New – Software Assurance 24×7 Problem Resolution Support incidents won’t be allocated starting February 1, 2023.
Current – Software Assurance 24×7 Problem Resolution Support incidents can be used or transferred to a Microsoft Support contract before February 1,
Microsoft published its August pricing list, which shows a roughly 15 percent increase to Office 365 prices for its Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers that don’t have an active Software Assurance (SA) plan.
Software Assurance is not support. Support for software that has been legitimately licensed is a licensing right. You are entitled to support by virtue of purchasing the license. Having said that, there is a connection between Software Assurance and support and it comes from the amount of Software Assurance spend. For each $20,000 in Software Assurance spent for the Server pool which includes Windows Server, SQL Server, CALs, etc., a single support incident is granted (yes, just one). For the […]
There is no truth to the rumor that terminating an Enterprise Agreement and/or dropping Software Assurance results in a Microsoft audit. It does, however, spotlight the company in the eyes of the rep who will have likely lost a considerable amount of compensation because of it. Humans are humans, after all, and perhaps an internal flag is waved resulting in an audit. It’s a big “maybe,” but it looms large. What’s more, the replacement rep will have the record of […]
In the situation where some of the your deployments fall under the classification of “Self Hosted Applications,” there is a requirement for Software Assurance. This is a key target for audits. But, again, certain circumstances may be negotiable – such as for sunsetted applications.
Software Assurance is typically thought of as the ability to upgrade. This is true, but it’s definitely not the whole story. Microsoft continues to evolve Software Assurance. Among the more famous examples: a) Desktop virtualization for which a Virtual Desktop Access license is not required if the Desktop O/S is covered by Software Assurance; and, b) SQL Server “trade-in” wherein Software Assurance-covered licenses of SQL Server 2008 R2 are exchanged for the equivalent number of SQL Server 2012 licenses (which […]
There is little that can be discussed about Microsoft software licensing without mentioning Software Assurance. And, of course, this applies to virtualization rights. In citing two of the examples above, we now explore Microsoft continues to evolve Software Assurance. In order to permit the primary user of a licensed instance of Windows Desktop to access that instance remotely – such as a from a kiosk, a rented device, or a personal device (i.e., tablets, smartphones) – the device must be […]