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I can't find any straight links or hard facts on the matter. Seems that somebody wants to keep this a secret lol.

So...what does it cost annually to license Microsoft products to the US government?

good question. i imagine microsoft gives deep "discounts" to keep them as a customer but it's still an interesting thought. given microsoft's annual income, i doubt it'd be much of a drop in the bucket relative to either of the big bills passed recently though. still an interesting q.

The reason you won't finf a "straight answer" is because MS does not license to the govt, it livenses to separate govt agencies and depts. Also, MS cannot sell directly to the govt, nor can computer manufacturers. They must be sold by a registered govt retailer such as MicronPC, Govt. Technology Services Inc, Comp USA and many others.

For example, the VA purchases systems and software licenses from MicronPC and others. The red tape is astonomical. And, like all govt agencies, the agency announces it wishes to receive bids for a specific project. Lots of bids are submitted, few are chosen. And bids are re-worked & re-worked until the agency is satisfied.

Sometimes, a bid is re-worked so hardware is purchased from company X and other harware from company Y, the purchases are split across many zones.

Then consider how psychotic and insane the govt communication channels are, one agency has no clue about the other sometimes, even when they are working on joint projects. It's no wonder that no one really knows how much is spent on MS products...except MS of course!

TonyT wrote:The reason you won't finf a "straight answer" is because MS does not license to the govt, it livenses to separate govt agencies and depts. Also, MS cannot sell directly to the govt, nor can computer manufacturers. They must be sold by a registered govt retailer such as MicronPC, Govt. Technology Services Inc, Comp USA and many others.

For example, the VA purchases systems and software licenses from MicronPC and others. The red tape is astonomical. And, like all govt agencies, the agency announces it wishes to receive bids for a specific project. Lots of bids are submitted, few are chosen. And bids are re-worked & re-worked until the agency is satisfied.

Sometimes, a bid is re-worked so hardware is purchased from company X and other harware from company Y, the purchases are split across many zones.

Then consider how psychotic and insane the govt communication channels are, one agency has no clue about the other sometimes, even when they are working on joint projects. It's no wonder that no one really knows how much is spent on MS products...except MS of course!

If that's true, then what are all these government licensing programs for?

Microsoft Volume Licensing for Government Organizations
https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40082811

Microsoft Volume Licensing is not itself a factor in big price reductions, it's a sliver less expensive than boxed retail products at MSRP. You have your licenses available online via eOpen, and you get 1x shrink wrapped bundle of CDs for all your products ordered...1x CD per product name.

It is still purchased through a "Microsoft partner near you"/authorized reseller. (such as me )

Most of our clients have their MS products through us via VL.

The price savings for Gov't is pretty decent. Microsoft actually does have great pricing for certain categories. On the extreme end...take a look at the deep discounts they give to organizations that quality for Microsoft price slashes through Techsoup.org.

Through Techsoup I have setup some clients of mine with software that would have cost them, well...say for a network with 3x servers and 50 workstations..I'll set them up with server operating systems for 3, CALs for 50, XP Pro licenses for 50, Office 2K7 Enterprise Edition for 50...they'll pay just several hundred dollars instead of 15 grand!
Example..
http://www.techsoup.org/stock/category. ... +MS&Page=6
Microsoft Small Business Server 2009 Premium Edition...just $62.00
Instead of $1,899.00
http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/pricing.aspx

Windows XP Pro..8 dollars!
Office 2K7 Ent Edition..something like 35 dollars per..instead of 499 or more.

Their government discounts are not that deep..but they vary a lot, according to the size, type, etc. So quotes are often custom made by us resellers via our Microsoft rep.

Gov't agencies also usually go onboard with a special pricing plan called "Software Assurance"...so that they can spread out of the cost of the goods over a 3-5 year plan...and they quality for free upgrades to any newer version of product they are licensed for that Microsoft releases during the period that their SA license is valid for.


The other unforeseen costs...most offices are running on line of business software that is designed to run on Windows. Existing databases, accounting, management, ...tons of software. As well as the peripherals such as printers, AIW machines, faxing, etc. The cost to change those over to machines that are supported by *nix...and the cost of migrating existing data into their new *nix based software..that's pretty big. The period of segway would take quite a few years to recoop the cost.

And the cost of support for these computers...servers, desktop computers. Consultants that support *nix machines are pricier..since they are far and few. They're often up to 50% higher hourly rates than us Windows guys. I'm $125.00 per hour as a Windows SMB consultant. A good *nix consultant would be a bit more..and that would add substantially to the above time period to recoop the cost.