We were at the Microsoft Quarterly Partner Technight in Orlando last night (with Rene Alamo and James Cuomo) and it was a very informative event. We pressed them about the details of the new SA and they admitted they did not know anything about the licensing side of the house. Well, apparently there are some folks in Microsoft who do, and they managed to spill it to ENT News in this article by Scott Bekker.

Now mind you, these are just rumors so take them with a grain of salt. It does look pretty good, especially the enterprise part:

Desktop Deployment Planning Services. Designed to assist in planning deployment of desktop software such as Windows and Microsoft Office, the planning services will be delivered by Microsoft partners and measured in engagement days. The number of days will depend on how much a customer spends on desktop SA over three years. Customers spending $60,000 will get one day, $300,000 will get three days, $600,000 will get five days, and $1.25 million will get 10 days. Customers will be able to trade training vouchers for additional deployment planning service days. The benefit is scheduled for 2006. A smaller-scale version for Microsoft Open Value customers, called Information Worker Desktop Services, is also planned.

Enhanced support. Customers will now get one free base support incident per Software Assurance agreement, and incremental incidents for every $20,000 spent on servers and CALs and $200,000 spent on Information Worker and Client software. The 24×7 Web-based incident support currently available to SA customers for standard editions of servers will be extended to enterprise editions and desktop products. Customers with Premier Support contracts will also be able to convert incidents earned through SA into Premier Support incidents. The benefits, planned to be available in February, are apparently intended to cover 40 percent to 100 percent of a customer’s regular Microsoft support costs.

Virtual PC Express for SA. A previously unannounced version of Microsoft Virtual PC will become part of the Software Assurance package next year. Intended to reduce compatibility issues with legacy applications when users migrate to the next platform, customers will get one instance of Virtual PC Express with each Windows client Software Assurance license. The product will allow users to run two Windows client operating systems at the same time.

Extended training. Starting in February, customers with 30,000 or more licensed desktops will receive larger numbers of training vouchers. Those can be used for certain courses or traded in for additional desktop deployment planning assistance.

Windows Vista Enterprise Edition. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last month mentioned an Enterprise Edition of Windows Vista that would be a level above the Professional Edition. The special operating system appears to be part of Microsoft’s Software Assurance plans. With Vista deliverable late in 2006, it’s not immediately clear if Microsoft has finalized plans for the Windows Vista Enterprise Edition as a Software Assurance–only benefit, but it would make sense.

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