Microsoft Boosts Partners' Internal Use Rights for Windows Intune
Since the March launch of Windows Intune, Microsoft has allowed partners 10 internal licenses, known as Internal Use Rights (IURs), to try out the service for free. Microsoft normally charges $11 per user per month for Intune.
In an interview Monday, Alex Heaton, director of product management for Windows Intune, said partners in Microsoft's Cloud Essentials program will now get 25 IURs and partners in Microsoft's Cloud Accelerate program will get 100 IURs.
The increase in IURs puts Windows Intune in line with the numbers of internal use rights Microsoft normally provides for most silver competencies (generally 25 client licenses) and gold competencies (100 client licenses.)
Microsoft partners often use IURs to test products while they decide whether they want to recommend them to customers. Partners also use IURs to train their employees and for certification exam preparation. The 10-user limit on Windows Intune limited partners from testing Intune in non-micro SMB environments without paying for additional licenses.
Meanwhile, when Windows Intune's first update, which entered the public beta stage this week, becomes available later this year, partners can look for a few changes intended for them.
Windows Intune has a console that partners can use to monitor multiple customers. According to Heaton, the new version allows partners to view information on about twice as many customers in one screen as the current version does.
In addition, the partner console shows more information about each customer than the current version does.
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| The new multi-account console in the beta version of Windows Intune provides seven data points on customer environments.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 12, 2011