Remote Desktop Services: Licensing Adjustments

Sophos has recently made a change to its licensing model affecting the licensing of Remote Desktop Services or Terminal Services.

Sophos Central’s licensing model is not always easy. To better understand this, we have already written a corresponding knowledge base article for you.

Previous situation

Until now, Sophos has insisted that in order to correctly license a user who logs on to a remote desktop server, an endpoint license must also be paid for. This meant that a license for the server and an endpoint protection license for the users were required. In environments where Sophos Endpoint was used to protect clients anyway, this was justified and understandable.

For environments where thin clients were used, however, this was less understandable. Although no anti-virus software could be installed on a thin client, it used to be necessary to provide users with endpoint licenses in addition to the server.

This has changed

Sophos has now cleared up this dilemma and it is now sufficient in such environments for only the terminal servers to be equipped with the corresponding server licenses.

This adaptation to the license model can lead to considerable discounts for some customers. 🎉