Hot on the heels of announcing a joint connected device push with General Electric Co., Microsoft Corp. has unleashed another round of updates at its partner conference in Toronto today. The main highlight is a pricing shakeup that is poised to make Windows 10 and the Surface Pro much more accessible to organizations.

On the operating system front, Microsoft revealed plans to make the two Enterprise editions of Windows 10 available on a subscripting basis in the fall. Pricing will start at $7 per user per month for the E3 version, which includes various low-level security mechanisms, a tool for isolating company data from users’ personal files and a biometric sign-in mechanism. It’s set to be joined by an even more privacy-centric edition called E5 that Redmond previewed last week. The release includes all the capabilities of its cheaper sibling plus a threat mitigation service Defender Advanced Threat Protection. The cloud-based tool uses machine learning technology to analyze endpoint breaches and provide detailed recommendations on how to plug the leak.

Redmond didn’t provide pricing information for Windows 10 Enterprise E5, but customers shouldn’t be too surprised if it ends up costing more than E3 given the added functionality. The only real catch is that the new subscription model will be available exclusively through Microsoft partners. However, that shouldn’t pose too much of an issue either seeing how many if not most large organizations already do much of their business with the vendor via its channel. In fact, it may even turn to be beneficial in the grand scheme of things.

The new pricing will enable partners to bundle Windows 10 with other Microsoft products and their own value-added services into a neat monthly subscription, which could greatly simplify the buying process for CIOs. Moreover, it would also make it easier to increase or decrease the number of licenses that a company uses when its operational requirements change. Redmond says that similar benefits can be achieved over on the hardware front with the new Surface Pro purchase program that was announced in conjunction, which is the other major highlight of today’s conference.

Partners will now be able to lease  out tablets together with Windows 10 Enterprise and Office 365 subscriptions for a recurring fee. The idea is to let organizations spread out the cost of their Surface Pros instead of having to pay the full price upfront, which can ease budgeting a great deal. And Microsoft says that the model also streamlines ongoing procurement since upgrades are included in the price of the lease, making it a win-win all around.

Partners, meanwhile, stand to gain a new opportunity to sell support services. They may even be able to make a handsome profit off the lease itself if Microsoft allows the total value of a contract to exceed the upfront cost of a Surface Pro. Either way, the new subscription plan is already starting to make waves in the channel: Redmond announced that IBM Corp. and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. have joined its tablet reseller program to take advantage of the model.

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