Microsoft Ending Its Open Licensing Program
Microsoft Ending Its Open Licensing Program
This year we see a popular staple of Small Medium Business (SMB) licensing retiring. After over 20 years of service Microsoft Open Licensing (OLP - Open Licensing Program) is ending.
Date to remember 31st December 2021
Why is this happening?
This is part of Microsoft’s commitment to streamline purchasing methods utilising the “New Commerce Experience” within the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Program which BIST already successfully operates (since 2017) for our clients.
As part of the new commerce experience (or NCE) initiative, Microsoft have announced the sunset date for the Open License Program on 31st December 2021 and from the 1st January 2022 no new Open agreements can be accepted, neither will add-on orders be permitted to existing Open Licensing agreements.
The original announcement in October 2020 did not come as huge surprise as Microsoft have been very vocal about expanding the new commerce experience and further licensing announcements and retirements are highly likely in the future.
However, here is what you need to know:
July 2021: Important changes were made to the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), Open License, and Open Value programs.
Cloud Solution Provider program
Perpetual software licenses have been launched within CSP for public sector customers (Government / Education / Non-Profit.)
Introduction of Visual Studio Pro and Get Genuine Windows Agreement (GGWA) perpetual software licenses for all segments.
Open Value program
Additional SKUs were made available in the Open Value program for education and non-profit, providing similar offers to the Open License program.
Open License program
Microsoft will no longer launch new offers within the Open License program.
31st December 2021: This is the last day* for new purchases or renewals in the Open License program.
Customers will not be able to start a new Open License agreement, or buy additional licenses through an existing agreement, after December 31, 2021.
Customers can purchase software licenses through the Perpetual in CSP offering (available on BIST CSP). Like the retiring Open Program, customers make a one-time upfront payment for the licenses.
All License & Software Assurance (L&SA) offers available within the Open License program will still be available through Open Value (OV) and Open Value Subscription (OVS) agreements. Although customers might want to consider cloud first approaches via CSP and Azure.
Customers with previously purchased perpetual software licenses will continue to have full rights and access to the licenses acquired through the Open program. However, Microsoft have indicated that in the future these licenses will likely be migrated to CSP (Date TBA)
This will not change for customers with existing licenses purchased by the deadline. However, renewing or buying new licenses after December 31st, 2021, will need to be made through the CSP programme
*BIST recommend purchasing Open Licensing well before the end date to avoid any demand congestion. Note this is the Christmas period with reduced staffing numbers.
Let us walk through what your potential next steps are now:
Please read the full official Open Licensing retirement notification from Microsoft: here
If you want to add to existing Open Licensing agreements or create any new agreements, we recommend doing so as soon as possible and certainly not leaving it until the end of December. We stress that this is only Open Licensing that is retiring and both Open Value and Open Value Subscription are still very much available.
There is absolutely no need to panic, but there is some urgency to start looking at your licensing options. When convenient, please contact your BIST account manager or email solutions@bist.co.uk and request a Team meeting to discuss licensing and on-boarding to CSP.
Our BIST CSP is here and ready this can be set up ready for onboarding perpetual licensing and the cloud portfolio – Office 365/ Microsoft 365/ Dynamics 365/ Power Platform and Azure Services.
If you are a non-profit organisation you will need to register for discounted clouds products on CSP the link to do this is here. We recommend doing this first before setting up a CSP as this process can take a few days before it is approved.