Lync Server 2013 Packaging, Pricing, and Licensing

Lync Server 2013 maintains the product’s existing license model but makes noteworthy changes to pricing and rights for on-premises deployment. Lync Server is the central component in Microsoft’s unified communications technology, which enables presence, instant messaging (IM), Web conferencing, and other forms of communication. Lync Server 2013, the current version, appeared on volume licensing price lists in Dec. 2012. The accompanying licensing changes will increase costs somewhat for many organizations, particularly those enabling access to Lync Server from mobile devices or using virtualization to deploy their Lync Server infrastructures.

Same Licensing Model, Pricing and Packaging Changed

Lync Server 2013 follows the server-Client Access License (CAL) licensing model of previous versions. Each server running certain Lync Server components requires one or more server licenses. Each employee client who signs in (authenticates) to the organization’s Lync Server installation must be assigned one or more CALs, and authentication is required for most Lync services. Clients can be licensed per-user or per-device.