OakLeaf Systems: Q&A with Microsoft about SharePoint 2010 OnLine with Access Services

Friday, May 14, 2010

Q&A with Microsoft about SharePoint 2010 OnLine with Access Services

During the Office 2010/SharePoint 2010 Launch Event on May 12, 2010, I asked the following questions in the Microsoft Video+MQnA Demonstration window that was available on the main Office/SharePoint 2010 Launch page. (The Ask a Question button appears to have disappeared on 5/13/2010.)

When will SharePoint 2010 be available online from Microsoft?
This is Clint from the Online team. It will be available to our larges[t] online customers this year, and we will continue rolling out the 2010 technology to our broad base of online customers, with updates coming every 90 days. You can expect to see a preview of these capabilities later this year.

Will SharePoint 2010 Online offer the Enterprise Edition or at least Access Services to support Web databases?
This is Clint from the Online team. We have not disclosed the specific features that will be available in SharePoint Online at this time, but you can expect most of the Enterprise Edition features to be available. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months

Note that Access Hosting offers multi-tenant Internet hosting of unlimited (up to 1 GB) Access conventional and Web databases with one user for US$79.00 per month. Each additional user must have Access 2010 Standard and Enterprise Client Access License (CALs), for which Access Hosting charges US$7.50/month. Alternatively, you can purchase the CALs from Microsoft. (See added article below re CALs.)

For more details about Access Services in SharePoint 2010 Online, check out my Windows Azure and Cloud Computing Posts for 5/13/2010+ and Windows Azure and Cloud Computing Posts for 5/12/2010+ posts. Mary Jo Foley’s How quickly can Microsoft close the SharePoint-SharePoint Online gap? post of 5/13/2010 throws more light on SharePoint Online 2010’s delay.

This article was copied and updated from the Q&A about SharePoint 2010 OnLine with Access Services from the Launch post to my Amazon Author Blog.

Cynthia Ferren presents the “First in a series explaining how to license access to Microsoft server software” with her Microsoft CALs and External Connector Licenses…Part I post of 5/14/2010 to NetworkWorld’s Microsoft Subnet:

At least once a month I run into a seasoned IT professional who will finally admit that they’ve never quite figured out how to license CALs (and at least once a quarter that someone asks “What is a CAL?”).

Don’t be embarrassed, ask the question – it can save you a lot of money to understand this topic.

A CAL is a Client Access License. In the world of Microsoft licensing, for every server you use the users/devices utilizing that server have to be licensed as well. This is not a physical piece of software installed on the user’s machine, it is instead a grant to access the server. This can add to the complexity of managing them because there is typically no request from an end-user to load the software, nor is there a software asset inventory showing a CAL installed somewhere. It is instead typically up to IT to develop a correlation between users or devices and servers.

For example; if you're running Microsoft Windows server, each user or device requires a CAL. If you then add SharePoint on that server, you also then need a CAL for that. If you're running SQL server to support SharePoint, you need a CAL or a processor license for SQL. The list goes on and on...if you're using the resources of the server chances are there is a corresponding access license requirement.

CALs come in three basic forms: user, device or external connector. The general rule of thumb is that you license the “least”. So, if your devices outnumber your users, buy User CALs…if your users outnumber your devices buy Device CALs (I’ll clarify this more below). If you have external users (vendors, clients, etc) that are authenticated by your server you either need to have a CAL for them or if they number significantly high or cannot be counted you would go with an External Connector license for that server.

External Connector licenses allow unlimited external access to a specific server. However; you cannot use an External Connector license to replace internal use CALs.

Example:

ABC Hospital has 100 corporate users who have computers, mobile devices and web access to their Exchange 2010; 900 hospital staff who share the hospitals 500 workstations and do not have web access to their Exchange 2010; 400 physician members who either use their own computers or the hospitals workstations; and an unlimited number of patients who can access their medical history online in a third party solution by being authenticated by 1 of the hospitals Windows 2008 R2 servers. Additionally, all employees use a SharePoint 2010 site to access company policies running on a Windows 2008 R2 quad processor server.

Required CAL licenses:

Windows Server 2008 CALs: 100 User CALs for corporate + 500 Device CALs for hospital staff + 400 User CALs for physicians + 1 External Connector license for patients.

Exchange Server 2010 CALs: 100 User CALs for corporate + 500 Device CALs for hospital staff + 400 User CALs for physicians (there is also an additive eCAL required for some Exchange functionality – more on that in a later posting)

SharePoint Server 2010 CALs: 100 User CALs for corporate + 500 Device CALs for hospital staff + 400 User CALs for physicians (there is also an additive eCAL required for some SharePoint functionality – more on that in a later posting)

SQL Server: SharePoint is supported by a SQL server. Therefore, SQL needs licensing as well. The hospital has two options for licensing this (1) 100 User CALs for corporate + 500 Device CALs for hospital staff + 400 User CALs for physicians; or (2) a 4 processor licenses for SQL server. This answer will come down to a financial decision based upon cost and future plans for the solution.

Look for a deeper dive in a future posting…

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Access,Microsoft Access 2010,SharePoint,SharePoint 2010,SharePoint Online,SharePoint 2010 Online,SharePoint Online 2010,Access Services,Access Web Databases,Cloud Computing

When will SharePoint 2010 be available online from Microsoft?
This is Clint from the Online team. It will be available to our larges[t] online customers this year, and we will continue rolling out the 2010 technology to our broad base of online customers, with updates coming every 90 days. You can expect to see a preview of these capabilities later this year.

Will SharePoint 2010 Online offer the Enterprise Edition or at least Access Services to support Web databases?
This is Clint from the Online team. We have not disclosed the specific features that will be available in SharePoint Online at this time, but you can expect most of the Enterprise Edition features to be available. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months

This article was copied and updated from the Q&A about SharePoint 2010 OnLine with Access Services from the Launch post to my Amazon Author Blog.

At least once a month I run into a seasoned IT professional who will finally admit that they’ve never quite figured out how to license CALs (and at least once a quarter that someone asks “What is a CAL?”).

Don’t be embarrassed, ask the question – it can save you a lot of money to understand this topic.

A CAL is a Client Access License. In the world of Microsoft licensing, for every server you use the users/devices utilizing that server have to be licensed as well. This is not a physical piece of software installed on the user’s machine, it is instead a grant to access the server. This can add to the complexity of managing them because there is typically no request from an end-user to load the software, nor is there a software asset inventory showing a CAL installed somewhere. It is instead typically up to IT to develop a correlation between users or devices and servers.

For example; if you're running Microsoft Windows server, each user or device requires a CAL. If you then add SharePoint on that server, you also then need a CAL for that. If you're running SQL server to support SharePoint, you need a CAL or a processor license for SQL. The list goes on and on...if you're using the resources of the server chances are there is a corresponding access license requirement.

CALs come in three basic forms: user, device or external connector. The general rule of thumb is that you license the “least”. So, if your devices outnumber your users, buy User CALs…if your users outnumber your devices buy Device CALs (I’ll clarify this more below). If you have external users (vendors, clients, etc) that are authenticated by your server you either need to have a CAL for them or if they number significantly high or cannot be counted you would go with an External Connector license for that server.

External Connector licenses allow unlimited external access to a specific server. However; you cannot use an External Connector license to replace internal use CALs.

Example:

ABC Hospital has 100 corporate users who have computers, mobile devices and web access to their Exchange 2010; 900 hospital staff who share the hospitals 500 workstations and do not have web access to their Exchange 2010; 400 physician members who either use their own computers or the hospitals workstations; and an unlimited number of patients who can access their medical history online in a third party solution by being authenticated by 1 of the hospitals Windows 2008 R2 servers. Additionally, all employees use a SharePoint 2010 site to access company policies running on a Windows 2008 R2 quad processor server.

Required CAL licenses:

Windows Server 2008 CALs: 100 User CALs for corporate + 500 Device CALs for hospital staff + 400 User CALs for physicians + 1 External Connector license for patients.

Exchange Server 2010 CALs: 100 User CALs for corporate + 500 Device CALs for hospital staff + 400 User CALs for physicians (there is also an additive eCAL required for some Exchange functionality – more on that in a later posting)

SharePoint Server 2010 CALs: 100 User CALs for corporate + 500 Device CALs for hospital staff + 400 User CALs for physicians (there is also an additive eCAL required for some SharePoint functionality – more on that in a later posting)

SQL Server: SharePoint is supported by a SQL server. Therefore, SQL needs licensing as well. The hospital has two options for licensing this (1) 100 User CALs for corporate + 500 Device CALs for hospital staff + 400 User CALs for physicians; or (2) a 4 processor licenses for SQL server. This answer will come down to a financial decision based upon cost and future plans for the solution.

Look for a deeper dive in a future posting…