Let's face it - most Microsoft customers purchase Software Assurance (SA) for the version upgrade rights. Sure, SA offers other benefits like work-at-home usage rights, training vouchers, and other relatively minor technical offerings. However, the cost of SA vs. other software vendor 'maintenance' offerings has put Microsoft in hot water with customers in the past. Not to mention the unlucky customers who were promised ship dates for Vista and Office, only to find out those products would ship late... and potentially fall outside the time window of their SA contract. Trust me, I'm only venting because I hear this from my customers all the time - not because I've ever paid a dime for SA myself.
Fast forward to 10/17/2007 and a post on the Windows Vista Team Blog. It seems that Microsoft is bundling some recently acquired products/technology into a new 'add-on' offering for SA customers called Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. The bundled products include:
- Softricity SoftGrid (Application Virtualization)
- AssetMetrix (Software Asset Management Technology)
- DesktopStandard (Group Policy Tools)
- Winternals (System Recovery Utilities)
Technically this new bundle isn't free (it's $10 per desktop, ERP) but compared to the pricing of these products prior to acquisition, it's a steal. Estimated availability for the MDOP (that's an ugly acronym, huh?) is January, 2007. More info can be found in the official press release or the associated FAQ (PDF download).
I'm excited to get my hands on this bundle... oh, wait - I'm not an SA customer. For the first time I'm envious of SA customers 