Take a MOSS implementation with1000 users. 200 users accessing sites that use the enterprise features (Excel services, Form services, BDC, etc). 800 users accessing sites using standard features. How many Enterprise SharePointCALs are required? 200 or 1000?I refer to the Microsoft SharePoint FAQs:-http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101655351033.aspx"What if some users need enterprise features and others do not?""Once the enterprise features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 are enabled, every client accessing enterprise functionality on that server, or servers in a farm, is required to have an Enterprise CAL in addition to their standard client access."Can I conclude from this thatthe 800 usersnot accessing enterprise functionality will onlyrequire Standard CALs?

Great question. This is a topic that is *hot*. Our Corp just got whacked with a significant bill (mm) over this very issue. My understanding was that if you turn on enterprise features @ the site collection level, then yes, all users who access that site collection are consumers of the eCAL - if this is a corporate intranet deployment - potentially *all* of your users, as was our case. Conclusive information is required from MS as no one seems to understand what the licensing considerations are around MOSS and eCals, even our MS reps - except perhaps Licensing Reps. If enabling things like Forms, Excel, etc. require eCALs, that's a monsterous hit, financially. Methinks that some people are going to be rather upset about paying for every inch in the product - 9/10ths of the *cool* in MOSS 2007 are those enterprise features; without those you've just got Collab, and everyone get's that for free with WSS 3.0 (duh). Can't wait to hear how this plays out...

For 1000 users who can access MOSS sites where the Enterprise version of MOSS has been installed - even if they only access functions that come with Standard Edition - you need1000 Standard CALsand1000 Enterprise CALs.Now some Microsoft offices, for some customers, are allowing (in your scenario) 1000 Standard CALs + 200 Enterprise CALs if the company in question can *prove* that none of the 800 users can possible access any function that isn't available in MOSS Standard edition.Proving this is virtually impossible as carrying out actions to ensure that this could never happen would cost more than those extra 800 CALs. This is where the ambiguity comes in.Some Microsoft offices will expect a company to do those actions before they accept that proof has been supplied; others - at the other end of the scale - will accept the customers word. So it very much depends on who you talk to and often where you are located (and I suspect how good a Microsoft customer you are and how big a company you are).Because of this ambiguity, if you ever do find a Microsoft Office guy prepared to say that you don't need Enterprise CALs for more than the 200 users, make sure you get this in writing because otherwise you will (in other Microsoft eyes) still be in breach of license requirements.

A reference is made above to the FAQ http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101655351033.aspxwhere it is stated that there are two types of CALs available for MOSS: Device and User CALs and that a company can use the model that makes more sense for them. The question is: If I have a 1000 PC company with 800 potential users and only 100 will be accessing MOSS at any given time and of those only 10 will be using enterprise features, how many and which type of CALs do I get?I use the word "potential" to imply that most people are not using MOSS all day long. I like licensing models thatuse the "concurrent user" model. With the scenario above, I'd like to pay for 100 standardCALs and 10 Enterprise CALs but if push comes to shove I certanly don't want to pay for more than 100 Entreprise CALs. Which would be Microsoft's position in this scenario? Thanks,

Microsoft never use the concurrent model.You will have to have CALs for all users who potentially can access the site. It is not enough to have CALs only for the number accessing at one time.The only way legally (?) to do this would be to have one user account used by three users in different time zones working completely different 8 hour shifts. You would of course have all the problems this entails (they all see the same things; all posts are sent in the same name irrespective of which of the three it was that sent it; e-mail alerts go to a common e-mail address etc.) Even so I wonder if there isn't something in the license terms that disallows this as well.Again contact a Microsoft licensing specialist.WSS FAQ sites: WSS 2.0: http://wssv2faq.mindsharp.com WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007: http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com Total list of WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 Books (including foreign language titles) http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx

This is the general approach, however it is very painful for larger companies (and personally I think Microsoft is pricing itself out of the market this way). I started at a company in 2008, where there were about 6000 users at that time. However a take-over had just taken place and now legally and technically the companies have merged, into aprox. 80.000 users. The 6000 users were worldwide users and the 80k therefore are as well. Basically it means an added licensing cost (for SharePoint 2003) of aprox. 2 MIL. Even though most of the 80k don't even know where the server is, they have 'potential' access and therefore are required to be paid for. I wonder what would happen if I set the SPS 2003 part (The portal) to be Anonymous accessible. This would not require LDAP and should work for reader access. Does this do anything for the licensing?

This is an old, closed, thread. Please post your new question "what would happen if I set the SPS 2003 part (The portal) to be Anonymous accessible. " as a new thread. I have tried several times to split off your post into a new thread but each attempt has failed. ModeratorSP 2010 "FAQ" (mainly useful links): http://wssv4faq.mindsharp.com/default.aspx WSS3/MOSS FAQ (FAQ and Links) http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com/default.aspx Both also have links to extensive book lists and to (free) on-line chapters