If you choose a CSP, you`re working with the support partner of your choice, not Microsoft. Some organizations prefer this model because they can establish a close working relationship with the partner to ensure that they meet all their needs. We`re not here to tell you which of these two options is « better. » After all, both approaches can work well if applied to the right organization in the right way. Your main concern is determining how an agreement can best meet your business needs and at the best price. Whether in the form of an EA or a CSP is secondary to ensure you have the right software and services to bring your business closer to its goals. Choosing the right Microsoft contract for your business doesn`t need to make the trip alone. SoftwareONE offers Microsoft consulting services to help you make the right choice based on the specific needs of your business. There are a lot of complex layers to this decision, and we`ve only scratched the surface in this post. We have a long history of working with our customers to secure Microsoft license renewals that meet their technology and budget needs through our proven methodology. Contact us today to learn more! A standard Microsoft EA lasts three years. At the beginning of this agreement, your organization determines which software and cloud services should be licensed. You also set the number of users at the beginning of the contract, which affects EA costs.

There are at least 500 users for the EA option for commercial exploitation and 250 users for a government agency. If you have experience with Microsoft at the enterprise level, you are already familiar with a Microsoft EA. In this way, countless companies have licensed Microsoft products for use in their organizations. Whether you needed access to common software subscriptions such as those from Office 365 or traditional infrastructure licenses, or take advantage of advanced compliance or security features, a Microsoft EA was probably the best choice. Also be aware of the changes made to the migration to CSP when the new Azure experience for CSP is introduced, the upcoming Partner Operations Guide provides information on possible migration steps: partner.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/collection/new-azure-experience-in-csp#/ EAs are typically used by large enterprises that can handle at least 500 user licenses and a fixed price for software licenses. and subscription for 3 years. need. However, large companies continue to switch to CSP for more flexibility and savings. Once you have this access, you can set up the main stranger by following these steps: heyazureguy.com/add-foreign-principal-group-to-azure-subscription/ The concept of an annual « refresh » is an important part of the environmental assessment process. Once a year, you have the opportunity to adapt your agreement to your current needs. In other words, you can make adjustments to the devices, products, services, and users that Microsoft has included in your contract each year rather than several times a year. Alternatively, an established company with clear expectations for its long-term software requirements can be satisfied with an EA`s three-year license agreement.

There are upgrades in an EA that Microsoft doesn`t offer with the CSP, which is appealing to large organizations. The CSP agreement automatically renews every year, but you can make changes each new month. So if your needs change in terms of the number of users or if you need to add a new product, you can do it immediately, and your agreement will be adjusted if necessary. This superior flexibility is often the first thing that attracts companies to CSPs and away from EAs. Microsoft partners like Ensono manage the customer relationship through support and managed services. Customers pay a predictable monthly bill through the partner based on their exact usage of Microsoft cloud services such as Azure and M365 and D365. The relationship is governed by Microsoft`s Strong Service Level Agreement, which defines critical aspects of the service, such as quality and availability, between the service provider and the customer. With a Microsoft EA, companies can purchase cloud services and software licenses under a three-year contract. A relatively new alternative to using a Microsoft EA to license your software and services is the Microsoft CSP program. CSP is an opportunity to work with Microsoft or a partner to secure the Microsoft products and services your organization needs. Such agreements can take various forms; You can read more about CSP variants in our previous blog. The Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program opens up a new world of flexibility in the purchase and management of software licenses.

Instead of a 3-year commitment as required by Microsoft EA, Microsoft CSP is full month by month. This allows you to add or remove licenses as needed and only pay for what you actually use, which can save you significantly in the short and long run. Most importantly, since CSPs are provided through Microsoft partners, you also get instant access to Microsoft Premier support (additional cost with Enterprise contracts) as well as a dedicated team that knows you and your company, so you never have to explain your problem from the beginning whenever you need help. I have a customer with an EA through another partner. You want to remove the partner and switch to Azure CSP. I`ve looked at the following: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/resource-group-move-resources and this: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-solution-provider/migration/ea-payg-to-azure-csp/ea-open-direct-assessment Although you have access to the same Microsoft cloud offerings and Azure cloud services through a Microsoft CSP as you do with an EA, the experience is different. With a CSP, you`re considering a monthly subscription with a one-year contract rather than a three-year contract. No more need for an annual adjustment, as you have the option to increase or decrease subscriptions from month to month. Now, there was a handy little tool that someone was creating for CSP V1 migration assessments called « Azure CSP Assessment ».

It was a web app hosted by Azure located here: azurecspassessment.azurewebsites.net/ but as you can see, the website now works 🙁 longer For those who appreciate flexibility and need to keep their options open, the Microsoft CSP is definitely a compelling way forward. A CSP offers you an effective way to provide your teams with the software and services they need without involving your company in an agreement that might not make sense for your needs in three years. Another differentiating factor is the lower number of users required to get started with the Microsoft CSP program. User requirements vary depending on the partner you are working with for your contract. For example, at SoftwareONE we have a requirement of only 20 users, which can be a viable option even for a small business. It`s almost certain that you`ll need the support of a partner somewhere along the way. How you access this support and how your partner provides it depends on the option you choose. With traditional EA, you work directly with Microsoft, and the level of support you get depends on what you include in your contract. The most important thing to remember is that after migrating to CSP, there is no easy way to come back! Planning is key! RI works the same way, but you can`t transfer the reservation to a CSP subscription.

This article provides general steps for transferring Azure subscriptions to and from Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partners and their customers. The information contained here is intended for the Azure subscriber to help them coordinate with their partner. For more information about the Microsoft partners used for the transfer process, see About transferring Azure subscriptions from one customer to another partner. There are a few important points of information that you need to collect/understand when you start with any of these requests. . And if we change Microsoft partners, do we need to change the tenant? This simply walks you through the steps required to set up the foreign principal with « owner » permissions for the subscription. Once these steps are complete, you`ll be able to access customer subscriptions through Partner Center as usual. To register resource providers, use the following command (please note again that you need to make sure that you have changed your session selection to the correct subscription again with the commands above): I highly recommend running this as a project in your company, as it is not as simple as clicking a migration button. I`ve even called it a « virtual data center move » because it can really have the same potentially devastating unexpected outages if you don`t treat it with the right attention and detailed planning. Why you should consider CSP instead of your Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) organizations can and can use both licensing models. .