"It is a good simplification, but not a huge change." "I don't believe that this is a 'transformation' as Richard describes it," said Duncan Jones, a Forrester Research analyst.
However, some experts aren't convinced that the MPSA will generate ground-shaking changes. "We are taking careful, deliberate steps to introduce a next-generation approach to commercial licensing with a new, more flexible and simplified purchasing experience across all solutions," wrote Richard Smith, general manager of Microsoft's global licensing and pricing division.Īt the center of the effort is the new Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA), which the company describes as the "next generation" and "end-to-end transformation" of Volume Licensing, the long-standing program designed to let businesses buy products and services in bulk and get discounts and benefits not available to retail customers. Recognizing that confusing licensing is bad for its business, for its partners and for its customers, Microsoft last November announced in a blog post that help was on the way. Microsoft in particular has been very affected, due to its huge and varied roster of products, coupled with a licensing scheme that lacks uniformity and consistency.
Next generation volume licensing microsoft software#
Microsoft's licensing policies and procedures are devilishly convoluted, a situation that has worsened in recent years with the popularity of virtualization, cloud computing, mobile devices and the consumerization of IT.īy fracturing the conventional software hosting, access and delivery structures, these four trends have muddied the waters of software use rights for most vendors and their customers. Microsoft is pledging dramatic improvements to its notoriously complex enterprise licensing, but experts are skeptical about the potential impact of the plan.