What's in the Enterprise Cloud Suite

The Enterprise Cloud Suite (ECS) combines subscription licenses for the Windows Enterprise edition client OS, Office desktop suite, and collaboration and management software and services. Besides a bundling discount, ECS puts software under a common Per-User licensing model, which generally simplifies compliance compared to device-based models. However, ECS does not provide use rights after subscriptions expire, so ECS customers obligate themselves to ongoing long-term payments.

This report explains the ECS licensing model, technologies and use rights provided by each ECS component, licensing prerequisites, pricing, and other purchasing details for many common scenarios. While this report provides a brief overview of special purchasing provisions exclusively for Enterprise Agreement (EA) and EA Subscription “platform” customers moving to ECS, EA-related issues will be covered in greater detail in a separate report.

ECS Overview

ECS is licensed under a Per-User subscription model, as are most Microsoft online (hosted) services and some on-premises software. Under this model, each individual user requires a User Subscription License (SL), and all use rights associated with the User SL—both for online services and on-premises software—terminate if the subscription is allowed to lapse. (For a full explanation of the User SL licensing model, see “User Subscription Licenses: An Overview” on page 24 of the Oct. 2015 Update.)