Microsoft to move out of the education market?

[Shinagami]

Sorry I was getting some other questions answered for my customers and did not think of that one. It was simply stated that the cloud licensing may be cheaper than onsite licensing once the discount period has finished. It was assumed by the resellers on the call to be part of Microsoft's ongoing push for cloud / Hybrid solutions.

[gshaw]

Does this suggest Azure is going to get cheaper or just on-prem hiked up instead? If it's the first then fair play to Microsoft as the Azure cloud can be a great asset, however if it's the the second then it's hello Google / other non MS vendor.

 

Hiking up education pricing would be very poor form from either of the big two players IMO.

[nathan]

Does this suggest Azure is going to get cheaper or just on-prem hiked up instead? If it's the first then fair play to Microsoft as the Azure cloud can be a great asset, however if it's the the second then it's hello Google / other non MS vendor.

 

Hiking up education pricing would be very poor form from either of the big two players IMO.

 

In fairness to Microsoft, we in the UK are getting it a lot cheaper than the rest of the EU. When have we ever said that about any product or service from any company since the beginning of time.

 

I know that's not an excuse to us in the UK and it's still going to be a pain in the behind should they not reduce the price of Azure, but i kinda of understand why they have upped the pricing.

[gshaw]

Another reason to thank Europe for making life difficult for us over here haha

[matt40k]

Exactly ! Id rather stack shelves in morisons that go linux.

 

This makes me sad. Quite like linux, don't get me wrong, its not the answer to everything like some folks will tell you, but I just like to have it on the table of options. Lets face it, your rather have a ubuntu 512mb vps running wordpress over windows server 16gb vps running SharePoint for a simple website.

[Shinagami]

Does this suggest Azure is going to get cheaper or just on-prem hiked up instead? If it's the first then fair play to Microsoft as the Azure cloud can be a great asset, however if it's the the second then it's hello Google / other non MS vendor.

 

Hiking up education pricing would be very poor form from either of the big two players IMO.

 

The inference on the call was that the prices for the cloud offerings would be offered at a better rate so that you would be able to get a similar or better price than you do with the OVSES / EES agreements at the moment but I don't have that in writing so can't guarantee it.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Shinagami

[ZeroHour]

Hello all,

We have been talking to Microsoft again about the confusion regarding the licensing changes and we are arranging a webinar with their licensing bod for you all to get an overview of the changes and also ask any questions.

The webinar will use Skype for business but it should also be web accessible as well. Hopefully this will explain the changes that are being made and what effect it will have in schools. You will be able to ask questions via the chat during the webinar to help cover everything.

Initial plan is for Wednesday 27th April @ 10am but the time can be changed if 10am is a particularly busy time for you guys.

Registration wont be required so you can drop in on the day and I am looking for a test url to ensure you can access it.

 

Hopefully it will answer a lot of questions and concerns you all have given the mixed messaging we have seen.

[jmak]

Hello all,

We have been talking to Microsoft again about the confusion regarding the licensing changes and we are arranging a webinar with their licensing bod for you all to get an overview of the changes and also ask any questions.

The webinar will use Skype for business but it should also be web accessible as well. Hopefully this will explain the changes that are being made and what effect it will have in schools. You will be able to ask questions via the chat during the webinar to help cover everything.

Initial plan is for Wednesday 27th April @ 10am but the time can be changed if 10am is a particularly busy time for you guys.

Registration wont be required so you can drop in on the day and I am looking for a test url to ensure you can access it.

 

Hopefully it will answer a lot of questions and concerns you all have given the mixed messaging we have seen.

Time works for me. Haven't got Skype for business set up yet, so web access would be appreciated.

 

Thanks for setting this up.

[ZeroHour]

It appears the web access needs a browser plugin but that works with all the major browsers and OS's.

We are going to look at setting up a test meeting before the event via our o365 account to allow you to test it first as there doesn't appear to be a web page dedicated to testing.

[nathan]

Brilliant, thank you for organising.

[ZeroHour]

We have posted details up at: EduGeek.net - EduGeek/Microsoft Educational Licensing Webcast – 27th April 2016

 

There is a link there for a test Skype for Business meeting today (Friday) at 3pm so you can check everything works well for you all.

[broadld]

Thanks for organising this for us. I think a lot of schools are worried about theses changes. Hopefully this will clarify a lot of things and hopefully put our minds at ease.

Will the webcast and resources used be avaialable for download after?

[Dos_Box]

Yes, the webcast will be recorded and will be made available afterwards.

[Dos_Box]

As per the article, if you still have any questions you want Microsoft to answer on the webcast please let us know soonest.

We've already had some submitted (thanks) but please be quick to get them in as we shall have to pass them over to Microsoft soon.

The address to submit them to is: [email protected]

Edited April 27, 2016 by ZeroHour

[ZeroHour]

Regarding the recording, we dont know exactly what format it will be in yet so we cant say what apps will be required to watch it back.

 

The test meeting is running until 4pm today so drop in and test your setup if possible.

[psydii]

Was able to connect via a mac, but was late to the event, so not sure if everything was working properly.

[Dos_Box]

I'll have a word with @ZeroHour today and see if we can arrange a quick test.

He's travelling down to the offices today as @Ric_ is over from the US (if you didn't know, he lives and works in Boston now) and we need to see him for an overdue get-togther

[Homer]

Thanks for organising that! It did answer some questions but I feel there is still quite a bit of unrest around how Microsoft envisage this working

 

For example if we decided to cloudify everything but core on site services such as DHCP, WDS and such like, we would still need to pay some kind of licensing agreement for the licenses on site (and to use license mobility to Azure) and then Azure compute costs on top of this for something we currently do on site?

 

I dunno...

[ZeroHour]

Thanks for organising that! It did answer some questions but I feel there is still quite a bit of unrest around how Microsoft envisage this working

 

For example if we decided to cloudify everything but core on site services such as DHCP, WDS and such like, we would still need to pay some kind of licensing agreement for the licenses on site (and to use license mobility to Azure) and then Azure compute costs on top of this for something we currently do on site?

 

I dunno...

 

We will be following up with Microsoft in the next few days after they have had a chance to digest all the questions and feedback so hopefully they can lay out some example costings.

[nathan]

Unfortunately i missed it, if you could post on here to let us know when the recorded version is up that would be great.

[Dos_Box]

Unfortunately i missed it, if you could post on here to let us know when the recorded version is up that would be great.

 

Don't worry, we shall let you all know as soon as it is available.

[jmak]

I still can't see how it'll work financially.... I'll still need a server on site for some some functions (WDS, WSUS, Print and possibly AD, even if my "Primary DC" moves to Azure), so I'll still need a server licence. I'll still need client licences and the presentation suggested Office Pro Plus to complement the free O365. Surely that means on site licences for everything I have now.

[JRowley]

I think I need to watch it again honestly, missed the whole migration portion which appears to have been the important part.

[localzuk]

Indeed @jmak. I still can't see it saving us anything.

 

Things we can move to the cloud - VLE, Website, Intranet, Helpdesk, PKI, PBX, library, MIS, FMS.

 

Things we'd still need on-site (so moving to the cloud would be duplication rather than a move): Web proxy, Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, Print, Web Print, RDS, RDS licensing, RDS load balancing, KMS, SCCM.

 

I just can't see the savings.

[JRowley]

It really does depend on your circumstances I think, for those who haven't gone virtual yet and have a lot of physical servers there could be reduced running costs, not a huge saving by any means, but a potential saving.