{"id":11954,"date":"2011-12-22T09:52:03","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T09:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=11954"},"modified":"2011-12-22T09:52:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T09:52:03","slug":"software-assurance-protect-your-investment-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=11954","title":{"rendered":"Software Assurance: Protect Your Investment & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is one of those subjects that can create great debate: is Software Assurance<\/a> (SA) for Microsoft licensing a real benefit that is worth the expense?  Those who bought it during the XP days may feel like they got burned.  They went a very long time without any upgrades for their desktop OS, and when Vista came along, they decided to wait for Windows 7.  In their opinion, it was money down the toilet.  On the face of it, it\u2019s hard to argue with that point.<\/p>\n

However, SA is more than just upgrade rights (even if that is the big reason) and after XP, Microsoft did add more value to SA.  If upgrade rights is the feature you\u2019re most interested in then pay attention.<\/p>\n

We happen to be in one of those sweet spots when paying for SA (some software programs such as Open Value Subscription or System Center Management Suite include it automatically)  is of most value.  We know<\/em> for certain that a whole new family of System Center 2012 is a few month away, and Windows 8 isn\u2019t all that far off in 2012.  Office, Exchange, SharePoint and Lync \u201cWave 15\u201d will probably go into beta this year meaning new versions in late 2012 or 2013, all within that window.  SQL 2012 is on the way too.  Pretty much anything you buy right now has a new version on the way.  <\/p>\n

If you are spending on MSFT licensing now to solve meet business need, then protect that investment by ensuring that you can avail of the features of the newer versions.  And if you\u2019re selling, explain that to your customer (plus the other stuff I\u2019ll cover) and you\u2019ll not only protect their best interests, but you may find yourself selling more services days to do upgrade projects.<\/p>\n

Server Virtualisation & Software Assurance<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

As I\u2019m partial towards virtualisation, let\u2019s have a look at why SA is critical here.  Let\u2019s start off with not caring what virtualisation you use; you should<\/em> be licensing your Windows Server VMs by the host using Enterprise (less likely \u2013 maximum of 4 per host, even for 1 second) or Datacenter (more likely \u2013 unlimited rights per host) of Windows Server.  <\/p>\n

With SA attached to your per-host licensing, you have rights to upgrade the OS\u2019s of any of the VM guest OSs as and when you need.  You also can deploy 1 or more new VMs with the new version of the Windows Server OS.  Consider the alternative: you don\u2019t attach SA to the host licensing.  You need to do one upgrade or you need to deploy 1 new VM with a new Windows Server OS version.  What can you do?<\/p>\n