Forum Discussion
Sharepoint Online - users access without licenses
Actually Dean_Gross, that's not entirely true. For internal users, you can ask Microsoft (via a support ticket) to either enforce or not enforce the license requirement for SharePoint Online.
When migrating from on premise to online, it can often be easier to not enforce the license, which is why Microsoft has made this an option.
Microsoft has also recently changed a related issue: if you have licensing enforced, those user accounts will no longer appear in the People Picker.
All of that said, it's important to remember that this is a technical way to enforce the licenses -- no matter what you choose, you are still required to purchase licenses for your internal users.
Is this a permanent soltuion/feature? Allowing internal users access to SharePoint Online prior to getting their license for SharePoint/OneDrive allows us the chance to focus on OneDrive and O365 portal adoption while continuing the migration of SharePoint sites from On-premise to SharePoint Online at a different pace. Or will Microsoft at a later date say, sorry, this option is no longer available. Note: we do have the required SharePoint licenses.
Laurie Beamish - this was described to me as a mistake someone made a few years and now it's impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
However, you're right - Microsoft could simply flip a switch without notifying anyone (the switch to not enforce it was implemented with no notification).
