201907.10
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Licensing Old Microsoft Products

Businesses seeking to license older versions of Microsoft products may encounter challenges acquiring valid licenses.  This is a particular concern for some companies that utilize Microsoft products as the basis for their IT infrastructure and that want to avoid a costly migration to new software versions. Microsoft offers a number of options under its Volume…

201906.25
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Microsoft SPLA Self-Assessment – What It Is, and How to Respond

Many of our clients contact us regarding notices they received from Microsoft requesting an internal self-assessment of their license positions under their Services Provider License Agreements (SPLAs). Naturally, many of those clients have questions about that process and the ramifications of cooperating with Microsoft. For those who may be unaware, SPLA is the principal licensing…

201906.20
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SQL Server Licensing Challenges in Hosting Environments

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Microsoft does not make licensing SQL Server easy, either under SPLA or under volume licensing agreements. Here are the three most significant problems that our clients face when trying to license that product: Four-Core Minimum – Microsoft allows SQL Server to be licensed based either on physical core counts (for physical servers or virtualization hosts)…

201611.14
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Microsoft Clarifies Rules Related to Self-Hosting

I previously presented my thoughts here regarding changes Microsoft made to its Product Terms pertaining to the Self-Hosted Applications benefit under Software Assurance. After publishing that entry, Microsoft reached out to me to clarify that the principal effect of the change actually is to increase self-hosting rights by extending them to deployments hosted by a…

201609.13
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Is Microsoft Trying to Kill Self-Hosting?

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Earlier this year, with no fanfare (which is perhaps unsurprising), Microsoft implemented a significant change to its Product Terms pertaining to Software Assurance (SA) benefits that likely will have a significant licensing impact for companies that have taken advantage of the Self-Hosted Applications benefit accompanying SA. For several years now, Microsoft has allowed customers with…

201603.24
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Identifying and Understanding Microsoft License Verification Audits

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Microsoft, like other software publishers, routinely audits customers to help ensure that it is protecting the value of its intellectual property. Microsoft verifies its customers’ compliance using several methods. 1. Microsoft License Verification (also, Software Asset Management “SAM” request) In a SAM request, Microsoft assigns a third party to reach out to a customer to…

201602.23
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Microsoft Certificates of Authenticity May Not Constitute Proof of Licensing

The Business Software Alliance (“BSA”) and Software Industry & Information Association (“SIIA”) work on behalf of their members (the lists of which include Microsoft (for the BSA), Adobe, and Autodesk, among others) to enforce copyrights and the terms of end user license agreements (“EULAs”) pertaining to those members’ software products. The BSA and SIIA typically…