RSS

Tag Archives: audit

CSP Hoster Assessment

15 May

The CSP Hoster Assessment: Microsoft launched a new initiative to ensure compliance within the CSP Hoster Program. Just because you are not using SPLA does not mean you are immune to compliance risk.

What do you need to do?

The first thing you should do, is take a breath. You will be fine. (maybe) Nah, the world does not end because of an audit, but you do need to prepare. Here is a checklist to ensure what you are doing is accurate. Have a question? email info@splalicensing.com to learn more.

  1. Are you a CSP Hoster? Dumb question, but this is for CSP Hoster only, not the Flexible Virtualization Benefit.
  2. Are you providing the customer with the licenses? Meaning you are not using your own licensing, correct? Remember in the CSP Hoster program, the end customer is the licensee.
  3. When was your last audit? This is important because usually there is a settlement date.
  4. Are you reporting the licenses accurately to Microsoft?
  5. How are you tracking the licenses and deployments? Do you have a way to track SPLA and CSP?

Remember, in any engagement, Microsoft is trying to verify what you are doing is accurate and fits withing the licensing terms. Unfortunately, with hosting, there are several different terms and conditions to adhere to. There’s the SPLA (SPUR) there’s volume licensing (EA’s) and now CSP and Flexible Virtualization. If you are not sure what the rules are, let’s set up some time to review in greater detail. This is a great opportunity to eliminate any risk before it becomes a risk.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man (or maybe CSP Man)

info@splalicensing.com

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 15, 2024 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Re: License Compliance Verification of Software Services

26 Sep

Sound familiar? If it does, you just received (or received in the past) an audit notification. What does this mean? As I mentioned in previous articles, the first step is to take a deep breath. Don’t rush, don’t scream (especially with Microsoft) and don’t ignore the email/notification. As an example, Microsoft will ask for a response within 10 days. I would do it. I’ll explain later why this is important. Second step? Talk to someone who can walk you through the audit and provide guidance on ways to communicate with the auditor and/or Microsoft. Email info@splalicensing.com to assist. The reason you received the notification can vary. You did sign a Microsoft Business and Services Agreement with Microsoft as part of your SPLA. They should mention this in the originally notification. They will also highlight the dates of the audit. As an example, from 3/31/2021 to the end of the last reporting month prior to the date of validation. In this example, roughly 2+ years. Knowing the dates in scope is super important when collecting data.

What does a “verification of software services” entail? You would be required to collect raw data – server installations, reporting, access rights, AD reporting, etc. This can take a long time, especially if you do things manually. The audit team will share with Microsoft the “Effective License Position” report with all aforementioned data (software type, quantity). For an overview of an audit, check out my post “SPLA Audit Survival Guide. I think it is important for you to do your own due diligence and put together your own position report to be able to compare the report the auditors put together versus the report you collect. Most successful service providers download the Octopus platform to collect this information.

Back to the original question on why you need to communicate. The goal of the audit for you is to have limited penalties. The goal of the auditor is to complete the audit as quickly as possible. The goal for Microsoft is to have a settlement. With that in mind, if you are disrespectful, rude, or completely ignore the notification, that only hurts you. You have to keep the conversation open and you have to keep the conversation more business related than legal related. Nothing you can change legally, the SPUR is the SPUR, but if you keep a sales orientated the better off you will ultimately be. Knowing the auditor wants it completed quickly doesn’t mean you rush on your end. I firmly believe you need to work on your timeframe not someone else’s but be respectful. Again, if you have questions on the SPLA audit process, feel free to shoot me an email, happy to help answer. Audits can be challenging, scary, and fun. (maybe not the latter) but you will get through it. I promise.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

info@splalicensing.com

 
1 Comment

Posted by on September 26, 2023 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Is License Mobility Dead?

20 Sep

Note – When we discuss License Mobility, we mean leveraging end customer licensing in shared environments.

With the new Flexible Virtualization Benefit, what is the reason for License Mobility? Great question. There is no need for License Mobility. However, if you use a Listed Provider (Google, AWS, Alibaba, and kind of Azure), you must use the License Mobility form. If you are a non-listed provider or an authorized outsourcer) you can use the Flexible Virtualization Benefit. There is no form to complete, no authorization. 

What about compliance? Contrary to what Microsoft or maybe a consultant will tell you, if you are hosting anything, you need to track it. In an audit, you have to prove the way you are licensing. If you are not reporting the product in SPLA, how are you reselling it? If you say, “Hey, it’s my customer’s license,”  they will ask you to prove it. I also think this is a huge opportunity to educate your customers. Imagine getting audited. Auditors ask you to verify the licenses, and you go back to your customers and tell them they are out of compliance. What is your customer going to do? That’s right. They are going to Joe’s Hosting down the street, can careless about compliance, and report only ten dollars a month to stay “under the radar.”  On the other hand, if you educate your customers and look at different ways to reduce their licensing spend, Joe’s Hosting will be out of business. Take care of your customers; they will take care of you.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

 
1 Comment

Posted by on September 20, 2023 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SPLA Audits: Survival Guide

19 Sep
SPLA Audits: Survival Guide

Here’s an example of an unsuccessful audit and what this Company could have done differently. True story. Don’t waste a failure. 

Customer A

Background

The Company reports roughly 75,000 USD a month in SPLA revenue. At one point, it was almost double that amount, but over the years, they moved workloads away from SPLA and into Azure. Although their SPLA has decreased, their CSP spend has increased significantly.

Five years ago, Company A went through an audit. They owed a small amount of money but were not nearly as large as now. Most of their growth has come by the way of acquisitions. Last year, Company A received another audit notification.   They were not as worried about the audit because they expected the same outcome as the previous one. 

The Process

The CEO received an audit notification specifying the audit process. A kick-off meeting would outline the requirements and what information they (auditors) would need to complete the project. This was conducted by a third-party audit firm, not Microsoft directly. Once the kick-off meeting was completed, they would move on to the data collection phase. They ran a scan of their entire infrastructure using the MAP tool and produced a raw data report. Once received, the auditors will compare Company A’s past usage reports and what was discovered during the audit. Whatever the delta is, ultimately, is what they would owe. 

The Outcome

This process was completely different than the original audit several years ago. Company A worked directly with Microsoft, not an audit firm. It was easier and completed on time. This new audit took a long time to complete. More assets (Servers/VMs) to uncover resulted in a longer time to perform the analysis. The longer it dragged out, the more uncomfortable senior management became. The Board wanted to move past this audit quickly to budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The auditors obliged; they didn’t want to spend too much time on the audit either. So, the auditors delivered a settlement letter with the total amount owed. The CEO was shocked. They initially thought they might owe about a month’s worth of licensing, but they owe well into seven figures. Completely unbudgeted, heads were going to roll. They pleaded with Microsoft, but the only option was to inquire about financing. Company A settled at the direction of their Board. Audit complete.

What did Company A do right?

They were responsive to the auditor’s request. I think this is a good thing. You shouldn’t ignore them, and your response is always appreciated.

What did Company A do wrong?

Everything outside of being responsive. Here’s what they should have done differently.

They have worked on their timeline, not the auditors. Company A should have taken a deep breath to respond but not rushed into something they were unprepared for. They knew their licensing wasn’t 100% accurate. They should have performed their risk assessment to understand their exposure.

Hired a consultant such as SPLA Man. You need to interpret and translate the data into a SPLA licensing report. This is also a great way to identify software you may have installed but never turned off or removed access. It’s good to get this information before the kick-off call.

They barely negotiated. The best Company A came up with is financing. When you negotiate with a major publisher, they must keep the conversation sales-oriented. When you don’t, it becomes very black and white. The product terms are the product terms, and you can’t change them. But leverage what you do have. In this example, Company A has a lot of CSP spend, leverage that. They also moved workloads to Azure. Guess what’s a top priority at Microsoft? Yes, Azure. 

They need a go-forward strategy. Maybe find a tool such as Octopus. Cloud to help manage installations more efficiently. Find your risk before it becomes a risk.

The key thing to remember is not only did Company A have to spend seven figures on an audit, but it also tells me they are not charging their customers accurately either. That’s the more significant issue, in my opinion.

So there you have it. What am I missing? Have a question? Going through an audit? Email info@splaicensing.com, and we can help.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

 
1 Comment

Posted by on September 19, 2023 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

To use a tool or not?

28 Apr
Ahh, SPLA reporting. We’ve heard the line, the only sure thing in life is death and taxes. The only thing certain for a service provider is that Microsoft will change the licensing rules (frequently) and SPLA reporting. There’s not much we can do about Microsoft changing the licensing rules, but alas, there is something you can do about SPLA reporting. I’ve written this on several occasions, but it’s worth repeating. The biggest mistake a service provider will make is believing that SPLA reporting is a requirement by Microsoft. Yes, it is a requirement by Microsoft, but that is not the only reason you should track licensing. Let me provide an example, HostingRUs has one man managing their SPLA reporting. He runs a “foolproof” script that will identify everything in their environment. He reports all the licenses installed and looks at invoices to know the number of users to report. He submits it to his reseller. There is nothing wrong with that strategy except for one thing – nowhere in the reporting process is anyone tracking licensing rules, updates, optimization, and, more importantly, billing. So in the above example, yes, HostingRUs is reporting licenses to Microsoft, but they should consider so many other areas. Here’s another example. A member of my site (Mscloudlicensing.com) wrote me, saying, “Microsoft is really Sh*tting on me.” He has an application that requires Office Excel; his customer already owns Office 365. He wants to use the O365 license that his customer already purchased to be installed in his datacenter. Obviously, that is not possible without the QMTH addendum. That’s when he got a bit crabby and threatened an anti-trust lawsuit with Microsoft. (Good luck, my friend, but my money is on the company with a trillion dollars in the bank). What the service provider failed to do in this example is look at his datacenter environment from a perspective of what he can do, not what he can’t. He didn’t know he could offer just Excel (instead of the entire suite). He also didn’t consider using open office. He also had very little knowledge of who accesses the application indirectly. If you believe Microsoft changes the rules A LOT and SPLA reporting are cumbersome; then maybe a tool is worth it. I recommended Octopus Cloud to the service provider in my example above. Many service providers use Octopus to keep track of SPLA reporting, but more are using it as a business intelligence tool to understand what is happening inside their datacenter. Octopus helped him know what is installed versus what is reported (a big miss for him was reporting Office Standard, but Office Pro was installed – not only was he underreporting, but in reality, he just needed Excel in the first place, a third of the cost of Office Standard!) Can you imagine if he was audited? His customers just required Excel, but he was on the hook for Office Pro just because his engineer thought it was convenient when he installed it! So when I asked (in the title) should you use an SPLA tool or not? I would argue you can’t afford not to. If you report 1,000 dollars a month or 100,000 dollars a month, don’t you want to make sure you got it right? Thanks for reading, SPLA Man
 
Leave a comment

Posted by on April 28, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: , , ,

Details of the Qualified Multitenant Addendum

03 Aug

There’s been a lot of talk as of late about the new QMTH addendum.  I’ve written a couple of articles on the topic here  In this article, we will summarize what is written in the addendum so there’s no surprises.  I listed some (not all) of terms and conditions to ensure you are up to speed on the latest developments.

  • CSP Membership – You (or affiliates) must be a Direct CSP partner.  This means you cannot leverage an Indirect CSP partner for this program.  In other words, if you receive CSP licensing from Ingram Micro or SherWeb (as an example) your partnership with those distributors/partner does not qualify for QMTH.  Your organization must be CSP Direct authorized, not your partner.
  • Must meet the system requirements – System Requirements can be found here
  • Have an active SPLA agreement.
  • Reporting Requirements – You will always need to report underlying licenses in SPLA.  Those underlying licenses could be any software to deploy a VDI solution – (Windows Server and RDS).   In addition, you must report (by the last calendar day of each month) the Windows 10/O365 licenses deployed.  This is manual, meaning you will send an email to the QMTH alias for submission.  Once automated reporting is available, you must enable Microsoft’s automated reporting tool.  Microsoft will use the tool to collect your customer’s organization ID and tenant ID as well as the total number of users accessing the software.
  • As the provider, you must report to your SPLA Reseller the program administrative fee.  If you are currently in the SCA program, you will be familiar with this SKU.
  • As the provider, you must make all education materials publicly available.  You cannot just sign up for CSP, the education material should be like what’s on the QMH website.
  • For each per user subscription to Windows 10 Enterprise, the end-user can only access up to four (4) instances of Windows 10 either on Azure or you, the QMTH hoster.  This is like the SCA program in which the end user has five (5) instances of Office Pro Plus, Windows 10 works the same way.

Listed above is a summary.  I encourage you to reach out to your Microsoft rep for additional information.  I am happy to review it further, it’s a new program with pluses and minuses.  Be sure to understand the minuses first 🙂

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 3, 2017 in Office 365

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

IaaS Gotchas…

31 Jan

In this post I will highlight new (and not so new) compliance gotchas as it pertains to providing infrastructure as a service.

Let’s start with a common example and go from there.  You provide the infrastructure such as Windows/SQL, your customer provides the applications.  Sound familiar?  You license Windows Datacenter, SQL Enterprise in a shared (aka public cloud) environment under SPLA. You have no idea or really care what applications your customer’s are installing right?  You just provide the support of the infrastructure.  That’s not your concern.  It’s their application, why should you care?  Ahhh…but maybe you should.

Have you ever wondered how they’re accessing the applications?  Are all applications web-based?  I will answer that question for you…no.  So how are they accessing the applications?  Do they use Citrix?  Do they remote into the application somehow?  There’s that word…remote.

If you enable the Remote Desktop Services role within Windows Server – you guessed it…you need to report RDS licenses.  The number of IaaS providers who just report Windows and SQL is astronomical. The number of IaaS providers now reporting RDS is also rapidly growing.  Did they wake up one day and decide they should start reporting RDS?  Unfortunately no.  They were audited.  Shoot me over an email and I will forward the guide that explains RDS and when it applies. Remember when you license RDS, you need to license each user that HAS access to RDS – not who does access.

Let me provide an example of how easily you could be underreporting RDS.   Let’s say your customer has an application from another vendor (outside Microsoft) that’s hosted in your datacenter.  That same vendor provides support to the application.  You are not hosting the application for the vendor but for your customer, you just provide the vendor access to support the application via remote connection.  SPLA allows 20 users to provide support and administration per datacenter.  If you exceed that limit, you are going to have to report those additional users.  Yes, even if you are not charging them.

Other IaaS Gotchas –

While we’re on the topic of customer owned applications, do you have it written in your agreement with the customer that you are not responsible for the applications they install?  What would happen if they install applications that you are not aware of and they don’t have the appropriate licenses…who’s responsible you or the end customer?  Kind of a trick question, it’s both.  You will get audited, it’s installed in your datacenter, you are ultimately responsible.  You need to ensure you have it written in your agreement that you’re not responsible so you can have a nice chat with your customer.  All the big boys do it…you should too.

What about SQL?  Are you virtualizing?  Why aren’t you reporting SQL Enterprise?  Are you utilizing all the use rights that come with SQL Enterprise – unlimited virtualization, DR, mobility within server farms, etc?  What about smaller environments?  Have you considered licensing by user instead of by core for SQL Standard edition?

SQL Web is tempting isn’t it?  Less expensive option but no one really understands what it is.   Here’s a quick synopsis – if you do not host public facing websites, SQL Web is not an option.

How are you managing your datacenter? Do you have System Center installed?  You should report the Core Infrastructure Suite.  Running Hyper V with few VM’s, license CPS. Both products include Windows.  You need Windows to run System Center, so you kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

Ask your customers if they have Software Assurance.  It’s no longer about latest version rights and annual payments.  It’s about moving to the cloud.  Let’s make sure it’s your cloud and not someone else’s.

Conclusion –

I’ve been around this game of SPLA for a long time.  The best advice I can give is to listen to your customers and don’t be afraid to change.  Cloud is evolving, you should evolve too.  Don’t report out of convenience, look into ways you can optimize what you are reporting.  It’s competitive out there, let’s make sure you are getting the most value out of your agreement.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

 

 

 
11 Comments

Posted by on January 31, 2015 in IaaS

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do you have SA? Why this question really matters.

20 Oct

Brett’s Hosting’s sales director is consistently looking on the web to see what competition is advertising.  It drives him nuts to see other “hoster’s” advertise SharePoint for less than what he can get directly from his reseller.  He’s upset..big time.   How can this be?  Then he stumbles upon the Microsoft Office 365 website.  He blew a gasket.  “There is no way I can compete!  I am going to go out of business!”

So the sales director decided to get creative.  “I will forgo SPLA and just have my customers purchase SharePoint.  They bring it into my datacenter, I won’t report SPLA anymore.”  So that’s what he did.  He started selling SharePoint by the truckload.  Their reseller kept placing orders for him as they’d joyfully ask  “how many CAL’s do you need?” and they would order it; never once asking what it was for.

Brett’s Hosting did a tremendous job marketing their SharePoint offering.  “No SharePoint…No Problem!” It was marvelous.  The CEO of Brett’s Hosting vociferously announced at the World Partner Conference “We are hosting over 10,000 SharePoint sites!”  The celebration continued.  Then one foggy October morning, the office manager for Brett’s Hosting received a letter from Microsoft.  She excitedly opened it thinking they were being promoted as ‘SharePoint Partner of the Year’ but was severely disappointed.  It was an audit letter.  The story turns.

Brett’s Hosting CEO reviewed the letter and then called in their sales director (now sales VP).  The CEO threatened him with his job unless he fixed this mess.  The sales director/VP was at a loss.  “Where did I go wrong.”

To be continued….

Where do you think he went wrong?  Have you ever been given wrong licensing advice?  You don’t need to answer that, I already know.

Hosting industry has changed.  Competition has changed.  End users have changed.  In my experience, the conversation has changed from “how do I license Windows” to “what are ways I can optimize my licensing spend?”  I’ve written about license mobility; I also reviewed SAL for SA.  Those two programs have a common theme – Software Assurance (SA).  In the above fictitious story, the sales person should’ve asked his customer “do you have SA on these licenses”  That question is important because if they do not have SA, the entire environment (hardware/VM) must be dedicated.

I can’t stress this enough.  The hosting game is getting brutal.  Every service provider is looking for a way to cut/reduce costs.  Getting in compliance hot water is not a good way to do that.  If the customer does not have SA, you can certainly use SPLA in its place.  If you go this route, be sure to make it a bundled solution.  Telling customers they must pay for something they already own is not an easy conversation.

The customer can also purchase SA.  You just have to be ready to clearly explain their options. That’s why it’s important to work with a reseller that understand SA benefits to help educate and coach you through the process; not all products are eligible.  Be prepared.

Story continued…

The sales vp went back to his customers and asked them to purchase Software Assurance.  When the customer asked “why?” all the sales vp could say is “because Microsoft told me you needed it.” (he clearly couldn’t explain why…it only made the customer more upset).  The customer simultaneously yelled and slammed the door –  “I’m going to Joe’s Hosting! They advertise VDI too!”

The sales vp went back to his CEO and was forced to resign.  The customer went to Joe’s Hosting and was very happy for over a year. When out of the blue he received a call from his sale rep from Joe’s Hosting.  The sales rep frantically told him they could no longer offer VDI; it apparently is not available under SPLA.  The sales rep also asked him to buy SA for his SharePoint…”Microsoft told me you needed it!” The customer loses again!

Moral of the story – read the SPUR, read the PUR, and don’t be afraid to ask “Do you want SA with that?”

Thanks for reading

SPLA Man

 

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 20, 2014 in Compliance, Data Center Outsourcing, In My Opinion

 

Tags: , , ,

SPLA Audit start to finish

18 Sep

Your business is doing great, your sellers and customers are happy, you are making money instead of spending money, when out of the blue….BAM…you receive an audit letter.  Sound familiar?

So what do you do?  Your first reaction is panic.  Your second reaction is to call a lawyer.  Your third reaction is to blame your reseller.  I think that about sums it up.  If you disagree, I’m not 100% sure you are being truthful with yourself.  If you do agree, I also think you are making a HUGE mistake.  Sounds a little odd doesn’t it?

First thing you need to understand is it’s not your fault.  It’s not as if you are purposely trying to be out of compliant.  Microsoft knows this as well.  SPLA is a difficult program and very hard to understand. As I pointed out in the “About” section of this blog, there is little information written about the SPLA program leaving service providers vulnerable.  The SPUR?  Forget about it. That’s why I created this blog in the first place.

I think that is why SPLA customers call a lawyer to help guide them.  This may help you sleep at night, but is it REALLY helping?  I will let you determine that after the dust settles.

What does happen during an audit? I don’t care if this is the first step or fourth step but at some point you will have to collect data.  Data that PROVES the reason you reported the way you did.  One of the biggest mistakes a SPLA provider can make is not reporting indirect access.  Again, not your fault.  Who has any idea of what “indirect” really means?  Think of indirect as Microsoft software that is used to run your other applications that you market to your customers.  You have an application that you developed that reports back to SQL using Excel.  Users have no idea they are using SQL, all they know is the application they use.  But since SQL is part of your hosted solution…it must be reported.  Make sense?  That’s also why Windows will always need to be reported.  Try running Exchange without a Windows OS.  Not going to happen.

Data can also mean the licenses that your customers own that they bring over to your environment.  How do you know who owns what?  Are there enough CAL’s?  One of the arguments service providers make is they can go after their customers if being audited.  There’s an easy conversation right?  Remember, you want to keep customers not lose them.

Some service providers have learned that their end customers install software on VM’s without informing them.  How do you know what is actually being installed?  So take a look at your datacenter; are your customers installing software you don’t know about?  Collecting this information after the fact is a difficult process.  This leaves auditors with no choice but to make a best guess.  Best guesses can cost you significantly.

So after all this data is analyzed by the audit team, it is then delivered to Microsoft.  That’s when you present your case.  They will take things into consideration, but understand that if you are missing information, it makes your argument that much more difficult.  Don’t blame your reseller, that doesn’t work.  Don’t rely on a lawyer, that doesn’t always work either.  Educate yourself.  That’s the best advice I can provide.  Just by taking the time to read this I think you are on the right path.

Happy to walk you through the process in greater detail.  I am one of the few that actually gets it. My email is at the top righthand side of this page.

Thanks,

SPLA Man

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on September 18, 2014 in Compliance

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

200 Level SPLA Licensing Questions – Answered

14 May

Starting a new series on this blog “top licensing questions” Here’s a list of some often unanswered questions…answered!  In many instances it’s tough to go into great detail or specific customer scenarios via a blog.  Please email me at blaforge@splalicensing.com for specific scenarios.  Keep in mind, blogging is my hobby and I am relaying information from experience.  You should refer to the SPUR for specific/audit questions. (It’s a great read).  Microsoft has the final say. I am interested in feedback and/or ideas for new posts; let me have it!

1. Does a service provider need to report an extra Exchange SAL for non-authorized users, such as a conference room?

A mailbox that represents a room is defined as a resource mailbox and does not require a SAL.

2.  Can I use the same server I use internally to host software via SPLA?

No. Regardless of the licensing program, the license is always assigned to the hardware/VM.  If you choose to assign two licenses from two different programs to one hardware, some of the use rights will contradict each other.  SPLA is designed for external consumption whereas internal licensing is designed for your own employees.  Good news – SPLA allows 50% of what you are hosting externally to be used internally.  Let’s say you host 50 exchange licenses, you can use up to 25 internally.  These are not free, just reported under your SPLA. (Instead of reporting just 50 licenses, you would report 75).  Check SPUR for more details.

3.  Can I install Office on a device without reporting Windows desktop?

No.  This would fall under the managed PC use case.  There is an addendum that would allow you to rent out a desktop to third parties; to do this via SPLA, there is a “managed PC” addendum.  This would require you to license the desktop OS via an OEM license and report Windows 7/8 via SPLA (as well as Office if Office is installed).  Ugh.  Only other option would be to report Exchange “plus” Skus which includes Outlook.  (no other Office components) or install Office on a server and report Windows, RDS, and Office. (RDS & Office by user- Windows by processor)

4.  What are the rules of licensing additional users under License Mobility for Software Assurance? Can a service provider license additional users with SALs?

No. In License Mobility for SA scenario, the end customer has to maintain CALs in their perpetual licensing program to access the application servers. It is not possible to license additional users with SALs, because that would mean mixing/matching licensing for one Product.  Keep in mind that under license mobility – end customer’s are in essence transferring those licenses into your data center.  They can only transfer back after 90 days. To quote the mobility brief (download a copy here ) You may move your licensed software from a third party’s shared servers back to your servers or to another third party’s shared servers, but not within 90 days of the last assignment. Check mobility addendum.

6. What happens if my customer claims to have SA on these licenses but in actuality…they don’t.  Am I on the hook?

Yes. You are responsible for your own hosted offering.  I would ensure you have documentation of all customer owned licenses AND make sure this is part of your agreement with your customer.  You may get audited, but that does not stop you from auditing your customer.

7. Where do I report my SPLA licenses?

Contact the SoftwareONE SPLA team 1-800-444-9890 or SPLA.US@softwareone.com

Stay tuned for more questions but more importantly – answers to these questions!

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

 
5 Comments

Posted by on May 14, 2014 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

← Older posts