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Microsoft Moves to Per-user Windows Software Licensing for Virtualized Access

By Casey Houser, Contributing Writer

A recent tech news report says Microsoft (News - Alert) has entered a new phase of operations by licensing Windows on a per-user basis to businesses. The change in pricing model is not expected to make a huge impact on the market, but it is the first time the computing giant has dabbled in a sort of subscription service for its flagship platform.

Computerworld provides a bulk of information about the issue and speaks to Daryl Ullman, co-founder and chief consulting officer of Emerset Consulting Group, about the specifics concerning what licensing could mean for Microsoft and for its users. Emerset helps companies negotiate licenses, so Ullman is a professional in that field. He says a switch in terminology marks a significant change from per-device to per-user pricing, and that could, on a basic level, change how companies like his negotiate on behalf of their clients.

"This is the first time that Microsoft has introduced 'user' with Windows from a basic licensing terminology basis," Ullman told Computerworld.

"Windows licensing has always been device based. Even with the introduction of Office 365, Windows stayed on a device-based metric. This is more of an alignment to the Office 365 per-user metric. But I don't think this is the same case as Office 365. I don't think Windows is there yet [on subscription-based licensing]," he continued.

The Office 365 "per-user metric" Ullman speaks about comes in reference to the change in pricing model that Microsoft previously introduced for its office suite. Lync Migration discussed this topic previously and said that Microsoft had created three new subscription tiers that would operate on a per-user basis and would charge companies anywhere from $5 to $12.50 per user per month. This change in structure was scheduled to begin Oct. 1 and was slated to benefit small and medium size businesses.

Unlike the subscription changes for Office 365, however, the changes in Windows licensing will only affect users rights when it comes to accessing the operating system through a virtual environment. The licenses are titled Windows Enterprise Software Assurance (SA) and Windows Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) and will replace the Windows Companion Subscription License (CSL) which allowed users to access desktops from corporate data centers and display them virtually on devices outside the office. The new licenses are more liberal that the old licenses in certain ways, Ullman noted, and will allow users to put images of their desktops on up to two USB drives to create temporary desktops on other devices.

Paul DeGroot, principal at consulting firm Pica Communications, also noted that there were no restrictions on the number of devices on which users could access virtual desktops. DeGroot said this seemed odd to him, but he also said that when it comes to licensing, Microsoft does not miss a beat.

Although this change in licensing practices could positively affect some businesses with the need to allow its employees to access virtual systems outside the office, it may not have a broad impact on businesses as a whole because there are many situations in which Windows will still be licensed by the device. Ullman said that this could make it ultimately more confusing for businesses that need to choose the correct type of licenses that fit them best. That could be good news for license negotiation and consulting companies, but for businesses, it could mean additional expenses up front, even if they make the correct license choices. This could lead to an entire ecosystem where Microsoft charges on a per-user basis for all its products, but for now, this is only a small step in that direction.