Microsoft news roundup: July 2025

Microsoft Price Increases for the new FY 

July 1st, 2025 saw a 10% increase for the on-premises versions of: 

• SharePoint Server 

• Exchange Server 

• Skype for Business Server 

And a 15% increase for Core CAL Suite. A 20% increase for Enterprise CAL Suite arrives on August 1st, 2025. 

The Subscription Editions of Exchange and Skype have been announced as available from July 1st but this is not yet reflected in the Product Terms. 

Microsoft CSP gets 3-year license terms 

Microsoft have announced 3-year subscription terms on CSP for: 

• Microsoft 365 E3 (with and without Teams) 

• Microsoft 365 E5 (with and without Teams) 

• Microsoft Teams Enterprise 

• Microsoft 365 E5 Security 

• Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance 

The price will be the same as 3 x 12-month subscriptions but with the price protection against increases that a longer commitment term brings. This continues to narrow the gap between CSP and Enterprise Agreements (EA) as Microsoft look to move Level A EA customers across to the CSP program via partners. 

See the Microsoft announcement here - https://partner.microsoft.com/en-GB/blog/article/csp-deepening-our-investment-in-our-partners  

New European cloud offerings 

Microsoft have faced numerous challenges from Europe over the last few years and there is now also a wider pushback against US technology providers, particularly cloud hyperscalers. Against this backdrop, Microsoft recently announced a range of new coud options for European organisations including: 

• Sovereign Public Cloud 

• Sovereign Private Cloud 

• National Partner Clouds 

• Microsoft 365 Local 

• Data Guardian 

• External Key Management 

• Regulated Environment Management 

The aim is primarily to assuage fears that data is accessible by US law enforcement agencies etc. 

Sovereign Public Cloud will be offered across all their existing European datacentres for services including Microsoft 365, Azure, Power Platform and more. ?Customer data remains in Europe, under European Law, with operations and access controlled by European personnel, and encryption is under full control of customers. 

Sovereign Private Cloud is built upon Azure Local (formerly Azure Stack HCI) which is hardware on the customer’s premises that runs Azure services and will support certain services (including M365 Local – see below) in hybrid and air-gapped environments. 

In France & Germany, Microsoft have also announced National Partner Clouds. Here Azure and Microsoft 365 will be available in environments owned and operated independently of Microsoft, via Bleu in France and Delos Cloud in Germany. 

Microsoft 365 Local is perhaps the most interesting – this promises the ability to run a local version of Microsoft 365 on locally via Azure Local. For organisations with strict data requirements, this may be a solution for them to further move from traditional on-premises software to the newer SaaS offerings. 

All that said, ultimately the IP is still owned by Microsoft and it remains to be seen exactly what level of control they – and the US - will still have over the use of their products in these new environments. 

See the Microsoft announcement here - Announcing comprehensive sovereign solutions empowering European organizations - The Official Microsoft Blog 

SQL Server Reporting Services retirement 

With the upcoming release of SQL Server 2025, there will not be a new version of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Instead, Power BI Report Server will be the default – offering new features including PBIX reports, data modelling, and custom visuals. 

There will be an interesting licensing change as the Microsoft announcement states that “when SQL Server 2025 becomes generally available, any customer with a paid SQL Server license will have access to Power BI Report Server” while SSRS is currently limited to Enterprise edition customers with Software Assurance. 

It’s not an immediate switch as SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2022 will continue to receive security updates and support until?January 11, 2033. 

Microsoft announcement - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/blog/2025/06/19/enhancing-reporting-and-analytics-with-sql-server-2025-tools-and-services/  

New AI Pay As You Go (PAYG) SKUs for Microsoft Purview 

Microsoft first introduced Pay As You Go (PAYG) aka Consumption SKUs for Purview in January 2025 and now, from May 1, 2025 there are a new set. These new SKUs are aimed at protecting “your data as it moves across networks and through GenAI applications“. 

The * is to note that Audit Standard is included within “Microsoft first party applications such as Microsoft 365 applications, Fabric, and Microsoft first party AI apps like Microsoft 365 Copilot, Security Copilot or AI applications custom-built using Copilot Studio“. 

You can see the Microsoft announcement here New Purview pricing options for protecting AI apps and agents | Microsoft Community Hub and pricing here Pricing - Microsoft Purview | Microsoft Azure 

Windows Server 2025 gets on-premises Hotpatching…at a price 

Hotpatching – the ability to install patch updates without needing to restart the server – has been available in Microsoft Azure for some time. It is now coming to on-premises Windows Server 2025 machines…for a fee. 

This new capability requires connection to Azure Arc and has been free in preview but, from July 1 2025, costs $1.50 per core per month. That’s over $100,000 per year for 100 x 64 core servers…if you enrolled into the Preview but don’t wish to continue, make sure you’ve unenrolled to avoid being charged (further)! 

Interestingly, the feature doesn’t remove reboots completely but instead reduces them from 12 per year to 4. 

Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations license enforcement 

Microsoft announced back in March 2025 that license enforcement measures were being introduced for Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O) applications in 2025. 

• April 30th saw admins gain access to reports (in the Power Platform admin centre) showing licenses assigned and licenses used. 

• September 1st 2025 will see unlicensed users will receive notifications telling them to contact their admin to request a license. 

• November 1st 2025 will bring enforcement of this, preventing unlicensed users from accessing the F&O apps. 

Customers with renewals of the F&O apps in FY25 Q4 (April – June 2025) or FY26 Q1 (July – September 2025) will receive a 12-month grace period on the above. 

The applications in question are: 

• Finance  

• Finance Premium  

• Supply Chain Management  

• Supply Chain Management Premium  

• Commerce  

• Project Operations (in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations)  

• Human Resources 

You can see the Microsoft announcement here - Simplifying License Management for Dynamics 365