By Carlos Cruz
General Manager, Commercial Licensing
Today, Microsoft is taking a significant step in helping education customers simplify the business of schools and push the boundaries of the classroom with Microsoft cloud solutions by introducing exciting changes to the Enrollment for Education Solutions, the premier licensing option for medium to large education institutions.
The Enrollment for Education Solutions has been modernized to better support cloud offers and provide our education customers greater access to the full portfolio of cloud services, including the new Microsoft 365 Education, which brings together Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security.
To do this, we have simplified and standardized how education institutions license cloud services and software by moving to an easier per user model for counting licenses, rather than the former calculation of full- and part-time staff. We have shifted to cloud services purchases as the way customers enroll in an Enrollment for Education Solutions but with the ability to maintain their on-premises environments, so they can transition to the cloud at their own pace. We have new, updated user definitions and added flexibility to adjust count either up or down throughout the year. Institutions have improved budgeting capabilities and can more accurately direct technology spend to reflect the actual usage of Microsoft cloud services and software, while providing access to free, online services such as email and file sharing for "light" users. With enhanced student use benefits, institutions can license students for free, including Minecraft: Education Edition, and engage and enrich the classroom experience with professional development resources, online advising, and online learning.
These updates to the Enrollment for Education Solutions mean education customers can provide their faculty, staff, and volunteers with a wide variety of cloud services and products to help manage the institution while empowering their faculty to innovate in and out of the classroom and providing their students with free resources for learning anywhere.
For more details on the new Enrollment for Education Solutions and Microsoft 365 Education, see the Microsoft licensing for education page.
As always, we encourage customers to work with their Microsoft account team or partner to determine the right licensing options to fit their needs.
