Microsoft sets pricing for Win 2000

After recently cementing the ship date for Windows 2000, Microsoft has detailed pricing for the operating system, including a change that requires a license for users authenticating to the server over the Internet.

The change will be of interest to enterprise customers who have heavily used electronic commerce sites and are planning to upgrade from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2000. Enterprise customers will have the option of licensing a maximum number of concurrent users per box or purchasing an all-you-can-eat Internet Connector license.

The connector license, which is priced at $2,000, is a flat per-server charge that allows an unlimited number of users to authenticate to a Windows 2000 server.

"Microsoft is trying to do value-based pricing," says Joe Clabby, an analyst with Aberdeen Group in Boston. "What it is doing is not that radical a departure from other systems such as Unix, AS/400, Open VMS and mainframes. It looks like it is trying to strike a balance between either paying on the desktop or paying on the server."

Microsoft says the change in the Client Access License (CAL) reflects the way enterprises will use the servers on the Internet. The company also says the new licensing satisfies customer demand for a simplified licensing model.

"We are moving to clarify when the CAL is needed," says Steve Stanzel, product manager for Windows 2000. "If a user is getting an [authentication] credential from Active Direct-ory, then the CAL is needed."

With e-commerce or collaboration applications, for example, users from outside a corporation's walls may need to authenticate themselves be-fore accessing applications or data. Users who make anonymous connections to a Web server running on Windows 2000, which ships Feb. 17, 2000, will not need a CAL.

This is the first time Microsoft has announced pricing before the launch of a product. "We wanted to give customers the chance to do their budget planning," Stanzel says.

The suggested pricing for the desktop Professional edition of Windows 2000 starts at $319. Pricing for the Server Edition starts at $1,199 with 10 CALs. The Advanced Edition of the server starts at $3,999 with 25 CALs.