MSCMS Standard Edition

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Microsoft Content Management Server - Standard Edition (MSCMS SE) has been available for a little while now, and there are many interesting use cases for this version, from a business and a licensing perspective.

The differences between MCMS SE and MCMS EE are pretty clear,

  • Price:  SE - $6,999; EE - $24,999
    • check your specific case for discounts in both cases
  • Site Users (Subscribers) :  Unlimited in both versions
  • Authoring Users:  SE - 15 Authors; EE - Unlimited Authors
  • Load Balancing: SE - No load balancing; EE - Allows for Scaling Out (multiple load balanced boxes) and Scaling Up (multiple CPUs within a box)
  • Multi-Processor Support: SE - Single Processor affinity; EE - Unlimited Processors
    • SE can be installed in a multi-processor box.  It will utilize only one processor.  By default, it will associate itself with the first processor, but you can configure affinity to a specific CPU.
  • Site Staging and Host Headers:  SE - No Site Staging or CMS Host Header support; EE - yes, of course.

What is interesting, and good to note, is that the price of a license for MSCMS SE can be applied to your price for a subsequent upgrade to MCMS EE. <disclaimer>(Check with your MS account manager for specifics and details)</disclaimer>

This means that if your company has multiple sites that you'd like to manage the content of, or if your company consists of other companies, which each has their own site, you can implement a site on MSCMS SE to get a feel for it and then migrate to MCMS EE without losing that investment.  It doesn't, unfortunately, let you apply the cost of two MCMS SE licenses to a single MCMS EE license...  (Where does Santa Claus go this time every year when we need him?)