IT Solutions

Microsoft Licensing

The way Microsoft licensing is explained
is confusing to say the least, If you read
through the sections provided by Bryan
S Ryan we hope you will gain a better
understanding of the options open to you.

Microsoft Solutions
Microsoft Licensing

The way Microsoft licensing is explained is confusing to say the least, If you read through the sections provided by Bryan S Ryan we hope you will gain a better understanding of the options open to you.

A software licence gives a person (or an institution) the right to use a software product in a particular way. The terms of the licence agreement describe the permitted uses of the software. Copyright law also limits how a person may use the software. A person needs a licence for each software program he or she installs on a computer. Exploring the options available to you with Microsoft Licensing is not an easy task. Being heavily criticised for the complex structure has prompted Microsoft to change the way some of its licensing models work.

In an attempt to provide you with the latest information, Bryan S Ryan have written their own pages outlining the various licensing models available to today's businesses with recommendations on the licensing model your business should follow dependant on your size and needs. Please click on a link to see the options open to you today. If you have a query about licensing and would like to speak with one of our qualified licensing experts please call us on 01 4047900

Microsoft Licensing
Full Packaged Product

Microsoft full-packaged products (FPP) are suitable for home users and organisations with less than five desktop PCs. The licence itself, called an End User Licence Agreement (EULA) is a printed document that is found in the box with the software discs and a manual. Fully Packaged products may be purchased from local retailers or preferred resellers. Examples of fully packaged products are to the right.

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 Please Note: Fully Packaged products will always come in a printed box containing the CD or DVD, a manual and an EULA. Although more expensive than other forms of Microsoft Licensing, the FPP version may be transferred from one PC to another as long as the EULA, manual and media accompany the transfer to the other PC.

Microsoft Licensing
OEM

An "OEM" licence is a licence distributed by an Original Equipment Manufacturer, or an "OEM." An OEM is a person or company who builds and sells computers. Some OEMs also distribute software, especially operating systems such as Microsoft® Windows. OEM licensing is cheaper than FPP but has more restrictions on its use and transfer.

When software is pre-installed on a new desktop PC the End User Licence Agreement (EULA) must be accepted when you first turn on the desktop PC. This type of licence is an agreement between the PC manufacturer and the end user. Legal and genuine software that has been pre-installed will also have a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) attached to the chassis and will include the media (software discs) and manuals.

An OEM product is "married" to the original PC on which it was installed. Current OEM licences are not transferable from one machine to another. The software cannot be moved from PC to PC, even if the original PC it was installed on is no longer in use. This is true for all OEM software - operating systems and applications. Examples of OEM products are to the right:

Please Note: OEM products are intended to be pre-installed on hardware before the end user purchases the product. They are "shrink wrapped" and do not come in a box like the retail products do. One main difference from the FPP is that an OEM operating system licence (such as the licence for Windows) cannot be transferred from its original PC to another PC. Also, when a customer purchases an OEM product, the OEM licence requires the OEM to provide support for the product.

Generally, you may upgrade or replace all of the hardware components on your computer and maintain the licence for the original Microsoft OEM operating system software, with the exception of an upgrade or replacement of the motherboard. An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a "new personal computer." Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from one computer to another. Therefore, if the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect then a new computer has been created, the original licence expires, and a new full operating system licence (not upgrade) is required. This is true even if the computer is covered under Software Assurance or other Volume Licence programs.

End User Licence Agreements (EULAs) vary among products and you should check the EULA for each product before installing them. In general, OEM server and OEM desktop operating systems have similar EULAs, e.g., they are generally non-transferable and there are normally no downgrade rights.

Microsoft Licensing
Open Licences

The most common type of licence sold to small businesses is called the Open licence, an entry level licence offered to businesses with a minimum of just 2 PCs who need a minimum of 5 licences. An example of a typical purchase is someone with 2 PCs wanting to upgrade both machines with XP Professional, adding Office 2003 and then adding Project 2003 to the portfolio.

Whether you have just 2 PCs or 250 PCs Microsoft Open Licence is a flexible licence for small to medium-sized organisations that would like to buy Microsoft software licences outright. On purchasing an Open licence, the product purchased is yours for life (perpetual) with the whole payment being made on purchase. With the initial order made, you enter into an Open Licence agreement which lasts two years. All this means is that you are entitled to purchase additional licences under this agreement at the Open Licence discounted price. Once this term expires you would have to, in effect, start again with a new agreement to gain discounts, it does not mean you have to re-purchase the licences you purchased originally.

Buying Open licences over Fully Packaged Products helps you:

• Benefit from discounted pricing.
• Order new products or additional licensing when you need it.
• Gives easy access to licence management

Charities and Educational establishments gain greater benefits by even further reduced pricing. The more licences you buy, the more discount you can receive. Plus, once you have made your initial purchase of 5 licences, you can buy further licences under the same agreement code in any quantity from a single licence to hundreds and have the benefit from the same discounts as the initial order.

Your licence details and activation keys or codes are safely stored and available on Microsoft's secure website, should you ever need access to them, saving you the worry of having to find them. Software Assurance (explained in detail on another page) is not included by default but can be purchased with an Open licence. The Open licence plan also has 2 sub - plans, Open Business and Open Volume, once you have the basics of the Open licence plan these sub plans are easily explained.

Open Business offers the most basic level of discount calculated purely on the amount of licences purchased. Only 5 licences need to be initially bought to qualify for the scheme. Most small businesses need not read any further. Open Volume is the part that few people understand and, therefore, switch off. But, it is quite simple when you look at the table below. It is done on a "point and pools" system, needing the purchaser to buy a minimum of 500 points from a single pool. There are only three pools (software product categories) and they are:

• Applications (desktop applications such as Microsoft Office) Systems (Operating Systems such as Windows XP Upgrade or Vista Upgrade)
• Servers (All Server software including Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server and all Client Access Licences for the server range of products.)

Microsoft assigns each product a points value based on its price range. Each licence purchased from a pool will get the appropriate points. The more points purchased in each pool, the bigger the discounts. An Example of the Points and pools system.

The above client only needed to purchase 350 licences to qualify for the discounts available from the Open Volume scheme as he exceeded the initial minimum 500 qualifying points by 30. The client will now receive discounts on any amount of further licences purchased from the Applications pool over the next 2 years.

This client only needed to purchase 250 licences to qualify for the discounts available from the Open Volume scheme as he matched the initial minimum 500 qualifying points. The client will now receive discounts on any amount of further licences purchased from the Systems pool over the next 2 years.

This client needed to purchase 454 licences to qualify for the discounts available from the Open Volume scheme as he exceeded the initial minimum 500 qualifying points by 10. The client will now receive discounts on any amount of further licences purchased from the Servers pool over the next 2 years. Each pool is its own separate entity, in other words, to qualify for discounts in all 3 pools you will need to purchase a minimum of 500 points from all 3 pools, to qualify for a discount in the servers pool you just need to meet the 500 points needed for servers.

The staff at Bryan S Ryan understand that Microsoft licensing is complex, we have qualified staff who regularly take training and complete the Microsoft qualifications to better understand all aspects of Microsoft licensing. If you are unsure of the type of licences you need feel free to call us so we can evaluate your needs.

Microsoft Licensing
Software Assurance

Software Assurance is Microsoft's term for their software maintenance program. Software Assurance can be purchased with a new licence bought through their licence program. Once purchased, Software Assurance lasts the whole of the Agreement term and can be re-purchased at the end of the term to continue to receive the benefits for a further period. Dependant on the level of licences you purchase, the benefits are great. Listed below are some of the benefits gained by purchasing Software Assurance with your licences.

New Version rights
All products available with Software Assurance qualify for New Version rights on all the licensing schemes. This means you get access to the new Microsoft software versions as they are released for the products you own Software Assurance on reducing the cost of buying new licences and allowing you to take immediate advantage of the latest technology.

Home Use Program
The Home Use Program is valid for any licensed product in the Microsoft Office range (Microsoft Office, Access, Excel, OneNoteT, FrontPage®, InfoPathT, Publisher, Visio®, Word, PowerPoint® and Project Standard Edition). Your employees can get a copy to install at home for business and personal use giving the the flexibility to work on the same version of office at home as they do at work. Please Note: This is not available to the Open Academic/Charity Software Assurance customers. There are some provisions with this scheme.

If the customer ceases to have Software Assurance or the employee ceases to be an employee then the user must stop using the software at home, uninstall it and destroy any software associated with it. The number of Home rights users must not exceed the number of licences purchased with Software Assurance and the home user must be an work user of that product installing it only once at home (i.e. single licence rights for home users) Customers must provide information on the Home users to prove eligibility, only notifying eligible users that they qualify for the benefit.

Employees will order the software from a Microsoft hosted website and pay a fullfilment fee for the software, support, shipping and handling.

Cold Server Disaster Recovery Backup
All customers with Software Assurance for Microsoft server software, as well as related Client Access Licences (CALs), qualify for complimentary 'cold back-up' server licences for disaster recovery. (Note: a 'cold server' is one reserved exclusively for disaster recovery.) Certain conditions apply:

• The back-up server on which the software is run must be turned off, except for:
  
  

  	Limited periodical testing of disaster recovery procedures and patch management on the software; or
  	In the case of an actual disaster. The disaster recovery copies of the software cannot be installed on a server in the same cluster as the production server.

  
  
• In the case of an actual disaster, the software may not be run simultaneously on both the disaster recovery back-up server and the production server, except while the production server is being recovered. When the production server is back online, use of the software under the disaster recovery licences is again subject to the conditions described here.
• Complimentary disaster recovery licences are non-perpetual. They expire when the Software Assurance for the corresponding qualifying licence or related CALs expires or is terminated. If Software Assurance is discontinued, any copy of the software installed on the cold back-up server under a complimentary disaster recovery licence must be uninstalled.
• The version, edition, and type of the complimentary disaster recovery licence and the underlying licence for the qualifying server software must be identical. For example, if the underlying licence for the qualifying server software is a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard processor licence, then the complimentary disaster recovery licence must be a SQL Server 2000 Standard processor licence.

Windows Vista Enterprise
For every Windows desktop licence covered by Software Assurance (SA), customers are entitled to one Windows Vista upgrade licence on all schemes of licensing. Organisations purchasing Software Assurance through the higher levels of licensing options such as Select and Enterprise gain even more benefits not listed here.