Do you have a steady workload that you expect to continuously run?

If so, there are a few options that offer great savings.

In our previous blog, Azure Pricing – How to Get Your Best Deal we discussed how Reserved Instances can help save you money on the compute side. In this article, we will walk through another way to drive down Azure costs for your Windows Server and SQL Server through a new offering called Server Subscriptions (SS).

So, what is a Server Subscription? A Server Subscription is when you subscribe to the use of the Windows Server or SQL Server family of products on a Cloud Solution Provider Agreement (CSP) and have the ability to use that software in Azure through the Hybrid Use Benefit (HUB).

PowerApps is a low code/no code suite of apps, services, connectors, and data platforms that provides a rapid application development environment to build custom apps for your business needs.

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Using PowerApps, you can quickly build custom business apps that connect to your business data stored either in the underlying data platform (Microsoft Dataverse - formerly Common Data Service) or in various online and on-premises data sources (SharePoint, Excel, Office 365, Dynamics 365, SQL Server, and so on).

Apps built using PowerApps provide rich business logic and workflow capabilities to transform your manual business processes to digital, automated processes. In addition, apps built using PowerApps have a responsive design and can run seamlessly in a browser or on mobile devices (phone or tablet). PowerApps "democratizes" the custom business app building experience by enabling users to build feature-rich, custom business apps without writing code.

PowerApps also provides an extensible platform that lets pro developers programmatically interact with data and metadata, apply business logic, create custom connectors, and integrate with external data.

Microsoft requires either a one-year commitment or a significant premium on monthly terms starting in March 2022. Learn more about this change and how to best prepare now!

***Note: Microsoft continues to actively make changes to this new program and release more details. Please connect with Interlink to receive the most up to date information for your specific scenario.***
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Microsoft is Changing CSP Licensing:

Any organization utilizing CSP licensing needs to be aware of Microsoft’s changes, which go into effect in March 2022. Microsoft will be offering Monthly, Annual, and Three-Year subscriptions. All subscription terms will only be able to be canceled or reduced within 72-hours after purchase, and customers will be stuck with license counts until the end of their subscription term.

• Yearly Term: We expect the yearly term to be the most popular. Pricing is similar to what customers are paying today, and most CSP providers already require a one-year term – even when Microsoft allowed for monthly changes.
• Monthly Term: If an organization wishes to retain the ability to decrease seat counts/downgrade licenses at frequent intervals, then they will need to put those seats on a Monthly subscription. However, Microsoft will charge a massive premium for this option of 20%.
• Three-Year Term: The current plan is to only offer three-year terms for a limited set of offerings, including Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365. The potential benefit here is that customers get locked into the pricing for three years to avoid potential future price increases across that term.

CSP Partners, like Interlink, will be able to continue transacting new CSP licenses without these changes until March 2022. We can also work with your organization to take advantage of pricing models, licensing structures, and promotions when applicable. Further promotional pricing details are still to come and will help mitigate Microsoft’s general price increase, which will also occur in March 2022.

Microsoft increases prices, which will take effect on March 1, 2022. Learn how this impacts your organization and how to optimize your current licensing. 
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Summary of Changes/Timeline:

Over the last ten years, Microsoft has continued to add new apps (Teams, Planner, Power Platform, Steam, Whiteboard, Shifts, Forms, etc.) and over 1,400 new features and capabilities into the bundles while keeping the pricing the same. Even with additional value continuously being added, no substantive pricing updates occurred. For the first time in 10 years, Microsoft has announced pricing changes, which will go into effect in six months. On March 1, 2022, Microsoft will update its pricing for the following commercial products: 

Every organization is overloaded with data and challenged to turn that data into the best decisions possible. Power BI is an interactive business intelligence tool that allows any user to build powerful reports and dashboards to provide valuable insights into their data.
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Using these insights everyone can then make more informed business decisions. Having the best data can mean seeing market trends before they emerge, spotting issues with manufacturing faster, or selling more of their own solution by building in Power BI into their own product offerings.

Microsoft has a number of different options for Power BI and how it is deployed and licensed. 

Power BI Desktop

Power BI Desktop is a complete data analysis tool that allows for advanced report creation. This software is installed directly on your local desktop, where there is more functionality available than inside of the Power BI Service. Power BI Desktop allows you to connect to many data sources, transform that data, as well as create calculated columns and measures for the data that you pull in. Once you have your report created, you can publish it to the Power BI Service, where licensing dictates who it can be shared with.