Microsoft offers many different licensing options, but they can all be classified into 3 programs:
While there are benefits to each program, Volume Licensing is the most valued program in the SMB market (5 – 500 users). There are many advantages to the Volume Licensing Program, the most important are: mobile use rights, downgrade rights, and re-imaging rights.
There are further categories within the Volume Licensing program but before we examine them, here’s a common example of a licensing dilemma.
SMB Volume Licensing Scenario
Company X wants to re-provision a server to make it a 200 user terminal server. They already have the hardware and Windows Operating System license, they just need to buy the Remote Desktop Client Access Licenses (CALs) and application licensing (Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus).
Let’s price this under the Open Business Volume Licensing program, using Microsoft MSRP pricing. Open Business is a very basic and commonly used Volume Licensing Program.
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