Software Assurance

Software Assurance allows you to upgrade to the latest available software product versions at any time during the period of active SA. Software Assurance also brings other specific benefits and options to all customers who have decided to cover software products with the SA service as for example:

• premium support
• license mobility
• HUP (home usage program)
• training and additional credits eg in Azure
• in the case of SQL DB provides the right to operate passive instances for HA and DR

It can be stated that the IT infrastructure running on Microsoft products with complete Software Assurance coverage provides certain advantages, but on the other hand such a solution represents the most expensive way of covering licensing needs, and there are always alternative and cheaper solutions that companies can set up based on their real requirements.

What is the price of Software Assurance?

The price of Software Assurance for 12 months is determined as a percentage of the price of the new license.

• approximately 30% - applications and operating systems (Office, Project, Visual Studio…)
• approximately 25% - server solutions (Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server)

What are the conditions for purchasing Software Assurance?

Software Assurance can only be purchased for products acquired under a volume license agreement within 30 days of the date of purchase of the new license or licenses for which the previous SA has expired. The next cycle after the termination of the contract continues only with the payment of Software Assurance. Operating systems and server products purchased as OEMs may be covered by Software Assurance no later than 90 days after purchase.

Under what conditions does Software Assurance pay off?

In practice, Software Assurance means that you are likely to pay much more for the constant renewal of software than with the occasional replacement of licenses from free market.

What are the alternative scenarios for getting the most out of Software Assurance?

In the EU/EEA, where there is the possibility of alternative purchase of software licenses from the free market, and at the same time when manufacturers such as Microsoft artificially shorten the period of support for on-premise solutions (eg Microsoft Office Suite, Exchange, SharePoint and other products in versions 2016 and 2019 have the same end date of support), some of the benefits of the SA service specified in this article cease to be relevant.

As licenses from free market can generally save up to 80 % from the purchase price of new software products, the following scenarios often payoff:

• Purchase server licenses with Software Assurance that offer one of the most important benefits, License Mobility and Premium Support combined with purchase of access licenses from the free market. Further customer gets the opportunity to purchase newer access licenses at the appropriate time and upgrade to the newer version as needed.
• Purchase of Microsoft Office Standard or Professional Plus from the free market from contracts outside EA or CW, which provide the right to run 2 instances of the software on two secondary devices of a primary user (replacement of the HUP program).

The last, optimal scenario is the purchase of software products completely without Software Assurance in the period just after the release of new software version and further use the entire infrastructure during the period of extended and mainstream support offered by the manufacturer, which usually for server products, with some exceptions (Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business) is set up to 10 years.

Whether a company needs Software Assurance is always determined by its clearly defined needs and financial capabilities. If you have any questions, contact our licensing specialists for advice and setting up the optimal licensing infrastructure tailored to your real requirements.