Connections to servers and services
Our third set of licences cover the connections of machines and/or users to the services provided by servers.

Microsoft Client Access Licences (CALs) for example, license the connection of Microsoft client machines or users to Microsoft servers.

There are three licensing models that Microsoft incorporate:
  • Per seat - a CAL is associated with each client device (computer/smartphone/PDA) or a user (with multiple devices) whichever is more appropriate.
  • Per server - a CAL is associated with a particular server - so any device can connect as long as there are CALs available (the only time MS allow for concurrent-use licensing).
  • Per processor - no CALs required, this is a server licence allowing unlimited connections (much more expensive than regular server licences)

Many other publishers base their licensing on user connections only, for example Citrix and SAP.

With SAP solutions their are grades of user licence dependent on the level of information the user can access - SAP

Oracle products are probably the most complex in terms of licensing where all of the above can be done as well as licensing the quantity of transactions taking place within an application.

We now look at SaaS which is an extension of the user licence model...