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Volume 3, Issue 7 - July, 2008 - © 2008 by Moose Logic, All Rights Reserved
Cover Story: Vacation Tip: Traveling With Your Pet
Microsoft Licensing 101
FUN WITH FENWICK WINNER!
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(Moose Views is a monthly newsletter prepared by Moose Logic to bring you information and tips on maintaining a trouble-free network)
Vacation Tip: Traveling With Your Pet
Traveling with your pet doesn't have to be stressful if you plan ahead. Be sure to keep these tips in mind
when you are headed out on your next family vacation.
Make sure that whatever accommodations you've booked will allow pets. Many hotels welcome small pets, but you often have to pay an extra deposit. It is not a good idea to try to sneak your pet into a hotel room that prohibits animals, as the penalties are often quite steep.
If you are traveling abroad, find out which vaccinations are required. You will have to get your pet a current rabies vaccination for all travel abroad and to return to the United States. Other types of vaccinations are required depending on where you are going. Ask your veterinarian or the airline for more information about your specific travel destination.
If traveling by car, be sure to provide adequate conditions for your pet. Do not leave your pet unattended in your vehicle when taking a break from driving, especially if it is a hot day. Even a short time in a hot car can be fatal. Your pet will need plenty of water and a chance to move around, so plan for frequent stops.
A pet that is loose in the passenger compartment of a vehicle is at risk from sudden stops or a car accident (not to mention causing one by distracting the driver). You can also lose a pet if you open your car door before restraining the animal. Your best bet is to use a pet carrier that can fit in your vehicle. You can secure the carrier to the interior of your car by using a seatbelt or cargo straps. If your car cannot safely accommodate such a carrier, consider renting a vehicle like a van or SUV to allow you to place a larger pet carrier in the back of the vehicle.
Microsoft Licensing 101
One of the more challenging aspects of what we do here at the Moose is explain Microsoft licensing to our customers. This has never been particularly easy to explain, and it’s getting more complicated all the time, so, as a public service from us to you, here’s a quick primer on Microsoft licensing.In this issue, we’ll deal with the three broad categories of Microsoft licenses that you can purchase (note that not all products and product versions are available through all three programs):
Full Packaged Product
Full Packaged Product, often abbreviated as “FPP,” is Microsoft-speak for the shrink-wrapped software that you can buy at a retail outlet. It typically consists of installation media (CD or DVD), some kind of manual, and an End User License Agreement (“EULA”) nicely boxed up with a license key. This is also the most expensive way to buy software, and, for most businesses, should be the last resort for exactly that reason.
OEM System Builder
These are the licenses that you can get bundled with a new PC from the PC manufacturer. This is generally the least expensive way to purchase software – but it comes with significant limitations on what you can do with it. For example, you do not have the right to transfer the software to a different PC. When the PC dies or is retired, your OEM license evaporates. (Unless you’ve purchased Software Assurance for it – more on that below.) OEM licenses also do not include “Network Access Rights.” Example: Let’s say you have a branch office that connects to a Terminal Server at headquarters. You probably have some version of the Office Suite installed on your Terminal Server for the convenience of your remote users. Now let’s say that you buy some new PCs for that branch office, and you buy them with OEM Office licenses. Those OEM Office licenses do not include the right to use those PCs to connect to the Terminal Server and run Office applications remotely via Terminal Services. OEM licenses also, in all but a very few cases, do not include “downgrade rights,” meaning that if (for example) you buy a new PC with Office 2007, you don’t have the right to install Office 2003 on it instead.
Also, OEM licenses can only be legally sold with a new PC. Most of those on-line, incredibly-cheap software offers you see are for OEM licenses, as you’ll see if you read the fine print. The Microsoft System Builder Agreement states that if the license is application (e.g., Office) or server software, it must be sold with “A FULLY ASSEMBLED COMPUTER SYSTEM.” And since September 1, 2005, that has also been the case with desktop operating systems like Windows XP and Vista. Companies who advertise OEM licenses for sale any other way are in violation of their Microsoft agreement just by advertising them, and it is a violation of the license agreement for them to sell the licenses to you and for you to use them. For a really good explanation of what you can and cannot do with OEM software, plus links to additional information, check out
http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2005/06/06/425681.aspx.
Volume Licensing
This is the way most businesses purchase their licenses. You’re basically buying nothing more than a license agreement that comes with a product key – no installation media, no manuals. (Installation media can be purchased for a low shipping & handling cost—typically $35 or so.) In the beginning, the volume license program was tiered into three levels: A, B, and C. Every product had an associated “point value” – for example, a copy of Windows Server Standard counted as 10 points, a Server CAL counted as 1 point, etc. – and you had to place a qualifying order with a minimum number of total points to open a volume license agreement, and your discount level (A, B, or C) was determined by the number of points in your qualifying order.
After a few years, Microsoft decided it was in their best interest to make it easier for people to buy Volume Licenses (it is, after all, less expensive to sell a paper license than it is to put a CD and manual in a box and ship it to a retailer), so they changed the rules and introduced something called “Open Business.” To get into an Open Business agreement, all you had to do was buy five licenses – for anything. A server plus four CALs would work. The price was set at what used to be the “B” discount level, and level “A” was eliminated altogether. The old point system is still there, though, and if you buy enough licenses to qualify for what used to be the “C” level, you’ll get a little better price – although it’s now called “Open Volume.”
Once you’ve opened a Volume License agreement, you can continue to purchase additional licenses under that agreement for a period of two years, and there is no minimum purchase requirement. You can buy a single server CAL if you want to.
When you purchase your Open Business or Open Volume licenses, you have the option of buying them with or without “Software Assurance.” Software Assurance brings a variety of benefits, and you can get more information on all of them at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/default.mspx, but the most obvious benefit is upgrade protection. If a new version is released while your Software Assurance coverage is in force, you’re entitled to the upgrade.
The coverage period is co-terminus with your Open License agreement. So, if you’re buying your licenses with Software Assurance, it’s not to your benefit to add licenses to an existing agreement. You pay the same for a license purchased with Software Assurance regardless of whether you buy it at the beginning of a two year Open License term, or whether you add it onto an existing agreement on the day before it expires. Either way, your Software Assurance coverage ends when the agreement expires. So, if you’re buying licenses with Software Assurance, always open a new agreement if you possibly can (even if you have to buy a couple of CALs that you really don’t need). That way you’ll get the full two years of coverage.
When the agreement expires, you have the option of renewing your Software Assurance for another two years. If you don’t renew, you still get to keep using the licenses – you just lose the Software Assurance benefits. The only times that you can buy Software Assurance by itself (i.e., not bundled with a license) are (1) when you are renewing it for an additional term, or (2) when you are adding Software Assurance to an OEM license, which you can do if you do it within 90 days of purchasing the OEM license. (I told you we’d get back to this.) This can be a good thing, because adding Software Assurance to an OEM license removes all of the restrictions we discussed above, and gives you the same rights as if you had purchased those licenses under a volume license agreement in the first place.
Microsoft’s research has indicated that, on average, their customers tend to refresh servers and server products roughly every four years, and desktops and desktop products roughly every three years. Software Assurance is priced accordingly: On a server product (e.g., the Server OS, or Exchange, or SQL), Software Assurance will cost you approximately 25% per year of the underlying cost of the license. Therefore a license purchased with Software Assurance under a two-year Open Business or Open Volume agreement will cost roughly 1.5 times as much as that same license purchased without Software Assurance. On a desktop product, the cost is approximately 33% per year, so, for example, an Office license purchased with software assurance under a two-year Open Business or Open Volume agreement will cost roughly 1.67 times as much as that same license purchased without Software Assurance.
Confused yet? It gets better. A few years ago, Microsoft introduced something new called Open Value. An Open Value agreement is a three-year agreement, and Open Value licenses can only be purchased with Software Assurance. However, you get to spread the payments out and pay 1/3 of the license cost up front, 1/3 on the first anniversary, and 1/3 on the second anniversary. Unfortunately, the difference in the term of the agreement means that it’s really difficult to compare prices. As we said earlier, an Office license with Software Assurance purchased under an Open Business or Open Volume agreement would cost roughly 1.67 times as much as the same license purchased without Software Assurance. Under an Open Value agreement, if you add up all three payments, the factor is 2x rather than 1.67x. At first blush, you’d conclude that the Open Value license is more expensive…but remember that under an Open Value agrement you’re getting three years of Software Assurance coverage, not two. So over the long haul, you’re not paying any more, assuming that you want to keep your Software Assurance coverage in place on an ongoing basis. Plus there is some value in being able to spread the cost out in three annual installments, and you can add licenses to your agreement during the second and third years at a pro-rated cost.
Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced a brand new license type called Open Value Subscription. Here’s the difference between Open Value and Open Value Subscription. Under an Open Value agreement, just as in the case of an Open Business or Open Volume agreement, you are buying “perpetual” licenses. You get to choose whether or not to renew Software Assurance at the end of the agreement term but if you choose not to renew, you still own the licenses and have the right to continue to use them – you just lose your Software Assurance benefits. Under an Open Value Subscription agreement, the annual payments are substantially lower, but the licenses are “non-perpetual” - you do not have the right to continue to use the software when the agreement expires, unless you either renew the agreement for another term, or make a buy-out payment.
This is not an exhaustive list: there are special agreements for schools and campuses, and special agreements for service providers (e.g., third parties that provide hosted services). Companies with 250 or more desktop PCs may also find that an Enterprise or Select license agreement better fits their needs. If you fall into that size category, you can find more information at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/midsizebusiness.mspx.
These agreements are sold only through a limited number of “Large Account Resellers.”
Microsoft itself is also providing more and more hosted services. One of the major product announcements to come out of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference earlier this month was for the new “Business Productivity Suite,” which will consist of Exchange Online, Office SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online, and Office Live Meeting, for a cost of $15/user/month. Microsoft has other hosted services around Exchange, including spam/virus filtering, archiving services, continuity, and encryption services (see http://www.microsoft.com/online/exchange-hosted-services/overview.mspx). You can expect more announcements in the coming months as Microsoft builds out its hosted service offerings.
And since Microsoft is committed to going to market through their channel partners (like Moose Logic), you don’t have to call lots of different people to figure out what the best license model is. You can just call us, and we’ll sit down with you and have a business discussion and help you determine the license model that best fits your business needs. When it comes to Microsoft licensing, one size doesn’t necessarily fit all, which is why you have so many choices, and why we make it our business to help you make the right choice.
FUN WITH FENWICK WINNER!
The first annual Fun With Fenwick contest was won by Ms. Victoria Haas of
Windows Doors & More. In honor of
Victoria’s achievement, Fenwick himself made a rare public appearance to deliver a gift basket to her office.
Our thanks to Victoria for participating, and to office manager Craig Lundgren for letting us disrupt his office
for a few minutes of fun! Could you be next year’s winner?
