Emma Explains Microsoft Licensing in Depth!

Hi All

We will run some free Licensing events at the Microsoft office in Reading in October, there are two dates to choose from

Session 1 on the 2nd October is a beginner level broad licensing overview of Programmes and Products

2 October 2008, Reading: An Introduction and overview of Microsoft Licensing

Session 2 on the 21st October is the above plus the advanced virtualization licensing with me!

21 October 2008, Reading: Understanding Microsoft’s Server Product Licensing in a Virtual Environment

Choose wisely........... :-)

Emma

What’s happening?

We’re giving our customers greater flexibility by removing the need to wait 90 days to reassign a server application licence.

This means you can move server applications between servers in a server farm* as often as you want without paying any extra licensing fees.

We will also be offering extended support, including for third party virtualisation solutions, across 31 of our server application products.

When?

This comes into effect on September 1st 2008.

Why?

We’ve been listening to our customers and partners, who’ve been asking for this change. We are evolving our licensing rules in response to their feedback and to keep pace with rapid innovation in (and adoption of) virtualisation technologies. Waiving the 90 day reassignment rule means customers can set up far more dynamic, agile IT infrastructures that make the most of the flexibility that virtualisation offers.

On top of this, our customers will now get the same level of support in a virtualised environment that they are used to in a non-virtualised environment.

And of course, changing the rules in this way helps us to drive adoption of our virtualisation solutions.

Which products are covered?

This change only applies to licences bought through a Volume Licensing agreement.

However, customers don’t need to have Software Assurance to take advantage of the new rules.

All Server Application Products licensed in the Server and CAL Mode

All Enterprise editions of Products licensed in the Per Processor Mode

Please note that Windows Server 2008 is not in the scope of these changes.

Download the Volume Licensing brief

Read the press announcement

* Microsoft’s definition of a server farm:

A server farm consists of up to two data centres each physically located:

• in a time zone that is within 4 hours of the local time zone of the other (Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and not DST),

and/or

• within the European Union (EU) and/or European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

Each data centre may be part of only one server farm. You can reassign a data centre from one server farm to another but not on a short term basis (ie not within 90 days of the last assignment).

I attended the IT Pro Virtualisation event yesterday in London, many thanks to all of you who took the time out to attend, it was a great day filled with all that is technology, some very passionate people obviously doing jobs they love

I had many licensing questions during the day, and for all of you still interested check out my 2 posts  Server Virtualisation and Desktop Virtualisation

We also had some heated discussions about the assigning and re-assigning of licenses - Hot Topic! for us all

I am please to say that you will receive some fantastic news on the 19th as we have had a re-think on a few key areas regarding licensing in a virtual world- we really do listen!!!  :-)

Look out for my extended blog post on this next week.................

SQL Server 2008 is around the corner!!

The licensing of SQL Server 2008 will remain consistent with SQL Server 2005 with similar pricing, sighs of relief :-)

Look out for the new Web SKU which has been added to SPLA for August and will become available in Volume Licensing around the October timeframe

The notable SKU related changes for SQL Server 2008 from SQL Server 2005 are:

• Addition of a Web SKU. This is a SKU for hosting public facing web sites and applications only, and is available in SPLA and VL channels
• Individual binaries for SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition 32-bit, 64-bit and Itanium platform will be available on a single DVD as against a separate DVD for each platform.
• SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition is no longer available for Itanium processors

Note for ISVs: A nominal charge has been introduced for ISV Royalty runtime servers

The licensing model for SQL Server 2008 is also similar to that of 2005. The notable differences are:

• SQL Server 2008 licenses are no longer platform specific (32 bit, 64 bit or Itanium) and a license may be used to run the software on any these supported platforms.
• Sample code for SQL Server 2008 will be available for download from the corporate website, instead of being installed via the DVD.

For more details on SQL Server 2008 licensing visit: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/default.mspx

SQL 2008 Whitepaper

I think that everyone acknowledges software is one of the most valuable assets an organisation can own, well lets hope :-)

But, if you don't know what you have how can you make it work for you effectively and optimise your IT spend or resources?

With a Software Asset Management (SAM) programme in place, you could gain better control of your software estate and benefit from:

• · Greater cost savings
• · Free up budget for IT investment
• · More visibility across your IT estate
• · Better deployment of software to users
• · Easier ongoing software management & compliance

We have designed a Software Asset Management (SAM) Programme to help you manage your software estate effectively.

Through the Microsoft SAM programme, you can benefit from a free consultancy session with a qualified SAM partner, free SAM Basics training and work with a partner to review your software assets, validate your licenses and gain a Microsoft recognised certificate to validate your software licenses for 12 months.

Read how one of our customers took advantage of the SAM Programme to assess and maintain their assets

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/7/5/87580fc4-8321-4f5d-8da7-41a4173ec239/Bowmer_Kirkland_SAM_Case_Study.pdf

To find out more about how Software Asset Management can help you click here