They give clients "permission" to access servers. If a client accesses a server and there's no CAL for that client, you're in violation of your licensing agreement. They're kept on paper basically.

As Microsoft phases out older Exchange Server versions, IT leaders are facing new decisions about how to stay compliant and cost-efficient. Understanding the current licensing landscape for Windows ...

Organizations using servers with more than 16 cores need to "stack" multiple Windows Server licenses to cover all cores, ensuring compliance with licensing requirements. Here's how. Licensing a ...

At least once a month I run into a seasoned IT professional who will finally admit that they’ve never quite figured out how to license CALs (and at least once a quarter that someone asks “What is a ...

As of August 1, Microsoft will raise the prices of a number of its User client-access licenses (CALs) by 13 percent. The affected CALs are for on-premises, not cloud, products. The prices of Device ...

Microsoft published a few licensing details this month about its forthcoming Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 products. The documents are noteworthy not just for providing licensing details, ...

Microsoft has a number of volume software license agreements available for its commercial customers. Each of these agreements has different benefits and different restrictions – understanding these ...