Microsoft Certified Partner Benefits and Windows Server 2003

My boss asked me to research some software licensing per our Microsoft Certified Partner status, and our Microsoft Action Pack subscription. Coupled with that, he asked about the different versions of Microsoft 2003 Server: Web Edition, Standard, Enterprise and Data Center.

This link compares the features of the different editions of Windows 2003 Server. There's a ton of features. The Web Edition has nearly everything we would use on a normal day-to-day basis. Other versions would be suitable for heavy duty systems like hosting Exchange Server.

Here's the list of software made available to us through the Microsoft Certified Partner program and the Microsoft Action Pack program, along with the number of licenses, for example, MCPs have 25 licenses for Microsoft Office Professional.

I phoned the Partner Resource Center at Microsoft and inquired about our licensing. Normally, companies like Pop Art are either Microsoft Registered Members or Microsoft Certified Partners. Registered Members get the Action Pack and Certified Partners get a better software license package. Pop Art subscibes to both and the licenses are additive, so we have multiple licenses available to us for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. That works well for us because we have several servers around the office in need of licensing.

Microsoft Certified Partner Licensing Benefits

• Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, 25
• Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, 25
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, 25
• Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, 25
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional, 25
• Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, 25
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager, 25
• Microsoft Visio 2003 Professional, 25
• Microsoft Project 2003 Professional, 25
• Microsoft Project Server 2003, 1
• Microsoft Project Server 2003 Client Access Licenses (CALs), 25
• Microsoft MapPoint 2004, 25
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, 2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition CALs, 25
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server CALs, 25
• Microsoft Windows Server Web Edition, 1
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition, 1
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition CALs, 25
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Standard Edition, 25
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, 1
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition CALs, 25
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, 1
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 CALs, 25
• Microsoft SharePoint Services 2003 Enterprise, 25
• Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition, 1
• Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition CALs, 25
• Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003, 3
• Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 CALs, 25
• Microsoft BizTalk 2004 Server Enterprise Edition (Single-Processor), 3
• Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server Enterprise Edition (Single-Processor), 1
• Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server Enterprise Edition (Single-Processor) CALs, 25
• Microsoft Commerce Server 2002 Enterprise Edition (Single-Processor), 3
• Microsoft Application Center (Single-Processor), NA
• Microsoft CRM 3.0 of choice (either Microsoft CRM 3.0 Small Business Edition or Microsoft CRM 3.0 Professional Edition, but not both), 25
• Microsoft Identity Information Server Enterprise Edition (Per-Processor license), 1
• Microsoft Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) for Windows Server 2003 CALs, 5
• Microsoft Operations Manager Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, 1
• Microsoft Operations Manager Server 2005 OML, 1
• Microsoft Office Live Communication Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, 1
• Microsoft Office Live Communication Server 2005 Enterprise Edition CALs, 25
• Microsoft Virtual Server Enterprise Edition, 2

Microsoft Action Pack Licensing Benefits

• Microsoft Business Contact Manager for Office Outlook 2003, localized versions, 10
• Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Service Pack 1*, N/A
• Microsoft CRM 3.0 Small Business Edition, 1
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard, 1
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2*, N/A
• Microsoft ISA Server 2004, including Service Pack 1 Multilingual Pack, 1
• Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005, 1
• Microsoft MapPoint 2004 Standard Edition (North America only), 10
• Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, 10
• Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, 10
• Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, 10
• Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 Service Pack 2*, N/A
• Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, 10
• Microsoft Office Project Server 2003, 1
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, 1
• Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 (U.S. only)**, 10
• Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2003, 10
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, 10
• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Workgroup Edition, 10
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition, 1
• Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 multilanguage version, 10
• Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, 10
• Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, 10
• Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition, 10
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, including Service Pack 1, 1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Web Edition, 1
• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Standard 2003, 1
• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition, including Service Pack 1, 1
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition, including Service Pack 2, 10
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, 10