As of July 2011 customers with active Software Assurance will have access to new License Mobility rights for server and Client Access License (CAL ) application licenses. This will provide organisations the flexibility to deploy certain application server software on-premises or in the cloud to take advantage of the lowest cost infrastructure, which is particularly appropriate for Exchange Mail for example.

• These new Software Assurance Benefits enable the increasing adoption of cloud services. Giving you the flexibility of moving certain application workloads to the Cloud, with distributed workloads across on-premises and off-premises, and to move licenses around as required.
• This benefits the licensee,  as you can preserve and leverage your current investment in Microsoft on-premises licenses and take a unified view of your organisations IT investments.

What does this mean for organisations that have invested in server licensing and wish to have a choice in deployment?

• There is no extra cost for this new flexibility: It is a Software Assurance (SA) Benefit, so there are no new CALs or Mobility fees. No purchasing process change is necessary, as Server and Client Access  licenses are purchased with Software Assurance through your volume license (VL) agreement as normal.
• However clients wishing to take advantage of Office 365, will need a new updated Enterprise Agreement addendum. This Addendum will form part of the next iteration of the Enterprise Agreement from July 2011 for new customers.
• What products are eligible for license mobility? In general terms, all product categories that have rights today for “mobility within the datacenter” will have extended mobility rights to the cloud.

To find out how to maximise the potential flexibility of these license changes, click here to contact Computacenter’s software sales experts software@computacenter.com

Adobe® Acrobat® CLP Packs

Receive additional discounts of up to 45% when purchasing the leading PDF document creation and collaboration solution for your organisation.

Adobe® Acrobat® CLP Packs are a new way for commercial and government organisations to affordably expand the use of Acrobat software for PDF document creation and collaboration within the existing Adobe Cumulative Licensing Program (CLP) by purchasing Acrobat in pre-defined quantities.

Receive additional savings on the leading desktop PDF solution

Acrobat CLP Packs are offered worldwide through the Adobe CLP program, a volume-based software licensing framework for midsize to large organisations. Not only do you receive additional savings on top of your current CLP discount level with Acrobat CLP Packs, but you can continue to take advantage of the centralised tools to track and manage your Adobe software volume licenses available within the program. And because points for Acrobat CLP Pack purchases are calculated at pre-discount rates, you’ll accrue CLP points for special discounts even faster.

Built-in discounts immediately available

Acrobat CLP Packs are available in six quantities, starting at 250 seats and ranging up to 2,000 seats, for purchases of Acrobat X Standard and Acrobat X Pro. Acrobat Upgrade Plan CLP Packs are also available to accompany the licence packs.

Computacenter are committed to ensuring our customers are always aware of the latest vendor licensing offerings enabling cost reduction.

Contact your Computacenter account manager today for further information, or email software@computacenter.com.

www.computacenter.com/adobe

August 1st 2011 will witness a fundamental alteration to Microsoft’s Core Client Access Licence (CAL) Suite with new features being added that can reduce the cost of Microsoft instant messaging (IM) and antivirus offerings.

Client Licenses for Important Server Products
The Core CAL Suite licenses either a user or device for the most important functions of several widely deployed products, covering:

• Windows Server
• Exchange Server
• SharePoint Standard
• System Centre Configuration Manager

From August 1st 2011 these will be supplemented by

• Lync Standard CAL, a next generation collaboration and IM suite,
• Forefront Endpoint Protection, a tool combining security and management at the desktop level

Free IM, Antimalware
Organisations with Software Assurance (SA) on the Core CAL Suite as of August 1 2011 will gain rights to two new components:

The 2 components are granted at no charge to Core CAL Suite customers who have SA. However, effective August 1st the cost of SA itself will rise at renewal by approximately 14%, with a price rise of circa 3% for organisations who purchase the Core CAL Suite as part of the EA Professional Desktop Platform.

Price changes for new customers and step-ups
The expansion of the CoreCAL suite has other implications for prices to new Core CAL Suite customers and related licenses.

New Core CAL Suite customers will pay roughly 10% more for the suite license plus SA, however the new price offers a deeper discount for the Core CAL suite compared to the cost of all its component licenses.

New EA Professional desktop platform customers will pay roughly 3% more for the license and SA.

Computacenter advises:

• If you are a current Core Cal customer you can sign an ‘Early Use Rights Amendment’ that will allow you to utilise the new feature s today at no additional cost. Contact us to discuss how to get this set up. Some restrictions may apply.
• If you sign an EA with the Core CAL before August 1st, your organisation will lock in today’s pricing and receive the new features on August 1st. You will also have the opportunity to singe the ‘Early Use Rights Amendment’ and be able to start accessing the new features today.
• If your EA is due to expire between August and December 2011, work with Computacenter to identify if there is an ‘early commit’ opportunity to lock in the current Cora CAL pricing.
• If you are a Core CAL customer and already buy Lync Standard &/or Forefront you will not have to renew these licenses, so you will save money on the renewal as the bundled pricing is lower than renewing separately.
• You might need to have System Centre Configuration Manger to deploy Forefront Endpoint Protection, but if you need any assistance in deploying this we can assist you here too.

Contact Computacenter today to understand how these changes may impact your organisation.

www.computacenter.com/microsoft

VMware are in the process of annoucning key changes to the program to help better serve our customers, helping you make further savings on the latest hosted technology. We expect these changes to be based on virtual gigabyte memory usage as opposed to peak number of VMs, ensuring customers are not being charged for simply spinning up virtual machines but actually using them.

For more information contact your Computacenter account manager or email software@computacenter.com.

www.computacenter.com/VMware

Reduce your Carbon footprint: By selecting Digital by Choice, you help reduce the need to manufacture, ship, and ultimately dispose of disks.

Get Faster Updates: With Digital by Choice you’ll get software updates faster than with kit shipments. You will be able to download software updates the moment they are posted on the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Centre.

Save Time and Effort: Ending physical shipment of subscription disk kits can help you save time and administrative resources. You will not have to manage the receipt, cataloguing, distribution, archiving and disposal of disks.

Learn more about the advantages of Digital by Choice.

Starting December 3rd 2010 Microsoft will stop sending you your physical CD/DVD software updates, and you will be able to access your updates by digital download on Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Service Centre (VLSC).

You will receive a confirmation e-mail for each enrolment after which all future media subscription kit shipments will end. You will also receive instructions how to access your updates on the VLSC. Note: MSDN , Software Assurance or any additional media subscriptions that you have paid for will not be affected, these will continue to be sent to you.

If, however, you prefer to continue receiving your updates by CD/DVD media, please indicate this before December 1^st 2010, by clicking here.

For information contact your Computacenter account manager or email us at software@computacenter.com.

www.computacenter.com/microsoft

By leveraging the investment already made in Citrix application delivery technology, customers can save up to 75% off list price if they decide to trade up their licenses by 31st December.

The XenDesktop Trade Up promotion allows XenApp customers to:

• Double the number of Citrix licenses
• Save up to 75% off the XenDesktop list price
• Keep all of the benefits and functionality of XenApp, including access to the latest technology, XenApp 6
• Deliver different desktops to different user types with FlexCast™ delivery technology
• Get a year of Subscription Advantage membership

If you are looking to leverage desktop virtualisation as part of your organisation’s strategy for Workplace IT, the XenDesktop Trade Up promotion offers the most simple and cost-effective path.

More details of the Trade Up promotion can be found here.

For more information contact you Computacenter account manager or email us at software@computacenter.com.

www.computacenter.com/citrix

All VMware Customers are eligible to enroll for a VPP membership. However, discounts are earned and applied only when a qualifying purchase is made against a VPP membership number

The new accumulative VPP allows customers to automatically earn higher discounts as their spend increases.  Below is a summary of the key differences:

For more information and to ensure you are obtaining maximum discount entitlements please contact your Computacenter account manager or email software@computacenter.com.

¹US Federal customers are eligible to receive volume discounts using their current program.
² Please refer to VPP Program Guide for a complete definition of affiliates.
³ VPP Points are assigned as a calculated value and vary by product. The point value of a given product is the same across all geographies.

Windows 7 downgrade rights extended beyond the anticipated release of Service Pack 1

When releasing Windows 7, originally Microsoft announced a limited period (window) during which an OEM operating system purchase could be downgraded to prior versions of the operating system – thereby creating additional motivation for customers to plan for deployment of Windows 7 as the standard operating system across the enterprise. This approach has now been reversed and the limitation removed.

Following the announcement of a change we published an interim article covering off the facts and relevance, however, in case you missed that publication we repeat our advice here – OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional.

Going forward, organisations can continue to purchase new hardware and utilise end user downgrade rights to Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP2 until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7.

The announcement from Microsoft is below:

To support our customers’ “unprecedented move” to migrate their PC environment to Windows 7, we have decided to extend downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional beyond the previously planned end date at Windows 7 SP1. This will help maintain consistency for downgrade rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle. As a result, the OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional.  Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilise end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7.

What is the impact of the change?  For organisations who have a strong desire to maintain a single OS image across the environment the announcement from Microsoft buys them the time to appropriately evaluate and test Windows 7 ahead of a scheduled rollout. Computacenter doesn’t envisage this will result in shift of priorities for many firms as the majority of organisations have been expected to move forward on a phased basis – creating the need to support more than one end user OS for at least a limited period.

As part of the planning process every organisation should be aware that:

• Free support for Windows XP will cease in 2013
• Windows 7 ultimate is the only OEM edition providing value added features of inherent end point security, VPN, local Caching and multi language user interfaces that also come with Windows 7 Enterprise as a volume licence

For more information please contact your Computacenter account manager or email software@computacenter.com.

www.computacenter.com/microsoft

Microsoft aid transition by enhancing access to Select Plus

The April announcement that Microsoft was calling time on Select agreements, removing the flexibility of forecasting purchase levels in order to enable a discount structure was received with some resistance by software procurement professionals and budget holders alike.

Having received feedback from the marketplace Microsoft will go ahead with the termination of the Select licence program, however, the ability to enrol in a Select Plus agreement for customers already procuring under Select has been supported by a concession.

Starting on August 16, 2010, the 500-point initial requirement will not be a criterion in activating product pools when setting up a new Select Plus agreement.  Initial orders with less than 500 points will be accepted.

If Qualifying Select Agreement is used:

• Qualifying Select Agreement w/ pricing Level A in a pool

Select Plus agreement using Select as qualifying contract will not be validated to ensure previous 12 months purchase is greater than 500 point

• Qualifying Select Agreement w/ pricing Level B-D in a pool

Select Plus agreement using Select as qualifying contract must follow current process and be validated to ensure previous 12 months purchase is greater than 500 points (if less than 500 points set up at Level A).

Select Plus agreements with effective date from August 15, 2009 to August 15, 2010 with pools on hold due to insufficient points to meet the 500-point requirement will have all pools activated at Price Level A.

In slightly more simple terms ….

When migrating to a Select Plus agreement, your existing Select agreement is used to qualify for the correct price level per pool in Select Plus. So if you’re on level C for a particular pool on a select agreement, you will be on level C for that pool when you migrate.

Price levels are reviewed after each year and not after the three year period.

Impacts will differ across organisations and indeed individual pools, Computacenter recommends that every organisation consider:

• The impact of having a Select Plus pool terminated and up front purchase then required in order to qualify for discounts
• Timing of transition to Select Plus to leverage active Select agreement pools and planned purchases which will enable qualification for Select Plus discounts and maintenance of discount levels for a sustained period.
• As of July 2011 no new Select Agreements can be activated

In order to ensure your operation makes the most of the forthcoming changes contact your Computacenter account manager to arrange for your roadmap to be benchmarked against all the available options.

www.computacenter.com/microsoft

In a recent statement, Microsoft confirmed:

“To support our customers’ “unprecedented move” to migrate their PC environment to Windows 7, we have decided to extend downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional beyond the previously planned end date at Windows 7 SP1. This will help maintain consistency for downgrade rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle.

As a result, the OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional.

Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilise end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7.

While the majority of customers are actively transitioning to Windows 7, and PC manufacturers are focused on delivering PCs and devices with Windows 7 preinstalled, our business customers have told us that removing end-user downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional could be confusing, given the rights change would be made for new PCs preinstalled with Windows 7, and managing a hybrid environment with PCs that have different end-user rights based on date of purchase would be challenging to track.”

For more information please contact your Computacenter account manager.

www.computacenter.com/microsoft