In its original guidance, the company says legacy CSP subscriptions to Microsoft Cloud services would no longer get automatic updates starting from July 11 2022. With that date fast approaching, customers have been concerned about Microsoft’s plans. They accused the company of simply trying to force users on its own New Commerce Experience subscription model. An announcement on June 27 saw Microsoft roll back its previous decision. According to the company, automatic updates for CSP subs are “extended indefinitely”. “Previously, we communicated that legacy commercial seat-based subscriptions would no longer be auto-renewed on the legacy platform starting July 11. Though our goal is still for partners to migrate legacy subscriptions to new commerce before end of term, we have made a business decision to continue supporting the legacy auto-renewal functionality beyond July 11.”
Change of Plans
Did Microsoft make this decision because customers were not taking the bait to move to New Commerce Experience plans? It seems that way, although the company insists it “has seen an acceleration of partners migrating legacy Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) subscriptions to the new commerce platform in recent weeks”. If you’re unfamiliar with New Commerce Experience models, they allow the customer to subscribe to Microsoft Cloud services and pay annually. There is no monthly plan, while may be ideal for some users but is problematic for others. New Commerce Experience subscriptions are available for Microsoft 365, Dynamic 365, and the Power Platform. It is also worth noting this change of plan does not affect a previous Microsoft block stopping new CSP subscriptions from paying monthly automatically. That block came into effect on March 10, 2022, and remains in place. Microsoft’s decision this week is strictly for older CSP subscribers. Tip of the day: For the most part, Windows apps are stable, but they can still be still thrown out of whack by updates or configuration issues. Many boot their PC to find their Microsoft Store isn’t working or their Windows apps aren’t opening. Luckily Windows 11 and Windows 10 have an automatic repair feature for apps that can resolve such issues.