Microsoft BYOL and Azure IoT Overview

Microsoft has made huge strides in the intelligent cloud for business in recent years. Some major announcements around Azure include bring your own license (BYOL), the new Azure compute pre-purchase plan and Azure IoT. In this post, we’ll explore each update in detail.

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What Is BYOL for Azure?

You’ve heard of bring your own device (BYOD), but what about bring your own license (BYOL)?

When migrating to Azure, you might wonder what to do with your existing Windows Server licenses. BYOL reduces the cost and risk associated with moving to the cloud by leveraging your existing licenses. In addition to BYOL for Azure, Microsoft has enabled users to bring current Windows Server licenses into Azure. Alongside these options, our Azure database migration service ensures a successful transition for your data needs.

This follows other models already in place with SQL Server and SharePoint. Microsoft has also made it possible to run Windows 10 on Azure.

Move Your Windows Server VMs to Azure & Save Up to 40%

With License Mobility through Software Assurance, you can move your current licenses to Azure to help users benefit from their on-premises and cloud-based licenses. If you currently have an MSDN subscription, you can run most of the licensed MSDN software on an Azure VM.

However, because MSDN isn’t included in the cloud use rights, Microsoft will charge you the Windows Server Virtual Machine rate. Those with an MSDN subscription can only run Windows client VMs through the Azure MSDN benefit subscription. You can find more details about Azure BYOL here.

Azure Cloud: New Compute Pre-Purchase Plan

With the new Azure Compute Pre-Purchase plan, you will receive up to 63% in savings when you buy a 12-month prepaid subscription. If you use more services, you can pay more to supplement and continue receiving the discount. This new option offers an excellent pricing plan if you need to migrate a large number of workloads to Azure. You can select which Azure Compute Option best fits your business needs and receive large discounts for your Windows Server annuity license.

However, you will need to make a minimum purchase of $6,000 and will be billed at the time of purchase. You can pay via credit card, debit card or invoice. When using the invoice option, you might notice a slight delay in your service activation due to a pending credit verification.

Click here to learn more about billing options and information on the change, cancellation, discounts, renewals and availability policies.

Azure IoT

You can now scale IoT projects with the new Azure IoT Suite. The Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT program enables you to build new intelligence and completely transform your company. It offers preconfigured solutions to analyze data and take advantage of the Microsoft Cloud Platform. With the ability to monitor assets and make discoveries, you can also improve effectiveness and operations.

Whether you’ve recently adopted the IoT or have an IoT solution, the Azure IoT Suite will meet your business needs. The suite allows you to capture device data to connect and scale efficiently, analyze and act on new data and integrate and transform your business processes.

The Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT program eases the transition to IoT by connecting companies with trusted partners and offerings within the Azure IoT Suite. These offerings are tested and certified so you know you can trust them for your IoT. The goal is to simplify IoT for users who don’t know where to begin or what works with different devices. Click here to find out more about the Microsoft Azure Certified IoT Program.

You can become a partner in the Azure Certified IoT program so you can give back to the ecosystem and help others. You’ll have the opportunity to exhibit the IoT capabilities you’ve discovered, reach out to new markets and boost customer awareness. By joining the program, you’ll also receive benefits from Microsoft. These include becoming a showcased partner on Microsoft Azure IoT websites, a Microsoft executive quote, press releases and blog support.

Moving to Azure? Check out our step-by-step Azure migration planning.

Learn more about:

• Microsoft Government Licensing
• Office 365 Educational Licensing
• Microsoft GCC Licensing
• Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise Licensing
• Microsoft F1 Licensing

Need Azure Support?

As the 2012-2015 Microsoft Cloud Partner of the Year, Agile IT has successfully migrated 1,000+ companies and 1M+ mailboxes to the cloud. Our proven cloud migrations, virtualization solutions, and cloud managed services have helped companies of all sizes improve security, performance and flexibility.

Whether you’ve fully migrated to Azure or you’re simply exploring the benefits, let Agile IT map out the best course of action for your company. Talk to an Azure cloud specialist today.