Microsoft MS-900 Exam – Microsoft MS-900 Exam Prep Materials

News and commentary about the exam objective updates-MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals, Second Edition exam updates

The current official Microsoft Study Guide for the MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals exam is located at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/resources/study-guides/MS-900. This page has the most recent version of the exam objective domain.

This statement was last updated in August 2023, before Exam Ref MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals, Second Edition was published.

This version of this Chapter has no news to share about the next exam release.

In the most recent version of this Chapter, the MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals exam version number was Version 1.1.

Updated technical content

The current version of this Chapter has no additional technical content.

Objective mapping

This Exam Ref is structured by the author(s) based on the topics and technologies covered on the exam and is not structured based on the specific order of topics in the exam objectives. The table below maps the current version of the exam objectives to chapter content, allowing you to locate where a specific exam objective item has coverage without consulting the index.

TABLE 7-1 Exam Objectives mapped to chapters.

Exam Objective	Chapter
Describe cloud concepts
Describe the different types of cloud services available Describe Microsoft SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS concepts and use cases Describe differences between Office 365 and Microsoft 365	1
Describe the benefits of and considerations for using cloud, hybrid, or on-premises services Describe public, private, and hybrid cloud modelsCompare costs and advantages of cloud, hybrid, and on-premises services Describe the concept of hybrid work and flexible work	1
Describe Microsoft 365 apps and services
Describe productivity solutions of Microsoft 365 Describe the core productivity capabilities and benefits of Microsoft 365 including Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365 apps, and OneDrive Describe core Microsoft 365 Apps including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote Describe work management capabilities of Microsoft 365 including Microsoft Project, Planner, Bookings, Forms, Lists, and To Do	2
Describe collaboration solutions of Microsoft 365 Describe the collaboration benefits and capabilities of Microsoft 365 including Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, Yammer, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Stream Describe the collaboration benefits and capabilities of Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone Describe the Microsoft Viva apps Describe the ways that you can extend Microsoft Teams by using collaborative apps	2
Describe endpoint modernization, management concepts, and deployment options in Microsoft 365 Describe the endpoint management capabilities of Microsoft 365 including Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM), Intune, AutoPilot, and Configuration Manager with cloud attachCompare the differences between Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop Describe the deployment and release models for Windows-as-a-Service (WaaS) including deployment ringsIdentify deployment and update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps Describe endpoint modernization, management concepts, and deployment options in Microsoft 365 Describe the endpoint management capabilities of Microsoft 365 including Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM), Intune, AutoPilot, and Configuration Manager with cloud attachCompare the differences between Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop Describe the deployment and release models for Windows-as-a-Service (WaaS) including deployment ringsIdentify deployment and update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps	2
Describe analytics capabilities of Microsoft 365 Describe the capabilities of Viva Insights Describe the capabilities of the Microsoft 365 Admin center and Microsoft 365 user portal Describe the reports available in the Microsoft 365 Admin center and other admin centers	2
Describe security, compliance, privacy, and trust in Microsoft 365
Describe identity and access management solutions of Microsoft 365 Describe the identity and access management capabilities of Microsoft Entra IDDescribe cloud identity, on-premises identity, and hybrid identity concepts Describe how Microsoft uses methods such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), self-service password reset (SSPR), and conditional access to keep identities, access, and data secure	3
Describe threat protection solutions of Microsoft 365 Describe Microsoft 365 Defender, Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, Defender for Identity, Defender for Cloud Apps, and the Microsoft 365 Defender PortalDescribe Microsoft Secure Score benefits and capabilities Describe how Microsoft 365 addresses the most common types of threats against endpoints, applications, and identities	3
Describe trust, privacy, risk, and compliance solutions of Microsoft 365 Describe the Zero Trust ModelDescribe Microsoft Purview and compliance solutions such as insider risk, auditing, and eDiscoveryDescribe how Microsoft supports data residency to ensure regulatory compliance Describe information protection features such as sensitivity labels and data loss preventionDescribe the capabilities and benefits of Microsoft Priva	3
Describe Microsoft 365 pricing, licensing, and support
Identify Microsoft 365 pricing and billing management options Describe the pricing model for Microsoft cloud services including enterprise agreements, cloud solution providers, and direct billing Describe available billing and bill management options including billing frequency and methods of payment	4
Identify licensing options available in Microsoft 365 Describe license managementDescribe the differences between base licensing and add-on licensing	4
Identify support options for Microsoft 365 services Describe how to create a support request for Microsoft 365 services Describe support options for Microsoft 365 services Describe service level agreements (SLAs) including service creditsDetermine service health status by using the Microsoft 365 admin center or the Microsoft Entra admin center.	4

The purpose of this chapter-MS-900 Microsoft 365 Fundamentals, Second Edition exam updates

For all the other chapters, the content should remain unchanged throughout this edition of the book. Instead, this chapter will change over time, with an updated online PDF posted so you can see the latest version of the chapter, even after you purchase this book.

Why do we need a chapter that updates over time? For three reasons.

To add more technical content to the book before it is time to replace the current book edition with the next edition. This chapter will include additional technology content and possibly additional PDFs containing more content.
To communicate detail about the next version of the exam, to tell you about our publishing plans for that edition, and to help you understand what that means to you.
To accurately map the current exam objectives to existing chapter content. While exam objectives evolve and are updated and products are renamed, much of the content in this book will remain accurate and relevant. In addition to covering any content gaps that appear through additions to the objectives, this chapter will provide explanatory notes on how the new objectives map to the current text.

After the initial publication of this book, Microsoft Press will provide supplemental updates as digital downloads for minor exam updates. If an exam has major changes or accumulates enough minor changes, we will then announce a new edition. We will do our best to provide any updates to you free of charge before we release a new edition. However, if the updates are significant enough in between editions, we may release the updates as a low-priced standalone eBook.

If we do produce a free updated version of this chapter, you can access it on the book’s companion website. Simply go to the companion website page and go to the “Exam Updates Chapter” section of the page.

If you have not yet accessed the companion website, follow this process below:

Step 1. Browse to microsoftpressstore.com/register.

Step 2. Enter the print book ISBN (even if you are using an eBook).

Step 3. After registering the book, go to your account page and select the Registered Products tab.

Step 4. Click on the Access Bonus Content link to access the companion website. Select the Exam Updates Chapter link or scroll down to that section to check for updates.

About possible exam updates

Microsoft reviews exam content periodically to ensure that it aligns with the technology and job role associated with the exam. This includes but is not limited to, incorporating functionality and features related to technology changes, changing skills needed for success within a job role, and revisions to product names. Microsoft updates the exam details page to notify candidates when changes occur. If you have registered this book and an update occurs to this chapter, Microsoft Press will notify you of the availability of this updated chapter.

Impact on you and your study plan

Microsoft’s information helps you plan, but it also means that the exam might change before you pass the current exam. That impacts you, affecting how we deliver this book to you. This chapter gives us a way to communicate in detail about those changes as they occur. But you should watch other spaces as well.

For those other information sources to watch, bookmark and check these sites for news. In particular:

Microsoft Learn Check the main source for up-to-date information: microsoft.com/learn. Make sure to sign up for automatic notifications from on that page.

Microsoft Press Find information about products, offers, discounts, and free downloads: microsoftpressstore.com. Make sure to register your purchased products.

As changes arise, we will update this Chapter with more detail about exam and book content. At that point, we will publish an updated version of this Chapter, listing our content plans. That detail will likely include the following:

Content removed, so if you plan to take the new exam version, you can ignore those when studying.
New content planned per new exam topics, so you know what’s coming.

The remainder of the Chapter shows the new content that may change over time.

Summary-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support

Microsoft 365 editions include various combinations of Office productivity applications and Microsoft 365 cloud services. Multiple subscription levels exist for the Microsoft 365 Business and Microsoft 365 Enterprise products.
There are special editions of Microsoft 365 for frontline, government, and educational users. In addition, there are add-on subscriptions available that can enable administrators to create their own service combinations.
The key selling points for Microsoft 365 are divided into four major areas: productivity, collaboration, security, and compliance.
To install and run the Microsoft 365 components and access the Microsoft 365 cloud services, each user in an organization must have a Microsoft 365 user subscription license (USL).
Evaluating the total cost of ownership (TCO) for a Microsoft 365 implementation is relatively simple; there is a monthly or annual fee for each Microsoft 365 user subscription, and those subscriber fees are predictable and ongoing. Predicting the cost of an on-premises network requires businesses to categorize their expenses by distinguishing between capital expenditures (CapEx) and operational expenditures (OpEx).
Organizations can purchase Microsoft 365 subscriptions directly from Microsoft individually or by using a variety of volume licensing agreements, including Enterprise Agreements (EA), Microsoft Products and Services Agreements (MPSA), or arrangements with Cloud Solution Providers (CSP).
Typically, contracts with cloud service providers include a service level agreement (SLA), which guarantees a certain percentage of uptime for the services and specifies the consequences if that guarantee is not met.
Microsoft carefully defines the division of responsibilities between the Microsoft support team and the administrators at Microsoft 365 subscription sites.
The Service Health page in the Microsoft 365 admin center displays a list of Microsoft 365 services with a status indicator for each.

Thought experiment

In this thought experiment, demonstrate your skills and knowledge of the topics covered in this chapter. You can find the answer to this thought experiment in the next section.

Ralph is responsible for planning the IT software deployment for his company’s new branch office, which will have 50 users. He is currently trying to determine the more economically viable licensing choice: a cloud-based solution or on-premises servers. For the cloud-based solution, Ralph is considering Microsoft 365 Business, which costs $20 per user, per month. For an on-premises alternative providing the services his users need most, Ralph has searched through several online sources and found the software licensing prices shown in Table 4-8.

TABLE 4-8 Sample software licensing prices

Quantity needed	Product	Price each
2	Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard (16 core)	$976.00
1	Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Client Access Licenses (Pack of 50)	$1,869.99
50	Microsoft Office Home & Business 2019	$249.99
1	Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Standard	$726.99
50	Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Standard CAL	$75.99
1	Microsoft SharePoint Server	$5,523.99
50	Microsoft SharePoint Client Access License	$55.99

It is obvious to Ralph that the on-premises solution will require a much larger capital expenditure, but he is wondering whether it might be the more economical solution in the long term. Based on these prices and disregarding all other expenses (including hardware, facilities, and personnel), how long would it be before the ongoing Microsoft 365 Business subscription fees for 50 users become more expensive than the on-premises software licensing costs?

Thought experiment answer

Ralph has calculated the total software licensing costs for his proposed on-premises solution and has arrived at a total expenditure of $29,171.47, as shown in Table 4-9.

TABLE 4-9 Sample software licensing prices (with totals)

Quantity needed	Product	Price each	Total
2	Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard (16 core)	$976.00	$1,952.00
1	Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Client Access Licenses (Pack of 50)	$1,869.99	$1,869.99
50	Microsoft Office Home & Business 2019	$249.99	$12,499.50
1	Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Standard	$726.99	$726.99
50	Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Standard CAL	$75.99	$3,799.50
1	Microsoft SharePoint Server	$5,523.99	$5,523.99
50	Microsoft SharePoint Client Access License	$55.99	$2,799.50
	Grand Total		$29,171.47

The Microsoft 365 Business subscription fees for 50 users amount to $1,000 per month. Therefore, Ralph has concluded that after 30 months, the subscription’s ongoing cost will exceed the one-time cost for the on-premises server licensing fees. However, Ralph has been instructed not to consider an on-premises datacenter’s hardware, utility, and administration costs. These expenses would vastly increase both the initial outlay and the ongoing costs of an on-premises solution.

Determine service health status by using the Microsoft 365 admin center or the Microsoft Entra admin center-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support

Monitoring the continuous operation of the Microsoft 365 services is a critical part of the administration process, and the Microsoft 365 admin center includes a Health menu that provides a real-time display of the status of the individual services when administrators select the Service Health option, as shown in Figure 4-17.

FIGURE 4-17 The Service Health page in the Microsoft 365 admin center

In addition to displaying the healthy services, the Service Health screen also lists other service status conditions:

Advisories Indicates that the service is still available but that a known condition is inhibiting its performance. The condition might cause intermittent interruptions, affect only some users, or be limited in scope. In some cases, a workaround might be available.
Incidents Indicates that a critical issue has been discovered that is rendering all or a significant part of the service unavailable or unusable. Typically, incidents are updated on their detail pages with information about the issue’s investigation, mitigation, and resolution.

Selecting the Issue History tab on the Service Health page displays details about the resolved incidents and advisories, as shown in Figure 4-18, including the service affected, its current status, and the time the advisory was posted.

FIGURE 4-18 The Issue History tab of the Service Health page in the Microsoft 365 admin center

The Status indicators on the Service Health pages can have values such as the following:

Investigating Indicates that Microsoft is aware of the issue and is currently gathering information before taking action
Service Degradation Indicates that the service is experiencing intermittent interruptions, performance slowdowns, or failure of specific features
Service Interruption Indicates that a significant, repeatable issue is occurring, which is preventing users from accessing the service
Restoring Service Indicates that the cause of the issue has been determined and remediation is underway, which will result in service restoration
Extended Recovery Indicates that remediation of the issue is in progress, but restoring service for all users may take some time or that an interim fix is in place that restores service until a permanent solution is applied
Investigation Suspended Indicates that Microsoft is awaiting information from subscribers or other parties before the issue can be diagnosed or further action can be taken
Service Restored Indicates that Microsoft has taken corrective action to address the issue and has successfully brought the service back to a healthy state
Post-Incident Report Published Indicates that documentation on the issue has been published containing an explanation of the root cause and steps to prevent a reoccurrence

Each advisory or incident includes a detail page containing more information, as shown in Figure 4-19. This information may include a greater elaboration on the user impact of the advisory or incident and a log of its status as it proceeds through the process of being addressed, documented, and resolved.

FIGURE 4-19 An advisory detail pane in the Microsoft 365 admin center

When an incident prevents administrators from signing in to the Microsoft 365 admin center console, a separate Microsoft 365 Service Health Status page (available at status.office365.com) indicates the health of the Microsoft 365 services, as shown in Figure 4-20.

FIGURE 4-20 The Microsoft 365 Service Health Status page

It is also possible to monitor the health of the various Microsoft 365 services in the Microsoft Entra admin center and create new service requests, as shown in Figure 4-21.

FIGURE 4-21 The New Support Request page in the Microsoft Entra admin center

Describe service level agreements (SLAs), including service credits-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support-2

In the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Level Agreement for Microsoft Online Services document, dated August 1, 2023, the terms for each of the individual cloud services are listed with the following information:

Downtime Specifies exactly what type or types of service interruption legally constitute downtime in the terms of the agreement. Some of the definitions of downtime for cloud services included in Microsoft 365 are shown in Table 4-5.
Monthly Uptime Percentage Specifies the formula by which the percentage of uptime is calculated for each month, considering the number of minutes the service was considered to be down and the number of user licenses affected by the outage. For example, the following formula subtracts the total number of downtime minutes for all the users from the total user minutes and calculates a percentage from that:

User Minutes−Downtime MinutesUser Minutes

Service Credit Specifies the percentage of the monthly subscription fee that will be credited to the subscriber’s account based on the calculated monthly uptime percentage. For example, Microsoft’s SLA for Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise guarantees 99.9 percent uptime, so the service credit for months that do not meet that percentage is calculated as shown in Table 4-6. Other Microsoft services can have different SLA guarantees, such as Azure Active Directory, which has a 99.99 percent guaranteed uptime.
Additional Terms Identifies other parts of the document that might define other conditions constituting a refundable service outage. For example, a failure of Exchange Online to detect viruses or filter spam as agreed in the SLA can qualify for a service credit, even if no downtime occurs.

TABLE 4-5 Definitions of downtime in the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Level Agreement for Microsoft Online Services

Cloud Service	Definition of downtime
Azure Active Directory Premium	Any period of time when users are unable to log in to the Azure Active Directory service, or Azure Active Directory fails to successfully emit the authentication and authorization tokens required for users to log into applications connected to the service.
Exchange Online	Any period of time when users are unable to send or receive email with Outlook Web Access.
Microsoft Teams	Any period of time when end users are unable to conduct instant messaging conversations or initiate online meetings.
Microsoft 365 Apps for Business	Any period of time when Office applications are put into reduced functionality mode due to an issue with Office 365 activation.
Office Online	Any period of time when users are unable to use the web applications to view and edit any Office document stored on a SharePoint Online site for which they have appropriate permissions.
OneDrive for Business	Any period of time when users are unable to view or edit files stored on their personal OneDrive for Business storage.
SharePoint Online	Any period of time when users are unable to read or write any portion of a SharePoint Online site collection for which they have appropriate permissions.
Yammer Enterprise	Any period of time greater than 10 minutes when more than 5 percent of end users are unable to post or read messages on any portion of the Yammer network for which they have appropriate permissions.
Microsoft Intune	Any period of time when the customer’s IT administrator or users authorized by customer are unable to log on with proper credentials. Scheduled downtime will not exceed 10 hours per calendar year.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	The total accumulated minutes that are part of Maximum Available Minutes in which the Customer unable to access any portion of a Microsoft Defender for Endpoint portal site collections for which they have appropriate permissions and customer has a valid, active, license.

TABLE 4-6 Service credit for monthly uptime percentages in the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Level Agreement for Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise

Monthly Uptime Percentage	Service Credit
Less than 99.9 percent	25 percent
Less than 99 percent	50 percent
Less than 95 percent	100 percent

Microsoft requires subscribers to file a claim for service credits containing evidence of the outages, as described in the following SLA excerpt:

In order for Microsoft to consider a claim, you must submit the claim to customer support at Microsoft Corporation including all information necessary for Microsoft to validate the claim, including but not limited to: (i) a detailed description of the Incident; (ii) information regarding the time and duration of the Downtime; (iii) the number and location(s) of affected users (if applicable); and (iv) descriptions of your attempts to resolve the Incident at the time of occurrence.

Generally speaking, it appears as though the SLA for Microsoft’s online services is rarely even needed. For example, Table 4-7 lists the worldwide quarterly uptime percentages for the Microsoft 365 cloud services in recent years, and none of the figures even comes close to dropping below the 99.9 percent uptime guaranteed for most of the Microsoft 365 services. This is not to say that there weren’t a few isolated outages resulting in service credits, but the overall record for the Microsoft 365 products is impressive.

TABLE 4-7 Quarterly Uptime Percentages for Microsoft 365, 2019 to 2023

Year	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4
2023	99.98 percent	99.99 percent
2022	99.98 percent	99.98 percent	99.99 percent	99.99 percent
2021	99.97 percent	99.98 percent	99.99 percent	99.98 percent
2020	99.98 percent	99.99 percent	99.97 percent	99.97 percent
2019	99.97 percent	99.97 percent	99.98 percent	99.98 percent

Describe service level agreements (SLAs), including service credits-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support-1

When an enterprise uses on-premises servers, they know issues they experience that prevent the servers from functioning are their problem, and they must have the resources to resolve them. This is why organizations often use redundant components, servers, or even datacenters to keep business-critical services available. Many IT professionals prefer this self-reliance; they can be confident of their continued functionality by planning and implementing their services correctly. However, an enterprise that uses cloud-based services must rely on others to keep its services running.

For IT professionals, service outages are one of the potential showstopper issues for the adoption of Microsoft 365 and other cloud-based services. If the services suffer downtime, business stops. While it might not be the IT professionals’ fault, it is their responsibility. What is worse, there is nothing they can do about it except call the provider and shout at them. Depending on the nature of the organization’s business, service downtime can result in lost productivity, lost income, and—in extreme cases—even lost lives.

To address this issue, contracts with cloud service providers typically include a service level agreement (SLA). The SLA guarantees a certain percentage of uptime for the services and specifies the consequences if that guarantee is not met. It is important to remember that an organization usually has more than one service provider that is needed to access the cloud. For example, an organization can contract with Microsoft for a certain number of Microsoft 365 subscriptions, but the reliability specified in Microsoft’s SLA means nothing if the organization’s Internet service provider (ISP) fails to provide them with access to the cloud. Therefore, an organization should have a contract with every cloud service provider they use that includes SLA terminology.

When negotiating an SLA with any cloud service provider or Internet service provider, there should be language included to address questions like the following:

What formula is used to calculate the service levels that are actually achieved?
Who is responsible for maintaining records of service levels?
How and when is the subscriber provided with written reports of the service levels achieved?
Are there exceptional circumstances specified in the SLA under which service outages are not classified as downtime?
How much downtime is expected or allowable for the provider’s scheduled and emergency maintenance?
What are the terms of the agreement regarding service interruptions resulting from acts of war, extreme weather, or natural disasters?
What are the terms of the agreement regarding service interruptions caused by third-party services, such as power outages?
What are the terms of the agreement regarding service interruptions resulting from malicious cyberattacks against the provider?
What are the terms of the agreement regarding service interruptions resulting from malicious cyberattacks against the subscriber?
What remedy or penalty does the provider supply when they fail to meet the agreed-upon service levels?
What is the liability to which the provider is subject when service interruptions cause a loss of business or productivity?

These questions are designed to quantify the nature of the SLA and how it can legally affect the relationship between the provider and the subscriber. For example, a provider can guarantee a 99 percent uptime rate. However, without specific language addressing the point, there is no way to determine exactly what constitutes uptime or downtime. What if a service is only partially operational, with some tasks functional and others not? Does that constitute downtime? There is also the question of what happens when downtime in excess of the guaranteed amount does occur. Is it the responsibility of the subscriber to make a claim? If excessive downtime occurs, is the provider responsible for the subscriber’s lost business during that downtime or just for a prorated subscription fee? If issues like these are not discussed with specific language in the SLA, then they are potential arguments the provider can use to avoid supporting their uptime guarantee.

SLA Limitations

As an example of the terms that might appear in an SLA to limit the responsibility of the cloud service provider, consider the following excerpt from Microsoft’s SLA for Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory):

This SLA and any applicable Service Levels do not apply to any performance or availability issues:

Disaster, war, acts of terrorism, riots, government action, or a network or device failure external to our data centers, including at your site or between your site and our data center);

That result from the use of services, hardware, or software not provided by us, including, but not limited to, issues resulting from inadequate bandwidth or related to third-party software or services;

That results from failures in a single Microsoft Datacenter location, when your network connectivity is explicitly dependent on that location in a non-geo-resilient manner;

Caused by your use of a Service after we advised you to modify your use of the Service, if you did not modify your use as advised;

During or with respect to preview, pre-release, beta or trial versions of a Service, feature or software (as determined by us) or to purchases made using Microsoft subscription credits;

That result from your unauthorized action or lack of action when required, or from your employees, agents, contractors, or vendors, or anyone gaining access to our network by means of your passwords or equipment, or otherwise resulting from your failure to follow appropriate security practices;

That result from your failure to adhere to any required configurations, use supported platforms, follow any policies for acceptable use, or your use of the Service in a manner inconsistent with the features and functionality of the Service (for example, attempts to perform operations that are not supported) or inconsistent with our published guidance;

That result from faulty input, instructions, or arguments (for example, requests to access files that do not exist);

That result from your attempts to perform operations that exceed prescribed quotas or that resulted from our throttling of suspected abusive behavior;

Due to your use of Service features that are outside of associated Support Windows; or

For licenses reserved, but not paid for, at the time of the Incident.

These limitations are not standard for all SLAs, but they are typical.

Describe support options for Microsoft 365 services-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support

All Microsoft 365 subscriptions include access to basic support services, but for some types of subscribers or subscribers with special needs, there are alternative methods for obtaining support, such as the following:

FastTrack Microsoft’s FastTrack program uses a specialized team of engineers and selected partners to provide subscribers transitioning to the cloud with assistance in the envisioning, onboarding, and ongoing administration processes. Subscribers participating in this program are provided with a contact for support issues during the FastTrack transition.
Volume Licensing Subscribers with an Enterprise Agreement or a Microsoft Products and Services Agreement that includes Software Assurance receive a specified number of support incidents as part of their agreement. The Software Assurance program includes 24×7 telephone support for business-critical issues and business hours or email support for noncritical issues.
Cloud Solution Providers For subscribers who obtain Microsoft 365 through a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), the CSP should be their first point of contact for all service and support issues during the life of the subscription. The reseller agreement between CSPs and Microsoft calls for the CSP to take full responsibility for supporting their customers, although the CSP can still escalate issues to Microsoft when they cannot resolve them independently.
Microsoft Professional Support Subscribers with support issues beyond the standard service provided with Microsoft 365 can use Microsoft Professional Support to open support requests on a pay-per-incident basis, as shown in Figure 4-16. Individual incidents are available, as are five packs of incidents.

FIGURE 4-16 The Create a New Support Request screen in Microsoft Professional Support

Microsoft Unified Support Subscribers can purchase a Microsoft Unified Support plan in addition to their Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Microsoft Unified Support is available at three levels: Core Support, Advanced Support, and Performance Support; each level provides increasing levels of included support hours, incident response times, and access to a technical account manager (TAM), along with increasing prices. Customers also receive access to the Microsoft Services Hub, a support portal that provides forms for submitting support requests, access to ongoing Microsoft support incidents, tools for assessing enterprise workloads, and on-demand education and training materials.

Software assurance

For Enterprise Agreement and, optionally, for Microsoft Products and Services Agreement customers, Software Assurance provides a variety of additional services, including the following, which can benefit Microsoft 365 licensees:

Planning Services Provides a number of partner service days, based on the number of users/devices licensed, to deploy Microsoft operating systems, applications, and services.
Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Provides a suite of virtualization, management, and restoration utilities, including Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM), Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V), Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM), and Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT).
Windows Virtual Desktop Access Rights (VDA) Provides users with the rights needed to access virtualized Windows instances.
Windows to Go Use Rights Enables administrators to create and furnish users with USB storage devices containing bootable Windows images that include line-of-business applications and corporate data.
Windows Thin PC Enables administrators to repurpose older computers as Windows Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) terminals.
Enterprise Source Licensing Program Provides organizations with at least 10,000 users or devices with access to the Windows source code for their own software development projects.
Training Vouchers Provides a number of training days based on the number of users/devices licensed for the technical training of IT professionals and software developers.
Step-up License Availability Allows licensees to migrate their licensed software products to a high-level edition.
Spread Payments Enables organizations to pay for three-year license agreements in three equal, annual payments.

Note Additional Software Assurance Benefits

There are additional Software Assurance benefits included that are intended for on-premises server software licensees, such as New Version Rights, which provides the latest versions of the licensed software released during the term of the agreement, and Server Disaster Recovery Rights and Fail-Over Rights, which provide licensees the right to maintain passive redundant servers for fault-tolerance purposes.

Describe how to create a support request for Microsoft 365 services-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support

The Microsoft 365 support subscribers receive depends on their subscription level and how they obtained it. Nearly every page in the Microsoft 365 admin center console has a Help & Support button in the bottom-right corner and a Support menu allowing administrators to search for help with specific problems and create support requests when a solution is unavailable in the existing help information. Telephone and email support are also available.

To prevent excessive use and abuse of its support services, Microsoft carefully defines the division of responsibilities between the Microsoft support team and the administrators at Microsoft 365 subscription sites. Table 4-3 lists some of the responsibilities of each entity.

TABLE 4-3 Responsibilities of Microsoft 365 administrators and Microsoft Support

Microsoft 365 Administrator Responsibilities	Microsoft Support Responsibilities
Service setup, configuration, and maintenance	Respond to support issues submitted by subscribers
User account creation, configuration, and maintenance	Gather information about technical support issues from subscribers
Primary support contact for enterprise users	Provide subscribers with technical guidance for submitted issues
Gather information from users about technical support issues	Troubleshoot subscriber issues and relay pertinent solution information
Address user software installation and configuration issues	Maintain communication with subscribers regarding ongoing service issues
Troubleshoot service availability issues within the bounds of the organization	Provide guidance for presales and trial-edition evaluators
Utilize Microsoft online resources to resolve support issues	Provide licensing, subscription, and billing support
Authorization and submission of support issues to Microsoft	Gather customer feedback for service improvement purposes

Microsoft 365 administrators are expected to do what they can to address a support issue before submitting a support request to Microsoft. There are considerable Microsoft online support, training, blog, and forum resources available for this purpose, including the following:

Microsoft Support (support.microsoft.com)
Microsoft Community (answers.microsoft.com)
Microsoft 365 Tech Community (techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-365/ct-p/microsoft365)

When an administrator clicks the Help & Support button in the Microsoft 365 admin center console or opens the Support menu and selects New Service Request, a How Can We Can We Help? pane appears, prompting a description of the issue. Based on the furnished description, relevant material appears, such as step-by-step procedures and links to product documentation that might be helpful, as shown in Figure 4-14.

FIGURE 4-14 Microsoft 365 admin center’s How Can We Help? pane

At the bottom of the How Can We Help? pane is a Contact Support link that opens the pane shown in Figure 4-15. In this pane, the administrator can provide a more detailed description of the issue, add contact information, specify time zone and language references, and attach documents pertinent to the issue.

FIGURE 4-15 Microsoft 365 admin center’s Contact Support pane

Support provided with the Microsoft 365 product is intended primarily to provide help with service installation and configuration issues, such as the following:

Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory) Domain setup, synchronization with on-premises Active Directory, and single sign-on configuration
Microsoft 365 Service configuration issues
Exchange Online Mailbox migration and configuration, autodiscover configuration, setting mailbox permissions, sharing mailboxes, and creating mail forwarding rules
SharePoint Creation of user groups, assigning site permissions, and external user configuration
Microsoft 365 Apps for Business Office application installation on various device platforms
Microsoft Teams Setup of a Microsoft Teams environment and creating contacts
Microsoft Intune Mobile device and application management setup

When subscribers submit support requests to Microsoft, they go through a triage process and are assigned a severity level using the values shown in Table 4-4.

TABLE 4-4 Microsoft Support severity levels

Severity Level	Description	Examples
Critical (Sev A)	One or more services are inaccessible or nonfunctional.Productivity or profit is impacted. Multiple users are affected.Immediate attention is required.	Problems sending or receiving email with Outlook/Exchange Online.SharePoint or OneDrive sites are inaccessible.Cannot send or receive messages or calls in Microsoft Teams.
High (Sev B)	One or more services are impaired but still usable.A single user or customer is affected. Attention can wait until business hours.	Critical service functionality is delayed or partially impaired but operational.Noncritical functions of a critical service are impaired.A function is unusable in a graphical interface but accessible using PowerShell.
Non-critical (Sev C)	One or more functions with minimal productivity or profit impact are impaired.One or more users are affected, but a workaround allows continued functionality.	Problems configuring password expiration options.Problems archiving messages in Outlook/Exchange Online.Problems editing SharePoint sites.

After submitting support requests, administrators can monitor their progress in the Microsoft 365 admin center by selecting View Service Requests from the Support menu to display a list of all the support tickets associated with the account.

Describe the differences between base licensing and add-on licensing-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support

Many Microsoft 365 services are maintained as separate add-on products, often in two plans, which customers can purchase to augment the capabilities of their base licenses.

For example, the IT administrators for an organization might decide that the price of purchasing Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 licenses for all of their users is just too high and that the users don’t need all of the advanced features in the E5 product anyway. They choose the Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 subscription instead, representing substantial cost savings.

Many administrators were attracted to the E5 product because it includes Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2, which provides endpoint detection and automated incident remediation. However, this feature alone was not enough to justify the difference in price between E3 and E5. Later, the administrators discovered they could purchase the Microsoft 365 E3 subscriptions as their users’ base license and then purchase Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 as an add-on license. For this organization, the total cost of the two subscriptions was far less than the price of Microsoft 365 E5.

Microsoft has many add-on products that allow administrators to assemble a working environment with a curated selection of features. Add-on licenses come in two types, as follows:

Traditional add-on An add-on license linked to a particular base subscription. The add-on subscription is also terminated if the base subscription lapses or is canceled.
Standalone add-on An add-on license that appears as a separate subscription on the Billing pages in the Microsoft 365 admin center, with its own expiration date, independent of the base subscription.

Implementing best practices

As mentioned throughout this book, the Microsoft 365 product is a bundle of services, many of which remain available as separate subscriptions. In addition, subscriptions are available for combinations of individual features within these products.

Finally, to further complicate the picture, combining different licenses in a single Microsoft Entra ID tenancy is possible. With all these options available, organizations contemplating a migration to a cloud-based infrastructure or thinking of adding cloud services to an on-premises infrastructure should design a licensing strategy fulfilling the following requirements:

Provide the organization’s users with the services they need
Avoid providing users with unnecessary services that complicate the maintenance and support processes
Minimize subscription costs

Generally speaking, a Microsoft 365 subscription will likely be significantly less expensive than purchasing subscriptions for each component separately. This might be true even if some users do not need all the Microsoft 365 components.

Obviously, the simplest solution is to choose one Microsoft 365 product and purchase the same subscription for all the organization’s users. This can easily fulfill the first of the requirements but might not be a solution for the other two.

Depending on the nature of the business the organization is engaged in, an Enterprise E5 subscription might be suitable for some users, but there might also be many workers who do not need all the applications and services included in Enterprise E5. Depending on the number of users in each group, the expense of purchasing E5 subscriptions for everyone could be extremely wasteful and require additional administrative effort to provide customized environments for the different user groups. This is one of the primary reasons why Microsoft offers the Microsoft 365 F1 subscription for first-line workers.

Note Microsoft 365 F1

For more information on the Microsoft 365 F1 package, see the “Microsoft 365 Frontline” section earlier in this chapter.

Therefore, the best practice is to compare the features included in each of the Microsoft 365 licenses with the requirements of the various types of users in the organization. In a large enterprise, this can be a complicated process, but in the case of a major migration like this, prior planning is crucial and can save a great deal of expense and effort.

Quick check

Which of the following is not one of the three phases of the Microsoft compliance effort?

Simplify
Assess
Protect
Respond

Quick check answer

Which of the following is not one of the three phases of the Microsoft compliance effort?

The three phases of the Microsoft compliance effort are Assess, Protect, and Respond. Simplify is not one of the three phases.

Skill 4.3: Identify support options for Microsoft 365 services

For many IT professionals, there are important concerns about what happens after their organization commits itself to the use of cloud-based applications and services. These issues include concerns about downtime, monitoring the continuity of Microsoft services, and the product support provided by Microsoft and its partners.

Describe license management-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support

To install and run the Microsoft 365 components and access the Microsoft 365 cloud services, each user in an organization must have a Microsoft 365 user subscription license (USL). Typically, an administrator for an organization deploying Microsoft 365 creates a tenancy in Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory), purchases a specific number of USLs, and then assigns them to users in the Microsoft 365 admin center console by selecting Licenses in the Billing menu, as shown in Figure 4-12.

FIGURE 4-12 A License Details page in Microsoft 365 admin center

Global administrators or user management administrators can assign licenses to up to 20 users at once from this interface. It is also possible to assign licenses to hybrid user accounts created through Active Directory synchronization or federation or while creating new user accounts in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Assigning a Microsoft 365 license to a user causes the following events to occur:

Exchange Online creates a mailbox for the user
SharePoint grants the user edit permissions for the default team site
Microsoft 365 enables the user to download and install the Office productivity applications on up to five devices

From the Purchase Services page in the admin center, administrators can also purchase additional Microsoft 365 USLs or licenses for add-on products, as shown in Figure 4-13.

FIGURE 4-13 The Purchase Services page in Microsoft 365 admin center

Microsoft offers four different USL types for each of the Microsoft 365 products, depending on the purchaser’s existing relationship with the company, as follows:

Full USL This is a complete Microsoft 365 license for new purchasers who do not have existing Microsoft product licenses or for owners of on-premises Microsoft product licenses that do not include Software Assurance—Microsoft’s software maintenance agreement.
Add-on USL This is a license for purchasers with existing on-premises Microsoft product licenses, including Software Assurance, who want to maintain their infrastructure while adding Microsoft 365 cloud services in a pilot or hybrid deployment.
From SA USL This is a license for purchasers with existing perpetual Microsoft product licenses, including Software Assurance, who want to transition to a cloud-based infrastructure with continued Software Assurance for the Microsoft 365 product. Qualifying purchasers can only obtain From SA USLs at their contract renewal time and must maintain their existing Software Assurance agreement. A Microsoft 365 Software Assurance agreement includes cloud-oriented benefits, such as Deployment Planning Services, Home Use Program, online user training courses, and additional support incidents.
Step-up USL This is a license for current Microsoft customers who want to upgrade their subscriptions during an existing enrollment or agreement period, such as from Office 365 to Microsoft 365 or from Microsoft 365 Business to Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3.

Because the Add-on USLs, From SA USLs, and Step-up USLs are intended for existing Microsoft customers, their prices reflect significant discounts from the Full USL price.