively and boost your organisation’s productivity.

Register here

Microsoft Entra

As previously covered, in May, Microsoft announced the Azure Active Directory Premium was being renamed to Microsoft Entra. There would be no changes in features, licensing or cost. Microsoft have added to the Entra family over the months and there are now two additional Security Service Edge products with Microsoft Entra Internet Access and Microsoft Entra Private Access.

This is a good diagram that covers the full Entra family of products

• Microsoft Entra ID – available in a free edition, Plan 1 costing £5 per user per month, or Plan 2 costing £8 per user per month. Included in EMS and Microsoft 365 licences
• Microsoft Entra ID Governance – available costing £6 per user per month
• Microsoft Entra External ID – currently in public preview
• Microsoft Entra Verified ID – currently included with any Microsoft Entra ID licence, including the free one
• Microsoft Entra Permissions Management – available costing £9.40 per resource per month
• Microsoft Entra Workload ID – available costing £2.50 per workload identity per month
• Microsoft Entra Internet Access – currently in public preview
• Microsoft Entra Private Access – currently in public preview

Power Automate Premium

From August 1st, 2023, the “Power Automate Attended RPA per user” license will become “Power Automate Premium” and will include:

“both unlimited cloud flows, known as digital process automation (DPA), and unlimited desktop flows, known as robotic process automation (RPA) in attended mode as well as entitlements to Power Automate Process Mining“

This new license is going to be £13 per user per month while the current price for Power Automate Attended RPA per user is £37 per user per month…a 60%+ reduction!

Windows Copilot

This will be included in Windows 11 and available in preview this year

Bing Chat Enterprise

This is currently in preview and will be included in Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium licences. On release it’ll also be available as a standalone offering for £4 per user per month, and will be accessible from Windows Copilot.

Microsoft 365 Copilot

M365 Co-Pilot is also in preview and will be a $30 per user per month Add-on for Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium licensed users.

Sales Copilot

Sales Co-Pilot includes the Viva Sales capabilities and is generally available both as a standalone licence and included for users licensed for Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise/Premium.

Windows 365 Frontline

Microsoft announce that Windows 365 Frontline is generally available. Users need to be licensed with Windows 11 Enterprise, Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 1, and Window 365 Frontline plans start at £38 per 3 users per month

Microsoft Defender for IoT goes to site-based licensing

From 1 June, 2023 Microsoft Defender for IoT is licensed via site licences for organisations protecting their Operational Technology  (OT) environments.

These site licences are applied to a site which is a physical location such as an office building, hospital, rig etc. There are different tiers depending on how many devices need to be protected, starting at an Extra Small tier for up to 100 devices, Small for up to 250 devices, Medium for up to 500, Large for up to 1,000, and an Extra Large tier for up to 5,000 devices.