Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 - price decrease

Get SBS 2008 for less than SBS 2003? Yes, you can.

There has been some discussion about the new SBS 2008 Server that is now available through Volume Licensing and the pricing of the Server and CALs. Yesterday, I posted the SBS 2008 Part #s for Open Value and Open Value Subscription for all of you to make your ordering and quoting easier and there have been a few questions about the SBS CAL price. The basic question was along the lines of, “Based a quote I just did, my customer using SBS Standard could actually get it for less than the SBS 2003 pricing. Is that correct?”

The answer is, yes, that absolutely can be the case. How? Remember that with SBS 2008, we now offer the SBS Standard CAL and the SBS Premium CAL. SBS 2008 Standard CALs are for each user or device accessing the SBS network. SBS 2008 Premium CALs are for only those users or devices accessing the premium features of SBS 2008 Premium Edition, such as SQL Server. You can mix and match SBS Standard and Premium CALs if only certain people need to access the Premium services of your SBS Server. If you look at the pricing of the SBS 2008 CALs, the SBS Standard CALs are lower in price than the SBS 2003 CALs were. Because of this, customers acquiring SBS with Standard CALs can see their pricing drop compared to SBS 2003 due to the lower CAL costs.

I put together a quick side by side comparison of Open Value L+SA spread payments prices showing how the SBS 2008 pricing compares to SBS 2003 so you can see how this can take place:

As you can see, starting at the 15 user level (SBS Standard server with 5 CALs + 10 additional Standard CALs), the pricing is about even. From there, SBS 2008 continues to save more and more moving out. NOTE: Prices shown are Estimated Retail Prices. Resellers set actual price, so pricing by reseller may vary. If you are a customer, please check prices with your local reseller (such as a Microsoft Small Business Specialist) to determine your actual purchase price.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman
Microsoft Senior Manager, Community Engagement
US Partner Strategy, Marketing and Programs
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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