comparex UK Newsletter - December

A reminder that starting 1^st January 2017:

• On-premises enterprise software GBP prices will increase by 13%
• Enterprise cloud GBP prices will increase by 22%

We will still work with you to determine final prices and currency of sale. In the EU/EFTA region, partners will continue to have access to prevailing prices in Euro, Norwegian Krone, Swiss Franc, Swedish Krona, and Danish Krone, along with revised prices in British Pound.

Additionally, as a COMPAREX customer, you will still be able to take advantage of our Dynamic Global Sourcing, giving you access to an even wider range of currencies and pricelists.

Indian rupee prices for enterprise cloud services will be increasing by 10% to align more closely with global levels. On-premise enterprise software prices will increase by 15% to adjust for inflation since the previous adjustment in January 2014, and align more closely with global levels.

For business customers, these changes will not affect existing partner orders under annuity volume licensing agreements for products that are subject to price protection. Prices for new product additions under such volume licensing agreements and purchases under new contracts, will be as defined by the channel price list at the time of order.

The following programs will be impacted:

Enterprise, Select, Select Plus, Academic, ISV, SPLA, Open, Open Value, Open Value Subscription, Schools, Government.

As of 1^st February 2017, Microsoft will stop adding new Azure customers through the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA). Azure will be available through:

• Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Enterprise Subscription Agreement (EAS)
• Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE)
• Cloud Services Provider (CSP)
• Microsoft Online Subscription Program (MOSP)

While modern licensing is under development, current EA, CSP, MOSP, and other licensing options remain the right solutions to meet your needs. The MPSA continues to be the right choice for transactional software primarily, and some software plus cloud scenarios. Together these options, alone and in combination, will address the range of requirements and preferences for buying.

Customers who wish to subscribe to Azure after 01/02/2017 can do so through MOSP, CSP, EA, and SCE.

Customers who are subscribing to Azure through MPSA as of 31^st January 2017 will be able to continue subscribing through MPSA until a migration plan is developed. Customers may move to another purchasing vehicle for Azure at a future date.

Azure Active Directory Domain Services general availability pricing will begin on 1^st December 2016. The original pricing model included three prices based on number of directory objects: 0–5,000, 5,000–25,000, and 25,000–100,000. Now Microsoft are combining the first two tiers into a single price point for all directories with under 25,000 objects and lowering the price by 25%.

If your directory size is under 25,000 objects, you will continue to see usage listed against 'S2 Domain Services Hours' on your invoice until 1^st December 2016. After that, it will be renamed 'S1 Domain Services Hours'. If your directory size is between 25,000 and 100,000 objects, you will see usage listed against 'S3 Domain Services Hours' on your invoice until 1^st December 2016, after which it will be renamed 'S2 Domain Services Hours'.

For more information, please visit the Azure Active Directory Domain Services Pricing webpage. To learn more about Azure Active Directory Domain Services, please visit the Azure Active Directory Domain Services webpage.

Azure Active Directory Domain Services can provide scalable, high-performance, managed services such as domain-join, LDAP, Kerberos, Windows Integrated Authentication, and Group Policy support.

A reminder that GBP List Prices will be increasing by 15% for a majority of products in January 2017.

The January price list will be available in December, allowing us to support and guide you through understanding cost-differences when purchasing or renewing before or after this date.

Further support is also available from our Virtualisation & Storage Specialist, as well as your Account Manager.

These new releases advance the VMware Cross-Cloud Architecture™, which enables customers to run, manage, connect, and secure their applications across clouds and devices in a common operating environment. As the world's most complete hybrid cloud architecture, the Cross-Cloud Architecture delivers consistent deployment models, security policies, visibility, and governance for all applications, running on- and off-premise, regardless of the underlying cloud, hardware platform or hypervisor.

VMware's Cross-Cloud Architecture builds on its leading private and hybrid cloud capabilities by offering customers the freedom to innovate in multiple clouds, and is delivered through VMware Cloud Foundation™, VMware vRealize Suite and a new set of Cross-Cloud Services™.

• vSphere 6.5

New features, inc. VMware vCenter Server® Appliance, new REST-based APIs, an HTML5-based VMware vSphere Client, and virtual machine encryption.

• vSAN 6.5

New features, inc. adding support for containers and physical workloads, unveiling iSCSI support, eliminating networking hardware costs from two-node Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) configurations, and adding all-flash hardware support to vSAN Standard Edition.

VMware Ready for vSAN certification program now available.

IvSphere Virtual Volumes™ 2.0 is now available with enhanced features.

• vRealize

New features, inc. introduction of container management capabilities and support for Microsoft Azure as a dedicated endpoint.

VMware vRealize Log Insight 4.0 now features enhanced alert management and a redesigned user interface.

vRealize Operations 6.4 now delivers improved alert management and metric grouping, new customized dashboards, and predictive DRS for improved workload performance.

• VMware Cloud Services

Introduction of the beta of a new vCloud Air disaster recovery solution and beta of VMware Cloud Foundation on vCloud Air.

• vSphere to vSOM - 50% off upgrades from vSphere Ent to vSOM Ent+, expiring 26th December 2016.

• vSphere to vSphere higher edition - 50% off upgrades from vSphere Ent to vSphere Ent+, expiring 26th December 2016.

• vSOM to vSOM higher edition - 50% off upgrades from vSOM Ent to vSOM Ent+, expiring 26th December 2016.

The Customer Promotions page has been updated to reflect these changes: http://www.vmware.com/promotions/

Why consider the upgrade?

Enterprise Plus editions provide the full range of vSphere features, including Distributed Switch, Host Profiles and Auto Deploy. These new features can improve application availability and performance, helping transform your data centers into dramatically simplified cloud computing environments.

The vSphere with Operations Management (vSOM) Enterprise Plus edition takes vSphere to the next level with intelligent operations and consistent management.

Veeam Availability Suite™ 9.5, part of the new Veeam Availability Platform for the Hybrid Cloud, is now available! It's capable of scaling efficiently and effectively, regardless of the size of your customer environment and number of VMs, making it the most scalable Veeam release ever. Familiarize yourself with 175+ features and functionalities and upgrade to NEW Veeam Availability Suite 9.5!