UK.gov cuts deal with Microsoft to avoid £15m post-Brexit price hike The UK government has inked a deal with Microsoft to prevent Whitehall from paying an extra £15m in licence fees due to a post-Brexit price hike. After the referendum, Microsoft said it would increase on-premise licensing by 13 per cent and cloud licensing and services by 22 per cent. It blamed "sustained currency changes" …
What could possibly go wrong.
Are there offline installers for Office 365 products? Certain organisations like the MoD have networks that have no direct access to the internet so how is Office 365 going to work in situations like that?
Also, has anyone managed to smoothly migrate a gigantic organisation to 365 without a hitch. Every time I hear "Office365" and "Migration" its almost always followed up with rage and anger.
I know the organisation my missus works for has cocked up a lot of migrations recently including 365.
I wont name the firm but its a well known health provider / gym that recently bought a load of Dickie Bransons cast offs.
We have office365, at least until someone doing pipework in the street gets a bit too enthusiastic with a jackhammer again. No email but eclipse still worked. A surprisingly productive day. Particularly as lots of users were disorientated and couldn’t ignore us when we went to their desk to ask them what this loosely worded requirement really meant.
Yet, nearly all of the money to build Microsoft Data Centres 'the infrastructure' was paid for pre-Brexit/pre-currency fluctuations.
The ongoing running/maintenance/staff costs of a built datacentre are next to nothing, compared to the land acquisition/initial construction/build costs.
Microsoft, lying through their teeth as usual. Give it 5 years of continued currency fluctuations, they might have a point.
I work in another place where information governance is where we are supposed to start. I think Beardie has a couple of franchises with us, or he intends to.
I think we are destined for Office 365 too. Perhaps the theory is that, as we are leaving the EU, we don't have to worry about data security anymore and all public bodies are moving this way?
"... increase on-premise licensing by 13 per cent and cloud licensing and services by 22 per cent. It blamed "sustained currency changes" which led to a "price misalignment" of the pound."
So, the on-premise licensing contract was to be paid in 'real' money and the cloud licensing in 'cloudy' money. Hence the different increases? I've always found finance to be confusing.
So, avoiding £15m increases due to The-Exit-that-shall-not-be-named. That's wonderful. We can spend it on the NHS - oh, hang on, it's not actually extra money is it? Okay, we can use it to train some unemployed teenagers as nurses, to replace all the Portuguese ones who are going home.
<sorrow mode on>Damn, damn, damn, I promised myself not to be a remoaning snowflake today. Failed again</sorrow>
Well snowflakes gonna snowflake!
Its not to late you know, still have a good 2 years to move out of this racist, bigoted moronic country and move to the more enlighten EU, Greece or Italy perhaps? nice weather, everything is cheap!
Or if the weather is too hot for snowflakes how about Sweden, I hear Rinkeby is nice..
>still have a good 2 years to move out of this racist, bigoted moronic country
>and move to the more enlighten EU
Well, we'll keep our second homes there of course, and travel with our second passports, but we'll probably mostly remain in the UK (/England&Wales if that's all that is left of it) for tax purposes. It's not what we wanted but now we've been granted a way to strengthen our stranglehold on power here it seems foolish to just abandon it.
"Well, we'll keep our second homes there of course, and travel with our second passports"
But after Briexit the continent will be in a different dimension from us meaning that we will never ever be able to go there again, but you have some magic gold plated passports that will allow you to jump that gap! WOW COOOOOOL!
"but we'll probably mostly remain in the UK (/England&Wales if that's all that is left of it) for tax purposes"
Yeah, its nice to keep some of your own money.
"It's not what we wanted but now we've been granted a way to strengthen our stranglehold on power here it seems foolish to just abandon it"
Certainly is!
@ Pen-y-gors
"<sorrow mode on>Damn, damn, damn, I promised myself not to be a remoaning snowflake today. Failed again</sorrow>"
Recognition is the first step. You recognised your unnecessary comment based on a misunderstanding and hopefully you will be able to cope with the changes going on around you without needing the NHS's help. Dont give up hope
"a remoaning snowflake"
Ya know, even after all these months, I still have no idea why "snowflake" has become some sort of pejorative insult again or what it is supposed to mean. Last time around, it was a(n anti-)racist term used by blacks against whites, especially in the TV sitcom Love Thy Neighbour.
Dont worry, neither do they.. and they hate it *lol*
They call anyone who simply doesnt agree with them, bigot, racist, fascist, Nazi and other downright hateful names, to the literal point where it no longer bothers people, but yet you calling them a snowflake.. oh they're angry now, Oh boy are they pissed of now! - Now I'm gonna jam my thumb in their butthole..
"I still have no idea why "snowflake" has become some sort of pejorative insult again or what it is supposed to mean. Last time around, it was a(n anti-)racist term used by blacks against whites, especially in the TV sitcom Love Thy Neighbour."
Sorry to disappoint you, but it's got nothing to do with racism, it's in reference to this line from the film Fight Club: “You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”
"Sorry to disappoint you, but it's got nothing to do with racism, it's in reference to this line from the film Fight Club: “You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”
Oh, is that all? BTW, your first sentence seems to imply that I was expecting it to be a racist comment or somehow inferring that either I'm a racist or someone looking to be offended on behalf of others. That's not the case if you read my OP properly. I was simply pointing out the previous existence of snowflake as an insult and wondered why it was being used again, but in a completely different and obviously non-racist context, ie WTF does it mean this time around. Now that I know it's taken from a film I've never seen, will never see and don't want to see, I can safely ignore it as one of those strange sub-culture references where the members can't get their heads around the idea that not everyone is like them and don't even understand the supposed insult.
If a Firewall was the equivalent of fitting the outside front door of your house with a 5 lever lock,
Windows 10 Creators update seems the equivalent (in terms of scattered default to 'ON' Privacy settings) of a Microsoft official (with clipboard) standing in the family bedroom, watching and offering advice/condoms as you perform experimental an** sex on your consenting wife.
Yes, they're protecting you but you're both compromised by Microsoft's presence at the same time and it's very fcuking invasive, when you look into the detail (as Microsoft are doing) and who they will sell/pass (conduit) this data to.
>Who do you think would otherwise be financing the additional £15m? Do you think it would come out of Osborne's ample wallet? It's our taxes that would be paying for it.
That might explain his need to hold six jobs at the moment, but Osbourne is no longer chancellor. That would be Hammond spending our taxes on it.
"Who do you think would otherwise be financing the additional £15m? Do you think it would come out of Osborne's ample wallet? It's our taxes that would be paying for it."
When we buy new kit we pay the M$ tax after all! Unless you buy one of the few brands that supply "other" <Linux> OS's as standard ;)
When we moved from one version of office to another in work we ran into bit rot as every once in a while someone would have a file from the previous (or even two versions ago) that didn't work well with the new version. I suggested that we all move to sigil (it does have a WYSIWYG mode) and use epubs. Surprisingly, that didn't catch on.
...are now finding the new Brexit Tax* eating into everything... Holidays, technology purchases, food. Just got back from Spain, and I got around a Euro for a Pound FFS.
(*Might feel like a tax, but the government gets nothing extra with which to pay the increasing list of bribe payments to bits of the economy preparing to leg it somewhere less insane, and to pay for thousands of experts** able to run negotiations in having cake and eating it)
(**I say 'experts', but, Team*** Brexit prefer not to listen to those - not even if they're the official Brexit committee they set up.)
(***I say 'team', but these people only really know about knifing each other in the back)
"...are now finding the new Brexit Tax* eating into everything... Holidays, technology purchases, food. Just got back from Spain, and I got around a Euro for a Pound FFS."
Oh the devaluation of the pound, an issue so bad that the day of it happening Mark Carney creamed himself so hard, the front of BOE looked like a scene from 'The Blob' - Your welcome UK economy.
"(*Might feel like a tax, but the government gets nothing extra with which to pay the increasing list of bribe payments to bits of the economy preparing to leg it somewhere less insane"
Yeah still waiting on that list.
"and to pay for thousands of experts** able to run negotiations in having cake and eating it)
(**I say 'experts', but, Team*** Brexit prefer not to listen to those - not even if they're the official Brexit committee they set up.)"
Experts - Like those who continue to get.. er well just about everything wrong! sounds like a winning strategy! listen the "experts" - do the opposite - profit!
"(***I say 'team', but these people only really know about knifing each other in the back)"
*lol* yeah because there was none of that in the EU!, I'm sorry have you never seen politics before?
Really, MOD and the rest of Whitehall using the Microsoft cloud.... I guess that just makes it quicker to let the US government know all our state secrets.
What annoys me is that if I publish a secret then I get locked up, Whitehalls gives them away to our enemies without thought
Incoming brexit commentards in 3.2.1...
This has nothing to do with brexit, it is business.
You give a business the opportunity to screw you over and they will take it, doubly so for the likes of Microsoft.
Lets say the pound moves back to where it was, does anyone honestly believe Microsoft will reduce the price? Don't be silly.
Yet here they are, giving away £15 million they are perfectly entitled to argue for as a consequence of the current exchange rate, which just happens to be a consequence of the referendum outcome.
Of course; letting the government and Whitehall off the £15 million has probably bought them some favours for the future.
"... Because much like the government, I would like to save some money if I can too."
You can ....... but the volume commitment may be a bit expensive to fund each month unless your family headcount numbers in the hundreds. :)
Here is an idea, form a collective with a few streets where you live and buy in BIG volume for a discount.
Get your best 'Sales' professionals to negotiate the best deal.
I am sure there are a few Supermarkets chains that would be willing to do business for a regular volume of known business. :)
Worth a go !!!
MS have there Cloud contracts approved by the EU as meeting DPA, the chocolate factory and amazon do not.
If you use their correct offering data will stay in the UK and can't be moved off shore.
The US TLAs can go swing as they have craftily worded the DC contracts so they dont actually own the tin, so US courts (FISA or otherwise) have no jurisdiction.
So privacy concerns are abated, but the real issue is the TCO.
It is not a public cloud but a private cloud version of Office 365 stored in secure UK data centres with secured UK networks.
More details can be seen here, http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450303820/MoD-becomes-first-tenant-in-Microsofts-UK-Azure-datacentre
But, MS:
1) can still replicate it all and put it in the US too.
2) can interrogate it all remotely bypassing accountability
3) still capture all the auth/SSO traffic that hits the US, not the UK DCs.
etc
It's sad that governments trust what the lawyers have done and rely on safe harbour, model contract and privacy shield and ignore what the we, the people that architect and engineer this stuff know.
Ah well, every generation needs to learn for itself.
Lobby your MP.
Swap to Apple and don't pay a penny in on-going licence fees! No OS upgrade fees. No BIG server license fees.
Totally compatible. Apple's own Office suite will read and write to Office 365 documents.
Infinitely expandable (XSAN) plug n play.
More secure.
Just who is that keeps complaining that Apple product is expensive?
PC £150, iMac £350+ 2500 worksations
£500k extra every refresh cycle
MS costs £40k per year
5 year refresh cycle
PC saves £60k per year - and you get bonuses with compatability, controll and flexibility
Apple not as cheap as you think.
PC's ££££££££££££££££ year on year cost a fortune to live with. Subscriptions to anti virus. malware and spyware.
Macs? Hmmmm. Don't need to subscribe to anything for protection unless you're a paranoid PC nerd who thinks they know better.
Tell me. Why do Windows luvvies hate Apple when it was the Mac interface Bill Gates fell in love with, had to have whatever the cost, and so Windows arrived how many years after the Mac OS GUI was launched? And lets not forget. Word and Excel were on Mac in a GUI LONG before the Windows versions.
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