MS Licensing help please! (Volume Visual Studio)

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

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Hi guys,

I'm doing an audit of the software licences we have at the company I joined a few months ago, as I'm certain we are severely under-licensed.

We're a development company and so we have several users who use Visual Studio on a daily basis (~20). Now as far as I can tell, my predecessor had a single MSDN licence, which he used to install all of these copies of Visual Studio.

Now my question is; as far as I can gather, an MSDN licence is only for a single individual (although it does allow them to install on as many devices as needed for their own personal use) is this correct, or is there a company wide version or similar?

Basically I've been looking at new licenses, and the only solution I can find is to buy the ~20 licenses (at ~£1.3k each) - so I'm being asked the question; "why do we need so many expensive licenses when we haven't needed them before?"

If anyone could let me know which licensing plan my predecessor may have been using, and if there are any site licenses which would be appropriate for Visual Studio, it would be much appreciated :)
 
MSDN subscriptions are not licences for production use of software. The purpose of MSDN software downloads is that you can develop and test on a variety of platforms and applications. None of the software should be used for normal business operations. For example, you can install Outlook to test integration of an addin, but if you start reading your work email on there, that would require a separate licence.

That said, you can buy VS with MSDN subscription for one year, but the rights of the product depend on how the software was bought (Retail or VLA). VS as most MS software, is licensed per device or per user. As far as I am aware, unless you have a campus agreement, it won't be site licensed.

You can either buy retail licences, or perhaps an open or select VLA would be worth considering for 20 licences? Also, I think perhaps a MS Silver partnership may give you the licences you require, depending on how you use the software.
 
Last edited:
Burnsy2023 said:
MSDN subscriptions are not licences for production use of software. The purpose of MSDN software downloads is that you can develop and test on a variety of platforms and applications. None of the software should be used for normal business operations. For example, you can install Outlook to test integration of an addin, but if you start reading your work email on there, that would require a separate licence.

That said, you can buy VS with MSDN subscription for one year, but the rights of the product depend on how the software was bought (Retail or VLA). VS as most MS software, is licensed per device or per user. As far as I am aware, unless you have a campus agreement, it won't be site licensed.

You can either buy retail licences, or perhaps an open or select VLA would be worth considering for 20 licences? Also, I think perhaps a MS Silver partnership may give you the licences you require, depending on how you use the software.
Click to expand...

This is what I thought, just a little surprised that my predecessor disregarded all of that!

I've been given a quote for the licenses we require under a scheme called EAP (it's basically MSDN but can be used for production purposes) which seems reasonable considering the cost for individual licenses, but I'm stuck having to explain to management why we suddenly need these licenses when we supposedly haven't before (without just coming out and saying the guy before me was a complete cowboy! :p).
 
Haggisman said:
This is what I thought, just a little surprised that my predecessor disregarded all of that!

I've been given a quote for the licenses we require under a scheme called EAP (it's basically MSDN but can be used for production purposes) which seems reasonable considering the cost for individual licenses, but I'm stuck having to explain to management why we suddenly need these licenses when we supposedly haven't before (without just coming out and saying the guy before me was a complete cowboy! :p).
Click to expand...

In a way, you only "need" the licenses if Microsoft comes sniffing for an audit. You could remind them that it is usually the directors of a company which get into trouble.
 
Dangerous game of cat and mouse they are playing. Microsoft is VERY strict with licences. Even when they get it wrong and blame the customer for pirating when they are in fact; in licence (trust me I know, even posted on this forum about it). We had a audit immediately after after they came knocking on the door. We were all in licence but they still tried to fine us for operating as a business instead of a charity. Even though we are a registered charity.

In short get your licenses in order and you are doing the right thing. Follow what Chri5 said, they are the ones who would get nailed - unless you knew about it and did nothing. Get it in writing that they refused to buy licences if they say no. Cover your own back ;).
 
I don't think they're doing it knowingly - I get the impression the guy I replaced was very good at blagging =P

Hopefully now I've raised it they'll go ahead pretty quickly.
 
It may be worth checking to see if everyone needs the fully fledged version of VS (having no knowledge of your company or products i couldn't say), as you may find the Express (free) edition is enough.

Too often people demand the top version of a product when they don't need it (also if it were freely available in the office there was no ready to consider alternatives)
 
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