In an unpreceded move, Microsoft reversed their decision to end Internal Use Rights (IUR) as outlined below. Here's the official announcement.
That said, we are going to keep the post below as this reversal in policy has no time commitment.
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Are you a Microsoft Action Pack (MAP) subscriber or do you currently hold a Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Competency? If you are then you’ll want to take note of recent announcement where Microsoft outlined the pending retirement of arguably the most compelling partner benefit: Internal User Rights (IUR).
On July 3rd, 2019 Microsoft updated the MPN Programs Guide and added following:
Change Notification: Product Licenses Terms of Use Update on July 1, 2020
As of July 2020, the terms of use for product licenses included in programs and offers in the Microsoft Partner Network such as competencies and the Microsoft Action Pack will change. Currently, the licenses allow partners to access and use the products for internal business purposes. We will retire product licenses for internal use purposes on July 1, 2020. After that date, product licenses offered through the Microsoft Partner Network may only be used for business development scenarios, including demonstration purposes, solution/services development purposes, and internal training purposes.
What does this mean for you as a MAP subscriber or MPN Competency holder? How do you ensure that you remain compliant from a Product User Rights perspective as these changes start to take effect? First of, Microsoft will update the corresponding use rights, allowing partners to continue consuming their software grants for “development scenarios, including demonstration purposes, solution/services development purposes, and internal training purposes”. Although limited in scope certain partners, such as Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), will continue to benefit from their license grants when developing solution and services. Others, that have training requirements, can continue consuming their MAP or MPN eligible licenses to address their internal readiness solutions.
This however does not change the fact that the most significant MAP and MPN benefit will be completely retired as of July 1st, 2020. According the MPN portal update, the changes are part of a phased rollout and beginning October 1st, 2019, “the product licenses included with competencies will be specific to the competency you attain”.
Knowing this, now is great opportunity to work on establishing a solid Software Asset Management practice, aimed at tracking deployments against entitlements, identifying gaps in licensing, and most importantly finding ways to optimize your existing software footprint. Altaris can ensure you don’t over buy and as a CSP, deliver the same software for your internal use at a cost less than MSRP. (**The use rights of the CSP program don't allow a partner to purchase software for internal consumption).
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From your Licensing Experts at Altaris Cloud