Understanding Licensing for Software Development

Software developers and IT professionals are a critical audience for Microsoft, and the company gives them unusual freedom to use multiple copies and multiple versions of its software simultaneously, as long as they are using them only for development or evaluation purposes. Organizations should have clear processes in place to govern the use of developer software and should ensure that developers know the limits governing software usage. Careless use of development and evaluation software can have costly financial implications.

Development and Evaluation Software

Many developers make use of Microsoft’s Visual Studio development software to write code, but they also need access to other software on which to run and debug it, such as Windows desktop and server OSs and applications such as BizTalk, SharePoint, and SQL Server that they use to create custom solutions. Some Web developers and designers take advantage of Microsoft’s Expression development tools for creating graphics, designing Web pages, and writing code to make Web sites more interactive and to access databases on Web sites. In Jan. 2010, Windows Azure, a Microsoft-hosted platform for Internet-accessible applications, entered commercial service, and developers can deploy test code to the service during development.