Product Activation for Licensing Professionals

License activation is required for many Microsoft products and services to ensure the products remain fully functional. Activation requires that licensing or procurement personnel acquire the necessary licenses and activation keys and work with IT personnel who install, configure, and maintain the organization’s activation infrastructure and deploy the products. Activation’s primary purpose is to reduce software piracy, but activation of some subscription services may assist with software asset management and license compliance.

This report explains the role of licensing and procurement personnel with information in activation. The report focuses on four common activation scenarios: activation of traditional perpetually licensed products, activation of Office 365 ProPlus in Office 365 subscriptions, activation of the Windows Enterprise Upgrade Per-User subscriptions, and activation of products in Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscriptions.