Question about Licensing Team Foundation Server

Question

We are preparing to purchase Team Foundation Server and want to confirm our understanding of the licensing as we have been getting conflicting information.

We will have 6 developers who will all be licensed with one of the VSTS editions. My understanding is that when you license a VSTS edition, this includes your CAL for Team Foundation Server. Is that correct?

If so, when we buy TFS, can we simply buy the retail box version that includes 1 client license? I have seen one for sale on Amazon for about $2,700.

Our Microsoft Partner is concerned that if we bought that version we would not be able to upgrade it or add CALs in the future? Is that correct?

They have recommended that we purchase TFS under an Open Volume License which would require us to buy a minimum of 5 CALS which I don't think we need to do.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

When you purchase a Visual Studio Team Edition, you do receive a Team Foundation Server CAL for accessing Team Foundation Server.

You do not need a CAL to access Team Foundation Server ("standard edition") for up to two users (or devices) to administer the server. In addition, Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition is a special edition of Team Foundation Server that you receive when you purchase a Team Edition with an MSDN Premium Subscription. The Workgroup Edition provides for five named users and does not use the CAL model.

You can upgrade the retail version of Team Foundation Server, and you can purchase additional Team Foundation Server CALs to use with it. You can also purchase a Software Assurance subscription for Team Foundation Server, which entitles you to new product releases that ship duing the Software Assurance period.

When you are purchasing as many products as you are, you would find it to be financially beneficial to purchase that software through Volume Licensing, which provides discounts when purchasing five or more licenses (you mentioned purchasing six Team Editions).

Answer 2

Can I get some clarification on the TFS CAL requirements.

 

My organization has purchased Visual Studio Team System Development Edition with MSDN Premium subscriptions for all its developers.  I understand that TFS Workgroup Edition can be used by 5 developers with subscriptions as is.  However, if my organization purchases the Standard version of Team Foundation Server do we also have to purchase a $500 CAL on top of the cost of the Visual Studio Team System Development Edition with MSDN Premium subscriptions?

 

It would seem to me that for an initial $5000+ subscript fee and a $2300 renewal a TFS Standard CAL should be included with the subscription but I want to get the answer from the hourses mouth.

Answer 3

 

We have a variety of MSDN subscriptions. 200 of our developers have Team Edition (DEVELOPER edition), we also have 10 TEST and 10 ARCHITECT.

 

I am about to equip some of the test and support team with an MSDN Premium subscription. (not team edition)

 

the question I have is do I have to purchase a TFS CAL for these premium users to access the team Foundation server - or is a CAL covered by there MSDN.

 

What would also be useful is a list of CALs you get as part of your MSDN

 

Can anyone help?

Answer 4

Paul,

Not sure if MSDN Premium license will give you any CAL.
CAL need to be purchased separately or you get it with any of the Team Editions(Dev/DB Pro/Tester/Architect) of Visual Studio.

drisko,

Each VS Developer edition offers you one CAL. So you do not need to buy CAL to access TFS.

Purchasing CAL is required if you do not have Team Editions, but you want to access TFS for version control and team project management. This is simply a license to connect to TFS using Team Explorer.

I have seen project teams going for VS Pro with CAL for developers  to save money, but you will lack other role specific features like code analysis, profiling, and unit testing available with Developer Edition

To Sum up:

The total number TFS standard edition users = the number of role specific edition (Dev/DB Pro/Tester/Architect) licenses  + number of CALs

Answer 5

There have been changes in the licensing for the 2008 version of TFS.

 

"The new licensing provisions are designed to make it easy if you want to allow lots of people in your company to use TFS to file bugs, feature requests, etc and have them available for your development team.  Specifically they allow an unlimited number of users in your company to create any work item, query for work items they have created and view or update any work item they have created all without a CAL.  This right comes with your Team Foundation Server Standard Edition server license and requires no additional purchase."

 

http://www.timheuer.com/blog/archive/2007/12/05/new-team-foundation-server-licensing-for-2008.aspx