The question I get asked most by customers is to explain the different options they have available to them when purchasing Microsoft licensing. If things were not already complicated enough before, now with the introduction of ‘the cloud’ and ‘SaaS’ thrown in to the mix, your options can seem even more daunting!
I realise that all the points discussed here can be found on the web, and indeed on Microsoft’s website in far greater detail than I have here, but the purpose of this blog is to attempt to explain the outline of each licensing plan that Microsoft offer, with the pros and cons of each, put simply, and more importantly, in layman’s terms.
Before I go through the various options, a good place to start on our journey is to explain how upgrades are done, as this can play a huge part in deciding which options are right for you, in a paragraph I have imaginatively entitled….
…how to upgrade your licenses (Software Assurance)
It was a happy simple time back in the 90’s, the music was great, the economy was on the up, but more importantly Microsoft had an upgrade licence…
Sound Complicated? Well that’s because it wasn’t! If you were running Office 95, and wanted to upgrade to Office 97, all you needed was an Office 95 to 97 upgrade license to take you there.
Not happy with this system, in 90 (erm something…?), Microsoft scrapped their upgrade licenses in favour of a new and improved way to upgrade your licenses; ‘Software Assurance’ was born…
‘Software Assurance’ or ‘SA’ if you’re cool, is an optional license purchased at the same time as the full licence, that allows you to upgrade to the newest version of the software for a period of 2 years. Think of it as a 2 year insurance policy for your upgrades, providing of course, that a new version of your software is released in the 2 years your SA runs for.
OK hold on to your hats, as I reveal what I believe to be the two most interesting facts about SA:-
- SA costs approximately half of what you would pay for the full license. So for example, if Office 2010 costs £200, Office 2010 with 2 years SA would cost £300.
- You are able to renew your SA every 2 years as often as you like to ensure you keep up with the latest versions.
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