Unlocking the Mystery: Virtual Desktop Licensing Explained by Industry Experts
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure licensing can be convoluted and confusing! Often organizations believe they are licensed correctly only to discover that they are out of compliance.
Join Mike Austin as he shares his insights and cuts through the confusing jargon with straight talk! Mike Austin has been involved in countless Microsoft negotiations and audits and has negotiated over $1B in software cost reductions.
Trusted globally by some of the world’s most well-known enterprise companies, MetrixData360 is the leading provider of expertise and negotiation services around Enterprise software contracts. Combining an unparalleled knowledge of the DNA that make up software agreements with the ability to understand company’s individual requirements, MetrixData360 is able to drive out significant costs and align agreements to business priorities NOT to those of software vendors and their programmatic objectives. Using technology, process and knowledge derived from the analysis and negotiation of more than a thousand contracts, we help put explanation around the unknowns that create compliance gaps and control spiraling costs associated with Enterprise software agreements.
Our Sean McIntosh was recently interviewed as he is a presenter at the upcoming Compliance Manager Summit where he will discuss how to challenge your audit findings.
Out of every $1 million in noncompliance found in a Microsoft audit, about 50 percent will be wrong, says Sean McIntosh of MetrixData360, a consulting firm specializing helping organizations with license compliance and audits.
And the worst part is that a lot of companies won’t even argue effectively.
“Some people, when they get a call from a vendor, assume they have basically no rights,” says McIntosh, a featured presenter at the 2017 Compliance Manager Summit (March 13-14 in San Francisco). “Often, when software auditors throw a lot of legal terms and conditions around, companies will just cave in, turn over their data, and pay up.”
But this is changing. More companies are challenging their audit findings, negotiating better settlements, and pushing back.
McIntosh is an expert on the tactics and grey areas that software vendors of all kinds (and their auditors) use today to drive up the cost of compliance settlements. Although he’ll go into detail at his Compliance Manager Summit session, here are a few key points.
Know the rules
“It really doesn’t matter what software vendor your dealing with because they all follow a very similar approach to audits,” says McIntosh. “They put a data request in and compare that data against their entitlement data and find the gap—the largest gap possible by applying the most conservative rules possible.” However, the first thing you should do, says McIntosh, is go back and read the contract that you signed to confirm what your rights actually are. Know exactly what data you have to turn over, how many licenses you purchased, and a host of other terms you agreed to that may enable you to lessen some of those gaps.
For example, in one audit that McIntosh worked on with a client, he found that Microsoft was applying the most current product rights and conditions, but the actual application in use was a few versions older. “When the current product use rights were applied to their SQL Server licenses the initial gap was upwards of $2 million. But when we applied the correct usage rights—the ones assigned at the time of the license agreement—their gap was really around $500K.”
Microsoft auditors will always try to impose the most current usage rights because they are almost always the strictest. “The company was within their legal rights to follow an older version of usage specifications, but it still took a lot of arguing with the auditors,” McIntosh says.
Know your own data
Although companies often will just turn over usage data (or access to usage data) to software compliance auditors, McIntosh says, not so fast!
“When you get involved with one of the boutique auditors hired by Microsoft, make sure you get an nondisclosure agreement in place that allows you to review any and all data the auditor plans to send on to Microsoft,” McIntosh cautions.
The reasons you want a data review are many, but generally you want a chance to explain any abnormalities and offer proof to the contrary, says McIntosh. “There can be a lot of technical errors in the first pull of your data, that, if Microsoft gets a stab at it they will forecast an audit finding base on it. So it’s important to work with the auditor to find simple and easily explained anomalies, supply the data to back up your story, and remove these from the final data submitted on to Microsoft.”
For example, another MetrixData360 client owned the rights to 500 copies of Microsoft Office Professional that they were not using. The client had installed 500 copies of Office Standard that they did not have entitlements for. “In a situation like this the auditor will demand that the company buy 500 copies of Office Standard, which is technically correct, but that’s not the way it really works in most cases,” says McIntosh. “In a negotiation, you can fairly quickly get that auditor to accept the licenses for Pro in place of Standard.”
Escalate above the auditors
Another tip McIntosh has for companies as a last resort to challenge their audit findings is to go over the auditor directly to the software vendor.
Okay, did I catch your attention with that title? Let me set the record straight. No, I don’t think Microsoft will fail anytime soon. Sometimes, as I’m thinking about the business or deals that I am working on, I often wonder what is going on behind the scenes at Microsoft and why they make certain decisions? In this post I’m going to try and answer some of the top questions that people ask me around why Microsoft makes some of the decisions that they do.
Why the Push to Office 365?
On the surface the answer to this question seems simple. Microsoft wants to control your infrastructure; they want to make sure you are hooked… but I really don’t think it was this simple internally at Microsoft. My guess is, there was a massive amount of real debate about a push to Office 365 (and I’m guessing it was not always a polite conversation).
Office 365 to me, was an answer to a problem Microsoft has had since the invention of Software Assurance, it was a way to force customers to upgrade. The biggest threat Microsoft has to its traditional recurring (ie. Software Assurance) revenue stream, is clients that do not renew (all or part) of the Enterprise Agreement (EA).
If you really think about it, Exchange as an online service – makes sense. SharePoint as an online service – only sort of make sense (think of all the customization that may not be easily achieved in a multi-tenant type deployment), Skype in the cloud – not sure it makes sense (ok I will give IM and presence, but Voice? I’m still not sure VOIP quality comes close to the landline) but Office in the cloud – huh? Yes they have the Office Apps but are they really much more than a glorified viewer (which were free?).
I think just looking at Office pretty much provides the full picture here. People were dropping the SA on Office, as they only deploy the product every 6 or so years. Microsoft realized this and the natural answer – push people to Office365 and make it dependent on a new version of Office. Now at this point I can see someone in the product team in Seattle going AND OH if we make a new version of Office we can force those updates on people.
Why the Push to Upgrade?
Upgrades have always been the nemesis of Microsoft. It started with Windows XP (no I don’t want to get into arguments about how bad Vista really was). No one wanted to move. Microsoft of course never understood this. I always love the comments you hear from sales reps, this customer moved in 90 days why can’t you?
Taking the clients view on this, I truly see it. Honestly, what value can they add into Windows or Office for that matter to provide business value to do the upgrade. I sometimes wonder how many people would still be running Windows XP if it was still supported, which by the way is the number one reason people upgrade these two products – end of life support! Not a good reason in my opinion (completely off topic but, if anyone from Rimini or Spinnaker reads this, please, please, PLEASE!! take on Microsoft support).
I think Microsoft’s issue has always been that, they do not see the clients’ world. Their view is so myopic of their own desires they can’t see it. The reason people can’t move (beyond finding business value) is the cost to do all the application compatibility is so cost prohibitive. End of story. Microsoft’s first attempt at address this – App-V. Virtualize guys, contain the old apps in an image and your good to go. When that didn’t work, they came up with plan B. Force it on them with Office 365.
Not a bad plan if you are a shareholder of Microsoft’s. Get them and keep them forever. The problem is, I don’t believe this plan will work. As much as Microsoft technology is important to people, I do think some unforeseen force will catch them (maybe it’s Google or Amazon or someone we haven’t seen yet) The problem for Microsoft and why I think they will fail is….. They are upsetting all their clients. Organizations are tired of the Microsoft games (Pushing products that aren’t needed into bundles and increasing prices, not negotiating in good faith, auditing and pushing unfair findings on them, etc). Eventually when someone catches them, I think the exodus could be fast. Just ask Novell (remember Netware), IBM (bye, bye Lotus Notes), Corel (WordPerfect) Perhaps someone should ask the crew from Netscape or Blackberry what happens when you take clients and your dominance for granted.
On July 1st 2016 Microsoft announced a new licensing program called Enterprise Advantage and Richard Smith who is the General Manager, Microsoft Worldwide Licensing & Pricing had this to say:
“In 2017, we will introduce Enterprise Advantage as a new way for commercial customers to buy organization-wide on the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA). Enterprise Advantage brings traditional Enterprise Agreement benefits to the MPSA and provides the best value for a three-year, organization-wide and optional platform-wide purchase:
Mix perpetual and subscription software with cloud services like Office 365, Azure, and CRM Online, organization-wide
Purchase any time, whatever you need, with no additional enrollments
Enjoy budget predictability and price protection
Buy how you want, taking advantage of your combined purchases across the organization to maximize value
But Why is Microsoft Suddenly Making these licensing changes?
Less room for negotiation for smaller organizations in the sub 2,400 users/devices space.
With the new Enterprise Advantage program Microsoft is making licensing much more programmatic for these smaller to mid-sized organizations. This means there will be less room for negotiation. Our sense is that with the new agreement the MPSA price is the price and there is little to no room for negotiation.
Reduces negotiation around terms and conditions.
With the elimination of the traditional contract stack and its “simplification” there will be less room to negotiate specific terms and conditions which are important to the client’s business. With the MPSA program the terms and conditions are basically a take it or leave it proposition.
Reduce Microsoft’s administrative Costs.
There are administrative costs associated with these licensing programs. Over the last decade Microsoft has become more and more hands on with all their enterprise class agreements and there are costs associated with this. Organizations with less than 500 users will find themselves pushed to a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP). The Microsoft Cloud Agreement (MCA) program’s lack of complexity in terms of customization will help Microsoft push the workload to their CPS Partners. These partners will wind up assuming more and more of the support and administration costs is our guess.
It potentially provides the illusion of choice to clients in the 500 to 2,400 user space.
At first glance it looks like an organization in the 500 to 2,400 user space retains a lot of the options they always have enjoyed with the MSP, EA or CSP. The problem is that the only space in which there will likely be any customization is in the EA.
We’re not sure this makes Microsoft licensing any less complex. In fact, it potentially adds to the complexity. What it does is make it easier for Microsoft to make clients in the 250 to 2400 user space very programmatic and removes any ability to negotiate T&C’s and pricing. Microsoft will then use the CSP program to drive these clients to the cloud.
If you have questions or concerns about the impact of this change, we encourage you to contact one of our unbiased licensing experts for a free initial consultation.
Navigating the Oil Price Plunge: How MetrixData360 Helps Petroleum Industry Save Millions on Microsoft Licensing Costs
The plunge in oil prices has put any IT spending under unprecedented scrutiny and IT departments under the gun to deliver more with less. All organizations involved in the petroleum industry have been faced with major project delays/cancellations and significant layoffs/downsizing. During this downturn every dollar saved is important and MetrixData360 helps save our clients millions. MetrixData360 specializes in to controlling and reducing Microsoft licensing costs.
Mike Austin, Vice President of Service Delivery at MetrixData360 will share his knowledge and insights from over 15 years of Microsoft licensing including over 8 years of employment by Microsoft in a variety of licensing related roles.
You will learn: Can you really downsize your Microsoft licensing footprint due to layoffs? Can you change your Microsoft contact mid-term or do you need to wait for the renewal date? What are the risks of dropping Software Assurance and not renewing an EA? If you are at risk of a software audit due to the Petroleum downturn!
This presentation will provide you with key insights to: Avoid overbuying Microsoft licenses, reduce your Microsoft licensing costs and ensure software licensing compliance.
If you still have questions regarding controlling and reducing licensing costs, reach out to us and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
Last year Microsoft removed “transitions” from the EA language last year and has now closed the final loophole.
If you have questions or concerns about the impact of this change, we encourage you to contact one of our unbiased licensing experts for a free initial consultation.
Windows VDA Rights allow for a licensed device or user to access virtual Windows desktops either remotely and/or locally, depending on how the device or user is licensed. You can license devices or users for Windows VDA rights in the following ways:
– License devices with Windows Software Assurance or Windows VDA subscription on a per device basis.
– License users with Windows Software Assurance or Windows VDA subscription on a per user basis.
Roaming Use Definition
The single primary user of the device licensed with active Windows Software Assurance or Windows VDA subscription (work device) can do the following:
At any one time, remotely access one or more of the permitted instances running on your servers (for example, in your data center) from a third-party device.
At any one time, run one instance of the software in a virtual OSE on a qualifying third-party device.
When the primary user is on your or your affiliates’ company premises, Roaming Use Rights are not applicable.
These Windows VDA Rights and the corresponding Roaming Use Rights are non-perpetual and are only active as long as the underlying Software Assurance for Windows, Windows VDA subscription, and/or Windows CSL is active.
Potential Licensing Impact: A Per-User VDA subscription will also be required for Roaming Use rights.
If you have questions or concerns about the impact of this change we encourage you to contact one of our unbiased licensing experts for a free initial consultation.
Change is one constant in the Microsoft licensing world. Recently Microsoft has announced a rather significant change to their Enterprise Agreement (EA) program. Effective July 1, 2016 the minimum commitment to the Enterprise Agreement (EA) program will increase from 250 qualified users/devices to 500 qualified users/devices.
What does this mean for Clients?
Existing EA customers who do not meet the new minimum commitments can obviously continue within their current agreements until expiration. At that point, it appears existing EA customers will have the option to extend their existing agreements by 36 months. After the extension expires they will have to transition to either the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA) or the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) agreements if they do not meet the minimum 500 users/device count.
Why is Microsoft Making this Change and What Should I expect?
For many years the EA program was the core licensing vehicle that Microsoft drove any and all clients (who met the qualifications) towards. Its clear now that Microsoft is incredibly focussed on their cloud offerings and the MPSA/CSP programs are better positioned to drive that agenda. Expect Microsoft and their partners to begin aggressively attempting to move clients onto the MPSA/CSP programs rather than extending their EAs.
What steps should I take?
Contact MetrixData360 to have a free initial consultation to evaluate your Microsoft licensing options with one of our licensing experts. We are not a Microsoft partner and offer unbiased licensing guidance to our clients. Our focus is to reduce your Microsoft costs and help you negotiate the best possible Microsoft contract.
Want to save 37% off your Office 365 deployments and your annual subscription costs? Read up below to see how we did just this for our tiny Office 365 E3 deployment here at MetrixData360.
Many of you may not know this, but we use Office 365 to run our business. It wasn’t our first choice (in fact we used to run on Google), but we ended up migrating to it for one very simple reason:
Outlook Calendars and Google just don’t work well. We would accept meetings on our iPhones and with the one-way sync between Google and calendaring (if you accept in Google it will populate to your phone but not the other way around) we were missing important meetings.
When we decided to move to Office 365 we purchased E3 subscriptions for our 12 users. It was just the simplest thing for us to do. As we were doing budgeting for 2016, we were looking at the costs of all of our subscriptions (Office 365, DropBox, WebEx, etc.) and realized the annual fees on all of these were getting out of hand so we decided to follow our own advice and optimized our licensing.
For various reasons we will continue to use Dropbox and WebEx (even though we have the ability to use OneDrive and Skype for Business). Simplicity and functionality rules for us here at MetrixData360.
OneDrive does not work well with Mac (and a few of us use those). The only way to get access is via the web client which is a very cumbersome way to access file storage technologies. Even though they have a OneDrive for business client for Mac (Beta), after many hours of trying we never were able to get it to work correctly. Microsoft really has a lot of work to do on this one.
Similarly, Skype for Business is not as good as WebEx for meetings. We use the Instant Message features of Skype but not the online meetings (we were finding it was hard to manage, calls dropping, poor call quality when doing VOIP, etc). One of our biggest reasons for continuing on WebEx however was for marketing. WebEx is so much more feature rich for recording and doing webinars, which are very important to our business.
When we looked at our usage we found that half of our users really only needed Exchange Online Plan 1. We swapped them out immediately and dropped our number of E3 subscriptions. The net was a 37% reduction in our annual costs of Office 365. I hesitate to think of the impact to the bottom line of our largest clients (100’’s of thousands if not millions of dollars are being wasted) that are overpaying Microsoft.
We have some exciting news that we will be sharing shortly. We are working with our partners over at Block 64 on a new service offering that we will be launching in the first quarter of 2016 to help companies who use Office 365 get the same results we did. We plan on automating the review and showing you how to optimize those Office 365 subscriptions across your organization to save your precious budget dollars! Stay tuned!
MetrixData360 specializes in helping organizations who are facing a Microsoft audit with assistance through every stage of the audit process. Our goal is to reduce any compliance gaps you may have and ensure that you are only paying for the software and services you really need. Contact us today to book a free consultation to see if we can help you!
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