OT: Keeping Up to Date with Microsoft

Yahoo Archive
1
We long ago gave up on continual refreshes and especially rejected SA. We tend to leap forward every 5-7 years by which time the SA cost would have greatly exceeded re-buying new copies. We do buy on open license mostly just to keep the license status up to date. OS wise we buy with the hardware and usually whatever the latest server version is but on the clients have stuck to XP-Pro (except for the handful of Win2K and 98 dinosaurs). If there isn't a darned good business reason to upgrade we don't. We did implement Exchange-2007 a couple years ago and are very happy with it in combo with Outlook-2003. Our next leap forward will be at the end of this year when we go to Office-2007 (from 2000) in order to combine with SharePoint Services and MS Dynamics CRM.
-Todd C.


________________________________
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Brian W. Spolarich
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 8:11 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] OT: Keeping Up to Date with Microsoft



Three years ago we purchased a complete "refresh" of our Microsoft
OS/server/Office licenses with Open Value. Those have all come up for
renewal over the past few months.

I've decided to let the Office licenses lapse, as I can't come up with
enough of a business justification to merit the considerable expense.

Now I need to decide on the last piece, which is the server OS,
Exchange, and MSSQL server licenses. I currently own:

- Server 2008 including R2 (just out) w/ CALs and TS CALs

- MSSQL 2008 (relatively new) with CALs

- Exchange 2007 with CALs

I have a bevy of 32-bit hardware that I'm unlikely to be able to
replace anytime soon, and most of the new products are 64-bit only.

I decided to skip Exchange 2007 for a number of reasons, but was
planning on taking up Exchange 2010 with an appropriate hardware
refresh, maybe go towards a larger 64-bit box w/ virtualization if I can
swing it. But then again, I'll have to sell this.

I'm curious how other folks in similarly small-ish shops are thinking
about MS licensing and the business value of "keeping up". The only
value in the SA agreement is the upgrade rights, despite what the MS
folks and the resellers will try to tell you.

-bws

--

Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix

bspolarich@...<mailto:bspolarich%40advancedphotonix.com>
<mailto:bspolarich@...<mailto:bspolarich%40advancedphotonix.com>> ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotonix.com <http://www.advancedphotonix.com>

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2
Three years ago we purchased a complete "refresh" of our Microsoft
OS/server/Office licenses with Open Value. Those have all come up for
renewal over the past few months.



I've decided to let the Office licenses lapse, as I can't come up with
enough of a business justification to merit the considerable expense.



Now I need to decide on the last piece, which is the server OS,
Exchange, and MSSQL server licenses. I currently own:



- Server 2008 including R2 (just out) w/ CALs and TS CALs

- MSSQL 2008 (relatively new) with CALs

- Exchange 2007 with CALs



I have a bevy of 32-bit hardware that I'm unlikely to be able to
replace anytime soon, and most of the new products are 64-bit only.



I decided to skip Exchange 2007 for a number of reasons, but was
planning on taking up Exchange 2010 with an appropriate hardware
refresh, maybe go towards a larger 64-bit box w/ virtualization if I can
swing it. But then again, I'll have to sell this.



I'm curious how other folks in similarly small-ish shops are thinking
about MS licensing and the business value of "keeping up". The only
value in the SA agreement is the upgrade rights, despite what the MS
folks and the resellers will try to tell you.



-bws

--

Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix

bspolarich@...
<mailto:bspolarich@...> ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotonix.com <http://www.advancedphotonix.com>





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]