Here's the scenario
100 RDS users
100 Thin Client (Linux Based) devices
All users need Office (word, excel, etc) - so I need 100 device licenses - fine
A subset of users (10) require Project and Visio
Based on the following licensing docs
microsoftvolumelicensing.com/userights/DocumentSearch.aspx?Mode=3&DocumentTypeId=1
microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/briefs/remote-desktop-services.aspx
download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/Licensing_Microsoft_Office_Software.pdf
I need a device license for every device accessing Project and Visio - these are Microsoft's words
Per-device licensing means a customer must obtain a license for each desktop on or from which the product is used or accessed.
So here are my questions
If Project / Visio are installed on the RDS server, how is 'Access' defined? If I leave shortcuts in the menu then technically any user can access Project / Visio so I would assume that I need 100 licenses. However if I was to restrict access using App-V or Applocker then has the definition of Access changed?
This doesn't get me away from the device constraint tho' - I have been told that to enforce device based licensing a third party product such as appsense is required. Appsense has a predefined list of client device MAC addresses, and only RDS users with a specified client MAC address may access restricted apps.
blog.appsense.com/2009/06/microsoft-application-device-license-control-in-sbc-vdi-and-streamed-environments
Clever as this solution is, it does not meet the HotDesking requirement, as user1 in seat1 may access project, however user1 in seat2 the next dat cannot access project. As most users jobs are role based it seesm strange that there is no obvious licensing option that fulfills this criteria.
The methods to enforce named user access of applications exist on a shared RDS platform, however the licensing options appear to not exist. In the scenario above I currently would be obliged to purchase 100 Project / Visio licenses which would be 10x the actual required amount. What are my options or are Microsoft happy to confirm that hotdesking is an incredbily expensive option for the enterprise when using RDS?