On-premises products

Customers cannot buy licenses for on-premises products through the MCA-E at this time.

Customers buying licenses through CSP accept the terms of the Microsoft Customer Agreement which doesn’t expire. A customer owns a perpetual license forever and may continue to deploy the version of the software that they purchased, or take advantage of…

The Microsoft 365 Admin Center is used by CSP customers to manage their licenses, download software, and to access product keys. Partners can assist customers with these tasks with some limited access through the Partner Center portal.

There is no notion of Software Assurance in CSP, but Software Subscriptions include many of the benefits available to customers buying Windows Server or SQL Server licenses with SA through the Volume Licensing agreements. The following benefits are available with…

There is just a single price level in CSP, and to-customer pricing is entirely decided by the partner.

There is no notion of price protection when buying licenses for software in CSP since prices are taken from the current price list, and then either used for an upfront charge, or split for spread payment options.

Software Subscriptions are available for Windows Server or SQL Server. These licenses, as you might imagine, are subscription licenses and are available for terms of 1 year or 3 years. They are paid for in full upfront, or as spread…

Perpetual licenses for software in CSP are paid for in full upfront.

There are no minimum purchase requirements in CSP – a customer may purchase one or many licenses whenever he chooses.

Licenses for on-premises products purchased through the CSP program are perpetual licenses, and Software Assurance is not available at all. Software Subscriptions are only available for Windows Server and SQL Server. This, then, is the summary of the license types…