Examples are the virtual machine images for SQL Server 2014 and SQL Server 2016.

Some virtual machine images have licensed versions of software installed and the cost is included in the per-minute rate for the server. For example, a SharePoint administrator account does not need to be assigned a Microsoft 365 license.įor Azure PaaS-based cloud services, software licenses are built into the service pricing.įor Azure IaaS-based virtual machines, additional licenses to use the software or application installed on a virtual machine image might be required. These dedicated administrator accounts do not need to be assigned a license for the cloud services that they administer.

For the example in Figure 2, the Contoso Corporation has a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription with 100 licenses, which allows to up to 100 individual user accounts to use Microsoft 365 E5 features and services.įigure 2: Licenses within the SaaS-based subscriptions for an organizationĪ security best practice is to use separate user accounts that are assigned specific roles for administrative functions. Administrators assign licenses to individual user accounts in the subscription. You are charged a fixed monthly fee as part of your subscription. Figure 1 shows a single organization that has multiple Microsoft 365 subscriptions, a Dynamics 365 subscription, and multiple Azure subscriptions.įigure 1: Example of multiple subscriptions for an organizationįor Microsoft's SaaS cloud offerings, a license allows a specific user account to use the services of the cloud offering. Organizations can have multiple subscriptions for Microsoft's cloud offerings. You can convert a trial subscription to a paid subscription. You can also use a trial subscription, but the subscription expires after a specific amount of time or consumption charges. Microsoft's Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud offerings (Azure) charge based on cloud resource consumption.Microsoft's Software as a Service (SaaS)-based cloud offerings (Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365) charge per-user license fees.SubscriptionsĪ subscription is an agreement with Microsoft to use one or more Microsoft cloud platforms or services, for which charges accrue based on either a per-user license fee or on cloud-based resource consumption. The organization is a container for subscriptions. Here are the elements of the hierarchy: OrganizationĪn organization represents a business entity that is using Microsoft cloud offerings, typically identified by one or more public Domain Name System (DNS) domain names, such as. Microsoft provides a hierarchy of organizations, subscriptions, licenses, and user accounts for consistent use of identities and billing across its cloud offerings:

Dynamics 365 license cost