Terminology

This section is written for both a financial and technical audience, certain terms are used which may only be familiar to one group or the other. 

Please read these definitions carefully before continuing.

1. Bring You Own License (BYOL): Utilizing a license, not purchased specifically for cloud consumption, when permitted by the terms of service.

2. Enterprise Agreement (EA): Tailored agreement between a company and a service provider for software and services. It may contain or provide a vehicle to create a discount and/or private pricing program.

3. Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): The retail price of a product or service.

4. Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA): A mechanism by which service providers and independent software vendors (ISV) can purchase Microsoft software, which includes entitlement on behalf of their customers.

5. Term Commitment: A contractual commitment to a service for a pre-determined period (usually one or three years), usually at a discounted rate. The terms used by different hyperscalers are:

   • Azure reservation - Microsoft Azure

   • Committed Use Discount (CUD) - Google

   • Subscription - VMware Cloud on AWS

   • Commitment - Oracle

6. Terms

7. Subscriptions

8. Subscription Purchase Program Credits (SPP Credits): A unit of value denominated in VMware transacted local currencies that can be purchased by a customer and redeemed for any VMware Subscription Services. (See the Spp operations guide).

9. Seller of Record (SoR): A vendor which sells a particular product or services to a customer from their inventory. This is distinct from a reseller, for example, a VMware who is authorized to resell SPP credits.