Office on RDS on Server 2012 licensing

Question

I have a client using RDS on Server 2012 to run proprietary software. They would like to begin allowing their sales force to connect to the server via iPads and run Office, which isn't yet installed on the server.
Thus far I've come to the understanding that what that will take is a volume license for Office installed on the server and an RDS license (they already have several) for every concurrent connection.
My questions are -
1) Am I right about installing the Office volume license on the server?
2) Do they need Office installed on the client device as well? (I wouldn't think so, but some things I'm reading say otherwise)
3) One of the reasons they want to switch to iPads (or Android devices or whatever) is to limit cost if their salesperson looses or breaks their device. So my question is, does the volume license count concurrent connections like the RDS license does or
is it somehow "tied" to the remote devices? For example -- If a salesperson does lose their device is it possible just to get another one and have them start using it without any additional licenses or is the license that was "tied" to
the old device just gone forever and we have to purchase another one to connect the new device? If the salesperson wants to RDS into the server from their home computer while their iPad is off and connect to their RD session would that require another license?
Or, if one of the people who connects to RDS who doesn't need to use Office accidentally opens "Word," will that license be then "tied" to their computer and wasted?
Thank you for any help,
Jeff Minch

Answer 1

Hi Pure,
Your friend of a friend is incorrect.
The statement you've made about licences being locked applies to the RDS CAL (specifically a per computer CAL), not Office. As I said before, an Office licence has nothing whatsoever to do with an RDS CAL.
There are three kinds of "common" Offices licences:
Retail.
MAK.
KMS.
Unless you're buying your copies of Office from a retail shop (or online shop) - and it doesn't sound like you are, then you can forget about retail keys.
MAK keys are accessed by one of the volume licencing agreement programs and are typically used by smaller businesses that don't have enough computers to be able to access the KMS approach to licencing or for clients that will not be able to talk to
a KMS server at least every 180 days.
MAK keys involve a once-off activation and then they never renew the activation again. This makes them ideal for things like non-Internet kiosks, field laptops and the like. The once-off activation can happen with the client being Internet-connected for
this once off activation or via an offline activation using the telephone or VAMT (Volume Activation Management Tool).
KMS keys come in two flavours:
KMS host activation key, which is used to create a KMS "server".
KMS client key, which is a standard key that can be applied to as many volume licencing copies of Windows/Office ad you like, and which "instructs" the client to activate against the KMS server above.
There are a number requirements to be met before you can successfully deploy a KMS host, but it's not worth going into depth here about it as the only point to be made is that yet again, it has nothing to do with RDS licencing. The closest it would get to
being relevant is if the copies of Office installed on the RDS Session Hosts were activated via a KMS host.
I think you need to have a read-up on RDS licencing and the expiration process:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732416.aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/3efeee70-9d23-4477-8b94-23e2643dd5bf/controlling-rds-user-cal-expiry?forum=winserverTS
Going back to your iPad clients, you need to determine whether you're using per device or per user licencing before you can figure out a way forward as far as RDS licencing goes, but again, this has nothing to do with Office licences being retained
on the device, as that scenario is not possible as Office activation doesn't work like that.
Perhaps the easiest way to depict the difference for you is to understand that RDS licencing functions outside of the RDS session while Office licencing functions within it, which is why a device being removed/lost has nothing to do with Office at all.
So long as you remember that you need to buy as many Office licences as there are clients connecting to the RDS environment, you can activate Office any way you like.
Cheers,
Lain