Microsoft will likely be making changes to its Windows Server pricing in January 2011 that may affect companies that are inside the industrial hosting company.As of January 1,
Office Standard 2010 Key, Microsoft will probably be chopping the cost of various of its Windows Server SKUs — Server 2008 R2 Web, Standard and Enterprise — by 21 percent for those who purchase Windows Server via a Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA). At the same time, Microsoft might be raising the cost of one SKU — Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter — by 30 percent, come January one. The changes affect only those licensing via the SPLA and not any other volume-licensing agreement, according to the company.Microsoft is attributing the cost change to a desire to “better align SPLA prices with subscription prices.”Business officials also are positioning the 30 percent cost increase on Datacenter, which includes unlimited virtualization rights,
Microsoft Office 2007, as a price decrease. Since the Datacenter SKU was launched, “server capacity in terms of cores has doubled, significantly increasing the performance value,” according to officials.More from an MSDN blog post explaining the modifications:“Why is the price of Windows Server 2008 DataCenter (WS DC) for SPLA providers going up? Truth be told, it’s heading down. That’s not PR spin or some hocus-pocus math factoring Moore’s Law. The current cost for SPLA on WS DC is a limited promotional cost. The original announced price was almost double. MSFT deferred the implementation of the full cost in 2009 and again in 2010. As we have moved closer to January one,
Microsoft Office Standard 2007, 2011, feedback on the implementation of the full price was as consistent as it was intense. That feedback compelled us to look at the non-promotional WS DC price again.“After a lot of math,
Office Standard, a lot of feedback, and more math,
Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2010, we made a decision to lower the January 1st cost on DC. Specifically, instead of retiring the promotional cost and doubling the cost, we have landed on a much more modest increase of 30% which we think will probably be welcome news to our service provider partners when considering the original plan.”Any service companies have any feedback — positive or not — on Microsoft;s planned pricing adjustments?