To keep up with the firehose of news and press releases, we’ve decided to deliver some extra news to you on the side. Some of it is an extension of our own reporting on the channel that didn’t make its way into a story, while others might be content we’ve bookmarked for later reading and thought of sharing with you. We’re doing a similar thing at IT World Canada – check it out here. Missed last week’s CDN Morning Briefing? Read it here. Today’s CDN Morning Briefing is delivered by ITWC editorial director Alex Coop.
What you need to know, right now
It’s what you need to know right now in the world of IT and tech – ’nuff said.
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Microsoft is changing its terms of service. On Aug. 1, the company published a summary of the changes to its website, but you can also read the Microsoft Services Agreement in its entirety here.
- In the header, we’ve updated the publication date to August 1, 2020 and the effective date to October 1, 2020.
- In the Using the Services & Support section, we’ve updated our account activity policy to reflect that you must sign into your Microsoft account at least once in a two-year period to keep it active, unless provided otherwise in the Microsoft account activity policy at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=2086738 or in an offer for a paid portion of the Services. We have also clarified that if your Microsoft account is closed, we may temporarily prevent creation of an account associated with the email address you provided.
- We have also clarified that if you sign into certain Microsoft services with a work or school email address, you agree that the owner of the domain associated with your email address may be notified of the existence of your Microsoft account and its associated subscriptions.
- For Service notifications, we’ve clarified that we may send Service notifications to you in order to verify your purchases.
- In the Using Third-Party Apps and Services section, we’ve clarified that by using our Services you are directing them to make Third-Party Apps and
- Services available to you. We’ve also clarified that you may be required to accept third-party terms and privacy policies before acquiring, using, requesting, or linking your Microsoft Account to any Third-Party Apps and Services.
- In the Payment Terms section, we’ve consolidated the Recurring Payments and Automatic Renewal subsections into a single Recurring Payments subsection. We will provide you with notice and instructions on how you may cancel the Services to stop future charges.
- In the Cancelling the Services subsection, we’ve clarified that cancelling paid Services stops future charges to continue the Service.
- In the Trial-Period Offers subsection, we’ve clarified that if you are taking part in any trial-period offer, you may be required to cancel the trial Service(s) within the timeframe communicated to you when you accepted the offer in order to avoid being charged to continue the Service(s) at the end of the trial period.
- For customers living outside of the United States and China, in the Contracting Entity, Choice of Law, and Place to Resolve Disputes section, we have updated Skype’s contracting entity. If you use cost-free or paid Skype Services and live in Europe, Middle East or Africa, you are contracting with Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, One Microsoft Place, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland. For all other regions, if you use cost-free or paid Skype Services, you are contracting with Skype Communications S.à.r.l, 23 – 29 Rives de Clausen, L-2165 Luxembourg.
- In the Mixer portion of the Xbox section, we’ve removed certain references to Mixer accounts. We’ve clarified that chatting, following channels, streaming, and other interactions require you to sign into an account, in which case the Mixer Service uses your existing Microsoft account. We’ve also clarified that Mixer offers the ability to sign in using a Mixer account or a third-party account (Twitter or Discord). If you use any of these accounts to sign in, you must associate the account with your Microsoft account.
- In the Cortana section, we’ve clarified that Microsoft is not responsible if a Cortana feature delays or prevents you from obtaining a service. As part of delivering the Cortana Services, Cortana may suggest and help you interact with Third-Party Apps and Services (third-party skills or connected services). You can disconnect your Cortana Service from Third-Party Apps and Services at any time.
- In the Microsoft Health Services section, we’ve removed references to the HealthVault Insights application and associated HealthVault Insights Services.
- In the Microsoft Rewards section, we’ve removed references to Microsoft Edge. We’ve clarified that Microsoft Rewards points may be shared within your Microsoft family. We’ve also clarified that we may limit the quantity of points or Rewards per person, per household, or over a set period (e.g., a day) provided that you are not disadvantaged in breach of good faith. We’ve also provided that Rewards will be emailed to the email address associated with your Microsoft account.
- We’ve added a new section titled Azure. We’ve clarified that your use of the Azure service is governed by the terms and conditions of the separate agreement under which you obtained the services, as detailed at https://go.microsoft.com/fwLink/?LinkID=522330.
- For customers living in the United States, in the Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver section, we’ve clarified that if any part of the Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver section is found to be illegal or unenforceable, the remainder will remain in effect (with an arbitration award issued before any court proceeding begins), except that if a finding of partial illegality or unenforceability would allow class-wide or representative arbitration, the Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver section will be unenforceable in its entirety.
- In the Notices section, we have added a reference to our Microsoft Trademark & Brand Guidelines
- Throughout the Terms, we’ve made changes to improve clarity and address grammar, typos and similar issues.
- In the Code of Conduct section, we’ve added another example of harmful conduct. [Updated July 10, 2019]
In case you missed it
The recent news that we maybe didn’t get to yet, or it’s the news we’ve reported on and feel is worth resurfacing. Sometimes we’ll also feature awesome stories from other publications.
HPE and SAP partner to deliver SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud with HPE GreenLake cloud services
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is partnering with SAP to deliver the customer edition of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud with HPE GreenLake as a managed service in the customer’s data centre, branch offices or colocation facilities.
“Our long history with HPE and our approach to bringing open innovation with industry-leading offerings, has always put customer needs first,” said Peter Pluim, EVP, global head of enterprise cloud services, at SAP in a press release. “The new deployment model SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, customer edition is a direct response to customers who want the flexibility and service level of a managed private cloud, but need to keep their systems in their own data centers, such as public sector and regulated industry customers.”
The new SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, customer edition will feature an optimized architecture comprised of secure, high-performing infrastructure, including compute, storage and networking technologies that are certified and pre-configured for SAP software.
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From Channel Daily News – Avaya updates its branding architecture under Avaya OneCloud [FULL STORY]
Last week Avaya officially announced that the Avaya OneCloud brand will span the entire unified communications, contact center, collaboration and CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) product families.
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From Channel Daily News – Digital Defense announces new partner program for MSPs, and improved procurement through major cloud providers [FULL STORY]
Cybersecurity solutions provider Digital Defense is launching a new partner program for managed services providers.
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Reddit recap
The MSP subreddit community is growing rapidly. It’s also a chatty bunch. With nearly 80,000 members as of today, it’s worth taking a look at what they have to say every once in a while. Here are the past week’s top posts. Click on the posts to view additional responses.
So we are taking over from another MSP and I’m a bit shocked! from r/msp
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To MSP owners that started alone; How did you get off the hamster wheel? from r/msp
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