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Microsoft renews enterprise agreement with VA

Summary: The VA is currently upgrading to Microsoft Lync, moving to Windows 7 and becoming an early Windows 8 adopter.

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

Microsoft said that the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs has inked a new five year enterprise agreement revolving around the software giant's technologies.

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The VA, which focuses on healthcare for veterans, has been a big Petri dish for e-health initiatives. The renewed deal with Microsoft gives the VA access to Windows 7, Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, SharePoint 2010, Dynamics CRM, System Center 2012 and mapping and developer tools.

By the numbers, the VA represents a massive reference customer for Microsoft. To wit:

  • The VA has 6,300 IT employees;
  • 175 data centers;
  • 400,000 desktops;
  • 100,000 mobile devices.

With those numbers, the VA is obviously pushing efficiency in an effort to cut costs. The VA is currently upgrading to Microsoft Lync, moving to Windows 7 and becoming an early Windows 8 adopter.

Topics: Government, Government US, Microsoft, Windows

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  • Microsoft renews enterprise agreement with VA

    That is going to be a pretty impressive IT set up for the VA. Looking forward to reading the white papers on this one.
    Loverock Davidson-
    Reply 4 Votes

  • This might help

    the VA get the backlog of disability claims down.
    RickLively
    Reply Vote

  • Taxpayers Pay Microsoft for....

    The 'Enterprise' OEM is one of the worst watered down version of Microsoft available. What this author isn't telling you is that your tax dollars are going to a company that doesn't offer tech support for any of it's Enterprise licensees. (Including my collage.)

    (From Microsoft in response to a complaint filed by me against them with the Better Business Bureau): Windows 7 Enterprise Edition is only distributed to our Enterprise customers with a Volume License Agreement. This software comes with strict regulations that are bound contractually for use within the parameters of a Licensing Agreement. Windows 7 Enterprise Edition is not distributed for retail use. If an Enterprise customer requires support for this product, it requires Professional Support, which is a paid service from Microsoft.

    In the case of Microsoft's Enterprise edition being distributed by teachers to students as part of required curriculum (which the student also pays for as part of the class) Microsoft says:

    Please note that if the version installed is the Windows 7 Enterprise Edition you received from your professor, it may be failing validation because you are using this product outside the Licensing Agreement.

    Which means that government agencies may not be able to use this on their computers for public use, such as local Career Centers (part of the Dept. of Labor) for people doing job searches online. Government agencies who put this on official laptops or PCs (such as the US military's online product ordering page) may also be in violation of the EULA for Enterprise.

    Moreover, Windows 7 isn't half as backward compatible as Microsoft wants you to believe. If you create a boot error by plugging in a legacy drive (because Windows 7 has compatibility issues with anything that has Win2k installed on it), you have no tech support and when you do, Microsoft's untrained and outsourced tech support very well may make the problem worse. To which Microsoft doesn't seem to care.

    You paid for them to break the system further, you pay to have them 'fix' it......

    This is a waste and abuse of taxpayer money.
    Rilriia
    Reply Vote

    • Sorry misspell

      Should be college.
      Rilriia
      Reply Vote
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