CALs, CALs, CALs

[ElEye]

OK. Sounds simple, but Microsoft's licensing requires a doctorate to understand. The whole CALs (Client Access Licenses) is, IMO, a completely stupid software model. Worse yet is Microsoft's lack of clear information and methods for acquiring CALs. So, with exasperation, I ask qualified questions of you all:

With Exchange 2000 do you need to have a CAL for each connecting client?

Are CALs still (or more/less of) an issue if they use a client program like Outlook vs. connecting to Exchange in a web browser?

Are CALs exclusive to each product or are they cumulative, like do you add those that come with Windows 2000 Server to those that come with Exchange?

If CALs are required, how does one purchase them?

Is there an 'unlimited CAL' package and how does one purchase that?

TIA!

-Dave

 

[Xybertron]

Please read this... Then ask if it didn't have all the answers.

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/howtobuy/default.asp

Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[Zelandakh]

The bottom line is that you need the following:

A client OS and a CAL to allow it to link to a server.
A client mail system (Outlook) and a CAL to allow it to link to a server.

A server OS and an email server.

If you buy a server OS, you can normally buy CALs at the same time.

If you have more than one server, you use per seat licensing and get one CAL per computer. Otherwise use per server licensing.

 

[ElEye]

Thank you both for your responses.

My opinion is that licensing per user, particularly in small quantities like this, is very bad. We really like a lot of MS products, but there are competing Mail Server softwares out there that appear to compete with Exchange's capabilities, and at significantly lower cost, and without a per client license requirement.

Per client licensing feels too much to me like a tax. I hate tax.

Just my opinion.

-Dave

 

[TheGrey]

I mostly agree with you, ElEye, so what i did , was to talk to my local Microsoft reseller, and just told them that I didn't understand (or bother to try to understand, as is more the facts), M$'s licence rules.
So, I just told them my needs, and they came up with a few suggestions that I could choose from.
I ended up with something called an OSL agreement, where you pay an amount a year for each "workstation", and the license includes (as far as i understand): any windows desktop os, any office pro version and Cals for most servers. So when office YQ and windows "hornblower" is released, i can upgrade without thinking about licensing.

 

[ElEye]

Thank you, TheGrey.

I'm aware of this licensing model and I think it's a great concept. But Microsoft (my guess is because they're so huge) seems to often, if not typically, have the 'left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing' problem.

Things like their "Open License Program" are, again, IMO, expensive. And inconsistent and difficult to discern.

I get the distinct impression that the concept is not well supervised so that by the time it gets to release even MS doesn't know what's going on. An example would be if you compare the cost of Exchange Enterprise with that of Exchange Enterprise with 25 CALs. It appears to me that the only difference is the 25 CALs included in the more expensive package. Thus the cost difference should be the 20 extra CALs. But if we bought Enterprise and then bought 20 CALs we'd save a few hundred $. Huh?

What I'd love to see is something like the MSDN package, but a reduced cost. Get EVERYTHING, here's your reasonable annual fee, download away, see you next year.

In the meantime, we are going to evaluate several competing products to Exchange Server. One of them looks fantastic for 1/7th the cost of MS.

FWIW, we are MS fans and give MS the benefit of the doubt more often than not. But the laws of competition will apply here. Just as they have helped with MS's success, they may hurt them in this purchasing decision.

I'll keep the forum informed of our decision and logics.

Best,
Dave :

 

[Xybertron]

Zel

XADM: Exchange 2000 Server Supports Per-Seat Licensing Only ID: Q237257

100 Million Licenses have been sold (Exchange 2000) and we are the first e-mail solution to do this. I just make it work not try to sell it. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[ElEye]

Dan:

I appreciate that a representative of MS is on this forum. That is great. But I hope you're not suggesting that popularity = quality. Perhaps the letters A O L mean something to you in that regard.

Anyway, for the benefit of the forum, I proudly annouce that we decided on Ipswitch's IMail server product rather than MS Exchange 2000.

Remember, we like MS. But, while a difficult evalution (we seriously reviewed 5 products, I think), IMail exceeds Exchange for our requirements in every aspect except alias generation. And it's 1/6th the price (or less for unlimited clients). In a few weeks I will update this subject with our full take on it.

-Dave

 

[ashleym]

Imail is not equal to exchange, by a long shot. Its only an alternative to those who can't afford exchange and are small enough to live without its features. Imail is a mail server only product that offers many of the features of exchange with one major piece missing, the strengths of the Outlook client. If you want to compare the two, and I don't disagree on the price issue, Imail is by far cheaper; however shared calendaring, something essential in the enterprise and some SMB, is a feature Imail does not have. Outlook express or any other pop3 email or imap client does not have the richness and strengths that outlook has. I again will not disagree that exchange/outlook are the most targeted by virus's, however adequate protection will keep you safe.

Ashleym

 

[JBorecky]

All right I know this thread is old but, it's all clear as mud. I have Win2K Adv server w/ 25CAL's. Which is OK for running in my office network with 12 PC's attached. Well here's where it gets ugly. We have 25 additional employees who travel. My boss wants to put the server on the internet so that all our employees can access it. Not all at once mind you. He also wants to have E-mail come to our domain for all employees. Roughly 37. How many CAL's do I need and for which server??? I've read all the doc's and am more confused now than when I started. I guess that's what I get for not spending $12K on MCSE classes.