SharePoint Served: SharePoint Licensing - Client Access License (CALs)

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

SharePoint Licensing - Client Access License (CALs)

Types of CALs:

· User CAL

· Device CAL

User CAL:

With the User CAL, you purchase a CAL for every user who accesses the server to use services such as file storage or printing, regardless of the number of devices they use for that access. Purchasing a User CAL might make more sense if your company employees need to have roaming access to the corporate network using multiple devices, or from unknown devices, or simply have more devices than users in your organization. You can go for User CAL if number of User is less than number of devices.

Device CAL:

With a Device CAL, you purchase a CAL for every device that accesses your server, regardless of the number of users who use that device to access the server. Device CALs may make more economic and administrative sense if your company has workers who share devices, for example, on different work shifts.

A SharePoint Server device CAL authorizes one computer to access SharePoint Server, regardless of the number of users (for example, a shared workstation).

SharePoint Server User CALs are also available. A user CAL authorizes a user to access SharePoint Server from any device (for example, when an employee accesses the server from a computer at work and another at home).

External Connectors

If you want external users—such as business partners, external contractors, or customers—to be able to access your network, you have two licensing options:

· Acquire CALs for each of your external users.

· Acquire External Connector (EC) licenses for each server that will be accessed by your external users.

For SharePoint, Acquire External Connector (EC) licenses would be the right choice.

Specialty Server Licensing

Specialty Server licensing is a commonly used model. Specialty Servers are server-only licenses that also do not require CALs. Specialty Servers require a server license for each instance of the server software running on a server. An example of this is Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Internet Sites. You can run the instance in a physical or virtual operating system environment. By exception, some products provide more specific use rights.