Starting April 1, 2023, pricing for the Microsoft Cloud will increase up to 15%. Learn how you can continue to reduce your M365 Total cost of ownership this year despite the price increase with Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Regional Director Chrisitan Buckley.
Tune in on February 22, 5 pm CET/11 am EST and get the best practices for reducing your spending, from optimizing license costs and premium services to storage limits and overall management of various M365 technologies.
Takeaways:
How does Microsoft’s pricing model work?
Who will the price increase concern?
Which are the elements that make the Microsoft cloud more expensive?
How can I keep track of costs?
Christian will show you how to find out about your savings potential at the click of a button.
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As announced in November 2022,
beginning April 1st, 2023 Microsoft is
moving to global US Dollar pricing
Microsoft’s Global Pricing for Cloud Services
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• Consistent pricing based on exchange rate of local currency
• Microsoft will assess and adjust pricing in local currency twice a year
• Across the EU, for example, this will result in a 9-15% increase
Microsoft’s Global Pricing for Cloud Services
Source https://news.microsoft.com/europe/2023/01/05/consistent-global-pricing-for-the-microsoft-cloud/
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• Perpetual licenses will not be affected.
• Customers with an existing agreement with price protection for previously
ordered products will not be impacted.
• Microsoft Customer Agreements have price protection for the term of their
subscription, but this will change at renewal.
• Azure plan pricing is already based on the US Dollar, so not affected.
• Price adjustments apply to commercial, governmental and educational customers
Microsoft’s Global Pricing for Cloud Services
Source https://news.microsoft.com/europe/2023/01/05/consistent-global-pricing-for-the-microsoft-cloud/
8. W. Edwards Deming
“Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.”
“If you can't describe what you are doing as a process,
you don't know what you're doing.”
“You don't know what you don't know.”
“Inspection to improve quality is too late, ineffective, costly.
Quality comes not from inspection, but from the
improvement of the production process.”
“People generally want to do the right thing, but
in a large organization, they frequently don't
really understand what is the right thing.”
“Optimize the system.”
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Rapid service growth & adoption
Siloed data
Intransparent licensing
Tedious and time-consuming tasks
Lack of understanding where and how to act
M365 Governance Challenges
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Found 12k of 24k unused SharePoint Sites
--> Archive in blob storage
--> Reduce storage costs
Found 250+ users that have both E5 and E3 licenses but need only E3
--> Reduce Licensing Costs
Found 50+ Flows and PowerApps that make use of premium features
--> Delete unnecessary ones and save costs
Examples of Rencore Customers
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Environment evolves and
grows constantly
Impossible to manage manually,
does not scale
Hard to identify relevant data
and report on
Costs are a problem – Now what?
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Your organization is constantly changing!
Governing manually does not scale.
Solution:
Implement continuous and automated governance
Core Governance Challenge
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Rencore Cloud Governance Maturity Model
Reporting
Resolution
M365 Services
Manual
Manual
Few
Automated
Manual
Few
Automated
Automated
Few
Automated
Automated
All
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• Manual discovery
• Too many admin centers to keep track
• Not all required data easily accessible
• Manual resolution
• Time consuming and
not easily repeatable
Maturity 1: Extract info from Admin Centers
List of MS Portals: https://msportals.io
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Write a custom PowerShell script and generate CSV
• Reports need to be generated and reviewed manually
• Script needs to be maintained
• Needs to be created for every service
• Not actionable
• Does not scale
Maturity 2: Extract with PS and resolve manually
Example by Tony Redmond: https://office365itpros.com/2020/01/14/office-365-groups-teams-activity-report/
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Maturity 3: Use Power Automate, Azure
Automation
Write custom Flows, Azure Runbooks to resolve
• Custom DIY solution like PS
• APIs change too quickly and often
• Braindrain when expert who built it
leaves the company
• Possibly requires
Power Automate Premium license
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Maturity 3: Group Expiration Policy
Use Azure AD Group Expiration Policy
• Does only cover groups
(no files, no teams, no license, no sites etc.)
• Does only support automatic deletion / archiving
• Automations not customizable
• Requires Azure AD Premium license
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/azure/active-directory/enterprise-users/groups-lifecycle
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• Ready made policies, reports
and automation templates
• Fully customizable without developer skills
• All M365 services governed in one
platform
• Maintained and updated by Rencore
• SaaS or self-hosted in Azure
Maturity 4: Rencore Governance
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1. Inventorize your tenant
2. Track changes
3. Identify and report trends
4. Implement cost optimization policies
5. Automate fixing of policy violations
5 steps to keep your costs under control!
The price increase will affect all Microsoft cloud services, including popular offerings such as Azure, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft 365.
While this news may be unwelcome to many businesses and organizations, Microsoft has stated that the change is necessary in order to maintain consistent global pricing for their cloud services. In a statement, the company explained that “periodic adjustments to local currency pricing are necessary to ensure that customers in different regions are paying consistent prices for similar cloud services.”
Take note:
Because there is a (maximum) semi-annual price adjustment, this means that during 2023 there can be another update.
This could be another price increase, but a decrease is also possible if the US Dollar – local currency exchange rates change in the benefit of the local currency.
Microsoft will announce such adjustments in a timely manner.
Some specifics to know:
Perpetual licenses will not be affected (e.g., Windows Servers, Exchange Server, Office Professional Plus, Windows Enterprise 11 on-prem)
Customers with a running agreement with price protection (such as the Enterprise Agreement, Open Value (Subscription) Company Wide) benefit from price protection for previously ordered products and those products will not receive the new, higher price under that Agreement
Customers with a Microsoft Customer Agreement (seat based offers, such as Office 365, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365) do have price protection during the term of their subscription. Only at renewal of their subscription after April 1st or when they start a new subscription after April 1st, they will receive new pricing
Azure Plan through the Microsoft Customer Agreement is already priced in US Dollar with a monthly new price list and will not be affected
Price adjustments apply to commercial, governmental and educational customers
Also
If you are currently on month to month Microsoft 365 pricing or have an annual commitment due for renewal before 1st April 2023, you can avoid the price increase for up to a year by renewing / committing to a 12-month term.
William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant.
He is also known as the father of the quality movement and was hugely influential in post-WWII Japan. In fact, the highest quality award that you can achieve as an organization in Japan is the Deming Award.