23Feb
For Hosting Providers Running Microsoft Products, “Dedicated” Means “Dedicated”
As discussed previously, providers of software hosting services may deploy on their servers Microsoft products licensed by their customers under two different scenarios, one of those being where the hosting provider has dedicated a physical...
23Feb
Hosting Providers Have Two Options For Customer-Supplied Licenses
Like any good business, many providers of hosted IT solutions prefer to demonstrate flexibility in offering services to their customers. For example, a company that offers hosted Exchange services may want to allow their customers...
23Feb
Beware the Mandatory SAM Engagement
For several years now, Microsoft has offered some of its customers the “opportunity” to have third-party licensing consultants (selected by Microsoft) review those customers’ Microsoft product deployments and determine whether those customers have all of...
23Feb
Running Windows Server in Clustered VMs Carries Risks
Many businesses running virtual servers with shared physical infrastructures have encountered significant audit exposure arising from the fact that, according to Microsoft, the physical machines in a clustered arrangement may be “running” any number of...
23Feb
Client-Licensed Microsoft Software in Hosted Environments
Hosting services customers often want to use licenses that they have acquired to deploy Microsoft software on a service provider’s servers. Those customers need to be wary about such deployments, as applicable license terms may...
23Feb
SPLA-Audit Exposure Difficult to Estimate
One of the first steps we typically recommend to businesses facing software audits from any source is to try to estimate the financial exposure related to those audits. Doing so allows a company to allocate...