Monday, October 25, 2010

Know your SharePoint version

This post is not so technical, but relates to the business side of SharePoint. I’m doing a project with a customer with FAST Search for SharePoint. The company has 3000 employees and were told they could use FS4SP with the Standard version of SharePoint, meaning the standard CAL’s. I mentioned in a meeting some weeks ago that I was 99% sure this was not possible, and that you need the Enterprise license in order to use FS4SP.

Starting the install today showed I was right. Standard version does not have the FAST options for a Search Service Application. Adding in an Enterprice serial number enabled all the good pieces.

But, for 3000 users, going from standard to enterprise will cost you. Using ballpark figures from http://www.sharepointconfig.com/2010/05/indicative-sharepoint-2010-licencing-costs/ where a standard CAL is ~£60 and eCal is £60+£53=£113, we are talking forking out £339,000 instead of £180,000, a whopping 88% increase. And to top it off, we are talking an off-shore company where there are 3 shifts during a 24h period, and people work 2 weeks, and are off for 4 weeks, so the number of licenses in use at one time will never be more than around 350.

At times like this I’m happy to be a tech and not a buyer Smile