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Advantages to using Riptide Hosting SPLA Microsoft Licenses

Advantages to using Riptide Hosting SPLA Microsoft Licenses

Most customers use our Microsoft licensing (Windows Server, Office, SQL Server, Remote Desktop Services – RDS) provided under the SPLA program (Service Provider Licensing Agreement) on a monthly basis rather than purchasing their own MS Volume Licenses.  (Windows Server CAL licenses are not required with our SPLA licensing which are required under regular MS Volume Licensing).

Using our Microsoft SPLA licensing eliminates upfront fees and makes it easy to increase and decrease licenses each month.

If you own Microsoft Volume Licenses, you can use our Dedicated Hardware Server offering and transfer your own licenses but depending on which licenses you own and how many users you have, it may still be cheaper to utilize our virtual servers/VMs with our SPLA licenses.  Contact us to review options and pricing.  We discuss the advantages to using SPLA licenses below.

SPLA LICENSES — Advantages to using our MS Licensing under SPLA:

  • Pay monthly with no commitment (versus Volume Licenses which may be 1-3 year term)
  • Pay for exactly the number of licenses you need today, not more (for user based licensing (i.e. RDS SALs/user licenses, Office SALs), we can increase the number of licenses easily so you can only license what is needed)
  • For Windows Server under SPLA, no additional Windows Server CALs are needed (you still need RDS SALs if applicable).
  • Upgrade rights (similar to software assurance) are included– You can upgrade to the latest version.
  • No large upfront payment like if you purchase perpetual MS Volume Licenses.
  • No minimum purchase – Can increase user licenses in increments of one user. (Some volume licensing programs have a minimum purchase or minimum points)
  • You cannot install or use your own licenses for SQL Server, RDS, Office or Office 365 on our Virtual Servers due to Microsoft licensing restrictions.
  • Example Pricing:
    • Windows Server licensing is included in our base server cost
    • RDS user licenses are $8.99 per user per month
    • SQL Server Standard is $316/mo per 4 cores versus retail pricing of approx. $7,500 per 4 cores plus add Software Assurance annually.

VOLUME LICENSES — Advantages to using/purchasing your own Volume Licensing

  • If measuring over a long-term period, perpetual volume license may cost less than monthly SPLA license (but you have a long-term agreement with large upfront fee, plus you have to purchase Software Assurance separately, as well as Windows CALs on top of Windows Server).
    **If you end up needing fewer licenses you will still pay for all the licenses you purchased.
  • SQL Server Standard and Enterprise can be very expensive (often times as much as the underlying server cost!) and if you have already purchased these licenses you may want to use them to save money, although you are required to use our Dedicated Hardware Server hosting to use your own licensing.
  • If you have a large number of users and already have your own Office licensing (or Office 365 plan that will work on a server or terminal server), then you may want to use them to save money, although you are required to use our Dedicated Hardware Server hosting to use your own licensing.

VIRTUAL SERVER HOSTING — Virtual Server Environment at Riptide Hosting:

  • SPLA licenses only. You must license SQL Server, RDS and Office through us (SPLA) in our VM environment.  You cannot use your own licensing of SQL Server, RDS, Office, or Office 365 on our VMs.
  • Lower entry costs, VMs start at $100/month
  • Best for VMs with fewer resources (less than 25 users, less than 200 GB space, less than 8g RAM and 4vCPU)
  • Less expensive full image backup options with quick restores
  • May be less expensive to use our SPLA licenses on a VM with full image backup, even in scenarios where you have your own licensing.

DEDICATED SERVER HOSTING — Dedicated Hardware Server Environment at Riptide Hosting:

  • You can use our SPLA licenses or use your own Volume Licenses. Where the server hardware is fully dedicated to you, the outsourcing language within Microsoft Product Terms applies.
  • Best when you need significant resources (greater than 25 users, more than 200 GB disk space, more than 8g RAM and 4vCPU).
  • Our Dedicated Servers start around $300/month. Compare this to AWS Dedicated Instances or AWS Dedicated Hosts that start at over $1k per month and you have to bring all your own licensing.
  • Requires more expensive full server image backup options due to much higher disk space provided.
  • Only hosting offering we provide that allows you to use your own SQL Server, RDS, Office, or Office 365 licenses. Even if you have your own licensing, make sure it can be use on a remote hosted server.  For example, Office 365 Business Plans won’t work on a Windows Server with Remote Desktop Services because Office 365 Business doesn’t include Pro Plus.

RDS — Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Licensing Notes:

  • We get asked a lot of questions about RDS licenses and here are some of our most common discussions.
  • Many hosting providers don’t even offer the ability to license RDS SALs through them and require you to have your own licenses. If you are using Remote Desktop Services (RDS), make sure you understand whether your hosting provider can provide the required licenses or not.  **If you can only login with two accounts then they did not provide you licensing for RDS access other than for maintenance.
  • The RDS CALs/SALs are not part of the Windows Server OS licensing and are applied separately. Riptide Hosting provides RDS SALs on a monthly basis (with no long-term commitment) at $8.99 per user. For example, AWS doesn’t offer RDS user licensing.  You have to buy them from MS and then bring them to AWS via License Mobility which requires that you maintain active Software Assurance on the RDS CALs and go through a MS license verification process.
  • Microsoft only provides RDS user licenses on a per-unique-end-user basis. There is no concurrent licensing model available from Microsoft for RDS.  All users, regardless of actual usage, require a license. 

Windows Server and SQL Server Licensing Notes:

  • SQL Server is licensed per core but with a minimum of 4 cores per VM or per processor.
  • Windows Server is also now licensed per core (starting with Windows Server 2016)
  • SQL Server comes in multiple editions: Express (free), Web (through SPLA only; for publicly accessible web pages, etc.), Standard, Enterprise. Contact us for differences and monthly SPLA pricing.