1. rencore.com
What you have to know
about Microsoft’s cloud
pricing increase
– and how you can
still save money!
22/02/2022

2. rencore.com
Microsoft RD + MVP
Christian Buckley

3. Let’s jump right in!

4. rencore.com
As announced in November 2022,
beginning April 1st, 2023 Microsoft is
moving to global US Dollar pricing
Microsoft’s Global Pricing for Cloud Services

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• Consistent pricing based on exchange rate of local currency
• Microsoft will assess and adjust pricing in local currency twice a year
• Across the EU, for example, this will result in a 9-15% increase
Microsoft’s Global Pricing for Cloud Services
Source https://news.microsoft.com/europe/2023/01/05/consistent-global-pricing-for-the-microsoft-cloud/

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• Perpetual licenses will not be affected.
• Customers with an existing agreement with price protection for previously
ordered products will not be impacted.
• Microsoft Customer Agreements have price protection for the term of their
subscription, but this will change at renewal.
• Azure plan pricing is already based on the US Dollar, so not affected.
• Price adjustments apply to commercial, governmental and educational customers
Microsoft’s Global Pricing for Cloud Services
Source https://news.microsoft.com/europe/2023/01/05/consistent-global-pricing-for-the-microsoft-cloud/

7. How to move forward

8. W. Edwards Deming
“Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.”
“If you can't describe what you are doing as a process,
you don't know what you're doing.”
“You don't know what you don't know.”
“Inspection to improve quality is too late, ineffective, costly.
Quality comes not from inspection, but from the
improvement of the production process.”
“People generally want to do the right thing, but
in a large organization, they frequently don't
really understand what is the right thing.”
“Optimize the system.”

9. governance
(noun) /ˈɡʌv(ə)nəns/
the act or process of governing or overseeing
the control and direction of something
Source: Meriam Webster

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Rapid service growth & adoption
Siloed data
Intransparent licensing
Tedious and time-consuming tasks
Lack of understanding where and how to act
M365 Governance Challenges

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1. Licensing
2. Storage
3. Consumption
Microsoft 365 Cost Drivers

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What causes the most unnecessary costs in your
M365 tenant?

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Licensing Challenges
Offboarded users remain licensed
Inactive users remain licensed
Licensed external users
Users are “over-licensed”
Too many licenses

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Storage Challenges
 SharePoint Site storage limit increasing
 OneDrive storage capacity
threshold increasing
 Large SharePoint Sites & OneDrives
are not cleaned up/archived
 Unused SharePoint Sites consuming storage

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Consumption Challenges
Premium Connectors
in Flows and PowerApps
Unused Flows & PowerApps
Collaboration Clutter
(Inactive Teams, Sites, etc.)

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Found 12k of 24k unused SharePoint Sites
--> Archive in blob storage
--> Reduce storage costs
Found 250+ users that have both E5 and E3 licenses but need only E3
--> Reduce Licensing Costs
Found 50+ Flows and PowerApps that make use of premium features
--> Delete unnecessary ones and save costs
Examples of Rencore Customers

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Environment evolves and
grows constantly
Impossible to manage manually,
does not scale
Hard to identify relevant data
and report on
Costs are a problem – Now what?

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Your organization is constantly changing!
Governing manually does not scale.
Solution:
Implement continuous and automated governance
Core Governance Challenge

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Rencore Cloud Governance Maturity Model
Reporting
Resolution
M365 Services
Manual
Manual
Few
Automated
Manual
Few
Automated
Automated
Few
Automated
Automated
All

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• Manual discovery
• Too many admin centers to keep track
• Not all required data easily accessible
• Manual resolution
• Time consuming and
not easily repeatable
Maturity 1: Extract info from Admin Centers
List of MS Portals: https://msportals.io

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Write a custom PowerShell script and generate CSV
• Reports need to be generated and reviewed manually
• Script needs to be maintained
• Needs to be created for every service
• Not actionable
• Does not scale
Maturity 2: Extract with PS and resolve manually
Example by Tony Redmond: https://office365itpros.com/2020/01/14/office-365-groups-teams-activity-report/

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Maturity 3: Use Power Automate, Azure
Automation
Write custom Flows, Azure Runbooks to resolve
• Custom DIY solution like PS
• APIs change too quickly and often
• Braindrain when expert who built it
leaves the company
• Possibly requires
Power Automate Premium license

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Maturity 3: Group Expiration Policy
Use Azure AD Group Expiration Policy
• Does only cover groups
(no files, no teams, no license, no sites etc.)
• Does only support automatic deletion / archiving
• Automations not customizable
• Requires Azure AD Premium license
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/azure/active-directory/enterprise-users/groups-lifecycle

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• Ready made policies, reports
and automation templates
• Fully customizable without developer skills
• All M365 services governed in one
platform
• Maintained and updated by Rencore
• SaaS or self-hosted in Azure
Maturity 4: Rencore Governance

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1. Inventorize your tenant
2. Track changes
3. Identify and report trends
4. Implement cost optimization policies
5. Automate fixing of policy violations
5 steps to keep your costs under control!

26. Schedulea1:1walkthrough
url.rencore.com/cost-demo
DEMO

27. Find out how much
you can save
GovernanceCostSavingsCalculator
url.rencore.com/gov-calc

28. Q&A
Schedulea1:1walkthrough
url.rencore.com/cost

29. Thank you!
💙 💙 💙