Posted on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 @ 09:37 AM
Economic conditions and data center trends have led more businesses to consider multi-year agreements for their IT hardware maintenance plans. Multi-year agreements are among the most common initial maintenance plans provided by OEMs like Cisco, VMware, HP, NetApp and Dell. More and more organizations are recognizing that they need long-term support for their networking hardware after the original warranty has expired, often because they don't have the budget for a technology refresh. As a result, hardware maintenance is emerging as a major priority in order to extend the life of the network, and multi-year service agreements are often the proving to be the most cost-effective approach. Why?
The following are key benefits of a multi-year agreement:
OEM discount. As in most purchases, business or personal, a longer contract commitment will often get you a significant discount from the hardware OEM.
Price protection. Most original maintenance programs contain price increases between 5 and 10 percent annually. A multi-year agreement will lock in a price for the duration of the contract. Multi-year maintenance contract costs are front loaded in an agreement period, so the subsequent year-over-year savings is passed to the customer. As a result, organizations that buy into a multi-year agreement generally save considerably over the course of their contract.
Avoid equipment inspection fees. In some cases inspection fees are required prior to covering devices in which the coverage has lapsed.
Budget predictability. With a multi-year hardware contract locked down, your expenses related to datacenter and network equipment will have clear and static numbers for a few years, which help you plan better for more strategic IT projects.
Reduced administrative costs and labor. Having one contract covering your hardware for several years allows you to avoid devoting financial and staff resources on annual contract renewals -- an often complicated process for both IT and the accounting department.
Service continuity. This is one of the most important attributes of a multi-year agreement. With short-term contracts, companies may have to switch between data center hardware maintenance providers and adapt to different nuances associated with each plan. With a multi-year deal in place, organizations can enjoy the reliability that comes with a long-term agreement and ensure they maintain a continuity of service.
Extras. In many cases multi-year agreements also come with add-on benefits to the customer, like credits towards training, financing assistance (with aggressive rates for qualified deals) and additional reporting in the form of scorecarding and/or a customer-facing portal.
Is a Multi-Year IT Hardware Agreement Right for You?
Most organizations I speak to find they can reap significant financial and other benefits from switching to a multi-year hardware agreement. Do you think you will be running your current network or datacenter for at least the next three years? Are you in need of more IT budget predictability? Do you know how much internal resources are spent on annual contract renewals? These factors will help you assess whether a multi-year IT hardware agreement is right for your organization.
If you have specific questions about your hardware contract structure, feel free to contact me directly.
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Jamie O’Brien is Director of Licensing Services at MCPc. His team helps organizations optimize their licensing for VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, Cisco and other manufacturers. He has more than 16 years of experience in the IT industry. Connect with Jamie on LinkedIn.
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Posted on Tue, Jun 26, 2012 @ 08:47 AM
It’s no secret that many companies struggle with the complexity of licensing the Windows desktop in a VDI environment. Despite efforts from Microsoft over the years to simplify its software licensing, virtualization has made it more complex than ever for companies to figure out the most cost-effective way to acquire licensing. In an attempt to address these complexities, Microsoft recently released a VDI licensing FAQ document that explains in simple language various virtual desktop and RDS licensing scenarios. There are no recent changes to Microsoft’s licensing policies. The document simply clarifies the policies in place today. Here are explanations for some of the more common concerns:
What’s the desktop license based on in VDI? It’s based on access device. Windows Client Software Assurance (SA) gives you virtual desktop access rights. If you want to use PCs covered under SA, you have access to your VDI desktops at no additional charge.
What is Windows Virtual Desktop Access? Available for $100/year/device, VDA is designed to help organizations license devices that do not qualify for Windows Client SA--thin clients and contractor-owned PCs, for example -- so these devices can access a virtual desktop.
How do you determine the number of Windows VDA licenses required? It’s one-to-one. You need a Windows VDA license for each non-SA device that will access the VDI environment.
How does VDA work with licenses from Citrix, VMware and other virtualization platforms? Windows VDA is the appropriate licensing vehicle, regardless of the VDI software vendor you choose as long as you’re accessing a Windows client OS from a non-SA device (iPad, thin client, etc.).
Can you connect to multiple VDI desktops with a single VDA license? You can connect to up to four VMs concurrently with one VDA license.
What are extended roaming rights for Windows VDA? If you’re the primary user of a device with a VDA license, you can access your work desktop from any device that is not company-owned without the need for an additional license. These rights apply only while roaming outside of the corporate domain. So any device accessing a Windows virtual desktop within the corporate domain needs to be licensed with either Windows Client SA or Windows VDA.
What are the purchasing options for Windows VDA? It’s available only as a subscription. You can’t purchase it outright.
Hopefully these FAQ answers will shed a little more light on your VDI licensing picture. You can also read about MCPc’s approach to helping organizations assess and optimize their software licensing in a virtualized environment.
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Jamie O’Brien is Director of Licensing Services at MCPc. His team helps organizations optimize their licensing for VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, Cisco and other manufacturers. He has more than 16 years of experience in the IT industry. Connect with Jamie on LinkedIn.
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Stay Connected with MCPc: Subscribe to the blog; follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
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