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Exchange Team Blog

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Re: Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) is now available

Brass Contributor

ClaudioStallone

Good Question. There is actually no on-premises subscription also in our CSP Portfolio (as a reseller in Germany) or in our Microsoft direct (shop)

I hope it will come, but i think in between you have to switch to OV/OVS for Server/CAL with SA or M365 E3 or E5 subscription per user, if need the use-right right now.

I think it would be a great way to enable the use-right of Exchange SE RTM and perhaps CU1 with Exchange 2019 perpetual lic, but i think this is not so easy from a licensing perspective.

I think MS has lots of work to do and we have to be patient.

Published Jul 10, 2025

Version 1.0

2 Comments

ClaudioStallone
Iron Contributor
Jul 10, 2025
Hi Lothar Muller,
The problem here, however, is that according to the product terms, the right to install Office servers is only permitted via M365 E3 or E5 purchased via EA, as can be seen here: https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/terms/productoffering/Microsoft365/EAEAS#clause-2643-h3-1
However, it is not permitted if the M365 E3 or E5 was purchased via CSP, which is covered by the Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA): https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/terms/productoffering/Microsoft365/MCA
Therefore, for companies that currently purchase licenses via CSP, there is currently no solution for licensing on-premises Exchange Server.
- greatquux
  Brass Contributor
  Jul 10, 2025
  Yeah it's pretty ridiculous. Why they have to make their licensing so complicated is beyond me. We will know we've achieved AGI when it understands Microsoft's licensing. However this isn't really a huge deal until they change SE to require an SE-only product key. Even then you can still get by with a Hybrid key from HCW (even if you are hosting mailboxes it should work).