Microsoft has a really complex infrastructure for deploying new features into Office 365. This deployment process, internally known as “flighting,” involves rolling out code changes across a huge base of servers— by some estimates, more than 600,000 worldwide— spread across dozens of data centers all around the world. This poses an interesting challenge. Flighting has to be automated because of the scale necessary, but with an automated tool that works at high scale, you can make a quickly replicated mistake. Think of it like shooting yourself in the foot with a machine gun.
Recently one of my customers notified me that they had noticed a change in their tenant: each user with an E3 or E4 license was now showing a possible total of 10 product activations for Office 365 Pro Plus. The limit had previously always been 5, meaning each user may install Pro Plus on up to five PCs and Macs. The release of Office applications for Windows 10, iOS, and Android devices changed things slightly; you were allowed to install on 5 PCs/Macs plus 5 tablets or mobile devices. At various times I’ve been told that the limit was 10 (5 PC + 5 devices) and 15 (5 PC + 5 tablet + 5 phone), but in any event, the user interface in the Office 365 management tools has always reported per-user activation as N installed copies out of a maximum of 5.
Immediately upon hearing this, I checked my tenants. Sure enough, now my tenant users were showing a maximum of 10 installs.
I followed up with some local Microsoft folks and was told that they were told by Office 365 support that this was a mistake, whether in flighting or configuration I’m not sure. However, two-plus days later, tenants are still showing 10 activations. I took the below screenshot a few minutes before writing this post; it shows 4 activated Pro Plus installations, with 6 more available.
I’m going to reach out directly to the O365 team to ask whether this is: a) a temporary mistake that will be reversed b) a policy change that hasn’t been officially announced or c) a restatement of the 5 PC/Mac + 5 device policy that was already in place. I’ll report back what I find out.
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