Improvements to System Center 2012 Licensing

Today Microsoft released a new System Center 2012 Licensing model. Benefits of this new licensing model is Simplicity and Private Cloud optimization. Microsoft is committed to delivering products to customers that meet their current and future needs with as little complexity as possible. Key Licensing changes in System Center 2012 are:

Server Management Licensing:
System Center 2012 management licenses will be released in 2 editions differentiated by virtualization rights only:

• Datacenter: Maximizes cloud capacity with unlimited Operating System Environments (OSEs) for high density private clouds.
• Standard: For lightly or non-virtualized private cloud workloads.

The only difference between the editions is the number of Operating System Environments (OSEs) that you can manage per license. Datacenter Edition allows the management of an unlimited number of OSEs per license. Standard Edition allows the management of up to two OSEs per license.

To provide you with the capabilities you need to manage a private cloud, both Standard and Datacenter editions of System Center 2012 include all the System Center components relevant to managing servers:

• Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr)
• Service Manager (SCSM)
• Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)
• Operations Manager (OpsMgr)
• Data Protection Manager (SCDPM)
• Orchestrator (SCO)
• App Controller (SCAC)
• Endpoint Protection (SCEP)

Client Management Licensing:
System Center 2012 client management licensing provides simple, cost-effective options to manage and protect client systems. Client management licenses are available in three offers:

• Configuration Manager 2012: available on a per-user or per-OSE basis as well as in the Core CAL and Enterprise CAL suites.
• Endpoint Protection 2012: available as a per-user or per-device subscription as well as in the Core CAL and Enterprise CAL suites.
• Client Management Suite: available on a per-user or per-OSE basis as well as in the Enterprise CAL suite. It is composed of DataProtectionMgr, OpsMgr, ServiceMgr, and Orchestrator.

Core CAL and Enterprise CAL Suites will continue to be the most cost effective way to purchase client management products.

For more information about the new System Center 2012 Licensing model visit: Microsoft Volume Licensing