Forefront Client Security Subscription Licensing

Forefront Client Security (FCS), which became generally available in July 2007, is a subscription-based online service that does not follow Microsoft’s more traditional server and Client Access License (CAL) perpetual license model. The way the subscription model is priced makes the product most cost-competitive for large organizations, in particular large organizations that can add FCS into an existing infrastructure that includes Windows Server and SQL Server. While customers can add clients to their subscription at any time during the term of the agreement, they cannot cancel or reduce the number of clients until the agreement ends or is renewed.

The FCS Licensing Model

FCS, Microsoft’s first antivirus and antispyware offering for corporate customers, includes client- and server-side components and requires that both the clients being protected and the servers providing the protection be licensed under the company’s Online Services Licensing (OSL) program. (For more detail on the basic FCS architecture and components, see “Forefront Client Security Focuses on Administration” on page 9 of the June 2007 Update.)