If you recently went through an audit or just nervous about being notified, I outlined ten steps that service providers can take to arm themselves more efficiently and be compliant.

1. If you are running Microsoft software, you must license Windows.  All Microsoft software runs on a Windows OS.
2. If you are licensing SharePoint- SharePoint requires SQL and Windows.
3. Reporting SharePoint Enterprise you must license SharePoint Standard
4. Installing Office on a server requires Remote Desktop (RDS) licenses.  Office and RDS licenses should match (cannot have more Office licenses than RDS licenses)
5. If you have customers bringing licenses into your hosted environment you need to host it in a physical and dedicated environment.  (nothing shared among other customers)
6. If you are reporting user licenses (SAL- Subscriber Access License) you need a license for each user that has access.  For example, if you have 10 totals users in the month of May and only 4 actually use or access that software, you must license all 10.  SPLA user licenses are similar to your cable bill; your cable provider is going to charge you regardless if you turn your TV on or not.
7. If you have customer owned licenses in your environment, you must keep all relevant documentation.  This includes enrollment information, start date, end date, and who they bought the licenses from.
8. Renting out a PC make sure the PC has an OEM license preinstalled.
9. No virtualizing/streaming Windows desktop OS from a datacenter.
10. You can install your server on a customer premise, but do not install SPLA software on your customer’s server!

This is not bulletproof by any means.  Use this as a guide when looking at your own environment.  Look at it from the auditors eyes.  What information would they need to verify that I am compliant? The SPUR (Service Provider Use Rights) is the best reference when it comes to Microsoft SPLA.  You can download a copy here.  If you have trouble sleeping at night; this is a must read.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man