Microsoft in September announced that the next version of its on-premises Exchange Server will be available only as a subscription-based product. What does that say about its licensing plans for Office?
By Gregg Keizer | Computerworld
Microsoft may have hinted at how it plans to end its decades-long practice of selling Office as one-time-payment licenses.
During the Redmond, Wash. company’s Ignite technical conference, held virtually last month because of the pandemic, Microsoft announced that the next version of its on-premises Exchange Server — the de facto email server in the enterprise — will be available only as a subscription-based product, thus ending licensing that let customers pay just once for the software.
“This is going to be a version of Exchange that will only be available with the purchase of a subscription,” said Greg Taylor, director of product marketing for Exchange, in a video posted just prior to Ignite.