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| Information Technology Services coordinates various site licensing programs and volume purchase arrangements to facilitate the departments to acquire PC software at educational and discounted prices. |  |
Tender prices are available for reference by departments who can place their orders directly with the selected suppliers. For purchase of software licenses coordinated through ITS, please submit purchase requests via ITS Order Form (CF36).
There are other centrally provided software items which are available for use by staff and/or students without additional cost to them. These include Amazon Web Services (AWS) Educate, MATLAB and Simulink, Microsoft Azure for Students, Microsoft Office 365, Qualtrics, SmartDraw, SPSS Products, Sophos Home, Zoom and PDF Exchange Pro.
Adobe Site License Programme
Adobe Cumulative Licensing Program (CLP)
The Adobe Cumulative Licensing Program (CLP) is a volume licensing program which offers attractive educational prices for departments to acquire Adobe software on perpetual basis (note: CLP is not available for personal purchase by staff and students). As Adobe has already moved most of their core products to cloud-based subscription, i.e. Adobe Creative Cloud, the variety of Adobe products offered under CLP is limited.
Multi-lingual products are available under the CLP including English and Traditional Chinese. However, a license holder is only eligible to use the specific language of the license ordered and does not have the right to use the language of a software other than that ordered. Adobe licensing details can be found at https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/help/faq.html.
All use of the Adobe products is governed by the End User License Agreement (EULA).
Creative Cloud for Teams and Creative Cloud for Enterprise
Creative Cloud subscription allows the use of a full range of Adobe Creative desktop applications on subscription basis. Subscribers can enjoy the use of the latest versions, features and upgrades whenever they are available.
All Creative Cloud subscription is offered on an annual basis. Both Creative Cloud for Teams and Creative Cloud for Enterprise are available for purchase (see http://www.adobe.com/hk_en/creativecloud/business/teams/plans.html for the difference). Besides, two types of licenses are offered namely “Device License” and “Named License’ (see http://www.adobe.com/hk_en/creativecloud/buy/education.html for the difference).
Microsoft Products
Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions
Information Technology Services has been coordinating the Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES, previously called Microsoft Campus Agreement) for departments since 1999 which provides a cost-effective and easy-to-manage site licensing arrangement in using Microsoft software products. EES is designed to offer University departments to purchase non-perpetual, annual licenses by paying a flat rate for each of their Qualified Education Users (QEUs) for faculty and staff.
To improve institutional work efficiency as a whole, the license renewal of EES will be subscribed centrally. This new arrangement not only saves much of the effort of the old process but also enables all departments to be eligible in using the up-to-date versions of Windows and Microsoft Office products as a standard. Under the arrangement, all University departments can use the following Microsoft software products (“software”) on all PCs owned or leased by them during the subscription period-
- Windows Enterprise Upgrade (Windows upgrade right is covered and departments must have a valid license of Microsoft Windows operating system on their PCs)
- Microsoft Office Professional Plus and Office for Mac
- Microsoft Core CAL Suite (Includes Windows Server CAL, SharePoint Server Standard CAL, Exchange Server Standard CAL, System Center Configuration Manager CML and System Center Endpoint Protection)
- Desktop Optimization Pack
Apart from using the above software on all PCs owned/leased by a department for the use of its staff and students, departments can
- enjoy the upgrade/downgrade rights which allow the running of any new versions of the licensed products included in the subscription coverage that are released during the licensed term or any previous version of the licensed product in place of the current version
- use multilingual versions of the software that are available
- allow their staff (except employees who do not use institutional devices such as cleaner, maintenance worker, grounds keeping, cafeteria staff, etc.) to use the licensed software on one computer they own at home for campus-related purposes (they are NOT licensed to use the software at home for personal purposes)
Apart from the above, students and eligible staff can enjoy the right to download and install Microsoft Office ProPlus (Office 365 ProPlus) on up to 5 personal machines (PC or Mac) and Office apps up to 5 tablets (including Android, iPad, and Windows tablets) and 5 phones per user without additional cost during the subscription period. They can also use Microsoft’s online cloud storage OneDrive for Business (5 TB in size). Please refer to here for details.
Microsoft Select Plus
Besides the Microsoft Enrollment for Education Solutions, the Information Technology Services also coordinates a tender on the Microsoft Select Licenses to provide an alternative channel for departments to acquire the Microsoft products.
Application-pool, system-pool and server-pool MS products are offered. The licenses acquired under the program cannot be used concurrently. User must purchase a copy of license for each of the required desktops.
A new maintenance option – Software Assurance (SA) is available as a way to keep Microsoft software up-to-date. SA provides the rights to any new version of a product released during a 3-year term. For details on the Software Assurance benefits, please refer to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/licensing-programs/software-assurance-default.aspx. SA must be acquired together with the new license.
Installation File
Departments can send their request for software installation file via itssw@hku.hk. For Select Plus, the licenses shall be acquired by ordering with the selected vendor(s) before sending request for software installation file to ITS.
Terms and Conditions
The use of the software is subject to the terms and conditions contained in the Microsoft License Rights. Departments should read these terms carefully before using the software.
The Microsoft Licensing Product User Rights (PUR) document, which is updated regularly by Microsoft, provides additional details regarding current user rights for specific Microsoft products acquired through Volume Licensing programs. Please visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/product-licensing/products.aspx for details.
Symantec Ghost
The Information Technology Services continues to arrange the site licensing arrangement for Symantec Ghost for imaging and deploying desktops, laptops, tablets and servers.
The licensing terms are as follows:
Symantec Ghost uses a one license per machine policy. Each machine that has Symantec Ghost loaded onto it needs a separate license to be legally compliant. There is no single network license that covers all machines. All cloned or image backup machines will require one license for every machine.
Each license allows cloning and restoring one PC for its entire lifetime. If a licensed PC is permanently decommissioned, its license can be transferred to another PC for that system’s lifespan.
Symantec Ghost licenses are perpetual and do not expire over time.
Departments participating in the program can enjoy free latest version upgrade of the licensed software copies during the license period and they will be provided with a free copy of the media on the latest version of the software when available. Departments have to renew their licenses annually in order to keep the software up-to-date.
The annual renewal period is 1 July to 30 June.
Anti-Virus Solution
The Information Technology Services coordinates the site licensing arrangement for anti-virus solution, Sophos Anti-Virus Solution and Kaspersky Anti-Virus Solution, for departments of the University.
For staff members who are licensed to use a copy of the Sophos anti-virus license or Kaspersky license in their department (ordered through the Information Technology Services), they can use the licensed copy at home on a single workstation for work-related purpose.
SAS Products
The University is subscribing the SAS campus license, SAS Education Analytical Suite (EAS). Departments can subscribe the SAS licenses by modules (charged by module-basis) or by EAS (charged by a flat rate of all Full-Time Equivalent staff in a department). The use of SAS licenses is subject to annual renewal covering the period 1 July to 30 June.
Below are the SAS modules available for subscription by departments on Windows, Unix/Linux platforms-
- Base SAS
- SAS/ACCESS (all standard interfaces as available by host)
- SAS/AF
- SAS/ASSIST
- SAS Bridge for ESRI
- SAS/CONNECT
- SAS/EIS
- SAS/Enterprise Guide
- SAS/ETS
- SAS/FSP
- SAS/GRAPH
- SAS/IML
- SAS/Integration Technologies
- SAS/OR
- SAS/QC
- SAS/SHARE
- SAS/STAT
- optional separate SAS Metadata Server
- SAS Academic Hub
Agreement of Legal Obligations for the Use of the SAS Software on Personal Computers
Staff and students installing and/or using the SAS Software (“Software”) coordinated through ITS means they have agreed to observe the terms of the License Agreements signed between The University of Hong Kong and the SAS Institute Ltd. and to abide by the terms of those agreements excerpted below:
- The Software is limited to use by the University of Hong Kong employees and registered students only.
- The Software is to be installed on a PC as specified above within the premises of the University of Hong Kong only.
- The Software is not to be copied, disclosed or transferred.
- The use of the Software will expire on 30 June every year and may be renewed thereafter upon payment of an annual renewal fee.
- Violation of any of the above rules may lead to suspension from future usage of the computing facilities at the Information Technology Services and the offender may be subjected to public or private legal action for violation of the License Agreements.
NVivo
ITS is arranging a site license on NVivo, a software for qualitative research in academia for organizing and analyzing qualitative data such as interviews, open-ended survey responses, articles, social media and web content. According to the supplier QSR International, NVivo is regularly used in disciplines such as behavioral sciences, healthcare and medical research, psychology, political science and business.
The current 3-year site license agreement on NVivo runs from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2026. Subscribing departments have to commit the purchase for 3 years and the annual fee will be collected at the start of each subscription year. This software is available on both Windows (NVivo 12 Pro for Windows) and Macintosh (NVivo 12 for Mac) platforms. More information about this software can be found at here.
VMware
ITS coordinates a campus-wide site licensing program on VMware software for subscription by departments.
VMware is a virtualization infrastructure solution which allows multiple virtual machines (VM) to run on a single physical machine and share the resources of that single computer across multiple environments. Different virtual machines can run different operating systems and multiple applications on the same physical computer. You can visit VMware’s web site for more details.
Coverage
All the VMware licenses offered under this site licensing program are on perpetual basis. Departments can enjoy product updates/upgrades and support services during the program term. The products available for subscription under the program include-
- vSphere Enterprise Plus
- vCenter Server Standard
- NSX Advanced (Network virtualization and security platform)
- vSAN Advanced (Virtual SAN storage)
- Aria (vRealize) Operations Standard
- Horizon Enterprise Plus (Virtual desktop and apps platform)
Subscription Schedule
Departments joining this site licensing program have to commit the subscription until the program expiry in Jan 2026. Subscription fee will be charged annually based on the VMware software subscribed. You can check out the price schedule under CF36.
In summary, vSphere, NSX, vSAN and Aria (vRealize) Operations are available for subscription by departments based on the no. of CPU sockets while vCenter and Horizon are licensed per no. of instances and no. of users respectively. To encourage a wider use of this site licensing program, departments subscribed the use of vSphere can enjoy the use of NSX Advanced, vSAN Advanced and Aria Operations Standard on the same no. of CPU sockets subscribed without additional charges.