Microsoft Office 2013 – License transfer allowed:
In a recent blog post Microsoft confirmed that you can now transfer copies of Office 2013 from one computer to another. This applies to either the full version or standalone Office 2013 components.
Microsoft’s previous policy was once Office 2013 had been installed, the license died with the computer unless it had failed under warranty. This meant that if your computer developed a fault or broke down it involved purchasing an additional copy of Office 2013.
To RENT or to BUY your office software
In the days of more and more open source software and cloud based options / SaaS (software as a service) this seemed a very restrictive policy. But Microsoft does seem to be pushing customers down its own cloud based route with Office 365 and SkyDrive. THis is it’s own premium cloud based office productivity suite. But even Office 2013 is encouraging you to share your documents over the cloud via SkyDrive. This competes with Google’s own cloud based Enterprise Google Apps service and Drive.
Certainly the benefit of cloud based systems (office on demand) is they can be accessed from anywhere and on any compatible device. Office on demand is increasingly being aimed at the table market which means that it will run on fairly basic devices. Licensing is based on individual users as opposed to specific devices.
Office documents can be still be shared on the cloud using a wide variety of services whether you use device installed or cloud based software. Services for this include Microsofts SkyDrive and Google’s Drive.
Main benefits of cloud based systems and documents storage:-
- Your documents can be shared with anyone easily
- You can access your data from any location on most devices
- One license per user is required not per device
- Costs per user are fixed subscription based
- Backups are automatic
- Server up time is generally guaranteed to be 99.9%
- Software is automatically kept up to date
- Significantly less up front costs involved to start using
However there are down sides to using cloud based systems:-
- Large companies have control of your data and up-time
- Control is lost as to when upgrades and changes occure
- It is harder to integrate office products to your own software
- Security is out of your hands, hackers target larger companies too
- Access requires constant internet access
- You RENT the software by subscription and rental is ongoing
E&OE
Related links:
Microsoft Office 2013 – License transfer allowed, Jevon Fark, MS Office Team, 6th Mar 2013
Original blog about no transfers allowed, 19th Feb 2013
IT Pro – Article 7th Mar 2013
MS Office 2013
MS Office 365
OneDrive
Google Apps
Google Drive