21vianet - Licensing implications for global orgs with Chinese users

Question

Hello all

Is it technically possible to have identical duplicate accounts set up in both your global tenant and in 21vianet? If so, what are the licensing implications? Is that an example of double licensing/overprovisioning in which case you would be overpaying for the licenses or would you effectively be non-compliant by assigning licenses from you global tenant that cannot be legally used by in the Asian region?

Answer 1

Hello Rae Roberts,

Thank you for your question.

Yes, it is technically possible for the same person to have an account in both a global Microsoft 365 tenant and a Microsoft 365 tenant operated by 21Vianet. However, these are not truly duplicate accounts. They are separate identities hosted in two independent cloud environments.

Microsoft 365 operated by 21Vianet is a China-specific service hosted in local data centers and operated, billed, and supported by 21Vianet. It is separate from the global Microsoft 365 cloud, with its own tenant directory, service boundaries, subscriptions, and contractual arrangements. 

Therefore, the same employee may have one identity in the global tenant and another identity in the 21Vianet tenant. These accounts are managed separately, and their licenses, mailboxes, files, permissions, and other service data are not automatically shared or synchronized between the two environments.

A license purchased for the global Microsoft 365 tenant does not automatically provide service entitlement in the 21Vianet tenant, and vice versa. If an employee needs to use Microsoft 365 services in both environments, the organization will generally need to assign an appropriate license in each tenant.

This may result in two licenses being assigned to the same person, but it is not necessarily unnecessary overprovisioning if the employee genuinely requires access to both environments. If the employee only uses one environment, assigning a second license could result in avoidable cost.

For additional confirmation regarding your specific licensing agreement and compliance requirements, I recommend opening a support ticket with Microsoft or consulting your Microsoft licensing representative and 21Vianet account team. They can review your organization’s agreement, user requirements, and intended service usage before confirming the appropriate licensing model.

Kind regards,

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Answer 2

Yes, it is technically possible to set up identical duplicate user accounts across a standard global Microsoft tenant and Microsoft 365 operated by 21vianet tenant.

This requires independent identity creation or custom synchronisation