[ale] OT: Microsoft "audit"

Wed May 16 11:07:37 EDT 2018

If they are like most software companies, you will find that somewhere buried in the EULA, you have agreed to allow them a proctology exam on your compliance whenever they want.
Allen B.

--
Allen Beddingfield
Systems Engineer
Office of Information Technology
The University of Alabama
Office 205-348-2251
allen at ua.edu

On 5/16/18, 10:03 AM, "Ale on behalf of Edward O. Holcroft via Ale" <ale-bounces at ale.org on behalf of ale at ale.org> wrote:

    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 <http://www.mkainc.com> 

    MADSEN, KNEPPERS & ASSOCIATES USA WARNING/CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately then delete it -
     you should not copy or use it for any purpose or disclose its content to any other person. Internet communications are not secure. You should scan this message and any attachments for viruses. Any unauthorized use or interception of this e-mail is illegal.