No Plans to Extend License Sweetener, Yet, says Microsoft.By Gavin ClarkeMicrosoft Corp has no immediate plans to extend a software upgrade program, to be launched this fall under Software Assurance (SA), despite interest from at least one analyst. However, a Microsoft spokesperson told ComputerWire the company is "continuing" to listen to customer feed back to determine further enhancements to its licensing programs. Microsoft will this September make Enterprise Edition Server Step-Up License available to customers using its unpopular SA program. Step-Up lets customers upgrade their Standard Edition server license for eight listed products to an Enterprise Edition license, at a reduced price by canceling the need to buy a completely new license. Instead, customers will simply pay the price difference between the two plus any outstanding SA payments. Step-Up is designed to encourage greater numbers of users to adopt Microsoft's annuity based SA program, which has proved unpopular among customers. Gartner research director Alvin Park, though, said he believed Microsoft should extend Step-up to its other products - not just the servers listed by Microsoft earlier this week. Products covered by Step-Up are Microsoft BizTalk Server Microsoft BizTalk Server, often referred to as simply "BizTalk", is a business process management (BPM) server. Through the use of "adapters" which are tailored to communicate with different software systems used in a large enterprise, it enables companies to automate and integrate FinServ, BizTalk Server Software from Microsoft that provides integration between business processes within an enterprise and between different organizations. BizTalk Server uses protocol implementations called "adapters" to communicate with applications and includes built-in adapters and a framework for HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104-191) Also known as the "Kennedy-Kassebaum Act," this U.S. law protects employees' health insurance coverage when they change or lose their jobs (Title I) and provides standards for patient health, , BizTalk Server RosettaNet, Commerce Server, Internet Security ''This article or section is being rewritten at Internet security is the process of protecting data and privacy of devices connected to internet from information robbery, hacking, malware infection and unwanted software. and Acceleration (ISA (1) (Instruction Set Architecture) See instruction set. (2) (Interactive Services Association) See Internet Alliance. (3) (Internet Security and Acceleration) See .NET. ) Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server An earlier relational DBMS from Sybase and from Microsoft. Sybase introduced SQL Server in 1988 for various Unix versions. In that same year, with help from IBM, Sybase created an OS/2 version that Microsoft licensed and branded as Microsoft SQL Server. and Windows Server See Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Home Server, Windows 2000 and Windows NT. . Park belives extension of Step-Up would be popular among volume customers. He added the program should also be extended beyond Microsoft's publicly stated plan of 12-months - Step-up will finish in September 2004, according to a company spokesperson. The spokesperson added: "There are no plans to expand the Step-Up License beyond server software." He conceded, though, Step-Up was one of a series of enhancements made by the company to increase uptake of SA by offering customers' greater "value". As Microsoft is expected to make futher enhancements to SA, the extension of Step-Up to other Microsoft products is belived to be a realistic possibility. |
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