[windows software] Microsoft reply to your MoU questions

[Dos_Box]

Thanks for the opportunity to respond.

A bit of background first….Microsoft has had an UK Schools Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with DfE for over 10 years, which includes UK specific discounts and licensing concessions for on-premises software purchased through a Volume Licensing Agreement.

In January, we renewed the MoU under a slightly different name – the ‘Education Cloud Transition Agreement’ – the reason for the change of name is to indicate that this is a transition agreement, to allow UK Schools the time to move to Cloud Services e.g. Office 365 Education and take advantage of the inherent licensing and total cost of ownership savings which public cloud services can provide.

 

To be clear, the Education Cloud Transition Agreement is not a new licensing agreement, and we have no plans to phase out EES/OVS-ES.

Under the new agreement, Microsoft have agreed with DfE to extend the previous (UK only) Volume Licensing discounts until July 2018 for all existing customers, at which point the agreement expires.

Pricing is now equivalent for 1-year or 3-year term OVS-ES and EES agreements.

Office 365 Education continues to be free of charge for Education customers, and a move to Cloud services can save up to 60% on Microsoft licensing costs, on top of which schools can realise the savings they would make on Server hardware, maintenance, power, cooling etc etc.

Furthermore, Microsoft also now offers free Office 365 Pro Plus (full client downloads) to all Staff and Students on all of their devices at Schools licensed for Office on an OVS-ES.

 

To answer the individual queries:

 

@Gibson335

 

Q: Will EES (or a similar subscription) continue?

A: Yes, absolutely – OVS-ES/EES is our main licensing program for Education, and this is where Microsoft invests heavily for example;

· free Office for students and staff at eligible institutions,

· free Intune for Students at schools who have licensed EMS/Intune for Staff

· free Windows 10 Education for Students etc etc.

No plans to discontinue EES/OVS-ES.

 

Q: If so, and it's not as heavily discounted, by what percentage is it likely to increase?

A: Customers renewing their OVS-ES agreement will be able to continue to take advantage of UK specific pricing and discounts until July 2018 at which point the Education Cloud Transition Agreement expires.

A UK customer with an OVS-ES agreement which expires at any point between now and July 2018 can renew for 1 year or 3 years with UK discounted prices.

After July 2018 (should there not be a replacement agreement with DfE) Academic pricing and discounts would still be in effect – i.e. they would not pay Commercial or Government rates.

 

Q: Will any items be unavailable under a new subscription which are currently available in EES?

A: No plans (that I’m aware of) for a new Academic subscription licensing program, EES and OVS-ES are our ‘hero’ licensing programs for Education.

 

Q: Will any further subscriptions be tied in with agreeing to a cloud-based solution?

A: No, in fact Office 365 Education is available for free for all UK Education customers without the requirement of a volume licensing agreement.

Q: If current 3-year agreement expires in July 2018 or later, will MS allow that agreement to lapse early to allow us to sign up for a new 3-year deal? (Unlikely I know, but may as well ask if there's room).

A: No, this would not be possible. However, schools can start to make costs savings between now and July 2018 by migrating to Cloud services.

 

@Gshaw

 

Q: For FE & HE customers what will our pricing look like after June 2016, will on-site infrastructure licenses i.e. Windows Server, SQL Server etc. become considerably more expensive i.e. >20% cost increase.

A: Microsoft is working with UK Government to continue to provide the same EES pricing terms detailed above for HE and FE customers. More news on this in the next few weeks

 

Q: After 2018 will EES effectively become a paid subscription to Office 365 Education with no other licenses available for on-premises servers?

A: No, we intend to continue to provide on premises licensing for Microsoft technology through the EES/OVS-ES agreement, with the option to add Cloud Services e.g. Office 365, Azure through the same agreement.

 

Q: If our on-premises licenses get removed what alternative are MS going to provide e.g. in Azure considering many organisations have critical services running on Microsoft server platforms e.g. MIS systems that don't have a suitable cloud equivalent?

A: No plans to remove on premises licensing from the EES/OVS-ES agreement.

Azure is a cost effective alternative to on-premises solutions. Microsoft has just announced that customers with Windows Server licenses (with Software Assurance) are permitted to move their server instances into Azure and only pay for the Compute time i.e. buy on-premises Windows Server licenses, and you can deploy into the Cloud.

 

@Kevin_Lane

 

Q: Have they got plans to remove software assurance.

A: No plans to remove Software Assurance

 

Q: Working at home rights is anything going to be changing with this

A: Not that I’m aware of. In terms of Office, Microsoft now provides Office 365 Pro Plus for free to all Staff (and Students) at Schools who license Office on their EES/OVS-ES agreement – this allows Schools to provide Office to staff for 5 x PC/MAC + 5 x iPad/Android devices so is actually a better option than WAH. https://products.office.com/en-GB/student?tab=teachers&ms.officeurl=teachers

 

@Edu-IT

 

Q: Will Office 365 become chargeable?

A: We have no plans to charge for Office 365 Education – in fact Microsoft has recently made additional functionality free to Education customers e.g. unlimited archiving, legal hold, encryption etc.

 

@Jmak

 

Q: Please can you clarify when the price changes will impact existing subscribers?

A: The new Education Cloud Transition Agreement MoU expires 30th June 2018, however up to that date, customers can lock in current pricing for up to 3 years

Q: I might quite fancy moving my infrastructure into the cloud. Can you provide a price list please?

A: All pricing is set by our partners, however we can certainly help estimate the costs of a migration to Public Cloud Services such as Azure

 

@Jawloms

 

Q: If it's a push to more stuff being cloud based, what requirements do they put on the broadband connection?

A: This all depends on the number of users, data etc etc. That being said, we do provide planners, calculators and tools here https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Network-planning-and-performance-tuning-for-Office-365-e5f1228c-da3c-4654-bf16-d163daee8848?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

 

Many thanks to Microsoft Education UK for helping out with your queries.

[Gibson335]

Very useful, and very much appreciated, but full of 'no plans to' which is hardly unequivocal.

 

Also, the main thing I guess we all want confirmation of is what those prices will be post July 2018. The response says there will still be a discount, but it would be nice to hear from the horse's mouth, as it were, as to what those discounts are likely to be, and discounted from what exactly?

 

Thanks to EduGeek for doing this, by the way.

Edited February 3, 2016 by Gibson335

[gshaw]

Thanks for setting this up, good to see there's a communication channel direct to Microsoft via Edugeek

 

MS do seem to have sidestepped the question over price increases from 2016-2018 though, the way the main blurb reads you'd think our current pricing would be staying the same?

 

What happens after 2018 looks to be anyone's guess, quite difficult to plan around an unknown like that.

[Gibson335]

This segment, will be able to continue to take advantage of UK specific pricing and discounts until July 2018 at which point the Education Cloud Transition Agreement expires, seems to suggest full discounts will remain until then. But this does not tally with what some resellers are saying, which is that there will be annual increases of between 14%-19%. I think I'm more confused now than I was before.

[jmak]

Thanks for the replies.

 

This caught my eye:

 

Microsoft has just announced that customers with Windows Server licenses (with Software Assurance) are permitted to move their server instances into Azure and only pay for the Compute time i.e. buy on-premises Windows Server licenses, and you can deploy into the Cloud.

[/Quote]

 

Does that mean that if I have a data centre licence, I can have unlimited servers in azure?

[Jake68]

Lets Simplify ...

Why not aye?

 

I have asked our VL provider a simple question in return for the profit they make ...

 

1) Will there be any increase licensing costs over this year, and can your forsee any sizeable increase in costs based on our useage profile.

 

I'll post their answer

[localzuk]

Thanks for the replies.

 

This caught my eye:

 

Does that mean that if I have a data centre licence, I can have unlimited servers in azure?

 

Data center licenses only cover a certain number of processors don't they? It'd be interesting to see how that works.

[Steve21]

.

After July 2018 (should there not be a replacement agreement with DfE) Academic pricing and discounts would still be in effect – i.e. they would not pay Commercial or Government rates.

 

That's not really what any of their document says though is it :s Seeing EES/OVS-ES is only Education

 

Renewing EES customers - Discounts removed

 

Can't be both surely?

@Dos_Box Any chance of getting a double check on that point? An example figure (roughly ofc) would be great to see what the difference is then

 

Steve

[localzuk]

That's not really what any of their document says though is it :s Seeing EES/OVS-ES is only Education

 

 

 

Can't be both surely?

@Dos_Box Any chance of getting a double check on that point? An example figure (roughly ofc) would be great to see what the difference is then

 

Steve

 

I think what they're saying is that the UK currently gets a cheaper rate than anywhere else. The discount being applied at the moment is to their standard European academic pricing. So, we'd not be paying commercial rates, but we wouldn't be getting preferential pricing as compared to, say, France or Germany.

[Gibson335]

I think what they're saying is that the UK currently gets a cheaper rate than anywhere else. The discount being applied at the moment is to their standard European academic pricing. So, we'd not be paying commercial rates, but we wouldn't be getting preferential pricing as compared to, say, France or Germany.

 

Yes - that's how I understand it.

[Steve21]

I think what they're saying is that the UK currently gets a cheaper rate than anywhere else. The discount being applied at the moment is to their standard European academic pricing. So, we'd not be paying commercial rates, but we wouldn't be getting preferential pricing as compared to, say, France or Germany.

 

Hmm guess so :s Just seems odd wording if that's the case, as the "Discount Removed" as it said in that original document UK pricing is off wholesale

 

All the MOU discounts referred to below relate to “factory-gate” pricing i.e. the wholesale price at which Microsoft makes its products available to its suppliers

 

Unless that's UK specific too? Silly MS confusing stuff (e.g. Discount removed = now wholesale/retail pricing)

 

Steve

Edited February 4, 2016 by Steve21

[smithson83]

So if we are to start paying inline with the rest of Europe, does anyone know what this is likely to be?

[Gibson335]

Other than the whole discounts ending and discounts still being applied confusion - which I think has possibly been clarified with the notion that we're simply being brought into line with the rest of Europe - what is still unclear to me is whether the base rate upon which those discounts are applied will increase between now and July 2018, and if so, to what degree.

[Vlad_the_Emailer]

Very useful, and very much appreciated, but full of 'no plans to' which is hardly unequivocal.

 

The real question here would appear to be "How much do you trust Microsoft?".

[garethEds]

This interested me:

 

· free Office for students and staff at eligible institutions,

· free Intune for Students at schools who have licensed EMS/Intune for Staff

· free Windows 10 Education for Students etc etc.

 

We take advantage of the free Office for Students and Staff but wasn't aware of the other two. Where do my pupils download free Windows 10 for Education? Where do we get access to free Intune etc etc?

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

 

Edit:

Just found this: http://onthehub.com/download/free-software/windows-10-education-for-students/

and this: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/may-2015-microsoft-has-begun-adding-new-free-benefits-florian-schultz

Edited February 4, 2016 by garethedmondson

[Gibson335]

The real question here would appear to be "How much do you trust Microsoft?".

 

As much as I trust any behemoth of a company like that - very little. On a purely business level I understand that they have to use such terminology, as they have to leave the door open to such an eventuality, even if they genuinely have 'no plans to do so'. On the other hand, it's hardly unknown for them to backtrack.

[sonofsanta]

The real question here would appear to be "How much do you trust Microsoft?".

 

After the Shape the Future debacle? Not a lot

[localzuk]

Hmm guess so :s Just seems odd wording if that's the case, as the "Discount Removed" as it said in that original document UK pricing is off wholesale

 

Unless that's UK specific too? Silly MS confusing stuff (e.g. Discount removed = now wholesale/retail pricing)

 

Steve

 

The wholesale part of it is referring to the base price MS give to resellers. So, the discount is applied before resellers get it, and the end price we see is determined by resellers themselves.

 

As MS set their own pricing anyway, "wholesale" in the sense you appear to be applying it wouldn't make any sense.

[Arthur]

Where do we get access to free Intune

Through your MS reseller because you still have buy licences for staff.

[Steve21]

This interested me:

 

· free Office for students and staff at eligible institutions,

· free Intune for Students at schools who have licensed EMS/Intune for Staff

· free Windows 10 Education for Students etc etc.

 

We take advantage of the free Office for Students and Staff but wasn't aware of the other two. Where do my pupils download free Windows 10 for Education? Where do we get access to free Intune etc etc?

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

 

Edit:

Just found this: Download Windows 10 Education for FREE | OnTheHub

and this: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/may-2015-microsoft-has-begun-adding-new-free-benefits-florian-schultz

 

Windows 10 - Corporate

 

That's the MS link (Yep MS link )

 

Student use benefit

When you license certain products for all of your faculty/staff FTE employees organization-wide, you are eligible to order corresponding subscription licenses for students within the same defined organization at no additional charge. To receive this benefit, order the no-cost licenses for Office 365 ProPlus and Microsoft Intune under the Student Option. To receive the Windows Education Upgrade for students benefit, go to http://aka.ms/w10student.

 

The bit I don't get is I assumed that meant only within the school not at home :s Or does that mean staff can have it free at home too?

 

Steve

[sonofsanta]

The bit I don't get is I assumed that meant only within the school not at home :s Or does that mean staff can have it free at home too?

 

It sounds like...

 

Windows 10 Education, offered as an upgrade license, is permitted for use during school and beyond graduation on personal computers.

 

Each student will receive their own perpetual use product key and download of Windows 10 EDU.

 

...it's a free version of Windows 10 for them. Although practically speaking, devices always come with Windows anyway, so it's not as useful for students as Office is. Be useful for me if they'd extend it to staff, mind you.

[smithson83]

But surely most people can get win10 free anyway, its a free upgrade for win7 upwards...

 

And if they stuck with Vista then that's their own fault...

[Steve21]

It sounds like...

 

...it's a free version of Windows 10 for them. Although practically speaking, devices always come with Windows anyway, so it's not as useful for students as Office is. Be useful for me if they'd extend it to staff, mind you.

 

That's the thing though if you look at this:

 

The following products qualify for the student use benefit:

 

Buy org-wide faculty/staff licenses for: -------- Get no-cost student licenses for:

Office Professional Plus or Office 365 ProPlus -------- Office 365 ProPlus

Windows 10 Education Upgrade -------- Windows 10 Education Upgrade

Microsoft Intune or Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) -------- Microsoft Intune

 

Surely that top one is the free Office at home which both staff and students get.

 

Might just sign up and see what it says haha End of day if it's (as per website) self-serve who says if it's a student or staff using it.

 

Steve

[X-13]

Q: If so, and it's not as heavily discounted, by what percentage is it likely to increase?

A: Customers renewing their OVS-ES agreement will be able to continue to take advantage of UK specific pricing and discounts until July 2018 at which point the Education Cloud Transition Agreement expires.

A UK customer with an OVS-ES agreement which expires at any point between now and July 2018 can renew for 1 year or 3 years with UK discounted prices.

After July 2018 (should there not be a replacement agreement with DfE) Academic pricing and discounts would still be in effect – i.e. they would not pay Commercial or Government rates.

 

I like the way they didn't actually answer a very simple question...

[Arthur]

But surely most people can get win10 free anyway, it's a free upgrade for win7 upwards...

Upgrades are only free before 29 July 2016.