Volume Licensing Programs

Large and midsize organizations generally buy Exchange Server licenses and upgrade rights through Microsoft’s volume license programs, which enable organizations to buy licenses in bulk for discounts up to 45% off Microsoft’s estimated retail prices.

Besides better prices, volume license programs also offer:

• More generous server license reassignment rights, important in virtualization scenarios
• Downgrades to older versions of Exchange without forfeiting the right to switch to the originally purchased version at any time in the future
• Easier purchase tracking at Microsoft’s volume licensing Web sites, which tabulate most or all of a customer’s Microsoft license purchases across multiple resellers.

The main volume licensing programs and concepts relevant to this report are as follows:

Software Assurance (SA) can be added to a license for an annual fee in return for product upgrades and other benefits. Licenses covered by SA on the date a new product version becomes available may be upgraded to the new version at any time in the future, at no additional charge. For example, a server license for Exchange Server covered by SA as of Nov. 1, 2009, can be upgraded to Exchange Server 2010 at any time, even if the customer later lets the SA subscription lapse. SA customers acquire the software bits from a Microsoft download site or by ordering disks from a reseller for a nominal charge. (Service packs and patches for all products offered through volume licensing are free—SA is never required for access to service packs.)