Windows 7: Evaluating Software Assurance for PCs

Software Assurance (SA) on Windows 7 Professional licenses delivers technologies and rights that can help organizations deploy and maintain large numbers of PCs. SA also provides upgrade rights that can help budget and pay for migrations to future Windows versions. These benefits will be an important factor when deciding whether to include Windows in an Enterprise Agreement, and understanding the benefits can help an organization make the best use of such agreements. However, an organization considering SA on Windows also needs to weigh its benefits against its costs and against other options for upgrading Windows.

This article explains the costs and benefits of SA on Windows 7 Professional for conventional PC architectures, in which Windows 7 runs on each user’s PC. This article is part of a series of Windows 7 licensing articles for large organizations that will also discuss how to choose among Windows 7 editions for PCs; how to license virtual desktop infrastructures, where users remotely access Windows 7 instances running on a server rather than on their individual PCs; and how to select volume licensing programs for Windows 7 license and SA purchases.