Per-User CAL Prices Raised 15%

Licensing client access to the latest versions of many server products—including Exchange and SharePoint Server 2013—will cost more under certain conditions starting Dec. 1, 2012, although some volume license agreements insulate customers from price changes for several years. Customers generally have the option to license client access to on-premises server products by purchasing per-user or per-device licenses. The two types currently cost the same, but per-user prices will increase 15%, while per-device license prices remain unchanged. Regardless, per-user licensing will generally remain more cost effective in organizations where employees use multiple devices in the course of business.

Licensing Client Access to Server Products

The licensing model employed by most Microsoft server-based products (when used on-premises) involves server-side license(s) for the right to run the software on a server and separate client-side licenses to cover client access to the server software. Client-side licenses typically comprise most of the overall server software licensing expense.