Microsoft to kill off Enterprise Agreements

[tangor]

Microsoft has confirmed it is to gradually kill off Enterprise Agreements - volume licensing contracts so complex that a whole profit-making asset management eco-system sprang up off the back of them.

As we exclusively revealed, first evidence of this comes on 1 July when new commercial customers with sub-500 seats will no longer qualify for an EA, and instead will be asked to enrol under either a Microsoft Products and Services Agreement or a Cloud Solution Provider deal.

[theregister.co.uk...]

Some will say hooray! others will wonder what comes next?

[bill]

Earlier discussion here [webmasterworld.com...]

This isn't really killing off Enterprise Agreements altogether is it? I thought they're just redefining what constitutes an Enterprise level customer. I wonder how the big guys with tens of thousands of seats might be impacted by this.

MPSA is something I've heard MS reps push lately. It makes a lot more sense than some of the other agreements as it's more flexible for global operations.

[kartiksh]

Yes it is suiting the subscription economy more than perpetual right now. I see two thing, EA(Subscriptions) for large organization and for rest of them one choice CSP, and i guess other licensing programs will go away. but when? just speculating is the answer but for me, they have to do it as soon as possible they can.

[engine]

I suspect they do want to kill it off, and this is the first step. It refers to a 3-year agreement, so as it comes closer to the end of the three year agreement there will be more clarity, i'm sure. Yes, kartiksh, it's the subscription Microsoft is shifting to.