The clever answer to rising prices
Buy used Microsoft products and save costs
Microsoft is increasing its prices for all Microsoft products, including cloud and on-premise solutions, from March 2022. The US company has also announced that it will only offer the Exchange server as part of a subscription. This is probably bad news for most IT managers in this country. Used software can offer a way out of the rising costs. Leading used software dealers such as Soft & Cloud AG already have the latest Microsoft versions in their portfolio.
Microsoft made the announcement back in August 2021 and has been increasing prices since September, starting with Windows Server, Remote Desktop CAL and SQL Server. This was followed in October by the Office family, including the popular Office 365 Business, and then in November by all on-premise products, i.e. software that is installed locally on stationary computers. Users will see a price increase of five percent in each case.
The price of new locally installed applications is known to increase with each release and is one reason why a strong market for used software has been able to establish itself. In contrast, cloud products such as MS 365 have so far been exempt from an increase in usage fees. This is set to change from March: Users can expect a painful increase of up to 20 percent. This price increase will particularly affect customers who have taken out a one-month subscription in order to remain flexible. The company is offering its customers to lock in prices for three years if they agree to a 36-month subscription. Once the contract has been concluded, customers must continue to pay until the renewal date.
Current Office version already available used
Microsoft's price increase is forcing customers to take out long-term subscriptions. To avoid this unnecessarily expensive and inflexible cycle, companies and public authorities can purchase and use used software. There is no need to do without the latest version of Microsoft products: Soft & Cloud offers the latest Microsoft solutions, such as Office 2021, pre-owned and therefore a lot cheaper than the new products. Even more money can only be saved by purchasing older versions. However, users who are dependent on using the latest versions can also switch to second-hand licenses.
The newly released 2021 versions of the Office family, licenses for Windows Server 2022 and Visual Studio 2022 are already available from Soft & Cloud. In any case, there is a noticeable price reduction compared to the new licenses. Companies and public authorities can save even more money by trading in the licenses they no longer need. This means that the capital saved can be invested elsewhere, for example to retain employees or generate new growth.
Exchange server only available as a subscription
The US company has also announced changes to the Exchange server: the server/CAL model used to date will be replaced by a subscription system. This means that new versions will only be available as subscription software. Although the upcoming version will support direct upgrades from Exchange Server 2019 for the next two years, users who are still running version 2013 or 2016 on local servers should start planning and installing version 2019. This version can also be purchased pre-owned from Soft & Cloud.
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