Microsoft Licensing is often confusing and complex. The various license options include VLK, Open License, SPLA, End User Licenses, OEM, and many others I don't know off the top of my head. FastServers.Net partiicipates in the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program and I thought I would take a few minutes to discuss how this works and some various options that are avaialble to you.
First the SPLA which is how we provide most customers licenses provides a simple "pay-as-you-go" solution for Microsoft software. During your dedicated server configuration options it is assumed you will be utilizing the software rental program (SPLA) licenses with your dedicated or colocation services. The pay-as-you-go software allows us to provide you the media and license to run your applications. The main features of this type of software license is simplicity and low monthly fee for expensive Microsoft Applications.
It is possible that you provide your own license for your dedicated server, but not without meeting certain criteria which is covered next:
Option 1: The software can be used for 1 Organization and it's affiliates.
Option 2: There is no mixing and matching, if you provide one piece of purchased software the rest of the software must conform to the same model.
Option 1 allows single organizations using our dedicated servers for their organizations web site, application hosting, and other uses the ability to provide their own licenses. It does not allow web hosting providers or SAAS (Software As A Service) Providers to use End User Licenses. Web Hosting Providers and SAAS Providers are required to either rent the licenses from FastServers.Net or signup for the SPLA program directly from Microsoft.
Option 2 doesn't allow FastServers.Net to provide the Operating System and the rest of the applications are purchased or provided by the organization. Simply put if you are going to provide the software you need to include the Operating System too!
The Ecnomics of Microsoft Licenses
Let's take for example the rental of Microsoft Windows 2003 Server. To purchase this software through the cost would be roughly $699.00 for a standard license. The monthly fee for this service from FastServers.Net is $30.00 per month. $699.00/$30.00 = 23.3 months of service or roughly 2 Years. Although for some organizations that have already established Volume Licenses with Microsoft the one time fee of software may be much lower and the thus making more sense.
Keeping it Legal
If you are going to provide licenses for use on your dedicated server it is required we jump through a few hoops to keep things legit and on the legal side. Our team of Sales Engineers will require the following from you...
1.) The original media for the software we are installing.
2.) A receipt of purchase from the vendor you purchase the software.
3.) Authority to include your server as part of a regular Microsoft License Audit.
Software and licenses will be returned to you and recorded in our system. This makes our reporting and audits a simple process and insures the software we are installing on our network is legal.
To avoid problems here are a few tips...
1.) Don't buy Microsoft Software from Ebay or Websites selling it at an unbelievable low price. I would encourage you to stick with larger suppliers such as http://www.cdw.com or www.insight.com for your software purchases. From time to time we hear of customers purchasing so called legal copies of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise for $500.00 from some website.
2.) Don't send MSDN versions of your software. These are for testing purposes in house and we do not provide "testing" servers or allow this type of license on our network.
3.) Don't buy one copy and expect to use it multiple times, your purchase agreement provides you one instance of installation per purchase.
4.) Don't be shady! Our team of engineers are pretty keen to Microsoft License Program and their goal is to keep it legal. If we suspect that the requirements are not being met we will question it to help you work towards compliance.
FastServers.Net doesn't claim to be the upmost authority on Microsoft Licenses, but we have spent some time educating ourselves on the basics. We also have a wonderful Microsoft contact named Maureen that helps us at a moments notice to get through some of the tough questions.
Microsoft Licensing when applied correctly works to help organizations like yours deploy servers with FastServers.Net in a cost effective mannner. Paying the correct amount for the right type of deployment is important to our team. If in doubt the SPLA which is provided by default will meet all compliance. Responsibility for all other types of licenses fall on your organization. If you have further questions about this do not hesitate to email sales@fastservers.net
We have developed a SPLA FAQ (Frequently Asked Question’s) Document that can be downloaded for more in depth questions.
Microsoft SPLA FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
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