Thanks to Michel Roth: Thincomputing.net has received information on the new pricing Microsoft has put on the Softgrid products. This is really earth shattering!
Prices of the Softgrid products will be cut by as much as 85%
This is how it will be:
• Softgrid Desktop Licenses: €32 / $38 (list)
• Softgrid Terminal Server Licenses: €18 / $21 (list)
• Softgrid Terminal Server Licenses will no longer be based on the concurrent number of users (as in all Microsoft products)
• Softgrid ZeroTouch will be Free and part of the Softgrid Server software.
• Softgrid SMS Connector: Free (if you have other Softgrid licenses)
• The Universal Desktop license will disappear: it's either a Destop or a Terminal Server license.
• Softricity Software Assurance will disappear completely.
Microsoft is making this move to boost application virtualization in order to (amongst other things) make it easier to migrate to Windows Vista.
This will make Softgrid affordable for everyone. I think this is a giant step towards application virtualization becoming a commodity. All Microsoft-Citrix relationships aside, this is an interesting move to say the least. Perhaps this friendship only pertains to Terminal Server?
It will be very interesting to see how Citrix' project Tarpon will fit into this new picture. I think that Citrix' best bet is that existing Citrix customers will utilize project Tarpon's technologies because of the fact that they want to stick to the same vendor / technology set. Time will tell.
The new prices are valid as of the first of August (so as of now) however the actual software will not be available until September the 29th. This is because Microsoft is "assimilating" the Softgrid Server software.
This information still has to be announced officially but that's just a matter of time.
Also confirmed by people at Softricity / Microsoft (watch this space for Education and Healthcare Pricing)