Licensing Office for Server-Based Desktops

Many organizations install and run the Microsoft Office suite of applications on servers for server-based desktops as part of the application layer. However, Office in server-based desktops is typically one of the top areas for scrutiny during a software license compliance check. The two licensing options for Office, Per-Device and Per-User, have different rules and different advantages and disadvantages, and a mix of both may be needed to maintain compliance while minimizing licensing costs.

The rules here apply to the Office suite, but licensing principles for Visio and the Project client software are similar. (See the sidebar “Project, Visio, and Server-Based Desktops“.)

Using Per-Device Office Licenses

The traditional approach to licensing Office for server-based desktops uses either the Office Standard or the Office Professional Plus edition Per-Device licenses available through volume licensing agreements. Office Standard edition includes four core Office applications, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word, as well as OneNote and Publisher. The Office Professional Plus edition adds Access, InfoPath (now deprecated), and Lync (renamed Skype for Business) applications as well as support for a few special application features, such as rights management. Licenses for Office Standard and Office Professional Plus are generally purchased as perpetual licenses, which grant the right to use the software for as long as it will run. (Although it will only be supported by Microsoft for 10 years.) Per-Device Office licenses can also be purchased in Enterprise or Open Value subscriptions, which grant the right to use the applications during the term of the subscription only.