Depending on the size of your organization, Microsoft SQL Server licensing costs easily can be one of the biggest yearly expenditures for an IT department. As multi-core and virtualization technologies have taken hold in nearly every datacenter across the globe, SQL Server spends often consist not only of licensing the SQL Server instances, but also, in many cases, of over-licensing due to a lack of clear understanding of SQL Server licensing models and associated options. Proper licensing of SQL Server depends on, among other things, SQL Server use characterization, access characterization, and developer needs.
Microsoft Developer Tools represent a good example. Microsoft created the Developer Tools category of licenses for use by software developers. Some of the Developer Tools include SQL Server use rights (such as Visual Studio with MSDN and SQL Server Developer), and these generally are licensed on a per-user model. For instance, under the March 2011 Products Use Rights document (which contains license terms applicable to Microsoft software licensed under one of the company’s Volume Licensing programs), a user of a Developer Tool has rights to install unlimited instances of the included software titles, provided the every installation is used “to design, develop, test, and demonstrate” the programs under development. Microsoft Developer Tools licenses also include downgrade rights and end-user testing rights (meaning that end users do not need any license whatsoever to “perform acceptance tests” on the programs being developed). In addition, a SQL Server Developer license entitles developers working in third-party environments (like SAP), to install and access a SQL Server back-end for development, testing and QA purposes, and the SQL Server Developer license also permits the in-place upgrade of the test server to production uses without redeploying the solution to a different “production server.”
Why should you care? A SQL Server Developer license runs $37 per user (at the time of the posting of this article), compared to over $1200 for a Visual Studio Pro w/ MSDN license. Organizations with development groups therefore must carefully evaluate their development, testing, and quality-assurance environments to ensure they are not spending more money than necessary to license the installed SQL Server instances. Savings for a 30-developer team with a testing, quality assurance, and staging environments can be very significant, provided a careful analysis and a deep understanding of Microsoft SQL Server licensing options and use grants.
However, a thorough evaluation of server-use characterization, access characterization, and developer identification requires not only the technical expertise to inventory diverse and varying infrastructures, but also the experience to know the right questions to ask of employees to determine their licensing needs. Therefore, businesses should consider engaging knowledgeable licensing counsel to assist in their assessment processes.
About the author
Andrew Martin:
As an associate attorney with extensive prior experience advising information technology start-ups, Andrew’s practice focuses on finding solutions for his clients’ intellectual property issues. Due to his extensive experience in the software and technology industries, Andrew understands both the practical and legal issues involved in IP licensing agreements and disputes. In addition to licensing, Andrew helps his clients find new ways to use existing technologies to assist his clients in areas such as data privacy compliance. Andrew uses his diverse background which includes founding a record label and working for a world-wide concert promoter when counseling the firm’s entertainment clients.
Get in touch: amartin@scottandscottllp.com | 800.596.6176