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March 2024 announcements

  • Artikkeli

This page provides the announcements for Microsoft Partner Center for March 2024.

Services co-sell: Bulk upload functionality now available

We're introducing a bulk upload functionality for Services co-sell opportunities in the Referrals workspace in Partner Center.

  • Date: March 26, 2024
  • Workspace: Referrals
  • Impacted audience: Services partners with at least one Solutions Partner designation

Now you can upload your Services co-sell opportunities in bulk within the Referrals workspace. Three required columns have been added to the Excel template for bulk upload:

  • Partner role
  • Solution area
  • Solution play

Note

For partners creating IP co-sell opportunities via bulk upload, these columns are optional.

Next steps

Now Live! Partner Center Technical Corner blog series: March 2024 edition

The March edition of the Partner Center Technical Corner blog is live! This edition spotlights the Power of AI with details on recent Copilot offers, calls to action and a round-up of recently released features.

  • Date: March 20, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All partners

The March edition covers:

  • Spotlight: Put the power of AI to work
  • Calls to action
    • Securing the channel and enforcing multifactor authentication (MFA)
    • New commerce Cloud Solution Partner (CSP) launches Public Sector offers and partner transfers
  • Recently released
    • Billing improvements - new commerce-asynchronous APIs on MS Graph
    • Rewarding partner performance
    • Membership
    • Insights
  • Partner Center roadmap and resources

Previous editions

Next steps

Co-sell for partners providing services: Increase discoverability with a strong business profile

We're evolving co-sell for partners providing services to align to how you do business.

  • Date: March 18, 2024
  • Workspace: Referrals
  • Impacted audience: Services partners with at least one Solutions Partner designation

We're excited to make co-selling simpler for qualified services partners!

Qualified partners can go to the Referrals workspace in Partner Center and start co-selling on deals with Microsoft, by creating services co-sell deals. Services partners no longer need to publish consulting services offers in the commercial marketplace to qualify for co-selling with Microsoft. Partners who have existing consulting services offers can continue to use them to co-sell with Microsoft.

In order to be fully prepared to be visible to Microsoft sellers, and to engage in co-selling motions, services partners are encouraged to publish a modern business profile. Ensure members of your marketing team are aware of the importance of business profiles and help populate your organization's profile in Partner Center. To learn more about business profiles, see Manage your business profile (Partner ID based).

For more information, see Services co-sell.

Note

In order to receive the benefit of services co-selling, services partners must have at least one Solutions Partner designation.

Next steps

New commerce license-based price list and offer list matrix have been republished as of March 14

New commerce price list has been republished with updates to Public Sector products following the March 1, 2024, launch.

  • Date: March 15, 2024
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners (indirect providers and direct bill) in all markets/countries/regions.

Errors identified in the March 1, 2024, new commerce Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Public Sector price list and offer list matrix have been corrected and republished. The republished price list details and upcoming changes to the April 1 price list can be seen here.

Note

There might be inconsistencies between the March 14 price list preview and the April 1 price list, as some of the changes shown here will be included in the next publication.

March 1 pricelist republish

Description Partner action
Microsoft 365 Business Premium Donation (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0LCHC/000W
Power Apps per app plan (one app or website) Donation (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0J4GS/0012
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (Plan 1) student use benefit (education student pricing) CFQ7TTC0LH04/000W		 Now available for purchase; price list and catalog show $0
SKU titles with spelling errors Price list has been corrected
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 (education faculty pricing) SKU with monthly billing
As previously communicated, there are no plans to offer a monthly billing for these SKUs		 Removed from the price list and catalog
Power BI Premium P5 (governmental community cloud pricing) CFQ7TTC0LHQ2/0040
Dynamics 365 Team Members for Government (governmental community cloud pricing) CFQ7TTC0LFNJ/000V		 Removed from March price list; available April 1
Power Apps per app plan (one app or portal) 10 license donation (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0J4GS/0012 Now available for purchase; price list and catalog shows $0

Promotions for the new commerce seat-based nonprofit month-to-month (M2M) offers will be generally available on March 18, 2024.

Upcoming on the April 1 pricelist

Issue Impact Partner action
Public Sector SKUs appearing on price list, but Commercial SKUs are end of sale (EOS):
- Azure Information Protection Premium P1 (education faculty pricing) CFQ7TTC0LH9J/000Q CFQ7TTC0LH9J/0011
- SharePoint Syntex (education faculty pricing) CFQ7TTC0HDK2/000B
- Universal Print Additional Capacity 10K - Microsoft 365 (education faculty pricing) CFQ7TTC0HL82/000F
- Universal Print Additional Capacity (10k) - Windows (education faculty pricing) CFQ7TTC0HDJR/000Q		 These SKUs are removed from the catalog and will be removed from the April 1 price list Not available for purchase
Microsoft 365 Apps (education student pricing) CFQ7TTC0LGZT/001F
Microsoft Intune for Education (education student pricing) CFQ7TTC0LSNL/0004		 Available for purchase at $0 from March 12, but not showing in the March price list Will be added to the April 1 price list
Suite SKUs (E1/E3/E5) missing from EEA price list and catalog
- Microsoft 365 E1 (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0LF8Q/0019
- Microsoft 365 E3 (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0LFLX/001G
- Microsoft 365 E5 (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0LFLZ/001B
- Office 365 E1 (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0LF8Q/0019
- Office 365 E3 (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0LF8R/0014
- Office 365 E5 (nonprofit pricing) CFQ7TTC0LF8S/0012		 Now available for purchase in the catalog, but not on the March price list Will be added to the April 1 price list
Some wave 1 and 2 Public Sector offers not yet migratable Offer list matrix updated to reflect offers as not migratable; suite SKUs will require manual migration Information on new SKU mappings/migration paths will be provided for April

Next steps

  • Share this information with all appropriate contacts in your organization.

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) new commerce migration paths recently enabled

Partner center added migration support for some previous manual migration offers.

  • Date: March 14, 2024
  • Workspace: Customers
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill partners and indirect providers

The below offers could only be manually migrated but now can be migrated using the partner center user experiences and migration APIs. The issues dictating the offers could only be manually migrated how to topic are resolved and the below offers are now migratable. Partners can migrate these offers using the partner center user experiences or the partner center migration APIs.

These offers will be added to the Microsoft-led migration starting on May 1, 2024. Legacy subscriptions for these offers will automatically renew to new commerce (NCE) subscription terms if their end dates are after May 1, 2024. More information about Microsoft-led migrations can be found in the documentation. Partners that don't want their subscriptions migrated can cancel their legacy subscriptions at any time before migration. The legacy offer matrix NCE Mapping file is updated to reflect these offers are now migratable.

Newly enabled migratable offer details

Legacy Offer Name Legacy Offer ID New commerce sku name New commerce productId/skuId
Microsoft Entra ID P1 16c9f982-a827-4003-a88e-e75df1927f27 Microsoft Entra ID P1 CFQ7TTC0LFLS/0002
Intune 51e95709-dc35-4780-9040-22278cb7c0e1 Intune CFQ7TTC0LCH4/0009
Azure Information Protection Premium P1 648bf77b-1f0a-4911-8066-caf37d67dc72 Azure Information Protection Premium P1 CFQ7TTC0LH9J/0001
Intune per-device for Enterprise 871e82d5-a046-4803-9825-69ba2f640c16 Intune per-device for Enterprise CFQ7TTC0LCH4/0004
Intune Extra Storage ced5f693-2d40-40ae-8848-9809ab1b0ee9 Intune Extra Storage CFQ7TTC0LCH4/0006
Microsoft Teams Domestic Calling Plan for US and Canada 60d2919e-427a-46c9-bd03-89cbad27d53f Microsoft Teams Domestic Calling Plan Zone 1 CFQ7TTC0LHXJ/0017

Next steps

  • Review the Microsoft-led documentation to answer questions they might have about migrations.
  • Review the latest CSP offer retirement guide, talk to your customers, and ensure you're meeting their needs with the latest available new commerce product SKUs.
  • Anticipate future waves of offer retirements to be become available in continual updates to the retirement guide.

Questions?

Contact Partner Support if you have any questions or need more information.

Monthly update: Important actions partners need to take to secure the partner ecosystem

Important capabilities and updates to improve your security posture and protect your customers' tenants are now available.

  • Date: March 14, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: Direct bill partners, indirect providers, and indirect resellers transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program and with advisors

Coming soon

  • Security Workspace in Partner Center: On April 1, 2024, partners will be able to access Security workspace in Partner Center, which is a centralized platform that helps partners evaluate their security situation and take the required actions to enhance their security posture. The workspace will make the user experience easier, provide learning resources, and serve as a single place for all security-related matters in Partner Center.
  • Microsoft Graph Security Alerts API The new security alerts for direct bill partners and indirect providers will be available on beta version. The new security alerts API will help partners take essential steps to confirm and contain the compromise. Partners can call the new security alerts API for detections related to unauthorized party abuse and account takeovers. Partners are required to onboard the new Microsoft Graph Beta API, which will be available from March 28, 2024.

Available now

  • Microsoft continues to enable security defaults on all CSP partner tenants that haven't already enabled security defaults, conditional access, or other multifactor authentication (MFA) solution. We recommend that partners turn on security defaults immediately.

Reminders

  • As Microsoft continues to strengthen the security posture for partners and customers, we're expanding into Microsoft Entra error codes along with Conditional Access Policy enforcement for all Partner Center APIs. Refer to the Microsoft Entra error codes documentation for details. |

Next steps

Expansion of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to customers with Microsoft 365 F1 and F3, Office 365 E1, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, and more

In the coming weeks, the Copilot for Microsoft 365 prerequisite licensing requirements will be expanded to include Microsoft 365 F1, Microsoft 365 F3, Office 365 E1, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, and more.

  • Date: March 14, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: All Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners transacting Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365

Currently, Copilot for Microsoft 365 licensing requirements mandate the customer to own a prerequisite license of Microsoft 365 E3/5, Office 365 E3/5, or Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Business Premium for each Copilot user.

To empower every organization to become AI-powered, we're making Copilot for Microsoft 365 available to businesses of all types and sizes – including frontline worker plans. Customers that have Microsoft 365 F3 and F1, Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Office 365 E1, and more will be eligible to purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365 in the coming weeks.

Note

Additional details and complete list of eligible SKUs will be available on here on the Partner Center Learn site.

This prerequisite expansion for Copilot for Microsoft 365 also covers Copilot for Service and Copilot for Sales, both generally available for the CSP channel as of March 1, 2024.

For more information about the prerequisites expansion, including timing updates, see the Expansion of Microsoft 365 Copilot Eligibility blog. For actionable guidance on how your organization can get started with Microsoft 365 Copilot today, visit Copilot for Work.

Next steps

V1 version of new commerce billed invoice line item API retires soon

Summary: API v1 version of new commerce API that retrieves billed invoice reconciliation line items retires soon. If you're using this API, you need to migrate to the newest API that is generally available on MS Graph before the retirement date.

  • Date: March 7, 2024
  • Workspace: Billing, API
  • Impacted audience: All global CSP partners

Details

We're retiring the following new commerce APIs for getting daily rated usage reconciliation line items, both billed and unbilled. Here are the dates when they'll stop working:

API name Version Retirement date Partner Center link
Get invoice line items V1 September 30, 2024 Get invoice line items - Partner app developer | Microsoft Learn

After September 30, 2024, you won't be able to access any invoice reconciliation line items that are created from October 2024 onwards by using the v1 API. To avoid any disruption to your business, migrate to the newest API on MS Graph before the retirement date. Find all the details about how to migrate to the newest version in the article: Billed invoice reconciliation API v2 (GA).

Note

The newest API is currently only available for the MS Graph public/global cloud. The newest API is not yet available for Azure Government or Azure China 21Vianet.

What does API v1 retirement mean?

API v1 won't stop working after September 30, 2024. It will still be available and functional for your past invoice line items. Refer to the following details to decide which version to use and when.

  1. Use only API v1 to get invoice line items for invoices that were created for billing periods prior to February 2024.
  2. Unless you've switched to v2 GA, Use API v1 until September 30, 2024, to get invoice line items for invoices that are created for billing periods between February 2024 and September 2024.
  3. Use only API v2 GA to get invoice line items for invoices that were created for billing periods from February 2024.

Known limitations

N/A

Benefits

To ensure uninterrupted retrieval of billed invoice reconciliation line items, migrate to the latest version of the API. The latest version is asynchronous and includes new features and enhancements to improve your experience. Here are some of the advantages:

  • Faster data retrieval: The new API is over 85% faster than the existing synchronous API, allowing you to retrieve data more quickly and efficiently
  • Compressed payload: Data is delivered in compressed JSON format, reducing the size of the data
  • No need for persistent connectivity: Retrieve data without needing to maintain a constant connection or go through repeated cycles
  • Improved reconciliation with new attribute: The API response now contains a new attribute, "ProductCategory," which enables you to bill customers and reconcile transactions efficiently based on product categories
  • Customizable response: Select attributes you want to include in the response, reducing the payload and making it easier to work with the data
  • Convenient data access: Data is split into segments based on the number of records, making it easier to access

Next steps

To get started with the new asynchronous API, follow these steps:

  1. Review the documentation and sample code to learn how to use this API.

  2. Inform your developers and request that they update your existing systems to integrate with the new API.

We hope you find the asynchronous API useful and convenient for your reconciliation needs. Share your feedback to help us improve the API.

Asynchronous API for retrieving billed invoice reconciliation line items is now generally available

We're excited to announce that the asynchronous API to get billed invoice reconciliation data is now generally available in Partner Center. This API offers a faster and more manageable way to access billing and reconciliation data through Azure blobs. With this API, you don't need to keep a connection open for hours or loop through millions of transactions in batches of 2000 at a time.

  • Date: March 7, 2024
  • Workspace: Partners
  • Impacted audience: All global Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners

The asynchronous API uses valet key and asynchronous request-reply patterns. The API provides a shared access signature (SAS) token that you can use to access either all the attributes or a subset of the billed invoice reconciliation data.

To access the data asynchronously, follow the steps in this link: Billed invoice reconciliation API v2 (GA)

Note

API v1 and v2 will operate separately and simultaneously, without depending on each other. The new API response has a new attribute called ProductCategory.

If you're using API v1, consider upgrading to the GA version of API v2 to take advantage of some notable features described in the Benefits section.

Known limitations

You can use this API for the MS Graph public/global cloud only now. They aren't yet available for Azure Government or Azure China 21Vianet.

Benefits

The asynchronous API provides various advantages that can enhance your productivity and reconciliation experience:

  • Faster data retrieval: The new API retrieves data over 85% faster than the existing synchronous API.

  • Compressed payload: Data is delivered in the compressed JSON format, reducing the size of the data.

  • No need for persistent connectivity: Retrieve data without needing to maintain a constant connection or go through repeated cycles.

  • Improved reconciliation with new attribute: The API response now contains a new attribute, ProductCategory, which allows you to bill customers and reconcile transactions efficiently based on product categories.

  • Customizable response: Select attributes you want to include in the response. With this customizable response, you can reduce the payload and make it easier to work with the data.

  • Convenient data access: Data is split into segments based on the number of records, making it easier to access.

Next steps

  • Review the documentation and sample code to learn how to use this API.

  • Inform your developers, and request that they update your existing systems to integrate with the new API.

We hope you find the asynchronous API useful and convenient for your reconciliation needs. Please share your feedback to help us improve the API.

March Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) monthly updates and community reminder

Monthly views are now published including the updated partner launch calendars, the CSP Bimonthly Update newsletter, along with CSP community resources that provide you with essential program updates.

  • Date: March 5, 2024
  • Workspace: General
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill partners and indirect providers

Always available—Launch content on demand

For a consolidated view of all recent and active launches in a single place, visit the partner launch calendars collection. You'll find a timeline for each launch and links to published materials to help you learn more about that launch.

The downloadable CSP Bimonthly Update newsletter, which aggregates recent CSP announcements, updates, events, and reminders in an easy-to-read document.

Partner Journey Maps provide detailed navigation along the journey of Microsoft's highest priority transformations.

Need licensing readiness? The monthly CSP spotlight webinars covers the latest CSP licensing information available for all partners.

CSP Community Q&A reminder

The monthly CSP community Q&A session provides you with an opportunity to learn more and ask questions about changes affecting the program.

Register here to join upcoming calls.

Next steps

Review the Partner Launch Calendar, monthly newsletter, and register for upcoming Community Q&A calls.

Questions?

The monthly CSP community Q&A call is the best place to bring questions about operational change in the CSP program. You can submit a question up to 48 hours before the call.

Questions on any other CSP topic? Visit the Partner Center support page.

Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) offer retirement guide update schedule

There aren't updates for March 2024 CSP legacy offer retirements.

  • Date: March 5, 2024
  • Workspace: Customers
  • Impacted audience: CSP direct bill partners and indirect providers

The CSP offer retirement guide was updated in February 2024, but there are no new retirements to add to the March monthly update. The next update for the retirement guide is planned for April 1, 2024. Partners should expect an announcement about the April 1 update next month.

Next steps

  • Partners should review the latest CSP offer retirement guide, talk to your customers, and ensure you're meeting their needs with the latest available new commerce product SKUs.
  • Partners should anticipate new offer retirements to be announced and made available in future updates to the retirement guide.

Questions?

Contact Partner Support if you have any questions or need more information.

View the latest promotions and offers

The latest Global Promo Readiness Guide is now available.

  • Date: March 4, 2024
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Partners transacting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program

The latest Global Promo Readiness Guide, a consolidated view of all current and upcoming promotions, is now available on the Operations Readiness resource gallery. See active and upcoming promotions and offers at the Global Promo Readiness Guide collection.

Next steps

Review the latest monthly Promo Guide in the Operations Readiness resource gallery. Share this information with the appropriate contacts in your organization, and let us know if the guide is helpful by responding to the "Was this page helpful?" question at the bottom of the page.

Questions?

If you have questions, go to CSP Support.

New Commerce public sector product SKUs are now available to CSPs in Partner Center - Review for important SKU information

New commerce license-based public sector product Stock-keeping units (SKUs) are available as of March 1, 2024 in Partner Center. However, errors are identified in the March 1, 2024, Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Public Sector pricing, see details for errors and impact.

  • Date: March 1, 2024
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider partners (indirect providers and direct bill) in all markets/countries/regions

Details

Beginning March 1, 2024, Microsoft launched Wave One and Two Public Sector offers (education and nonprofit) in new commerce. This wave One and Two release includes over 400 of the more popular PubSec product SKUs.

Partners should be aware of the following product SKU issues for this release. We're working to correct these issues and will provide a republished price list and catalog update by March 15.

Issue Impact Partner Action
5 SKUs inaccurately show with a non $0 amount:
  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium Donation (Non-Profit Pricing) CFQ7TTC0LCHC/000W
  • Power Apps per app plan (one app or portal) 10 license donation (Non-Profit Pricing)  (1 app or website) CFQ7TTC0J4GS/0012 
  • Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (Plan 1) Student use benefit (Education Student Pricing)
  • Microsoft 365 Apps Use Benefits
  • Microsoft Intune Students use benefit (Education Student Pricing) CFQ7TTC0LSNL/0004
 These SKUs show a non $0 amount on the pricelist. However, the price at the time of purchase (catalog) will be $0 for SKUs: CFQ7TTC0LCHC/000W, CFQ7TTC0J4GS, and CFQ7TTC0LH04/000W.

CFQ7TTC0LGZT/001F and CFQ7TTC0LSNL/0004 are incorrectly priced.		 CFQ7TTC0LCHC/000W, CFQ7TTC0J4GS, and CFQ7TTC0LH04/000W are purchasable at $0 price. Ignore the price on the price list.

For CFQ7TTC0LGZT/001F and CFQ7TTC0LSNL/0004, don't purchase until we issue a correction.
Public Sector SKUs appearing on price list but Commercial SKUs are end of sale (EOS):
  • Azure Information Protection Premium P1 (Education Faculty Pricing) CFQ7TTC0LH9J/000Q CFQ7TTC0LH9J/0011
  • SharePoint Syntex (Education Faculty Pricing) CFQ7TTC0HDK2/000B
  • Universal Print Additional Capacity 10K - Microsoft 365 (Education Faculty Pricing) CFQ7TTC0HL82/000F
  • Universal Print Additional Capacity (10k) - Windows (Education Faculty Pricing) CFQ7TTC0HDJR/000Q
 These SKUs will be removed from the price list and catalog after the republication. Don't purchase.
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 (Education Faculty Pricing) shows annual term/monthly billing in the price list but monthly billing isn't available to purchase in the catalog. Only annual term/annual billing is available. This SKU with monthly billing will be removed from the price list and catalog after the republication. There are no plans to offer a monthly billing for these SKUs. You'll receive an error if you attempt to purchase or integrate Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 (Education Faculty Pricing) at annual term monthly billing into your marketplaces.
Government Community Cloud (GCC) SKUs are showing on March 1 price list:
  • Dynamics 365 Team Members for Government (Governmental Community Cloud Pricing) CFQ7TTC0LFNJ/000V
  • Power BI Premium P5 (Governmental Community Cloud Pricing) CFQ7TTC0LHQ2
 These SKUs is removed from the price list after the republication. CFQ7TTC0LFNJ/000V isn't available for purchase in the catalog. CFQ7TTC0LHQ2 is removed from the catalog. Don't purchase.
Some SKU Titles have spelling errors and other typos that will be corrected. This issue is widespread but being addressed. SKU title strings might have various typos until republication. Verify the spelling and spacing of current SKU titles, and check for updates to previous spelling errors and other typos.
Power Apps per app plan (one app or portal) 10 license donation (Non-Profit Pricing) CFQ7TTC0J4GS/001F Not available for purchase. We'll provide further details about the availability of this product for when we republish the March price list.

Additionally, promotions for the New Commerce seat-based M2M offers were slated to go-live with the initial new commerce experience (NCE) Public Sector release. Unfortunately, there's a late breaking delay. Microsoft intends to fully honor the full promotional term as soon as possible. Updates and a promo GA date will be provided soon.

Next steps

  • Share this information with all appropriate contacts in your organization
  • A corrected price list will be published by March 15, 2024
  • A Partner Center announcement will be posted when the March 2024 price list is republished

Delay on nonprofit promotions for the new commerce seat-based offers for Public Sector month-by-month (M2M) offers

There's a delay on nonprofit promotions for month-to-month new commerce seat-based offers for Public Sector.

  • Date: March 1, 2024
  • Workspace: Pricing
  • Impacted audience: Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners (Indirect Providers and Direct Bill Partners in all regions)

Promotions for month-to-month (M2M) new commerce seat-based offers for nonprofit Public Sector were slated to go live on March 1, 2024, at midnight UTC time. Unfortunately, there's a delay. Microsoft plans to fully honor the new promotional terms as soon as possible. Updates and a promo GA date are expected soon. We kindly ask partners to pause sales of eligible SKUs until the promotion officially goes live.

Next Steps

  • The promotions won't be applied if you purchase the product SKU before these promotions are available. Purchases without expected promotions should be canceled within the seven day window to ensure you aren't incorrectly charged.
  • Partners should share this information with all appropriate contacts in your organization.
  • Partners can view available promotions in the Global Promo Readiness Guide collection.

Expanded licensing for SPLA partners with RDS SALs

SPUR changes that enable SPLA partners with RDS SAL licenses to access Windows Server on Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop.

  • Date: March 1, 2024
  • Workspace: Partners
  • Impacted audience: SPLA partners

As a Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) partner, beginning March 1, 2024, with an eligible per-user Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Subscriber Access License (SAL), you're entitled to access Window Server on Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop at no extra licensing costs. You only pay for the Azure resources associated with running and maintaining your Azure Desktop deployment. For details, refer to the latest Services Provider Use Rights (SPUR) changes.

With Azure Virtual Desktop, you can deliver remote Windows Server desktops and apps to your customers, with flexible payment options. Azure Virtual Desktop gives you full control over the configuration and management of your deployment and includes the security features of Azure to keep your data and apps safe and secure. Azure Virtual Desktop modernizes and simplifies your virtualization environment for the cloud, allowing you to scale quickly based on your business needs. Find out more about this cloud solution at Azure Virtual Desktop.

To access Azure Virtual Desktop for internal business purposes, you can acquire select Windows 10 or 11 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 per user licenses. In addition, you can deliver Windows 11 desktops and apps to users outside your organization with Azure Virtual Desktop for Remote App Streaming. To learn more about supported scenarios for your business, visit Azure Virtual Desktop Pricing.

Note

RDS SAL only satisfies the user access right requirement for Azure Virtual Desktop. Azure Hybrid Benefit can help you manage and save on Windows Server licensing costs on Azure over the standard pay-as-you-go rate. To learn more, see Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server.

Next steps