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A frequently asked Office 365 licensing question that we address on our Team is: what happens if I buy Office 365 but continue to run on premises workloads for certain products? We’ve seen Office 365 Community Forums and other sites light up with something called “dual use rights,” “on premises use rights,” or “on premises access rights.” What does this mean, and how does it apply to me? Well, the short answer is, it depends. The basic licensing concept is if you’ve purchased a User Subscription License (User SL, or USL) for an Office 365 Service, that user is licensed to access the equivalent workload(s) running on premises. While the applicable application server CALs are not included in the Office 365 User subscription License, a CAL equivalency use right is included to access the on premises application server.
At a high level, it works like this: Users licensed for applicable/eligible Office 365 services have use rights equivalent to a CAL for the purpose of accessing equivalent on premises workloads. For example, a user licensed for Exchange Online Plan 2 can use their USL to access Standard and Enterprise CAL features of an on premises Exchange Server. Below is a table with the three Office 365 services which have “on premises access rights.” On the left and center columns we listed the on premises product and CAL type. On the right column, we note the Office 365 User SL with rights equivalent to the on premises product and functionality.
A frequently asked Office 365 licensing question that we address on our Team is: what happens if I buy Office 365 but continue to run on premises workloads for certain products? We’ve seen Office 365 Community Forums and other sites light up with something called “dual use rights,” “on premises use rights,” or “on premises access rights.” What does this mean, and how does it apply to me? Well, the short answer is, it depends. The basic licensing concept is if you’ve purchased a User Subscription License (User SL, or USL) for an Office 365 Service, that user is licensed to access the equivalent workload(s) running on premises. While the applicable application server CALs are not included in the Office 365 User subscription License, a CAL equivalency use right is included to access the on premises application server.
At a high level, it works like this: Users licensed for applicable/eligible Office 365 services have use rights equivalent to a CAL for the purpose of accessing equivalent on premises workloads. For example, a user licensed for Exchange Online Plan 2 can use their USL to access Standard and Enterprise CAL features of an on premises Exchange Server. Below is a table with the three Office 365 services which have “on premises access rights.” On the left and center columns we listed the on premises product and CAL type. On the right column, we note the Office 365 User SL with rights equivalent to the on premises product and functionality.
On Premises Product
|
On Premises functionality
|
Office 365 User SL equivalent
|
Exchange Server
|
Standard CAL
|
|
Enterprise CAL
|
| |
SharePoint Server
|
Standard CAL
|
|
Enterprise CAL
|
| |
Lync Server
|
Standard CAL
|
|
Enterprise CAL
|
| |
Plus CAL
|
| |
Please note that applicable CAL Suite Bridge licenses may be required for on premises access
to workloads not included (i.e. Windows Server) in the Office 365 User Subscription License, see the applicable product specific sections in the Product Use Rights document | ||
A few important notes to mention before closing:
- The plans listed above are the only current Office 365 licenses with “on premises access rights.” Other Office 365 Plans, such as the Small/Midsize Business and Kiosk Plans do not have the same use rights.
- You are responsible for licensing the on premises server instances under their traditional license models. For example, if you have 4 instances of SharePoint Server running on premises, you will need to have 4 licenses for SharePoint Server, as well as the underlying Windows Server licenses and applicable Windows Server CALs.
- Due to software license dependency, your Office 365 licensed users are still required to be licensed with underlying and supporting products – such as Windows and/or SQL Server CALs.
- Your Office 365 User SLs (as covered above) can be used to access your licensed servers deployed on third party shared servers/datacenters via License Mobility through Software Assurance.
- “On premises access rights” work for current versions of the above server products, as well as earlier versions (licensed or via downgrade rights)
- Office Web Apps Server has similar rights, where users licensed for Office 365 Plans which contain Office 365 ProPlus have rights to edit using an on premises Office Web Apps Server. See our How to license Office Web Apps Server post for more details.
