Licensing Models

Cost is always one of the key questions that keeps coming up when considering Team System, but unfortunately, the licensing model isn't as clear cut as some other products. In this section, we attempt to provide you with guidance and a simplified view to help you understand the licensing model.

Note

The best source of information for licensing is a white paper published on MSDN. To access the white paper, please refer to this URL: http://www.go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55933

Here are some practical guidelines to consider:

• If your team members perform specific roles without overlap, consider obtaining a specific Team Edition version of Visual Studio for each team member. Developers, for example, would obtain the Team Edition for Software Developers. If there is overlap between roles, you should consider obtaining the Team Suite.

  Note

  If you plan to use all the testing feature integration with Team Foundation Build, you should obtain a license for Team Edition for Software Developers and Team Edition for Software Testers (or Team Suite). The combination of these two products will provide the necessary framework to run any of the tests commonly found in Team System. Note that both these products must be installed on the build server.

• Team Foundation Server requires a license, and every computer accessing the server using Team Explorer (or any other client) requires a Client Access License (CAL). In some instances involving a remote "nonemployee," a connector can be purchased to give that person access to the server.

• Each instance of Team Foundation Server Proxy requires a Team Foundation Server license. A license is also required for "warm" failover instances of Team Foundation Server.

Where to get Team System

You can obtain Team System three ways from any of the following sources:

• Reseller

• MSDN Subscriber Downloads

• Partner Program

If you are part of the MSDN Subscriber downloads, you may be able to benefit from substantial savings in upgrading to Team System. You can view more information about each option at the following URL: http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/howtobuy/.