SAS Licensing Model

[Dkblue74]

Hi all,

I am currently working for a customer in the banking industry and have to check the current SAS software bundles and packages with their licenses. I couldn't find hardly any general information on the internet how the licensing works (e.g. what kind of bundles and packages can I get a license for, how long is a license valid, what kind of support will I get with each kind of packages, etc.). Can someone please give me more information on how to find it?

Thanks very much in advance.

Kind Regards,

Daniel

[DavidStern · Accepted solution]

Hi Daniel,

Your customer's SAS Account Representative is absolutely the right person to talk to about this. He or she will understand the detail of your customer's current SAS software licenses, and be able to advise on all the other things you're trying to find out about. It may help a lot if your customer introduces you to the SAS Account Representative so that they understand who you are, why you're asking and that it's with your customer's approval!

If your customer isn't sure who you should contact at SAS, take a look at your local country's page on www.sas.com, which you can find from the Worldwide Sites dropdown at the top.

Kind regards,

David

[Kurt_Bremser]

To determine the current "lifespan" of your SAS license(s), just run proc setinit and take a look at the log.

Regarding the support: For everything you licensed, you get full support with the license, meaning you can contact SAS support with your questions/problems and will get an answer. Note that SAS only supports the most recent releases of their SW, for older releases you will often get "upgrade now" as an answer.

SAS will also eagerly answer questions about additional products, as they will gladly sell you the licenses for those later on

[DavidStern]

Hi Kurt,

Good suggestion about the proc setinit - well said.

SAS supports all previous releases of our software, as described on SAS Support web page “SAS TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES AND POLICIES”, available at http://support.sas.com/techsup/support.html. On that page, you may need to scroll down a little to see the table defining Support Levels A, B and C, and the table showing which SAS Software Releases are currently supported at each level (and where relevant, when they moved to that level). The tables are updated from time to time as new releases come out and previous releases age.

Best wishes,

David

[acfarrer]

The SAS rep will help but their main concern is revenue - either renewing your existing licensing or selling more. What is your main concern? Is your name on the Software Order as the designated Site Rep?

[Dkblue74]

Thank you guys. I spoke with my clients rep this morning. He will provide me with further information next week.

Kind regards,

Daniel

[jakarman]

The licensing model is something that has been agreed on and there must be contracts being singed about that. Emails and other communication may be added to that.

The SID renewal (having the setinit embedded) are also good sources for information.

@Dkblue74 it is very good action to have that reviewed independent, there could by saving (unnecessary ones) not optimized usage for what is there.
It is SAS in the position getting as much money being payed for and your client as less as possible.

For old contracts there can be a problem as of virtualization. As the difference virtual/physical processors is not being mentioned the supplier can require to bare-iron to be licensed.  

There is another area to review and that are laws that applicable. If you are in European are the directive is: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:111:0016:0022:EN:PDF

It states that when not explicitly mentioned, backups verifications for DR, technical integrations testing etc, are included with the license for normal for normal operations. It may not be forbidden by a supplier.

The directive is protecting both parties the supplier and the customer.     

I know of both licensing problems by bad experiences.