Directions on Microsoft Explains Office 365 Licensing

KIRKLAND, Wash., March 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft's Office 365 has generated intense interest among customers looking to squeeze costs out of corporate IT budgets.  The service, which combines Microsoft hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync with subscription licenses to the Office desktop software suite, could ship as early as June.  But there's still confusion about Microsoft licensing for Office 365, especially among corporate customers with Microsoft Enterprise Agreements (EAs) that already cover on-premise versions of the same software.

On March 17th, Directions on Microsoft co-founder and independent Microsoft licensing authority Rob Horwitz briefed an audience of nearly 700 IT executives on the seven Office 365 service plans, what they cost, and how they're licensed.  He also explained the new CAL Suite Bridge, a complex but strategically important set of new client access (CAL) licenses Microsoft has introduced to help large organizations with EAs purchase Office 365.  According to Horwitz "EA customers will get the best price on Office 365, but they'll have to navigate through a variety of overlapping client access licensing issues first. It can get extremely complicated very quickly."

A recording of this live Telebriefing on Microsoft Licensing Office 365 including the Q&A period is available for the next 30 days.

About the Presenter:

Rob Horwitz is the Research Chair of Directions on Microsoft, an independent IT analyst firm focused exclusively on Microsoft technologies since 1992.  He is widely respected expert on Microsoft licensing policies and rules and his guides to licensing Microsoft's enterprise server products are considered definitive on the topic.  Hundreds of corporate IT planners and architects have attended Rob's Microsoft Licensing Boot Camp, an intensive two day course designed to help IT professionals optimize their Microsoft licensing decisions.

Before co-founding Directions, Rob spent eight years at Microsoft in a variety of software development and technical marketing roles.  He was a software developer on the first version of Macintosh Word and marketed Microsoft operating system and server-based products while in the developer relations, networking product marketing, international, and OEM marketing groups.

Rob holds a B.S. in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Wharton.

CONTACT:  Directions on Microsoft, pr@directionsonmicrosoft.com

SOURCE Directions on Microsoft