Mike Stacy's Blog

Lync Server 2010 Licensing Explained

In the past I’ve had “licensing explained” articles for OCS 2007 (R1) and OCS 2007 R2, and these were among my most read articles (not sure if that’s good or bad, I guess a little of both).  I always assumed that I’d do an equivalent post for Lync Server once it was public, but to be honest the licensing is quite a bit simpler than it was before.  At least is seems that way, perhaps it’s because I’ve grown to used to Microsoft licensing after all these years.  So, instead of a post explaining nuances and gotchas, I’ll give an overview and highlight notable changes from the R2 licensing structure (along with a few nuances).

First, a disclaimer:  the information in this article should not be considered or used as official licensing guidance.  Always consult Microsoft or one of its certified licensing partners for assistance to ensure licensing compliance.  Microsoft’s full Lync Server licensing information can be found here.  Now, on to more interesting topics.

Standard CAL Changes

The most notable (if not only) change to the Standard CAL is that it can be used for both presenter and attendees of conferences. Previously an Enterprise CAL was required for presenters.  Nuance alert – if you are initiating/scheduling a conference that includes audio and/or video then an Enterprise CAL is required.  The Standard CAL covers attendees even when the conference includes audio/video.

Enterprise CAL Changes

In R2 all conferencing and voice that wasn’t covered in the Standard CAL was covered in the Enterprise CAL, but with the addition of the Plus CAL (more on that below) this is no longer the case.  In a nutshell, the Enterprise CAL is required for the scheduling and/or initiation of any conference that includes audio or video.  This includes conferences that include PBX/PSTN participants.  However, the Enterprise CAL no longer includes making/receiving PSTN calls (Enterprise Voice).  For this you need a Plus CAL.

Plus CAL

The Plus CAL gives you the basic make/receive capability of Enterprise Voice, plus all the other voice features such as multi-party audio conferencing, all the new calling features (park, E911, etc.), delegation, and response groups.  Like before the CALs are additive, meaning that you must buy the Standard CAL in order to purchase the others, but the Plus CAL is not reliant on the Enterprise CAL.  If you do not need the conferencing capabilities of the Enterprise CAL but want all the voice features then you could buy only the Standard + Plus CALs.  And, as before, you can mix and match within your organization as appropriate.  There is also no specific dependency between the CAL version and the server version.

Additional Software

I hate this term, it seems to mean the exact opposite of its intention.  “Additional Software” in Microsoft licensing terms means software that is included in the price of something else that you bought.  I don’t know why it’s not called “Included Software” but I digress.  The major change here is that the Edge Server is now included as Additional Software, meaning that you no longer need to license it.  This effectively means that the only server licenses you need to purchase are the ones for your front end servers.  The link at the top of this article has a complete list of the server roles and other software that fall into this bucket.

Short Term Offer

If you are reading this on or around the post date (October 19, 2010) then you still have the opportunity to be grandfathered into the new licensing scheme.  Customers who own OCS 2007 R2 Enterprise CALs under SA (Software Assurance) before December 1, 2010 are automatically granted both Enterprise and Plus CALs for Lync Server.  Not a bad deal, considering the list price as of this writing ($107 for each of the Enterprise and Plus CALs).  There have been similar offers all the way back to LCS 2005 > OCS 2007 so make sure you structure your licensing so that you remain covered under SA through the next Wave release. 

OCS R2 Licensing Explained

Interestingly the second most viewed post I have is the one on OCS 2007 licensing.  Based on this I thought I’d post an equivalent post for OCS 2007 R2 licensing based on the licensing session that MS held for UC MVPs recently.

Overall the updates are good news.  Microsoft heard the complaints from R1 customers and set a primary goal of simplification.  Using the relative terms of Microsoft licensing, where almost nothing is easy, I’d say they succeeded.  Here are the main takeaways:

No price change.  R2 has no price change for either servers or CALs.  Given all the new features and the fact that the platform has really evolved to at least a basic PBX replacement, this is pretty phenomenal in itself.

Office Communicator R2 License.  No real change here – the OC R2 license is still separate.  It’s worth highlighting that it is still included in Office Pro Plus and Office Enterprise – many people aren’t aware of this.

CAL versions.  You can still mix and match CALs within your organization in order to provide the right licensing options to the users that need specific features.  As before there is no correlation between server and CAL versions (standard and enterprise).  The CAL is still additive, meaning that you need to buy the standard CAL to be able to purchase an enterprise CAL (the same is not true with servers).

Desktop Sharing.  Ok, there was no way we were going to get through a licensing explanation with at least one funky MS nuance.  The new Communicator R2 includes built-in desktop sharing without the need to launch the Live Meeting client.  It’s a really cool feature and is included in the Standard CAL, sort of.  As long as you are just viewing a shared desktop then you are covered by the Standard CAL.  However, if you are the one sharing your desktop, regardless of whether or not you are sharing control, then you must be licensed with an Enterprise CAL.

R2 rights.  OCS R2 is a new version all around, so in order to have upgrade rights you must have licensed your servers, CALs, and client software with Software Assurance.  If this is not the case then you must purchase updated licensing.  Interestingly, if you purchased LCS CALs under SA, your SA is still active, and you never upgraded them to OCS R1 CALs then congratulations – you own OCS 2007 R2 Enterprise CALs.  Awesome deal, especially if you bought them under the IC promo deal that was going on back in 2005 or so.

Non-core licenses are included.  The only servers for which you must purchase OCS R2 server licenses are your front ends (be they Standard or Enterprise) and your Edge servers (always purchase Standard Edition server licenses for your Edge servers).  All other OCS server roles are included with the front end server licensing.  Similarly, Office Communicator is the only client software you are required to purchase.  The official term for this inclusion is “Additional Software”  (I would like to suggest that Microsoft rename this to “Included Software”).  The list of Additional Software (from http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/pricing-licensing.aspx) is:

The clients:

• Office Communicator Web Access 2007 R2

• Office Communicator Mobile for Java 2007 R2

• Office Communicator Mobile for Windows Mobile 2007 R2

• Office Communications Server2007 R2 Group Chat Console

• Office Communicators Server 2007 R2 Attendant Console

• Office Live Meeting Console

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 server roles:

• Monitoring Server role

• Director Server role

• Mediation Server role

• Archiving Server role

• Web Components (includes CWA Server role)

External Connectors.  Given that the platform continues to provide a high ROI based on the built-in web conferencing, MS has decided to drop the need for External Connector licensing altogether.  This is great for organizations who want to extend their infrastructure to the web via web conferencing, external telephony conferencing, or a bolt-on solution such as our SmartChat product, which enables live chat from your website right to Communicator.  You do still need CALs for any user in your organization who will be using OCS.

OCS 2007 Licensing Explained

Licensing of software products can be quite confusing, but hopefully this post clears up licensing for OCS specifically.  In general, there are 3 items you need to license for OCS - server, CALs, and Communicator.  Each can be purchased a different way.  Lastly, there are options for External Connector and PIC licensing.

Servers

OCS 2007 is available in Standard and Enterprise versions.  Server versions have no correspondance to features or functionality.  The basic rule of thumb for OCS 2007 server licensing is that you purchase Enterprise Edition for Front End servers that will be using a SQL backend located on another machine (note that Enterprise Edition does not support a local SQL Server installation), will be deployed behind a load balancer, and/or will be deployed in an expanded topology.  This includes Directors that are deployed as a pool.  All other servers can be licensed as Standard Edition servers.  You do not need an OCS 2007 Server license for the backend SQL server or CWA, nor do you need a SQL license for OCS 2007 Standard since it can only use SQL 2005 Express.

CALs (Client Access Licenses)

The CAL grants the licensing authority to a user to connect to OCS with a specific set of capabilities (limited by licensing agreements, not by application enforcement).  A Standard CAL grants the user the authority to connect to OCS for anything that does not involve conferencing or telephony.  That leaves IM and presence as well as point to point audio and video through Communicator.  For anything else you must have an Enterprise CAL.  Enterprise CALs are additive, meaning that you must buy both the Standard and the Enterprise CAL to be licensed for Enterprise capabilities.  You can choose to purchase Enterprise CALs for only those users that require them.  For example, if all of your organization is using IM and presence but only half the company will use telephony integration then you only need to buy Enterprise CALs for that half.

Communicator

Lastly, you must license the client software to connect to OCS - Communicator (Live Meeting is free).  Communicator can be licensed per user on its own or as part of one of the top two Office 2007 suites - Office 2007 Professional Plus or Office 2007 Enterprise.

External Connector

The external connector (EC) license has nothing whatsoever to do with public IM connectivity (PIC).  It is a per-server license that grants an unlimited number of external users (limited by your hardware/bandwidth constraints) access to the OCS 2007 services.  It must be purchased for each server with which external users interface.  The EC license is available in Standard and Enterprise versions - you would select the one based on the services the users will access (just like CALs above).  It's important to note that an "external user" must be someone that is not an employee of your organization (I'm not sure if contract employees fall under that or not).  The typical example is providing an IM service to business partners so they can interact with employees of your company.

Public IM Connectivity (PIC)

Public IM Connectivity licenses are sold per user and cost roughly $1/user/month.  These fees are low because it is a cost recovery mechanism for the royalties Microsoft pays to the public IM providers.  PIC licenses are typically sold in packs of 12/24/36 months.  Like CALs, you only need to purchase PIC licenses for users that are using PIC services.

The pricing for all these varies based on whether you are purchasing Open Value, Select A-D, or through an EA so I won't touch that.  Retail pricing is available on Microsoft's site as a reference.