On 26 October 2010 03:18, Brad Lackey <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Oct 25, 2010, at 8:54 AM, David Bullock wrote: > > I can't talk much to the latest pricing of the DTU's and associated > licensing, except to note that the recent 'product use rights' from > Microsoft requires that virtualised desktop OS's only be accessed from a > device which also has a Windows OS on it - or else one is up for 'VDA' > license just a few dollars *more* than a full licence for Windows. So > Oracle can't entirely be blamed for the shift in viability of the solution > as a whole. (The commonly-used Wyse/HP/et-al terminals generally have an > OEM Windows CE on them and dodge this hit ... and actually suggests > something that Oracle could do (license WinCE OEM without using it!) ... to > increase the attractiveness of the solution pricing). > > > When doing VDI or WTS/RDS from a thin client, Microsoft requires server > side licenses. Period. There is no free lunch here, there is no avoiding > paying MS for developing software that we use. There are certainly several > routes and options for licensing data center MS products for consumption by > a remote client so don't get confused. > For new deployments, VECD (Virtual Enterprise Centralised Desktop) is no longer one of those routes. Instead, many of the rights previously conferred by a VECD licence are now conferred by having Software Assurance on the device you are accessing the virtualised desktop *from*. If the device you use to access the virtualised desktop doesn't have a Software Assured version of Windows, then you can purchase and assign a VDA license to it to acquire the same rights. Looking at the appropriate commercial purchasing program for companies with 5 - 250 desktops (Open Value Standard) over the full 6-year term of that type of agreement, here are the RRP (in $AUD) of those respective options: A. Windows 7 Pro with SA over 6 years (3 x Win Pro/SA pack, then 3 x SA only) is $882. B. Windows Virtual Desktop Access over those same 6 years (36 x VDA/month) is $520.92 So over a 6 year period, Microsoft are getting their grubby mits on $521 of the savings derived from deploying thin clients. These difficulties affect all thin-client systems equally, and isn't a dis-advantage of Sun Ray in particular (chill, Oracle dudes). But it does mean that the VDI case is more difficult to make. I did find it surprising that Oracle employees weren't aware of the change. If you Google for "microsoft vecd change", you'll get a bunch of industry discussion griping about VECD -> VDA change imposed in March of this year. (My earlier statement about VDA costing *more* isn't currently true when comparing apples to apples over the 6-year term - although I seem to remember differently last time I did the math. Also, may earlier statement that using a WinCE OEM'ed 'thin' client gets around the need for VDA seems to be false as well - unless you can get SA (at $94/yr) for a WinCE device (versus VDA @ $173/yr), which isn't something I've seen discussed anywhere). cheers, David Bullock
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