Anyone ever gone through Microsoft Audit?

Hemps

Hemps

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Anyone here have experience with a Microsoft Audit on their company?

We mostly on office 365 so should be fine, Windows 10 comes with laptops.

Just curious what happens, does someone come knocking at the company door?
 
Phase1 - send counts of software/cals in use (Compared to what you're registered for under enterprise agreements/bought)
If all's good - see you in a few years
If not - let's remedy it,you need to buy X to get you compliant
 
Hemps said:
Anyone here have experience with a Microsoft Audit on their company?

We mostly on office 365 so should be fine, Windows 10 comes with laptops.

Just curious what happens, does someone come knocking at the company door?
Click to expand...
I recommend that you be proactive and do an internal audit before it becomes an issue later on.
 
We should be fine, we have 30 retail boxes and everything else is 365.
 
they asked us about 4 years ago, wanted a list of all our MS Servers, Workstations, MS Products, Laptop types and versions of Windows and serial numbers etc.

i said we only use Office 365 and everything is on Mac.

They kept sending dozens of documents to complete and I kept replying that we literally only have Office 365 and NOTHING else. Still kept sending the same message as though they could not understand English.

I finally just blocked the sending accounts on Exchange Online.
 
Rickster said:
How do you abuse CALs?

If you go over the limit then it wont let you RDP or whatever.
Click to expand...
There are plenty client CAL's that you need that does not affect the way you work.
If a device connects to a MS server it needs a CAL, does not matter if it's a Mac or what OS that has, and depends on what service it uses from your MS infrastructure

Few years ago we had to change the DNS server for BYOD devices as they were using our MS server DNS, so each device needed a client CAL as well.... was easier to build a Pi-Hole and let them use that.

If a external contractor connects to a MS server, or access a server share, you need device cals for those external contractors as well....

Oh, and if a device gets a DHCP IP from a MS server it also needs a CAL, again does not matter what device it is or what OS it has on.
 
Last edited:
Hemps said:
Anyone here have experience with a Microsoft Audit on their company?

We mostly on office 365 so should be fine, Windows 10 comes with laptops.

Just curious what happens, does someone come knocking at the company door?
Click to expand...

I'm very familiar with these, both from a service provider and enterprise perspective. Most of the time it's a 3rd party company fishing for business (they get a commission for any license shortfall/penalties).

If it's a 3rd party rather than MS themselves, and you haven't signed an agreement with MS which allows them to audit you, you can normally just fob them off with "We run Office 365 exclusively, and only license our computers with the manufacturer supplied Windows licensing." Sometimes they will ask for a sample of your OEM keys to make sure, but they normally only ask for 5.

If you have signed an EA with them, then you are obliged to comply. They can be delayed for a bit, but it's better just to get compliant and fill in the spreadsheets. You can also tell them you cannot install their MAP tool due to company policy, and just do the audit manually.
 
In my experience MS is a dream to work with. BSA don't play nice.
MS will wag their finger at you and tell you to buy licenses. BSA sends lawyers letters with big numbers on them.
 
I've done a few. Consisted of a few forms with questions and details. Needed to provide details of licenses of all Servers and Workstations, including CAL licensing.

They never visited physically.
All our implementation was above board.
 
JayM said:
I'm very familiar with these, both from a service provider and enterprise perspective. Most of the time it's a 3rd party company fishing for business (they get a commission for any license shortfall/penalties).

If it's a 3rd party rather than MS themselves, and you haven't signed an agreement with MS which allows them to audit you, you can normally just fob them off with "We run Office 365 exclusively, and only license our computers with the manufacturer supplied Windows licensing." Sometimes they will ask for a sample of your OEM keys to make sure, but they normally only ask for 5.

If you have signed an EA with them, then you are obliged to comply. They can be delayed for a bit, but it's better just to get compliant and fill in the spreadsheets. You can also tell them you cannot install their MAP tool due to company policy, and just do the audit manually.
Click to expand...
That MAP tool is rubbish. OCSInventoryNG is a big help doing these exercises - Free Open Source, like Belarc but agent on the PC reports all the info back to a central server
 
We have had a few also.
One year we had just licensed for a couple of bar and not even a month later they wanted to do another audit.

Told them to take a very long walk of a short pier.

Not heard from them since but have renewed licenses etc.

Oracle on the other hand... total bunch of suckmuppets!!!
 
They phoned me once to “insist”. I said no thanks
 
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