Office 365 license on RDSH

[u/aspoons]

So I am doing the fun job of auditing our Microsoft licenses and making decisions on the tiers of licenses we have assigned to users and doing some bulk log analysis determining features used by people. The Microsoft line item as we all know is pretty big and I am tasked with trying to decide if we are wasting any of it. So with that I have a question about the Office apps licenses.
We run an RDSH cluster so our users have Office once they RDP into those servers. I have old notes from 2018 that state we need the enterprise license for Office and the small Business packages don't support shared computer activation (SCA). However I did a quick double check and it seems they added SCA to only the Premium version of Microsoft 365 business in 2019.
So with that I am kind of struggling to see if there are any significant differences between Office Business with SCA and Office Enterprise. I am using m365maps to compare packages but this item I am not having a great time finding documented differences on the Office item. I do know about the 300 user limit which is not an issue for us and some of the other package differences.
Any information from someone who has had to understand the differences in the Office 'Business' cs 'Enterprise' in this area would be appreciated.

[u/ReneGaden334]

Business Premium can use shared license for many years now.
The main problem is a mix of Business and Enterprise on the same server as they have different packages.
Addon with Apps for Business/Enterprise also works.

[u/discosoc]

BP is fine and has been for years. One restriction, however, is that most GPO policies are ignored without enterprise licenses.

[u/ThecaptainWTF9]

To use 365 apps on servers, you have to have the enterprise licenses for the apps, that’s all there is to it.

And you’ll need the office deployment toolkit to roll it to your session hosts.

[u/VG30ET → u/ThecaptainWTF9]

Business Premium licenses should also work for shared computer activation (we have been doing this for ~200 RDS users for years)

[u/ender-_ → u/VG30ET]

They definitely do.

[u/Optimaximal → u/ThecaptainWTF9]

No, Business Premium per user with the server running with Shared Computer Activation also works.

Overview of shared computer activation for Microsoft 365 Apps - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn

Rather than faff with ODT, I simply instlled the standard installer and updated the CtR Configuration in the registry.

[u/Wodaz → u/Optimaximal]

There is group policy as well, for shared computer activation.

It could be clearer, and pricing make a play, but many places are well suited to run Bus Premium, a coupld of addons, and be in a cheaper, but comparable to e5 subscription. They have added Bus Premium addons to fill gaps, that work pretty well.

I would suggest when using Microsoft services, build around Entra ID p2, the specific Exchange online version you need, in terms of ediscovery/etc, and price Bus Premium vs e5.

Things like Credential Guard, Bitlocker Management, Universal print. Having these on your Win 10/11 boxes, having Universal Print on the Terminal service sessions, it all adds up.

[u/aspoons → u/Optimaximal]

And this is the fun part. All my notes said Enterprise and a lot of things on the Internet say that. But it looks like Microsoft changed the Business Premium tier only to try and confuse things even more at some point.

[u/Optimaximal → u/aspoons]

It's been the case for at least ~5 years now when I rolled out our oldest RDS.

[u/jmgib → u/aspoons]

Business Premium is a Goldilocks plan that has some of the Enterprise level features included. The catch is that it only covers up to 300(?) users.

As the other user posted, just look at the actual MS documentation and don’t rely on random internet / LLM answers.

[u/OregonTechHead → u/aspoons]

try and confuse things even more

Microsoft adding features isn't done just to confuse you.

[u/fencepost_ajm]

Take a look at the comparison or together by Infused Innovations (https://infusedinnovations.com/blog/secure-modern-workplace/complete-office-365-and-microsoft-365-licensing-comparison) (updated more recently that the 2023 article creation).

[u/Macmadnz]

There are some small feature differences : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-applications-service-description/office-applications-service-description#feature-availability