how much is RDS connector with EES ?

[mjk]

As per title, we're quoted £18 per user or device for a perpetual license.

How much is it if you have an EES agreement per year ?

[FN-GM]

The CALS? I think they where around £4 a user per year.

[mrbios]

Last quote i had was £587 for the external connector, and £5.74 per FTE for the CALs

[fiza]

Last quote i had was £587 for the external connector, and £5.74 per FTE for the CALs

Don't you need one or the other not both?

[FN-GM]

You need both if you access it from the outside.

[fiza]

I thought the external connector was for if you wanted to provide access by non-employees?

[mrbios]

I thought the external connector was for if you wanted to provide access by non-employees?

 

My understanding is that you can either buy a set number of CALs for external access (at the max simultaneous expected connections), or buy an external connector license which provides you with unlimited external users. You still need separate CALs for internal devices.

 

It's generally cheapest for places like us to go for the CALs rather than the external connector license, unless you're expecting to allow a lot of people on at once.

[fiza]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/Licensing/product-licensing/client-access-license.aspx

 

External Connectors

 

If you want external users—such as business partners, external contractors, or customers—to be able to access your network, you have two licensing options:

 

• Acquire CALs for each of your external users.
  
• Acquire External Connector (EC) licenses for each server that will be accessed by your external users.
  

 

An external user is a person who does not have employee-level access to your company’s network or the network of your affiliates, and is not someone to whom you provide hosted services. An EC license assigned to a server permits access by any number of external users, as long as that access is for the benefit of the licensee and not the external user. Each physical server that external users access requires only one EC license regardless of the number of software instances running. An "instance" is an installed copy of software.

Edited October 24, 2017 by fiza

[forkies]

We have external connector for students and cals for staff. Cost around £500 for connector and £5/6 ish for cals.

[mjk]

I can't see any documentation from microsoft that suggests it is ok to use external connector licenses for students, even if they connect in externally. I'm pretty sure you need either a device license if they only connect on one device or a user license if they connect with multiple devices. If anyone has anything official about this please let me know because this would be a major saving, or is the consensus just to wing it and hope nobody checks (does anyone check ?).

 

£5 is about was what I was expecting so will recommend the perpetual license with a 5yr life-cycle which means we should save us £12k over EES. Until I hear about the external connector that is.

[forkies]

I can't see any documentation from microsoft that suggests it is ok to use external connector licenses for students, even if they connect in externally. I'm pretty sure you need either a device license if they only connect on one device or a user license if they connect with multiple devices. If anyone has anything official about this please let me know because this would be a major saving, or is the consensus just to wing it and hope nobody checks (does anyone check ?).

 

£5 is about was what I was expecting so will recommend the perpetual license with a 5yr life-cycle which means we should save us £12k over EES. Until I hear about the external connector that is.

 

Did you not see @fiza post, links directly to the ms website with an explanation of external users, students do fit into that description. I spoke to ms directly when I was looking at this and they said it was correct.

[mjk]

Did you not see @fiza post, links directly to the ms website with an explanation of external users, students do fit into that description. I spoke to ms directly when I was looking at this and they said it was correct.

 

I did see the post but I would assume that we do provide a hosted service to our students, because we host services for them. eg we host apps on our terminal servers that they can use. Or is that not what they are getting at? Come to think about it, does anybody qualify for this definition?

An external user is a person who does not have employee-level access to your company’s network or the network of your affiliates, and is not someone to whom you provide hosted services.

 

The link also suggests that an external user is somebody outside the organisation, ie not a member of the college, rather than somebody physically outside the building so I can't see how that could possibly apply to students

 

I'm starting to think that making up my own licensing is going to be the best option here. I hereby define a user as 10,000 people. Done.

 

 

[forkies]

I did see the post but I would assume that we do provide a hosted service to our students, because we host services for them. eg we host apps on our terminal servers that they can use. Or is that not what they are getting at? Come to think about it, does anybody qualify for this definition?

 

 

[/i][/font][/color]The link also suggests that an external user is somebody outside the organisation, ie not a member of the college, rather than somebody physically outside the building so I can't see how that could possibly apply to students

 

I'm starting to think that making up my own licensing is going to be the best option here. I hereby define a user as 10,000 people. Done.

 

 

 

When I spoke to ms they said hosted services where aimed at companies such as server hosts who provide hosting for entire organisations or software as a service hosting.

External user is someone who does not have “employee level access” and therefore students qualify as they are effectively a customer. Staff would not qualify as they have employee level access so they need cals.

[mjk]

That does sound sensible. I asked one of our suppliers, but he said:

 

The crux of the matter is whether the student users are external, students using devices to access anything on the network are not external users. If you want to purchase External connectors for your server that’s your choice but I wouldn’t be willing to sell you these and I have to let you know that if you do so you are at risk of being found to be non-compliant in case of audit.

 

Have you got a contact at MS, or another supplier that I could speak to please ?

[forkies]

I use Softcat Ltd for my licensing, they have a contact at MS they put me through with. I don't see them being on your network as an issue, the external connector is categorised around the user that is connecting not where from. External person in the form of outside of employment not outside the building otherwise you could use that connector to allow your staff to connect in from home which actaully requires a user CAL.

[mjk]

Thanks. I have a sales rep at softcat already, I'll give them a call.

[Steve21]

This is one of my Microsoft guys I've queried this with before (Real MS not reseller):

 

Faculty/Staff

RDS CAL’s can be purchased ‘Organisation wide’ i.e. purchased for the entire FTE count on an OVS-ES agreement. Or purchased as an ‘Additional Product’ i.e. in quantities fewer than the FTE Count.

 

Org wide licenses are cheaper per license than the additional product licenses as you are committing to cover all Staff

 

An RDS CAL can be purchased as ‘per device’ or ‘per user’ through OVS-ES

 

If purchased Org wide, then all Staff are covered for RDS access, and all shared devices (including those use by Students) are covered. Staff are also covered for access from off Campus

 

Student

As per the above, where RDS CAL’s are purchased Organisation wide, Students are permitted to access RDS sessions from shared devices on Campus.

Students are not covered for access externally – and will need a RDS CAL (and a Windows Server CAL) if they are access a RDS session off Campus on their own devices

 

There are 2 options when licensing Students for RDS and Windows Server CAL

1. Purchase a CAL per Student

2. Purchase an External Connector per physical server which will be accessed

The choice is purely financial – if its more cost effective to license the servers which will be accessed then license this way. If its only a couple of Students who need access, then individual CAL’s are needed

 

Steve