[ale] OT: Microsoft "audit"

[Edward O. Holcroft]

All,

I'm pretty sure this topic has been covered in the past, but here we go
again ...

A few years back we went through a fairly lightweight (I think) Microsoft
audit process and I kinda panicked and did everything in my power to
cooperate with them. I didn't want to piss them off in case we were out of
compliance. It was quite a lot of work on my side, and it was handy I'll
concede, to know that we were all in the clear once the "audit" was
complete.

Since then I have switched the company to a lot of Linux on the server side
(replaced all our regional office Server 2003 with CentOS), and at the same
done done a much better job of monitoring proprietary license compliance.
We still use a small number of Server 2012 servers for auth and group
policy, which we are heavily locked into. And of course ... Doze on the
desktop. About 350 users.

Last year, they wanted to run trough the process again. I declined, even
though the were pretty persistent for a while, they eventually went quiet.
So now we get to 2018 and they've started at it again. My position on this
has evolved over the years, and I reached a point where I just do not want
to cooperate with Microsoft on "checking up" on us after we've thrown
hundred of thousands of dollars into the bottomless pit of their POS
software over the years. I know we're pretty much license compliant as an
organization and I find myself irritated, even offended by this Microsoft
audit request.

So to my question: does anyone possess knowledge on where I stand?
Microsoft does a pretty good job of making it sound like they're legally
entitled to do this and that I do not comply at great peril. Is this true?
Has anyone out there repeatedly declined their offer of license compliance
"help"? How did it go? Is it better to just bend over? I feel like if they
want to do this, I should make them legally compel us, if that's even
possible without them accusing us of a crime.

ed

_________________________________________

*Edward O. Holcroft*
IT Operations Manager

*Madsen, Kneppers & Associates, Inc.*
Construction Consultants & Engineers
11695 Johns Creek Parkway, Suite 250
Johns Creek, GA 30097

*O*  770.446.9606  |  *F*  770.446.9612  |  *C*  770.630.0949  |
eholcroft at mkainc.com

www.mkainc.com

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