Volume Licensing Programs

Medium and large organizations generally buy Windows Server licenses through Microsoft’s volume license programs, which enable organizations to buy licenses in bulk for discounts up to 60% off Microsoft’s estimated retail prices and to receive discounted upgrades, product support, and other benefits. The main volume licensing programs and concepts relevant to this report are as follows:

Software Assurance (SA) is Microsoft’s software maintenance plan, and it offers product upgrades, support, and other benefits in return for an annual fee. In particular, licenses covered by SA may be upgraded at no charge; for example, a server license for Windows Server covered by SA when Windows Server 2008 R2 is released may be upgraded to the new OS at no additional charge. SA has other benefits, including products offered exclusively to SA customers, free product support, migration and training credits, and more. However, the benefits vary widely depending on the product, the volume licensing program in which the product was purchased, and other factors. The SA annual fee is 25% of the covered license price, per year, for server-related licenses (such as Windows Server OS licenses).