Steve's TS2 Insider

Q: (from John)

I have attended quite a few of your DC area presentations over the past few years and you have said if I get stuck on an issue with Microsoft I could shoot it over to you and you may be able to point me in the right direction. I have a customer that I want to move to the “Small Business Desktop Advantage” SKU across the entire company, (Windows, Office and an SBS license). Here is where it has gotten sticky, my distributor has told me Microsoft is using the same SKU for that as they did say 6 months ago when SBS 2003 had only 1 client license for either Premium or Standard. You told us in DC a few weeks ago that MS has moved to 2 different licenses for SBS 2008, one for standard and one for premium. My distributor also told me this and that is where the problem is. The “Small Business Desktop Advantage” SKU comes with “one (1) SBS licenses” and it doesn’t state on my distributor’s end whether that is now an SBS 2008 Standard or SBS 2008 Premium license in that package. Additionally, there is only one “Small Business Desktop Advantage” SKU package, not separate SKU packages for SBS Premium and Standard 2008.

My distributor called in to one of their Microsoft Licensing reps and he told them to “piecemeal” a license together but that really didn’t answer the question she has about the “Small Business Desktop Advantage” license.

Would you be able to shed any light on one how to proceed with using the “Small Business Desktop Advantage” license? I need an answer in writing from Microsoft as to what the situation is with this license in this transition from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. Thanks.

A:

This took me some work to find an answer:

The Small Business Desktop Advantage Company Wide SKU specifically is:

• Office 2007 SB Edition
• SBS 2003 CAL
• Windows Vista Business Upgrade
• 3 years of Software Assurance on all three products

Because it includes SA, if the customer has SBS 2003 R2 Standard and they upgrade to SBS 2008 Standard; they get access to SBS 2008 Standard CALs. If the customer has access to SBS 2003 R2 Premium and they upgrade to SBS 2008 Premium; they get access to SBS 2008 Premium CALs.

Since you can still buy SBS 2003 R2 with SA through Volume Licensing, this is still an option.

After December, SBS 2003 R2 will no longer be available via Volume Licensing and you will be able to buy the equivalent of Small Business Desktop Advantage via a “piecemeal” approach which is officially called “Build Your Own Platform” Where you choose:

• The version of Office from
  • Office Enterprise
  • Office Professional Plus
  • Office Small Business
• The needed CAL from
  • Core CAL Suite
  • Enterprise CAL Suite
  • SBS 2008 Standard CAL
  • SBS 2008 Premium CAL
  • EBS 2008 Standard CAL
  • EBS 2008 Premium CAL
• The version of Vista from
  • Windows Vista Business
  • Windows Vista Business with Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack
• 3 years of Software Assurance on all three products

You still need to license the “Build Your Own Platform for all desktops in the organization for Company Wide, but you don’t have to use the exact same configuration for all the desktops. For example in a 15 desktop organization, I could license:

• 10 desktops with:
  • Office Small Business
  • SBS 2008 Standard CAL
  • Windows Vista Business
• And 5 desktops with:
  • Office Professional Plus
  • SBS 2008 Standard CAL
  • Windows Vista Business

And a link to the Build Your Own Platform: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/licensing/licensingprograms/ltvolumelicensing/40081471 slides 10 & 18

I hope this helps.