Category: licensing

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Microsoft Online Services


Microsoft Online Services are getting ever closer to being a reality in the corporate world, with the official US launch on Monday (17-11-08). The UK launch will follow in the Spring so around March/April 2009.

The first acronym was SAAS or “Software-As-A-Service” with perhaps the biggest example being Salesforce.com, the CRM system. This is an online only model where the customer doesn’t have anything “on-premise” (installed at the customer site) and instead it is all in the “Cloud” (the internet). Microsoft realised that that doesn’t always suit all customers..they often like to have at least some portion of the software installed on-premise too, be it for Disaster Recovery, integration with other existing systems, high levels of customization and many other reasons so they invented Software+Services. The “Plus” is the key..customers can have the software on premise, in the cloud or a mix of both giving them a greater level of flexibility.

Microsoft Online Services AKA BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) provides corporate users with Microsoft hosted versions of the software, accessed via the internet. The products included in the BPOS Suite are:

  • Exchange Online
  • Sharepoint Online
  • Office Communications Server (OCS)*
  • Live Meeting

*It’s to be noted that OCS isn’t available as yet and will be making an appearance a little while into 2009.

Mary Jo Foley has a new post with info on future S+S offerings from Microsoft. Their stated aim is to have a web-based service to match all their exisitng on-premise offerings and it looks like ForeFront Security and System Center Management tools are the next in the line up. This would likely encompass anti-virus, web/content filtering, firewalls, online backup, disaster recovery and more-quite a good string to their bow.

Some people might wonder what the point of this is and while there are many reasons that customers will looks at BPOS, here are what I see as the 2 key drivers.

The Small to Medium Business (SMB’s)

I first took a real look at BPOS over at the WPC in Houston and right away I could see the potential for SMB’s. These are customers typically around the 50-100 user mark (although they could be smaller/bigger) who love the features of (usually) Sharepoint server and can see that collaboration, enhanced search, wiki’s, portals and more would benefit their business by increasing efficiency. However, they often can’t afford the initial monetary outlay for Sharepoint and/or don’t have the people to deploy, configure and maintain a Sharepoint installation.

Typically this brings an end to the matter until the customer increases in size to make the internal administration do-able or they find a chunk of cash down the back of the sofa 😉 BPOS however, will be a perfect solution as it can resolve both the afore mentioned issues.

Because BPOS is hosted at Microsoft’s DataCenters in The Cloud, the customer doesn’t need to worry about learning the skills to deploy and configure the software at installation, ensuring they have the people and time to perform ongoing maintenance, deploying updates & patches-Microsoft will take care of all that.

Because BPOS is charged on a monthly basis, this allows customers to spread the costs over the course of the 12 months, rather than paying it all in one hit up-front.

The Busy Corporate

In some ways this is similar to the first example but it applies to bigger companies. Most corporates around the 300+ user mark have a very long to-do list..upgrade network switching, implement SAN (Storage Area Network), desktop refresh, move to a virtual infrastructure and so on. Added into/onto a list like this, deploying something such as Sharepoint or Office Communications Server can seem a daunting, perhaps impossible task to system admins. They’ll need to purchase and deploy new servers, perhaps upgrade parts of the network to cope with the increased demand, add extra security and plenty more which can mean that the timescales for deployments such as this are quite lengthy and keep growing.

BPOS can cut through all that. The busy admins don’t need to do anything other than grant users access to the services. As they don’t need to deploy, upgrade or install anything-the implementation timescales can be drastically reduced, which is good for all involved.

BPOS will allow companies to realise the many benefits that these Microsoft products can offer them much quicker than is currently possible.

Although the BPOS suite includes all the mentioned products, they are also available individually which gives customers the flexibility to have, for example, an on-premise Exchange server with a Cloud based Sharepoint server. Alternatively you can have the same product both on-premise and online so a big corporate HQ could have Exchange onsite, while their satellite offices could use the MS hosted version.

As for the licensing side of things, I do have some info. Customers that have current Software Assurance (SA) will be able to purchase the services at a reduced cost to reflect their already increased investment in MS technology, and they will need to keep their SA current alongside their BPOS licensing. This means should they choose to move away from BPOS at a later date, they will still be fully licensed for the most current perpetual versions of the software too. Customers that don’t have SA will have to purchase a User Subscription Licence (USL) to gain access to the BPOS suite. Should they choose to revert back to soley on-premise software, they won’t retain any entitlement to the software (as it is a non-perpetual subscription).

Many people view S+S as a bit of a black art or perhaps a fad but I really think this is a watershed moment for anyone that uses software. The companies that embrace Software+Services from the start, be they MS partners or end users, will really have an advantage over their competitors in the long run. As a Microsoft Gold Partner I’m very excited about the new things that BPOS will bring along 🙂

*Update* I heard today direct from Microsoft that Dynamics CRM will be available as an online version in July 2010, so a little while yet.

If you have any questions or comments about moving to a Microsoft hosted solution, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll help you out as best I can!

Cheers

Rich

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Microsoft System Center Essentials


Microsoft System Center Essentials (SCE) 2007 SP1 is a management product suite designed for the medium sized business.

System Center Essentials 2007 provides a unified management solution that enables IT professionals in midsize organizations to proactively manage their IT environment with increased efficiency.

  • Unified Experience
    Essentials 2007 provides a unified solution to help optimize the experience of performing a broad set of tasks across your entire IT environment. You also get a single console from which you can view and manage your servers, clients, hardware, software, and IT services.

  • Proactive Management
    Essentials 2007 accelerates troubleshooting and problem resolution. It’s a self-managing solution that notifies you as soon as a problem occurs, then helps you proactively diagnose and fix it, accelerating problem resolution. Essentials 2007 also automates system updates and data collection for your IT environment, so it’s more secure and up-to-date.

  • Increased Efficiency
    Essentials 2007 simplifies complex management tasks like packaging and deploying software, adding Web site monitoring, and creating and configuring group policy. Essentials 2007 wizards also help you quickly and easily configure security settings, deploy updates, and discover assets.

System Center Essential 2007 is limited to managing 30 servers and 500 clients, these can be physical and/or virtual. Microsoft also say that while there are no actual limitations on how many SNMP capable network devices you can manage, performance paramaters may limit you to approx. 75 devices.

To manage additional devices you can purchase further Management Licence (ML) packs (up to the 30 servers/500 clients limit) but “all purchases of additional ML license packs must be made through the same channel on which the Essentials Server was purchased; additional ML License Packs purchased through Volume License will not work on Retail and OEM Essentials Server installations”.

If you grow beyond the limit of 30 servers and 500 clients, you can migrate to the full versions of System Center Operations Manager and System Center Config Manager. More info can be found here.

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Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Released


Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 has been Released To Manufacturing (RTM’d)!

An evaluation version can be downloaded here.

Zane Adam, Senior Director of Virtualizatio Strategy over at MS Redmond said:

“They are seeing the many cost reduction and management simplification benefits of Hyper-V and the SCVMM 2008 integration with the rest of System Center.   Now that RTM is official, I fully expect the rate of Hyper-V deployments to further accelerate.  Through the SCVMM 2008 console, administrators can see the entirety of their data center infrastructure – physical or virtual. SCVMM 2008 facilitates key functions like P2V (physical to virtual) migration, Intelligent Placement (selecting the best virtual host for a VM), and managing Hyper-V host clusters, to name just a few.  SCVMM 2008 works closely with its siblings – particularly SC Ops Mgr – in identifying consolidation candidates and in Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO), a new feature in which SCVMM 2008 can alert and recommend solutions to administrators about failing virtual machines or hardware.  As I mentioned above, this comprehensive view extends throughout the data center as SCVMM 2008 is capable of seeing and managing VMware ESX infrastructure through Virtual Center.”

The full transcript is here.

This is really great. SCVMM is always an integral part of conversation I have with customers artound Hyper-V and once the new version is available (1st of November 2008) I agree that many projects will start moving and being implemented.

Watch a silverlight demo and see the features yourself.

I saw this via Clive Watson’s blog.

What will SCVMM 2008 do over SCVMM 2008?

Virtual Machine Manager can manage multiple VMWare ESX VirtualCenter licences from one place, something that even VMWare can’t do !VMWare are working on it but it will be just a web console and not as fully featured as Microsoft’s VMM.

Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) is another key feature that puts VMM over ESX. Matt McSpirit explains it well:

“Take an example of a virtualised Exchange Server.  If a service crashes inside that VM, and that service is an Exchange related service, and that service crash results in a CPU spike.  The VM is still running, but now, it’s consuming more resource, so DRS chooses to move it.  It does the same on it’s new host, so DRS moves it again.  SC Operations Manager would identify the crash as being an Exchange issue, and fix the crash, rather than move the VM, even if that VM is running on a VMware infrastructure”

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Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD)


Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD) is a unique way to licence Windows OS on virtual machines (VM’s) as part of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

The desktop OS (Operating System) images are held on a server and users access them via PC or Thin Clients*. You can have an unlimited number of OS instances on the server, these can be Vista or downgraded to XP, it is licensed by Device and you can have 4 virtual instances per access device at a time.

VECD is priced on a per device per month basis (so 100 users = 1200 units x price) for a minimum of 1 year.

A link to the Microsoft page which includes various datasheets can be found here.

Running Virtual Instances on the desktop is becoming more and more common and, of course, poses it’s own problems when it comes to licensing. You must have a separate OS licence for each VM as well as the OS licence for the physical machine.

If VECD isn’t an option for whatever reason, you can run OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)/FPP (Full Packaged Product) inside the VM to give you the OS licences. However if your corporate standard is still XP (as it is with many companies) it gets a bit trickier! You won’t find an OEM or FPP copy of XP now so you will have to start with Vista and downgrade to XP:

1) Buy a volume licence for Vista= NO. The Desktop OS volume licence is UPGRADE ONLY and as a VM is a clean machine, yo’re not eligible to install an upgrade.

2) Buy an OEM Vista licence= NO. Although OEM licences of Vista Business/Ultimate give downgrade rights, you’re not eligible for OEM licensing as they’re not being installed on a “new” physical machine.

3) Buy an FPP copy of Vista and enrol it in to Software Assurance (SA)= YES. Enrolling an FPP licence into SA** grants you Downgrade Rights, so you can take Vista down to XP and it’s a full copy so you can install it in a new clean VM.

* PC’s MUST be covered with Software Assurance (SA) to be eligible for VECD.

**You have a time limit to enrol the FPP copies into SA. 90 days for Open Licensing, 30 days for Open Value/Select/Enterprise Agreements.

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Downgrade MS Vista to XP


“How do I downgrade MS Vista to XP” is a question I hear quite often at work (although less recently so it looks like Vista is gaining ground!), so I thought I’d make a quick post on how it’s done.

Can I downgrade?

In most cases yes. All Microsoft volume licenses include “Downgrade Rights” as do the OEM licences for Vista Business & Vista Ultimate. The Downgrade Chart can be found here. Vista Business & Ultimate can only be downgraded to XP Pro, XP Pro 64-bit or XP Pro Tablet…NOT Windows 2000.

How do I downgrade?

You can use any XP Media and also any previous XP Pro licence key (VLK), even one that has been used before. This prevents you from activating online so you’ll need to call the Product Activation Centre, you can get the number by selecting the “Activate by Phone” option in the installation wizard or call 0800 018 8354 and 0870 2411963 if you’re in the UK. Once they confirm you have a valid XP key, you will get a new Vista key.

Can I re-install Vista later?

Yes you can. You will need to remove the XP installation and use the original OEM Vista media.

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2010


Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 has got a great page over at the MSDN site. VS 2010 is being worked on in conjunction with the .NET Framework 4 and these together “mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft” by delivering key innovations in:

·         Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management

·         Enabling emerging trends

·         Inspiring developer delight

·         Riding the next generation platform wave

·         Breakthrough Departmental Applications

These are the pillars of Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010.

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010–Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management

Among the great new functionality in VSTS 2010:

 

·         Discover and identify existing code assets and architecture with the new Architecture Explorer.

·         Design and share multiple diagram types, including use case, activity and sequence diagrams.

·         Improve testing efforts with tooling for better documentation of test scenarios and more thorough collection of test data.

·         Identify and run only the tests impacted by a code change easily with the new Test Impact View.

·         Enhanced version control capabilities including gated check-in, branch visualization and build workflow.

Visual Studio Team System 2010 includes a new Architecture Explorer for the discovery and exploration of existing code assets and application architectures.

Microsoft are also aiming to make it easier for devlopers to catch and fix bugs, including the great “No repro” bug by “dramatically simplifying the tools required to integrate testing across the lifecycle”.

Licensing change:

In an effort to bring the various aspects of the lifecycle closer together, VS 2010 will feature a unified Development & Database product. From 1st of October 2008 (01/10/08) current Developer or Database edition MSDN subscribers can access both products via MSDN.

I want to say thanks to Brian Randell over at Plural Sight for this find

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Microsoft Enterprise CALs


Microsoft Enterprise CALs are a relatively new addition to the world of MS licensing, and from conversations I’ve had at work, I know some people are a little unsure as to what they’re for, how they’re licensed etc.

Why have they made more CALs?

A lot of people viewed the addition of these extra CALs as a way for Microsoft to make more money and make life more difficult, but that’s not the case at all. The Enterprise CALs actually give organizations more flexibilty and help reduce wasted expenditure on software.

What do they do?

The Enterprise CALs offer an extended range of features over and above the Standard CAL; this can be thing such as Unified Messaging, Call Management or Excel Services. I’ll give a breakdown of the complete differences later in this post.

How are they licensed?

There are 2 main points to this and not everyone is aware of them.

1) The Enterprise CALs are Additive, which means you must have the Standard CAL as well in order to be correctly licensed. So Std CAL + ENt CAL = 🙂

2) You aren’t required to have the same number of Enterprise CALs as you have Standard CALs. For example, if a company has 500 workers who use Outlook, all 500 will need an Exchange Std CAL. However if only 46 of those need Unified Messaging (Voicemail in their inbox etc), you would need just 46 additive Enterprise CALs so 500 Std + 46 Ent = 🙂

 

Which products have Standard & Enterprise CALs?

Exchange 2007, Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 and Sharepoint Server (MOSS) 2007.

Here is an explanation as to the differences between the Std & Ent CALs for the products listed above:

Exchange 2007:

Standard CAL gives:

  • Email, Shared Calendars, contacts etc
  • Outlook Web Access (OWA)
  • ActiveSync
  • Managed E-Mail Folders (Default)

On top of that, the Enterprise CAL gives:

  • Advanced ActiveSync Policies (with Exchange 2007 SP1)
  • Unified Messaging – A single inbox for mail, voice and fax
  • Per User/Per distribution list journaling
  • Managed E-Mail Folders (Custom)

Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007:

Standard CAL gives:

  • Presence- Instantly find and communicate with fellow workers. Use presence to see people’s online status and initiate real-time conversations
  • Federation-Establish trusted relationships between your organization and others, allowing workers to communicate via IM (Instant Messaging)

On top of that, the Enterprise CAL offers:

  • Conferencing–Experience multi-party audio/video conferencing from within Microsoft Office Communicator.
    Meeting scheduling–Instantly establish ad-hoc meetings from a variety of Microsoft Office applications.
    Conduct online meetings–Use the power of the Live Meeting client to conduct conference meetings with participants inside and outside the organization with an on premise solution.
    VOIP capabilities: Software-powered VoIP that works with your existing messaging and telephony infrastructure and can adapt to your changing business needs.
    Call Management–Give users call management capabilities like call forwarding, hold, dynamic routing, and simultaneous ringing on all commonly used phones right from their desktop.

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) 2007:

Standard CAL gives:

  • Content Management–Out-of-the-box workflows initiate, track, and report common business activities such as document review and approval, issue tracking, and signature collection.
  • Records Management–Record repository provides for the collecting, managing, and disposing of corporate records in a consistent and uniform manner based on the company’s policies.
  • Portal Site Management–Site Manager tools help personalize, deploy, and maintain portals using drag-and-drop capability.
  • Search–Extensible and customizable search of enterprise content and people.
  • Portals–Portal sites provide convenient starting points to connect your people to business-critical information, expertise, and applications.

On top of that, the Enterprise CAL gives:

  • Report Center–Broadly shares business data through personal or shared dashboards that include Microsoft Office Excel 2007 controls and key performance indicators.
  • Business Data Catalog–Discover more information through the ability to index business data and access it through your portal and search capabilities.
  • Excel Services–Help secure, manage, and control spreadsheets through a Web browser. Integrate Microsoft Office Excel as a part of your business intelligence infrastructure.
  • Forms Server–Enables the storage and organization of rich, dynamic server-based forms to gather, share, reuse, and manage information.

 

 

 

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Backup Exec 12.5 Virtual Licensing


Backup Exec 12.5 claims virtual machine licensing is a lot easier and cheaper now, but I’ve been doing some research…and that claim isn’t quite as true as it seems!

The new agents for ESX & Hyper-V are claimed to be able to back up all the Virtual Machines on a physical server..but this is only true as long as they are all file servers!

If you have any application on the VM’s such as SQL, Exchange, Sharepoint, Oracle, SAP etc, you will still need to licence each VM with an application agent and treat it like a separate physical machine…just like before.

Also, the new Virtual Agents only allow you to perform FULL backups. If you want to perform incrementals etc, you will need to buy an Agent for Windows Systems for each VM…just like before.

While the new Virtual Agents will reduce costs and complexity to some degree and they show a step in the right direction, they are by no means the revolution that Symantec indicated!

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Microsoft Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008


Microsoft Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008 is set to be released on 12//11/08 (12th November), along with Small Business Server (SBS) 2008.

What is it?

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 provides a unified Administration Console to manage an integrated IT infrastructure with the latest versions of management, messaging, and security server technologies.

EBS 2008 is aimed at medium sized businesses and the aim is that it will make your infrastructure more efficeint, cost effective and easier to manage. There are 2 version of EBS 2008..

Standard Edition includes:

  • 3 x Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition
  • 1 x Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition
  • 1 x Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007
  • 1Yr subscription to Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange
  • 1Yr subscription to Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway, Medium Business Edition

The Premium Edition includes all the above as well as:

  • 1 x Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition (making a total of 4)
  • 1 x SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition

From a licensing point of view, EBS allows up to 300 users and there is a single Client Access Licence (CAL) that gives access to all the included programmes.

Licensing:

There are two types of CAL for EBS 2008. Standard CALs for all users/devices connecting to any part of the EBS network and Premium CALS for any users/devices connecting to the PREMIUM features of EBS (so SQL Server).

Another change is that CALs will be available individually as well as in 5, 20 & 50 packs. The ability to purchase CALs on their own makes it more cost effective when adding new members of staff.

One thing to note is that you are NOT able to downgrade the components of EBS 2008 to previous versions. To this end, Microsoft have made SQL 2005 available as an EBS 20008 component to prevent any possible issues with customized Line-Of-Business (LOB) applications. This will last for approx. 1 year.

EBS 2008 aims to make medium sized businesses more efficient and cost effective, and helps to reduce the workload for system administrators. The inclusion of System Center Essentials means that admins will be able to track assets, install patches and updates, deploy software packages and more all from the EBS Central Admin Console.

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Microsoft Office Sharepoint 2007 Licensing


As a follow on to my MOSS 2007 post, here’s some information on the various versions and how they are licensed…hope it helps!

The main and most common edition is:

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007: This is licenced with a single server version and then 2 editions of Client Access Licences (CAL)-Standard and Enterprise. It is the CALs that determine which features are avilable to the users and they are “additive” meaning you must have both the Standard AND Enterprise CALs to receive the Enterprise features, which include:

  • Line of Business Data Search
  • Business process and forms capabilities (such as Web-based Microsoft Office InfoPath forms)
  • Business intelligence capabilities (including report center sites, the ability to build interactive dashboards, and Excel Services)

 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet sites: This version is licensed per server only and is used for running extranets and internet sites. This means it cannot be accessed by internal employees “creating, sharing, or collaborating on content which is for internal use only”. As there are no CALs required, this edition includes the functionality of both the Standard AND Enterprise editions.

Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007: This licensed via the Server/CAL model so each client accessing the server needs a CAL.

Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 for Internet sites: As with MOSS 2007, this is per server licensing only, cannot be used for internal only projects and includes full Enterprise functionality.

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