What "Subscription" Means

Part of the complexity of subscription licensing and services is defining what exactly they are, and what is included. These complexities are a significant part of Microsoft’s tentative steps to offering subscription pricing.

Definitions

Subscription licenses take three common forms.

Non-perpetual licenses for locally run software are relatively uncommon in Microsoft’s typical markets because of the difficulty of managing them. Microsoft often releases beta software that times out at the end of the beta period, but this technology does not apply to subscriptions because customers pay little or nothing for beta software, and Microsoft makes no provisions for “reactivating” the software after it expires.

Access to remotely hosted software, paid for a period of time or on a per-use or per-customer basis, is the model employed by application service providers (ASPs), who can license Microsoft software and then rent it to customers.

Access to software services online, paid on a periodic or per-use basis, is the most common payment model on the Internet and is already employed on bCentral and many other Web sites and services. It is the basis for Microsoft’s upcoming HailStorm initiative.