Microsoft Corp. Wednesday made another move to improve the value of its controversial volume-licensing program with two updates that add disaster recovery features and hosted services to corporate contracts. On June 1, Microsoft will add a benefit to its Software Assurance (SA) program that provides the right for corporate customers to install an additional copy of any licensed server software on a "cold" server that is dedicated to disaster recovery.
According to Microsoft, a cold server is defined as a server that is turned off until a disaster arises. Customers would not be allowed to do any processing or production on the server, except for specified maintenance. Microsoft said the benefit is only applicable for the term of any given two- or three-year SA contract and is non-perpetual. Also on June 1, Microsoft will add to its volume licensing price list MapPoint Web Services, an XML-based Web service that allows developers to integrate location-based services into applications, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting, an online Web conferencing service.
News source: InfoWorld
