Support loophole undermines Microsoft’s new ‘flexible’ licensing
Microsoft has overhauled the way large businesses license its products. The firm is billing it as a simplification process, but there are already some notes of protest because it effectively locks customers into three-year support deals.
The move is part of an overall programme to simplify licensing options: according to The Register website, Microsoft now offers 26 schemes compared with more than a hundred last year.
The new system, Select Plus, is aimed at businesses with more than 250 computers. The idea is that it makes it easier for firms with separate departments (or even separate locations). Such firms can now get the cheaper per-unit price from a company-wide deal, but can still allow individual departments flexibility over their computer purchasing and licensing. They should also find it easier to keep track of the paperwork because there’ll be a single licence for the whole firm.
However, one of the main selling points – that the Select Plus deal doesn’t have a fixed term, so companies can fit it around their purchasing schedule – is undone by the less flexible maintenance deals.
Firms which want support and maintenance on their Microsoft software must sign up to the Software Assurance scheme, which also entitles them to free upgrades when any new edition comes out. The problem is that Select Plus customers can only join Software Assurance for a fixed three-year term.
This means firms must either decide to go without support, or sign up knowing they’ll have to stick with the licensing for three years unless they want to effectively throw away some of the money they paid out for support.
It’s understandable why Microsoft wants to make their licensing more flexible for businesses: they’re facing a growing challenge from rivals offering a pay-as-you-use subscription model. But that flexibility is inherently limited when support packages don’t work on the same basis.
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